by C. T. Phipps
“You wouldn’t dare.”
I pulled out a long metal pin and jabbed it into the heart doodle I’d made on the doll. “Man, you just don’t know who you’re dealing with, do you?”
We cool here, Raguel? I asked. The Merlin Gun was miles away, but I maintained my connection with him.
He is a murderer of children. This is in addition to thousands of other crimes worthy of death, from slavery to rape. I do not think him capable of following through on repentence, even if he were so inclined.
“Wow,” I said, shaking my head. “I didn’t think I was going to enjoy killing you more, Marcus.”
Marcus grabbed at the steel of his cage, banging his head against it while trying to choke out his next words. It was a pathetic site, really, and disturbingly satisfying. Marcus had proven himself a monster many times over and it filled with a sense of righteous revenge to destroy him. I felt a bit like Raguel in that moment and I wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
I jabbed the needle in further, twisting it. “You threatened my family. You threatened my boyfriend. You beat the crap out of your granddaughter—my best friend—for most of her adolescence. You are pretty much the worst kind of person. One who has every kind of advantage and yet still kicks the people underneath him. So, really, from the rest of the human race…fuck you.”
“Red Sky,” Marcus said, falling to his knees and running his fingers against the wall. “Red Sky!”
“Oh God, this is one of those conspiracy movie scenes where you try to buy your survival with some piece of information, isn’t it? There’s a problem with that. I wouldn’t believe anything you had to say.”
Still, I didn’t drive the pin in for the third and final time necessary to kill him.
“Red Sky is the organization that gave me the resources to arrange all of this,” Marcus said, blood leaking from his mouth. The black magic I was working on him was a lot stronger than just a heart attack. “They’re trying to put the genie back in the bottle. They want to bring all of the supernatural races under their control as well as eliminate the groups that resist. They’ve got their hands in crime, politics, and everything. Wizards, vampires, and more all pay homage.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, snorting. “I’m going to call deershit.”
They are real, Raguel said. A weapon created by the Star Chamber that has since taken on a life of its own.
“Want to tell me more?” I asked.
Not yet.
“Huh,” I said, looking at him. “I guess you aren’t so influential after all. So when your resources all dried up, you sold out your own race to another faction of us? And I’m the traitor?”
“It was a mistake coming out. Human beings will never accept beings with supernatural power if they can’t get that power for themselves. Red Sky will force the supernatural back under wraps over the course of centuries. It’s been done before.”
“I see,” I said. “Well, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem you have to worry about.”
“Your family will be one of the least they will have destroyed,” Marcus said, clutching his chest. “It’s better than the alternative.”
“Which is?”
“The Star Chamber,” Marcus said, falling flat on his back. “They’ll kill us all.”
I waited for him to say more, but he didn’t, just lay there. “Is he dead?”
Yes, Raguel said.
I paused. “That was remarkably less satisfying than I expected it to be.”
Executions rarely are.
“Do you think I have to fear this Red Sky group?” I asked.
You have killed one of their henchmen and disrupted their plans. They will eventually come for revenge, but their plans are usually made through proxies and henchmen. You may not see where the next blow comes from.
“Great,” I muttered. “I have enemies I can’t even see.”
All humands have that flaw. Though it is especially appropriate in this case.
Why? I asked.
The Red Sky are ninjas.
I paused in putting away the doll. “Wait, what the hell was that?”
I can say no more.
“You better say more. Frigging ninjas—are you serious?” I turned around to see Alex was standing behind me.
He was wearing his suit and carrying his staff, which made me think he wasn’t here in any more of an official capacity than I was. “Hello, Jane. Talking about the Red Sky?”
I blinked and looked at him. “Yeah, they’re—did you know there were ninjas out there?”
“Of course I did,” Alex said, looking at Marcus’s corpse. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I swear,” I muttered, shaking my head. “This world just keeps getting weirder and weirder.”
“They were the people that destroyed the Department of Supernatural Security by introducing them to demons,” Alex said, walking up to the window. “I see you used my favor to get close to Marcus O’Henry in order to kill him.”
“You got a problem with that?” I asked, defensive.
Alex looked down at his feet. “Perhaps I was naïve, believing it was possible to take down the worst of the world without killing. Those who hide behind money and power. I don’t want to be just a killer, though.”
“Yeah, that’s why you’re in the FBI.”
“I’m not anymore.”
“What?”
“There was always going to be a consequence for my refusing to teach at Quantico but I thought it was going to be something I could manage,” Alex said, frowning. “Little did I know they were going to let me hang for my past as a hunter. With that taken care of, they’ve sought another means of showing displeasure. They’ve brought my mother back into the FBI to serve as their resident magical expert. Her price was seeing me cashiered.”
I blinked. “So I take it we’re not going to meet the parents anytime soon.”
“No,” Alex said. “The Men in Black have offered to take me in as well as the Star Chamber.”
“You hate the Men in Black.”
“I do,” Alex said. “The offer came from Laura, though.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Oh, it did, did it?”
“Yes,” Alex said. “I would get to live in Bright Falls and only have to do a few operations a year. Mostly, my job would just be there to be on-call if there’s a greater crisis and serving as a consultant to younger agents. I said I would have to clear it with you, though.”
“I don’t want you working for your ex or these guys unless somehow Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are actual agents.”
“They promised they’d protect your family from any and all threats. Your parents could come home.”
I cursed under my breath. “Dammit, that’s why I’m here in the first place!”
“I know,” Alex said, putting his hand on my shoulder. “However, they remain vulnerable since Marcus wasn’t the man behind it.”
Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. “What’s the Star Chamber’s offer?”
“A billion dollars, a Fortune 500 company, and a seat at the High Table of Elders. I’d have to marry their Third Queen of the Fifth Heaven, though. It’s part of their breeding project.”
“Stick with the Men in Black.”
“What I was thinking.” Alex gestured to the door. “That’s not all of it, though.”
I sighed. “Of course.”
“The Men in Black have heard about your abilities, but not from me. They want you too.”
“How much do they want me?” I asked, wondering if I could still squeeze out of this somehow.
“Significantly more than me,” Alex said. “I suspect more for being asked to read objects every now and then more for wetwork, though. They don’t know you as the wonder wrecking ball you are like I do.”
“Yeah, I’m a real Miley Cyrus,” I said, holding the sides of my head as if in pain. “Yeah, well, if it protects my family then I’m up for it.”
“Good,” Alex said, sighing. “Your allotted time is almost up. We sho
uld get going. When they find Marcus’s body, this place will descend into chaos. My friend in the Star Chamber made sure no one will remember our entrance, but I’d rather not be here when they notice his heart attack. No sign of you on the security footage either.”
“Sure,” I said, looking to his side. “Is it too early post-murder to tell you I’d like to get lunch? Maybe see a movie afterward?”
“Maybe wait until we’re outside.”
It turned out I was a cold-blooded killer. I was surprisingly okay with that.
No one messed with my town.
Jane Doe Will Return in:
THE BLEATING