by Tobi Grim
Lupa let her eyes search his face for a moment. Yeah, she believed him right now, and he believed himself. But would he really feel that way if she had to step into that magick again? If he had to see more of the places she hid from everyone, including herself? Lupa sighed gently, a smile spreading over her face. Fuck it. One way to find out. And at least she knew he meant it now in this moment.
“Good.” Lupa finally said, turning to lean against the car with him, “I’m glad you didn’t chicken out on me.”
Sledge chuckled and lit her smoke for her. They stood next to each other not saying anything, just smoking in the dark until the rain started to fall again. Lupa wanted to invite him up, but knew Dameon wouldn’t be happy about it. And considering his rage…
“I’ll see you soon,” Lupa ventured, “Hawk is upstairs and… not in a good way. Cool?”
“Cool.”
✽ ✽ ✽
“What’s the time?”
Dameon’s voice startled Lupa out of her thoughts, she’d been laying on the couch staring at the last remaining scorch mark on the roof. “Nine. Shit, you look even worse this morning…” Lupa snapped her mouth shut. Course he did, in two days he’d lost his fucking family, not to mention getting into brawls…
“Thanks, Red,” Dameon collapsed on the couch and moved her feet, giving her what she assumed was supposed to look like a smile but turned into a grimace, “Fuck. I hurt. Don’t think I’ve been this beat up in years…”
“What do you wanna do now?”
Dameon went to answer but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Lupa sat up quickly. Who the fuck was in the building knocking on her door? The couple next door never did and Janice was gone now… shit. She got up and opened it cautiously. It was her landlord. Dammit.
“Morin’ Little Red, just thought I be checkin’ in. Haven’t gotten rent in a few weeks and with the mess goin’ on here…” the tall frail looking man eyeballed the bruised Dameon in his underwear on the couch.
“Shit, sorry, Mr Bruadair, I’ll give you that now. How far behind am I? And what do I owe you for the doors…”
“Six weeks behind,” the grey man followed her inside, stroking his short beard, “Not worryin’ about them doors, I payin’ for them.”
Lupa counted out the six weeks rent she owed and another twelve weeks in advance. She couldn’t expect to have any more high paying nest raids for a while, she may as well try get ahead. Lupa handed it to him and waited for him to count it. He smiled and nodded at her as he stuffed the money into the inside pocket of his far too big, brown suit.
“Alright, I’ll mark you down as paid in advance.” Lupa waited for him to leave, but he didn’t, “Puttin’ Janice’s place up for rent too. Might be people comin’ through…”
“Can I look at it?”
Lupa startled and looked over at Dameon with her eyebrows raised. “Really?”
“Why not? Unless you don’t want me so close… but I can't live…”
Mr Bruadair looked from one to the other, his blue eyes sparkling. “I can show him… so long as you vouch for him, I will ignore the state he looks…”
“Yeah, sure.” Lupa gave Dameon a big fake smile. Unsure she wanted him living so close.
Dameon got up and went to her room to change and then come back out. “Ready then.”
Lupa followed the two men down the hall to the last door, the landlord open the door and let it swing open for them to step through. The place was filthy; rubbish covered the floor, needles on a box that looked like it was used as a coffee table, ruined couch, stained mattress with no covers…. But the shape of it was pretty much the same as Lupa’s, only flipped, and the kitchen window looked at an alley way wall.
“What’s you sayin’ boy?”
Dameon looked uncertainly at Lupa, she could see he wanted to take it, but if she said ‘no’ he wouldn’t argue. Could she really say no? He had nowhere to live, no way would he want to live in the house his father had been murdered in… it was too big for one person anyway.
“If you want it…”
Dameon grinned at her. “Alright, sir, I’ll take it.”
“Good, good, four weeks advance and you can have the keys. If you clean it yourself, there bein’ no bond, you can have Janice’s bond.”
Dameon pulled out his wallet and started counting out money, then handed the frail man enough cash to cover at least ten weeks, Mr Bruadair accepted it with a grin and placed the keys in Dameon’s bruised hand.
“Welcome to the buildin’…”
“Hawk.”
“Ah ha, another Hunter?”
“Protector actually.”
Mr Bruadair gave Lupa an odd look. Shit. He didn’t know about Karl… she just smiled and decided to ignore the question in his eyes. The frail man just shrugged his thin shoulders and wandered out, calling a goodbye as he closed the main door.
