Midnight Rider

by D V Wolfe

  “Give me one of those burlaps, boy!” Tags shouted at Noah. Noah glared at him. Stacks took one from Noah and threw it across the seat to Tags. He wiped at the wet window frame, trying to clean off the black smudging. Stacks caught on and started doing the same to the passenger side. Noah wandered around the front of the Scout and leaned on the chain-link fence. The fire engine pulled into the lot and eight firefighters stared down at us.

  Tags, Stacks, and I all smiled and waved. My hope was that we looked like normal slobs who just had an overheated engine. The fire engine turned its siren off and continued to look at us, disappointment turning into annoyance on the driver’s face. Then, he spent the next five minutes trying to get turned around and back on the road. We watched them leave and Tags went to shut the hose off. Noah was still slightly smoking and I used the last good spurt from the hose to soak him.

  “What the fuck, Bane?” Noah squealed trying to get away from the cold water.

  “You looked like you were hot,” I said. I walked the hose back and rolled it up. Tags stood between me and the Scout and on the way back, I stopped in front of him. For a minute, we just looked at each other.

  And then I punched him.

  I hauled back with all the force I could muster and socked him right in the gut. Tags crumpled to the ground and I walked past him. I reached the fence and leaned back against it, looking at Noah who was wet but in one piece. And then I breathed. I couldn’t remember holding my breath but I felt like I hadn’t let it go since we’d left the library.

  “Well you don’t seem too worse for wear,” I said to Noah.

  “Yeah, the only thing that happened to me was getting snatched by the hair while I was trying to pee,” Noah muttered.

  “Well timing isn’t Tag’s strong suit,” I said as we watched him struggle to get into a squatting position and slowly get to his feet.

  “Or finesse,” Noah said. “I think he ripped out some of my hair.” I nodded, and pulled the wad out of my pocket and wordlessly handed it to him. “Ewww,” Noah said.

  “What?” I said, “It’s your hair.”

  “Well I don’t want it now,” he said. “What am I supposed to do with it, staple it back on?” He dropped it to the ground and raised his hands to his scalp. He felt around for the spot it had come from. He found it at the back of his head and after touching it, brought his hand to his face to inspect it.

  “Not bleeding much,” He said.

  “You must be a good clotter,” I said, pushing off the fence. “Not a bad skill to have in this line of work.”

  Stacks had come around the front end of the Scout and stood next to Noah and me as we watched Tags staggering back towards us.

  “Do you know this asshole, Bane?” Stacks asked.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  Tags reached the front end of the Scout and leaned back against it. “You sure hit better now than you used to, Bane,” Tags wheezed.

  “Well I’ve had time to improve,” I said. “Noah, Stacks, this is Taggert Lee Sinclair.”

  “Sinclair?” Stacks asked, turning to look at me, wide-eyed.

  I nodded. “We call him Tags.”

  Stacks looked like he was going to say more but I shook my head and he closed his mouth.

  “I think I’ll call him ‘asshole’,” Noah muttered.

  “I should have….” Tags wheezed, “just….cut out the middleman….and killed you, Bane.”

  I sighed. “ ‘Fraid you might have to get in line for that one, Tags. What the hell was the big idea with kidnapping Noah, here?”

  Tags straightened up and glared at me. “You know damn well why I did it.”

  “Well I don’t,” Noah said. “Why don’t you enlighten me as to why you dragged me out of a men’s room by the hair. Are you some kind of pervert?!”

  I took a step toward Tags and I saw him visibly shrink back. “And you thought kidnapping the kid would bring Gary back?” My voice was quieter now. I knew that Tags had a pretty big dog in the fight as to why I should be locked up down in Hell for eternity, but punishing an innocent for it was going too far.

  Tags’ eyes were quickly filling up with tears as he glared at me. “I wasn’t trying to bring him back. But if I can save this innocent from the same fate...”

  This was it. I’d had it. Sure I was sorry Gary had gotten killed on my watch but this “innocent” bullshit was wearing thin. I took another step towards Tags. “You wanna know why Gary died? Huh, Tags? Wanna know the truth for once?” He just looked at me. “Gary went off, on his own, at night, to look for that Bunyip. We had a plan. We were going to hunt it the next day. We had mapped the whole fucking thing out. And then I had the poor judgment to go close my eyes for an hour or two. And the dumbass decided to go out on his own to kill the damn thing, that night.”

  The tears were starting to slide down Tags cheeks now and get lost in the tangles of his beard.

  My throat was starting to feel like it was closing in on itself, beyond the tightness from the Hayman injury, but I pressed on. “I didn’t drag him into a fight with the thing, I didn’t use him as bait and I didn’t run off and leave him to deal with it. I don’t know what possessed the dumb bastard to try to take the thing on by himself….”

