by Kyoko M
“This is in regards to Lauren Yi, who had you listed as an emergency contact. I’m sorry, but there’s been an incident.”
My blood ran cold. It must have shown on my face because Myra gave me a concerned look.
“What? What is it?”
“Drive me to the airport. Right now.”
CHAPTER TWO
JORDAN
Hospitals gave me the creeps. All of them, no exceptions. Part of the reason was an inherent childhood fear thanks to the psychiatric hospital that had abducted my mother when I was five years old. The other part was thanks to two archdemons who kidnapped me and tried to kill me two years ago inside a hospital. Still, I ignored the tiny voice inside me that screamed for me to get the hell out and continued my way through the hallway of the Outpatient medical center. Every time a doctor passed by, I flinched and tried not to look at their bright white lab coats. It was ridiculous. I had killed bloodthirsty monsters from another plane of existence and saved the world twice, yet a stupid piece of clothing made me want to run home and hide beneath the bed.
It had been too late at night for me to catch a red eye flight out of Kansas, so I caught one early this morning. I’d thrown my stuff in a hotel, grabbed a coffee to stay awake, and headed straight for the hospital where they were keeping Lauren.
I reached the room in less than a minute from the elevator. My hand froze on the doorknob. I stood there, breathing heavily, remembering the last thing Lauren said to me a year ago. She’d hung up on me, her voice icy as she told me goodbye. Was she still angry? How badly was she hurt? What could I even do about it? What was I doing here, truly?
I took a deep breath. You’re just checking on her, Amador. Man up and do it.
I opened the door. The room was freezing cold. I had to resist the urge to button up my duster to shut out the chill. A couple of other patients dozed in their beds. I walked past them and found her in the last bed to my right. My chest constricted as I saw her for the first time in almost a year.
Lauren was a couple inches taller than me with naturally straight black hair that used to make me envious. Mine had to be treated to get that perfect glossy look that fell around the shoulders. She was Korean, buxom, obnoxious, and hilarious. She’d been in the hospital for over a day so they’d cleaned her up a bit, meaning she had no makeup on. I knew she was twenty-seven, but she looked years younger lying there.
Her right arm was in a cast and a sling, resting against her stomach. There was a bruise on her cheek as well. They said she got mugged. I hoped they caught the bastard. Hell, I hoped I caught the bastard so I could teach him some manners.
Lauren opened her eyes, sending a sharp jolt of fear and surprise through my gut. I’d hoped she wouldn’t wake up just yet. Her gaze wandered around for a few seconds, probably a result of the painkillers, before settling on me.
I offered her a weak smile. “Hey, Lauren.”
Her voice came out hoarse. “Jordan?”
“Yeah. I, uh, hopped on the first thing smoking to get here. It was shitty, by the way. The carry-on alone put me back eighty bucks. Don’t ever fly with—”
“Get out.”
I managed to cap my nervous verbal diarrhea, staring at her. “What did you say?”
She raised her voice, glaring a hole through my head. “Get. Out.”
I stepped forward, imploring her. “Lauren, I know you’re mad, but please, just let me explain—”
“I’m not going to tell you again. Get out!” she shouted. It was so loud the guy in the bed across from us woke up. I had never heard her sound like that, not to me, only to her scumbag ex-husband.
“Okay. I’ll go. I just…wanted to check on you,” I mumbled, turning away from the fury in those brown eyes. I shuffled out of the room and collapsed in a chair in the hallway. Guilt gnawed through my insides. I squeezed my eyes shut and buried the pain inside me as deep as I could. I felt ashamed of myself. I wanted to go back home and crawl under the covers and block out the world. But that wasn’t going to happen. It didn’t matter if she had disowned me. I still had to make it up to her, somehow. Too bad if it ripped a new scar in my hide. I had plenty as it was.
Time dripped off the clock. I stayed where I was, mentally constructing a speech that would hopefully get me back into her good graces. Sometime during this process, a nurse tapped me on the shoulder.
