Speak of the Devil

by Jena Gregoire

  “What exactly did you find on the deck?”

  “See for yourself.” Charlie rose from his chair and walked through the kitchen toward the laundry room. “We left it as we found it so you could check it out when you got here.” Charlie opened a door that lead out to the back side of the wraparound porch. “Harley and I come out here every day for our morning cup of coffee. We came out the other day after a particularly quiet night and found this.”

  There, on the deck of the porch, spelled out in little smooth flat stones was the word Vegas.

  “I’m pretty sure there’s a ghost here trying to get your attention.”

  Dez stared down at the word, fighting back the tears threatening to flood her eyes. The pain she felt seeing his name written out was like a knife in her gut.

  “Dez?”

  She cleared her throat, and asked, “Why here?”

  “I don’t know exactly. Hey, are you alright?”

  Dez knew there was no point in hiding anything from Charlie. As a solitary tear rolled down her cheek, she answered, “I have a lot to fill you in on, old friend.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Dez

  “Holy shit, woman.”

  “Tell me about it.” Dez had just finished telling Charlie the story of everything that had happened since the last time they saw each other. She was on her third cup of coffee by the end, and although she was jittery from too much caffeine, she had to admit it felt incredible to finally share what she was going through with someone besides her car. “It’s been a few long, lonely months. I have been back and forth across this country taking out as many of them as I can find.”

  “I don’t understand why you've done it alone,” Harley said.

  “I knew I needed to get a jump on tracking them down, and after what I did to Cassandra, the Council wasn’t going to let me leave that building if I stuck around. I feel horrible about leaving Vegas there to deal with everything, but it was the only way.”

  “Speaking of Vegas,” Charlie said, “when are you going to contact him?”

  “I don’t know. There’s a good possibility he hates me right now. I am terrified of having that first conversation. It could result in him informing me that he’s been given elimination orders.”

  “You said he’s a contract killer, right?” Harley asked. “Don’t you think he would have tracked you down and done it already if that was the case?”

  “I don’t know,” Dez replied. “He may be stalling.”

  “That would tell me—“

  Harley dropped the knife she was slicing the lettuce with, startling Charlie and Dez as it clattered on the glass cutting board. She clutched the sides of her head, her fists covering her ears.

  “Hey, asshole! Is there a reason you’re fucking screaming at me?” Harley was shouting at the top of her lungs at no one they could see. “Seriously! Take is down a few thousand notches, you inconsiderate shit!”

  “Harley?” Charlie’s voice was edged with panic as he jumped out of his chair to go to her. Harley’s body visibly relaxed and she dropped her hands. “Har, what was that?”

  “That,” she replied, eyes closed, taking a few slow breaths, “was Dez’s little stalker.”

  “Are you okay?” Dez thought the concern in his voice was sweet, but it was nothing compared to the way he was hovering around her. It was obvious in the way he moved that he wanted nothing more than to stop whatever was hurting her. She had never seen Charlie act that way in the entire time she’d known him.

  “Yeah,” she answered, finally opening her eyes and looking at him with a smile, “I’m alright.” Then she turned to Dez. “Who’s Lucas?”

  When Dez had explained everything that had happened with the demons and the gateway, she couldn’t bring herself to say Lucas’s name. She felt so awful about what had happened to him that she hadn’t said his name out loud in months. Hearing his name again was slightly startling.

  “Is that who you heard? Lucas? Is he...” She swallowed the lump forming in her throat.

  “Oh yeah,” Harley replied. “He’s here. At least I think it’s him, and he wants to talk to you real bad. It sounded like I had a pair of speakers crammed inside my ears and he blasted them at full volume. It was so loud I was only able to make out three words. Lucas, witches, and Natalie.”

  “Natalia,” Dez corrected with a whisper.

  “Who are they, Dez?” Charlie was standing behind Harley, rubbing her shoulders.

