Crane, R [ Southern Watch 03] Corrupted

by Robert J. Crane

  “Not exactly,” Lerner said, looking a little pained. Duncan appeared in his wake, a little more solicitous. “What the hell just happened here?”

  ***

  “Well, this is awkward.” Hendricks spoke the words out loud, not even bothering to filter them because they were exactly what he was thinking, and they damned sure fit the situation. He and Alison were standing in the little room upstairs that was just down the hall from the one still cordoned off with police tape. Not that he’d eyeballed it as he went past.

  Lucia was shutting the door, and she was doing it slowly. While she did, he had a marvelous view of her back, and her ass was a thing of beauty, he had to concede. The curves of it were just visible at the top of the gown’s skirt. Erin’s was nice as well, but Lucia had some muscular firmness going on that Erin’s didn’t. Not that he was complaining.

  “Let me make you more comfortable,” Lucia said as she turned from the door. He could tell it was a persona she was putting on, but the persona was nothing like the hollow, robotic feeling he got from Starling. Lucia was a little clumsy with it, but it was still seductive in its way. He wasn’t feeling it, but that likely had more to do with the third wheel in the room with him than any failings on her part.

  “I don’t know that you can,” Hendricks said, standing stiff—in more ways than one he realized with surprise and folded his coat closed. He caught Alison eyeing him and suspected she knew. There was also a waver in Lucia’s voice; that was the main thing that gave her away. He felt his interest subside and a little shame came to him for thinking of her this way. She was paid to be interested; she wasn’t actually interested, and with that realization, he felt his own interest dissolve.

  “Let me try,” Lucia said and swept close to him. She had a nice fragrance, but it wasn’t doing anything for Hendricks now that he’d been reminded what she was. He’d had a little trouble remembering what he was here to do for a moment, and that embarrassed him even more.

  “It’s okay,” Hendricks said, and took a step back as she placed a hand on his chest. “I don’t … um …”

  “What’s the matter, baby?” Lucia murmured and shot a look toward Alison. “You want to watch us first?”

  “Not gonna happen,” Alison said.

  A flicker of uncertainty crossed Lucia’s pale face as she turned her attention back to Hendricks, and he realized it was because he was the one she was more comfortable trying to sweet-talk. “You’re still pretty new at this, aren’t you?” His brain didn’t feel much of a filter in the stark clarity of that moment, and he just let it tumble right out. “The whole seduction thing? A little inexperienced?”

  He caught a hint of embarrassment in the eyes, like she was stung he’d figured that out, and she went scarlet in the cheeks. “Let me show you what I’m not inexperienced at.”

  “Where’s Starling?” Alison said, cutting through all the crap and turning both Hendricks and Lucia’s head toward her in a hot second. “We’re here to see Starling, not have an orgy.”

  Lucia’s jaw dropped a little, then she managed to scoop it back up and close it. “Who … is Starling?” She just wasn’t convincing enough. The naivety did her in, and Hendricks exchanged a look with Alison that told him she read it the same as him.

  “You’ve at least heard the name before,” Hendricks said, moving his head to look her in the eye. Her focus was split between him and Alison, watching them both like they were gonna bum rush her any minute. “That much is obvious.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her voice wavered.

  “I don’t quite believe you,” Hendricks said.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lucia said, but the cadence changed midway through her words and her eyes shifted constantly. “I think we should either get to the business at hand or you should leave—”

  “Okay,” Alison said.

  “Yeah, we’ll go,” Hendricks said. “We don’t want any trouble.”

  “I meant you should sleep with her,” Alison said.

  Hendricks sent her the most raised eyebrow look of What the fuck? he could manage. She shrugged in response. “I am not … no.” He shook his head.

  “Then we should leave,” Alison said. “Kind of a shame, though; I thought maybe she’d feel a little more truthful after you tickled her for a bit.”

