Hot Blooded

by D V Wolfe

  “My head hurts,” he moaned.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t know what that feels like. Can you describe it to me?”

  Noah opened his other eye and looked around. “We’re still alive right?”

  I let go of his shirt and pulled myself up to a sitting position using the nearest pew. I looked at the platform that the altar had been on. It was a crater.

  “Did the spell work?” I asked Noah.

  “Like I would know,” Noah said.

  There was a body stirring somewhere near me. I turned my head to see one of the church women under some rubble that had fallen from the ceiling.

  “Wh-what happened?” she wheezed.

  “Gas...gas main explosion,” one of the other churchgoers coughed, rising up from the pew behind her and looking at the floor. “It had to be.”

  Sounded good to me. I hated lying and coming up with excuses for innocents when the supernatural occurred. I wasn’t a very good liar. This was something I knew about myself. However, if they were willing to lie to themselves and save me the trouble, who was I to burst their bubble.

  “I think it might have worked,” I muttered to Noah. “That lady was ready to flay us a minute ago.” I looked around the room and saw Stacks sitting in the back pew; blood and grime covering his face. Sprig sat next to him and Vix sat next to Sprig. They were all staring into space, looking at the front of the sanctuary, but not really seeing it. An atheist and two Pucas walk into a church. I didn’t have a punchline. Stacks saw me looking at him and gave me a little wave. I pulled myself up onto the pew and Noah clambered up next to me.

  “You think you can walk if I help?” Noah asked.

  I gave him a dirty look. “If I can wield a sword, I can walk.” I stumbled to my feet and leaned on the back of the pew as I got my balance. I heard Noah sigh behind me, but I chose to ignore him. I was scanning the rubble and the bodies on the ground. Rosetta, Tags, and Gabe. I needed to see the three of them and know they were ok, that they’d made it.

  I saw a flowered butt sticking out from between two pews and I grinned. “Rosetta, are you ok?” I heard the sound of bone hitting wood and Rosetta swearing.

  “She sounds like she’s ok,” Noah said.

  Rosetta stood up fast and I heard something else scrabbling on the ground. We reached the pew Rosetta was standing in front of and I saw Tags climbing up to sit in it. I gave Rosetta a grin. “Apparently you’re better than ok.”

  Rosetta rolled her eyes. “Get bent, Bane. We were just standing together when the earthquake knocked us down. ”

  I winked at Tags who went red under his salt and pepper beard and suddenly was very interested in the pew in front of him. Now, I just needed to see if Gabe...I moved back down the aisle towards the front looking over to the side where I’d seen Gabe fall. He’d gotten up to fight again, but after the earthquake, where had he landed? I moved down the far aisle and I paused. There was a pair of motorcycle boots sticking out from behind one of the pews. “Oh my god, Gabe!”

  Gabe’s face was bloody and he wasn’t moving. I drew even with his chest and put my hand next to his mouth, willing to feel his breath on my palm. Nothing. The dizziness was trying to take over again. I could feel the blood pounding in my head. He couldn’t die. No. Why the hell had he risked everything and come on this stupid mission?

  “Come on Gabe,” I whispered. “Get your ass back here. You’re not getting off that easy.” The world was turning black again. Color was popping in little spurts behind my eyes as my vision came and went. Flashes of Gabe’s face. Were they real or was I remembering? Whatever it was, in one of the flashes, I swear, I saw his mouth twitch into a smile.

  22

  “Oh my god,” I said. “Will someone give the baby something to bite down on so I can finish stitching him up?”

  Noah threw a packet of Sylvester’s dehydrated parmesan cheese at me and I stuffed it in Gabe’s mouth. Gabe immediately spit it out. “What the hell was that? Now I’ve got white powder in my mouth.”

  “It’s cheese,” Noah said.

  “Not from a cow,” Gabe said.

  “Yes, please go off on a cheese rant,” I said. “It’ll be a nice change from the ‘you’re hurting me’ rant.”

  The stitches wouldn’t have been so bad, except we’d foregone the use of alcohol as a numbing agent because I was currently out of Stitch’s whiskey and all of us wanted to get the hell out of town. Which was also why we’d skipped the hospital. I was dawdling. Mostly because I knew my time under the needle was coming and I had more places that needed stitching than Gabe did. I got the last stitch through the skin and tied it off.

  “There, all done. Now I don’t have any lollipops left for you but I have a right hook that I could part with…” I started to say. Gabe turned on the couch next to me and covered my lips with his. I vaguely heard a wolf whistle from Stacks and some throat-clearing from Tags and Rosetta.

