A Grim Situation

by Whit McClendon

  The shadowy figure turned and howled at them, a ferocious yowl of anger and…grief? It lashed one long-fingered hand out and latched onto Ariana’s lifeless body, yanking her off the ground and gathering her up in its arms faster than Avery could see. It leaped, and the back window shattered, spraying glass out onto the back patio, the shards glinting like diamonds in the dark. The room fell shockingly silent, and the smell of the recent gunfire was sharp in their noses.

  Avery kept her gun pointed in the general direction the figure and Ariana had gone, then finally lowered it. Her eyes fell on the dead body of Diana Thornwall. She’d been slashed to ribbons.

  “What…” Jim began, “in the HELL…was that?”

  Avery looked at her partner and saw that he still had his gun out, aimed at the back window. His hand was shaking. She holstered her weapon, then gently put her hand on his arm. “They’re gone, Jim. Whatever that thing was, it took Ariana, and they’re gone.”

  He looked at her, looked at the window, then back at her, as if reassuring himself that all was quiet. Slowly, he let Avery ease his hands down, and he holstered his gun on the third try. He let his gaze fall on the body. “She’s dead,” he said in a flat voice.

  The sound of the deadbolt locking behind them made them both frown, and they turned toward the front door. Something struck them both before they could register what they saw, and they sank to their knees before falling face first to the carpet. Avery’s vision swam, and she struggled to move but her body refused her commands. She looked at Jim, but he had fallen facing away from her, and even though he was only a couple of feet away, she couldn’t bring her arm to move enough to touch him.

  “Yes, she certainly is,” a feminine voice purred just out of her line of sight. “Sad, really. She was just about to donate an awful lot of money to several charities, too. Oh well,” Tanya uttered a throaty laugh that sounded remarkably like her mother’s, “they’ll just have to do without. As for you two, I can’t have you reporting her death right away, now can I? That’ll open up a can of worms I’m not quite prepared for. No, I need to find out what you know first. Then we’ll see what I need to do with you. I’m sure I’ll figure something out.”

  Chapter 15

  Sometimes, things just go to shit no matter what you do. The bullets had lodged somewhere in my left lung. They pained me more than I expected, but at least I’d only been hit twice. It was going to take some doing to get them out, and I wasn’t looking forward to that at all. Still, I’d had worse.

  I should have just left Ariana behind. I didn’t owe her. In the old days, I probably would have. OK, that’s not true. I definitely would have left her behind. She’s a big girl, she knew the risks. Sometimes bad stuff happens, especially in my line of work. Now, she was just slowing me down.

  The fence loomed in front of me and I cleared it with a jump that made my entire torso ache. Ariana wasn’t heavy, even with all the gear she insisted on wearing, but gunshot wounds are bothersome like that. The Jeep was right where we’d left it, cloaked in its own shadows. I fished the key out of her pocket to unlock it and piled her in the back before jumping into the driver’s seat. I cranked up the engine, put it in gear, and tried to look nonchalant as I drove back the way we’d entered. I knew the rules of the road, and yes, I knew how to drive, thank you very much. I admit, it had been a while. A long while. Even so, I kept it between the ditches and got us to the freeway, where I headed west, towards Ariana’s place. Traffic was pretty light, which was a good thing.

  The lights alongside the road started blurring, and exhaustion started having its way with me as the pain ramped up. Not good, I mused. Bullets must have done more damage than I thought. It was still a fair distance to Ariana’s farm, and I could feel my body shutting down. Dammit. Just a little farther.

  Things are a little sketchy in my mind after that, but I managed to get back to the farm. I stopped short of actually getting the car back into its customary spot in the barn. Instead, I pulled into the yard in front of the house and put the Jeep in park. Gathering what strength I had left, I turned off the key and exited the vehicle, intending to get Ariana into the house so I could check her injuries. I never made it.