  “I told you about both of them,” she replied. “I just didn’t use their names. Natalia was the records keeper who was murdered by a demon in Venice. Lucas was her boyfriend and also Vegas’ brother. On top of that, he was the ‘sacrifice in the name of love’ that closed the gateway down on Devil’s Island. He was miserable without her. You need to understand that Lucas had never been in love in his entire life and she was ripped away from him so quickly. As much as he loved both Vegas and me, I think his choice to step into the gateway was because he wanted to spend eternity with her more than anything. I think that’s why Vegas dealt with it as well as he did. He never really broke down. He just accepted it. I didn’t understand it at the time, but looking back on it now, I would have done the same thing for him if it were me.” A tear rolled down Dez’s face. “We went for a long time without seeing Lucas and now that he’s gone, I miss him more than ever. I can’t imagine how Vegas is feeling.”

  “I’m sorry,” Harley said, sympathetic tears glistening in the corners of her eyes.

  “Thanks,” Dez said, taking another deep, anxious breath.

  “Do you have any idea what the reference to witches was?” Charlie asked as he walked over to a cupboard and opened the door, obviously looking for something.

  “I don’t know,” Dez replied, shrugging her shoulder. “That could be anything. He could be trying to warn me about Cassandra, but that’s really old news at this point. If it’s anything else, I have no way of knowing.”

  “Don’t be so sure about that.” Harley’s words accompanied a goofy grin.

  “Are you really going to haul that thing out?” Charlie asked the question with amusement, still fishing through the cupboards.

  “Of course I am! Are you kidding me? Come on! It’s the one chance I get to play with it where I know I am talking to the right people.” With that, Harley ran around the kitchen island and disappeared down the hallway toward the bedroom.

  “What exactly is she going to do?”

  Charlie chuckled a little bit. “Oh, something very Harley-esque. Here. You’re going to need this.” He handed Dez a shot glass full of clear liquid. One quick sniff told her it was top-shelf tequila.

  “Patron?” she asked.

  “Don Julio.”

  “Oh, still good.” She smiled and tossed the shot of liquor back.

  “Trust me, Dez. You’re going to need it. Shit’s about to get weird.”

  Harley came skipping back down the hallway holding what looked like a board game box hugged to her chest with a big, childish smile on her face.

  “Are you being serious right now? We're going to use a Ouija board?”

  “Hey,” Harley said, stopping in her tracks, mock indignation on her face. “Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.”

  “Does it really work?” Dez knew there were unorthodox ways of dealing with the paranormal, but she’d never heard of anyone doing so something as mundane as breaking out a spirit board.

  “Sure it does!” Harley responded, all enthusiasm returned. “It’s just a form of communication, and it’s a lot easier for a spirit to reach through this way than it would be for them to do things like move rocks and write in dust. That takes a lot of energy.”

  “Okay,” Dez replied, “let’s do it. What do we need? Candles and robes?”

  Charlie chuckled and Harley looked at her with an arched eyebrow.

  “What? I’ve never done this before.”

  “All you need to do is relax and plant your ass over here.” Harley walked around the side o
f the couch, pushed the coffee table out into the center of the living room, and sat down on the floor. As she opened the box and removed the board and heart-shaped wooden pointer, Dez and Charlie each sat down at a side of the table.

  Harley was all business as she laid the board out on the table. “When I put the planchette in place, everyone places their fingertips on an edge. Lightly. You don’t want to push on it or weigh it down. Just barely rest your fingertips on the top side of an edge.”

  Just as Dez was about to set her fingers on the planchette, she pulled her hands back.

  “Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.”

  “What?” Charlie asked with a worried look on his face.

  “Charlie and Harley?”

  Harley laughed lightly and Charlie rolled his eyes.

  “Listen, hybrid,” Charlie replied, “don’t give me shit.”

  “Actually,” Harley said, “we joked around about that in the beginning of our relationship. We considered introducing him as Chuck, but does that,” she nodded her head in Charlie’s direction, “look like that face of a ‘Chuck’ to you?”

