Death And Darkness

by E. A. Copen

  “Hello?” Nate sounded desperate but worn, a little more eager than normal. Must’ve been a while since the doctors updated him.

  “Come downstairs to the morgue,” I told him. “If you want to find Jessica, you need to come alone. No cops.” I hung up without waiting for a response. If I’d stayed on the line too long, the cops watching him might’ve gotten curious and asked who he was talking to. I just hoped Nate recognized my voice.

  Nothing to do now but wait, I suppose. I slid into the shadows, hands in my pockets. Just in case someone besides Nate came into the room, I needed to stay out of sight.

  I didn’t have to wait long. Not five minutes passed before the doors on the opposite wall opened and a bony guy with big, curly hair stepped cautiously into the morgue. He held something awkwardly in his hand, though I couldn’t make out exactly what it was. Nate’s footsteps echoed through the room as he slowly made his way to the middle, scanning the darkness.

  I waited until he passed me to step out of the shadows. “Sorry to pull you away, Nate.”

  He spun around on me before I even finished speaking and raised whatever was in his hands. Light flashed and thunder boomed. No, not thunder, I realized as something whizzed by my ear and slammed into one of the metal drawers behind me. Nate had a gun, and he’d shot at me!

  He shifted the gun, adjusting his aim.

  No time to figure out why, not if I didn’t want to get shot in the face. I rushed forward and grabbed the gun, pushing it aside. “Just what the hell was that for? I thought we were pals.”

  He bared his teeth at me. “I know what you did. Now where’s my daughter, Lazarus? Where is she?”

  I looked down at the gun. He tried to bring it around one more time, but I pulled it away.

  Rather than try to grab it back, Nate collapsed, falling to the floor, breathing hard. “Please. Even if she’s dead, just tell me. I can’t not know. I need to know.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I looked down at the gun and turned to place it on a shelf behind me. “Nate, I didn’t hurt Jessica or Remy. Come on, man. You know me better than that.”

  At least I hoped he did. I considered Nate to be my best friend. Sometimes, my only friend.

  Nate clenched his fists and turned his face up so he could glare at me. His eyes watered, threatening to overflow. “Leah came around just before they took her in. She said it was you, Laz. You’re the one who stabbed her.”

  Chapter Seven

  I staggered back a step at Nate’s accusation. Leah and I didn’t get along. We’d had our fair share of verbal sparring matches, but I’d never have hurt her. Not even if she attacked me. Leah was a vanilla mortal, totally human, and not privy to the supernatural at all. I’d have handled her just like I did the morgue technician, with care and respect.

  Except I never would’ve done that, not to Leah. To be honest, I was a little scared of the woman.

  I squatted and put a hand on Nate’s shoulder, meeting his eyes. “I give you my word, Nate. I never hurt Leah. It wasn’t me.”

  “Then why’d she say it was you? Leah wouldn’t lie.” He pawed at his eyes, pushing away tears.

  Good point. I was the only one who could walk through my wards, and I could’ve raised seventeen zombies if I’d wanted, no sweat. But I hadn’t done it, and I couldn’t have taken the kids. I was with Emma.

  “I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” I pulled my hand away. “Nate, aside from the fact that I was with Emma, you know me. You know how I operate. Even when Emma was in Hell, on my worst day, have I ever raised a hand to someone who didn’t deserve it?”

  His jaw clenched. Nate lowered his gaze to the floor and shook his head.

  “Think whatever you want about me, but finding Remy and Jessica before whoever is behind this hurts them is more important to me than anything right now, and I need your help for that.”

  Nate closed his eyes and blew out a breath. “Okay. How can I help?”

  “I’m going to try a locator spell,” I said. “Whoever took the girls, I think their main objective was Remy. They just grabbed Jess by accident, or because they couldn’t figure out which one they wanted. I’m betting they’ve taken measures to stop me from finding Remy, but maybe not Jessica.”

  “You think if you find Jessica, you’ll find Remy?”

  I nodded.