I glanced up to see a pretty black woman, mid-thirties. “She’s asking for you.”
“Huh?”
“Ms. Yi. She wants to see you.”
I checked my watch. Holy hell. I’d been here four hours and didn’t realize it. I nodded too many times and stood up, wobbling on account of my legs falling asleep. I opened the door and made my way back to her bed, expecting the worst.
“Um, you called for me?”
Lauren stared me down for at least a minute. I tried my hardest not to fidget. At last, she spoke and her tone was still disapproving.
“Why are you here?”
“I had to make sure you were alright.”
“Oh, so now you care?”
I shut my eyes for a second. “Yes. I do.”
“What do you want me to say? Are you expecting me to forgive you?”
“No, not really. You’re pretty stubborn. Besides, if I were in your ridiculously high Prada heels, I’d be mad too.”
The ghost of a smirk touched her lips. I almost felt better. I wasn’t much of a friend, but I could make jokes until the end of the world. Which, come to think of it, might one day be my fault.
“Well, I didn’t call you in here to forgive you,” she said, sitting up a bit against her pillows. “I called you in here to ask you a question.”
“What?”
“Why did a man claiming to be a demon follow me home and break my arm?”
I froze like someone dumped liquid nitrogen on me. How the hell did she know about demons? The reason we were no longer friends was because I lied about what I did for a living for three years straight. Normal people weren’t allowed to know about angels, demons, and Seers. It was what had kept them sane and alive for centuries. Well, alive, anyway.
I swallowed, hoping she couldn’t see my discomfort. “What?”
“You heard me,” she said in a deathly quiet voice.
I licked my lips, trying to buy myself some time. “Lauren, are you sure that’s not the painkillers talking? You’re not making any sense.”
She glared. “You want to play this game? Okay. Let me tell you what happened. I got off work around six o’clock. Lily was at the babysitter’s. I wasn’t going to pick her up for a couple of hours, so I went home to change and start dinner. I got off the bus and there was this bearded blond guy following me. He kept it up for two blocks so I went around the corner and got my mace out. When he came around, I blasted him right in the face. He didn’t flinch. In fact, he laughed it off like I’d sprayed water on him or something. He shoved me over and told me I was supposed to send a message. When I fell, it gave me a second to get out my keychain knife. He grabbed me by the ankle and dragged me towards him. I stabbed him in the throat.”
She set her jaw, pausing for a second. “I didn’t miss, Jordan. I know where I stabbed him. It should have killed him. Instead, the guy just smiled, pulled it out, and threw it aside. He told me he was a demon and that I was to tell you to back off or they’re going to kill everyone you love. Then he broke my arm and left me there.”
Tears leaked down the sides of her cheeks. She wiped them away, but there was an echo of panic and ire as she spoke again. “So don’t you stand there and lie to me anymore. Who are you, Jordan? I could have died. I could have left my daughter to be raised by that selfish son of a bitch I divorced. Tell me the truth. You owe me that, damn you.”
I couldn’t look away. Her gaze burned into mine—accusatory, unyielding, and almost fearless somehow. She didn’t look like a girl or a waitress or a mother. She looked like a warrior who wanted her next mission.
I sat down in the chair next to her, clasped my h
ands, and told her.
Everything.
Half an hour had passed by the time I finished. Through it all, she sat there watching me with a guarded expression. It was hard to tell how much of it she absorbed and how much she rejected, but that wasn’t really the point anymore. Normal people couldn’t be told the true nature of things unless they saw it for themselves. It was a horrible, violent situation, but somehow it left me vindicated. For years, I dumped on myself for lying to one of the only friends I had in the world. At least now I could clear the air, whether she believed me or not.
“So,” Lauren said. “You help ghosts with unfulfilled wishes cross over to the astral plane for judgment.”
“Yes.”
“And you hunt demons.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re married to an angel.”
“Yes.”
She paused. “…so basically, you’re Dean Winchester.”
