0Title: River Bound (4/5)
Author: klmeri
Fandom: AOS
Pairing: Kirk/Spock/McCoy
Warnings: Stalking, Mind Control, Non-consensual Kissing
Summary: AU. When Kirk begins to receive anonymous love letters, he assumes they’re coming from his partners, unaware that he has attracted some unwanted attention. The situation turns perilous once Kirk realizes his mistake, for he has been ensnared by someone who wants to keep him from Spock and McCoy at any cost.
Parts: 1 | 2 | 3
Jim awakens with a sense of foreboding. The house is silent, oddly subdued like the night after a hunt, when some of the city’s occupants wake up wondering who among their friends are still around and others don’t wake up at all. After a long minute, Jim realizes he is alone in bed. There’s a ticking clock in another room but otherwise no more sounds in the house except his breathing.
A bedroom curtain flutters. Since the window is shut, Jim calls quietly, “Spock?” He relaxes when a weight makes the edge of the bed dip slightly.
“I am here, Jim.”
“And Jan?”
“She left the house while you slept. Her car has returned to the drive only just now.”
Jim sits up. “She made certain I slept while she was gone.”
“It would seem so.”
Locking his arms around his knees, Jim needs to know, “What’s our plan?”
The front door to the house opens and closes.
“When Miss Lester takes you to the farm, we will confront her.”
“But how do we—”
“Jim, I brought bagels and coffee! Come to the kitchen.” Jan’s voice doesn’t have to be loud in order to be heard.
Jim climbs out of bed without fighting the need to obey. “Talk later,” he whispers to Spock as he exits the bedroom.
There are no opportunities to talk later with Spock unfortunately. Jan has plans for Jim that keep him occupied all day. He’s semi-grateful that these plans don’t involve staying inside her house, but it also makes him uneasy once he determines their destination is downtown. People will see them together and Jim won’t be able to explain his circumstances any better than he could to his brother, the difference being other people won’t know fact from fiction.
Perhaps luck is on Jim’s side after all. He and Jan encounter no one they know (or at least that Jim knows) and therefore no explanation is warranted. Then after running a few mundane errands, Jan escorts Jim to one of the downtown cafes he rarely frequents at lunchtime. Jim is nearly convinced that his initial impression this morning had been a mistake. Nothing seems amiss with Lester’s demeanor.
Not until, that is, Jan surprises Jim while he’s emptying a sugar packet into his unsweetened tea.
“Jim, how did your brother know you were at my house?” she asks.
Jim manages not to freeze and finishes his task before casually remarking, “Don’t know.”
Lester contemplates the mostly uneaten salad under her fork. “I don’t believe you.”
She might order him to tell the truth if she really doesn’t believe him. The only way to call her bluff is with a bluff of his own, something Jim excels at. He lets annoyance show. “You’ve kept me from contacting my family, and this is the first time we’ve been out of your house in days. You think I would know what the hell is going on?” he complains testily.
“Don’t take that tone with me!”
Kirk almost ignores the warning, but the slight movement of the salt container at a nearby table reminds him of one good reason to proceed with caution. Spock won’t hesitate to disarm Jan if she tries something with Jim in public—and Spock’s presence is already freaking out some of the clientele just by haunting a table. Although, Jim thinks with a touch of amusement, to be fair the Blood who have come to the shop for a drink and a bite to eat don’t seem to find Spock’s invisibility disconcerting. One of them even sat at Spock’s table to read the newspaper and enjoy a latte, probably just to spite Spock’s attempts to thwart customers from occupying his spot. Thankfully the male didn’t give away his ghostly guest, simply choosing to leave after a short while with an amused tilt to his head.
Sighing through his nose, Jim sets down the spoon he used to stir his tea. “I’m sorry. That was rude of me.”
Jan seems briefly startled by the apology before returning the favor. “I’m sorry too. Of course you wouldn’t know.” She looks away. “I don’t just know, Jim. Something feels… off. I wish I knew what.”
Jim keeps his voice level. “What do you mean?”
The woman shrugs one shoulder before facing him again. “It’s an intuitive feeling. Magic runs strong in my family, you know—much like yours, Jim.” Her gaze skips around the cafe, which makes Jim’s heart race until she passes by Spock’s table. “Odd little things have been happening. Could it be a message?” She meets his eyes again. “From someone?”
He doesn’t reply, cannot speak around the lump in his throat, but luckily Lester’s posture relaxes. Whatever test she just gave him, he passed somehow.
“Are you finished?” she asks, smiling. “Let’s go shopping.”
