by Jeff Hale
“No, but you’re gonna tell me.”
“No, I ain’t.”
“Then I guess he won’t eat.” I shrugged.
“Ya wouldn’t do that! Tell me ya wouldn’t do that to a poor animal, Rick! Please.”
“No, you’re right. I wouldn’t.” I sighed and started to put the turtle down.
“You know what? Let’s just keep it a couple days. Study it or something. Then we can bring him back, okay?”
“Okay, cool.”
We started to head back to our houses, setting an easy pace, not in any hurry to part company. It was about lunch time so we both knew we’d be separated for about an hour or so, and we didn’t want to be. Nina’s parents might insist I go with them while they played tourist, when the only person I wanted to see or spend time with was right next to me.
About half way home the turtle came out of its shell, and that’s when I saw it had a strange beak-like mouth, which it had opened expectantly. I had no idea what it wanted, and in a brilliant move on my part, I stuck a finger near its maw. It snapped down on my finger in an instant, and I cried out in sudden pain.
“What the fuck!? Ooooowww! Get it off! Get it off! What the hell is this thing?!” For my troubles I got smacked on the back of the head.
“Language, Rick! Ya dummy! I thought ya knew it was a snappin’ turtle! Ya can tell by the ridges on the shell! Here… just… let me…” Serena reached over and grabbed the turtle by the shell. “This is gonna hurt, Rick.” With that she pulled, and managed to get the turtle off my finger, which in turn tore off a chunk of skin.
“Oh fuck! That hurts!” I cried out as the skin came away. I got smacked again.
“I ain’t tellin’ ya again, Rick. Watch the language, there’s no need ta cuss!”
“The hell there isn’t! I’m missing half my finger!” A punch to the arm this time.
“No ya ain’t, and if I hafta keep hittin’ ya to get ya ta quit cussin’, I will.” And she meant every word of it.
“Okay, okay. I give,” I said, and held my hands up in mock surrender.
“Good. Now, let’s get this little guy home, and I’ll see if Mom will let me pack up a picnic and we can go back ta the park.”
“Okay, I’m sure Mrs. Hawthorne will let me go, since I’ll be with you. That is, if we aren’t going anywhere today.”
“Just let me know, and don’t keep me waitin’. I’m gonna make those ham and turkey sandwiches I know ya like,” she said as she turned to walk towards her house.
“Sounds good. See ya in a few.”
She turned back to wave, and I noticed two smoking holes in her body, one in her stomach, and one near her left collarbone. That couldn’t be right….
I awoke with a start, jarred awake by the inconsistency in what, in my memory, was such a wonderful day spent with the person that I had always been in love with, but was too scared to admit it. Now I wished I had.
Losing her had been the single biggest tragedy in my life, overshadowing even the death of my parents. I missed them, true, but I always had a feeling I was going to lose them early. I used to dream about it.
All the love I had in this world, I had for Serena. I knew that I would never find anyone like her ever again, and I wished I could bring her back. At one time I had her, and I had pushed her away. The thought hurt now, but the thought of her gone hurt even more, enough to make it hard for me to breathe. I had had her, and her love, now the only thing I had left was vengeance.
____________________
The rest of the weekend went by with me relaxing and playing a game of chess with Talon when I wasn’t writing my report, or playing Soul Edge on my Playstation since I had a chance to for once. I fell asleep after finishing my report Saturday night, and when I next woke up, I knew I had slept more than I wanted to. My alarm clock told the date as well as the time, and it was after eleven in the morning… on Monday. I had slept through an entire day and was now late for school. Fuck it, I’d just skip today. I hoped Coleen would understand why my report was late. I knew Bianca would, but I needed to start using the chain of command at some point, or I was going to end up paying the piper where Bianca was concerned, and I wasn’t ready for that.
I checked my work phone and noticed one missed message. When I listened to it I heard Coleen’s clipped, professional voice: “Aerick, I know you’re probably still resting, but please get that report in as soon as you can. No rush though. Orders directly from the Council: take your time, the paperwork isn’t going anywhere.”