  “No,” Dez replied with a laugh.

  “I didn’t think so either. There’s no way to get around it. Anyone we meet is bound to comment on it. Luckily, we keep to ourselves for the most part.”

  “However,” Charlie jumped in, “that brings up an interesting question. The initials we kept seeing around the house, why doesn’t anyone call you DD as a nickname?”

  Dez glared at Charlie. “Because they know I would shoot them in the face.”

  This elicited a full laugh from Harley and then she looked at Charlie and said, “I like this girl. Okay, let’s do this. Remember, lightly.”

  They all placed their fingertips on the heart-shaped planchette and Harley closed her eyes, taking a long slow breath before she spoke.

  “I am looking to speak with Lucas or Natalia. Everyone else, please step back.” She paused for a moment, opened her eyes, and then continued. “Lucas, are you there?” Immediately, she squeezed her eyes closed tight and clenched her teeth. “Ouch!” The single word came out in a growl and then she yelled. “Motherfucker! Volume! That hurts! Use the board and save me the migraine!” She visibly relaxed again.

  The piece started to move slowly around the board, stopping briefly on one letter at a time until it spelled out one word.

  S-O-R-R-Y

  “It’s okay. I’m guessing this is your first time. Just please, no more screaming. It’s unnecessary. I get that you’re trying to communicate but we can do this without you inducing an aneurism. Now, we know you’re trying to reach Dez, we just don’t know why.”

  W-I-T-C-H-E-S

  Harley spoke to Dez this time. “Does that mean anything to you?”

  Dez nodded. “Yeah, but we already know Cassandra was behind the whole gateway thing.”

  The piece moved to the NO on the board.

  “Yes, it was her. She flat out admitted it.”

  “Maybe that’s not what he’s talking about,” Charlie replied.

  “Is that it?” Harley asked, her eyes glancing around the room for their unseen conversation partner. “Are you trying to tell us about something else having to do with witches?”

  The piece slid to the YES, then started spelling by individual letters again.

  T-H-R-E-E

  “Three?” Harley asked. “Three witches?”

  YES

  “Okay,” Harley said with a smile. “We’re getting somewhere! What about the witches?”

  The piece sat still, and for a moment Dez thought they had lost contact. Then it started to shift and spell again.

  B-A-N-I-S-H A-L-L D-E-M-O-N-S

  “Lucas,” Dez replied, “I’ve been trying.”

  NO

  The piece started to glide across the board, a little faster than before.

  I K-N-O-W A W-A-Y T-O G-E-T R-I-D O-F T-H-E-M A-L-L

  Dez was suddenly flooded with anxiety. She took a deep breath to relax herself and then asked the question. “I’m going to have to get Vegas here, aren’t I?”

  YES

  “I figured you were going to say that.”

  “Dez,” Charlie half whispered, “I think you have a phone call to make.”

  Dez’s welled up with tears as she looked into her friend’s eyes. “I know,” she managed to whisper.

  “Lucas,” Harley said, “we are going to close out the conversation but we will be back, okay?”

  W-E A-R-E N-O-T G-O-I-N-G A-N-Y-W-H-E-R-E

  “Okay, we'll talk to you soon.” Harley guided the piece over the words GOOD BYE and as Charlie and Dez removed their fingers, she took the planchette off of the board.

  “Excuse me,” Dez said as she climbed to her feet and walked out the front door.

  Dez stepped out onto the wraparound deck and leaned on the railing. She stared out at the neighborhood, if you could call it that, between her and the rust red cliffs, lit up by the setting sun. There was no movement, save for the tiny flock of Gambel's quail running in a single-file line from the cover of brush in one yard to the next. House after house lined the road without a single sign of human life. There were cars parked in the driveways and under carports, but no one was out for an evening stroll after dinner or hauling brown paper grocery bags out of their car trunk following a post-work shopping trip for the essentials. The only sound she could hear was the distant hum of air conditioners hard at work. The town Charlie had chosen as his home had an eerie, albeit peaceful, quality to it. Dez couldn’t help but wonder if someone died in this town, would anyone notice or would they be long-forgotten mummified remains before they were ever found?

