by E. A. Copen
I looked around. We were sitting inside what looked like some kind of circular, metal drum. It was massive with only one entrance and exit. Somehow, I'd managed to tumble right inside the gaping hole that served as both.
LeDuc bounded through the hole kangaroo style and landed hard. “Yes,” he hissed. “But not for long. Soon, all of you will be dead and this failed experiment will be nothing but a memory, a learning experience. I'll rebuild. It will take me decades thanks to you, Agent Black, but I will rebuild.” He walked on past me, his big feet thumping as he moved.
“Mom?” My son's voice cut through the air.
“Hunter!” I forced myself to sit up in time for him to throw his arms around me. I hesitated to hug back. This could be another trick, but no. Zoe was lying in a pool of her own blood and organs, buried now by shards of broken glass and LeDuc was off behind us doing something that sounded ominous. This was my boy, my son. He was alive. I kissed his forehead and pulled him closer. “You're alive! Oh God, I thought you were dead!”
I pulled him away from me and checked him over. There were bruises and scrapes all over and a big bandage that covered his left hand. My whole body was shaking as he held up the bandages. “He... He took my finger,” Hunter explained in a numb voice.
Reed winced, grabbed at his side and half sat up. “Leo and Marian are here, too, Black. I'm afraid we came too late for Sara.”
“Don't get too excited,” LeDuc said. “Soon, you'll all be dead.” He pushed a straw laden crib next to us with a grunt. It contained two babies, both of them sleeping peacefully. I tried to stand but my brain was all wobbly inside my skull. LeDuc grinned at me and then jumped back out. The door slammed shut behind him.
I swallowed. “Where the hell are we?”
“I don't know,” Hunter said and he curled up next to me.
Reed let out an audible gasp and pulled himself up, using the crib as leverage. He almost fell right back over but caught himself. “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it.”
“Reed?”
He pointed up at the ceiling. Something that looked like little sprinklers jutted down out of it but I had the sinking feeling that they didn't spray water. “Holy Hell,” I breathed, my blood suddenly running cold. “We're in the incinerator.”
“The minute he switches it on, we're dead,” Hunter said, his voice panicked. “How do we get out?”
“We don't,” answered Reed, looking at me. “Tell me you have a plan.”
Maybe it was because I'd been knocked upside the head one too many times. Maybe it was because I'd gone stark raving mad but I told him that I did. “That thing you did with your sword in my living room, pyromancy, right?”
Reed conceded the point with a nod.
“How good are you?”
“Good enough. Why? What are you thinking?” I told him my plan and he nodded. “That might work.”
“We're all going to die,” Hunter cried.
A hissing sound started up above our heads. “Well,” I said, inching in closer to Reed and pulling Hunter with me. “If we are, we're not going to get much time to think about it.”
Reed crossed himself. For the first time in over a decade, I lowered my head in prayer as I worked. Please, God, if you are out there, don't let me die without taking that French-Canadian bastard with me.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Fire rained down from the ceiling, super heating the air in the incinerator beyond breathability. Hunter, the babies, Reed and I were spared a fiery burning death but only because Reed worked ceaselessly to push the fire away from us. It came in all directions and slammed against the fragile wall of magick that I was able to drum up. If Reed failed to redirect the fire, my pathetic little wall wouldn't do much to save us for long. The entire plan revolved around him being strong enough for long enough.
Because of the fire, there wasn't much air and so I tried to regulate my breathing to only a few times per minute. That was almost impossible considering the amount of effort I was expending. I'd thrown everything I had at LeDuc earlier, leaving me with next to no energy resources to tap for this. Instead, I had to rely on what I could glean from the emotions of those around me, Hunter's fear and Reed's calm, unwavering faith being the strongest. The two polar opposite forces of fear and faith butted heads inside the circle, making them difficult to harness.
I didn't know how Father Reed even managed to stand, having had a kidney ripped out of him not so very long ago. Yet, he not only stood and directed the flame away, saving every one of us, but he sang while he did it. That's right, he stood inches from death singing some hymn in Latin. It must have been some kind of focus technique. Still, if I had been the bad guy trying to burn alive the good guys, and they started singing in Latin, I would have been pretty freaked out.
