Cancer's Curse (The Zodiac Book 4)

by Sating, Paul

  "Ouch," Ralrek laughed.

  "I'm talking about you too. If you looked at name tags of every single guy who walked by instead of their asses, we could have eliminated half the post by now. I thought you hated them? One guy in Germany changes your entire outlook? Must have been a great kisser."

  "Don't be jealous of the buffet the Army has laid out for me, Zeke. I can still not be a fan of them while enjoying the aesthetic beauty of His creation, can't I? Plus, you're wrong. I've been looking as hard as you."

  "The only thing hard you've been looking at is—"

  A pair of female soldiers walked by. Bilba's head followed.

  "Definitely not named Chax," I said. "Seriously, come on, guys. How are we going to find him if you both can't stay focused?"

  "Because it's not our issue?" Ralrek said with a shrug.

  "That's disgusting," I said, crumbling the paper wrapper from my sub sandwich into a ball, throwing it on my tray and getting up.

  Bilba set his slice of pizza down, but still held it. "Where are you going?"

  "To do the right thing," I said over my shoulder, walking to the trashcan, dumping my tray and turning to look at the open food court area.

  Surrounded by fifteen foot high concrete walls, hundred soldiers filled the enclosed area, sitting at dozens of picnic tables. Food trailers lined the perimeter. The layout made it difficult to navigate while appearing casually interested in the various food offerings. We came here because the layout corralled hungry soldiers and was an excellent observational opportunity. Conversations were abundant, insightful, and often entertaining, but were rarely helpful. Time was ticking away, and we were no closer to finding Chax than when we left Cancer. She said she'd seen him weeks before we discovered each other's secret. It was possible Chax arrived in the theater before us, which meant he would rotate out earlier too. That could happen soon, or already had. Each second we wasted was another closer to him potentially stepping on the rotator plane back to the Underworld via Qatar and America.

  It didn't help that the only thing we had on him was his name and Cancer's description. She said he was tall, but not as tall as Ralrek, and white. That he had rounded cheekbones and his upper lip always looked like it was being pulled up toward his nose. A tall, thin, white guy in the military—why did I ever think this would be a simple task? Besides gender and skin tone, every single blessed soldier looked like the other. While my hair had grown out, the humans preferred the uniform close shave approach.

  There had to be an easier way to find him.

  I kept moving because standing still was ineffective and ridiculous. After making a pass around the court, Ralrek and Bilba still hadn't left the table. At least they watched me until I made eye contact, then looked away each time I caught them. The tips of Bilba's ears turned pink.

  I grumbled under my breath. Ninety-nine percent of these soldiers were fit, white males. Chax could be any or none of them.

  Ten days of public spaces visits had turned up nothing, and hanging around the food court was hopeless, so I decided to head toward the unprotected road on the other side of the T-wall barriers. A two-directional gap in the cement slabs forced foot traffic leaving the court to pass through in a single-file. It was the only vantage point that narrowed the mass to a manageable level.

  Not thirty seconds after taking a position outside the walls, Ralrek and Bilba joined me.

  "What are you doing? You didn't have to leave," Ralrek said, still holding a half-moon of bagel.

  I pointed at the T-wall gap. "If Chax is in there, he has to come out this way."

  "You can't watch both."

  "Nope, you're going to take that side," I answered. "Both of you, since this doesn't seem urgent for you, it will take twice your effort to match mine. I can handle this side alone. Just …" I took the heat out of my voice, "just try to keep your eyes open for him."

  "Sure thing, boss," Ralrek said, walking away while stuffing the bagel in his mouth. Part of me hoped he choked on it. This was the old Ralrek, the one I didn't like. Why wasn't this more important to him?

  An hour passed with no sign of the demon Cancer needed us to find, unless we missed him during the few times inbound soldiers met outgoing and the jumbled mess made reading name tags impossible. The meal I'd shared with Bilba and Ralrek along with the setting Iraqi sun sapped my energy and did little to reduce the funk of being out in the heat for so long. It wasn't helping anyone's temperament either.

