by Lori Titus
Christopher Stuckey arrived at my office at 11:00 A.M. sharp, just as I’d asked. He was dressed well: new suit and tie, cufflinks, newly shined black leather shoes.
“You didn’t have to send these things over for me” was the first thing he said when he stepped off the elevator. “I’m a grown man and I understand the idea of dressing for business.”
“Yes, but because you’re paid well there is a certain standard I expect when it comes to dress, and the best way is not to tell but rather to show you. It’s something I do with all my new employees. I don’t think many people could say that their new job actually provided them new clothes other than a uniform. It’s Armani, if you haven’t noticed.”
“I’ve noticed,” the young man replied.
“Well. Try not to complain. Did you whine your way to becoming a commander?”
The way he looked at me, I knew he was about to say something untoward. He had enough sense to think better of it. “What exactly are we doing here?” he asked.
“I’m rebuilding my staff. I wanted you to be here to help me screen them.”
“Really.” Stuckey ran a finger along his neck where the top of his collar touched his throat. “They all go off the roof like the last receptionist, or did they just run screaming from the building?”
“A combination,” I told him with a smile. “Can’t wait to see which way you’ll wind up leaving us.”
“Fuck you,” Stuckey muttered.
“Alas, dear heart, you’re not my type.”
We moved to the conference room to wait. I’d expected Pollard to greet our other new employee, but at the last minute he called and said he needed a couple of hours to take care of some business. I’d called Stuckey in instead, requiring his presence an entire day early. He didn’t like that, but no matter.
When 11:30 rolled around, a soft ding from the elevator indicated someone was coming up.
“Come on,” I said.
But Stuckey was ahead of me when the door slid open and our new employee stepped out.
I was at his side a moment later.
“Miss Taylor,” I said, extending a hand. “Nice to meet you.” Then, after we exchanged pleasantries and I had them both seated in the conference room, I took the time to explain some things.
“I know you’ve dealt with Mr. Pollard up until now,” I told Taylor, “and he’ll be in the office later.”
“You’re his boss then?” Taylor said. “I’ve been wondering who gave the orders to send Nethers to my house,” she said. “That was not appreciated.”
“Nethers?” Stuckey croaked.
She turned her head to look at him, her poker face revealing nothing. “Nethers. Low-level demons that watch humans for their masters. They’re pretty much demons without a brain or a will of their own. They can watch, but they can’t cross over from the places they’re from.”
“Well, that’s new,” Stuckey replied.
“Oh, then obviously you’re not like him and Pollard,” Natasha said, and turned her glance back to me.
“Indeed, it was me who sent them to watch,” I replied. “I’m sorry if they caused you any distress. I hoped that you would not have seen them.”
“And if I hadn’t?” she asked.
I shrugged. “They probably would have gone on watching you. However, they have been removed. More won’t be sent in their place.”
“My house, my business, and my family are off limits to you people. I won’t do anything for you without that assurance.”
“Henry said you were a spirited lady. Alright. No interference with your family, other than restoring your mother’s health. That’s par for the course.”
“I’d like to know exactly how you accomplished that,” Natasha said.
“All my spells are proprietary, of course,” I told her. And you’re here because we know you possess certain skills in that arena. As far as sharing that information, I’m afraid we’re at an impasse.”
“Whatever, Mr. Ramshead,” she said softly. “All I can tell you is that if anything goes wrong with my mother there is no deal.”
I waited. Stuckey was listening to all of this very intently. I realized then that Henry had known exactly what questions this woman would ask of me, and his absence was on purpose. This was his passive aggressive way to make sure I ended up dealing with her bullshit. He’d hear about that later.
“I can agree to that,” I said stiffly.
Natasha sat back in her chair. “What did you want me to do today?”
“Mostly, I wanted to make sure our agreement was sealed. We’ll handle that a bit later. And of course, to introduce you to Christopher here...”
“Chris,” Stuckey interrupted.
“... since the two of you will be working closely together,” I continued. “One other thing and this is for the both of you. Regardless of what impressions you may have, the two of you have very limited ability to negotiate anything.”
“You want me here to practice magic,” Natasha said. “There’s a reason you want me and not someone else. In a city like this there have to be hundreds, maybe thousands of people who practice the dark arts. People who would do it without bribes required. I’d like to know why you chose me.”
“Natasha,” Stuckey said quietly. He looked at her. Their eyes met and locked. There was an unspoken warning between them. She fell silent. Her reaction surprised me, but I didn’t lose a moment contemplating it. I had to use those seconds to my advantage.
“I’m sure you would like to know. Let us say, your talents precede you. Not everyone would have been able to detect the Nethers I sent. That was a test. It appears you have some talent related to demons. Other than that?” I said, waving my hand. “Anything beyond that is just conjecture on my part.” I smiled. It wasn’t a full answer. It was a partial truth, enough to satisfy these humans for the moment.
“Lunch will be served,” I said, getting up. “Delivery should be here shortly. I’ll be in my office, so please don’t leave. Today will be your first day of work. When I’m ready, we’ll go over what I need from each of you in full detail.”
