She fell into the sensuous embrace of the couch. She could feel the extra folds around her waist as she sat, and thought again about dieting and getting some more exercise. She dismissed the idea as soon as it came. She wasn’t really trying to attract a man. Jacob and romance novels filled all of her needs at the moment. That and the sometime sex she had with someone who seemed to like her the way she was. He didn’t demand much, and gave much in return. So much she felt guilty sometimes being with him. And besides, he was married. She shrugged at the last thought and drove it from her mind. They hadn’t done anything in several weeks, not when it seemed that the wife might not approve. She would worry about it when it happened again, and not sooner.
Gloria looked up at the clock on the wall above the big radio. It was only minutes before midnight, but she didn’t have to be in at the company until noon tomorrow. That gave her time to relax some, maybe get in a little pleasure reading.
Jacob came running out of the kitchen on his short legs and jumped up onto the couch, turning his little body and settling it into her side. Gloria laughed and put her left hand on the dog, ruffling his fur while she took another gulp of wine. She looked down at the little furry creature and was for some reason reminded again of the little furry creatures she had processed in the subterranean rooms of the corporation. They didn’t look anything like dogs. In fact they looked almost human, like small children covered with blue fur, though she had been assured that they were adults in their own species.
Did they deserve their fate? she thought, seeing the images of the little creatures spiked and their energy gathered. Their blue life force, almost the same color as their fur, drifted up to the ceiling to be gathered in by the spell fields that shuttled it through the containment conduits of the building. A lot of energy from such a small package, she thought. Even with the impurities, the red tendrils of energy, like nothing she had ever seen on this world.
Their demonic energies, she thought, remembering how the higher ups had explained that these creatures were cannibals and worshipers of demons, and so were as deserving of their fate as any of the human criminals they normally processed. They didn’t seem like little demon worshippers. In fact, she got a similar feeling from them as she got from Jacob, friendly little innocents.
What are we doing to them? she thought, putting her empty wine glass on the table and burying her face in her hands. Gloria had always been a sensitive practitioner, able to sense the feelings of others. And all she could sense from the little ones, the Eldritch as they were called, had been fear and confusion. Nothing diabolical. And they were harvesting the little people like animals.
The clock struck midnight, and Gloria wiped the tears from her eyes, thinking about getting another big glass of wine. The alcohol would be just the thing to deaden the feelings that seemed about to overwhelm her. Just as that thought struck her Jacob began to bark furiously, jumping off the couch and running to the glass doors sealing off the balcony behind her.
“Be quiet, honey,” she called to the dog, wondering what could have set him off. There was energy in the air. Her sensitive brain could feel it, building. Obviously the dog had felt something too. Her arm hairs stood on end as she felt that something coming for her, moving through the house defense as if it wasn’t there. She turned her head and saw the red thing moving over the balcony. It hit the glass doors and sucked them out, the glass shattering and flying onto the balcony and the street below. The little dog whimpered for a moment, then started barking again, standing its ground and trying to protect its master.
“Get away, Jacob. Please get away from that thing,” she cried as she stood up, facing the red mass that was entering her apartment. The dog kept barking as the red cloud of energy enveloped it. The barking grew indistinct, softer, as if the form blanketed the sound. But it continued, and the dog ran around on the floor within the cloud, showing no injuries.
Gloria recognized the energy, her sensitivity telling her exactly what it was. Exactly what its purpose was. To get revenge on her for snuffing out the lives of those that had carried it. It moved toward her, her dog still caught in its energy and barking. She said a quick prayer to the God she had renounced years before, when she became a practitioner of magic, and stood in front of her couch, knowing that nothing she could do would save her.
The red energy swirled over her, radiating an almost gentle warmth. Gloria felt very tired, and turned to fall back onto her couch. Minutes later the energy left her apartment through the broken glass doors, leaving a whimpering dog behind.
* * *
Jude really wasn’t paying attention to the time. He just knew that he was enjoying the time that was passing, sitting on a chair at Sarah’s kitchen table and drinking coffee. Sarah’s eyes smiled over her cup as she took a sip from her coffee.
“What time do you have to get up?” asked Sarah, putting her cup onto the table cloth.
“I really don't have a schedule,” said Jude. He took a sip of his coffee. It wasn't as good as what Montoya brought to him. Use to bring in, he thought, a pang of guilt hitting him where it hurt the most. He would have wanted me to be happy, he thought, looking into the blue eyes that regarded him. Maybe she will be the one to bring that to me.
“Because of being a homicide detective?” she asked, putting her elbows on the table and leaning her face into her hands.
“Normally I have pretty regular hours,” said Jude, taking the handle of the coffee pot and pouring a freshening dollop into his cup. “We're normally on a schedule. I'm most often on the day shift, but sometimes I rotate to night.”
“But you've been working night and day since I've known you. Why?”
“Because I'm the best we have at forensic magic,” he said, looking away from her face so he wouldn't see a disapproving look. He looked back at her as he thought about what he had just said. “I don't mean to say that I'm all that great. Just that I'm the only Forensic Mage the department has at the moment.”
“Why is that?”