  I pulled back from him. “Just shut up,” Gabe said to me. “And hand me that suture needle. Now it’s your turn.”

  I traded places with him and picked up a slice of pizza from the box on the table. “So your spell worked,” I said to Stacks, doing my best to ignore Gabe’s hand skimming over my belly and side as he assessed the damage from the pulled stitches. “I think,” I gasped as I felt the needle go in.

  Stacks nodded and passed me the book we’d stolen from New Covenant. “Here, see for yourself.” I gripped my pizza harder against the pain of the thread and needle poking and prodding raw nerves as I flipped through the pages.

  “Blank,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Yep,” Stacks said. “When you hit the place with Omnio Purgo, you wiped out all the components of the spell and ritual that hadn’t been completed. Now, it’s just a theory, but I think when Rosetta, Vix, and Noah destroyed the altar and burned everything in that classroom, someone at the other end of the connection downstairs got pissed and lashed out at the demons. There is no reason they would have all smoked out otherwise and left us alive.”

  “Good to know that the vindictive...fuck,” I glanced at Gabe who gave me a sweet smile and then dug the needle in again. I took a deep breath. “The vindictive nature of the boys downstairs was the reason we’re all still breathing. I’d like to blame it on our mad skills but I know it’s not good karma to lie.”

  “Besides,” Gabe said in a low voice. “You suck at lying.”

  “What if them smoking out had something to do with Nigel?” Noah asked.

  I shook my head. “I don’t think so. Nigel was dead before they smoked out. They didn’t start screaming in pain until the hex bag thing had completely burned up.”

  “Was your spell supposed to cause an earthquake?” Gabe asked Stacks.

  Stacks shrugged. “I mean, it’s not like I had a chance to trial run that spell before we used it.”

  “While we’re on the topic, does anyone want to take a stab at what the hell that blinding white light was? Either of them?” I asked. This knocked the air out of everyone.

  “Could that have just been part of the spell?” Noah asked.

  Stacks shook his head. “I don’t think so. Maybe the first one. Whatever the second one was, broke the platform.”

  “It couldn’t have been the first one,” I said. “That one happened right after I killed Nigel. The spell hadn’t gone off yet.”

  “Regardless,” Stacks said. “If the light and the earthquake had to do with the spell, I think it would have broken the floor in the room with the summoning circle rather than the platform.”

  “Was the summoning circle really in their nursery classroom?” I asked Rosetta.

  She nodded. “Right in the middle of all those cribs.”

  I shook my head. “Fucking demons.”

  “I think that whatever those lights were and the earthquake might take some more research,” Stacks said.

  “Is it possible you messed up on your spell and we summoned something even worse from Hell?” I aske
d.

  Stacks gave me the finger. “No Bane, it was a cleansing spell, not a summoning spell. Maybe you just said it wrong.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Entirely possible since I could barely read your shitty handwriting.”

  “Children, children,” Rosetta said. “The point is, it’s over. The people have their souls back, the demons are gone, at least for now, Nigel’s dead, and we all survived. Can we just be happy about that for a minute?”

  We were all quiet.

  “How long do you think it would take you to figure out what that was, Stacks?” I asked.

  Rosetta threw one of the couch pillows at me and I tried to duck, causing Gabe to stab me with the needle.

  “Stop squirming!” Gabe said. “Change the topic y’all or I’m never going to get her stitched back up.”

  “Hey,” Tags said, coming down the hall. “I ran the occlusion spell through the pendulum.” He paused at the end of the table and we all looked at him expectantly. He was grinning around a fat lip as he said, “I found what was blocking Walter.”

  “Oh yeah,” I said. “Was it the demons at New Covenant?”

  Tags shook his head. “No, it was coming from this blue house across the street from the demons.”

  “Nigel’s house,” I said. “That explains it. He said he was trying to keep a low profile. He probably started putting up blocking spells when he realized Stacks was on to the demons at New Covenant. He said he didn’t want a bunch of hunters showing up, but Stacks was already here.” I turned to look at Stacks. “Do you think he’s the one who put up the camera?”

  Stacks shrugged. “Maybe. I was using that tunnel for a week before you all arrived.”

  “Nigel said he was hoping either we’d kill the demons and leave, or they’d kill us and carry on, but keep things quiet.”

  “I knew there was something about him I didn’t like,” Noah said. I rolled my eyes and then I looked around.

  “So with Nigel toes up, Walter shouldn’t be blocked anymore?” I asked.

  Tags shook his head. “Nope. The pendulum just rotates now, no target to stop it. He should be seeing clearly. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s on the radio now, making up for lost time.”

