by Jamie Davis
“How do I know you’ll keep your word if I let your friend go?”
“You don’t. Five seconds and you won’t care.” Jo began counting down from five, wanting to scream in pain as the ball of the sun’s plasma started to cook the flesh of her palm.
The creature in front of her hesitated and then she saw the decision in its eyes as the arm holding the blade tensed and started to draw the hook towards Marian’s throat. With a scream of rage and pain, Jo released the spell and the ball of fire shot forward, creating a miniature explosion that encompassed the demons head. Lifeless fingers dropped the blade and the corpse with the smoking head and shoulders collapsed to the ground as if a marionette cut the strings to a puppet.
She ran forward and patted the flames out that had started in her friend’s hair. There were second degree burns to Marian’s scalp and neck and the shirt she had tried on was smoldering around the shoulders from the proximity of the plasma. Jo turned and uttered a word of power and her purse flew from the room behind her to her outstretched hand. She reach inside and grabbed a bottle of water, opening it and dumping it on her friend’s head and neck. She knew that she had to diffuse the residual heat in the burns and this was the best way to do it.
Marian was crying in pain, along with a few curses and choice words for her friend. “Dammit, Jo, did you have to set my hair on fire? This hurts bad.”
“He was going to kill you. I gave him a choice. That’s something he never gave you. Besides, you’ll regenerate and be good as new in a few days.”
“Yeah, but how do I explain this to my parents. I told them you and I were just going shopping, not hunting demons.” Marian’s mom and dad were very strict with her. “When they find out I took you out against your dad’s orders I’m going to get grounded again.”
There were shouts of alarm coming closer and a sales girl and security guard ran into the end of the short hallway into the changing area. The guard saw the body extending from the first room, and turned and puked in the corner. The sales girl just screamed and ran away.
Jo needed to get a handle on this right away. Pulling her phone from her purse, she steeled herself for the yelling that about to commence and called her mom.
“Jo, what do you want?” Jaz said on the other end of the line. “I’m following a lead to find Jill.”
“Uh, Mom, how close are you to the Elk City Mall?”
“Jo, please tell me you’re not at the mall right now. I just heard a radio report of an explosion and fire at Marker’s department store. It came in over the scanner.”
“Okay, so don’t be angry, but Marian and I went out to do some shopping.”
“You what?”
Jo had to hold the phone away from her ear, the shout was so loud.
“I know I should have waited for Dad to get home from work, but I couldn’t wait and I didn’t know that there was a demon following me.”
“I’m turning around now. Is everyone alright?”
“Marian’s injured but she’ll be alright. The demon killed a bunch of people in the changing area, though. I killed it, but now people are showing up and I don’t know what to do,” Jo said as the tears came and she began sobbing.
“I’ll be there in five minutes. Just cooperate with the police until I get there but don’t admit to anything.” Her mom cut the connection and Jo looked up to see two police officers turn the corner with their guns drawn.
“Hands up where we can see them,” the first cop shouted.
Jo and Marian raised their hands up as they leaned into each other, crying.
Chapter 22
Jaz had to turn on the black SUV’s emergency hazard lights and put her police light on the dashboard to get into the mall parking lot closest to the Marker’s department store. There were fire trucks, a dozen police cars and an ambulance was just pulling in. She glanced at the number on the side of the ambulance. It read U-191. That was Dean’s unit. Good, he was here, too.
She had tried to impress upon both of them the severity of the danger facing them. Demon lords were resourceful and powerful. While this one couldn’t manifest itself, it could summon lesser minions to do whatever it wanted to do here on earth if it wanted to. Jo had discovered that first hand.
She pulled up behind the ambulance and jumped out of her vehicle to catch Dean as soon as he got out of the ambulance’s cab. He was driving. Jaz ran up to him and poked him in the shoulder.
“Jo’s inside,” she said, trying to keep her anger under control. “I thought you were going to keep an eye on her? She went out shopping on her own and now she’s been attacked by a demon.”
“Whoa, hold on there. Jo’s inside?” Dean asked, grabbing her arm to slow her down. “Is she alright? Why didn’t she call me?”
“I don’t know why she called me instead of you, Dean.” Jaz shrugged her arm out of his grasp. “Maybe it was because she needed her mother to handle this particular problem. I want to know why you didn’t make her stay in the apartment as we agreed.”
“Hey, I told her to stay, but I had to go to work. I can’t be there all the time.”
Dean’s partner, Barry came around the front of the ambulance holding some EMS bags, took one look at the heated discussion and turned around, disappearing again behind the front of the ambulance.
“Look, Jaz. We’ll have this discussion later. Right now, I have patients to tend to. If you want to help, I’ll let you carry some of our gear in with us.”
Dean pushed past her and started unloading a monitor and another EMS bag from the back of the ambulance. He also grabbed the stretcher and called Barry. The two paramedics piled their bags on the wheeled stretcher and started pushing it towards the mall entrance. Jaz followed close behind.
A police officer tried to stop her at the curb, but she flashed her special Marshal’s badge and he let her pass. People were still streaming out of the building as the responders rushed in. Dean asked another cop for directions and started toward the back of the department store.