The whole ordeal lasted two, maybe three minutes before the fire sputtered and went out. Heat waves shimmered in the air. Reed wobbled on his feet and almost fell forward onto the searing hot metal floor but I caught him. “Thank you,” he managed and got back to his feet. “Though if he fires it up again, Judah...”
“Message received,” I said. “Now, we have to figure out how to get out of here. The door probably locks from the outside, which is to say nothing of the steaming hot metal floor...”
As if in answer, the lock creaked. The door fell open and LeDuc hopped up inside. Frost spread out from his feet, stretching the whole length of the floor. The air protested the cool with a hiss. “What a lucky, lucky bunch of ducks you are,” LeDuc chuckled. “And I thought I was the only one who couldn't die.”
I decided to risk it and stepped out onto the unprotected floor. It was still warm but LeDuc had done me a favor, cooling it off enough that my shoes didn't melt. “You know, you say you're a god. You say you're powerful and immortal and yet you haven't lifted one finger to kill us. So far, you've sent goons, a pregnant woman and a little fire to do the job you could have done yourself hours ago. Why the game? Why not sack up and kill us?”
“If you wish,” LeDuc snarled and dashed forward. I got ready to take the hit from the biggest, scariest supernatural I'd ever met, bearing down and putting all my balance forward. He didn't go for me, though.
In a flash, LeDuc was in front of Reed. He drew back a hand, flexed his claws and then jabbed them into Reed's belly. The priest grunted but held his screams as LeDuc went digging around in his insides. Bones snapped. Guts shifted audibly and still the priest didn't utter more than a gasp or a grunt. I reached over and grabbed one of the babies from the crib. Hunter followed my direction to do the same. If he killed Reed, I still meant to make it out of there alive.
“Do you feel that?” the wendigo hissed. “That's your intestines I've got a hold of. I bet that feels pleasant, doesn't it?” He licked his lips. “And you don't have any of those to spare.” Father Reed took a deep breath and let out a chuckle. “What the hell is so damn funny?” asked LeDuc, twisting up his face.
“I know something you don't,” said Reed, heaving a heavy breath and wincing.
“Oh?” LeDuc twisted his whole arm. Reed gasped. “What's the big punch line, father?”
“There's an angry werewolf right behind you.”
LeDuc turned in time to see the shape of a big black wolf charge into the incinerator. I only knew of one big black werewolf that would be angry enough with Andre LeDuc to come all the way out into the desert to exact his revenge: Valentino Garcia.
LeDuc screeched an inhuman, ear-splitting screech and withdrew his fingers from Reed’s belly. He leapt forward. Claws and teeth flashed as the two met. Valentino was only about a quarter of LeDuc's size, even in wolf form. Even I knew he wasn't experienced enough to take on a wendigo, no matter how angry he was. LeDuc quickly took the upper hand, but he didn't bother stabbing Valentino and ending it quickly. He wanted to play with his food first.
Reed, clutching his bleeding stomach, shouted for us to go for the door. Hunter ran straight for the opening
. I bent down and took Reed's arm over my shoulder and we limped forward to freedom. “Close it,” Reed screamed as soon as we were free.
“Valentino's still inside!” Hunter protested. “We're not killing Valentino!”
“You may not have a choice.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a ball of black and red came spiraling out of the incinerator door. LeDuc had a hold on Valentino's front legs and pinned him as soon as they hit the floor. “I was going to kill your boy,” LeDuc hissed in Valentino's face. “Now, I'm going to kill you, too.” He drew back a hand, claws extended.
“Reed,” I screamed, though I knew his power had been expended inside the incinerator.
Valentino growled and heaved his hind legs with an amazing level of strength, sending LeDuc flying back. He struck his head on the incinerator door. “You...” LeDuc hissed and jumped back up. “Do you have any idea what you're doing? Any at all?” He stood and dusted himself off.