  Dez pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, clicked on the address book, and stared down at his name like she had a million times before. The difference now was she needed to make the call and couldn’t bring herself to do it. What would she say? Hey Vegas, long time, no talk! No, it wouldn’t be that simple.

  If she was being honest with herself, she had committed murder. Regardless of her reasons, she had killed Cassandra. She was the only one who could have taken Cass out, she knew that, but she didn’t stick around to explain. She didn’t know if she was in his good graces or on his shittiest of shit lists.

  If anything, the last five months of solitude had proven to her that she wasn’t in any great hurry to find out.

  The door opened and closed again behind Dez and Charlie appeared next to her, taking up his own little piece of real estate on the railing.

  “Hey,” he said quietly without looking at her.

  “Hey yourself,” she responded.

  “You okay?”

  “Not remotely.” She let out a long sigh and continued. “I’m not ready for all of this.”

  “Was talking to Lucas too much?”

  “No,” she replied, “not at all. If anything, it doesn’t seem real.”

  “I assure you—”

  “Oh,” she interrupted, “I know. I’m not questioning Harley’s abilities. I just wish I could talk to him myself, you know?”

  “Yeah,” he answered, “I get that.”

  “Charlie,” Dez said with a smile, “you’re starting to sound American.” Despite the clarity of her British accent, Harley had lived in the United States most of her life, and had adopted the lazy slang of American culture.

  “I am not,” he replied defensively.

  “Oh, yes you are. She’s rubbing off on you. It’s about time someone did. It’s only taken, what, two hundred years?” Dez looked at Charlie inquisitively. She was digging for information she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to get. Even after years of working together, she still didn’t know exactly what he was or how long he’d been around. She knew he wasn’t a vampire, and she didn’t sense anything that screamed demon, but he most definitely wasn’t human.

  “Nice try, hybrid.”

  “Come on, Charlie!”

  “You know the rules,” he replied with more seriousness. “The less you k
now about me and what I am, the better.” He paused for a moment, then continued. “All you need to know is I am much older than you.” The smile was back and he punctuated the last thought with a wink of his eye.

  “I don’t see why it matters,” she replied defiantly. “Who the hell am I going to tell?”

  “That’s not really the point.” A sadness replaced the sparkle that was normally in his sweet brown eyes. “My kind is better left forgotten.”

  “You know what I am, it’s only fair.”

  “Hasn’t anyone ever told you to mind your elders?”

  “I don’t know that you’re my elder.” So there!

  Charlie laughed. “You’re just going to have to take my word for it. Now stop using me to avoid what you need to do. Make the call.”

  “What if I get on the phone and he won’t listen? What if I’m inviting my own death by calling him?” The tears welling in her eyes were a plea for help from her friend.

  “You just have to have a little faith. Faith in him and faith in yourself.”

  “The last time I had faith in myself resulted in me killing the only mother I’ve ever known and spending the last five months with no one except my car to talk to. That didn’t go so well.”

  “Look,” he said, “if there’s no risk, there won’t be any reward. The nature of risk is not knowing for sure what the outcome will be, but if you don’t at least try, you’ll never know. Yes, there’s a chance it might not go the way you want it to, but if he was going to kill you, don’t you think he would have done it by now? From everything you have said about him, it doesn’t sound like he fucks around and wastes time when he’s got a mark.”

  “I know,” she said, shaking her head, “you’re right. I need to just make the call and get it over with.” Silence hung in the air for a few minutes and Charlie was the one who broke it.

  “For the record,” he said with a smirk, “I’m always right.”

  “Are you ever going to tell me what you are?”

  “Maybe someday.” Charlie smiled. “Now make your phone call. I will be right inside if you need me.” Charlie stepped away from the railing and turned back toward the door.