When they got closer, they smelled the distinctive smell of burnt flesh. It intensified as they reached the changing room area and Jaz got her first look down the hall of the changing area, with its half doors. The body on the floor was missing most of its head, but a look at the clawed hands and the wicked dagger still clutched in one of them told her it was the demon.
“Mom, Dad, over here,” sounded from behind her and turning around, she saw Jo and Marian waiting on a small couch in the seating area outside the changing rooms.
Dean and Barry left the stretcher where it was, but grabbed a few of the bags and moved over to the two girls. Jaz followed them. She saw Jo clutching her hand and saw the circular burn there. Sunfire. It was the same burn she got from casting that spell before. She must have held the spell for too long again. The girl was going to have to work on that.
Marian showed signs of burns on her head and neck on her right side and Jaz’s investigator’s brain started piecing things together given the state of the demon’s body. Jo must have had to make a hard decision regarding how to take this demon out, knowing she was going to injure her friend.
Part of her respected what it must have taken to make that call and she wanted to rush over and talk to Jo about it and tell her it was alright. The other part of her was still furious with her daughter for leaving the protection of the apartment. If she had stayed home, no one would have been hurt.
She noticed that Jo was dressed in a pull-over dress that still had the tags on it. Where were her clothes? She would not have left the apartment unarmed. That would have been even more stupid than leaving unattended had been. Jaz turned and, flashing her badge to another officer, stepped into the changing room hallway, seeing the bodies in the each of the rooms as she approached the back. Three bodies of the women the demon had killed on the way to Jo lay where their throats had been slashed open. She noted the wounds but kept walking.
Reaching the last room, Jaz found Jo’s clothes. The Glock and shoulder holster r
ig were wrapped up in her jeans jacket. Maybe the detectives would miss it, but not likely. Jaz slipped into the room and pulled off her leather jacket once she was out of site. She picked up the shoulder holster rig and put it on over her own. Jo was left handed, so it worked out with one pistol hanging on either side. She felt like some sort of video game heroine as she slipped the leather jacket back on, hiding both pistols again.
She stepped back into the hallway and over the body of the demon, returning to where Dean and Barry were treating Jo and Marian for their burns. Jo’s hand was wrapped up now. Jaz shook her head and chuckled. She was going to have to learn how to control the use of that sunfire spell or else come up with a solution to deal with the burns it caused to its wielder. Barry was tending to Marian, wrapping her head and neck in gauze to hold the burn dressings in place. She’d be alright after a few days’ rest. It was handy to be able to regenerate like that.
“Excuse me, Ma’am, may I ask who let you back here?” a voice from behind her spoke.
Jaz turned and saw a man in a sport coat and tie standing there. He must be a detective sent to process the crime scene.
“I’m a special U.S. Marshal, detective.” She pulled out her ID and badge, showing it to him. “I had been tracking an individual suspected in the killing of women in the area and I think our suspect is laying on the floor right there.”
The detective looked at the badge and smirked. “You sure you’re not here to cover up what your daughter did to that guy?”
“I don’t think I know your name, detective …?”
“Ricketts, Ms. Errington, and yes, I know who you are and your relationship to this young lady. I also know that she has some special abilities that might make her a danger to others if not used appropriately.”
“She defended herself and her friend,” Jaz said. “If you examine the body on the floor and his knife, I’m sure you’ll find that he had just killed three other women in that changing area and was working his way down to my daughter. If she had not killed him, he would have surely killed her. There would be five dead women in there, not just three.”
“I’m sure your assessment fits the scene as it presents itself,” Detective Ricketts said. Jaz noticed he didn’t say her assessment was correct. That annoyed her and she decided she didn’t like this guy very much.
“I’ll ask you to include me in any questions you have for my daughter. She is not to be interrogated without me present, detective. Is that clear?”
Ricketts snorted a laugh. “Very clear, Ma’am. I’m sure I’ll have some questions for you, too, when the time comes.” He nodded once at her and then went to survey the crime scene himself.
Jaz turned back to Dean, Barry and the two girls. Barry and Dean had finished treating the wounds and had brought the stretcher over for Marian to sit on. They intended to take her in to the hospital it seemed. Maybe the injuries were more severe than she thought.
“Is she going to be alright, Dean?” Jaz asked.
“I’m worried the burns might need further treatment,” Dean replied. “The sunfire spell cooks the demons so quickly that their soul can’t flee to the netherworld. I think it might also be bad enough that it hinders the regenerative process in Lycans. It’s better to be safe than sorry in this case.”
“What about Jo? Does she need to be seen, too?”
“No,” Dean chuckled a little. “She does need to find a way to stop getting herself burned when she casts that spell, though.”
“I know, right?” Jaz said with a short laugh of her own. “So I can take her with me?”
“That would be great. I don’t have the time right now to figure out what she could possibly have been thinking, coming out in public like this. Can you wait to ream her a new one, for me to come and join in?”
“I think making her wait for both of us to confront her about this might be a good way to make her think about what she’s done here,” Jaz said. “Can you come by right after work? I’ll get something for dinner and we can have a family pow-wow.”
