The Stars Never Rise (The Midnight Defenders Book 2)

by Joey Ruff

  He did. “Good,” she said. She moved the piece a few more places, had him take more breaths. When she’d finished with that, she made a note on her clipboard, removed the stethoscope from her ears, and said, “Take off your jacket, please.”

  “We appreciate you coming out to look at him,” I said.

  “Sure, Swyftt. No problem. It’s been an insane week already, why wouldn’t I just be thrilled to come in on my day off?”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “I’ve been pulling double shifts all week as it is, due to us being short staffed with what happened to Hastings, and tomorrow, my only other day off this whole week, I have the funeral.”

  “Funeral?” I asked, curious. “Whose?”

  “Dr. Hastings,” she said in the same tone. “Haven’t you heard?”

  “No,” I said. My breath caught in my throat.

  “It’s been hard on everyone, and I’ve taken the lion’s share of his patients, of which he had many, being somewhat of a local celebrity.”

  “What, uh, what’s she talking about?” DeNobb asked.

  “The centaur that came through here,” I said. “The cover story for the death and damage, where the media was concerned, was a desperate father with a big gun. Hastings was the guy given the credit for taking him down.”

  “But…you did that?” DeNobb said.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Synder was after Hastings, though. It seemed like a fair trade, make the victim the hero.” I turned back to Cooper. “What happened to him?”

  “He was killed,” she said. “Animal attack, from what I understand. It wasn’t pretty.”

  “Oh my God,” DeNobb said. Beside me, I felt Kinnara tense.

  “That’s terrible, love,” I said, but my tone was more thoughtful than grieving.

  “So you can imagine the precious sleep I give up to be at your beck and call and how annoyed I am when there’s nothing even remotely wrong with your patient.”

  “What?” DeNobb and I said at the same time.

  “From a medical stand-point,” she said. “He’s fine. I guess we can order some x-rays, make sure there’s no internal damage.”

  I glanced at DeNobb. I hadn’t paid him any attention for the past few minutes, but sure enough, there wasn’t a bruise on his physique.

  “Cut him,” I said.

  “Excuse me?” Cooper said.

  “Yeah,” echoed DeNobb, “what?”

  “Not ‘what’.” I looked at Kinnara. “Twenty minutes ago, he was covered in bruises. Now, nothing. Cut him; see how fast he heals.”

  “I’m not going to cut a patient,” she said. “Do no wrong, remember?”

  I looked at DeNobb thoughtfully and he met my gaze with a worried expression of his own. “How you feeling?”

  He shrugged. “Fine?”

  “You were in a hell of a lot of pain earlier.”

  “Yeah. I seem to remember that.”

  I looked back at Cooper. “I guess he’s fine.”

  She sighed, grumpily. “What were you doing when the pain set in?”

  “Um,” he said and looked at me with a worried expression.

  “We were being attacked,” I said.

  “Okay?” she said. “An attack would indicate a source of pain, Swyftt.”

  “He wasn’t being hit,” I said. “I think it’s a combination of stress and adrenaline. He has these, umm…”

  “Gremlins,” DeNobb said.

  “Gremlins?” Cooper said.

  “As dumb as that sounds,” I said. “Yes. They look like blisters or something.”

  “Boils,” DeNobb said.

  “He grows smaller scaled versions of, well, himself and…. It’s complicated.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Sounds it.” She rubbed her eyes. “This is too much to process right now.”

  I looked at DeNobb. “Show her.”

  “I can’t do it at will,” he said.

  “Then what fucking good are you?” I looked at Cooper. “Just bill Terry time and half for this one, okay?”

  “Fine,” she said. “Are you coming to the funeral?”

  “You need me at that funeral like you need an angry troll tromping through your cabbage patch. Which, incidentally, isn’t too far from what might happen if I show up.”

  “Alright,” she said. “I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean.” She looked at DeNobb. “You can put your shirt back on.”

  He started to, and I said, “Wait. I need you to run some blood work for me.”