I made an exasperated sound. “I am not.”
She smirked. “Yeah, sure. Now that we’re done cracking jokes, am I really supposed to believe all this crap you’re telling me? That God is real and that you almost caused the apocalypse last year?”
“You said you saw the demon with your own eyes.”
“It might be explainable. He was pretty muscular, and some people actually have an immunity to pepper spray and mace. I want proof. Solid, indisputable proof that what you’re saying is real and you’re not just making up a story to get me to stop being mad at you.”
I sighed. I knew that stubborn tone. It made sense, of course. Explaining my life out loud made me sound like I was a few knives short of a cutlery. “Fine. But don’t scream, okay?”
She eyed me as I stood up and took the apple resting on her food tray. “Okay.”
I set the apple on the nightstand and grabbed the blue curtain, dragging it all the way around until no one else in the room could see us. I stood about two feet away from the apple and concentrated, unfurling my energy from inside me. Once it was flowing freely, I lifted my hand, palm flat and facing the fruit, and spread my fingers.
I closed my fist. The apple collapsed into six separate slices. Lauren’s jaw dropped.
“Did…did you just?”
I nodded, offering her a sheepish smile. “Yeah.”
She reached out her good arm and picked up a slice, inspecting it. “How?”
“I mentioned spiritual energy earlier. It’s hard to describe, but it’s like an invisible life force that can be harnessed for attack, defense, and healing. Believe me now?”
She rubbed her fingers over the nightstand, impressed that I hadn’t cut it, just the apple itself. “I’m starting to. But before we get into the massive philosophical and religious implications of what you told me…” Lauren bit into an apple slice, fixing me with a steady look. “…you care to tell me what it is you’re supposed to ‘back off’ from?”
I sighed and sat down again, rubbing my sinuses as exhaustion tugged at the back of my eyes. The coffee was wearing off. “Eight months ago, an archeologist named Dr. David Faust claimed to have discovered the thirty pieces of silver that were paid to Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus Christ.”
“Yeah, I remember reading about it in the tabloids. Why does that matter?”
“It turns out they weren’t fakes. The coins were the real silver Judas was paid. Certain items in the human world that are directly involved with events or figures from the Bible have supernatural properties. The silver is so impure that the angels literally cannot lay hands on it. Hell, they can’t even get near the things. The coins drain them of their powers until they slip into a coma and die. However, Faust was one of the few normal people who knew about ghosts, angels, and demons. He knew that if anyone found out about the coins, they’d be out for blood, so he hid them all over the globe and then went underground. Still, somehow, the demons found out and started searching for them. That’s a lot of ground to cover. The angels recruited me and the other Seers to track them down and get them all back.”
“Other Seers? What other Seers?”
“There are six of us, so far. They all awakened within the last year and were trained by the archangels. Each time we find a new piece, we hide it in a separate location so no demon can get his or her hands on it again.”
“I don’t get it. If they’re so dangerous, why not destroy them?”
I almost smiled. My girl was smart. “That’s the problem. We’ve tried everything. They won’t break into smaller fragments and they can’t be melted down by fire. We’re still trying to figure out a way to destroy them, but until then we keep them out of the demons’ hands. Right now, we’ve found fifteen of them. I’m guessing the demons are getting desperate since they went after you.”
She swept her hair away from her face, breathing deep to calm herself. “So I’m a target now? What about my daughter? Would they come for her?”
I winced. “It’s possible, but I think since they already sent a message through you, Lily’s going to be safe. But I’m not taking any chances.”
“What do you mean?”
“If they want me out of the game, that’s fine. The others can handle it. I’m not losing you.”
“Are you shitting me?” she snapped, making me jump. “You can’t just let those bastards win. You’re not a quitter, Jordan. You never have been.”
“Lauren, it’s not that simple—”
“The hell it isn’t. You hunt the bastard who did this down and feed him his own dick. All those years you didn’t tell me the truth and now you do and you’re just going to let him walk? No way. You wouldn’t.”
