by T R Kohler
“Call Gad,” Jonas said. “Tell him we’ve got another one coming in.”
For a moment, Micah remained in position, his body coiled, ready to be off.
Just as fast, the pent-up energy bled away, the charge fleeing from his form.
“And then bring the truck around. We need to get this guy loaded and moving.”
Jonas was not the healer on the team, but he’d seen enough battle injuries to give a reasonably decent prognosis.
And his initial thought on this man was that he was already treading on borrowed time.
The wounds he’d sustained weren’t intentional. For either side to have brought him so close to death would be treading perilously close to a direct violation of the rules of the middle realm and cause for immediate expulsion, a sentence too severe to even contemplate.
But that didn’t mean that sometimes humans weren’t in the worst possible position, their frail forms no match for the concentrated power on display around them.
He’d once heard it described as a beachgoer in the middle of a shark fight. The animals might not be aiming for them, but the odds of their escaping unscathed weren’t good.
Never would he have thought to put it that way, but it certainly wasn’t the worst explanation he’d ever come across.
Lowering himself to a knee, Jonas touched his thumb and index finger to the man’s chin. Rolling his face to either side, he examined the gash that creased his brow, his dark hair matted with heavy blood loss.
Along his opposite cheek was a stripe of bruising that was already purple, threatening to explode into a dozen different colors in the coming hours.
And that was to say nothing of the grotesque angle of the man’s left leg.
Rising, Jonas turned back toward the house. Out front, he could hear the truck engine spring to life, knowing that Micah would soon return.
There was so much more to do, so many things he would like to try to raze from the house, but for now it would have to wait.
Getting the man back and finding out what he knew had to take precedence.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Somewhere thirty miles west of where Kaia sat, the sun was setting over the Pacific Ocean. The end of another perfect day on Earth, it was probably settling down over the water, a thousand brilliant orange crystals dancing across the surface. Above it, flares of purple were sprawled across the sky.
There might even be a famed green flash at the end, that one final gasp that only the rarest of sunsets afforded.
Tourists by the hundreds were no doubt lining the beaches, their phones and iPads and whatever other electronic devices they had all held at arm’s length, trying to capture the moment.
No way could they face the horror of actually just enjoying something for what it was.
Sitting on the same picnic table she and Ember had shared earlier in the day, Kaia watched the sun fade in the distance. Nowhere near the ocean, she watched it slowly dip behind the horizon, nothing more than a few errant trees and succulents providing context.
And as it went, she wished for just a night that it would take some of the infernal heat she was always forced to experience with it.
Her face still twisted into a scowl, Kaia raised a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon to her lips. The weakest alcohol on the market, it was little more than swill, water with a touch of food coloring.
She’d heard Kombucha, the latest ridiculous health craze gripping the nation, had more alcohol content, but at least with this stuff she didn’t have to worry about tearing up her throat on the way down.
And it wasn’t like she was going to be getting a reprieve any time soon. Not after the day she’d had. Certainly not after the return call she was waiting on.
Finishing the last of the can, Kaia crunched the thin aluminum in her hand and cast it into the empty swimming pool. Watching until it disappeared over the front lip of the concrete hole, she extended her hand for another, making it almost to the cardboard case beside her when her phone sprang to life.
Much louder than necessary, Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” spilled into the evening air, a wince forming on Kaia’s features.
And Ember thought waking up to the Macarena was bad.
Unwilling to let the song go longer than necessary, no matter how much she was dreading the call, Kaia snatched it up. She put the phone on speaker and balanced it across her knee, focus still on the waning sunset stretched before her.
“Mr. Typhon.”
“Oh, shit,” Typhon replied by way of a greeting. “That’s the first time you’ve called me ‘mister’ in more than three decades. And we both remember what that was all about.”
Kaia did remember. All too well. It was an incident she’d rather not even think about, let alone repeat.
“What’s wrong?” Typhon asked.
Pulling her focus from the horizon, Kaia passed a hand over her brow. Making it only as far as the gash above her left ear, she jerked her hand back, skin tightening around her eyes in a wince.
“That’s why I’m calling you,” Kaia said. “To find out what’s really happening here.”
Twice since returning Ember to the motel and getting herself cleaned up, Kaia had been through the case file Typhon had given her. Most of it had been nothing more than background on Tam, a laundry list of how he’d become employed and everything he’d done since.
With a tenure fast approaching a century, it was quite extensive.
None of it explained in the slightest what had happened earlier in the day.
“What?” Typhon asked. “The girl? She’s not working out?”
“No,” Kaia spat, “I’m talking about the fact that we got a visit from Jonas and Micah this afternoon.”
Forgetting her place for just an instant, she let the anger she felt permeate the words, the outburst gone before she even realized it. Not that she was terribly keen on pulling it back, even if she could.
Sometimes, it was a part of the job.
“Jonas and Micah?” Typhon asked, his voice flat. “Are you sure?”
Leaning back, Kaia made a face at the phone, strongly resisting the urge to wave her middle fingers at it, before returning to her original perch.
