Baptisms of Fire and Ice

by Nadia Sheridan

  However, Overlock had never faced anything like the Global Impact Event.

  “By the time we became aware of the supernatural nature of the event,” the faerie agent stated at the end of her history lesson, “there were already too many videos and photos splashed across the internet for us to remove, suppress, or discredit. Consequently, the name of the game has now become ‘containment,’ to minimize the effects of this incident on human society and hopefully to prevent damage to the mundane way of life in the long run.”

  “Our first order of business,” added the vampire, “is to put an end to whatever is happening here in Edgerton. The city has become a hotbed of conspiracy theories and media spectacle due to the recurrent disruptions by you and these enemies you’ve been brawling with in the streets.”

  “But based on your reaction to our appearance, and your baffling lack of knowledge regarding the supernatural underground and the existence of the Secrecy Statute,” the woman picked up, “it seems that there’s more to this global exposure incident than two types of supernaturals picking a public fight with each other. Would you care to explain your side of the story?”

  Adara was still trying to process that most of the supernatural creatures she’d read about in novels were in some way real, and she’d been living among them her entire life. Even so, she put her thoughts into something that resembled an order and began to describe everything that had happened to her since the impact event yesterday afternoon.

  Not only because these FBI agents might well arrest her and throw her into some kind of supernatural jail if she acted obstinate, but also because these people could be her greatest allies in the mission to fix the cornerstones.

  The Edgerton cornerstone was her number one priority. However, as Selaphiel had said, all the cornerstones were damaged by the Shattering, and the ones in the United States took the brunt of that damage. Someday soon, the other two cornerstones in the States would also need to be repaired.

  If the federal government had a law enforcement branch dedicated to preventing supernatural disasters, then she was certain they’d be willing to lend her ragtag group of shard holders a helping hand to stop the demons and save the world. Or at least the country.

  And she was right.

  Once she wrapped up her story with a recap of the fight with Astaroth outside the burning apartment building, the stunned agents gave each other a long, worried look. Then the vampire said, “This is a great deal worse than we thought. If we don’t stop these cornerstone spells from breaking, we’ll be looking at the end of human civilization altogether.”

  The faerie hummed thoughtfully. “As annoying as I find humans, I have this funny feeling that demons would be far worse neighbors.”

  “Demons.” The vampire shook his head. “I thought for sure it’d be the werewolves who caused the first big exposure incident. But demons? They’ve got a whole realm to themselves, and yet they still can’t stay in their lane?”

  “I’m guessing the climate is too hot for their liking,” the faerie said.

  “Best tell them to avoid Arizona then.”

  “So,” Adara cut in, drawing the word out to get their undivided attention, “will you help us fix the cornerstone at the campus library?”

  “While we would prefer to work with professionals regarding such an important matter,” the faerie said, slipping back into her professional tone, “since you and these other ‘shard holders’ are the only ones who can perform the necessary magic, then I suppose we have no choice but to work with you.

  “Bear in mind, however, that this doesn’t mean you get free rein to use your new abilities however you want, whenever you want. Once we put down this demon incursion, you and your peers will be brought under the Secrecy Statue, same as the rest of us.”

  Adara shrugged. “Fair enough. It’s not like we asked for these powers.”

  The woman pursed her lips. “I suppose you are just victims of circumstance.”

  “Will we be punished?” Adara asked. “For the public use of our powers today?”

  The man waved off her concern. “There’s precedent for leniency in cases where a formerly normal human unexpectedly obtains a supernatural trait. We’ll file you all under that.”

  “And what if our identities are exposed?” she pressed. “I’m pretty sure we were on TV earlier.”

  The woman frowned. “You were. But we’ll handle that if and when it becomes a risk to your safety and privacy. For now though, we have bigger fish to fry. Starting with the demon invasion force being amassed on the campus of the local liberal arts college.”

  “I’ll go make the call to the director,” said the vampire, pushing his chair back from the table. “And what a fun conversation it will be. Hundreds of new supernaturals with no knowledge or control of their abilities. An army of demons trying to overrun the Earth. And mutating environments that are bound to get worse long before they get better. This is going to be a call for the history books. Or, well, the secret documents buried in the encrypted FBI servers anyway.”

  “Mutating environments?” Adara echoed after the man left the room and the door clicked shut. “You asked me a question about that earlier, didn’t you? Something about the areas that had been hit by the shards during the impact event?”

  “Yes. We have another escalating problem in those areas.” The woman pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. She wasn’t exactly frazzled—she had the stone-cold exterior of a seasoned federal agent that barely cracked even in the worst of circumstances—but Adara could tell that this particular assignment was quickly spilling over the boundaries of Overlock’s standard operating procedures.

  There was too much happening too fast. Sooner rather than later, the government would be completely winging their response to the impact event and its repercussions.

  If they weren’t already.

  Still, the woman kept her cool and elaborated, “Shortly after that accounting firm downtown lit up like a glow stick, other areas that took direct hits from yesterday’s impact event also began to exhibit strange behaviors. Now, of course, you’ve told us that these areas are imbued with literal pieces of God, which as far as you are aware, cannot be removed.