Valentino didn't give him the chance to finish his speech. He charged and hit LeDuc with a gut shot. LeDuc stumbled backward, teetered for a moment, and then fell into the incinerator. I rushed forward, baby in hand, to swing the door shut. It was heavier than all hell. I wouldn’t have been able to budge it with one hand, not if Hunter hadn't come forward to help. The door slammed shut as LeDuc bounded against it. I spun the lock. “Burn, you bastard.”
“You're making a mistake,” he pleaded through the door. “If you kill me, you'll never stop Han. If you think what I’m doing is monstrous, imagine what he’s doing behind closed doors with all the resources of the wealthiest governments in the entire world!”
“Reed, light this asshole up.”
Reed, who was doubled over next to the control board, pale as the undead, nodded. “With pleasure,” he said and slammed a fist down on the big red button. LeDuc screamed and pounded on the door for all of ten seconds before the whole room was silent of everything but our sighs of relief. It was over. Andre LeDuc was dead.
~
We walked back to LeDuc's bedchambers. Most of the glass had come down. I handed Leo, off to Hunter, who somehow managed to juggle both babies, and turned the wheelbarrow back over. Zoe's baby was still there. She was weak and hungry but otherwise unhurt. I held her tight for a moment and whispered a generic prayer of thanks. Then, I wandered over to the remains of Andre LeDuc’s bed to finish burning Zoe’s remains.
When I was within sight of the bed, though, I paused. The mattress and sheets were covered in blood and gore, as I had left them, and a few shards of glass and cave rocks had tumbled down onto it. None of them were large enough to conceal a body, however, and that was the one thing missing from the bed. I glanced around, looking for a trail of blood to track her with but I found nothing. Zoe was gone.
“Uh,” squeaked a little voice on the other side of the room. “A little help here?”
“Ed,” I exclaimed and shoved Zoe's baby at Reed without thinking. Father Reed took the child and Valentino and I rushed over to pull the bookcase off of Ed. Somehow, Ed had managed to take the fall with a little grace. He'd landed in so that his skinny body fell between the shelves and so he managed to get away without any additional injuries. He smiled up at me when I pulled the bookcase away. “It's over,” I told him. “We got him.”
Valentino leaned in and sniffed Ed's face and then promptly snorted at him.
Ed laughed. “I know, right?” Then he extended a hand and I pulled him up, letting him lean on me.
When we turned back, Father Reed was holding Zoe's baby at a distance, examining it with a frown while she screamed bloody murder. “Is there a problem?” I shouted across the room at him.
Reed raised his eyes to mine. A dark shadow passed over his face. “I'm sorry, Judah. This isn't what I wanted or how I wanted to do it but you must understand that I answer to a higher authority.”
“What are you talking about?” I stammered starting across the room.
Reed took a step back, tucked the child against one shoulder and lifted a rosary from his pocket. “Forgive me,” he said and waved the beads. A swirling vortex of light appeared beside him: a Way. He stepped inside and closed it behind him.
“That son of a bitch!”
I took a step forward. Something above me creaked. Behind me, Ed shouted, “Look out!” Instead, I looked up. A large piece of the glass ceiling was hurdling through the air, straight for my head.
Chapter Thirty-Three
The next thing I knew, I was waking up in a hospital bed with a series of very annoying beeps going on behind my head. Tindall was standing over me, though I hardly recognized him all clean shaven and hair slicked back nice and neat. It was as if someone had taken the scruffy version of the detective, dipped him in a vat of choir boy and polished him off with a confession. It didn't look good on him.
I started to ask him why he was there when a nurse tugged on my arm. “Gotta keep that straight, honey,” she said in a pleasant tone. “Bending your arm like that causes a kink in the IV. Makes the machine go haywire.”
I stared up at the nurse who was offering me a fake smile, my brain still trying to piece together what had happened. I remembered LeDuc, us somehow surviving the incinerator... Reed took Zoe's baby and then... and then a huge piece of glass came crashing down on my head. “What happened to me?”