From the Council, my ass. More like from Bianca. I checked my home phone and noticed three missed messages. I clicked the machine, letting it play through all three.
On the first I heard Nina’s peppy voice: “Heya, sexy! Haven’t seen you since you took off early from school after hearing…” I heard Dave’s voice in the background muttering something. “Er… right. Um. Anyway, just wanted to see what you were up to this weekend. Give me a call, k?”
The second was from Raven, whose voice almost sounded like a phone sex operator: “Hey, Aerick. Calling about that date. Call me and let me know when. Or at least when your next case is.”
The third I had a hard time making out at first, so I turned up the volume on the machine. What I heard next chilled me to the core. Valencia’s soft voice came through the speaker, a tremble to it as she spoke: “Aerick, please. If you get this, help me. Please help. I don’t know what he’s gonna do to me. I need you. I need help.” Next thing I heard was her screaming like she was being tortured. I hurriedly turned down the machine’s volume.
I stood there in complete shocked silence. The message had come in yesterday around noon. I was probably too late. I had no idea what to do. If I went over there, more than likely whatever happened was already over and she was probably at school—at least I hoped she was. If she wasn’t, chances were she would deny anything had happened, like she had before.
I stewed over what to do for the next hour. I thought maybe I should call Raven or Bianca and get their advice. More than likely they would both tell me the exact same thing, or close to it: call the cops and play the message for them. Don’t get involved. Blah, blah, blah.
I headed over to Val’s apartment. Stupid? Yeah, probably. But I would be damned if I didn’t do anything, and I’d be thrice damned if I called the cops in on this. I had been a little worried about Val and her situation of late, so had done some light research on her family. I had guessed from Val’s confirmation that she was related to Officer Larry Marcus; he was her paternal uncle. He had been written up several times for harassing female prisoners, and Val’s dad, Lenny, had a record for assault and battery, as well as disorderly conduct, all from bar brawls. Nothing really serious, but enough to let me know that both had issues with their tempers.
I walked up to the apartment door with a purpose to my stride. I didn’t care what was going on; I was pulling Val out of this situation, one way or another. I knocked on the door, trying to sound authoritative. No one answered. I knocked again, and still didn’t get an answer. That’s when I noticed it.
Shadowy energy, pooling around the apartment. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was but there was a darkness and anger to it that had me wondering if it was Dark Aether. I’d never seen Dark Aether before, wasn’t even certain it really existed, but MAGE taught us that demons used it to fuel their powers. It was formed whenever souls were damaged and was one of the primary reasons why innocents were sacrificed to demons to summon them. Not only did they get a ready supply of energy, but they got a soul to snack on too.
“LVPD! Open up!” I shouted frantically, lying. Still no answer, but I heard a scream from inside. I enhanced my hearing and listened in. MAGE would have my head if I barged in there illegally and did something when there wasn’t anything actually going on.
“Please, Daddy…. Don’t! Not again!” I heard Val pleading.
“Fuck you, you little skeeze. You ain’t even mine. Your whore mother decided to spread her legs for some l
ittle dicked shithead at a bar one night and out you popped!” I heard a male voice, Val’s father—well her mother’s husband I guess—shout.
“Please! Lenny, it was only one time, I didn’t know! I thought she was yours!” I heard a different female argue.
“Bullshit! She! Looks! Nothing! Like! Me!” I heard him scream, and I heard several thumps, along with the screaming sobs of a female, accentuate every word.
That was enough for me. I kicked the door down and ran in to see a medium sized man beating on Val. He had on a utility worker’s jumpsuit. As he spun to face me, his long dark brown hair whipped about wildly, and his dark brown eyes promised retribution upon whoever had just entered his house.
A woman in a bathrobe and jogging pants, Val’s mother, was cowering in the corner, hiding her face behind a mask of dark brown, almost black hair.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?!” Lenny Marcus demanded as he took a step towards me.
