The Crime in Callahan's Morrow - being rewritten

Chapter 14: A plan

"Slogging through the mud is better than giving up."

XIV.

The beat was pumping strongly: thump, thump, thump.

It took her an excessively long moment to realize it wasn't just any kind of a beat, but her heart racing like mad. Also, it felt as if it echoed inside her head, loudly and aggressively bumping and drumming, a sound so eerie and voluminous that her whole body reverberated with it.

Parched throat tried to swallow drying saliva. It failed and then tried again.

There was a lot of blood, though Nicole couldn't see the wound from where she stood.

A few mental slaps and three deep and grounding breaths later, Nicole grabbed two magic-sensitive papers with pre-made enchantments – one for localized barrier and another for healing.

"Hey," she addressed Tucker without taking her eyes from the fight because Giuseppe was acting stupid and almost got himself seriously wounded. Adrian didn't fare any better, but at least her boss had a few smarts inside his thick skull and didn't do asinine mistakes.

Giuseppe and Adrian's backs were inside her sight and made her feel like she was the one being protected. Nicole didn't like that. She had a job to do and being protected just wouldn't do. And that was how possibly a brilliant, yet completely idiotic and half-baked idea formed inside her mind.

She glanced to see if Tucker heard her. Seeing him nodding in her direction, she swiftly shoved those two enchantments into his hands, and, without waiting for him to grab them, turned back to see if there was an opening to start on her 'counterattack plan' unnoticed.

"Take this and put the barrier on Feargus' wound as precise as you can!" With a strong glare, she left the PI standing there like a fish gapping on air as she ran into the fray without looking back.

Her plan was crazy and somewhat foolish, Nicole admitted it. However, it was easier to deal with than that vampire bite. Though, someone had to deal even with that. Just not her.

After a dozen of meters Nicole slowed down, this part of the plan was critical as the slow approach was needed, otherwise, the enemy would notice her. Her steps led her besides what was left of the wall on the west side of the room. With grounding clarity, the destroyed furniture scattered around the ground demonstrated what could happen to her if she failed at this. It was a sobering realization so she carefully got closer to the place from which she would set the next step of her plan into the motion. 

Good thing she had applied one of the 'speed' enchantments when they had arrived here. It was the one that granted her quicker perception and gave her the ability to see their movements in almost slow motion. The regular, but mostly used speed enchantment would ironically just slow her down because she wouldn't be able to see anything. Using two of them together would be ideal and her brain would be able to catch up with the quicker speed. However, Nicole's body wasn't sturdy enough for such weighty enchantments used together.

Though, for now, this one was enough. At least she could see the fight as clearly as others could which wouldn't be possible for her human perception without this enchantment. But that didn't mean it wasn't without repercussions – the pain pulsed behind her eyes in the same rhythm as her heart pumped and it was getting stronger and stronger the longer she used it. A drawback it was, but one worth suffering from.

The crossing of weapons between her boss and the silver-haired guy was interrupted by Giuseppe when he attacked from the enemy's left side, pushing the guy back a few steps. Adrian didn't wait for a bigger opening and jabbed from the middle, just as the guy countered Giuseppe's knife with his right-handed sword putting him in a bind quite literally.