  Nate grabbed one of the nearby mobile tables and pulled himself to his feet. “It’s better than any plan the police have come to me with. They think…” He turned away. “They haven’t started looking for a body yet, but with the way they’re talking, they think you…”

  “I didn’t.” I pushed myself up. “Whoever’s behind this, they’re smart. They lured Emma and me out to that theme park just to get us away. They struck when they knew you’d be at work and Leah would be on her own. And they’ve probably used magic to impersonate me so Leah would think I was the one who stabbed her.”

  “Can they do that?” Nate eyed me with a frown. “Look like someone else?”

  I shrugged. “There are all kinds of things that can. Gods can, for certain. There are stories about it all through mythology. Shapeshifters. The list is almost endless.”

  Nate studied the wall of corpse drawers, trying to process everything. I didn’t blame him for being suspicious, but I was pissed and more than a little hurt. Something out there was wearing my face and hurting my friends and family. When I found whoever it was, I was going to peel that face right off.

  “So, what do you say, Nate? Willing to help me find your kid?”

  Nate nodded. “On one condition. I want in.”

  I crossed my arms. “Not going to happen, Nate. The police are hunting me. Until I can clear my name and fix this, I’ve got to keep a low profile. I don’t want you tangled in this mess. It could hurt your job.”

  “I’m already tangled in this. They have my daughter, Lazarus. You tell me if you’d sit this out knowing that. Besides, I’m not doing any good here. All I can do is pace and pray. I need to do something.”

  Nate had a point. He knew I wouldn’t, but I also had magic and contacts that would help me. He didn’t. All he had was a little medical knowhow and a lot of courage. Then again, I’d seen him hold his own against supernatural creatures more than once. Nate was no pushover. People underestimated the squirrelly little guy, but he had enough heart to make everyone who took a second glance respect him.

  Besides, it was his kid. I couldn’t just deny the guy his right to fight for his family, especially not after he’d helped me countless times.

  “All right.” I extended my hand. “But you duck when I say duck, you got me?”

  “I got you.” Nate took my hand with both of his. “And for what it’s worth, I trust you, Laz. If you say you didn’t do it, I believe you.”

  “Thanks, man.” I pointed to the exit. “We can’t do the spell here. Too high a risk that I’ll accidentally reanimate something. There’s a van outside with a couple friends of mine. People you can trust. We’ll have to do it somewhere else. You in?”

  Nate nodded.

  I led him out of the morgue. On the way out, I paused at the office to check on Amy. She was still out, snoring like she hadn’t slept in weeks.

  The van that Khaleda and Josiah had no doubt stolen was missing from the loading dock outside. Momentary panic gripped me. What if they’d decided this was too big a favor and bailed? What if they’d gotten caught?

  But that fear faded when a black four-door sedan pulled up and Khaleda put the window down. They’d just swapped out vehicles like they said they would do.

  Nate hesitated at the sight of Khaleda. “Laz, what are you doing with her? I thought you said they were people you could trust. She’s—”

  “An ally,” I finished.

  Nate gave me a look.

  “It’s complicated. I’ll bring you up to speed on the way.”

  We loaded into the car with Nate and me taking the back seat, Josiah’s bag on the floorb
oards between us.

  Josiah twisted around to eye us, tucking an unlit cigarette behind his ear. “Evenin’, mate. ’Ow you goin’?”

  I gestured to Nate. “This is Nate Frieder. Jessica is his daughter. Nate, this is Josiah.”

  “The Australian magical nuke you were telling me about.” Nate nodded and buckled in.

  Josiah blinked and gave me a quizzical look. “Magical nuke? Huh. I like it. So where to, fellas? Best we get off these streets and behind closed doors for spells.”

  I nodded. “I know a place, but um…” I glanced at Nate. “Nate, you’re going to have to excuse some of what you see and hear there. The guy’s not in family-friendly entertainment if you know what I mean.”

  Nate rolled his eyes. “Lazarus, I’m Jewish, not a saint.”

  I shrugged and relayed the address to Khaleda, who nodded and pulled out of the hospital parking lot.