“Shopping?” he repeats, dubious now for a different reason.
Her smile widens. “Oh, it won’t be that bad.”
“I don’t like shopping.”
“I can tell.” Jan reaches across the table, placing her hand over his. “But you will accompany me, Jim.”
Her eyes twinkle at his automatic “Yes, Jan.”
Jim swallows a damn.
The woman laughs, rising to her feet. “Follow me,” she orders, walking away from the table and their lunch, and of course Jim does.
In hindsight, Jan Lester has every reason to be paranoid and none to shirk her intuition. Jim forgets that.
He and Jan spend the better part of the day in and out of clothing boutiques along the main street, where she forces him to wear an ungodly number of outfits like he is a Ken doll to be dressed up for her pleasure. Whenever she pauses to take in their surroundings, he distracts her by complaining about her latest choice in men’s attire. It’s strange, but they develop a banter that, under other circumstances, might have been the prelude to friendliness. Jim catches himself falling too deep into the act a few times, disgusted, and then does something she really doesn’t approve of so that she will order him to obey there, which acts like the proverbial cold bucket of water to his brain every time.
Later, when Jim thinks back on that day, he realizes Jan was as distracted as he was, so busy running them up and down the street at a crazed pace, putting him into so many outfits only because she was too preoccupied to take note of what did and did not suit him. He should have known that when she had him try on a conservative suit and tie that made him look like a nerdy accountant who spent the majority of his day crunching numbers in a claustrophobic little cubicle.
But with the arrival of late afternoon and the sun low in the sky, anxiety begins to gnaw at Jim. Jan can dress him up in as many expensive clothes as she wants, he thinks, but at some point she has to take him to the farm. His family is there, waiting. Jim’s desperate to be out of his invisible chains. He wants to be with Leonard outside of a vision, to reassure his mother, and to lean on Sam. By the time Jan checks the time on her restored phone (which was one of their morning errands) and leads Jim to her car, Jim has all but forgotten Jan isn’t the one beholden to someone else’s will.
“My mom’s a good cook,” Jim is saying, amazed that his voice doesn’t waver in the least as Jan navigates the rush hour traffic. “You won’t be disappointed.”
“Is that so?” she responds in a light tone.
“Yeah. Mom toyed with the idea of opening a restaurant for a while but, you know, start-up funding isn’t that easy to come by.” And his mother had two sons to raise in the meantime, which is where most of their family income went each month anyway. “I don’t think she regrets it, but I do on her behalf.”
“You and your mother have a strong bond, don’t you, Jim?”
He crosses his arms over his chest. “You could say that.” When I’m not being a jackass, he thinks somewhat sadly. Jim pulls out of that thought, noticing the intersection they just passed by. “You should have turned right there.”
The woman smiles faintly when Jim glances in her direction, something about her smile dishonest.
And he knows. He underestimated her. Jan isn’t shocking smart but she is methodical in her approach to a life of crime; Jim, who has been called an irritatingly clever criminal many times over the years, has been judging her by a set of standards that don’t fit. His mistake.
He questions more softly, “Jan, where are we going?”
“I don’t think your family really wants to me.” Jan turns her smiling face with its dispassionate gaze upon him. “They want you.”
“What are you talking about? Mom invited you to dinner.”
“Oh, Jim, do I look stupid? The warning signs have been around us all day.”
“What.”
“The gods have been trying to warn me not to be so greedy. If I am not conservative in my desires, this chance for us to fall in love will vanish.”
It can’t be, Jim thinks. Jan has been interpreting Spock’s little interferences between them, mainly to keep Jan off of him, as divine intervention? She is crazy. Genuinely out of her mind!
“It’s too soon to expect a welcome from your family, Jim. Please understand.”
Jim’s glad he tucked his hands into his armpits because otherwise they would be shaking in plain sight. Jan’s telling him in no uncertain terms that she won’t go to the farm, perhaps not ever.
Kirk closes his eyes, breathing quietly for a minute in order to regain control of himself before panic sets in. He can’t afford to panic. If he panics, Spock will do something. Probably flip the car and drag Jim away from Jan and the wreckage.
There has to be another way. Think!
His on-the-fly, big-problems-need-sneaky-solutions talent must be rusty since Jim has settled down. It takes half a minute longer than it used to for an idea to pop into his head.
“You’re right, Jan,” he says, opening his eyes. “We aren’t obligated to meet my folks.” Jim twists around in his seat to face her. “In fact, we don’t need their approval at all.”
Her glance his way is naturally a suspicious one. “Why would you say that?”