  I vaguely felt my knees hit the hard-packed earth as I lost the ability to stand. My body had been trying to heal itself, but everything inside my rib cage on the left side was on fire, and something was wrong. I tried to stand back up and only succeeded in falling face first on the ground. The last thing I remember was thinking that this was a stupid way to die. I’d survived a fight with a Dragon, for goddess’ sake, only to be brought down centuries later by a cop’s lucky shot. Hmph.

  *****

  “Wow, that was interesting.”

  Ariana’s voice disturbed me. I had been floating in the dark, warm and cozy. Frowning, I opened my eyes and let them focus until my surroundings resolved into a solid image. Ariana’s living room took shape in front of me, tilted on its side. I slowly regained my bearings and realized that I was lying face down on her kitchen table. I started to get up, and felt her hands gently pressing on my back.

  “Hold on there, tough guy. Let’s make sure everything’s in working order before you jump up and do something stupid.”

  I pushed against her hands and roughly sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the table. “I’m fine,” I growled, irritated. Of course everything’s in working order, I thought. Why wouldn’t it be? My back itched ferociously, but the sensation was already beginning to fade. I took a few deep breaths and discovered a dull ache in the left side of my chest. I kept at it, and it began to fade as well. I tensed my muscles to hop down and was met with a surge of pain. As much as I hated to admit it, Ariana’s advice sounded prudent to me. I sighed and relaxed, letting my body continue to repair itself. It just needed a few more minutes. As the aches dissipated, I finally turned and looked at her only to find her glaring at me with her arms folded.

  “Feeling better?” she asked with sarcastic sweetness.

  “I am.” I paused and stared back at her. Her annoyance radiated from her in waves, and I tried to figure out what I had done wrong. I had, after all, dragged her out of the Thornwall house after she had been shot. At that memory, my eyebrows rose in surprise. “Hey,” I began, “you were shot. Are you all right?”

  She didn’t answer me right away, only continued to glare at me. “Oh, you remember that, do you?” Then she sighed, unfolded her arms and ran one hand through her hair. “Yes, I sure was.” She had removed her tactical gear and was clad in a tank top and cargo pants. Her left hand rose, hooked the fabric of her top, and gently pulled it down. Beneath it, I could see the enormous bruise that had risen where the bullets had impacted. I looked at it and frowned, and then my gaze rose back to hers as she continued, “Idiot that I am, I got in the way of a couple of bullets that were meant for you. Fortunately, I wear a vest for just such an emergency.” She let go of the top and moved her left arm around a little bit, testing its range of motion and wincing as she did so. “Still sucks, though. I’m going to feel that for a long time.”

  I blinked at her while I took in that information. I had not asked her to do that. I’d survived bullet wounds before, many times, but I had no idea what she was so upset about. I glanced over my shoulder at the table and was surprised to see an array of medical supplies laid out there. Amidst the bloody towels and stainless-steel surgical tools from her first aid kit, I noticed a pair of misshapen lumps of metal.

  She followed my gaze and explained, “I dug those out of you. When I came to in the back of the Jeep, you had passed out in the yard. You were bleeding a lot, and the wounds weren’t closing like you told me they usually do.” She shrugged and looked away. “I was worried about you, so I dragged you in here and went to work.” She turned and walked to the kitchen sink, where she began scrubbing my blood off her hands. “I guess you didn’t need my help. Stupid of me.”

  I was about to open my mouth and agree with her, but I held my tongue. Ordinarily, my
body just spits out whatever gets stuck inside it. It hurts like hell, and takes a while, but I’ve never passed out during that process. This was a first. Moving slowly, I reached over and picked up one of the mushroom-shaped bullets that Ariana had removed from my torso. The moment my fingers touched the metal, they began to tingle and ache. There was magick in those rounds. It had already dissipated, but there was enough left for me to feel how potent it must’ve been when it entered my body. I reassessed everything Ariana had done.

