Shadeland (The Ethereal Crossings, 1)

by D.L. Miles

  Chapter 28

  It felt like only a matter of seconds before we arrived at the police station, and only a few blocks away from home. I checked the clock quickly, noticing the sun was setting fast, filling the world with a purple haze; it was just past seven. If we didn’t hurry, there would most likely be another body in the morning.

  Without a word Jared left the car and opened the trunk, leaving me in the passenger seat. When he returned he handed me two more bottles of water which I gladly took.

  “Thanks,” I said again, feeling as if it was all I said to him lately. He was being really nice to me, considering. I wondered what had changed.

  “Just try not to get yourself shot,” he ordered, “or attacked by something, or caught by the police.”

  Jared listed off my past aggressions easily but I could say the same to him. He had been shot at too, and attacked by the siren and bitten by a Cockatrice and caught by the police while breaking into an active crime scene. But, he was technically paid to do it, if he managed to kill this creature. He locked the car and walked into the police station, not bothering to order me to stay. I think I wore him down.

  As I waited for him to return my mind began to wander. What if Bayani did tell us what the creature was, and what if he was right? How were we…well, how was Jared going to kill it? A thought occurred to me then, what if it was a human? Sure, the cause of death for the victim’s was blood loss, and the why and the how were still out there, but Azazel had said “man” to the doctor, more than once by the sounds of it. If the killer was human, were we going to kill him? I shoved that thought away—no, we would tell the police and the man would be arrested.

  But then I started thinking about more ethical problems. Why would I be so ready to kill an Eidolon murderer but not a human one? I thought of Luke, knowing he was Eidolon and wondered if that applied to him. I felt it didn’t, but would a stranger feel the same way? If Luke had killed someone, would a stranger just order to put him down because he wasn’t human?

  What about the mermaid? She had been human once, and after her heart was metaphorically torn from her chest she had killed herself, and somehow turned into a siren, beginning to kill others. Jared had shot her, more than once. Did she deserve a chance at redemption or was death the only way of stopping her? This was confusing, I didn’t understand how I felt. I had always considered the death penalty harsh, since the people could live in confinement, a fate some considered worse than death. Yet, here I was, ready to hunt down and take out an Eidolon. If the killer was human, would I be as willing? Something inside me whispered “no” and I felt sick to the point of crying.

  Now was not the time to have a moral debate with myself, I needed to stay focused. Once we discovered who the killer was, I would deal with my issues then. But maybe…maybe I could ask Jared his thoughts when he got back? Just one question, since he had more experience in the area than I did. One question couldn’t hurt…could it?

  I leaned forward, covering my eyes with my hand as my elbows rested on my legs. Between my feet sat the water bottles Jared had given me, completely forgotten while I sat and fought with my inner voice. Picking one up I took a large gulp from it, feeling it soothe my throat temporarily. It was better than nothing, I thought.

  I stared out the window and watched as the lower the sun got the emptier the streets became. Contemplating, I considered what Dr. Wineman had said in his last class about certain Etheric’s being truly evil, no chance of changing. One he mentioned was the mermaid.

  For some reason, that made me feel less guilty over killing the siren. Evil was evil, and evil had to be stopped. A weight lifted from my shoulders, thinking with such simplicity. But I knew it wouldn’t last forever, soon enough I would start thinking about who was evil and who wasn’t; why the Eidolon’s were treated so differently than the humans. I wasn’t innocent in my thinking about them, despite what I liked to believe.

  The Charger’s locks clicked open and Jared opened the door, climbing into his seat.

  “Okay,” he said, “that actually went better than expected.” Hope filled my chest and I looked up at him.

  “It did? He told you who it is?” As the words left my mouth I knew it was too much to ask, but Jared seemed so positive then, and he was never positive.

  “No,” he said, pulling out a map from the glove compartment. He had a lot of things in there; a gun, water, a map and more. I wondered how it all fit. “But I think I know where to find it.”

  “How?” I asked as he stretched the map across the dashboard. Ellengale was displayed in front of me, some tiny side alleys not listed, too small to matter. My street was one of them.

  “Bayani was still a little…out of it,” he explained, “but he did say something useful. He said it’s actually feeding on the women, I couldn’t get what it was feeding on, but that’s why it’s killing.” I remained silent, trying not to think of Charlie being a meal to some unholy creature and Jared gave me a sympathetic look, knowing what was on my mind. “So I thought that creatures tend to not stray too far from their nest to feed.” Jared pulled out a marker from his pocket and marked down where all the victims were killed.

  An “X” over where my street should have been drawn, an “X” over Alex’s house, another “X” down Eastport Drive, an “X” on where Rosa had lived and one final “X” over the college. All of them were on the north side of the map, bunched together, except for the college which, remained further to the East.

  “Rosa had been taken from The Corner,” I mentioned and Jared marked it down. That screwed up the pattern I had noticed; while all the other marks were in the north, the club was towards the south.