  Half an hour later, our stolen car stopped casually in front of a huge white mansion with a big iron gate around it. It was early morning, just an hour or so after dawn, so there was no movement inside yet. The lawn itself was due for a trim to keep up with all the houses around it, but it otherwise looked like Darius had been keeping up with the place. Maybe business was doing better.

  The last time I’d seen Darius, I’d just rescued his sister from Hell. Lucifer Morningstar, Khaleda’s father, had been possessing her. It hadn’t been easy to get Lucifer out of Nikki. The process left her bruised. Beth healed Nikki, and Darius was none the wiser. He was just happy to have his sister back.

  Not all our dealings had been so positive, though. Most of my interactions with Darius and his guys began with me taking a beating before I could explain myself. In the end, things worked out, but we were uneasy allies. Since I couldn’t pay him, and I was on the run from the cops, I didn’t know if he’d let me inside. While Darius had gone legit and was no longer a criminal, he didn’t like drawing attention from the authorities. He was still a thug at heart.

  I tugged my ball cap down and knocked on the door before stepping back. “I hope this doesn’t go sideways.”

  “If it does, you can always just yank out his soul,” Josiah said.

  I stared at him. “They have guns, Josiah. Big ones.”

  He shrugged.

  I shook my head and turned back to the door to knock again. “Not all of us are half-angels, Josiah.”

  Nate’s eyes doubled in size. “You’re a what?”

  “Guns can still kill me, mate. I’m as mortal as you without my guardian angel looking out for me. Trust me when I say they’re an even bigger pain in the clacker than the bloody Devil ever was.”

  The door creaked open, and a red-eyed guy with dark dreads leaned on it. He eyed me with suspicion, then leaned to the side to take in the other three. “Whatchu want, Magic Man?”

  Before I could answer, a howl cut through the silence, making my skin prickle. The world’s ugliest dog thundered through the door, knocking aside Darius’ guy and leaping straight for me. The dog pounced me and knocked me to the ground to slobber all over my face.

  I gagged on the nauseating stench of doggie breath and pushed the mutt away, choking. “Nice to see you too, Joeline.”

  Joeline was a wrinkled mess of dog flesh on an intimidatingly huge frame. I wasn’t sure who her parents were, but they were probably related. She was what you might get if you bred the world’s dumbest Bullmastiff with the world’s ugliest Shar Pei, but Joeline was Darius’ pride and joy. For some reason, he credited me with bringing them together though I had nothing to do with it. That was one of the perks of having magic and working near Normals. Even when something wasn’t magic, it got attributed to magic.

  “Joeline!” Darius called and stumbled to the door himself. He grabbed her collar while she was still trying to lunge at me for more face-licking and pulled her back. I waited for Darius to acknowledge me, but he’d focused on someone behind me, his face hard. “Who the fuck are you?”

  I sat up and turned to see Josiah wave his hand to get rid of the bright blue angel fire he’d summoned. “Nice dog. Where’d you find her?”

  Joeline seemed to notice Josiah for the first time and growled. Josiah narrowed his eyes and she immediately stopped. So, he was a dog whisperer now. Great.

  “Darius,” I said, standing and dusting dog hair from my clothes, “these are my associates Josiah and Khaleda. They helped me get Nikki back for you. And this is Nate Frieder.”

  “Hello,” Nate said awkwardly.

  Darius frowned at him.

  “We need a safe place to lay low for a few hours, Darius,” I explained. “I can give you details, but I’d rather do it behind closed doors.”

  He sighed and gave me a hard look. “I ain’t runnin’ no halfway house for wizards on the run, Laz. I’m legit now.”

  “Just the same, you owe me for Nikki. You owe all of us.” I hated playing that card, but Darius forced my hand. There was nowhere else we could go to do the spell where the cops wouldn’t find us.

  Darius nodded. “Supposin’ I do. But I still can’t put up all four of ya for nothing. I need something in exchange. Assurances. You understand.”

  Khaleda, who had been silent up to that point, stepped up onto the porch with me. She flashed him a smile and gently ran two fingers down his cheek. “I’m sure we can come to some arrangement.”