“Because there is a high burnout rate in this profession,” he said, dropping another sugar cube into his cup, hoping the sweet would cover the bitter taste of the coffee. “Because people make more money in private industry, if they have any talent.”
Because you can only take so much of seeing the last thing some poor soul saw before their life was ripped away from them, thought Jude, looking into space. Or communing with a soul that is still going through the first trauma of being separated violently from its body, still coming to terms with its dreary existence. He thought for a moment more about that. He had communed with the souls of Church followers, and they were different somehow. Not saddened by their demise, but looking forward to going on to something better. And they left this world much sooner than the souls of unbelievers, like they were pulled from this existence to another world. Could it be true?
“And why haven't you gone into industry?” asked Sarah, giving him a little hand wave to catch his attention. “Why keep putting yourself through something that is obviously causing you great distress?”
“Some clinical insight?” asked Jude with a smile.
“It doesn't take a professional to see that you are hurting,” she said, reaching a hand over the table and touching his forearm. “So why keep at it?”
“Because I'm needed,” he answered, wondering if that was really it. “Because there's no one else to do it. Because I just can't quit. Especially right now, with these demonic killings scaring everyone in the city.”
And maybe that damned battleship destroyed whatever it was, he thought, looking again into the enchanting face of the woman, hoping he could have some kind of normal life again, maybe continue to make a connection with Sarah. Not my luck, he thought. Looking away. And I've still got to worry about Lucius Daemon. I don't think he's going to forget what I said to him. Not a chance.
He looked up and was just about to open his mouth to tell her how lovely she looked, when a charcoal colored object came jumping onto th
e table. Curious green eyes looked into his, then silken fur rubbed against his hand.
“Dobin,” said Sarah, reaching over to grab the cat and pull her away. “You know better than that.”
The smallish cat let out a plaintive meow as it was dragged back away from the guest it had wanted to see.
“She just recognizes a cat lover,” said Jude with a smile, holding his hand out where the cat could smell it. “I know Santana would love her.”
“Your cat?”
“By default I guess,” said Jude, feeling his face pinch as he thought about the original owner.
“He was your wife’s, wasn’t he?”
“Just a big fur ball,” he said with a choke in his voice. “Fifteen pounds of orange fur.”
“I’d love to see him some day,” said Sarah, stroking Dobin, then letting the cat go to walk over to Jude.
“I keep him in the house,” said Jude, running his hand down the back of the small animal. “I wouldn’t trust him out of the apartment. Not in this city.”
“Dobin stays indoors as well,” said Sarah, smiling at the man playing with her animal.
“You’d probably not see her again if you let her roam,” he said with a frown.
She nodded her head, a troubled expression on her face.
“You know we had dogs back on the mission,” she finally blurted out. Jude looked up at her, a questioning look on his face.
“It wasn’t like this,” she said, waving a hand at the small window that looked out on a lighted alley. “It was safe to let the animals run free, as long as they didn’t run into the wastelands.”
Jude nodded, his mind picturing the semi wastelands of the mission itself, barely eking out an existence in the middle of dead lands. He wondered how they lit their lands without the use of magic. The only thing he could think of was oil or gas lamps, or possibly something using that dangerous force, electricity.
“We taught the dogs not to go there. The cats already knew to avoid the wastes. They had the instinct. And the dogs were trained to keep the animals that might get out of the fencing from going into danger.”
“Didn’t the Shadows sometimes get on your lands?” asked Jude, thinking about farms he had seen in the hinterlands of the city. They were more like fortresses than the comfortable country holdings one saw in the old books.
“The Shadows never come on our lands,” said Sarah with a faraway look in her eye. “The Good God would not allow it.”
“The Good God would not allow it,” repeated Jude, wondering what she meant. The Shadows went where they could in his world. Only the vigilance of men and the use of magic kept them within any kind of boundaries.
“You really need to see a mission,” she said with enthusiasm, reaching out to clasp one of his hands with both of hers. Her blue eyes looked into his, and Jude thought he could spend many hours looking back into them.
“This city, and the lands around it, are not natural,” she said, looking down at the table. “The missions are the Earth as the Good God meant it to be. You need to come with me one weekend to see for yourself.”
Jude stroked the back of her hand with his. She looked back in his eyes, and a red blush rose on her cheeks. He could feel the heat rising in his own face, and knew that he mirrored her blush. That was OK in his mind. This was someone worth pursuing. Someone to make him forget what he had already lost. Someone worth taking the time with.
“I would love to see where you’re from,” said Jude, smiling as he looked into her deep blue eyes. “When this case is over and I have the time.”
“And the case can’t do without you?”
“Like I said, I’m the only one with my particular talent in the city department,” said Jude with a frown. “Most Readers work for the Feds, or for Intelligence. Or go into private industry, if they have any sense.”
“You've got to take a vacation, don't you? What do they do when you are not available?”
“Maybe call in those feds, but the city doesn’t like to do that. They demand favors in return. Or do old fashioned detective work. But with Lucius Daemon calling for action I’m stuck with these killings until we solve and stop them.”
“That is an evil man,” said Sarah, pulling her hand away and reaching for her coffee. “I can feel the evil in him.”
