Magic Graves

the translucent jellyfish was floating about with half-digested cat bodies inside it and the neighborhood children were very upset. The cops told them that it wasn't a priority, since the jellyfish hadn't eaten any humans yet, and the Mercenary Guild wouldn't get rid of it for less than a grand. The HOA offered us $200. Nobody in their right mind would do the job at that price.
    It took us all damned day. And now we had to properly dispose of the cursed thing, because dealing with corpses of magical creatures was like playing Russian roulette. Sometimes nothing happened, and sometimes the corpse did fun things like meting into a puddle of sentient carnivorous protoplasm or hatching foot-long blood-sucking leeches.
    The weight of the jellyfish suddenly vanished from my shoulders. I rummaged in my pocket and my fingertips slid against the cold metal. I yanked the key out, slipped it into the lock, and swung the heavy reinforced door open. Aha! Victory.
    I lunged through the door and made a break for the phone. "Cutting Edge Investigations. How may I help you?"
    "May I speak to Kate Daniels," a clipped female voice said into my ear.
    "Speaking."
    "Please hold for Mr. Meadows." The phone clicked and dissolved into hissing.
    Meadows, Meadows... Who the hell was Meadows? Sounded familiar. Ah! Mark. Mark Meadows, officially the Mercenary Guild admin, and unofficially the operations manager. Mark was excellent at his job, but he suffered from the delusion that "white collar" was a noble title. Mercs hated him with undying passion and since the Guild's founder died, the Mercenary Guild had remained rudderless. Technically I was still a member of the Guild. Practically, I was never there.
    So he calls me and puts me on hold, huh? Okay. I dropped the phone back in its cradle.
    I turned to the door and watched Andrea walk through it. Behind her, the jellyfish squeezed through the doorway on its own.
    I blinked.
    The jellyfish successfully entered, turned, and I saw Curran carrying it in his hands, as if three hundred pound mass of flesh was no heavier than a plate of pancakes. It's good to be the Beast Lord.
    "Where to?" he asked.
    "Back room," Andrea said. "Here, I'll show you."
    The phone rang. I let it wail a couple of times before I picked it up. "Cutting Edge."
    Mark's voice came on the line. "Daniels? Don't hang up."
    "Make it fast, Mark, I'm busy."
    "Look, I need to talk to you about the meeting."
    "What meeting?"
    "Come on, Kate. Don't bust my balls. The mediation meeting. Do I need to make an appointment?"
    Curran and Andrea emerged from the back room.
    "Sure. Let me check my calendar." I rolled my eyes at Andrea, playing for time. Curran closed the distance between us. "How's tomorrow at two strike you?"
    "I'll be there."
    I hung up the phone and kissed the Beast Lord. He tasted like of toothpaste and Curran and the feel of his lips on mine made me forget the lousy day, the bills, the clients, the two gallons of slime covering my clothes. The kiss had lasted only a couple of seconds, but it might as well have been an hour, because when we broke apart, it felt like I had come home, leaving all my troubles far behind.
    "Hey," he said, his grey eyes pale on his sun-tanned face.
    "Hey."
    Behind him Andrea rolled her eyes.
    "What's up?" I asked him. Curran almost never came to visit my office, especially not in the evening. He hated Atlanta with all the fire of a supernova. I didn't have anything against Atlanta in theory - it was half-eroded by the magic waves that washed over it at random and it burned a lot - but I had a thing about crowds. When my workday was over, I didn't linger. I headed straight for the Keep and His Furry Majesty.
    "I thought we'd go to dinner," he said. "It's been awhile since we've gone out."
    Technically we had never gone out to dinner. Oh, we had eaten together in the city but usually it was accidental and most of those times involved other people and frequently ended in a violent incident.
    "What's the occasion?"
    Curran's blond eyebrows came together. "Does there have to be a special occasion for me to take you out to dinner?"
    Yes. "No."
    He leaned to me. "I missed you and I got tired of waiting for you to come home."
    And he had me. "I have to wait for the Biohazard to get here to pick up the jellyfish."
    "I've got it," Andrea offered. "Go, there is no use of two of us sitting here. I have some stuff I need to take care of anyway."
    I hesitated.
    "I can sign forms just as good as you,"