  Darius’ jaw hit the ground. His pupils dilated and he stood there, staring like an idiot, unable to speak. It was a look I knew all too well. Watching him, I had flashbacks to my own run-in with Khaleda’s succubus power and tightened my hands into fists. Darius didn’t deserve her. She was too good for him. If he so much as touched her—

  “Easy, Khaleda.” Josiah sparked a flame and lit his cigarette before using it to gesture to me. “You’re going to break him, and I need him if we’re going to get paid for this.”

  The power that Khaleda had been leaking turned off like a faucet, and she withdrew her hand from Darius. I felt it snap away from me and let out the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding. She flashed me a smirk and a wink. Damn her.

  Darius picked his jaw up off the ground, stumbled back a step, and held open the door. “Come in.”

  I stepped into the entryway of the grand mansion. Last time I’d been there, he had a hot dog cart in the hall. He’d replaced that with a bar lined with liquor of every kind. I eyed it, wishing he’d offer me a drink. I could use one after the day I’d had. More than that, I could use a chat with Emma. I needed to know how she was holding up and to assure her that everything she was hearing from her cop friends about me wasn’t true. That wasn’t going to happen. They’d be monitoring her calls. Until this was all ironed out, I couldn’t even get a message to her. That realization made my chest hurt.

  “There’s crash space upstairs,” Darius said as he closed the door, “as long as you’re not going to be too noisy. I’ve got a production going in the east wing, but the west is clear for now. We don’t start filming there until tomorrow. You need anything for your spell, magic man?”

  He was eyeing Khaleda like a starving man might look at a cheeseburger. Khaleda barely seemed to notice. She was busy examining the bar.

  Darius cleared his throat. “Course, if you need cash under the table, I do have an open spot in the production that your girl here’d be perfect for.”

  Khaleda smiled. “We can talk about that after we’re settled.”

  “Right, right.” Darius clapped his hands. “Well, I need to go get cleaned up. Martin here will take you to the room.” He nodded to the red-eyed guy who’d first opened the door.

  Martin didn’t look happy about having the buck passed to him, but he knew better than to argue with his boss. He nodded and gestured toward the carpeted staircase ahead. “After y’all.”

  I made sure to keep Nate close by. Darius might not have dealt in the supernatural, and he might’ve claimed to have gone legit, but he was still plenty dangerous. Poor Nate was obviously out of his element. He lo
oked around the place like a bird in a cat den, nervous eyes scanning every wall and door as if something were about to jump out at him at any moment.

  “What exactly does this spell entail?” Nate asked, speeding up to meet my pace up the stairs.

  “I’ll need a little blood. Not much. It’ll make it easy to connect to Jessica. That, a little fire, and a map, and we’re good. It’s simple magic as far as spells go. Basic enough that anyone could do it.”

  “Unless the guy you’re hunting has her trapped inside iron,” Khaleda added. “Or a salt circle. Or any circle, really.”

  I gave her a warning look. “Not helping.”

  “I’m only giving him a full answer to his question, Lazarus. Holding back doesn’t do him any favors. It just means you might have to explain it again later.” She shrugged.

  “We’re not talking about a lost toy here, Khaleda.” I stopped at the top of the stairs, where they split in two directions and spun to face her. “This is his kid. My kid. You could show a little sympathy and compassion.”

  She rolled her eyes. “If you’re attempting to appeal to my motherly intuition, you’re wasting your time. I’m not the nurturing sort.”

  “So I noticed.” I turned my back to her and followed Martin up the stairway to the right.

  The room Martin brought us to still had equipment in it. Spotlights stood, pointed at a desk, behind which stood an executive-style rolling chair and a bookshelf. That whole side of the room had been made up to look like an expensive office with cheap props. Beanbag chairs sat around the rest of the room, places for the staff and stars to rest between shots, I guessed. A dresser off to the left near the door held various bottles of makeup, eyeliner, and at least three kinds of lube. At least the room looked clean. I still wasn’t going to sit on that chair, though.