by Andrew Dudek
Something clicked in my head, but it was dangerous enough that I didn’t allow myself to consider it. Instead, I asked. “What does that mean?”
“I’m sure you understand, Dave, that the ‘Otherside’ is what we call the world beyond this one. The afterlife, for lack of a better term. It’s where the souls of the departed.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said.
The Otherside supposedly was the part of the map that no one had charted. Think of existence as a skyscraper. The everyday world, the world as we know it, is the ground floor. The Otherside is…well, everything above us.
“And it’s the Sentinel’s job to guard that border. While it is here, on Earth, there is nothing doing its job. So, it’s possible for the souls of the departed to come back.”
I frowned, still not letting myself see it.
“In laymen’s terms? With the Sentinel here, there’s a great big hole in the border between life and death.”
“Oh,” I said. “Well, shit.”
“Yeah.”
“So we need to put it back where it belongs?” I said.
Louie nodded. “You mentioned something about a demon charm. Would you be willing to bring it to me?”
“I guess,” I said. “But why?”
“I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I’m sure your friend doesn’t. I might be able to goose up the voltage a bit. You could possibly use it as a weapon, not just an alarm system.”
I hesitated. Louie seemed like a good enough guy, but that doesn’t prove anything. It was entirely possible he was playing me, and there’d be nothing I could do about it. Still, if he could make Bogart’s wallet-charm more powerful, didn’t I have to take the chance?
“Sure,” I said. “That sounds like a good idea.”
Louie scribbled something on a fresh sheet of paper, ripped it out of the notebook, and handed it to me. A phone number.
“Call me when you have the charm and you’re ready to go,” he said. “I’ll send someone to get you.”
I folded the paper and shoved it in my pocket. Louie reached across the little table and wrapped my hands up in both of his. “We’ll defeat the Sentinel together, Dave. I’m sure of it.”
Back outside, Amy sat with the blind woman. Amy was talking about a telepathy spell she’d tried just after her nineteenth birthday and describing in detail how it had made her skin break out in hives and her hair fall out. The older woman was smiling, seeming to be amused by the whole thing.
Amy stood up when she saw me come through the front door. She handed me my weapons. I strapped the sheathed knife back around my hip and returned the switchblade to my boot.
“Ready to go?” I asked.
“What’d you find out?”
“Later.” I nodded to the blind woman. Amy waved. The blind woman nodded back, and I had the sudden sense that she wasn’t as blind as she’d appeared.
Arjun—the superfast Claimed One—was leaning against the hood of his sedan, smoking a cigarette.
“I need a ride back to my office,” I said.
He nodded and took a deep drag. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the cigarette flying towards the street and got into the driver’s seat. Amy and I piled into the car. We rode the whole way in silence.
I still couldn’t see out of the glass, but this time I was reasonably sure that the Claimed One wasn’t taking me somewhere so he could put a bullet in the back of my skull. Always savor the little victories.
Chapter 20
Arjun stopped the car and set the parking brake. Amy and I climbed out of the backseat. The Claimed One rolled down the passenger-side front window, and I leaned on the door. “Well, thanks for the lift.”
“You’re welcome, Sir Knight. Call Lou when you’re ready.”
I still wasn’t sure I trusted the Claimed Ones. The riesensohn had told me that he wanted to use me to defeat Cerberus, and I tended to take him at his word. Of course, taking people at their words had gotten me into trouble in the past. There was a lot of power at play, and the fact that I’d never heard of their organization made me suspicious of the Claimed’s claims.
On the other hand, the hellhound did need to be brought down, and if the Claimed could help, I could play along for now. Something about the way they were setting me up made me nervous, like a crossbow bolt. I don’t like being anybody’s tool.
But I could be a weapon. Just point and shoot, right?
“I will,” I said.
He drove away, leaving Amy and me alone in the parking lot. My car was parked in its usual spot, next to Rob’s Mustang, but Earl’s Toyota wasn’t there. Madison and Krissy usually took the bus to and from work, so I couldn’t tell where they were.