  “Swyftt,” she said.

  “Cooper, he’s not normal. Terry’s never seen anything like this, and I don’t even begin to know how to figure this out. We need science, biology.”

  “It could be completely inconclusive.”

  “Yes,” I agreed. “But if you run this test, we can at least verify if he’s human or not. That’s…well, it’s pretty damned huge in terms of factoring out what he isn’t.”

  “Things are pretty slow tonight, I can probably get it before I leave. I can’t guarantee when they’ll get the results back though.”

  I nodded.

  “Fine,” she said. “Let me get my equipment.”

  17

  After the hospital, we went home. I was a little nervous about bringing Kinnara home to meet the folks, but she refused to leave. DeNobb didn’t have a place to go home to, and besides that, I felt sorry for the guy – it must’ve been a lack of sleep on my part.

  As I navigated the winding drive, I dialed the house number on my cell. Nobody picked up the first time, so I tried again. Finally, Ape answered. “Jono, what? Do you realize what time it is?”“You sound like Cooper.”

  “Dr. Cooper? Is everything okay? Where are you?”

  “It’s fine, mate, relax. Meet me in the kitchen.”

  “The…when?”

  “Now.”

  I hung up the phone and glanced at the passengers. DeNobb stared vacantly out the window, and Kinnara watched the stone foo statues intently.

  “Yeah,” I said. “They’re creepy. You get used to them.”

  She didn’t say anything, just kept staring.

  As we got out of the car and moved to the house, she stopped and smelled the air. “A storm is approaching.”

  “How do you…?”

  “A thunderbird is near.”

  I eyed her curiously, and then I searched the sky. It was a dark and starless night, revealing nothing to me, but for all I knew, a nest of gargoyles could be circling above unseen.

  We entered the kitchen, and Ape was brewing coffee. He wore only a pair of shorts a little more modest than boxers. He looked like a sasquatch, and his hair was all matted from sleeping.

  As he turned around, he was startled. “I didn’t realize you were bringing company.” He must’ve noticed my torn clothes then, because he asked, “What the hell happened? You look terrible.”

  “Well,” I said, walking over to the coffee machine. I took a mug from the cabinet as DeNobb took a seat at the table. Kinnara continued to stand by the doorway. She looked about as at ease as a caged bird. “I went to take DeNobb, here, home, and we found that he had a gargoyle infestation.”

  Ape swore, which made me smile. “How many were there?”

  “One,” I said. “It was enough.”

  “Infestation usually means…”

  “Fine. Maybe not the best choice of words.” I eyed him maliciously. “There was a gargoyle in his apartment, seemed to have busted straight through the window in the side of his place.”

  “What’s she doing here?” He didn’t even look at her. Maybe he knew what she was, or maybe, in her, he saw what Lorelei had become to me. Ape didn’t like Lorelei, didn’t trust her, didn’t like what she brought out of me or the way she made me act. He felt about her the way he felt about Anna’s pool: mistrust. Although, in his defense, he had the right not to trust Lorelei. After all, he was vulnerable to her charms.

  “She’s my guest,” I said. “Relax, mate. She’s good for i
t. She saved my life. More than once, probably.”

  “I’m not sure I want her in my house.”

  “Well, I live here, too. And I want her here.” I looked from her to Ape. “Besides, she’s playing my bodyguard, and she’s not willing to leave.”

  “Can I speak with you in the dining room a moment?” Then he stalked off into the other room.

  I looked between Kinnara and DeNobb and said, “I’ll be right back. Make yourselves at home.”

  When we were alone, he said, “Tell me you’re not sleeping with her.”

  “What? No. Why do you care, anyway?”

  “She’s a siren.”

  “She’s a harpy.”

  “Oh. That makes it worse.”

  “How does that make it worse?”

  “She’s a cold-blooded killer, Jono. The moment she decides you’re not worth keeping alive, she’ll stick a talon through your back and that’ll be it.”