  "This is stupid," Ralrek grumbled from fifteen feet away outside the opposite exit from the food court. He sat on the aluminum picnic table reserved for smokers, given away by two brown cigarette butt cans underneath each end of the table.

  Bilba shuffled between looking at him and me. "Yeah, come on, Zeke. How long do you expect to wait for him? There's no guarantee he's in there or even headed this way. We can be out here for a month and never see him. We've been looking for over a week now."

  "You don't think I don't know that?" I snapped. Maybe it was the digested food working its way through my system or the unbearable heat, but my patience was exhausted. I ignored the fact it might be attributable to my negligent agreement to this impossible task.

  I wanted to help Cancer. She was everything I hoped to see in my fellow demons, those who constantly disappointed me. She hadn't, giving of herself to so many, even humans. She put herself at risk by living in a war-torn city to provide medical care for locals they wouldn't have without her. It wasn't pretentious or self-centered. Anyone who doubted her only had to look in her face while she served the Iraqis to see her passion for what she was doing. In so many ways, Cancer was a lot like Aries. I could help her, and hopefully, in a way, make up for failing Aries.

  "You guys can head back out if you want to."

  Bilba shuffled his feet. Ralrek held a handful of small pebbles and was picking one at a time, tossing them against the base of the T–wall.

  "Seriously guys, head back to the trailer, the rec tent … whatever. I'm fine and I'm staying because I have no idea what else to do. It's really either this or the mess halls."

  Ralrek jumped off the picnic table, his feet crunching the rock. "If you say so. Try not to stay out too late or you'll miss chow in the morning. But, seriously, you have to do what you want to do, but I don't get the whole point of this."

  I risked missing Chax by dropping my gaze to between my feet. "I don't expect you to. Cancer can't get on any of the posts, and it's not like she can confront him in the middle of a patrol. Some of these gung-ho bastards would shoot her just to help fill their day. We are her only hope of finding him."

  Bilba looked beyond me, along the T-wall barrier wall. "Come here," he whispered, like an impling who had discovered a secret stash of cookies and didn't want his parents to know.

  "What is it?"

  Bilba waved his hand aggressively, mouthing silently for me to move to him. I did.

  "Try to be casual, but turn around and look at that guy against the T-wall. He's smoking. Tall, thin."

  I tried to act as nonchalant as possible, bending to one knee to untie and then re-tie my boot. Three soldiers exited the food court, providing cover for me to spy. The soldier was a thin, white male who could have been a few years older than my relative age. He was half-turned away, smoking—of course.

  "What about him?"

  "You can be so frustrating sometimes."

  "We share that."

  "Whatever." Bilba moved closer, lowering his voice. "I'm going to take it you didn't see his name tag?"

  I hadn't, and he took my nonresponse as a response.

  "If you were paying attention instead of pouting—" Ouch! "You would have. Anyway. It says Vicu."

  I spun. So much for subtlety. My eyes honed in on the soldier's name tag as he turned forward and blew out a white puff of carcinogens. Bilba was right. After ten long days of searching we'd stumbled into our incubus, who'd been here long enough to pick up the nasty human habit of polluting his lungs.

  His eyes fl
icked in our direction, probably because of my awkward movement.

  "Do you think that's him?" Bilba asked.

  "There's only one way to find out." Before he could ask how, I called out. "Hey! Chax! How have you been?"

  At the mention of his name, Chax Vicu, Cancer's Curse Bringer, looked our way, the cigarette hand dangling at his waist. We made eye contact before he flicked the cigarette to the gravel and bolted, disappearing around the corner of the T-wall.

  "Bless it!" I snarled, giving chase.

  "Where are you going?" Bilba shouted as I raced around the T-wall.

  I didn't waste time. This might be the only chance to confront Chax. Lose it and we might never cross paths again.

  Around the corner, he was thirty yards ahead of me and breaking into a sprint. I stretched my stride to overtake him. This had to happen quickly. Two soldiers sprinting in the Iraqi heat wasn't normal. In a war zone it would only raise paranoia, even for this jaded populace. I gained momentum. Within fifty yards, I was on him, grabbing him by the bottom flap of his uniform top and spinning him around.