  “You’re an idiot, Bane,” Tags spat.

  I stopped mid-sentence and took another step towards Tags. We were almost nose-to-nose at this point. “Why? Because I couldn’t fathom what my redneck, glory-hound partner was thinking when he decided to take on a blood-sucking monster by himself?”

  “You’re a fucking idiot,” Tags repeated. “Didn’t you know? He did it because he was in love with you!”

  Time seemed to stop between Tags and I as we glared at each other. Some kind of dam was threatening to break inside of me. No. Gary was my partner. My friend. He knew there couldn’t be anything between us. Definitely nothing lasting. I only had a mission. I didn’t have a life. Joel had understood that. So had Andi and Jo. And my relationships with them had been more intimate. Gary had just been my partner and my friend.

  Tags and I didn’t move as a pristine white RV rolled up next to us and parked. A family with four kids piled out, crying and laughing and screaming about having to pee. We didn’t move as they ran past us. The dad paused to give us a suspicious look before double-checking the RV was locked and following his family inside.

  Finally, I found my voice. “Tags,” I said softly. “Gary was my partner. If I could have, I would have died to save him.” We were both awkward at this point. It was true. If Gary had shown any sign of what he was thinking that night, I wouldn’t have let him out of my sight. But Gary always played things close to his vest. And it was probably my fault, in a way. I knew the way I lived was harder for normal people to deal with. They had choices. They didn’t have to hunt.

  Tags looked down and I took a step back,.“I believe you,” he finally muttered. “It’s just hard. He was my kid brother. And when I heard you had a new partner. I just…”

  “Wait, who told you that?” I asked.

  Tags looked a little sheepish. “Long story. Suffice it to say, that everyone downstairs is talking about it and taking bets on what will get the kid killed. Right now, the big money is on this demon who’s got you in his crosshairs.”

  I snorted, trying to cover my surprise that Tags knew about it. “You’d think demons would have something more interesting to talk about in hell.” I didn’t want to tell Tags what Nya had told me about the demon. Not yet anyway. Better to play it down until I knew what he knew.

  Tags shrugged. “Well the cable’s probably out. Sounds like something that would happen in Hell.”

  I nodded. “So did you summon one and interrogate it or use a talking board?”

  Tags shook his head. “Neither. I came up with something better.”

  Stacks shouted over to us. “Uh hello, are you going to kill this guy or bring us into the conversation?”

  I turned to look at Noah and Stacks who were now both leaning against t
he fence, arms crossed.

  I grinned at Tags. “Sorry, the kids have been so excited to meet you, they forgot their manners.” I waved for them to approach and after a moment they stalked over.

  “Tags, as I said, this is…”

  “Stacks,” Stacks said, nodding at him. “That’s all you need to know. I don’t know you and I’m not sure if you’re on the side of the black helicopters or not.”

  “Glad I don’t have to make your introductions,” I said to Stacks.

  I turned to Noah. “And I guess you’ve already met Noah.”

  “I’m Noah,” Noah said with a glare.

  “Suppose you owe him an apology,” I said to Tags.

  “Sorry about your hair. And your shirt,” Tags said. “But my heart was in the right place.”

  “Was it up your ass, with your head?” Noah asked.

  Tags rolled his eyes and looked at me. “Has he always been like this or did he learn his sass from you?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe I just bring out the best in people.”

  We stood around awkwardly for another moment or two and in the silence I heard Noah’s stomach grumble. I wanted to get on the road, but this was an opportunity to pick Tags’ brains for any tidbit of knowledge he might know about demons and especially the demon coming after me. Tags came from a long line of hunters. Any information he had was at least worth lunch.

  “I don’t know about you three, but I could use some grub,” I said.

  “Oh thank god,” Stacks said. “I thought you were going to drag us off to St. Louis on empty stomachs.”

  Tags looked at me. “St. Louis?”

  “You know anywhere good around here?” I asked Tags.

  He studied me for a minute. “Yeah. Follow me.”

  Noah, Stacks, and I climbed into Lucy, and Tags turned to look at his Scout. It was soaking wet. He opened the door and looked at the wet seat. The sun was up and the temperature was creeping into the low 90s. His truck would dry out but not in the next ten minutes.

  “Stacks,” I said. “Would you mind riding in the back?”

  Stacks sniffed. “I see where I stand.”

  “Anyone else in this truck, besides Stacks, ever sell me out to the FBI? Raise your hands.”

  “Fine,” Stacks said.

  “Nah,” Noah said. “I’ll ride in the back. It’s pretty cramped in here and I’m still feeling really warm.”