  “And since these ‘shard activations’ show no signs of stopping, I’m guessing that by the end of the month, every single one will be active and impacting the environment in ways that are dangerous to the public. Which means that every government in the world will have a major problem on their hands, one for which we currently have no viable solution.”

  “Yet despite the obvious displays of magic taking place all over the world,” Adara replied, “you keep talking like the Secrecy Statute will stand.”

  “It will,” she said firmly. “No matter what, we’ll never come clean with everything. It would be too disruptive to human society. We’ll admit exactly as much as we need to admit to sate the populace. Anything they don’t explicitly demand to know the truth about will be swept under the rug, same as it always has been.”

  “Nice.”

  “That’s just how it works. Overlock and its sister organizations exist to keep both human and supernatural society running as smoothly as possible. The traditional way of doing that is to ensure that nothing and no one makes any large waves. If something or someone manages to slip a wave through, then we ‘handle’ that something or someone with the utmost discretion and clean up the damage from the wave as swiftly as possible.”

  “This is more than a wave though. This is a tsunami.”

  “Society has survived numerous tsunamis. It’ll survive this one, even if the extent of the damage is greater than usual.”

  Adara narrowed her eyes. “Are we still speaking metaphorically?”

  The faerie smiled. “I’m afraid I’ve reached the extent of what your lack of security clearance allows me to discuss.”

  “Hey now, you can’t just—”

  The door opened with a creak, and the vampire popped his head back in. His irises, Adara notic
ed, were once again brown.

  “The director is sending us all the manpower he can muster so we can make a run at this library. Everyone should be here in an hour,” he said to his partner. “We should get these kids fed and watered, so they’ll be in good enough shape to help us with the assault. I also caught yet another of these ‘shard holders’ snooping around the station, so we can press her into the operation as well. I assume the more the merrier, yeah?”

  He directed that last line at Adara, but she was too shocked by the revelation to respond to his joke.

  “What can this new shard holder do exactly?” she asked.

  Scratching his head, he said, “You know, I’m not entirely sure. Either she can turn invisible, or she’s just very good at sneaking around. Want to meet her?”

  Adara hopped up, nearly toppling her chair. “Yes, please!”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  The two agents, who finally introduced themselves as Jefferson and Dawes, no first names, dropped Adara off at some kind of break room in the station that had been left as “mysteriously” unguarded as Adara’s interview room.

  The rest of her friends and allies were already in the room, having been released from police custody by Jefferson’s order after he finished his conversation with the head honcho in DC. Everybody, with one notable exception, was seated in a mismatched set of chairs around a plastic folding table with a bent leg that made the surface uneven.

  Enzo, a touch cleaner and a whole lot more alert, was chugging coffee in between shoving glazed donuts down his throat. Solomon, still nervous and rather tired, was delicately sipping at something that appeared to be green tea.

  The man who could stop time was straight-up napping, his arms on the table, his head on his arms, and snoring loud enough to wake the dead. And the newest member of their party, a girl who couldn’t have been more than eighteen, was loitering in the back corner, her long brown hair hanging over her face. A nervous wallflower.

  Adara poured herself a cup of coffee from the carafe on the stained linoleum counter. As she emptied a sugar packet into the Styrofoam cup, she said, “Before we get down to business, I guess some introductions are in order?”

  Enzo set his own coffee cup down and prodded the blond man in the arm. The man started awake and sat up straight. So straight that Adara thought he might have once been in the military. He glanced about the room, clocking each person, like he was searching for a hostile to defend himself against.

  When he found no one matching that description, he relaxed slightly. Bleary, he rubbed his face in an attempt to shake the sleepiness out of his head. It worked a little too well because his cheeks were burned bright red from the apartment fire that had nearly killed him.

  Grimacing, he said in a deep voice, “What’s going on?”

  “Our new friends from the supernatural branch of the FBI are going to help us save the city from the demons,” Adara said. “While we’re waiting for them to get ready, I think we should get to know each other, seeing as everyone except me and Enzo are virtual strangers.”

  The man blinked a couple times, uncomprehending. “Did you just say ‘demons’?”

  Adara took a sip of her coffee. “Yes, I did. And judging by your lack of comprehension, I’m guessing none of you guys were brought up to speed about the most recent developments?”

  Everyone, including the wallflower, shook their heads.

  Jefferson didn’t bother to fill everyone in, Adara thought, mildly annoyed, because he knew I would do it if I had to. Typical fed.

  “Okay then,” she said, “why don’t I just go over the whole story from the beginning? That way, we’ll all definitely be on the same page.”

  In between chugging down some sweet, sweet caffeine, Adara once again recapped everything that had happened since the Global Impact Event. This time, she tacked on her conversation with Jefferson the vampire and Dawes the faerie, along with a vague outline of the plan to assail the campus library and repair the cornerstone before the demon army broke through the barrier.

  When she finished, the blond man said, “You’re telling me that freaky black-eyed lady with the ugly monster posse was a literal demon?”