“I can look for somewhere else in a few weeks if you’re uncomfortable…”
“I don’t mind, Dameon,” they stood looking around the lounge room, “I’ll admit it feels strange knowing you’ll be so close… but at least I’ll get my bed back, hey? And it should help us with knowing where each other are…”
Fuck. Now what would she do when she was going to Hammer’s? Or having Sledge over? Shit. This could make things… strained. Dameon placed his arms around her, pulling her out of her own selfish thoughts. No. Lupa could do this, she’d just suck it up. He was her Protector. And he’d just lost practically everything. His needs mattered first.
✽ ✽ ✽
Four hours of scrubbing later and the place looked a fuck tonne better. Lupa and Dameon had dragged all the ‘furniture’ out the back door and dumped it in the alleyway. Janice didn’t have anything in the kitchen, except a box of straws. Her bedroom was pretty much the same, only a few scraps of clothing stuffed in the bottom of the closet, seeing at it gave Lupa a stab of guilt. Janice had been murdered because of her…
“You happy to drop me at… home? I’ll pack my van up…” Dameon looked around the apartment with sadness creeping in his eyes.
“Want me to help?”
“Nah… think I need some time alone… there. I promise I’ll call you if I feel… like I need you there.”
Lupa studied Dameon, he looked like he was in pain. Course he fucking did. But did he look ok? Ok enough to be alone in that place that held so many memories for him?
“Alright…”
Dameon locked the door to his new place and Lupa ducked into her apartment to pull her sneakers on and grab her bag. Dameon opened the front door for her and they hopped in her car, heading over to his place. His old place… Would it be the last time Lupa drove there?
They pulled up out the front of Dameon’s house as the regularly present rain stopped. Lupa glanced over to him, unsure if she should go in with him and see if he could cope… But he had a determined look in his eyes, and his body screamed that he needed to be alone.
“Call me. If you feel… like you need me.”
“Thanks, Lupa, I will… Tomorrow I want to go back to Blackmoars if you’re up for it? Check out that house… actually, wanna go there tonight? You said one of the girls said she saw lights on there at night? We could check it out…”
“Only if you’re up for it.”
“Yeah,” Dameon opened the door, “I wanna fuck these people up. You would know. You’ve been there.”
Lupa nodded as he half smiled and got out of the car. Yeah she fucking knew. Who was she to deny him his revenge? The only reason she had even looked for a new Protector was because she had wanted to avenge Karl’s death... Now she could do the same for Dameon. Although she wished he didn’t need to…
She pulled the car away after she watched Dameon go inside. But before Lupa reached the end of his street she stopped. Was there someone watching his place? She pulled the car over and looked in her rear view mirror carefully. Someone was standing across the road, watching the building Dameon had just gone into. Shit.
Lupa grabbed the knife out of her bag and jumped out her door, running as quick as she could towards the man watching. She grabbed his shirt and pulled him to the ground, throwing her leg over him and sitting on his chest with her knife against his throat.
“Lyon? Lyon Jay?” Lupa was surprised, almost as surprised as the teenager looked.
“What the fuck… get off me!” The boy tried to push her off but she pushed the knife against his throat harder, a trickle of blood ran down his neck. “Shit ok, ok, stop!”
“What the fuck are you doing here? Did you kill his father?”
“What? No! I… just felt like I needed to be here…” Lyon’s eyes glazed over.
“Fuck…” Lupa tentatively placed her bare hand on the boy’s skin, grunting through gritted teeth as her wrist split itself open. Fuck. Shit fuckity fuck. Blood magick. “What do you remember?”
“Huh?” The boy looked at her confused.
“How did you get here?”
“Dad’s in town on business. I came with him…”
Shit. Was Mr Jay involved in the blood magick? Or was he under its spell too? Fuck. What was she supposed to do now? Should she call Dameon out to help her… she looked down at the teenager face between her knees. Lyon didn’t look like he was strong enough or balanced enough to fight her…
“Right, get up and come with me. If you try anything, I’ll cut your fucking balls off.”
The teenager’s eyes widened in horror as he nodded furiously. Good. Little prick seemed to see she was damn fucking serious. Lupa climbed off him and let him stand, grabbing his elbow and placing the tip of her knife against it, half dragging him back up to her car. He wasn’t really resisting her, but Lyon’s eyes stayed on Dameon’s house the whole time.