“Simple. I’m just fucking sick of this city and how everyone in it thinks they have a right to judge me and my decisions.”
Surprise replaces suspicion. “You are?”
“Wouldn’t you be if you were me?”
“I—yes, I guess I would.”
“Then help me, Jan. Let’s leave Riverside.”
The request is a calm one and based on honest desire. Jan must recognize that because as she slows down to an intersection with a red light she says, “You mean it.”
“Yeah, I do,” he replies, thinking, Don’t freak out on me, Spock. “I think you’re the only person who can take me away from here.”
Jan’s chin trembles faintly, as if all Jan wanted to hear from him since she took him was a plea only she could fulfill. “I’ll help you.”
Jim covers her hand on the steering wheel with his own, not unaware of the irony of his touching her without a command. “Thank you.”
He has her trust. Jim can see that alongside the satisfaction and relief in her eyes. Until now, everything Lester tried to offer him hasn’t been good enough. But this, leaving the city together, he has essentially told her, will be.
A car in line leans on the horn. Jan starts, clearly having not noticed the red light has changed to green. She drives them through the intersection. “What should we pack? Where should go, Jim?”
He flashes a devil-may-care grin. “Anywhere. Let’s make it an adventure.”
“Now?”
“Why not? C’mon, Jan, don’t you want to live a little?”
Jan’s excitement is palpable. “Yes! Okay, we’re going.”
Jim leans back in his seat with a satisfied smile of his own, propping a wrist next to the driver-side headrest. Because he is expecting the contact, the fingers wrapping tightly around his bicep yields no surprise. Jim has faith that Spock will figure out the new plan.
When Jan turns the car onto one of the major highways running out of Riverside and heads west, Jim begins a mental countdown of the mile-markers. He has been this way a hundred time but today will be the first time traveling this road with the intention of returning.
Five minutes pass, and then they are nearly there, speeding down a long curve with the city limits sign just out of sight. Jim clears his throat and says, “Goodbye, Riverside” as a warning to Spock.
“What?” Jan asks.
“We’re almost out of the city.”
Jan laughs. “Wonderful! We’re going to be so happy together, Jim!”
The sign becomes visible, in huge painted letters thanking visitors for their trip to the city of Riverside. Jim laughs too, in relief.
“Yeah, about that,” he cannot help but tell the woman beside him, no doubt sounding a bit of gleeful. “There’s no ‘us’.”
She turns to stare at him in bemusement.
“I don’t date crazy bitches,” Jim spells it out for her just as the car whips past the sign, slamming his eyes shut afterward.
Jim experiences a terrifying second or two as the Border magic engulfs Kirk, colliding with Lester’s binding spell. The two magics become tangled up. A quick, nasty battle ensues. The better contender, the Border magic inevitably wins, squashing the competition with brute force. Jim’s ears pop. He opens his eyes to find himself looking at trees and a cloudy sky. There’s an echo in his head that sounds like Jan in a fit of rage as he sits up with a groan.
“Fascinating.”
Jim’s head whips around at the voice, his mouth dropping open at discovering Spock sitting in the dirt road too.
Spock ceases to survey surroundings, turning to meet Jim’s shocked stare. “I would like to try that again.”
Jim scrambles to his feet, his tongue tripping over his questions. “Spock, how did you—b-but—how could—”
Spock rises in one graceful movement and begins to brush dirt from his clothes. “I believe I understand your relationship with the River’s magic now. It is most impressively possessive.”
“What?” Jim grabs Spock’s shoulders simply because he needs something to hold onto. “I don’t understand. Spock, no one has ever come with me before. How did you do it?”
Spock blinks at him. “I simply asked.”
“You asked?”
“Affirmative. I believe the River magic was weakened by fighting Miss Lester’s spell. Rather than engage in another battle, to transport me too was in its own best interests.”
Jim can think of absolutely nothing to say to that.
“There are a few sources I should like to consult first, but I may have a solution to your problem.” Spock looks past Jim. “Ah. Leonard did receive my text.”
“JIM!”
“Bones?” Jim turns as McCoy comes flying around the bend of the road.
The two men meet halfway, nearly crashing into each other in their enthusiasm to be reunited.
“My god, Jim,” McCoy croaks, hugging him fiercely, “you’re a sight for sore eyes!”
“Good to be back, Bones.”
“Kid, you’re strangling me.” Leonard doesn’t sound at all unhappy about that.
“You’re crushing my ribs.”
Leonard eases up, then Jim. Spock is standing next to them with the faintest of frowns.
“What’s the matter?” Jim asks.