“So,” Amy said. “They didn’t seem to like me much.”
“The Claimed?” I sighed. “Yeah, they don’t. They blame you for summoning Cerberus.”
“Oh. So there’s an army of super-powered demon hunters that want me dead, too? Wonderful.”
I smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I explained to them that they’re not to harm you. You’re under the protection of the Round Table, remember?”
She put her hands to her chest and fluttered her eyelashes. “My hero. My knight in shining armor.”
I looked down at my torso. “Well, more a knight in a sweaty T-shirt, but beggars and choosers, right?”
Amy laughed and slipped her hand through mine. She took a step closer, close enough that the tips of her breasts brushed against my chest. “So I guess this makes me the damsel in distress…I can live with that.”
There was a stirring in my lower regions and I forced a grin. “Come on, Miss Damsel. We still have work to do—figuring out how to recapture this hellhound, for one.”
“No time for love, Captain Carver?” Amy said. “Fair enough. But you have to sleep some time. And I intend to be there when you do.” She held my hand for a second longer, then stepped back.
We went into the office.
Madison was at her desk, flipping through an old book. Rob was at his desk in the bullpen, running a whetstone along the blade of his longsword. He nodded.
“Where is everybody?” I asked.
Madison didn’t look up from her book. “Krissy’s at Dallas’s store. Earl went with them. He thought there should be a knight there.”
“Good thinking,” I said. “I’m gonna go over there, see what they’re up to.”
She interrupted me before I could get out the door. “Have you heard from Harrison?”
I hadn’t. The kid was a werewolf, but he’d never been in a fight with another werebeast. If Paul Ellis wasn’t as trustworthy as I’d thought…
“Did you try his cell?”
“Straight to voicemail.”
I swore. “I’ll head out to Staten Island first,” I said. The little detour would add at least an hour and a half of traveling time. But if anything happened to Harrison, I’d never forgive myself. Madison looked worried, too, even more than I felt. “Don’t worry, Mad. I’m sure Ellis just has him doing wolf-yoga.”
“Probably.” She didn’t look like she believed it. I wasn’t sure I did, either.
Why hadn’t anyone told me this job would be so complicated?
My mentor, Bill Foster, had once been a captain of the Round Table. At some point, you think he could have mentioned that that badge with the C on it was just a magnet for all kinds of shit. May had been a captain for a while, during wartime, no less, but she’d never warned me of the dangers of leading people.
The knights of my office all looked to me for direction, for cues on how to act under duress. Someone once said that a good leader would never ask his men to do anything he wouldn’t do himself, and I was doing my best to live up to that adage. I knew of captains who just sat in their offices all day and let their lieutenants and knights do all of the legwork. But when I went out and about, two things happened to me:
First, I found myself up to my ears in demon crap.
Second, I pissed all of my people off.<
br />
It was almost enough to make me chuck my sword into the Hudson River and call it a day.
Of course, I could never do something like that, but I allowed myself a moment of indulgence as I drove to Staten Island.
And those interpersonal, official political problems were leaving aside the biggest issues facing me: there was a literal demon on the loose. It had already killed at least four people that I knew of. And there was a witch controlling it.
My life really sucked.
I’d left Amy at the office. She’d said she was gonna head into Manhattan, to the Rabbit’s Hat. There had been a moment there when she had stared at me, like she was hurt that I was leaving her behind, like she expected me to just drag her with me wherever I went. It reminded me of the way Krissy was acting towards me recently, and the last thing I needed was another angry young woman treating me like I was the biggest piece of demonic trash in the tristate area.
Of course, Amy had made her intentions crystal clear. I’d have to have been crazy not to at least consider taking her up on it. She was beautiful, and once she’d cleaned up a bit, I was betting she’d have been gorgeous. And there was, in theory nothing wrong with it. She wasn’t my page, like Krissy, so there was no potential conflict of interest there.
