Chapter XII - Sleep is god

It was only several atrociously long minutes later that we reached our appartment. Keith and I had been lodged in a safehouse on the south side of town. The place was a four bedroom apartment along with a common kitchen and living room.

When I had moved in, Keith had been living there for two months already. With it's odd deco and scrouged by comfortable furniures, the place looked a lot more like a colledge dorm than someone's place.

There wasn't any rent for us to pay, Nova took care of that, but on the other hand, we weren't technically getting paid either. Which was why we had been going about with credit card scams and selling the stuff we often found inside baddies's lair.

Keeping Camilla in my arms, I simply kicked open the door, not waiting for Keith to unlock it. Still unconscious, she clinged to me as I took her inside the spare bedroom, the fourth one having been transformed into a magical workshop.

I had to force her hands off me to set her down onto the lofty bed. She shivered strongly and muttered incomprehensibly in her sleep.

Just like I'd done with my friend will, I watched over her all night and day. She only woke up the following evening, after 29^th hours of being out cold.

“water...” she mumbled in a weak and tired voice

I quickly ran to get her one of the bottles from the fridge, one of those fortified water with vitamins and stuff.

“How are you doing?” I asked as I brought the bottle to her lips.

She drank a few gulps before pushing it away. “Where's Nova?” She asked.

“Not here why?”

“You didn't contact her?”

“Should I've?”

With an effort, Cammy rose to sit, up as I put her pillow right under her kidney, to let her be more comfortable. She kept covered up using only the blanket, her clothes had been torn to shreds the previous night.

“Uh... Zeke you know we're partners right?”

“Yeah...” I answeared “It wasn't too serious so we didn't want to bother her”

She lat out a small sigh before giving me a weak smile. “No. I mean we're partners.” She emphasised that word with a slight bit of entente, that's when it hit me, like a sledge hammer to the solar plexus.

“Oh...” I sheepishly responded

Using my phone, I called up Nova, who responded with a mix of relief, anger and complete irritation.

She showed up half an hour later, I had the feeling she would've slammed down the door if I hadn't already done so. By that time, we had gotten Camilla into the only clothes we had that would've fit her, sweatpants and a loose tee from my stuff.

She sat clamly at on her bed, eating a soup Keith had prepared during the day. Despite me being a carnivorous person and Keith being vegetarian, he had managed to get me to eat his stuff. Somehow, probably using black magic, he could manage to turn bean curd and greens that I'd always hated into an orgasmic mix for the taste buds.

Nova entered the room without formality, she all but jumped at Cam's neck. She looked as bad as Cam, it was clear she hadn't slept in a long time and by what she toiled around her, knives, guns and magic hoodoo, it was clear she had been turning the whole place upside down to find her.

I quietly left the room, closing the door behind me. They had the right to intimacy and I was hoping Nova wouldn't strangle me for not calling her earlier...

“You look like shit, man” Keith said as I went into the kitchen.

“You know I didn't sleep. How do you remain so good after all of this?” I asked back, pouring myself a coffee with a zillion sugar for some energy.

He raised his own drink, a mix of green tea, acidic fruits, some herbs and tons of natural cane suggar. I had tried it once and it was unbearable.

“That stuff will keep you going on forever” He smugly said.

“I hold bacon and coffee in too high regard. You'll never convert me to your Veganology” I joked.

I crashed down on the couch, absently sipping the coffee as I lit up a fag. I normally didn't smoke, but I'd learned to use nicotine to get a boost when needed.

“You should sleep, dude.”

“Can't. I'm too tired for it.”

“To sleep?”

“Yeah. I feel like my head's going to burst open.”

From his bedroom, Keith fetched a small ceramic container with a thick smelly paste “Use that, it'll help you” I immediately recognised the thing, he had used it a few times knock us out when we couldn't sleep after a job.

“Thanks. Hey can I ask you a question?”

“What is it man?” Keith replied

“You can do ten times what I can, yet you're a minor talent they say. How come?”

He took a second to respond “I know you're new to all of this, but thing is I didn't really chose to be one, The old white hats call us Minor talent but we're really just specialist. I just have a knack for the power of movement. It's a matter of range not power. That's all man”

“I don't choose what I'll become?”

“Nah, all I know is that folks like you can have a broad range of stuff they can do. You chose what you want, it just happened I learned one trick and stayed upon it.”

“Oh...” I murmured, feeling the herb's effect on me. My eyes fell closed before I could say much more and I drifted into a dreamless sleep.