  “You said you and Luke were in the northern woods when you saw this bat thing, right?” he pointed to the area and I nodded. “Well I asked that disturbingly perky Officer Bunny if there were any houses up there and she said there were a few right about…there.” He circled a small clearing on the map in the woods, and finalized it with a triumphant dot.

  “Those used to be a camp until it shut down and were sold as cottages,” I mentioned, remembering my first and last dreadful summer there. “What exactly does that mean?”

  “Those houses are only a twenty minute drive to here,” he gestured to the clumped X’s by my house, “and the same to here.”

  Jared pointed at the college with the pen. It wouldn’t explain the club, but I kind of got his point.

  Rosa had been knocked unconscious and taken back to her house by a man, John Walker, where she was then killed. If whatever was killing these women had Walker as a partner, then she would still fit the pattern of staying in the north. Something about Jared’s theory seemed right.

  “Did he tell you anything else?” I asked, just to be sure. If we went into the woods, at night when this thing came out the most, we should at least know what we’re up against.

  “No,” Jared said, “he just kept saying fire would be the only way. Whatever’s up there, fire’s gonna kill it.”

  “So should we go there now?” I asked, noting that the streetlights had turned on. I wasn’t sure what the protocol was in this kind of situation. Were we supposed to go and get Luke and Richard to help or go at it alone?

  “There is no ‘we’ now,” Jared said, reminding me of our last conversation when he said it, “this is way too dangerous. I’m taking you home.”

  “But I want to go with you,” I said. I wanted to find out who it was, who had killed all these women. A part of me understood that it would be dangerous, but I still wanted to go, I had to go.

  “You’re sick,” he told me, “what do you think you’re going to do? You look like you’re about to pass out.” I wasn’t sure if he was lying or not, but maybe it was true. I didn’t dare check the mirror to see my appearance but just as I was about to start arguing something caught my eye; something in the sky.

  High over the town I could make out the familiar figure o
f a large bat, flying south, just over my apartment. I stared at it, unable to think of what to say when Jared asked, “What?”

  To answer I pointed at the figure. It was too dark to see clearly, the moon hidden behind the clouds, but I could see the wings stretch across the sky. As Jared leaned forward to see what I was pointing at the clouds shifted and revealed the moon, just as the creature flew past it, allowing us only a glimpse of what appeared to be a human torso.

  “Is that…?” I trailed my sentence off, not sure if I should say “killer” or not. I wanted to though; I could feel the words ready to jump from my tongue.

  “Hold on,” Jared tore out of the parking lot and headed for the creature in the sky. He didn’t seem bothered that we were surrounded by police officers as he broke the speed limit leaving; luckily, they didn’t seem to care.

  Jared raced down the streets, chasing the flying creature as best he could. I didn’t know how he was watching it and the road so well, I could barely focus on finding the creature. As we drove down the darkening roads the thing disappeared, diving suddenly into a residential area.

  “Where did it go?” I asked, no trace of it left behind. My heart was thumping loudly in my chest, but it did take my attention away from my fever.

  “Somewhere around here,” Jared said, scanning the area. Our pace was slow as we travelled down the empty street, looking for any sign of the thing. Jared pulled the car over and clicked his lights off, waiting. I rolled the window down half way, hoping that might help us and it actually did.

  Not too far away, I could hear the same clicking I had heard before, the same clicking that Mrs. Weston heard; like fingernails on a hard surface. Being able to focus on it now, it sounded different. I just didn’t know why it sounded different.

  “Where is it coming from?” I questioned, not seeing anything around us. Remembering that Mrs. Weston had said it was on her roof I began to scan the tops of houses. Jared told me to wait in the car as he stepped outside, gun drawn. I followed after him, only to lecture. “You can’t shoot it here!”

  “Why not?” he asked, narrowing his vision to one house. He took careful steps across the street and I looked up to see what he was looking at. Crawling along the slanted rooftop was what appeared to be a person, with large, bat-like wings extending from their back, ripping through their jacket. Or at least, it was most of a person; it was merely a woman’s torso, no legs, nothing from the waist down that I could see at least. I was glad at that moment that it was too dark to see clearly. Whatever it was, it didn’t see Jared or me watching it as it climbed over the ledge and peered into a window.

  “Someone will hear,” I explained, looking around at the black windows, “they’ll call for help.”

  “We’ll be gone by then,” Jared raised his weapon, aiming at the thing. I rushed to him and grabbed at his wrist, yanking it upwards as he pulled the trigger. The shot echoed through the air and I had to cover my ears again, not able to stand the sound. He shouted at me, the sound muffled, “What the hell are you doing?”

  “You can’t—” I wanted to tell him that here was not the place to kill this thing but was cut off by a horrifying shriek. The creature’s wing had been clipped and it saw us now as it fell towards the ground, only to catch its claws on the bricks. It hung above the front door and all around us lights were coming on. The thing noticed this too and quickly opened its damaged wings and took off over the house, diving back down into the yard behind.