  "What do you want?" he spat. "Leave me alone!"

  I slammed him against the T-wall, snarling into his face. "Don't make a scene."

  Chax's hand went to my wrist and tried to pull it away. He couldn't match my strength, even with the advantage of leverage from superior height. "Let go of me, asshole."

  "Not a chance. We need to have a conversation. And that's not a request."

  He looked at my single, lonely chevron, and laughed. It was full of cockiness and privilege. "Private, you better get your hands off me. I'm an NCO."

  I moved my face close enough to smell the remnants of his cigarette. "I know what you are."

  His brow furrowed at the implication. "What are you talking about? I will report your ass, Private …" He searched for my name tag that was partially covered by my rifle strap. He huffed, "Let go of me and show me your name tag. You're going to pay for this."

  "The only one paying is you," I said. "Now, I will let go. Be a smart little soldier boy and don't run. I'll just catch you again and I won't be so kind next time."

  Bilba and Ralrek joined us. Chax tensed. "Who in the heaven do you think you are? A bunch of junior enlisted who think they can bully an NCO? I'll have your heads."

  "No, you won't, Chax," I said, gripping his utility top in a fist. I flicked my head to the side toward a covered smoking area—yes, there are a lot of those provided to military personnel, especially in deployed locations. "What you'll do is join us over there and smile the whole way so everyone will think you couldn't be happier than in this moment."

  Chax looked to the smoking pit. His voice shook. "Why?"

  I pulled him off the wall, spinning him and encouraging him along with a shove. "Get moving."

  Chax grunted as he caught his balance. Fortunately, this part of the post was empty. The T-wall barriers hid us from the food court, and only a trickle of soldiers walked down the road toward the showers and personal trailers. They were too far away to notice. This was a safe place as any for a conversation.

  "Sit." I pointed at a bench. Chax huffed but did.

  He dug into his pocket and pulled out a box of cigarettes. He flipped the top open, gave the box a sharp flick, popping up an uneven strand of cigarettes, and put one in between his lips, lighting it. "One thing I sure as fuck know is that you have no idea who I am."

  I gave my head a quick shake. "Actually, we're quite familiar with you."

  His eyes turned to a sneer. "You have no fucking clue."

  "Don't be so quick to be that confident," Ralrek said with a sarcastic laugh.

  "Why?"

  "We have a mutual … friend," Ralrek said, climbing on the picnic table just out of reach of Chax but close enough to make the other demon uncomfortable. I appreciated the gesture.

  Chax slowly clapped his hands. "Good for you. Losers like you have friends." He pushed himself to his feet. "But I'm an NCO and I've got a million things to do, so unless you have something specific you needed, I need to report your pathetic asses. Your deployment will get nastier by the time I'm done."

  He took a step forward, but I blocked his path.

  "Get out of my way," he growled.

  "I won't tell you again," I said in a voice so low he had to listen carefully. "Sit down, shut up and listen. You're not leaving until we're done talking to you about a problem you're going to clear up."

  Chax read my expression. I met his eyes but covertly released a breath when he crept backward and re-took his seat.

  I said, "It seems your family has a problem with a friend of ours and has caused her some headaches."

  "What problem? I haven't done shit to no one," Chax said so confidently he could be telling the truth.

  "If I said our friend's family name is Nijal, what would you say to that?"

  I didn't have to watch Chax's reaction carefully. His understanding and associated panic was immediate. He couldn't hide it if he'd been trained to.

  "Wha-who … who are you guys?"

  With a cocky smirk, I crossed my arms. "Let's focus on what we're here to talk about."

  Chax laughed. It was fake and grating.

  "I don't see what's so funny."

  He answered by leaning against the picnic table, raising his elbows to rest on it, the cigarette dangling between lazy fingers. It vibrated with a shake he was trying to hide. "Did they put you up to this? Want to bully me, huh? I don't tolerate bullies."

  "No one … no one is bullying you." Bilba said.