  “How did you even marry Arch?” Hendricks asked in horror as he made for the door. He left Lucia standing in the middle of the room. “You know—reserved guy, quiet, really religious, probably not into suggesting sex with hookers—”

  “It’s not like I would have hung around and watched,” Alison said, sounding vaguely offended. “I just thought maybe if you talked to her privately—”

  “Yeah, really privately,” Hendricks said as he reached for the door handle, glaring back at her the entire time. “Like, in flagrante delicto, with my privates talking directly to hers, apparently—” There was a flash of something and the faint mood lighting in the room went darker by about ten shades. “What the—?”

  “Lafayette Hendricks,” the cool voice reached him. He looked back at Lucia, standing in the middle of the room. It only took a couple seconds for him to realize that Lucia was gone, really gone. It was the eyes, of course. They were a whole different shade now, something different than they’d been before. And the innocence was gone, whatever of it there had been. “I heard you were looking for me.”

  He stood there with the door slightly cracked and shut it back gently. Alison was standing there, watching too, just a step from the door herself. “Well, what do you know,” she said.

  Hendricks had to agree with that assessment. “Hello, Starling.”

  ***

  “What the hell are you doing here?” Erin asked, still trying to catch her breath after Lerner scared the shit out of her.

  “I asked you first,” Lerner said, annoying the fuck out of her. “What the hell was that?”

  “I don’t know,” Erin said, shaking her head. “It broke all the lights as it came down the path. Sounding like … I don’t even know, like a swarm of demonic bees or a giant devil worm.”

  Lerner raised an eyebrow at her. “Demonic bees, huh? Well, I can assure you that’s not a thing.”

  Duncan spoke. “Blurr’ashaa.”

  Lerner rolled his eyes. “Okay, other than blurr’ashaa, which this probably is not, since they tend to stay in Asia and Africa, there are no demonic bees.” He gave Duncan the stink eye. “Besides, blurr’ashaa don’t break lights as they pass.”

  “True,” Duncan said. He looked at Erin, and he seemed concerned. “You all right?”

  “Other than shitting my pants in fear and nearly shooting Dicky Lerner here, yeah,” Erin said, holstering her gun, “I’m fine.”

  “I should change my name to Dicky,” Lerner mused aloud. “It fits. Richard Lerner, Esquire.”

  “You’re not a lawyer,” Erin said, eyeing him with a level of irritability that was falling slowly, replaced by a weak sense of gratitude.

  “That you know of,” Lerner said with a wide grin. “Admit it, it would explain a lot if I was.”

  “Uh oh,” Duncan said, and Erin noticed a glazed look in his eyes.

  “Relax, I’m not changing my name to Dicky,” Lerner said. “It was just a joke.”

  “No, there’s—” Duncan started to speak, but a scream—faint but bloodcurdling—cut him off from down the path.

  In the direction the swarm—the thing—had gone.

  “Shit!” Erin said out loud, and she took off without really thinking about it. She drew her pistol as she ran, and saw Lerner and Duncan blast past her at a pace that made them look like superheroes or something as they tore down the path. They disappeared into the darkness without a whisper, without a sound, save for their dress shoes hitting the asphalt ahead. Erin was tempted to tell them to wait up, but it wouldn’t really do to have to shout for the demons to come back and protect her. She was a deputy sheriff of Calhoun County, for fuc
k’s sake.

  And she was running alone on a path infested by demons of a kind she couldn’t even identify.

  She sped up.

  Her breath came in short gasps, legs pounding against the trail. Trees covered this part of the path, obscuring the glow of the moon where it turned the clouds a silvery-white. The river made its noise off to her side, and she could not hear the buzzing, not now.

  The sulfur smell was still there, though. Lingering, like they’d left a trail of it. Like slugs.

  Her flashlight beam bounced as she ran, illuminating the asphalt. She slowed as the flashlight started to show figures ahead in the dark, catching the first hint of something other than a blank path in front of her. One of them moved and the light caught the eyes, lighting them up red like an exposure on those pictures Erin had seen from her childhood. It took only another second for her to realize it was Duncan, looking back at her in the night.

