Swift (Strangetown Magic Book 1) by Al K. Line

the way things are now."
    He stared at me, exasperated. "Like I said, she wouldn't say. But she talked about a man, saw him do something, or... Hell, I don't know, okay? She's dead now. I found her, at ground zero."
    "You go there, where the Rift happened?"
    "Of course." He looked stunned that I would even have to ask. "There are Strange there, waiting, and they need help. It's where I met her, so we would go there sometimes, and I found her there dead. She'd been gone for the day, and I got worried, so I went to the place we met, our safe place. She was dead and I ran, like a coward. I went into hiding. And now here you are, big bad Justice, ready to blast me with magic and do your master's bidding like a good girl."
    "I'm nobody's servant. I do what I want."
    "Nobody has that luxury and you're a fool if you think you do." What was with this guy? He wasn't exactly trying to ingratiate himself with me. Didn't he care about his own life?
    "Who was this man she said she saw?"
    "She didn't know. But I get the feeling you do. I bet he's pulling the strings here. If you tell me this Levick looks like some kind of corporate dude, with expensive suits and slicked back long white hair then we have a problem."
    I deflated like a punctured ball and sat next to him on a dirty crate I tried not to look at too closely. "Maybe you should tell me everything that's been going on."
    "I think I better."
    It took a while.

 
     
     
    Getting to Know Each Other
    There was magic within Pumi, no doubt about it, but he wasn't adept, wasn't a wizard or anything like that, he was just different. Born in another time, when the Pool was in chaos and many Strange were finding their way in the world, when magic was little more than superstition, and certainly not understood like today.
    He was an aberration then, and still is to this day—few shifters can use magic, let alone live extended lives. Yet he couldn't control it, channel it and use it to change reality or blast it at his enemies, it was merely there inside him, ensuring he remained what he was, which made getting him out of hiding problematic.
    In the end we came up with a simple solution. He got his sweatshirt with a hood and I used a mild protective spell to change his features slightly. It wasn't perfect, it's certainly not my area of expertise, but it allowed us to walk through the streets undisturbed.
    I was taking him home.
    Yeah, yeah, I know. Say what!? You just met the guy, tried to kill him, and after a chinwag you're inviting him home for dinner? Are you crazy, girlfriend? As Mack would like to say.
    It was because I was wrong, that's why. The things others had said about him, the good things, they were all true, I could just tell. Call it intuition, call it some deep-seated ancient sense of what is good and bad, right and wrong, or maybe even a little lust clouding my judgment, but he was sincere. This man was not a monster in the way so many humans are monsters.
    He had revealed his true nature, stripped bare and scary as scary can be, yet he kept control, did not attack or try to harm me in that form when he could have easily done so. No, he showed me his strength and his weakness, and I knew. The truth was being kept from me. I was being misled, and he was victim to an injustice. I was meant to be Justice so I couldn't very well go punishing a man I was now sure was wrongly accused.
    So, we talked, learned a little of each other, and the more he told me the more I was convinced of what he said. He had lost a friend, was grieving, almost given up any hope, and I had nearly pushed him over the edge yet he held back and that showed the kind of man he was.
    So, yeah, he was welcome to be my guest.

 
     
     
    A Vision of Loveliness
    "Oh, no." I stopped dead in my tracks, a gut-churning dread clamping down hard on my insides as I saw what waited for me on the steps of the church.
    Pumi turned, saw my fear and checked the street, but he needn't have bothered. "What? What is it?