I looked over and saw Val against the wall of the hallway that led to the two bedrooms that were in this apartment. She had bruises all over her, and one eye was so swollen shut that it looked like it might just roll out of the socket if she actually tried to open it. Her lightweight tank top was torn in several places where she had been grabbed onto and whipped around and it was evident she had been sleeping before the tortures began because she was otherwise just wearing a dark-blue pair of panties.
Taking a quick glance to where her mother was, I figured she was probably in far worse shape. My guess? She had confessed that Val wasn’t Lenny’s and he went off on her mother in a rage, beating on her and yelling at her in turns, probably since yesterday. It had finally dawned on him that there was someone else he could take his anger and betrayal out on and he had drug Val out of bed and took it out on her too.
“I’m a friend of Val’s,” I stated evenly. I was ready to draw and ignite my daggers at any given moment. My rage felt white hot and I was ready to take out this piece of shit. I didn’t care what your girlfriend or wife had done to you, this sort of treatment was completely fucked up. And you definitely didn’t drag the kid into it. It wasn’t her fault that this happened and she was born.
“Oh. Yeah. You. Get the fuck out before I kill you and call the cops to tell them I had to kill a burglar. They’ll believe me, kid. My brother’s on the force,” he threatened smugly.
I just smiled. “The cops can’t fucking touch me, you dickless wonder. Now step away from Val,” I ordered in a cold tone.
“Fuck you!” Lenny spat out, then he picked Val up and kneed her in the stomach. I heard the air escape her body as she let out a ragged cry of pain. The fire was wanting out again. This time it felt… different. Suddenly I didn’t see Val there on the floor anymore with her father standing over her. I saw a bully, and I saw Serena.
Everything went flame red.
I know at some point I rushed Lenny Marcus and put a dagger in his leg as he tried to kick me. I bowled him over onto the ground and pummeled his face, asking him how he liked it while he screamed in pain at me. I remembered flames whipping around me in a crazy swirl of heat and rage, but the rest… just disappeared.
When I came to, it took me several moments to even realize where I was. The apartment I was in and the two adjacent buildings were burned to ash, all the way to the foundation stones. Ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks were surrounding the area, lights and sirens going all out, and I saw the families from the apartments huddled on the other side of the street. Some had covered up in blankets, including Val and her mother, and it seemed that none of them were hurt. It looked like the only casualty was the singular charred pile of bones in front of me that had once been Lenny Marcus.
Sitting there in the remains of the building, ash floating all around, me, I realized I’d never, ever, been able to produce flames like that before. Most fire sorcerers would have been training for decades before they could produce flames the way I had, let alone have any control over them to spare innocents. I suspected that I wouldn’t have time to mull that fact over as I heard the distinctive sounds of portals opening outside.
I might be executed for torching Lenny, but at least Val was safe. To me right then, that was all that mattered. I knew I was in the right in what I had done, and I felt zero regret or remorse over it. So I had used my powers, but I wanted him to feel as powerless and helpless as he had made Val and her mother feel, and the best way for me to accomplish that was to use abilities beyond his ken.
That’s when I heard a familiar voice behind me as I watched the last embers of Lenny’s body die out and crumble.
“Aerick Kerensky, you are under arrest for the gross use of your Aetheric abilities on a civilian. Please come quietly,” Bianca intoned softly as she approached me, and I knew she had one hand wreathed in flames.
“At least it was you that came after me,” I said absently. I stood and brushed ash from my jeans, then slowly turned and held my hands out so she could cuff me. I didn’t know if I was going to get out of this one, but at least Val would never have to deal with her father again.
And that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
TWELVE
“What the fuck was that, Kerensky?!” Bianca screamed as she wove through Las Vegas freeway traffic in an agency SUV. “Huh?! What the fuck were you thinking? Oh, never mind, you weren’t thinking! Do you realize the shitstorm you’ve brought upon us? Do you even know who that guy you casually roasted was?”