  "That's exactly what you're trying to do, and it won't work!" Chax's disposition didn't match his words. He was trying to look composed, unruffled. But hearing Cancer's family's name bothered him. His eyes flicked with clarity and he leaned forward now, resting his elbows on his knees and pointing with a two fingered swivel motion. "You're demons. You can't do a blessed thing about this here without getting your asses in serious trouble. So drop this adorable tough guy act. I promise, if you push me, you're not going to like my reaction."

  Bilba swallowed slowly enough that I could easily track his Adam's apple bobbing. In truth, Chax's bravado bothered me, but if I couldn't show similar confidence, this chance, likely our only one, would go to waste. I watched him. His confidence was building again, washing away the anxiety we had briefly introduced. Demons who shifted like that made me nervous because it usually meant they had an advantage others couldn't see or they were delusional. Chax Vicu looked like a dick, but he didn't look crazy.

  What was I missing?

  He sneered. "Let me guess. Whoever sent you is claiming to be a victim, that they're somehow oppressed by my family? Is that right?"

  "Something like that," I said, not nearly as confident as I'd been only a minute ago. I needed to keep as much information close–hold as possible.

  "And I'm assuming that this poor victim of yours told you exactly how they were victimized?"

  "Your family put a curse on her great-grandfather that has spread to other family members," Bilba said before I could stop him, handing the advantage to Chax. I wanted to palm-slap my face.

  "Cancer? You losers know Cancer?" None of us responded, answering the question for him. "Oh, this is rich. How is that petty bitch doing nowadays? She obviously hasn't changed much, since she continues to send her boyfriends to take care of her business. If she thinks the likes of you will bully me into submission, she's wrong."

  A pebble trickled across the concrete slab. It had come from Ralrek. "No one is bullying you, you little twat."

  Chax looked like Ralrek had called the entire Vicu family cherubs. "You … you can't call me that. I'm an NCO and we're in the Overworld. I'll make sure you three rot in jail for this."

  "All you are is a weak demon from a conniving family who likes to torture others," I said. If Chax thought he could raise his voice and intimidate us, I wanted to send clear signals that he wasn't the only one who could. Sometimes when cornered by a snarling hellhound, your onl
y defense was to snarl back.

  "Weak? Weak?" His voice raised each time he repeated the word.

  "I'm pretty sure that's what I said," I said, adrenaline making me tense.

  Burning around the rims of my eyes distracted me. I smelled … onions. Discernment magic!

  In a flash, so rapid even Ralrek jumped, I was on Chax, grabbing his throat. His hands shot up, spinning the cigarette through the air. The lit end landed on the back of my hand. I flinched but didn't release him. The burning in my eyes ceased, the onions, gone.

  "Zeke!" Bilba shouted in disbelief.

  "What are you doing?" Ralrek couldn't disguise his panic either. He was on his feet beside me.

  I squeezed Chax's throat. His eyes widened.

  "He was casting," I said with a snarl.

  "Dumbass," Ralrek snorted at the demon I was choking, and sat on the bench again as if Chax's predicament was as interesting as a chess match.

  "You shouldn't do that. Zeke can tell." Bilba smirked.

  "Don't try that again, you idiot," I said in a low hiss, inching my hand from Chax's throat before a human tripped across our confrontation.

  "Who … who are you guys?"

  "You're going to make right with her and her family, and you'll do it while you're in Baghdad. You're not waiting until you get home, under the protection of your family. This gets done now."

  Chax straightened his collar, trying to compose himself. After a moment of useless uniform manipulation, he ran his hand over his head. "What the heaven can I do? I got drafted just like you guys. Plus, I'm not the one who started this. This whole feud thing goes way back, long before me. Long before her."

  He said that last word like it was the most disgusting thing he would ever have to say.

  "It doesn't matter. You're going to stop it."

  Chax looked up, the fire of defiance burning in his eyes. "Oh yeah, genius? Exactly how am I supposed to do that?"

  "Well." I stopped, patting my pocket for the note—the note I had left on my nightstand, back in the trailer I shared with Bilba. Shit. "I know how. I just don't have it on me right now, but I'll find you again and then you'll remove the curse. After that, your family swears to hers that this stupid feud is over and that you're deeply sorry for the harm you caused them. I don't care what you need to do. Stop the blessed curse."