“My phone appears not to have accompanied me.”
“You pointy-eared hobgoblin,” Leonard says, barking out a laugh suddenly, “come here. I’m happy to see you too.”
“But my phone,” Spock protests.
Neither Kirk nor McCoy give their boyfriend a chance to finish, reeling him into their arms.
The reunion goes on a little too long, which nearly results in Kirk, Spock, and McCoy being rundown. The driver of the van spies them at the last second and brakes hard, skidding off to the side of the road to avoid a collision.
When Jim’s heart doesn’t seem like it’s going to punch through his ribcage, he picks himself out of the ditch where he had launched himself and his two partners after they are only as dazed as he is, not injured. Jim discovers why none of them heard the van coming. It’s enclosed in a sound-dampening spell.
The driver door slams open and closed, producing no noise at all. But the man behind the wheel makes up for the lack of it by exclaiming loudly, “Jim!”
Jim is startled to be suddenly embraced the man who rushes around the van. “Scotty? What are you doing here?”
“Is that Scotty? You idiot, you nearly killed us!” Leonard yells from the ditch area.
Scotty pauses in pounding Jim joyously on the back. “He’s daft, Jim. It’s not my fault ye were standing in the road!”
At McCoy’s growl, Jim intervenes with “Easy, easy,” placing himself in the path between the two men just as McCoy climbs out of the ditch with a glare, dragging Spock along by the arm.
“Damn it, Scotty, I called you to help us, not turn us into roadkill! Why the hell didn’t we hear you?”
“Stealth magic,” Jim and Scotty reply at the same time.
Leonard’s glare wavers. “What now?”
Spock has circled past them to the van to inspect it with interest. “It would appear Mr. Scott desired that no one detect his approach.”
“Of course not,” the man in question says indignantly. “I’m on a spy mission!”
“Oh for god’s sake. You are just like Jim. Spock, stop that. You can play with the spellwork later.”
Scotty’s face brightens. “With better hair.”
Jim self-consciously runs a hand over his head. “Why’d you call Scotty, Bones?”
Scotty jabs him with an elbow. “Oy! I thought we were friends!”
“We are,” Jim explains in a grimmer tone, “which is why I don’t like the idea of you being here. It’s dangerous.”
“That’s a nice thought, Jim, but a man doesn’t stand by and watch his friend become enslaved, danger or no danger.”
Leonard releases an explosive sigh. “Spock messaged me about the third letter, but I couldn’t go after it.” The man won’t look Jim in the eyes. “Spock and I kinda made a scene at that bar to get access to the security camera footage.”
Jim grimaces. “Please tell me you two don’t have a price on your heads.”
Spock joins them, hands at his back. “Not yet.”
“Well, that’s another problem for another day,” Scotty cuts in cheerfully. He removes a ziplock bag from a pocket in his coveralls. “But this isn’t any longer. T’was at The Lantern all right.”
Spock takes it. “Thank you, Mr. Scott. You have proved yourself to be a valuable resource in a time of crisis.”
Scotty whistles. “Comin’ from one of such a renowned and venerable race, that must be a compliment.”
“Take it from me, it is,” Leonard tells Scotty as he studies the napkin in disgust. “No, Spock, leave it in the bag. No telling where the damn thing’s been.”
“Dinnae ask,” Scotty echoes with a shudder. Then, recovering, he reaches into a different pocket in his coveralls. “This wee beauty did all the work.” The tinker opens his palm to reveal the little spell-spider. “Took her less than a minute to find it in the dumpster since it was spelled. I figure with a little modification, next time she could do the job in half the time.”
“Let’s hope there is no next time.” But Jim gladly takes the tiny spider in hand and praises her. “Good job, little one.”
The spell-spider waves her front legs at him before proceeding to probe the center of his palm curiously.
“Guess we’ll call her your lucky charm,” Scotty says to Kirk with a chuckle and a wink.
McCoy rolls his eyes skyward, warning Jim, “Don’t start,” knowing Jim too well. Then he adds, “We should head to the house.”
Jim sobers. “Agreed.” It seems like a miracle that he has managed to stay incoherent this long. Jan must be pissed.
Something in McCoy’s gaze tells Jim that Leonard is wondering the same thing.
“Get in the back,” Scotty calls, already climbing into the driver’s seat of the van with Spock heading toward its passenger seat. “And don’t touch anything!”
That’s a smart warning, thinks Jim as he opens the doors to the back of the van.
“Jesus,” mutters McCoy after he and Jim have squeezed themselves inside, and he has poked at a few of things around them. “Is that a blowtorch? Just what is he planning to do to Lester?”
