“C’mon Mack. We can’t help you unless you help us.”

Claire leaned on the glass counter sprouting all kinds of shrunken heads and dried herbs. Raven stood off to the side smoking his cigarette as he tapped his foot in frustration. They were in the dried herbs shop called “Herbs & Exotic” responding to a robbery. The owner was actually an acquaintance of Claire’s who bought some of her herbs and potions to sell in the shop. The owner, Mack, wanted the ‘hoodlums’ caught but would not divulge the exact contents of what was taken. As Claire tried to talk Mack into giving them the surveillance footage Raven looked around the room studying the walls. All manners of animal parts, horns, and feet…even some genitals covered the walls. Raven could only wonder why anyone would want to steal from a shop like this.

“Mack, c’mon! What’re you hiding anyways?”

“Hiding?! I’m not hiding nothin’!”

Mack stood crouched behind the counter as his one good eye rolled around, looking everywhere but Claire. He had matted white hair and limped on his stump leg. He had a shady past dealing with the black market. Claire never got the full picture but she understood he had a few run ins with some poachers at one point in time. He was a changed man now though and did everything by the book. But for some reason he seemed to change his mind about reporting the crime when he saw Claire walk in with her badge around her neck.

“Mack…” Claire reached for his hand and grabbed it before he could pull away using a gentle voice, “What’s going on? What happened?”

Mack raked his good hand through his hair as Claire held onto his mangled one and sighed, “After I called it in I…I told my family what happened. I was furious and was swearing to bring justice to the culprit. Then my son…my son…”

Mack started crying as he brought his hand to his face. Claire walked around behind the counter and brought her arm around his shoulders understanding what happened, “John did it, didn’t he?”

“Please don’t arrest him!” Mack grabbed Claire’s shirt as he became hysterical. Raven stepped forward to help his partner when Mack turned to him clasping his hands together begging Raven, “Please, please I beg of you, don’t arrest him! I beg of you!”

Claire tried to sooth the old man as Raven sighed, “Where is he?” Mack whimpered as Raven explained, “He still broke the law. I’m not arresting him but I have to give him a warning.”

Mack somberly nodded his head as he went up the stairs to his live-in apartment above. Claire turned to Raven from behind the counter, “I can’t believe you’re gonna scare that poor little kid like that.”

Raven shrugged his shoulders, “He’s gotta learn. It’ll be a good lesson.”

He winked at Claire as she understood what he meant. They heard Mack coming back down and turned to see the whole family as mother and father led a scared shitless teenager down the stairs. The kid had clearly been crying but stood with his back straight before Raven and Claire had to give the kid credit as he didn’t even shake as Raven gave him a big pissed off officer act. When Raven explained he’ll only give him a warning the kid nearly feel to his knees with relief and the mother ran to Raven, kissing him on the cheek as she thanked him over and over.

The lesson taught, Claire and Raven walked outside to the sweltering heat of summer in New York. Ten seconds outside and already they were sweating bullets. It’s been a month since they started working together and as they exited the port in front of their building Claire looked it up and down surprised even today by the changes. The entire building had gotten a makeover, thanks to Abby, and there was even an entire gym set up on the third floor. Heads turned as Claire and Raven walked in arguing.

“I can’t believe you’re so against this!”

Raven stepped behind his desk pinning Claire with a glare, “I can’t believe you had the gull to ask the Captain behind my back!”

“It was in your best interest!” Claire swung her hands forward as her anger raised and Raven sat down, “I thought you would be impressed.”

“It’s fuckin’ stupid! I don’t even know why you wanna learn!”

“In case something should happen! It’s called looking out for my partner dumbass!” Claire slammed her hands on his desk leaning forward.

Raven pointed a finger to her face, “No. And that’s final.”

“Ugggggh!!” Claire screamed in frustration as she stomped to the break room. She paced the room as her frustration grew. Muttering under her breath she ported herself to the gym on the third floor and made her way to the hanging sand bag. She waved a hand and changed her summer clothes to her work out outfit and painted an image of Raven on the bag. She took a stance before the bag and meditated her breathing as she poured her anger into her fist. Suddenly she let her fist fly and pummeled the bag with a flurry of punches and kicks distorting the picture with every hit.

“Nice painting. The details add a nice touch to it.”

Claire panted as she accepted the water bottle handed to her. Malvina was daughter to Melvin, a mage with a Worker pass but had more magic than she let on. She transferred to the office 3 weeks ago to handle paperwork and phone calls. She was also a dear friend of Claire’s and now a welcome co-worker for Claire. Claire drained the bottle as she felt the sweet hum of her muscles, drained from the workout and of her emotions. She stood there panting studying the roughed up image of Raven on the sandbag as Malvina came up next to her.

“He still refuses to teach you doesn’t he.”

“Yeah…” pant, pant, “the bastard.” Claire swung around and threw a high kick to Raven’s head and felt her anger completely drain as the bag squeaked on its chain.