  “Now why on earth would you tell her something like that,” Rosetta growled at him. “She’s just now getting stitched back up, she’s about a liter low on blood, and now, thanks to you and your mouth, she’s going to go off less than half-cocked.”

  “Yeah,” I said, turning to Gabe. “You didn’t give me more blood, did you?” I asked.

  Gabe shrugged. “I topped you off.” I opened my mouth to protest and he held up a hand, “Hey, I spent last night on the porch eating pizza and watching for a mob that didn’t show up. You spent it getting the shit kicked out of you by Nigel.”

  “If Vix hadn’t shown up when she did…” I looked around. “Where are Vix and Sprig?”

  “Out on the porch,” Noah said. “Vix said she wanted to feel the air on her skin.

  I groaned. “Guys, if you go outside, make sure and turn your shirts inside out.” I started to stand up but a finger looped through a belt loop on my jeans and tugged me back down.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Gabe said. “Sit still, I’m almost done.” I watched him as he made the last stitch, looking apologetic as I winced. He tied off the line and cut it. I walked down the hallway and into Stacks’ room long enough to peel my shirt off and turn it inside out. I shuffled through a couple of pizza boxes stacked on the floor in the living room and found one with at least a three-day-old pizza crust. I stuffed the pizza crust into my front pocket, my hand brushing across the smooth leather of Gabe’s hex bag. I paused and looked at him.

  “Your hex bag,” I said. “I shouldn’t have made it through the night. I mean, Nigel had me paralyzed on the floor and he was slicing into me. But I didn’t die. It had to be your hex bag. What’s in this thing?”

  Gabe shrugged and smiled. “This and that. Just an old family recipe.” The warmth in his eyes was starting to transfer to my face, so I looked away and pushed out the front door. Sure enough, Vix was in full Puca beauty, topless and smiling at the sun. Sprig was sitting in one of the chairs, elbows on knees and head down.

  “It must be awkward to be with your sister when she has one of her exhibitionist tendencies,” I said to Sprig.

  He shrugged but didn’t look up. I turned my attention to Vix.

  “Thanks again,” I said. “For saving me.”

  “I wish I could take credit for it, but I wasn’t in control of what I was doing.,” Vix said.

  “Well, thank you anyway.” I studied Vix. She looked like herself again. “How are you feeling, Vix? Still feeling the ‘will sickness’?”

  Vix shrugged. “I feel fine. Maybe it’s gone.”

  We could only hope. I glanced back at Sprig. “What are you two going to do now?”

  “Head back to Kess’ house,” Sprig said. “Make sure she’s ok. She said she’s having a friend make us something that will help us find the rest of our company that were exiled. Once we find them, maybe we can figure out a way to get back home.”

  I nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

  I gave them each an awkward hug. Awkward with Sprig because he didn’t seem to know what a hug was and awkward with Vix because she was topless. She hopped down from Stacks’ railing and re-wrapped her dress around her.

  “Call if you need anything,” I said as Vix headed down the stairs to the blue Mustang.

  “We will,” Sprig said. He paused on the step, watching Vix open the passenger side and get in without another word. “Thanks, Bane. For saving her. She told me you got her out of that house after the attack.”

  “I owe her the thanks. She saved my life and,” I reached back and pulled the sword out a few inches to show him.

  Sprig gave me a genuine smile. “A tranix holster. Standard issue at home. Man, that brings back memories.” Vix laid on the horn. Sprig clapped me on the shoulder, knocking me sideways into the railing. I sucked in air through gritted teeth as my fresh stitches rubbed against the weathered wood. Sprig jogged down the steps and around to the driver’s side of the Mustang.

  I nodded and waved as they took off. The door to the trailer opened behind me and Noah came out. I glanced over at him and saw his shirt was inside out. I smiled and clapped him on the back.

  “Oh I missed them,” Noah said, his tone falling.

  “Yeah, but we’ll see them again,” I said. We turned to head back inside. Gabe was on his feet gathering his belongings.

  “It’s going to be weird around here,” Stacks said. “I still have a trailer and starting tonight, no house guests or mobs of demons to worry about. What will I do with all my free time?”

  “Figure out what those blinding lights and the earthquake were about,” I said. “Or I’ll be back.”

  Stacks shuddered. “Well, that’s now my top priority.”

  I looked over at Rosetta. “What are you up to now?”

  “Back to the Hellgate,” she said. “And I’m in charge of Wednesday night women’s Bible study so I need to make a lesson plan.”

  “How about the pros and cons of blood oaths?” I asked. “It’ll probably draw a crowd.”