“We probably don’t want to know,” Jim replies. If McCoy thinks he is joking, Jim won’t relieve him of that illusion. At times like this, Jim is reminded how he met Scotty. The tinker doesn’t need magic to be a scary bastard.
The van lurches back onto the road, carrying them home.
Like many of those around Jim Kirk, his mother is not someone to be gifted with the title of Saint; this fact has never been more clear to him than when she meets the van pulling up to the front of her house. It’s an eye-opener for the others too.
McCoy is the one who swings around the side of the van but stops short in surprise. “Jim, your mother’s armed.”
Jim pauses with one foot on the ground and the other still braced against the van’s bumper. “You didn’t run out of the house without telling her why, did you?”
His boyfriend’s eyes widen. “Shit.”
“Stay behind me,” Jim orders, climbing out of the van to allow McCoy to close the doors behind them and squaring his shoulders.
“She won’t shoot, right?” a nervous Leonard wants to know.
Jim cannot supply a comforting answer so he doesn’t say anything at all. As he steps away from the van, he keeps his hands at his sides, empty and in plain sight. Then he stops where Winona can see him.
“Jim?”
Jim smiles. “Hi, Mom.”
Winona catches herself after one step forward, her gaze passing from Jim to McCoy then over to Spock and Scotty, who at least have sense enough to stay inside the van.
Jim sees her struggle between a desire to go to him and a caution which makes her think twice. There is a good reason for that caution; they have been burned before by unwelcome visitors wearing familiar faces.
Caution wins out. “How did you get here?”
“22 to Kalona.”
Winona inhales sharply. Sam steps out from behind her, taking the shotgun out of Winona’s hands just before she drops it. Jim’s mother wastes no time, then, hurrying down the porch steps where Jim meets her at the bottom. Though she reaches for his hand, she seems to change her mind at the last second about hugging him. Her gaze moves past Jim, to Scotty and Spock exiting the van and McCoy hanging back as if uncertain of his welcome.
Her attention returns to Jim. “Are you all right?”
He nods. “For now.”
“Come inside.” Winona raises her voice to carry. “All of you.” Then the woman lets go of his hand and ascends the porch, leaving Jim to follow at her heels.
Being among family and friends creates a false sense of security for Kirk. His first inkling of something wrong is a faint buzzing at the periphery of his consciousness, like a fly hanging outside a car window waiting for the chance to make its way inside. Jim shakes the sensation off without much thought, far more interested in the twin bowed heads of Spock and McCoy as the pair puzzles through each verse that makes up the entrapment spell. Across the kitchen table, Aurelan and Sam are busy watching Scotty’s spell-spider try to pick apart Sam’s wristwatch while Scotty enthusiastically devours a grilled cheese sandwich provided by Jim’s mother. Winona hovers by the stove, keeping a watchful eye on them all.
“‘Bring an end to old love,'” Leonard reads aloud with dismay. “Do you think this is why Jim didn’t recognize you at first?”
Jim is quick to argue, “I did know Spock… sort of.” When Spock and McCoy just look at him, he subsides.
Spock turns to McCoy. “Most likely. The objective would be to eliminate or suppress any connection that the target may have to an existing romantic attachment.”
“Making you and I strangers to Jim in the event we managed to contact or locate him.” Leonard glances at Jim. “Do we look like strangers to you now, kid?”
“I think you’re strange,” Jim teases. “Does that count?”
Leonard swipes at Jim’s head. “Never mind.”
“Cute,” Scotty says, wiping his mouth on his sleeve, “but maybe the flirting can wait until ye figure out how to undo the blasted spell.”
“I have been contemplating the matter. Since the River transported us here, Jim has been relatively lucid and clearly in control of his actions, which indicates the spell can be made unstable by raw magical power. If produced in sufficient quantity—”
—I know you’re in there, Jim!
Jim jumps out of his chair as Jan’s voice rams through his brain. Spock cuts off mid-theory, turning to Jim, and everybody follows suit.
Jim grips the edge of the table. “She’s here.”
Scotty abandons his chair, hurrying to look out the window over the sink. Spock and McCoy each claim one of Jim’s arms, whether to restrain him or support him is unclear. Sam pulls his wife away from the table, crowding Aurelan toward Winona with the sharp order, “Upstairs, both of you.” He doesn’t even flinch under the women’s glares.
“Jim should come too,” Aurelan protests. “He’s the one Lester wants.”
“Jim has us,” Sam counters.
