The Dark Communion (The Midnight Defenders)

by Joey Ruff

  She said nothing, but moved forward in the water, closer to the bench I sat on. “You doubt me? What would you say I am?” She stood. Naked. And so perfectly sculpted, she looked unnatural, yet … so right.

  She stepped from the pool, dripped all over the floor. “I did call you here for a reason, and I am prepared to give you what you seek. But first, you must give me something.” She reached up and pulled the tie out of her hair, shook her head as the locks fell around her shoulders. She sauntered up to me, straddled my knees and dripped onto my trousers.

  “I thought about you all night,” she said, breathing heavy. I breathed heavier too, stared at her marbled figure inches away. “When I entertained guests, it was you I was with, and I knew I had to see you again.”

  She was in my lap before I could protest and kissing me gently. The smooth warmth of her body, her breath, was too much. I couldn’t help myself and saw no reason to hold back. I kissed her and the passion overtook us.

  Before I knew it, we rolled on the floor, wrestled my clothes off on a stack of partially folded towels, and I took her the way she needed me to. After we finished, I took her again. Then once more in the hot tub.

  Eventually, I passed out, only to wake to the sound of screaming. I was alone in the room and naked in a crude nest of soiled white towels.

  I found my clothes nearby and dressed in such a silence I wondered if I’d imagined the screaming. Grabbed my jacket and moved to leave the room when I heard it again: a rugged, gruff yell interlaced with a gripping, uneasy pain. The sound of torture. From what I could tell, it wasn’t far away.

  I’d been a cop and a priest. Seen grown men cry, heard them curse their pain: gunshot wounds, amputated limbs, stomach cancer, heart ache. As a hunter, I’d seen men rent in half or slaughtered in gruesome ways, but the Midnight tended to kill swiftly and didn’t often allow their prey a voice.

  I never heard anything as bestial as those screams.

  I pushed through the curtain and into the hallway, stopped for a moment to listen and get my bearings. The sound came from one of the doors I’d passed on my way in. Quietly, I stole down the passage, stopped outside the door and pressed my ear against it. When I heard the cry again, Instinct took over. I gripped the door handle and stepped inside.

  The room was completely white and smelled sterile like a hospital room. Everything in it was polished and stainless steel: the large sink on the wall, the storage cabinet in the corner large enough to serve as a wardrobe, the pair of wheeled utility carts loaded for bear with surgical instruments – drills and scalpels, dental mirrors and picks, and other curvy, hooked utensils I didn’t know the names or functions of – and a table in the middle of the room on which lay a man: naked, terrified, and screaming in blistering, agonizing pain.

  It took a lot for him to scream the way he did, and he fought for breath between cries, whimpered helplessly and quietly. I’d never seen a face so distorted with fear and pain, but I couldn’t look away, because if I did, I might have had to look at what they were doing to him.

  He was belly-down on the metal table, his face to one side, hands and feet strapped down tightly by leather bands as thick as his wrists. His back was sliced from the base of his neck to his arse crack, and the flesh had been peeled back like the skin of some ripe fruit and held in place by metal hooks along the edge of the table. Soft, pink tissue was exposed along the blood-flecked white ridges of his spinal cord.

  Two women were with him – dancers from their flawless figures – both completely naked. The first stood near his face next to one of the utility carts. The other, Noelle, straddled his back, her hands resting against his shoulders and something that looked like the beak of a hummingbird protruded from her mouth into the area between his shoulder blades.

  They saw me almost immediately, turned with fierce, dangerous eyes. The thing in Noelle’s mouth retracted past her teeth as she hissed like a feral cat.

  Before I could move, Lorelei appeared behind me, motioned to the girls who seemed to instantly forget about me. She ushered me out into the hallway. As the door clicked shut behind me, the man’s screams tore through the silence like a chainsaw.

  Lorelei pressed her finger to my mouth as her eyes fixed on mine. I felt numb, so I just listened, and her words broke over me like the tide.

