by Tracy Sharp
She glared at me. “I have to, Ezra. He’s obviously hurt someone.”
We both knew that she meant that he’d killed someone and didn’t want to say it out loud, around the nearly hysterical Rick. It would only make matters worse. She wanted to deescalate the situation.
I whispered to her, “I need to ask him some questions.”
“You’d better ask them before my backup shows. This one is out of your hands.” Then she called for her backup.
I made slow, easy steps toward Rick, keeping my hands out where he could see them, and using soothing, downward motions. “It’s okay, Rick. We’ll figure it out. Nobody’s going to hurt you.”
“I dreamed of an elf with pink hair. She had a really cute face.” Rick’s voice held the dreamy quality of someone in extreme shock.
“What happened to her? The cute elf?” My heart was thumping in my ears. I didn’t want to know. Astrid had become like a little sister to me.
“She was taken away by a rabid wolf, with red eyes.” Rick swayed, dropped to one knee, and then the other. “I tried to warn her. I called out to her. She tried to run, but she wasn’t fast enough.”
“What happened to her? Where is she?” I was talking around a huge lump lodged in my throat. I didn’t want to find Astrid torn to pieces somewhere in the trees. “Whose blood is on your hands, Rick?”
Rick opened his mouth, as if to respond, and then fell face down in the grass.
6
Ezra
That was all we got out of Rick. Well, that and the ring, which I'd dropped into an inner pocket of my duster, to be dealt with later.
Rick was unconscious, like really unconscious. I'm talking coma. Which is pretty common among people previously possessed by a powerful demon. There was no telling when Rick would come to again. It could be a few hours, or a few years, or never. You just never knew.
After Rick was safely tucked away in a hospital, Candy decided that the most pressing problem we had was the shade demon problem.
I didn't know if I agreed with her, since my assistant was now likely possessed by Baal. I felt sick to my stomach and blamed myself for ever getting Astrid involved in supernatural investigation to begin with. When she'd come knocking on my door, we'd decided she'd stay on the periphery of things. It hadn't worked out that way. She wanted to know everything. She wanted to hunt as well as investigate. Who was I to tell her “no”?
But now I had two problems on my hands. I blew out a long breath. I was in over my head, and I knew it. I murmured what I’d told Astrid earlier. "I wish I could be two places at once."
Candace was quiet as we walked through the hospital doors. It was a warm September night, and the wind swept through her caramel blonde ponytail, lifting it off the back of her t-shirt. She'd taken her jacket off, but now shrugged it back on, and then she climbed onto her motorcycle and sat, regarding me with a thoughtful look. "Isn't there anyone you know who can deal with the Astrid situation while you help me with the shade fiasco? You can't be the only monster hunter on the planet."
Of course, I wasn't the only one. But monster hunters were spread across the world, and the good ones weren't always available at a moment's notice. "I doubt anyone else could drop whatever they’re doing and teleport here."
"Is there anyone in the area that can help us? You need someone who is like a blood hound, but with tracking demons."
"A demon tracker. Yeah." I thought about it. Who had I come across in my demon hunting travels? There was one person I'd heard of, but I'd never approached. His name was Lucian, and he ran a group of teens and twenty-somethings that had certain talents. But he wasn't easy to get hold of. The work they did for Lucian wasn’t exactly on the up and up.
There was a way to make contact with at least one of his group. I could send out a kind of psychic S.O.S. An invite. If one or more of them were open to the call, they might come.
"I'll meet you back at the park. Give me a few minutes. Don't walk the path until I get there, okay? Wait for me in the parking lot, and if you see Astrid, take off on your bike."
She gave me an 'as if' stare. “What, like I’m twelve?”
"I'm not kidding, Candace. She's not Astrid right now. She could tear you apart."
She sat back on her bike, making the leather seat squeak, and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not trained to cut and run, Ezra. But I'll do my best not to shoot her."
