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Ezra drove with one hand on the wheel, the other holding a cigarette near the barely cracked window to keep the smoke from soaking into the leather, and a bluetooth headset jammed into his ear. The car itself was nothing fancy, a standard suburban sedan with good gas mileage and a high safety rating. It wasn’t the kind of car that made people think one of the wealthiest men in town was behind the wheel, but that was kind of the point. Ostentatious displays of wealth really wasn’t Ezra’s style. Shoved into the console of the car was a brown paper bag that contained the knife that had been jammed into the chest of one of the Wiccans, still wet with the victim’s blood. Once he checked with Arabelle and picked up Nisha he had an errand to run. 

[color=darkgray]“Hey Anne, it’s Ezra. I’m going to need to call in a favor and use that lab of yours. Preferably without anyone else knowing about it. Ring me back when you can,”[/color] he said as he sped through a yellow light as it turned red. 

He heard sirens coming from behind him and grimaced. Even though he insisted against it the police typically turned a blind eye when a Vanburen did something outside of the law, but he had definitely gone through the light before it had been red. He pulled over to the side of the road and watched as an ambulance drove by instead, headed the same way he was. Ezra pulled back into the thoroughfare with the intent to follow behind the ambulance the full way to his destination. 

Instead, he hit the red light. White knuckles gripped the steering wheel as he flicked the cigarette out the window and watched with narrowed eyes as a battalion of Christmas shoppers marched across the street right as the crosswalk countdown timer started. By the time the little old granny holding up the rearguard was no longer in front of his fender, the light had hit another red. Ezra banged his head against the back of the driver’s seat, lit another cigarette, and gunned it the minute green flashed. 

By the time Ezra made it to [i]Café, Oh Yay[/i] the lights on the ambulance had been killed, the backdoor was open, and he could see an EMT in a blue uniform grabbing hold of Arabelle’s arm and pushing. He hurriedly chucked the cigarette out of the car, even though it was clear from the expression on Arabelle’s face that she was distracted by the lady popping her shoulder back into place. He pulled past the ambulance and found a place to park next to the curb, leaving the window open to air out the evidence. As he approached the ambulance a young Indian woman in a tracksuit swished up towards him with a look of determination, her mouth opening to speak. 

[color=lightgreen]“About time! Oh it is so nice to finally see you in the flesh, brother. Thank you for coming for me, I—”[/color]

[color=darkgray]“Excuse me, miss,”[/color] said Ezra without stopping. He didn’t see the woman’s jaw drop as his hand brushed her shoulder to prevent the two of them from colliding as he deftly stepped around her to check in on his employee. He looked from the EMT to Arabelle down to the skull. It looked identical to the weird one dad kept in his study. He pulled his gaze away from the oddity back towards the women. [color=darkgray]“How is she? Are you okay? Did one…”[/color]

[color=lightgreen]“Brother!”[/color]

“She dislocated her shoulder from her fall but I was able to secure it back in place,” said the EMT. A look of relief washed over Ezra’s face before it faded back to its usual calm, although it was difficult to tell if he was relieved because Arabelle wasn’t badly harmed or because Arabelle had kept the attack on the mansion underwraps. “While she should be fine and, technically, I am not allowed to force her to go, it’s standard procedure to take her to the hospital just to make sure that there was no last damage to any ligaments.”

[color=darkgray]“Better to be safe—”[/color][color=lightgreen]“Brother!?”[/color][color=darkgray]“—don’t you agree, Ms. Matthews? I could meet your at the hospital and pick you up after they run a checkup, but it’s your call. Just—”[/color][b][color=lightgreen]“EZRA!!”[/color][/b][i][color=darkgray]“—what!?”[/color][/i]

As he shouted, Ezra turned to see the same lady in the tracksuit rushing towards him. He instinctively seized up as she practically leapt from the sidewalk and threw her arms around him, pulling him into a surprisingly tight hug. He gave Arabelle a look of wild confusion that shifted to discomfort to fear as he realized the lady was not going to let go. He could’ve sworn he heard muffled cries coming from where the stranger had buried her head into his chest as he tried to squirm free from the hug, the stranger’s grip only tightening. 

[sub][color=darkgray]“What?”[/color][/sub] was all Ezra was able to eek out. Hopefully, Arabelle knew what the hell was going on and had a trick to getting this psycho out of his personal bubble—a hope that was quickly fading away as the EMT moved to close one of the doors on the back of the EMT.