  “I make no apologies for what we are, Jono – my sisters and I. Sirens. But I am sorry that you had to learn of it this way.”

  “What the fuck was that in there?” I said. “What were they doing to him?”

  “Feeding.”

  “On what…exactly?”

  “Spinal fluid.”

  “Right. And you…you have one of those…” My hands moved in front of my mouth like a flutist. “A…a beak?”

  She nodded.

  I don’t remember what she said next. I felt sick, repulsed by what I’d seen, by what – not long ago – she and I had done together. Sure, I had known she wasn’t human. I’d known there was at least a possibility she was capable of dark, terrible things, but what I’d seen….

  And still, a part of me was awed by the fact that after all this time, there was still something I hadn’t seen, a creature I hadn’t come across. I was at a loss. But at the same time I was horrified and furious, and as the man in the room behind us screamed once again, I let her have it. “You fucking bitch!! What gives you the right…?”

  She smacked me, spun my face to the side. “How dare you come into my house and judge me? We act according to our nature, Swyftt. We are what we were created to be.”

  I laughed, started to walk away, but she put a firm hand on my shoulder. Her voice was softer now, pleading, but still carried that hard edge of anger. “I opened this club to bring foolish and willing humans to us, so we aren’t out there preying on the innocent. And at the same time, we draw in a crowd of Korrigan, which in turn keeps them off the streets and protects children and families.”

  “And you’ve never killed a family man who’s wandered in here?”

  “If they come willingly through those doors, it is not I that kills them, but their sin. They should be with those that love them. I consider their stories no more than you read the memoirs of the cows you slaughter.”

  “This is wrong.”

  “You and I are not so different, Jono. I help people, but only if it profits me.” She closed her eyes for a minute and took a deep breath. “If you do not wish to see me again, I will understand. But if you do anything rash, know this: If you bring an army against us, we will be forced to go to war, and there are more of us than you can imagine.”

  Silence a minute. I stared at her. Those long eyelashes parted and she looked at me earnestly. She was stunning, not like a monster. I sighed and said, “So you’re not vampires, right? I couldn’t deal with vampires.” She smiled. “Because I have this thing about vampires and how it’s just bullshit.”

  I left feeling angry, dirty and used. More than anything, I was confused.

  She gave up the sailors the next day, two of which went back to work on the ship, the third, however, had been fed upon and was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

  From there, we developed a semi-regular thing. As per our agreement, I never witnessed another feeding, never heard anymore screams, never went back into that room again. There was something completely unsettling about it.

  Imagine my horror then when I opened my eyes after being slam-danced and cracked like a nut against a stripper pole and saw the white walls, felt the cold steel underneath. I sat up suddenly, felt horrible pain shoot through my back, down my leg, and across my shoulders. My head ached, my nose throbbed, and I felt dried, caked blood around my mouth.

  “Easy,” came a voice from behind me. “You have had quite a time out there.”

  With a good deal of struggling and pain, I managed to turn enough to see the fiery red hair and soft lips of Lorelei. She wore a long, flowing, black dress, and apart from the red around the edges of her big eyes, she looked well put
together and quite the vision.

  “How long have I been out?” I said in a faint, hoarse whisper.

  “Several hours. Midnight passed some time ago. I am sorry you were attacked as you were. They would not have done that had I known you were here.” She sounded hurt.

  “Right, sorry ‘bout that, love. Guess it’d just been too long. I didn’t want things to get weird.”

  “You have not changed much. Still so good at making people scream and flail around helplessly, I see.”

  I managed a smile and then regretted it. My face hurt. “You’re talking about Seven?”

  Maybe she could tell how much effort it took to twist that way to see her, because she walked closer. I couldn’t help but smile warmly at her, remembering some of the times we shared. “I meant me. Though it has been a while, it is always a pleasure.” She stood so close I could taste her scent: Honeysuckle and sea air and the sweet nectar of a woman’s blossom. She ran a finger down my chest, traced some invisible pattern only she could see.