Jim agrees with his brother, albeit for another reason. Speaking is difficult with so much of his concentration on staying put—Jan is calling him to her with heightening intensity—but he is able to make his opinion known. “Please… go. I don’t know… what I might do, and I won’t be able to forgive myself if… something bad happens to you and the baby and Mom.”
Winona nods her approval to Jim and coaxes Aurelan out of the kitchen despite Aurelan looking unhappy about the retreat.
Jim cannot fully see his brother’s expression but the tale-tell stiffness to Sam’s jaw is enough. “Sam,” he grates out, “why don’t you invite our guest in?” Sam’s gaze lands on him. “It’ll stop her from calling me, at least for a while,” he adds.
Sam walks out of the kitchen.
“Jim?” Leonard says worriedly.
Jim closes his eyes, starting to sweat. His grip on the table has already broken but he thinks Spock and McCoy make pretty good substitute anchors. At least he hasn’t tried to shake them off yet—or worse. “Doing my best here, Bones.”
“Damn it. Jim, I’m sorry. I thought we’d have more time before she figured out where you went.”
“Not your fault.”
“It may be mine,” Spock intercedes quietly. “My phone was not locked. If she discovered it in her car, she could have easily identified my last message to Leonard.”
“No use crying over spilt milk. Jim, can you sit down?”
“Don’t think so.”
“Okay. Just… hang in there.”
No chance of that, Jim thinks dismally as they all hear the slam of the screen door. His muscles do relax somewhat though, enough that he direct Spock and McCoy to shuffle him closer toward the main hallway. They don’t argue with him.
Sam has shown Jan into the living room, where the woman paces by the windows. She immediately heads for Jim when she catches sight of him, but Sam blocks her path and so do Spock and McCoy.
Jan talks past them to Jim, looking both angry and betrayed. “You left me! How could you leave me?”
“Don’t answer that, Jim,” Leonard advises. “She doesn’t want the truth anyway.”
Lester’s gaze jumps to McCoy, flashing with hatred before she holds out an imperative hand. “I’ll forgive you, Jim, if you come back to me.”
Jim sways forward, grateful to have the solid wall that is Spock and McCoy in between them. “I won’t.”
Jan drops her hand. “Then I’ll make you.”
“My brother isn’t going anywhere with you, Miss Lester,” Sam states matter-of-factly.
Jan’s laughter doesn’t sound sane. “You can’t stop him. Jim!”
Jim’s body snaps to attention.
The woman smirks. “I want you at my side, darling. Now.”
Sam, Spock, and McCoy bracket Kirk, refusing to allow him to pass. The weight of Jan’s command leaves Jim shaking. His head starts to pound, and his vision blurs. He senses something more awful than a migraine building; in a moment, he thinks he might be incapacitated.
“Watch out!” Scotty cries.
With everyone’s attention focused on Kirk, Lester had slid around their group, coming toward Jim from their blind side. Scotty, being the first to realize her trick, is also the one to pay the price for outing her. Jan fires a monosyllabic word at him like a bullet, and he flies over the back of the couch with a surprised shout, taking out a lamp on the way.
Jan hits Leonard next, intent on taking out the easiest targets, those who cannot protect themselves from her magic. McCoy flies into the wall beside the archway.
Someone screams, Jim realizing after a second that the sound came from him.
“I can kill him,” Jan hisses, her hand outstretched as if curled around someone’s neck. “I’ll crush his throat before any of you can stop me.”
“Spock,” Jim chokes, “check on Bones,” even though Leonard sits up beside the wall, wide-eyed and pale. “Spock,” he pleads, and Spock finally moves, not looking at Jan but at Sam for some reason. Then the man takes a step backward, followed by another until he pivots around completely and heads toward McCoy across the room with a stiff stride.
“Scotty?” Jim calls, fighting to make his voice more than a whisper. “You okay?”
An arm appears, grappling with the back of the couch. Jim can’t make whatever it is that Scotty mutters.
Jim looks straight at Jan. “Okay,” he says, “you win.”
“Jim,” his brother says sharply, but Jim just shakes his head.
Jan only lowers her hand once Jim reaches her side. “Stay,” she orders him, and his heart tears in two at the thought, knowing that he is about to lose his way to Spock and McCoy again.
Jim sees Jan’s lips move, feeling the spark of an incantation.
Spock shouts, “No!” and that’s when all hell breaks loose. A wave of magic suddenly sweeps toward Jim and Jan—no, shit, two waves from opposite directions—and they hit him with a blinding energy like a tractor beam from a starship on some decades-old sci-fi show. For just a second, he freezes, the proverbial deer in the headlights. The rest becomes a topsy-turvy blur, on par with being sucked into a whirlpool where the choices are either spin or drown.