  “You did the right thing,” I admitted. “In fact, you may have saved my life.” She stopped in the middle of drying her hands and turned to look at me in surprise. I decided to surprise her a little more. “Thank you. I appreciate it.” Her mouth did not drop open as I thought it might, but I still detected a faint sense of startlement from her. Inwardly, I rolled my eyes, and reminded myself that maybe I could be a little nicer. Just once in a while.

  I held up the nugget of metal so she could see it. “These rounds have power in them. That detective, Avery Lynne, she’s the one that shot me?”

  Ariana’s eyes widened as she quickly stepped forward to take the bullet in her fingers, examining it more closely. “Yes, that’s the one. When she saw you there standing over the body, she obviously thought you were the bad guy and she opened fire. She’s quick, that one. I didn’t have a chance to explain what happened.” She rolled the bullet around in her palm and opened her senses to it, then declared, “Hey, there it is! I wasn’t paying attention when I dug them out of you, but if I focus, I can feel what you mean. She did put some extra stank on these things.” She looked at me with questions in her eyes. “But she’s not a witch. She wouldn’t even know how to do it, and it’s difficult enough that even I don’t do it like this. My mother made a ton of special bullets before she…left…and she always said it was easier to work the magick into the metal before forming the bullets. This feels like a regular bullet that’s been enchanted. Could she be more witchy than she’s telling us, more skilled?”

  I thought that over briefly, then shook my head. “No, I honestly don’t think so. She does have power, that’s a fact. But from what I can tell, her skill set is extremely limited. She didn’t even know witches existed until we told her. I’m betting she did this on instinct. Her emotions were running high, her adrenaline at its peak. When she entered the house and saw us there...” I came to the only logical conclusion that I could, “I think she did it by accident.”

  Ariana let out a low whistle. “Seriously? Wow. That’s impressive. We’ll have to be careful with her from now on, then. If she can enchant a magazine full of bullets by accident, there’s no telling what else she might be able to do.” Finally, she cracked a grin. “At least she’s one of the good guys!”

  I nodded. In my time, I’d been beaten, stabbed, and shot by bad guys and good guys alike. Detective Avery Lynne really did strike me as the latter. She was in a profession meant to help people, and her aura confirmed that. Even so, she now thought I was a murderer, and would deal with me accordingly. With her unknowingly souped up firepower and heightened senses, that would be a problem. Oh well, I thought, it could be worse. She could have been an evil politician or something. “A ‘good guy,’ yes, she is that. On the side of the Light.” I agreed.

  “Ok, now that you’re all better,” Ariana began as she moved to the far side of the table to clean up the mess she had made while repairing me, “you can tell me what the hell that thing was at the Thornwall house.”

  I shook my head in dismay. “That was a lesser demon more commonly called a Gray Beast.”

  Ariana’s eyes widened in surprise. “Lesser? Really?”

  I shrugged. “Admittedly, they’re on the higher end, but still technically lesser. They’re pretty rare. They’re generally summoned to perform a single task, usually to kill someone.” I remembered the moments before it had appeared in Diana Thornwall’s living room.

  She had just come back down the hall from escorting the detectives out, and was surprised to find us standing there, calmly awaiting her. She kept her composure admirably for one who had just been grilled by a couple of detectives, found out an old family friend was missing, then stumbled across two strangers in her living room. She had closed her robe more tightly around herself and stood her ground. “I don’t keep money here at the house. Whatever else you want, just take it and go.” More than anything she looked annoyed. That gained my respect. She was upset, but not afraid.

  I reached out with my magick to calm her, and was surprised to find that it worked easily. She sighed and unfolded her arms immediately, putting her hands on her hips as she waited for one of us to speak. For a witch capable of summoning the snake demon at Raymond’s and setting up the self-destruct spell that had burned him to ashes, I’d have thought she’d be harder to influence. I looked over at Ariana, who immediately started speaking.

  “We need to talk about Raymond,” she began.