“Sounds like a plan, Jaz. I’ll see you then.” He turned and helped Barry wheel Marian out to the ambulance.
Jaz watched him go. He was a nice guy and he took this fatherhood stuff seriously, she could see. He took responsibility when he needed to. Maybe it was time for her to start taking up her part of the load. Jo was standing watching as they wheeled her friend away. Jaz went over and decided it was time to start parenting this impetuous teen.
“Come on Joanna, I’ve got to get back to work on the lead I was following. You can come and help me since you have nothing better to do.”
“Mom, I told you this wasn’t my fault. How was I supposed to know there was a demon chasing after me?”
“Because I told you there would be.” Jaz stopped and looked her daughter in the eyes. “Did you think I was kidding? You keep saying I helped raise you. Did I really raise you to take such warnings so lightly?”
Jo looked back at her. The teen’s eyes were defiant. After a bit, though, she lowered her gaze. Jaz shook her head and decided that wasn’t good enough.
“I didn’t hear you. I asked you a question. Did I raise you in a way that you would ignore warnings about things like this?”
“No,” Jo said in a whisper.
“I didn’t think so. This is all on you, Jo. You need to come to grips with that. Those women lying in there, lifeless. That happened because you didn’t pay attention to the warning. Marian, your friend, is going to the hospital because you didn’t pay attention to the warning.”
“So, I guess I’m grounded or something?”
“Oh, grounded doesn’t cut it, Joanna. This is something you are going to have to think and make some hard decisions about. You need to decide who you going to be, what you are made of inside. Dean is coming over for dinner tonight and we are both going to have a long talk with you about how your actions have far-reaching effects. Until then, you think about all the lives you affected with the deaths and injuries you caused today. You can share what you’ve learned about this at dinner tonight.”
Jaz took her daughter out to the SUV in the parking lot and loaded her inside. Detective Ricketts caught up with her there.
“I don’t have to tell you to keep your daughter around. I’ll need to ask her some questions about what happened here.”
“I can do that, but we need to have a family discussion about this tonight. I’ll bring her by the station tomorrow morning. Is that acceptable?”
“That will do, I suppose. One question for you, though. Is there anything else we need to be ready for? Is this an isolated event or should we prepare for another attack like it?”
“I don’t know, Detective, I don’t know.” She climbed into the SUV and drove from the mall. That question had occurred to her as well and she didn’t know the answer. It bothered her, and gave her something else to worry about as she drove her distraught daughter home.
Chapter 23
Dean and Barry returned from dropping Marian off at the ECMC burn unit. She did not appear to be regenerating like a Lycan should after an injury. The docs and nurses were good at the burn unit, though. They’d be able to help her. Dean was more concerned about why Jo had endangered her friend’s life by going out with her in public that way. Jaz had explained to them both the need to stay close to Dean to take advantage of the family protection spell.
The three dead women in the mall changing rooms would never know the real reason they all died. The demon had been quick as it worked its way down the row of doors, silently slitting the throats of each one as it searched for its prey. That Jo had been able to defend herself was a moot point. She had to be more aware of the collateral damage of her actions. Three people were dead and her best friend was seriously injured as a result of her decision to go shopping.
He received a text message from Jaz asking him to pick up a few items for the dinner at her place after his shift. She called it a family meeting. It felt strange to him to think of it that way. H
e knew they had become a family. It wasn’t a traditional family, that was certain, but it was a family nonetheless. Dean replied back to the text message, saying he’d be there sometime before seven, as soon as his shift was completed.
Duty called, though, and soon his mind was occupied with resupplying the ambulance while Barry completed his report on the call at the shopping mall. He was just packing up the last restocked bag when the alert tones sounded over the speakers in the station and he and Barry were off on their next call. There’d be time to worry about Joanna and what to do about her later.
The dispatcher was sending them to a private residential home for the mentally ill. There was a call for an agitated behavioral patient. Dean wondered aloud to Barry what type of Unusual call this could be.
“Maybe it’s an Unusual with a mental health problem?” Barry suggested.
“Maybe it’s another newly turned vampire or werewolf,” Dean replied.
They’d find out soon enough. The location was only a short drive from the industrial park that housed Station U. Barry pulled into the driveway and the two paramedics got out and gathered their gear to take inside.
As they walked up to the two-story home in an older section of town, a gentleman in blue jeans came out of the home’s front door.
“Boy am I glad to see you guys,” he said. “I’m Gary, the dayshift caretaker here at Heaven’s House. We have a situation inside that I couldn’t handle on my own.”
“Okay,” Dean said. “Take it easy and tell us what we’re dealing with here.” Dean showed the back of his right hand to Gary and the man looked at the invisible UV tattoo there. Dean didn’t know what kind of Unusual this guy was, but he was a supernatural being of some sort.
“I don’t know if you know what Heavenly House is or what kind of patients we deal with here?”
Barry and Dean looked at each other and shrugged.
“We don’t know anything about it,” Barry said. “I assume it’s a half-way house for the mentally ill to help get them integrated back into society?”