  “If she wanted me dead, all she’d have to do is stop saving my sorry arse.”

  “You’re off your game.”

  “You always say that,” I said with a grin.

  “It’s Anna. You’ve been spending too much time….”

  “Don’t start that bullshit with me again.”

  “You never needed a fucking harpy bodyguard in the past. The only reason you feel like you need one now is either you’re sleeping with her or you’re scared.”

  I didn’t say anything at first, and then I said, “I fell to my death tonight. Thirty stories straight down. I could have been a puddle on the street. She swooped in like fucking Superman.” I paused to give him a moment, but he kept silent. “As I fell, I had a thought: what if Seven got wind that someone was coming after me? Maybe that’s why he was trying to reach me, why he was killed?”

  “While I can’t deny that plenty of people undoubtedly want you dead, who would send a thunderbird to do it?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “It was a thought. I’ve been doing this for over twenty years. I’ve made more than my share of enemies.”

  “So you’re keeping her around for that?”

  “Who better? She’s calm. She’s focused.”

  “She’s beautiful.”

  “That’s an understatement, mate. She’s the daughter of a goddess.”

  “And yet, you’re not sleeping with her.”

  “Bodyguard,” I said. “That’s it.”

  “If you start singing that Whitney Houston song…”

  “Rubbish.”

  He thought for a moment. Then he said, “She sticks around for now, but the moment we close the books on this case….”

  “That’s what I’m telling you.”

  “Unless you really are sleeping with her.”

  “Well, apparently you want to.”

  “I know you.”

  “Not gonna happen,” I said. “I…kissed Lorelei.”

  “Jesus,” he said quietly. “And where is she in all this?”

  “Don’t know. Skipped town for some family thing. She left Kinnara here.”

  “And when she gets back?”

  I shrugged.

  “This is the worst news I’ve heard all day.” He shook his head and looked around, then he stared at me, holding my gaze. “Anna, I get. But that bitch is nothing but bad news. Stay away from her. Don’t get back with her.”

  “Ape,” I said. “We’re not having this conversation. Not now, especially.”

  “Jono…”

  “No. But we can talk about the tiny little Nadia I found.”

  “Uh…what are you talking about?”

  “At DeNobb’s. When the gargoyle attacked us, he popped out two of those homuncu, uh…”

  “Homunculi.”

  “Gremlins.”

  He eyed me. “What?”

  “His word, not mine. It’s just easier to say.”

  “Okay.”

  “One splattered, but the other one was Nadia. Looked just like her, had her powers and everything.”

  “Hmm…”

  “What?”

  “It’s interesting.”

  “And it means…?”

  “They touched earlier. They held hands. Possibly, he absorbed some of her DNA.”

  “Permanently?”

  “Doubtful,” he said. “Most likely, the homunculus was conceived as they touched.”

  I shuddered. “Don’t say it like that. The last thing I want to think about is Nadia…conceiving…”

  He shrugged. “I’d need to run tests.”

  “Good,” I said. “Do tests. He wasn’t completely useless in a fight. Well, he was, but his gremlins were a good distraction. He has no control over it, doesn’t know how he’s doing it. He’s just gotten lucky so far.”

  “It’ll take time, Jono.”

  “You’ve got time. I figured he can stay here until he can find another place.”

  “You figured what?!” His eyes grew wide in disbelief. “What in the hell is wrong with his place?”

  “Let’s just say it caught fire.”

  “You destroyed his home?” He shook his head. “That’s low, Jono. Even for you.”

  “It was a fight. It wasn’t my fault. You know gargoyles and fire don’t mix.”

  “You’re absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “I can’t believe you.”

  “What? You said you needed time to do tests. I just gave it to you.”

  “I’m gonna get you back for this, Jono. Just wait.”

  “Whatever.”

  “So, where is it now?”

  “Where is what?”

  “The gargoyle.”

  “Dead,” I said. “Between Kinnara and the troll.”