But the vampire venom in her system gnawed at me. While I was the prisoner in the vampire camp, I’d been exposed to some venom. One of the side effects is an increased libido. So part of me wasn’t entirely sure that Amy really wanted to be with me. Was she into me, or was she just horny because of a magical bio-drug in her system? I didn’t know, and until I did I wasn’t sure I’d want to explore those lands.
Yeah, I’m a sap. Sue me.
The sun’s last rays were painting the sky orange as I parked the car on the street in front of Paul Ellis’s house. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight… Probably wouldn’t rain tomorrow. Shame. We could have used something to break the humidity. I got out of the car, went up the walk, and knocked on the door. Nothing. I put my ear to the door and listened. It didn’t sound like anybody was home. No car in the driveway and a stack of envelopes in the mailbox.
I was flipping idly through Paul Ellis’s bills and junk-mail, wondering if I should try to force my way into the house when I noticed my name written on an envelope. Hmm. Weird. I slit the envelope and pulled out a sheet of printer paper.
Hey Dave,
In case you come looking for me, Paul is taking me upstate to a forest he knows. I need to learn what it means to be a wolf before I can control it. I’m fine.
Harrison
Well, there you go. At least as fine as one can be out in a forest with a werewolf. But the kid apparently trusted Ellis. He must have had a better nose (hahaha) than I did for these kind of things. It wasn’t like there was much I could do anyway.
I took out my cell and called the office, told Madison about the note. Then I hung up and headed to Manhattan.
Chapter 21
I stopped off for a gyro. The man behind the counter couldn’t have been looking at me more suspiciously if I’d been running out of a bank carrying a burlap sack covered with dollar signs.
“What’s the matter,” I said as he handed me the paper bag containing my dinner, “never seen a guy carrying a sword before?”
“No, I have,” the man replied in a heavy Middle Eastern accent. “But it does not usually end well.”
I snorted. “Fair enough. Keep the change, man.”
I had the sword strapped to my hip. Not the best way to remain unobtrusive, but night had fallen in earnest now, and I wasn't in the mood to wander around unprotected. There were monsters out there.
As it always did, the bell overhead rang as I opened the door to the Rabbit’s Hat. The store was somehow even hotter than before, as if it were an oven set to incrementally roast a chicken. There were no customers and the door to the back office was open. Dallas poked his head out. “Come on back, Dave.”
“Earl and the girls are supposed to be here,” I said as I went into the back room and sat down in an empty chair. All of the chairs, except for the one currently containing the wizard’s bulk, were empty. “Where are they?”
“They went to get some coffee. Check this out.” There was a map of the five boroughs rolled over the surface of the desk, and the wizard tapped it. A puff of smoke came out of his fingertip and the map shifted. At first I didn’t notice the change, or at least I couldn’t put a name to it—and then I did.
“What is this?”
The otherwise black and white image was now traced over with green lines. Some of them were a bold, emerald shade, while others were softer, more faded.
“Demon radar,” Dallas said. “I set up a crystal ball on the roof. It’s calibrated to detect something in a hellhound’s weight class or above—a vamp or were won’t set it off. But if and when Cerberus enters the city limits, we’ll know.”
“What are the lines?”
“Places where the demon was spotted.” He pointed at a long line over in Brooklyn. This was the most faded line, almost more gray than green. “This is where we led him on that chase. It’s paler ‘cause it’s one of the oldest signals the crystal could pick up.”
I nodded, impressed. “Like sonar. Cool.”
“The Council has one in Paris,” he said, “but this is smaller in scale. I didn’t have the right materials to make an adjustable, so if we ever want to know when something less powerful is in the area we’ll have to…”
The wizard trailed off. His face paled. I looked at the map and, despite the heat, shivered. There was a green dot on the map.
Right in front of the shop.
It was the darkest shade of green I’d seen, almost black, and it was moving down the street, leaving a trail of green-black ink behind it.
“Does that mean what I think it does?”