I supposed that was good enough for me.
Candy pulled her motorcycle helmet over her head, tugging her ponytail lower at the back of her neck so that her helmet would fit right. She gave a little wiggle of her fingers and roared off.
I climbed into my Challenger and sat with my hands on the wheel, closing my eyes. There wasn't time to drop to my knees and lift my arms, looking up at the heavens while I chanted loudly, and if I did that, I might end up in a nice, padded room next to Rick. So I settled for the Challenger.
Concentrating, my eyes squeezed shut, I began chanting low in my throat, almost a whisper. "I'm sending a plea to any and all demon hunters and trackers within mental earshot. I need your help. If you hear me, ping me back."
It wasn't fancy, but I'd used it a time or two before, and it had worked for me. Sitting quietly, I listened for any kind of message that someone had heard me. "Come on, come on. I need help here. Baal is on the loose. Someone answer me, please."
I did that for about twenty minutes. Just when I gave up, resting my forehead against the steering wheel, a light tapping at my windshield made me jump and almost scream. I looked up to see a huge black bird staring at me from the other side of the glass, head cocking from side to side. It let out a screech and tapped its beak at the glass again.
"Did someone send you, bird?" My heart was still drilling against my chest as I stared at it.
The bird shrieked, and stayed where it was.
"Okay, so someone's coming?" I felt like an idiot talking to this bird, who might just want some bird seed or something.
The bird lifted its wings and let out another shriek, watching me with amber eyes. Strange. I'd always thought black birds had black eyes. The intelligence in this bird's eyes was unnerving.
"Message received. Crescent Park. Okay? Could you tell them to hurry? People are dying."
The bird took flight, and as I leaned forward, peering through the windshield, a plop of runny, white bird shit landed on the glass.
"Thanks," I said, and when I turned my head I noticed a young woman walking past my car, watching me with wary eyes.
I raised my hand in a small wave, gave her a little smile, and shoved the key into the ignition. If I didn't get out of there soon, I wouldn't be leaving. The white coats would be dragging me from the car as I ranted and raved about demons coming to get them.
I backed out of the parking spot, turning the dial to spurt washer fluid on the windshield. Apparently I was out of washer fluid, because only a last tiny spray of mist sputtered out, and all the wipers managed to do was smear the shit all over the glass, in a nice, pretty fan-like stain.
Windshield art. Lovely.
As I drove toward Crescent Park, I thought of the bird. I didn't know much about them, and wondered if it had been a crow or some other kind of black bird. I knew ravens were black. Maybe it had been a raven.
Birds had been messengers forever. Some were messengers hovering between the underworld and this one.
Whatever this bird’s deal was, I hoped it delivered my message quickly.
And I hoped, trying to see through the smeared bird doodee, that the next window it encountered knocked it senseless.
I parked next to Candy's motorcycle and cursed under my breath. Her bullets wouldn't do anything to the shade demons. She knew that, but she was still strolling right into danger. Also, Astrid may still be around.
There was movement in my peripheral vision and I turned in time to see a black blur in my side mirror. I drew my gun, the one I call Sally, loaded with silver/iron bullets, staying down while I peered aro
und the mirrors and windows.
A female hand appeared at the driver's side window and knocked. For the second time, I jumped and almost screamed.
She stepped back, and I briefly saw a blur of black, and then I got a better view of her. I knew right away this woman wasn't just the run of the mill female. She moved quickly, and my sense of her was of gleaming ebony. It was like a trick of the eye. If you didn’t look directly at her, you saw the impression of shimmering midnight.
But when I looked directly at her, I was surprised to see Nike sneakers, a pair of long legs in faded jeans, and a white t-shirt. Her dark brown hair was cut into a feathery, choppy shag, with wispy locks falling over almond shaped, amused brown eyes.
Not knowing how to converse with a somewhat hostile bird that bombed my windshield with bird turd, I simply asked her, "Uh, hi. Were you the one who dropped a load on my car?”