  “What troll? You never mentioned a troll.”

  “Yeah. There was a troll. Which reminds me. Where’s Nadia?”

  “It’s two in the morning. Where the hell do you think she is?”

  “Alright. I need to talk to her. Can you play nice with Kinnara while I’m gone?”

  “I can try.”

  “That means putting some bloody pants on, mate.”

  “And you’re not sleeping with her?”

  I smiled at him and disappeared up the stairs. I knew the house well enough to navigate it in the dark, and a minute later, I was outside Nadia’s bedroom. Out of habit, I knocked, but when she didn’t answer, I slipped inside.

  She liked to read by candlelight, and half the time, she fell asleep with the flames still burning. Her room was dark when I entered, but I fumbled along until I found her side table and the lighter.

  As I lit the candles, I noticed the old, worn leatherbound tome sitting on her nightstand – probably something she found in Ape’s library. I was drawn to it, maybe for the bizarre runes etched into the cover or because it was a book so uncharacteristic of anything else I’d seen Nadia read. Certainly, it was a far cry from the worn copy of Vonnegut’s Slaughter House Five, that lay open half-falling from her limp hand.

  I picked up the tome, found a used popsicle stick stuck into a page as a bookmark and opened to the page. At first, I thought I was just too tired to make sense of it, but after studying it for a second, I realized that it wasn’t English on the page. It could’ve been Latin or Greek. I didn’t know.

  I turned back to Nadia. She slept so peacefully I almost hated to wake her, but some things couldn’t wait until morning.

  “Nadia,” I said, gently but not very quietly. When I shook her, she made a noise, but didn’t open her eyes. She shrugged away from my touch. “Come on, love,” I said. “I need your help with something. I need you to wake up now.”

  “Hmm, Jono,” she said and wriggled a bit without actually changing positions.

  “Come on,” I said. “Don’t make me pour water on you.”

  Her face wrinkled. “Why would you wanna do that? That’s mean.”

  “Are you awake?”

  She yawned. “Yeah…guess.” She opened her eyes slowly and repositioned herself to where she was sitting up a little. S
he was wearing Huxley’s amulet.

  “I didn’t know you slept in it,” I said.

  She looked down at the amethyst and then back at me. “Sometimes,” she admitted. “I, uh, was reading the book here, and the bird says poo-tee-weet. I don’t know. Something about that made me think of a song Huxley would sing. It…made me miss him. I just wanted to feel him, I guess.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “Well, here’s the thing, though, Jono. When I put the amulet on and thought about that song…I could hear him singing it.” She looked up at the ceiling, as if the words were written there, and she started singing in a sweet, high voice, “Oh the cuckoo, she’s a pretty bird. She wobbles when she flies.”

  “I know that song,” I said. “I’ve heard him sing it.”

  “Yeah. I guess he sang me to sleep.”

  I smiled at her.

  “What?”

  “That’s pretty much why I wanted to talk to you.”

  “About the cuckoo song?”

  “No. About the amulet.”

  “You saw it again? The troll?”

  I nodded.

  “Well,” she said, and there was a fine hesitation in her voice. “Let’s try it out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Tell me the story.”

  “The story of the troll?”

  She just looked at me.

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Maybe hearing the story will allow me to, I don’t know, access his memories about it?”

  “Worth a try, I guess.”

  I watched her for a minute. Part of me wanted to tell her that I was sorry…though I wasn’t really sure for what. I guess I’d been hard on her, and Ape said she needed me. That I’d been forsaking her to be with Anna. I wanted to tell her all of that, but didn’t know how.

  She arched an eyebrow at me. “Everything okay?”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, great.”

  She eyed me curiously. “Jono… Tell me the damn story.”

  18

  The troll had run off, but Huxley said he knew where it had gone, so I was chasing him through an old basement.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “The troll has gone to ground, Swyftt. We have it on the run. We have to follow it and finish it off.”

  “Right. So where are we going? The damn thing jumped in the river.”