“I have to.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re all that’s left!”
She stopped mid-rant. “What?”
I smoothed my hair away from my forehead, reminding myself to calm down. Any more yelling and the nurse would come in to check on us. If she heard the conversation, she’d want to cart me off to the psychiatric wing.
“You’re all that’s left, Lauren. I can’t lose you. I don’t have anyone else.”
“Yes, you do. You’re married.”
I held up my left hand, showing her my naked ring finger. “Michael left me ten months ago.”
She covered her lips with one hand, her voice gentler now. “Jor…why didn’t you tell me?”
I offered her a wan smile. “We weren’t speaking at the time, remember?”
“What happened? I mean, I knew that he left Albany and quit his rock band, but I thought he was with you.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but then someone tugged the curtain aside. I glanced over my shoulder. The nurse from earlier gave us a timid smile, gesturing towards the door.
“I’m sorry, miss, but visiting hours just ended. I need you to leave.”
“Alright.”
Lauren caught my sleeve as I stood. “Jor—”
“It’s okay. I won’t go far. I’ll be back as soon as they let me in. I promise.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” She let go. I nodded to her and followed the nurse out. She headed down the hallway. I waited until no one was watching. When the coast was clear, I quickly traced a cross over the door and muttered the most powerful prayer I knew to bless the entrance. It took a bit out of me, but it was a solid enchantment. No way a demon would get through it, not unless he wanted to burst into flames.
Normally, a prayer like that wouldn’t work in a public space, but I had a personal stake that tied me to the room. Everything with spiritual energy was based on rules and balance. I could only bless a place that I had a personal connection to, not just anywhere. Lauren and I had been friends for over six years now, so our souls were connected on a certain level, even though she wasn’t a Seer.
After I finished, I headed back the way I’d come in, searching through the hallway until I found who I was looking for: an angel. He was slender and dark-haired with glasses—a med student, by the looks of things. I let my energy flow out of me so it would be easy
to detect and stopped him as he started to walk past.
“Hi. Um, you probably don’t know me, but I could really use a favor. Could you keep an eye out for my friend in the outpatient wing? Her name’s Lauren Yi. She has a broken arm and—”
He jerked his arm away. “I don’t take orders from Seers, least of all you.”
The venom in his voice made me draw back. I tried again. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to order you to do anything. It’s just that she’s in trouble—“
“So are a lot of people.” He started to brush past me, but I stepped in front of him.
“It’s not her fault that she’s friends with me, okay? Can you please just do this? I promise it won’t be for long.”
His brown eyes narrowed. “You promise? Like you promised you wouldn’t release the Leviathan or make a deal with an archdemon? You understand if I’m skeptical. You betrayed our Commander. I owe you nothing.”
With that, the angel stormed away, his energy crackling like lightning in his wake. I watched him go, as breathless as if he’d just punched me in the stomach. Great. I’d had the worst night of my life, now with an extra helping of guilt. Just another day in the life of Jordan Amador.
“Miss? Are you alright?” A man spoke from behind me.
“I’m fine. That guy’s bedside manner is pretty terrible,” I said, hoping the joke would mask the pain in my voice.
“Well, maybe mine is a little bit better…Seer.”
My head jerked around to see a man wearing baby blue scrubs. Dirty-blond hair, a dense beard that stretched down to his neck, and huge hands with chewed up nails. Too late, I felt the cold aura around him—the telltale sign of a demon.
I threw a punch, not caring if it connected because I just needed some space between us. He dodged it easily, grabbing my wrist and twisting it. I cried out and he wrenched my right arm behind my back, clapping one hand over my mouth. He dragged me into the empty room to our left and kicked the door shut.
“I’ve heard a lot of things about you, Jordan,” he hissed in my ear as I struggled. “They say you’re pretty smart, but I guess that’s an exaggeration. You fell for my trap even faster than I thought. So scared I’d kill your bestie that you walked right back into Albany without thinking twice. Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed.”