  With some difficulty, I swung my legs to the side and dangled them off the edge of the table. I watched her finger drawing sigils on my chest. Her nails, candy-apple red, sobered me. In so many ways, I was so weak, and any other night, I would have taken her in animalistic passion and heat, but now, all I could see in my mind, was a small severed hand and those hot pink tips. I held her wrist and looked into her eyes, turquoise and gold shimmering in an ethereal light. “Actually, tonight, it’s business.”

  She took her hand out of mine and began stroking the side of my face, moved even closer. Her hard nipples pressed against me. “By the Mother, I have missed you. You sure know how to keep a girl waiting.”

  “Been busy, Love. Missing children and all that.”

  “So I hear. Nasty business.”

  “Why do I get the feeling you know more than you’re telling me?”

  “Because I entertain a lot of important people, Love. A lot is said between the sheets. You have a minute, maybe you can find some of the answers you are looking for, but then again…maybe not.”

  I turned my head to the side, realized the pain was almost gone. My nose felt better, too. “Did you do something? Give me something?”

  “I work in the nervous system, Jono. I know a trick or two for pain. You are lucky I got to you, honestly.” Her smile was weak.

  We sat in silence a minute. Then I tried to stand, dropped a little, caught myself. “Easy,” she said and put one of my arms across her shoulders to help me stand. Her skin was so smooth. “Where are you trying to go?”

  I shrugged. “Don’t know.” I found the strength in my feet and was able to stand on my own, but I kept my arm around her, and she didn’t move away. She found my eyes with hers, held my gaze for a minute. We kissed, soft and gentle at first, then faster, hard and wet, and she parted my lips with her tongue. She tasted even better than she smelled.

  For a moment, I lost myself, but her roaming hands moved lower, tugged at my belt. My body longed for her, but my mind surged with clarity. Gently, I pushed her back. She let out a harried sigh, adjusted herself, teased her hair back. “You have no idea how much it annoys…and intrigues…me that my charms don’t work on you, do you?”

  I flashed her a cold smile. “I know exactly.”

  “Are you feeling better?”

  “Well enough,” I said. “I need to get going. I have to talk to Ape. He was expecting me a while ago.”

  She led me into the hallway. “How long had you been here before you picked a fight with my guards?”

  “Not long. Fifteen minutes or so.”

  “And you never sent word to me? Were you going to leave without saying anything?”

  I shrugged. “I told ya, love. It’s business tonight.”

  “You wound me, Jono.”

  “As much as I love the small talk, I did come here for a reason.”

  She said nothing, looked at me.

  “I’ve been hired to find a boy that’s been missing for almost two weeks. The client understands he might be dead but they’re paying for closure.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Humans and their need to know…. So you stir the supernatural waters and see what rises to the surface?”

  “See, you’re not just a pretty face.” I put a hand on her bare shoulder and steeled myself before looking in her eyes. “I need to know if you’ve heard anything, Lori.”

  “You know I take few clients these days. The information I have pertains not to children. I can ask my girls if they know anything…. But I do it only for you. And I do it only this once.” Her playful smile was back. “Unless, of course, you want to reciprocate.”

  I ignored her. “I appreciate you asking around.”

  We stood at the end of the lonely corridor, a heavy metal door set into the wall and one of those glowing, redlight exit signs perched overhead. Lorelei put a hand on the push-bar and applied enough pressure to crack the door, a little of the cool night air brushing past me. I took it as my cue to leave.

  “You have my number then?” One of her eyebrows went up. “In case you find anything.”

  She nodded. “Humans are sick, too, Swyftt. What makes you think this is anything but?”

  “I have a hunch what I’m dealing with is Korrigan. It’s not much to go on…”

  “More than just Korrigan feed on human flesh.”

  “Sure, but nine times out of ten, it’s one of those bastards.”

  “I will ask and contact you if I learn anything.”

  I nodded and thanked her.