  He was kneeling, and after another moment Lerner appeared just down the trail from him. He was standing, arms folded, a look of disgust on his features.

  “What is it?” Erin asked with a sense of growing dread. She slowed to a walk, as though she knew it was something bad without waiting for the answer. Her mind was telling her to stay back, to get away.

  “See for yourself,” Lerner said. He didn’t look happy about this. Not that he ever looked happy, really.

  Erin edged closer, taking the slow walk. The beam bounced with her every step. She caught the shine just under Duncan’s leg where he squatted, the dark liquid betraying a red tinge as it reflected her light.

  Blood.

  It only took a few more steps to see what Duncan was huddled over. Another figure, mangled and missing limbs. This one looked like it had been dragged along the path, skin missing and flayed to expose part of the skeleton. The blood dribbled out here and there as she stood over it.

  “Sweet Jesus,” she said, and thumbed her mike. “Dispatch, this is eighteen. Send a coroner van to Rafton Park.” She paused, and felt a little wave of nausea sweep over her. “And you might want to wake the sheriff, because we’ve got another one.”

  4.

  Arch awoke to the sound of his ringing phone. He hadn’t thought he was going to be able to sleep, what with Hendricks and Alison having gone to the brothel. He figured he’d lay awake in bed and toss for a spell until he’d finally get up and pace for a while. Apparently that hadn’t happened, though, because he was deep in a state of dreamland when he heard the phone’s jagged tones.

  He’d nearly swept everything off the nightstand in his bid to silence it before realizing exactly what it was. When he answered, he knew his voice was full of grog. “Hello?”

  It took him a minute to interpret everything the voice on the other end of the line was saying—static and the natural fuzziness of his own train of thought keeping him from understanding right away. It even took him a minute to realize it was Erin, not Hendricks or Alison, who was calling him. And another few seconds for everything she was saying to register.

  By the time he was fully awake, he was already moving toward the closet where his uniform waited. He had a feeling it was going to be another one of those days.

  Of course, every day had been one of those since the demons had come to town, but that was not a thought that reassured him.

  ***

  Starling stared at Hendricks. Hendricks stared right back at her. He couldn’t tell if it was the mood lighting in the whorehouse or if it was just something about her eyes, but he couldn’t tell what the hell color they were. He stared at her, ghostly white, in the middle of the room, trying to decide what to say, and then Alison went and solved that problem for him.

  “What the hell are you?” Alison asked.

  Starling cocked her head at Alison, and Hendricks just watched, wondering if she was going to snap at her, attack, continue to stare or maybe just answer truthfully.

  “I am a matter of no concern,” Starling said, a little too quickly.

  “You’re concerning us more than a little,” Hendricks said. That was truthful. Nobody liked an unsolved mystery.

  She turned right around to stare at him with those eyes, and Hendricks felt a little shudder. “This form is necessary to communicate with you. That is all that matters.”

  “So you’re not Lucia,” Hendricks said. Like he hadn’t already known that. “Who and what are you?”

  “Irrelevant,” Starling said.

  “Then what is relevant?” Alison asked, cutting right through the bullshit.

  “I am here to help,” Starling said. Hendricks couldn’t shake the feeling that this was the truth, though he didn’t know why. “To help you save this town from the destruction that is coming.”

  “How do you know what’s coming?” Hendricks asked, getting right back on point himself. “How do you know what’s happening here?”

  Starling did not say anything for a long moment. “Irrelevant. Do you want the help or not?”

  Hendricks kept himself from answering while he tried to consider the branching path that this conversation was taking. She had saved his life already—twice at least, by his count. “I could use some help,” he said finally. “But I could also use some answers.”

  “Here is an answer for you,” Starling said, and her voice had this echoing, otherworldly quality for a moment. “Destruction is coming to this town again—”

  “Again?” Hendricks muttered. “Is this a daily thing now?”