  “I already told the police, I don’t know anything about that, about whatever he was doing,” Diana said, a touch of exasperation coloring her words. “He’s an old friend of ours, but I haven’t seen him in ages. He teaches at the community college, but beyond that, I had no idea he was up to…whatever that was. Drugs?” She shook her head, “I still can’t believe it.” Her words rang true to me. My senses were all over her, and she wasn’t hiding a damned thing. Which was problematic and confusing. She didn’t have so much as a hint of magick in her. Not a drop.

  I looked at Ariana and shrugged, then nodded in agreement. She opened her mouth to speak again when an alien stillness suddenly settled on the room. The air felt thick, and the temperature began to drop. We both tensed while Diana looked around in confusion. It was strong enough that she felt it too.

  “Hey, what’s that…?” Ariana began, one hand slowly edging towards one of the Glocks on her thighs. Before she could draw it, a sphere of roiling black fire burst into being in the middle of the room between us and Diana. It swelled until it nearly reached the ceiling, then it disappeared, leaving a monster in its place.

  The demon was easily seven feet tall, over four hundred pounds of bulky muscle, and covered with leathery gray skin. Its hands had only three clawed fingers and a thumb, reminding me of the goblin race, but the resemblance ended there. Where goblins were small, but ridiculously strong, this thing was enormous and made them look like feeble children. The skin of its bald head was scarred from untold battles, and both batwing ears were ragged and torn. Baleful and menacing eyes glowed yellow in the dim light, set deep into a grotesque mask dominated by a squashed nose and a pair of rubbery lips. It turned towards me, bared a mouthful of fangs, and growled.

  I growled back. I don’t like demons.

  It turned away from me and fastened its gaze on Diana, who had frozen in utter terror. The beast grunted and lumbered towards her.

  Ariana had already drawn her sidearm by then, and she expertly emptied her magazine into the creature’s wide back. It growled and flinched with each impact, and dark scarlet blood emerged from the wounds, steaming from contact with her special bullets. But it didn’t go down. It was too big, too strong. And it was headed right for Diana. She screamed, her eyes wide with fright.

  Bullets wouldn’t work. It was my turn. I pushed the razor-sharp claws from my fingertips and launched myself at the thing. I landed on its back, dug my claws deeply into its left shoulder and reached my right hand around to rip out its throat. A beefy right hand darted up and caught my wrist. For such a big thing, it was awfully fast. I had an instant to realize that things were about to go bad, then it whipped me off its back and slammed my body down onto the coffee table with a crash, shattering the sturdy wood into splinters. That hurt a lot. The demon didn’t let go, though. It just reversed direction and swung me over its head to slam my body into the floor on its other side. At least there’s carpet there, I thought as I tried to ignore the bright shards of pain that exploded inside my body from all my broken bones.

  I felt t
he creature gear up for another swing, but I’d had enough of that bullshit. I reached up with my free hand and slashed deeply through the creature’s bicep, then lashed out at his legs as well, leaving deep, painful furrows in its bulging thigh muscles. It grunted and reflexively released me. I twisted and got to my feet in a blink, then continued slashing at its exposed torso.

  I opened up four bleeding gashes in its abdomen, but it shielded itself with its thick arms, and my next attacks were ineffective. It opened up both hands as if to push me, and I saw a grin crawl across its ugly face.

  Shit, I thought.

  It mumbled a word I didn’t recognize, and an invisible wave of force slammed into me, heaving me across the room and into a curio cabinet. There was a lot of glass and porcelain that got broken, and when I fell to the floor, the heavy wooden shelving unit fell right on top of me. It hurt, yes, but more than that, it was embarrassing. Especially because I could hear the thing laughing at me, a deep, bass chuckle. Thoroughly pissed off, I heaved myself up and flung the broken furniture away, letting it crash to the floor nearby. I crouched, staring at the creature, who still faced me, laughing. I growled low in my throat as I prepared to launch myself at him.

  “That’s a pretty suit you’re wearing, Fae,” it rumbled at me, “it makes you look almost human.” It sniffed the air, then ran its warty tongue over its lips. “Your magick tastes sweet. I think I’ll take it.” It reached one hand towards me, closed its fist, and then yanked.