  “I will call you, Jono,” she added, said each word slow and deliberate, made sure even I understood. “You caused quite the scene in there tonight, and that dirty Kory will expect compensation. As much as I miss you, you must not return for awhile.” Kory, that killed me. I wasn’t sure exactly what it meant, but to call a Korrigan that was about as offensive as you could get. I made the mistake once of using it on a Shade, and well, now I had a scar where my left nipple used to be.

  Sirens weren’t Korrigan. They were the children of Echidna, a giant serpent the Greeks believed to be the mother of all monsters, whom they worshipped as a goddess, calling her the Great Mother. They had a religion, of sorts, based on this.

  I shrugged. “It wasn’t as bad as all that.”

  “You pulled an iron knife on him.”

  I thought about it for a second. “Yeah, okay. Dick move. Give him a couple of dances. Bill me for ‘em.”

  “If he is still here.”

  “He’ll be back.”

  “Are you okay to drive?”

  I nodded. I didn’t hurt that bad anymore, she was as good as any magic I’d seen.

  Lorelei looked almost sad as I pushed the door open a little more and stepped outside. It was dark, but we were at the back edge of the parking lot, and there was a street light not too far away, so I could see enough to walk. I didn’t yet, just stood there looking at her. She looked so warm in the cold night she was practically steaming.

  “Next time you come back,” she said, “come back to see me.” She smiled, looked almost as shy as a virgin school girl. That might’ve been the first time I understood her feelings.

  She controlled every man she touched, except for me. What I did with her, I did freely. What she and I had, as twisted as it was, was the only real thing in her existence, possibly ever. That was too heavy to think about. “I have missed you. Pity you cannot stay a little longer.”

  “I enjoyed seeing you,” I said. With me, it was more complicated. I’d had real, and what Lorelei invited out of me was not love, not even close. It was just adulterated fun, and on some level, it was even needed. I hadn’t had a real relationship since Lara died, and I was so fucking lonely all the time. It was nice to get my cock sucked. And maybe because of that, Lori was the closest thing I had in my life to a relationship. Bollocks. It was complicated, but however I meant it, she took it openly. It meant something to her.

  I turned, thrust my gloved hands into my
pockets, saw my breath come in puffs of white steam. I’d only taken a few steps. She called to me. I turned, and she just smiled, said, “A storm approaches, Jono.” I nodded, turned away, and kept walking.

  Maybe it was a metaphor, her way of saying, “take care of yourself.” Maybe she was just commenting on the weather. Either way, I didn’t see any fucking way I was going to come out of this staying dry.

  8

  The first drops began to fall as I got back into the El Camino. I pulled the car out onto the highway and headed back into town just as the bottom began to fall out. Perfect, I thought and clicked on the wipers.

  I couldn’t help thinking that I’d missed something. There was a clue I let slip somewhere, but what was it? And what was with Seven’s behavior? He wasn’t what you would call willing to help, but the fucker was terrified of me. He’d seen what I could do to someone like him and always squealed. But this was different. He was terrified in that club, and I had an ominous feeling it wasn’t me he was scared of.

  I wanted a phone, and it was only in these rare moments I regretted not having a cell. I wanted to call Nadia. She worked on cases with me before, she knew Seven, maybe she could offer some insight. Or maybe it was just that she was a woman, and it really didn’t matter if it was my mum or a nun, just the idea of female companionship really plucked something in me.

  I thought about Lorelei, the way she looked as she watched me walk away and that tone in her voice that almost seemed to say, “Don’t go.” I thought about that dress, the black, silky fabric, and how much it must have cost only to be used as a rug so often. She deserved better than the life she’d chosen for herself, to be used that way. Sure, part of her must have liked it; it was in her nature; she wasn’t human.

  I found myself thinking about how it used to be, the sleepovers, the way she moved on top of me, her nearly unquenchable appetite. I thought about that for a while.

  Then I thought about other shit. The kind of shit I didn’t need to be thinking about. For some reason, I felt homesick, but not really even for a home, just a vague, abstract ideal of what I thought at one time home could be. It was a dangerous path to venture down, and the ground that lead me there was muddy. But fuck it, I was in a mood already.