  “—and you will once more have to stop it.” She kept on talking like he hadn’t just smarted off.

  “That’s delightfully vague,” he said. “Got any kind of other warnings, like, ‘sometime in the future you’ll experience a headache’?”

  She cocked her head at him. “It is all the warning I have. The future is cloudy, and those aiming for the destruction of this place have taken care to cover their movements and activities.”

  “Right,” Hendricks said and looked toward Alison. “Sounds like she’s bound by the same vision problems as Duncan. Runes get in your eyes.”

  “There are other forces at work to cloud the future of this place,” she said, and again her voice turned different. “There is more going on here than you know.”

  “Which is why we were hoping you might answer some questions,” Hendricks said. “You know, in the interest of blowing away some of that fog we’re laboring under.”

  “I have no answers for you,” Starling said, voice back to nearly normal—but not quite like Lucia’s. “The path you must walk is covered in darkness because to allow you to see farther might corrupt your actions today.”

  “Corrupt them?” Hendricks dropped his head, looked at her in slight disbelief as he rolled his eyes upward to keep looking at her. “That’s a peculiar choice of words. How would my actions get corrupted?”

  “Darkness falls,” Starling said. Hendricks didn’t care for the poetic sound of it. “And blackens all that it touches. Staring into the future would allow you to see the darkness in its infinite and unfolding form. No man can look upon that and remain untouched by it.”

  Hendricks frowned. “Wait … you’re saying what’s coming is so bad that I’ll … what? Give up because I’m overwhelmed at the thought of it?”

  Starling merely stared at him. “It is not for me to say.”

  “And that’s what’s going to destroy us now?” Alison said. She still sounded like she was curiously uninvolved in anything going on around them, but Hendricks thought he caught a flicker of interest from her at this. “This unfolding darkness?”

  “What comes now is merely another harbinger—just as Ygrusibas was, just as the Sygraath was.” Her eyes flickered, as though there were light somewhere within them. “What is yet to come is that which I speak of—and that which will surely herald the end of days.”

  “Great,” Hendricks said, nodding. “So even if we beat whatever is coming at us now, the thing that’s coming somewhere down the line is so horrible I’ll take one look at it
and shrug my damned shoulders to give up. Marvelous.” He shook his head in sheerest irritation. “Listen, lady, I don’t think you know me—”

  “I know you, Lafayette Hendricks,” Starling said.

  “Then you know I’m motivated,” he said, just a little hotly. “You think some demon spawn—some ultimate evil—is going get me to throw in the towel and quit? Lady, if you really believe that, I don’t think you know me. Not at all. I’ve fought a war—”

  “This will be unlike anything you have ever seen,” Starling said. “Unlike anything any living human has seen.”

  “I—” Hendricks started.

  “Go to your husband,” Starling said, shifting her attention to Alison. “Another threat looms that requires your attention.” With that, the lighting dimmed for a second and Starling was shrouded in a sudden shadow. When it passed, she shook her head.

  “What the hell was that?” Lucia asked, her voice back to normal, eyes a glimmering green. Her hand came up to her face and rubbed her forehead.

  “Grim,” Hendricks said after a moment’s thought. He looked at Alison, and she looked back at him with enough of a look that he knew she’d at least heard it all with him. “Really fucking grim.”

  ***

  Erin was just standing by the body on the path, waiting. She’d thought about going back to the car for crime scene tape, but Reeve would be here in a few minutes, so why leave the body? Not like there was a high chance of someone coming along and messing with it—

  Wait, no, scratch that. If Erin really dug deep and examined it, a week ago she would have said it would have been impossible for this body to even be here. This was Calhoun County, Tennessee, dammit, and so boring that the high school kids didn’t even bother to hang around on Saturday nights.

  No, the idea that someone would even leave a body here was unlikely. The fact that this had already happened meant anything else she thought of as inconceivable was now fair game. So she had to stay by the body, lest some corpse-eating demon come along and destroy the evidence.