“Yeah. I didn’t like your bossy tone.”
Great. A bird with a shitty attitude. Literally.
She leaned over and grinned at my windshield. “That’s interesting. We should open a windshield art gallery together.”
“You’re funny.”
“Fowl, too. You know, with a ‘w’.”
I felt a headache coming on and massaged my forehead with my thumb and index finger. “I get it.”
“Just wanted to make sure. You seem a little slow on the uptake.”
“Thanks. It’s been a bitch of a couple of days.”
She studied me with amusement. "In over your head?"
A jab of annoyance prickled me, but it wouldn’t be prudent to ruffle the bird woman’s feathers when I needed her help. She was right, of course. I just didn’t like that it was so obvious. "A little. I have two big supernatural problems. Shade demons and a possession case. I can't handle both on my own right now. How are you with tracking demons?"
"Not bad, but he's better." She tipped her head toward the left.
I turned in my seat and was startled to see a guy with short, spiky blue hair coming toward us. He wasn't tall, but he was muscular. He wore a blank expression that disturbed me, because he was impossible to read. When he walked, it was like he wasn't quite walking in the normal world, or maybe like he was straddling two. Another bird shifter?
I didn't know whether to be relieved or afraid that he was there. "Okay. I'm thankful you two showed up, but who are you?"
“This is Strummer,” she said. “I’m Rae. You need help, we're here."
The creepy punk rock kid walked right past me, eyes trained on the path leading into the park. It was like he was watching something that I couldn't see.
"He's picked up a trail," Rae said. "Let's get moving."
"He doesn't talk much, does he?" I climbed out of the Challenger and began following him.
"Not really," she said, waiting until I stepped onto the trail and following behind me. I didn't like not being able to keep an eye on her. I’d just met these two. For all I knew, they could be from the dark side.
"Relax. I'm not going to hurt you," she said. "Are you really afraid of a little girl like me?"
"I've got the feeling there's more to you than you're showing me." I glanced back at her.
She winked. "There is, but it's not all bad."
"What about the part that is?"
She widened her big eyes in mock innocence. "Be nice, and you won't have to see it."
Candace was standing farther up the trail and heard my approach, but she apparently hadn't heard Strummer's, because when she noticed that he was standing directly behind her she spun and aimed her gun at him. "Step back. Now."
Strummer, who had been gazing off into the trees, turned his strange ice blue eyes to her, and took a few steps back.
Candace didn't seem all that relieved. "Who are you?"
"He's okay, Candy," though I wasn't entirely sure I believed my own words, or the next ones that came out of my mouth. "They’re here to help."
Candace kept a cautious eye on Strummer, but lowered her .38. Strummer didn't really look okay. He looked weird as hell. But hunters of the preternatural weren't usually the type that blended in with society. It was just as well. It's not easy explaining to people that you see monsters and otherworldly entities on a regular basis.
Regular folk don't realize that the cold chill that suddenly moves over them is a ghost standing behind them, or that the tiredness that comes over them is a demon stopping by to suck at their energy, attracted to the dark, nasty funk they’re in.
"And who is that?" Candace said, looking at the girl coming up beside me as we approached.
I gestured to one and then the other. "This is Strummer and that is Rae.”
Candy’s eyes shifted from Strummer to Rae. “These two? This is our help?”
“Well, yeah,” I said.
Candace stepped over to Strummer. “I think yo missed the mosh pit.”
Strummer’s face remained unreadable. “I don’t mosh. People get hurt. when I mosh.”
I kind of got what Candace meant. A blue haired punker kid and a young woman who looked like she could still be in high school. But I’d long ago learned that looks can be deceiving. Things weren’t always as they seemed.
Candy looked Raven up and down, assessing her. “You barely look old enough to drive a car.”
“Hey, your boyfriend called us,” Raven said. “And where are your pom-poms? Your cheerleading squad are looking for you.”