  “Get in the car!” Jared yelled at me and took off after the creature on foot. For a brief second I had considered doing as I was told but instead chased after him, only ten feet behind. We ran past the minivan sitting in the driveway and burst through the unlocked fence to the backyard.

  All around us were children’s toys and play sets. On the far end, sitting against the wooden fence sat a small plastic house, complete with fake flowers sitting atop the fake window ledge. Jared stood in the middle of the yard, careful to not keep his back to anything for too long. Next to him was a large dog house, hopefully without a dog inside and beside it was a swing set and a variety of balls but the creature was nowhere in sight.

  “Where is it?” I asked and Jared didn’t seem surprised that I had followed him.

  “Shh,” he said, turning his back to me. He was watching the playhouse, the plastic door open to reveal a blackened interior.

  Something shuffled forward inside and I saw blue eyes shimmer in the pale moonlight until the clouds moved again, cloaking the figure in darkness. Whatever it was, it was letting out a laboured breathing, it’s long, thin fingers reaching out and clutching either side of the plastic doorway. With a scream, it launched itself at Jared, teeth bared like the siren.

  Jared cursed at it and fired his gun, only grazing its arm as the bullet ripped past and lodged into the playhouse. It tackled Jared but he never went down, he lifted the creature under its arms and threw it towards the dog house. It landed face down with a thud at my feet. The bounty hunter’s gun had been thrown to me during the brief confrontation and I raced to pick it up just as the back door of the house flung open.

  My hand floated over the weapon as I turned to see a man standing there, arm out to keep his wife back. She was pregnant, I could just make out the large bump under her nightgown. When I heard the creature hiss at Jared I whipped my head to around see it.

  It lifted itself up with its arms, setting its half body gently on the grass. Blonde hair washed over its shoulders and a business jacket thankfully hid most of its body. Whatever it was, it was female, with skin as grey as stone. If I didn’t know any better, I would say she looked a lot like Cindy but the features were too contorted to be certain.

  “What the hell is that thing?” the man called out, not really to anyone in particular. “Get in the house!” He pushed his wife back inside and slammed the door, not worried about anyone else. I didn’t blame him; he was only protecting his family.

  “Get me the gun!” Jared yelled and I looked down at my shaking hand, already holding the weapon. Jared’s hand was held out to me, a few meters away and I rushed to him, shoving the gun into his hand.

  As he raised it towards the creature she flapped her wings and rose a foot into the air when I heard a deep growling. What now?

  The creature turned its head, listening to the noise as well when suddenly a Boxer jumped out of the dog house and onto it, tearing into its shoulder. She shrieked again as she clawed at the dog’s head, trying to get it off but failing. After a long while she managed to get it off and the dog whimpered, retreating back into its home, its face clawed and bloody. Before Jared could shoot again she flew into the air with another terrifying scream, heading north towards what we had guessed was her nest.

  Both Jared and I stared as she flew off until finally the darkness took over her figure and she was gone.

  “Did that look like—”

  “Yeah,” I agreed before he could finish his sentence. Sirens sang in the distance, predicting the coming wave of police and ambulances. “We should go.”

  We ran back to the car and drove off as quickly as possible. Maybe we would get lucky and nobody had seen us? The husband and wife that lived in the house may have, but I had a feeling they were too focused on the flying torso with wings to look at us. I understood that; ask me what they looked like and the only thing I could say was that she was pregnant.

  “Do not do anything like that again!” Jared said, voice raising. “You could have gotten killed.”

  “Yell at me later,” I said, annoyed that he was actually going to lecture me. “We have bigger problems right now. Like that…thing…what was it?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted and pulled over as three cop cars raced by, followed by a fire truck. At least they weren’t chasing us down, I thought. “But at least we know who it is. Call the doc and make sure he’s still at your place, he might know what it is.”

  I pulled my phone from my
pocket and dialled, having a little difficulty with my hand shaking so much. When I found out that he was still in my apartment with Luke we were already pulling into the parking lot below. I didn’t tell him what had just happened, but I did tell him we saw the creature and explained what it looked like, briefly mentioning that the woman in the house looked pregnant.

  “Oh no,” he said and I pictured him covering his eyes, “I know what it is. How could I have not…” Richard grunted in frustration, feeling blind for not realizing sooner. Jared opened the lobby door, allowing me inside first. He kept a hand on my shoulder and I found it comforting, my own hands beginning to calm down.

  “We’ll be up in a few minutes,” I told him when he stopped me. I touched Jared’s hand to tell him to stop and he released his grip.

  “Don’t come up,” the doctor instructed, “we’ll be coming down.” Just as I was about to hang up the phone I heard him ask Luke, “Do you have any salt?”

  And with a click the line went dead.