  “Yes.” Adara grabbed a donut from the nearly empty box beside the coffee carafe. “And she’s one of at least two greater demons that are currently in the city, wreaking havoc and hunting down shard holders.”

  “You mean they might come after me?” said a soft voice in the corner. The wallflower was peeking out from behind her curtain of hair with one eye. “I don’t want them to come after me.”

  “Sorry to say, but if you used your shard power to sneak into the station, then the demons already know where you are,” Adara stated plainly. “They can pinpoint your location whenever your shard is active.”

  Somehow, the girl grew even paler than her natural skin tone. “I didn’t know.”

  “Me either,” said the blond man. “That’s how I inadvertently got my apartment blown up.”

  “You think we’re in danger here?” Enzo asked. “With so many cops and soldiers and FBI agents hanging around?”

  Adara thought about it for a moment. “I don’t think the imps will attack such a heavily defended building by themselves; they’re hardy, but the soldiers here are sporting a great deal of firepower. And Astaroth and Belphegor are probably still busy squeezing into their new costumes. So I think they’ll hold off on attacking us again. They’ll wait until their army is here in full force, or until we wander into another vulnerable position.”

  “But the latter is exactly what you want us to do,” Solomon murmured. “Now that they know the shard holders are starting to organize, they’re going to tighten their security at the library. Breaking in, even with these Overlock people backing us up, is going to be a lot more dangerous than it would’ve been earlier. We could all end up dead.”

  The wallflower let out a soft hum. “If we don’t fix that spell thing though, won’t we end up dead anyway when the demon army overruns the city?”

  Solomon sighed. “There is that. I guess we still don’t have much of a choice.”

  “Hey, we’ve survived so far,” Enzo said, “and we’ve even bested the demons a couple times.”

  “But we haven’t banished any of the greater demons,” Solomon pointed out. “Adara failed to do it by herself, and we didn’t get a chance to do a trial run with that Astaroth lady. So the first time we try to cast the spell in tandem will be at the library assault—where I assume we’ll probably encounter more than one greater demon. There won’t be any room for error, and there’s no way we can practice ahead of time since we don’t have any greater demons at our disposal. Which means we—”

  “Buddy, we get it,” the blond man drawled. “You’re a nervous wreck.”

  Solomon wilted. “I know. I left my medication at home.”

  Enzo patted him on the shoulder. “Hey, don’t be too hard on yourself. When push comes to shove, you seem to be able to act just fine. You’ve done real good work with your storms today.”

  “All we’ll need you to do at the library,” Adara added, “is use your power to distract the demons and make it harder for them to use their black ‘hellfire.’ Theoretically, that should be even easier than dousing that massive apartment fire or striking down Belphegor with a lightning bolt.”

  “You’re right.” Solomon gulped down the rest of his tea, and mouthed to himself a few lines that Adara guessed were more reassuring quotes from a self-help book. “You’re totally right.”

  “Look,” said the blond man, yawning, “I don’t doubt that the weatherman here can make it rain and rumble. But once we’re in the building, how are we going to play it? We need to have a concrete strategy that bolsters our strengths and minimizes our weaknesses, and that strategy has to be flexible enough to accommodate for our minimal intel. Namely, that we don’t know how many hostiles are in the building, or where they’ll be during our ingress to the basement.”

  Oh yeah, Adara thought,
definitely a military guy.

  “Funny you ask,” Adara said. “I was going to suggest that we brainstorm some strategies while we’re waiting for Jefferson and Dawes to gather the rest of their troops. To start with, I think the smartest thing to do is to get acquainted with each other. If we at least have an inkling of each person’s skills and personality traits, we’ll make a far more effective team than a gaggle of total strangers.”

  “Can’t disagree with that,” the blond man said. “I’m Gideon Bell. Age twenty-eight. Former Army Ranger. And apparently I can stop time in a localized field for about ten minutes before I run out of juice.”

  “Former Army Ranger?” Enzo asked. “Aren’t you a bit young for retirement?”

  Gideon gave Enzo a dark look, slid his chair back from the table, and yanked up his left pants leg. His knee was a mess of scar tissue. “Shrapnel from an IED. Permanently fucked up the joint.”

  Enzo winced. “Sorry, man.”

  Gideon shrugged. “I got over it.”

  Adara cleared her throat to get the conversation back on track. “Okay, so we’ve got Gideon, who can produce time bubbles and has advanced military training that should come in handy in a combat zone. What about you, in the back there? What’s your name?”

  “Victoria Wise,” the wallflower replied after a moment of hesitation. “I’m eighteen. A freshman at Edgerton College, studying bio for a pre-med track. And I think my shard power is something like…manipulating perception so that people’s senses completely ignore my presence. They don’t see me. They don’t hear me. And so on. The effect seems to last for maybe seven to ten minutes at a time, and then I need a break before I can do it again. Oh, and the effect appears to apply to any object I’m in physical contact with.”

  “Awesome.” Adara gave her a warm smile, hoping she’d come out of her shell if she felt welcome. “So you should be able to sneak past the demons.”

  “Well, I did waltz right past all the cops and soldiers here in the station,” she replied with a breathy chuckle.