  Noah climbed out and Lucy dipped as he swung a leg up and climbed into the bed. I pulled up alongside the Scout.

  “Hop in Tags. We’ll go eat and let her dry out. Shouldn’t take long in this heat.” Tags checked the locks on the hidden compartment behind his seat and in his floorboards and closed the driver’s door before climbing in next to Stacks. We pulled out of the lot.

  “Take a left at the light,” Tags said. “I know a good place.”

  He and Stacks were having a silent fight for real estate on Lucy’s seat and Stacks’ elbow dug into my ribs again. I checked the rearview mirror and saw Noah’s ratty sneakers resting on the inside of the tailgate. He was lying down in the bed.

  “Well, I’m sorry for the scare Bane,” Tags said awkwardly. “I just thought...I mean he’s an innocent. Well, I thought he was. He’s a pyromaniac. And he’s quick. I didn’t even see his lighter and then the Scout was up in smoke.”

  I opened my mouth to speak but Stacks cut me off. “Oh he doesn’t have a lighter,” he said, turning to look at Tags, full in the face. His elbow shifted and stabbed me in the boob. “Noah’s a mutant.”

  I shoved Stacks to get his elbow out of my boob and he bounced off of Tags and then his elbow was back in my ribs. “He’s got a condition,” I said to Tags. “Not unlike the mouth on this one,” I said, glaring at Stacks.

  There was no stopping Stacks now though. “Noah sets people on fire with his hands. He accidentally killed someone and was on the run from the law when Bane found him.”

  Tags looked at me, eyes wide. “Shit,” he said on an exhale.

  “He was hitchhiking,” I said. “Where am I going?” I nodded to the road. Tags swung his attention back to the windshield.

  “Turn here.” We rolled into a parking lot and I started looking for an open space.

  “I guess he isn’t such an innocent,” Tags said.

  “Well, I didn’t know any of this when I picked him up,” I said, putting Lucy in park.

  “Why did you pick him up anyway?” Tags asked. “I’ve never known you to pick up hitchhikers, Bane.”

  “Well I was being pursued by Sister Smile’s crew. Thought it wouldn’t be wise to leave him standing there like a hot pie on a window sill.”

  Tags shook his head and opened his door. “And he thought it was a good idea to get in the truck with you?”

  I rolled my eyes and got out. Stacks climbed out with me, and Noah hopped down from the truck bed. We all followed Tags to the front door of the restaurant. Inside, we were met by three women in button-down shirts and red neckties.

  “Welcome to Harrison’s! This was a great day to bring the family! Today whole families get a twenty percent discount!”

  I looked around at Noah, who was still damp from the hose and windshield cleaning fluid, hair slightly singed, his shirt torn and every inch of him covered with dirt from Lucy’s bed. My eyes slid over Stacks with his dirty glasses and pizza-sauce-smeared Scooby-Doo shirt, stained jeans, and blown out Chucks. Then, I looked at Tags in his ratty trucker cap, t-shirt, stained flannel shirt, and jeans and I knew I was in no better shape. The stitches at my side had bled through my shirt, the scab on my arm from Noah’s cauterizing was starting to peel, and blisters had formed on the angry burns on my hand. We were a motley bunch to say the least.

  “Yeah, we’re a family,” I said, putting a hand on Tags’ and Stacks’ shoulders. “Table for four please.”

  16

  I took the seat against the wall and Noah and Stacks sat down on either side of me. Tags hesitated and looked around before sitting across from me, facing the wall.

  “Don’t worry Tags, I promise to let you know if a Rougarou is sneaking up on you,” I said.

  Tags took his hat off and set it on his knee. “Thanks, Bane,” he said, running a hand through the few strands of hair that clung to his scalp, “that’s a real comfort.”

  “I aim to serve,” I said as our waitress approached.

  She was more woman than her uniform signed up for and I felt Noah’s leg begin to bounce next to me, his knobby knee knocking into mine. I turned to look at him and saw his line of sight was firmly set on nothing above the woman’s neck.

  “I’ll be your server tonight,” She said in a little-girl voice. “My name’s Missy. What can I get you to drink?”

  The boys were quiet and out of the corner of my eye I saw Stacks disappear behind a menu he’d picked up from the table.

  “Dr. Pepper for me, Missy,” I said. I pointed to Stacks and Noah, “These two will have milk and Tags?”

  “Root beer for me,” Tags said.

  She jiggled away and I decided to focus on Tags instead of the dirty looks Stacks and Noah were giving me. I leaned forward in my seat so I could lower my voice, “Tags, tell me about how you contacted the folks downstairs.”

  Tags sighed and put his elbows on the table, leaning forward and resting his chin on his hands. “Bane, do you ever switch off?”