“Some would call him a wise leader,” said Jude, watching her eyes closely. “Some would call him the savior of mankind, he and his company.”
“And what would you call him?” she said, her eyes narrowing.
“I’m not sure I should say anything,” he said, thinking that this was not where he wanted their conversation to go. “But he gives me a feeling of unease as well. He and his wife. I…”
Jude felt the tingling feeling that presaged someone trying to contact him. He looked into his own mind in confusion for a moment, wondering why they couldn’t get through.
“You aren’t linked into the city com network, are you?” he asked his hostess, feeling the something urgently trying to get through to him.
“Not my apartment, no,” said Sarah, looking at him quizzically. “Oh, someone’s trying to call you. You can go into the hallway, and they can get through.”
Jude nodded his head and got up from the table, moving toward the door and glancing at his pocket watch as he walked. It was ten after midnight, and he was sure the call was not to see how his night had gone. As soon as he hit the doorway and moved out into the hall the message came through loud and clear.
“There you are, Parkinson,” came the mental voice of Major Malcolm Dowdie, anger and exasperation coming through the link. “Where the hell have you been.”
“I was with a friend, Major,” said Jude, fighting to keep his own anger from flaring, knowing it would do no good to antagonize his superior at this moment. “They, uh, aren’t connected to the com net.”
“Not connected,” said the Major, anger again flaring. “Well, never mind. We have another one, over on the East Side by the river. Do you want us to send a car for you, or can you get here on your own in the next fifteen?”
Jude looked at a mental map of the city he had cast into his memory years ago. The address the Major gave was a flashing dot on the map, and he saw that the nearest metro ran a line straight by that location.
“I’ll grab to elevated and be there in ten,” said Jude, looking back at the apartment door, where Sarah looked out at him with worried eyes.
“I have to go,” he told her, walking back into the apartment to grab his coat. As he started to walk out she grabbed his arm, turned him, and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Be careful,” she said. “I had a wonderful time, and would like to do it again.”
“Me too,” he said, tipped his hat to her, and walked to the stairs. He went down them two at a time, feeling like a little child, excitement running through him.
Chapter Twelve
As he hit the street he noticed several men in trench coats standing on the corner, looking his way. One whispered something to the other, then got into a car while the other started his way, slowly, obviously not wanting to actually catch up to him. Jude gave the man a glare, then turned and walked to the elevated station down the block. He could hear the scuffing of the man’s feet as he followed behind, probably not used to walking as fast as the Detective. Jude wished he had the time to confront the man, but needed to get to the scene as soon as he could. Maybe later, he thought, running up the stairs to the elevated platform and jumping into the train before it left the station. He made it, and his tail didn’t.
He threw himself into a seat and watched as the man cursed and flung his hat to the floor of the station, then headed back down the steps to the street. Jude wondered what that was about, thinking of several people who might be interested in his actions, including Daemon Corp and the Magara, the Secret Police. If they had been Daemon's men he was sure they would have both come after him, and tried to find a spot to take him out. He didn't think that would be true of the Magara.
They tended to just watch people to make sure they weren’t doing something they might not like. But under Daemon's orders they might try to do more. He shrugged his shoulders and forgot about that concern for the moment, instead focusing his thoughts on the com net and saying the words to give him access to the police information portion of that network.
Jude looked over the limited information that had been posted on there by patrol calls. Gloria Knight, white female about thirty-nine years old. Senior tech with Daemon Corp, what else was new? Found dead in her apartment after neighbors on both sides of her called in about her glass doors shattering. Found with her little dog on the couch whimpering next to her body. He sat up in his seat as he looked at the verbal description of that body, surprised at its state.
The train slowed down as it approached the next stop, then squealed to a halt. Fifteen seconds to let passengers on and off, not that there were many at this time of night. Then it rolled on again, accelerating away as it rode over the magic charged rails that allowed it to go faster than it would otherwise.
Releasing himself from the net, Jude looked out the window of the train as the buildings passed by. Streets flashed by between the buildings, going for several lighted blocks before they hit a dark area, the nearby shadow zone, where the magical grid did not go and no one dared to live. Jude stared down each street as it passed, looking into the deep darkness where the Shadows lived. A few times he saw what looked like deeper shadows moving within the darkness, the beasts of darkness which ruled the dark. He thought back to what Sarah had said, wondering if there was truly a place where the demons could be forbidden to tread. And not just places where the bright light projected by man kept them away, on a temporary basis. She certainly believed that, and he wasn’t one to discount what others believed, unless he had seen evidence to the contrary.
The train slowed at the next stop, the one he needed to get off at. Jude got up from his seat and grabbed one of the straps overhead, then made his way to the car’s door, steadying himself on seat backs and overhead grabs. He got to the door as the train jerked to a halt, and slid out the door as it was opening. He checked the platform, careful to examine the few people that were out. A couple of others were exiting the train and heading toward the steps. Some people in ragged clothes, a pair of them with three children, sat or lay on benches underneath the station lights. Homeless people protecting themselves from the dark. It would be much harder when the winter came, and they had to guard themselves from the weather as well.
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