Natasha Taylor
“Think he’s just left us alone in here to listen to what we’ll say when he’s out of the room?” I asked.
Chris Stuckey was sitting across the table from me playing with a stray paper clip he’d found on the table. He turned it between his thumb and forefinger, tapping it against the table every other turn or so.
“Yeah, he probably is, but then again, fuck him,” he said quietly.
I got up and paced. Not that it helped anything, but it’s what I do when I’m nervous.
I had a chance to really take Chris in. He was a big guy. I could see from his posture how aware he was of his own body and the atmosphere he was in. Though he was sitting across from me, he’d made sure he was closest to the door. This was the kind of man who probably knew all the exits before he even stepped foot in this building. He’d taken my inventory the moment he saw me. It was probably something he did in his head whenever he met anyone. Danger assessment. He had to be a soldier or a cop. The sensitivity in his long-lashed eyes contrasted with his tough exterior and the way he carried himself.
“What will you be doing here?” I asked.
He snorted. “Hasn’t told me yet. He threatened me already, though. I’m guessing he wants me to kill people. Although I did go to school for law, and he was very interested in that. You put him in his place pretty well. Be careful of that shit, though. He’ll only let you get away with it once.”
“Yeah.”
He stopped his fidgeting long enough to catch my eye. “What’s his partner like?”
“You haven’t met Pollard?” I asked.
“No.”
I thought about it before answering. “Much like he is. More refined. He plays nicer. I think he’s just as hard as Ramshead but thinks he isn’t.”
“Well. Sounds about right,” he replied.
I wanted to know one thing but wasn’t sure how far I should
push this stranger. “What did they promise you?”
He blinked. “Oh, getting to the hard questions already?”
The elevator dinged, and a young boy came in with a food delivery bag.
“Do we need to have our boss pay you?” I asked.
“No, it was called in ahead of time. Thanks though.”
The kid spread the food out on the table and got out of there. I couldn’t blame him. I wished I could have left with him.
Sandwiches, salads, water and soda... there was a whole layout of anything we might have wanted. I looked at it and though I was hungry I wasn’t sure I wanted any. I didn’t trust Ramshead not to poison us.
Chris must have been thinking along the same lines. “I’ll split one of these with you,” he said. “It has to be safe if I can eat it.”
We did that. He picked up a turkey sandwich and took a bite of it. “Take the other half.”
I picked up the half still wrapped, gingerly pulled back the waxed paper and took a bite. It felt oddly like making friends at elementary school. I took a seat because I knew I would get mustard or something on my dress otherwise.
Without looking up, Chris answered my question.
“He offered me sobriety,” he said quietly. “Which I guess I could have gotten by myself eventually, but he threatened my sister’s family if I didn’t agree to work with him. So here I am.”
“Promises and threats make the best curses,” I said.
“Okay, so you know how to do things with demons,” he said. “I kind of wonder why Ramshead isn’t worried about what you could do to them.”
“My mother. They know I wouldn’t risk it.”
We ate in silence for a time. I wondered if I had said too much. It was obvious we both had family on the line. Ramshead was looking for compliance, and I had to make sure he thought I would give him that. To a point.
And Chris? I didn’t like the idea that these bastards might use him against me. He had just as much to lose as I did, and no doubt he would fight for his own. I made the decision then that I needed to keep as close an eye on him as I did the others. Unlike the others he didn’t have magic. That was one small boon in my favor.
“Where are you from?” I asked.
“Some of everywhere, I guess. I was born and raised in South Carolina. Haven’t been back there since I was eighteen, though. Traveled a lot in the service.”
“Army?”
“Something like that.”
Chapter Ten
Henry Pollard
I ignored Victor’s phone calls that morning. He stopped trying sometime around ten-thirty, but he called me again a little after twelve-thirty. To save myself aggravation I texted back simply:
Taking care of a mess you didn’t bother with.
I knew why he was trying to reach me. Apparently he had both Taylor and Stuckey in the office, and the idea of bringing the two together hadn’t gone so smoothly as he planned. I’d suggested to Victor that it would be better to just wait until I was there to make the introductions. It had taken a lot of coercion just to get them to agree to our offers, and I was of the mind that laying off the pressure for a while would be the best move. Why overdo it, when he had them where he wanted them?
When I reached the office, our two new employees were in the conference room.
I hadn’t met Chris Stuckey before, but I’d seen his picture. The young blond had an athletic build and a sullen disposition. His eyes went blank when he looked up at me, an attempt to shield emotion. Hatred, I thought. I wondered if that was what Victor picked up on. Only he would be arrogant enough to expect admiration and loyalty from these two. They had every reason to be distrustful. Something would have been very wrong with them if they weren’t.
I walked into the room and stood in the doorway. “I’m glad to see you both settled,” I said. “Chris, I’m Henry Pollard.”
“Uh. Nice to meet you,” the man replied stiffly.
“Natasha,” I said.
She turned and acknowledged me with a nod.
As I walked back toward Victor’s office, I could hear him arguing with someone on the phone. I closed the door behind me. I took a seat, and waited for him to finish.