“I didn’t get a great look at Jonas, considering I was hauling ass out of there, but I sure got a good look at Micah’s fist.”
There was still a slight ache at the point of contact, though nothing another Pabst couldn’t fix.
“You saw them, and they engaged?” Typhon asked, a touch of disbelief in his voice. “What were you doing-”
Not appreciating the question, or the underlying sentiment, Kaia said, “We were questioning one of the last people known to have talked to Tam when they knocked the damn door down.”
For a moment, there was no response, Typhon fitting the information into what he knew. “Did Ember do something? Were they called in because of error?”
“No,” Kaia said. Much like the file, she’d been through their sequence of the day multiple times, each time coming up clean. “Truth be known, she’s pretty good. It wasn’t that.”
“Hm,” Typhon said, the sound little more than a grunt. “Who was the mark?”
“Not sure,” Kaia replied. “Says he’s a middleman, someone that higher-ups call when they want to talk. He arranges things, then gets out of the way.”
“And who was the higher-up?” Typhon asked.
“Don’t know,” Kaia responded. Knowing the question was coming since the instant her phone had rang, she shoved it out, hoping to get past it as soon as possible. “We had just started when things went sideways.”
“Where is he now?” Typhon asked.
Her eyes sliding shut, Kaia swallowed hard. “Gone.”
“Gone, or gone?” Typhon asked, a hint of derision creeping in.
The last Kaia had seen of Carlow, he was crumpled in a bloody heap in the driveway. Whether he was alive or dead at the moment, she didn’t know.
Didn’t have the time or the inclination to stick arou
nd and find out.
Not given where she was, not even knowing for sure what was really going on.
“Not sure,” Kaia whispered.
A string of mumbled obscenities was Typhon’s first response. Able to picture the man rising from his chair and stomping around, running a hand back over his head, Kaia waited.
Whatever outburst was coming wouldn’t be the worst she’d endured.
That honor remained with the incident from years before.
“Damn,” Typhon eventually said. “Damn damn damn. When I handed you this case, I thought maybe Tam was getting close to his century mark and decided he wanted out. That’s why I gave it to the newbie.”
A moment of surprise passed through Kaia at the fact that Typhon was already moving on before she focused on the words he’d said. Nodding slightly, she had to agree with his reasoning, having thought the same thing when given the case originally.
The reasons people made deals with Hell were so wide and varied, there was no point in trying to find a pattern. Some wanted instant gratification, others were after eternal glory.
The sole point of commonality they had was that at some point, they almost all wanted out.
And a hundred years was a pretty standard checkpoint along that journey.
“I assumed the same,” Kaia said. “This was a simple missing person. Guy on the run, thinking he could get past the deal.”
“Turns out he wasn’t in the wind,” Typhon said. “He was being held.”
Kaia grunted a soft agreement. “Which opens up a whole lot more questions.”
“Yes, it does,” Typhon said, resignation in his voice.
Recognizing it as such, Kaia opted to remain silent. She knew him well enough to know that the conversation was effectively over. Once that tone was taken, he was already moving forward to the next step.
Trying to figure out what to do about it.
“Let me make some phone calls,” Typhon said. “Where are you guys now?”
“Back at the motel,” Kaia said. “We both traded shots with Micah. I’ll be alright, but she’s down until morning.”
“Right,” Typhon said, responding before the words really resonated. “Wait...she took a shot at Micah?”
Again, Kaia opted to remain silent, given nothing more than a nod as she watched the last winks of sunlight fade from the sky.
Chapter Thirty
Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena...
The volume was somehow louder than the morning before, ripping Ember from her sleep. How long she had been out, or how she had even gotten back to her room, were both mysteries to her.
Replaced only by the rhythmic gyrations of that damn song, the faux-Latin beat pounded through her eardrums, threatening to force her brain out of every possible opening.
Without opening her eyes, Ember lashed out with a single fist. Wielding it like a sledgehammer, she pounded her pinkie down against the top of the machine, rendering it mercifully silent on contact.
Even if there was a decent chance she broke her finger in the process.
“Nice shot,” a voice said, the sound unexpected, jerking Ember’s eyes open.
Sitting straight up in bed, Ember’s eyes went wide to see Kaia perched at the base of it. One foot on the floor, she rested on a haunch, bent over the exposed lower half of Ember’s left leg. “If I had to listen to another line of that shit, I might have killed something.”
“I...wha...how...” Ember muttered, her mind rifling through what she saw, trying to make sense of things.
“Why?” she eventually managed, a crease forming between her brows as she shoved the word out.
Making no effort to respond, Kaia took Ember’s foot by the ankle. Rotating it an inch to either side, she leaned close and peered down before sitting upright, the corners of her mouth turned down.
“We need to talk.”
Rising from the edge of the bed, Kaia took a few steps forward, grabbing at the lone chair in the room. Leaning back, she dragged it toward the bed before turning and lowering herself into it. Extending her feet before her, she perched them on the spot she’d just been sitting, crossing them at the ankles.
“The man and the dog you met yesterday, tell me about them.”