Dallas nodded.
The dot had stopped, staying in one place now. I tapped the map on the spot where the dot, which represented the hellhound, was hovering.
“What’s here?”
“Uh…” Dallas ran a hand through his hair. “It’s a Seven-Eleven.”
I took a breath. “Would that have been where they would have gone to get the coffee?”
He nodded.
“Dammit!” I spun around and sprinted out of the Rabbit’s Hat, drawing my sword.
The pommel was warming up, energy flowing into the blade with the threat of battle. Some of that power coursed into my muscles. A vein in the side of my forehead twitched. The blade emitted a soft blue light, and I took a deep breath before I stepped into the street.
Cerberus stood in the middle of 49th Street, staring at a convenience store that was burning. People had gotten out of cars and cabs and were staring, awestruck, at the howling, barking three-headed beast. A few had produced camera phones and were snapping pics of the hellhound and of the inferno that was rapidly spreading across the front of the store.
Anyone inside would be trapped.
Dallas came up behind me, huffing and puffing. His fists were curled tight, sweat soaked the back of his jersey, and his breath was heavy—but he was there.
“I need to get into that store,” I said. “My people are in there. Plus who knows how many innocents.” I didn’t mention the stakes—what would happen if Amy died.
The wizard nodded, straightened up, and thrust his right hand forward. A column of green fire flew from his fingertips and slammed into the hellhound’s hindquarters. The dog yelped and spun, three sets of teeth flashing.
“There’ll be a back door,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’ll keep man’s best friend busy.”
I slapped Dallas on the back and ran down an alley. There was a roar as another burst of flame flew from Dallas’s hand, followed by more barks and sparks. But it sounded like they were getting weaker, quieter, and I suspected Dallas was leading Cerberus away, giving me time to play firefighter.
The back door was locked up tight, but I slashed at the lock with my sword.
There was a burst of blue sparks and the lock fell away. Smoke poured out of the door, choking me forcing me to hack up about half a lung.
Sometimes I hate my job. I mean, being an accountant or whatever would have bored me to death, but the burning buildings portion of life would be a lot more tolerable.
Rows of snack cakes and potato chips were burning and crackling in the flames. The fire stretched in two separate columns from the front all the way to the back of the store. I didn’t see anyone.
“Lieutenant James, sound off!” Smoke curled into my mouth and I had another coughing fit. I pulled the collar of my shirt over my mouth and nose in a makeshift breath mask.
“Back here!” Earl James’s voice was faint over the angry screams of the fire.
I duckwalked under the thickest of the smoke to the front of the store. Somehow, the glass, the very front border of the store, was ablaze, effectively turning it into a wall of fire. Somewhere off to my left was a popping noise, as a shelf of microwave popcorn went off like a machine gun battery. Sparks were leaping up and over the shelves and the ceiling was in danger of collapsing.
Earl was crouched behind the register, along with Krissy, Amy, and three civilians: an elderly couple and an acne-scarred teenage boy. All six were wearing strips of black cloth around their faces. Earl was shirtless: he’d slashed up his own T-shirt to use as breath masks. Good man. Also: damn, did that guy work out. His abs had abs. A tattooed eagle was perched on one bulging, dark-skinned shoulder, above a banner that read Semper Fi. On the other bicep there was a another tattoo: a sharp-toothed skull with a curved sword sticking out of its eye.
“Good to see you, sir.”
“Everybody doing okay?” I asked.
Amy had her eyes closed and her hands extended, creating a bubble around the register, which was holding the worst of the smoke back. Krissy was crouched next to the civilians, murmuring encouraging sentiments. The three non-coms looked worried, which, really, was wise. Burning buildings are freakin’ scary.
The couple, probably in their early seventies, were locked together at the hands like vise grips. The kid in the Seven-Eleven shirt, whose name, according to the tag on his chest, was Pete, was looking from the fire to Krissy’s face like he couldn’t quite decide which was the more amazing sight.