Candace blinked, looking offended. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
Raven shrugged. “Whatever. We like to stay off the radar, okay? No mention of us to anyone.”
Candy nodded. “Fine."
Candy wasn’t the warm and fuzzy type, and social graces wasn’t part of police training, but I was afraid that these two would tire of her territorial snark and take off. “We appreciate the help. Thanks for coming.” It was the best I could do to try to lower the tension level you could cut with an ax. Candy has trust issues. It’s part of her charm.
"You two might want to back up a bit, so Strummer he can do his thing," Rae said.
Both Candy and I moved back a couple of yards. She shot me a look that told me she wasn't comfortable with these two. Not surprising. Trust issues aside, Strummer and Raven weren’t exactly forthcoming with information about themselves. Law enforcement typically doesn’t like shady people who aren’t transparent.
But then, the truly transparent ones would probably make her feel mighty jumpy.
"I haven't filled you in on what we need you to do yet," I said.
Rae grinned. "You got us here, didn't you?"
"Good point." They’d heard my S.O.S by telepathic wire, after all.
"We got the gist. Strummer’s caught on to something out here. Do you want his help or not?"
"Yes, please," I said.
"Okay, then. Zip it and watch." Rae turned back to Strummer and I zipped it. Candy's jaw was set and her lips made a tight line. Predictably, she took issue with being told to zip it. But this wasn't a natural situation and she was out of her element. She had no choice. She stood with her gun at her side, but I knew it wouldn't take much for her to raise it and shoot, if necessary.
I didn't have the heart to remind her that her bullets would do nothing against the shade. Sometimes a false sense of security isn't a bad thing. It keeps you from screaming and panicking, which would likely get you killed.
Strummer’s lips moved soundlessly as he raised his arms out to the sides and then above his head.
A cool wind swooped through the trees, shaking the leaves, and I swore I heard whispers of countless entities move through them. The grass and weeds on either side of the trail shivered, and leaves shifted from the ground, swirling into the air.
I held my breath. This guy had powers that I could only dream of. A rising sense of unease rushed over me and my skin broke out in goose flesh. My stomach rolled, and the smell of rotting meat rose around us.
Candy leaned over and gagged, retching. "Oh, my God. What is
that?"
It was the smell of demons. There were many around, and Strummer was disturbing them. Most of them had been dormant, just kind of hanging around and not causing trouble. But Strummer was obviously a conjurer, and a strong one. In order to find the ones making trouble, he had to shake them all down.
I held my breath. Not just because of the stench, which was now way past unbearable, but because I was praying that he didn't piss a few off so badly that they decided to come out and play.
Strummer held both arms straight out in front of him, then raised one and made a circling motion above his head.
The sky darkened above us, and cries and growls of disturbed devils roared in my ears. The trees and grass shook, as if a helicopter was directly above. Bits of branches, leaves and other vegetation flew in all directions.
"Get down!" I shouted to Candace.
She dropped to the ground, lying flat, but kept her head up and her gun trained in front of her, ready to fire.
A tornado formed in the trees in front of Strummer, and he made beckoning motions with both hands.
The thought came to me that we were all going to get caught up in that tornado, and it would be game over. They'd find pieces of us hanging everywhere.
But then Strummer straightened his hands, holding them flat out, then lowered them palms down, toward the ground.
A swirling, inky darkness came to rest on the ground in front of him, stretching out toward the trees, at least a quarter of a mile long and half as wide.
"Holy shit," I breathed. I'd never seen anything like it.
Strummer turned and grinned, and that smile was somehow more frightening than the bubbling shade that covered the grass and area in front of us. "How many demons do you want?"
7
Ezra
His voice was remarkably soft for such a strong conjurer of evil things. Like a whisper. Or a soft breeze moving over hot skin. You sensed more than heard what he was saying when Strummer spoke. “They need to be burned, or they will continue to multiply.”