“Yes. I do. He was a child abuser and a wife-beater, and that’s all I need to know.” I was being stubborn. Bianca had been ranting ever since she had got me in the SUV and uncuffed me. She must have known that I had nowhere to go. MAGE would send agents after me no matter where I tried to hide, not that it mattered. I was still supremely pleased with myself, despite the dire predicament I know found myself in. “He beat my friend, and who knows, maybe he’s done it in the past. I stopped him and now he’s dead. What else is there to care about?”
“Dammit! Aerick, think about someone other than yourself for once! His brother, Larry Marcus, is a police officer with the LVPD! He’s going to probe and ask questions, and our agency is going to come under scrutiny for the first time in over a hundred years! You do realize that only the Secretary of Defense even knows of our existence? And that’s only because for the last sixty years one of ours usually holds the position! Ultimately the Council answers to him. But I can guarantee that he’s not going to cover our asses if the U.S. Senate finds out about us, which could very well happen if a cop decides to show enough interest in a case. You’ve killed a cop’s family and you know that they don’t take that shit lightly!” She pulled across two lanes to get past a slow pickup in front of us.
“Do you know what they’d do to us? I don’t. But I have ideas, ideas that honestly scare the shit out of me, Aerick. Not to mention that by our rules, we have to execute you now, and that takes out one of the most promising agents I’ve had in my element, like ever, and I am tired of being outdone by the earth sorcerers, fucking golden boys of the agency, you do realize…” She swerved again, pulling us tightly in front of a white Geo Metro that suddenly hit the brakes to avoid colliding with us.
“Do you realize that if you keep driving like this I won’t be alive to execute?” I muttered irritably. “Besides, this is my life we’re talking about, fuck your career. What was I supposed to do? Just sit back and let that mother fucker beat on a fifteen year old girl? Huh? Or, maybe, I should have joined in and beat on her too? Would that have been better? That was his daughter he was beating up, not some asshole he bumped into at a bar! His daughter! A helpless fifteen year old girl who has never hurt a person in her life! What the fuck was I supposed to do? Huh!? Fucking answer me!” My full anger, my horror, my frustration, the sheer rage that had been held inside while I let something far colder and more sinister deal with Lenny Marcus, all of it was loosed at that moment. “I’d really like to know! What else could I do? Call the cops? Larry has two-thirds of hi
s fucking precinct in his damned pocket! No one would have done shit! Lenny was acting as if he were above the law, and since I actually was, I figured the only way to stop him was someone of equal authority but with a lot more fucking power, and that was me. If you don’t fucking like it, you can suck my dick. If the Council doesn’t like it, they can too, for all I fucking care! Oh, and not to mention the pool of… I don’t know what the fuck it was, Dark Aether, whatever, that was building up because of it. In fact that’s what tipped me off that something might be really wrong.” The anger bled off into numbness. I was still shocked, horrified. I didn’t know how to react to what I saw, to what I did.
“Dark Aether?” Bianca looked horrified for a moment, before shaking her head. “No, there wasn’t any there, not even a trace, so I’m not sure what you saw. As for the rest? I… I don’t know what you were supposed to do, Rick, I really don’t. In my mind, you did what you had too, despite the consequences that you knew you would have to pay as a result. To me, that makes you a hero. But to the Council, to the government, you’re a criminal.”
“Dammit, Bianca. Don’t you see? We’re all criminals! We kill people on a daily basis without writ or warrant from proper authorities. We police our own, yes. We deal with what no one else can deal with, but let’s face it, we play judge, jury, and executioner in a country that sees such acts and calls it vigilantism, which is illegal. Only one person in the government gives us the ability to do what we do. In the end it’s illegal simply because we are an agency that exists outside the bounds of law, and outside the bounds of civilian scrutiny. They didn’t vote us in, they have no idea we exist.” I balled my hands into fists, unsure what to do with them.
“True, but the FBI wasn’t formed because people voted on its formation. It was formed because it was seen as a needed agency, and it exists today because it is still a needed agency.”