When the tide of power finally recedes, Jim opens his eyes and shuts them again immediately; the light is painful, colorful little orbs and halos meandering every which way. He had caught a glimpse of his brother’s face among the kaleidoscope, daubed with winking stars like he’s been the victim of a glitter bomb explosion. Now that Jim is paying attention, he can hear a clamor of voices and the intermittent groan of the farmhouse structure.
Sam says, “Are you okay, Jimmy?”
“Your face is sparkly.”
“So that’s a no.”
Jim forces one eye open. “Huh. Still sparkly. I don’t think it’s me, Sam.” Spock’s face comes into view. “Hey, Spock, my brother looks like a Twilight vampire.”
Spock raises an eyebrow at Sam. “The effect will fade in time.”
When Sam’s face fills with horror, Jim starts laughing. After the two men help Jim sit upright, his laughter dies to a hiccup under his brother’s glare.
Kirk finally looks around. “What happened?” His gaze lands on Jan. “Uh, is she dead?”
“Unconscious.” Spock hauls Jim to his feet. “The collision of magics knocked her out.”
“Magics… as in plural?” Jim’s eyes move from Spock to Sam and back again.
Sam studies Jim’s boyfriend with wariness and a hint of approval. “Never seen a Blood do that before.”
“Nor have I heard of a human attempting the same. Most interesting.” Spock returns the older Kirk’s stare evenly. “When I recommended that you create a diversion, I assumed it would be non-magical. Fortunately, you and I unleashing power at the same time did not implode the house.”
“Whoa,” Jim says, brain barely working as it is and now stalled by the mere notion of implosion.
Leonard arrives at his shoulder, looking equally upset and shaken. “Implode the house? There are people in it!”
Spock blinks placidly at McCoy before returning his gaze to Jim. “How do you feel?”
“Besides like somebody strapped firecrackers to me and set them off.” He shrugs. “Could be worse.”
Sam snorts. “The man’s asking if you still feel like kissing Lester’s feet.”
Jim gags at the thought. “Gross, Sam. And hell no. No f-ing way. Please kill me first.”
“I will,” Scotty agrees, tottering up next to Kirk and company. “Anybody else seeing the Aurora Borealis?” He blinks twice at Sam. “That man looks like a fairy godmother in a bad Hallmark movie.”
“You see the sparkles too?” Jim asks wondrously.
Scotty backs up a step, clearly disturbed. “Is it catching?”
“See what?” Leonard demands.
“Jimmy? Sam? What happened?”
Winona Kirk stops at the threshold to the living room upon seeing their little group. Then she spots Lester and asks grimly, “Is she dead?”
“Unconscious, we think,” Jim offers helpfully.
As if he had issued a summons to return to life, Jan lets out a hacking cough, her legs and arms twitching.
The gentlemanly thing to do would be to help the woman up, but as far as Jim is considered Jan is no lady. According to their expressions, the others appear to feel the same way.
Winona crosses the room and grabs Lester by the arm, none-too-gently yanking the woman to her feet. Jan sways under their watchful eyes, her dazed look clearly only when her gaze finds Jim’s. “Jim? Come to me.”
“God,” McCoy groans, “does she never give up?”
But Jim is less concerned with that than a startling new fact. He looks down at himself in astonishment. “Whatever you guys did, it’s good news. I’m not feeling a thing.”
“Come here!” Jan snaps.
From his position on the floor, Jim snort-laughs.
Leonard peers into his face. “Jim, sweetheart, what’s going on?” To Spock, he asks, “Is he going into shock?”
Jim just raises a hand. Scotty, who gets it, high-fives him.
After studying Jim carefully, Spock’s pronouncement is “The spell has been broken.”
The only person who screams in denial is Jan.
Jim comes to his feet as Lester launches herself toward him. She doesn’t go far, letting out a shriek as Winona yanks her backward by the hair. With a half-sob, half-scream, Jan twists wildly in Winona’s hold until she manages to tear herself loose. Then she rounds on the woman, both her hands curled into claws, still screaming out her rage. An instant later, Lester is silenced abruptly by Winona’s palm cracking across her cheek. The woman reels back from the blow. Every man in the room jumps.
Jim prudently positions himself behind Sam. Spock and McCoy move behind Jim. Scotty, having jumped all the way back to the nearest flat surface, a wall, doesn’t seem inclined to leave that spot anytime soon.