Awake no more than thirty seconds, Ember stared at her incredulously. Raising both hands to her face, she attempted to pass them back over her brow before a sharp pain erupted above her eye. Drawing in a sharp breath, she jerked them way, looking down to her palms to see a faint smear of blood across her skin.
“What the...” she muttered, confusion setting in, battling with the pain she felt for top billing inside her skull.
“Like I said,” Kaia said, “we need to talk.” Tipping the top of her head toward the nightstand, she motioned to a glass of water sitting beside the busted remains of the alarm. “Drink. And take the pills. You’re going to need them.”
Dozens of questions, comments, concerns, all floated to the front of Ember’s mind. Fixing a look on Kaia, she searched for any sign of reaction, seeing nothing beyond the girl’s even look and the splash of bruising along the side of her face.
One at a time, Ember worked through them, remaining silent as she pushed her backside toward the wall behind her. The upright position caused what felt like a swelling in her head, her brain seeming to grow two sizes inside her skull.
Leaning back against the wall, she took up the pills and the glass of water. Without even knowing what they were, she downed them, along with more than half of the water.
Keeping her hands wrapped around the glass, she lowered it to her lap and said simply, “I’m listening.”
“You first,” Kaia replied. Using her chin, she gestured to Ember’s outstretched leg. “Tell me about the dog and the man you met yesterday.”
More uncertainty flowed through Ember as she glanced down to her leg. Moving back to Kaia, she made it just halfway there before snapping her focus back, staring at the smooth skin before her.
“How...?” she muttered. Less than twenty-four hours before, a dog had ripped into her with enough force to ruin the bottom half of her pants leg.
Now, there wasn’t a single mark on her skin.
“The man and the dog,” Kaia repeated.
Keeping her focus on the leg another moment, Ember tried to make sense of what she saw. Slowly lifting her gaze to Kaia, she said, “The dog was a big white beast named Toby. He came after me when I went over the gate, took a nice bite when I tried to get back over.
“His owner was a guy named Rocco. He apologized profusely, took me inside, fixed it up for me.”
“Did you see it after he bit you?” Kaia asked, her eyes narrowed in focus.
“What?” Ember asked.
“The leg,” Kaia replied, shifting her gaze up to Ember. “Did you look at it after the dog bit you? See the actual wounds?”
Opening her mouth to respond, Ember pulled up short. She thought back on the day before, replaying it in her head, before pushing out a quick breath.
“No, actually. Rocco insisted on cleaning it himself, even told me to lie back while he did it.”
“Right,” Kaia said, nodding her head slightly. “Let me ask you, in your previous life, were you a religious woman?”
It seemed an odd question to ask of someone who had done what she did, the confusion within her only mounting.
“No more than the next person. Christmas, Easter, the occasional baptism. Nothing crazy.”
“Which is why you missed it.”
Rising from her seat, Kaia walked to the front of the room. Hooking a finger behind the curtain, she peered out, bright sunlight illuminating her face.
“Missed what?” Ember asked.
“The references,” Kaia replied. “In the Bible, Saint Roch – Rocco - is the patron of dogs.”
Not sure if she was being put on, if Kaia was just messing with her for sport again, Ember kept her features even. “The Bible? As in...”
Letting the curtain fall back into pl
ace, Kaia waved a hand her direction. “Yeah, yeah. The Word of God, all that.”
“And you think-”
“And one of the more well-known dogs in the Bible,” Kaia continued, “escorted Tobias and Raphael in their travels.”
Still trying to wrap her mind around the first part of Kaia’s story, Ember barely heard the follow-up. “The Bible,” she repeated, disbelief heavy. “You think what happened yesterday...”
“And in the story of Lazarus,” Kaia continued, “street dogs would lick his wounds clean, healing them.”
Feeling her frustration spike, Ember let out a slow exhalation, looking away from Kaia to keep from openly glaring again.
“Okay, you got an A in Religious Studies. Enough with the half-statements and cryptic messages. Just tell me what the hell is going on here.”
Continuing to pace, Kaia made it to the far corner, checking the other window, before returning to her seat. Dropping unceremoniously down into it, she folded her hands over her lap, lacing her fingers.
“As of yesterday, you are an employee of Hell, are you not?”
Not sure if the question was rhetorical or not, Ember chose to remain silent.
“Just like Tam, and myself, and thousands of others out there,” Kaia continued. “Is it really so hard to believe that the other side has people working for them as well?”
Chapter Thirty-One
Kaia had been right. The pills did dull the initial spike of pain in Ember’s head, though a slow and steady thumping remained. Receding just enough to allow her to think, it lurked right beneath the surface, threatening to explode forth again at any moment.
Careful about touching her face, Ember instead slid her hands up on either side of her head. Letting her fingers move over her hair, she laced them atop her skull, trying to work through what Kaia had said.
“So Earth is really just a battleground for Heaven and Hell?”
Still standing by the window, Kaia looked over, one corner of her mouth raised in a smirk. “You think what happened yesterday was a battle?”