“I still don’t understand why you want him to teach you to shoot a gun.”

Claire turned to Malvina about to retort when she held up a hand, “I get why you wanna learn but I don’t understand why it has to be him. Why not ask Henry or one of the twins…or even Lucy.”

Malvina was talking about the new detectives that transferred in at the same time as she did. Claire drained another bottle as she tried to slow her speeding heart before she explained. As she cooled down she studied her friend over. Malvina was tall, almost as tall as Claire if not more. She had auburn colored hair with more red than brown and kept it down in waves. Her face was full of soft lines and curves along with the rest of her body. She emitted a delicate feminine aura but took after her father’s fiery side when the situation called for it.

“Because…what if something happens. We’re not the only ones with anti-magic guns anymore. More and more realist are gathering greater fire power and are now even carrying anti-magic guns in their arsenal. Hell, since I’ve started working here I’ve counted 3 separate cases where the person was carrying anti-magic guns. I can’t protect Raven from those, my magic disintegrates the moment it touches them. I need to learn how to use a gun to protect him and I need him to teach me so he can trust in my skills.”

Claire walked over to the bench press and sat down, drying herself with a towel. Malvina sighed as she walked over and stood before her friend, “Well, I guess you’ve got your work cut out for ya.”

Claire gave a weak laugh, “Thanks for the support.”

“Hey,” Malvina held up a hand, “you have my full support and I give it freely. I’m just saying your partner’s more stubborn than Dad.”

Claire rolled her eyes as she smiled, “Don’t I know it.”

They shared a laugh as Claire got up. She went into the showers as Malvina headed back down. She came back into the office just in time to hear Henry giving the same talk to Raven.

“Why are you so against this? Shouldn’t you want a partner who can get your back?”

He was sitting on the desk behind Raven’s munching on some nuts as Raven tried his best to ignore him, “She has magic. Why would she need a gun?”

“We’re the MPF. As people start to learn our name, more and more of our culprits will start to carry anti-magic guns. Seems to me it’ll be a good precaution.”

“A good precaution?” Raven swiveled around in his chair to stare at Henry, “How would that be a good precaution? It’ll be nothing but a burden for her.”

“A burden? Whatda mean by that?”

Henry crunched another nut as Raven leaned back against his desk, sighing. He pinched his nose as a headache was beginning to form, “She has magic. Magic…she doesn’t kill with magic, but if she learns how to shoot a gun she’ll be trained to kill.”

There was a silence as his words hit home.

“You don’t have to carry that burden for her. She wants you to train her so you can trust her with this.”

“I already trust her.” Raven gestured with his hand, waving it as he turned back to Henry, “I trust her with her magic. She doesn’t need a gun.”

Henry stood as he headed back to his desk, “One day she will.”

Raven watched as Henry went back to his desk and turned back around to stare at his computer projection. He sighed into his hands as he head felt split in two. Claire was quiet as she stepped up behind him. She could see the tension in his shoulders and wondered what got him all stressed out. She smiled as she got an idea and rubbed her hands together. Without making him jump she placed her hands on his shoulders and gently started rubbing them.

“What are you doing?”

Claire smiled, “You didn’t jump this time, very good.”

“I asked you what are you doing.”

“Giving you a message, can’t you tell?”

“My shoulders aren’t the ones that’s stressed.”

Claire leaned over to his side to look into his eyes, holding her hands still, “Then what is?”

Raven gave a small grin, “My head.”

Claire chuckled as she stood back up. She rubbed her hands together as they begun to glow. Raven gave a slight jump as Claire put her hands on his head.

“What the hell are you doing now?”

“Shh.” Claire smiled as she rubbed his head. She tried not to think how soft his hair felt or how good it felt between her fingers. Raven closed his eyes as Claire’s magic begun to ease the tension in his head. He also tried to solely concentrate on relaxing and relieving this stress rather than how good her fingers felt or how they made his scalp tingle.

The sound of a throat being cleared loudly sprung Claire and Raven apart. The twins Anthony Conwell and Andrew Rodrequiz stood smirking at them. They had their hands behind their back wearing identical suits and black ties. They looked more like FBI agents than MPF detectives but they had a working base knowledge of magic and the magic laws and ironically enough, they are twins. They were separated at birth and found each other while attending the Police Academy. They were of average height and had the same haircut. They may have grown up apart but still lived the same lives. They even married the same type of bookish woman. Since they transferred in they’ve cleaned up the office and helped the Captain run a tight ship, so to speak.

“Messages may be fun ‘n games Black…” Anthony said

“But please keep any frolicking to a minimum,” finished Andrew.

“Black! Dunsworth!”

All four of them turned to see the Captain standing in the doorway of his office with the phone still in his hand, “Get goin’. You’ve got a case. And Claire…” He waited until she gave him her attention, “they’ve got an emergency for you.”

“What emergency?”

“Dark magic.”