Jan’s legs give out in surprise and she drops to her knees. Cradling her abused cheek, she shrinks in on herself when Winona looms over her with a rage in the woman’s eyes far greater than her own.
In the most frightening voice Jim has ever heard from his mother, Winona informs the woman, “If you come near my son again, not God or the law will stop me from ending you.”
Jan’s eyes fill with tears. “But I love him.”
“You don’t love him like I do,” Winona claims darkly. Her terrifying gaze snaps toward the men. “Get this trash off my property.”
Chin wobbling, Jan balls her hands into fists. “It’s not me!” she cries, scrambling to her feet. She skitters out of range of Winona when Winona’s head whips back in her direction. Flinging an accusatory finger toward Spock, she shrills, “It’s him! He’s the monster!”
An incensed McCoy lurches around Jim. “The hell he is! The only monster in this room is you!”
Jan’s head jerks back and forth. “Lies. You would lie. You’re his slave. Don’t you get it? You don’t really love him! Jim doesn’t really love him! A human can’t love an Other!”
A breath shudders out of Winona. “That’s not true. I loved Jim’s father.”
Being behind Sam makes it easy for Jim to grab onto the back of his brother’s shirt.
“Easy, Jim,” Sam murmurs for his ears only.
Jan’s throat works after Winona’s rebuttal, but the woman clearly is not one to accept defeat with grace, despite having no alternative. She begins laughing for little apparent reason in long, fragmented chortles that make everyone else cringe. Then Lester suddenly tosses her hands in the air, exclaiming, “Fine, give your son to that foul monster! That Blood traitor!”
Foreboding washes over Jim as Spock glides over to Lester, his eyes hard stones in an impassive face.
“Who told you I am a traitor, Miss Lester?”
Under the Highborn’s icy stare, Jan’s crazy laughter dies, and she backs away from Spock.
He follows her. “What a grievous thing to say. Did this person specify who I betrayed? My House? My… father?” At her silence, he presses, “If you do not know, speak the name of the one who maligned me.”
“Spock.” McCoy clears his throat, glancing at Jim with the silent question of what to do.
“A name, Miss Lester.”
“Jim…”
“Don’t look at me, Bones. I’m not getting in between Spock and her while he looks like that.”
“Great. Wonderful.” McCoy moves toward Spock cautiously. “Spock, remember your promise.”
It is a long minute before Spock tilts his head to consider the man instead of Lester. “I regret making a promise I have no desire to keep. I should very much like to deal with this person, Leonard.”
Jim moves to Spock’s other side, exchanging a glance with McCoy. “How about a compromise, Spock?”
Spock’s brows draw together.
Leonard has picked up on Jim’s idea. “Kidnapping is a federal offense. If Jim is willing to testify—” At Leonard’s slight pause, Jim nods confirmation of that. “—the authorities should be able to deal with her. But as for her… informant, I admit I think we’re better suited to take care that problem ourselves. So, how about it, Spock?”
Spock’s face clears and becomes almost serene. “Yes, that will satisfy me.”
“You’re crazy!” Jan laughs at the three of them. “I can’t be charged with a crime.”
“Take off the blinders, Jan!” Jim snaps, stepping forward, mindful of the way Spock and McCoy tense. “You took away my right to control my own body. You took away my right to say no. There might be no law in the human world to make that a crime, but what you did is still wrong. And I’m damn well not going to get away with it—or try it on anybody else. From this point on, you have two choices: face a judge and jury, or face us.”
“And to be clear, Miss Lester,” Spock says, “binding your magic will be infinitely more unpleasant than living in a prison, as it comes at the cost of your mind.”
“Sounds like poetic justice to me,” McCoy quips.
Lester pales—and slowly shakes her head in the negative.
Jim hadn’t expected her to choose otherwise. It won’t be easy, facing her in court, trying to underpin his testimony by claiming that she drugged him instead of spelled him or detailing her assault on him, what he remembers of it, but he can do nothing less, for himself and for others who could someday be at her mercy.
Jim sighs through his nose, turning to survey the others in the room. “Somebody find me a phone?”
“That won’t be necessary, Kirk.” The man who steps out of the darkened hallway slides sunglasses off his face. “We’ll take it from here.”
At the sight of Gary Mitchell in uniform and the two policemen behind him, Janice Lester’s face finally crumples in defeat.
Related Posts:
- River Bound (5/5) – from February 27, 2018
- River Bound (3/4) – from February 22, 2018
- River Bound (2/4) – from February 14, 2018
- River Bound (1/4) – from February 14, 2018