“You had a pretty bad concussion,” she said. “A bunch of cuts and bruises, too. Dislocated shoulder, dehydration... You're not looking too shabby now, considering.”
“I'll guess I'm lucky, huh,” I answered in a hoarse voice I barely recognized as my own.
“I'm sure they'll be releasing you soon, honey.”
“Great.” Satisfied, she patted my shoulder, adjusted something on a monitor behind my head and left. I rolled my head back over to look at Tindall. “Wedding or funeral?”
“Huh?”
“You look like Heaven warmed over. I figure you shaved and dressed up for something. So, is it a wedding or a funeral?”
“Grand jury, actually.” Tindall scowled and jerked the physician's stool over so he could sit on it. “Someone had to go and talk the D.A. into not charging you and your merry band of vigilante werewolves with murder and kidnapping.”
“Great,” I said closing my eyes. “No good deed goes unrewarded, does it?”
“You dodged a bullet this time. If BSI hadn't had your back though, Judah, this could have gone a hundred shades of wrong. The state would have preferred locking up psychos like LeDuc.”
“Bodies,” I muttered, my head still a little blurry. “Did they find any bodies? Specifically, a woman... insides cut out?”
Tindall grimaced and glanced at all the tubes coming and going from me. “They must have you on some good drugs, Black. There were some bodies in those tunnels but nothing like that.” My heart sank but I nodded. Tindall continued in a careful tone. “Zoe Mathias is missing along with Sara Greenlee, though we did locate the Garcia boy and the Summers girl.”
“How'd I even get out?”
“Valentino. Carried you halfway back to town before we caught up with him. Everyone thought you were dead for all the blood. Turns out, you're more resilient than most. Least, it seems that way.”
“Valentino,” I rubbed my head and tried to file away a mental note to push the paperwork on through to make Leo legal. The same for the Summers girl and every other illegal on the reservation. I'd catch hell for doing it after the fact and probably ruffle enough feathers back at headquarters to get me put on a watch list but I didn't care. There was no reason for the children to have to pay for their parents' mistakes, not again. “How'd he even know where to find us?”
“Valentino caught your scent. He led us to the general area and then took off like a bat out of hell. Took us damn near four more hours before we stumbled into that cave system. Quite the setup he had down there.” Tindall fidgeted with the brim of his hat. “Listen, Black, things like this, they can't keep happening. You've got to start trusting the department more. Ne
xt time, I might not be able to talk the D.A. down. I don't mean to tell you how to do your job. I need to know that you know where the line is.”
I turned my head toward the door and away from Tindall. My whole body ached. My shoulder felt like it had been run over by a truck and I was exhausted. The last thing I wanted at that point was a lecture from him about how to do my job. There wasn't any way around killing Zoe and LeDuc. Or Ozzie, for that matter or Thomas. Hell, I hadn't even killed LeDuc, not really. That had been Reed. He pushed the button.
And yet, people had died. I should have felt some sense of responsibility, some kind of loss. I should have felt guilty. Some of those people, I could have saved them. That should have made me feel bad but it didn't. I was glad they were dead. Given the chance to do it all over again, the only thing I would change was that I would have stood over LeDuc and watched him burn to a crisp. I thought about what Zoe had called me: cold and calculating. Maybe she knew something I didn't.
“I know where the line is,” I said through clenched teeth at Tindall.
“Good, because that's what I told the grand jury and your superiors when they called.” He stood as if to leave.
“Wait. You're not going to ask me for a statement?”
Tindall shrugged. “I assume it'll all be in your report, Black. As your agency has been so kind to remind me, you don't have to report to me or answer any of my questions. You're a federal employee and my cooperation is not only expected but required. How was it they put the last part? The details and specifics of your investigations are matters of national security and will be made available to local law enforcement on a need to know basis.”
I laughed. It hurt. “Or over beers. When I get out of this bed, how about I buy you one and tell you all about it?”
“Love to, Black, if you make it a root beer.”
“Still?” I said, raising an eyebrow. “With the job you do? How the hell do you sleep at night without nursing a bottle?”