“Where exactly were you?” Victor demanded, tossing his cell phone onto his desk.
“Someone had to make sure that the supposed suicide who jumped from this building wasn’t traced back to us. I spent the last few hours making sure the right people were paid enough to remain quiet about it. You do realize someone had to take care of that, or it would have been all over the newspapers?”
He waved his hand. “I’d forgotten about that.”
“Of course you did,” I said. “You’re not used to dealing with details. In this day and age, we’re fortunate there was no cell phone footage of the fall itself.”
“And what would anyone say? Only that they saw her jump,” Victor replied.
“Still, you wouldn’t want to be connected to her or have anyone realize that Stuckey was up there when she jumped. All the trouble you went through to get him, I doubt you’d want him in jail.”
“You’ve got a point,” he said. “How’d you handle it?”
“Reached out to an associate who works at the coroner’s office. Made sure that our receptionist was listed as a Jane Doe. Of course, they’re listing the official cause of death as suicide. I paid some others to keep it out of the papers and off the news. A few witnesses had their memories wiped. I had to call Ruby and pay her double just to show up on time. It’s not an easy thing to cover up, even with friends in place to smooth the process out for us. You’ll have to be more careful.”
“Well, hopefully these two will keep us from having to do grunt work in the future,” Victor said. He opened a desk drawer and pulled out a book. He pushed it toward me.
“You can give that to Stuckey. He has a lot of catching up to do.”
“Why? We have a codex that includes it on the computer.”
“Sure, however you want to do it!” Victor replied. “I never look at the computer version, so I forget the damn thing is there. Either way he’s got a lot of learning to do. We have guests coming next week.”
“Yes, and how Natasha and Chris do then will be the test, won’t it? Are you planning on having them ill-prepared for the sport of it?”
“No. Either they can handle it or not. If they can’t, well. Such things seem to sort themselves out.”
“I realize you don’t care much for humans, but if you want to continue to earn their souls, you can’t keep killing them or intentionally putting them in harm’s way. There are rules. Even for us there are authorities.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Victor said. “I know you’ve got something to say. Might as well have at it.”
Chapter Eleven
Natasha Taylor
I texted Ronnie and asked him to meet me at the house. It was just my luck that traffic on the freeway was even worse than usual. He ended up beating me home.
When I got there, he was sitting on the couch with my mom. Not out of character at all, as he often sat with her for a while when he came by. At the moment, she’d just finished telling him a joke, and his eyes were filled with tears.
“Hey Mama.”
“Hey yourself,” she said. “You didn’t tell me my favorite nephew was coming over. By the way, are you going to stay for dinner, Ronnie? I have to check the freezer but I’m sure I can throw something together for you. I’m sure there’s some sausage and shrimp in there. I can make some spicy rice. I know it’s your favorite.”
Ronnie looked at me, speechless.
“You had better stay, Ronnie.”
Mama got up and walked down the hall toward the kitchen, humming.
“What happened, Cuzo?” Ronnie asked, jumping up from his seat. “Is she on some kind of new medication or something? She’s talking like she’s absolutely fine. I wasn’t even sure if she remembered who I was the last few times I came over.”
I just nodded i
n response. After his most recent visit, Mama asked me who the nice young man was who’d come over to see us. I’d gone upstairs and cried my eyes out after she went to bed.
Today while inching through traffic, I’d thought about how I was going to explain the sudden change in my mother’s behavior. Ronnie’s question prompted my preplanned response.
“Yes, she’s been on this new pill her doctor gave her that’s supposed to help with her memory. I’d noticed a couple of small changes but nothing that really convinced me it was doing anything for her overall. I asked her doctor to take her off it, and she said we should wait until next month, give mom the chance to finish a full course of it. You know, I thought it was bull, but I agreed anyway. I guess it just took a while to kick in. She got up this morning, and I still can’t believe the difference myself.”
“Well, I mean, I see the caregiver was still here. Is she going to need supervision? I mean, just talking to her I forgot how much I really missed the way she used to be. How we could talk about politics, or history, or anything. I hadn’t even hoped we would have Aunt Katherine back like that again.”
“I didn’t know how to explain how much better she was so you’d really get it, so I wanted you to see for yourself. I was rushing home just to make sure she was still good. You wouldn’t believe how many times I called to check how she was doing. I want to keep her with the caregiver for a while, just to make sure this isn’t temporary.”
We were both quiet for a moment. I could hear the radio go on in the kitchen, and my mother was singing along with it. Not only perfect pitch, but she remembered the tune word for word. Ronnie and I stared at each other.
“Man! This was so unexpected,” Ronnie ran a hand over his hair. “I think I need a drink.”
Mom made us the rice dish she promised; it’s like a cross between Spanish rice and jambalaya with less seafood, an invention she made when Ronnie and I were small because we were both finnicky. We sat around the table after dinner, not only full but impressed by her newly rediscovered abilities. Ronnie had a million questions to ask about stories Daddy used to tell about what he and Ronnie’s father did as kids. She recalled and could repeat them all without hesitation.