Lupa shoved the boy against her car and opened the passenger door, pulling her phone out of her bag. She quickly texted Dameon letting him know what was happening then brought up Slasher’s number and pressed call.
“Hey, Little Red, how are you?”
“Got a boy here, he was watching Dameon’s place when I dropped him off. It’s one of the kids from my case. His dad had ten dead cows… I think the kid is under the influence of a blood magick spell or something. He doesn’t… look right.” Lupa bit her lip, she fucking knew that he was because of the spell that Hammer had put on her, but she couldn’t exactly tell Slasher that.
“Shit, ok. I’ll get someone down there, you got it under control?”
“Yeah, Dameon’s walking up now, if anything happens we’ll spell him.”
“Ok. Someone will be there soon.”
Lupa hung up, watching as Dameon walked towards her with anger in his eyes, his fists clenched. Fuck. Maybe she shouldn’t have texted him until someone was there to pick the kid up… “He’s under a spell, Hawk, I don’t think he knows anything-”
Dameon punched Lyon anyway, breaking his nose. But he only hit the teen once. “Aint giving a shit really. Think he’s involved? Or his dad?”
“Could be. I’ve called Slash, she has someone coming to pick him up and question him,” Lupa accepted the smoke Dameon handed her and kept her arm pressing the teenager against her car, “I asked him if he killed… but he didn’t seem to know what I was talking about. He doesn’t even seem to know why he is here, just said he needed to be. Also… Hammer’s spell made my wrist split open when I touched his skin…”
“Ah fuck.” Dameon pushed his hair back from his bruised face, “Probably shouldn’t have hit him then, hey?”
Lupa felt the corner of her mouth pull up, “Hey, little shit probably needed a good wack.”
“I aint a little shit,” Lyon sniffled, “I just need to go look at that house. You can’t keep me here. I’m just looking for Sadie’s present.”
Lupa and Dameon exchanged puzzled glances. “What is Sadie’s present?” Lupa asked slowly.
“I don’t remember…”
Fuck. Lupa hoped that whoever interrogated him got something better out, but for now she noted that Sadie might be involved… there was the small amount of magick in the Corpore’s bloodline, but surely not enough…
“Is Sadie your girlfriend, Lyon?”
“She said she would be if I found her the present. She’s fucking Coinín Scott, but she say she likes me better. Just need to get her a present…”
“Scott? I thought they moved away around the same time Sadie’s family moved there?” Lupa raised an eyebrow at Dameon.
“Did they?” The boy’s eyes glazed over again. Shit.
“Think we better go check that place out, hey,” Dameon glared at the teen with suspicion, “Looking like something is definitely going on there.”
Lupa nodded in agreement and turned her eyes to the street, there was a Clean-up van coming towards them. Fuck, they had been quicker than she thought they would be. Lupa flicked her smoke into a puddle and adjusted her arm against Lyon.
“Ay, this bein’ the kid we coming for?” The massive hulking man she’d seen before was eyeballing the boy pinned against Lupa’s car.
“Yep.” She let him go as the man grabbed him roughly and started shoving him towards the van.
“Slasher tellin’ us to ask what we needin’ to find out ay.”
Lupa tucked her hair behind her ear and glanced over at Dameon who was glaring at the boy’s back as he was shoved inside the van. “Just… if anything else can be found out about the blood magick that’d be great. We have a few things to go off with what he’s told us. Get her to call me if she wants more information. I’m not really sure…”
“Ay.”
The man slammed the doors of the van shut, gave them a nod and climbed inside, driving back towards headquarters. Lupa turned to face Dameon who was looking at Lyon’s blood on her car roof.
“You all good?”
“Yeah. I’m going to go continue packing, I’ll meet you at yours in about an hour?”
“Sure. See you then. Let me know if you need anything.”
Chapter fifteen
“Not all is as simple as fighting…”
Lupa held her phone to her ear with her shoulder while she was carrying a box into Dameon’s apartment. She’d called Slasher three times but still had no answer, finally the other end was picked up.
“Sorry, Little Red, I’ve been swamped up here, you calling about Lyon Jay?”
“Yeah. Get much?”
“Not really, was talking about a girl called Sadie who wants a present, and some guy called… Coinín? But other than that not much. His father has come to pick him up, did you want to question Mr Jay before I let him go? It’s all been taped so if you need to listen to it…”
Lupa kicked Dameon’s new apartment’s door open and placed the box on the kitchen bench with the others they had brought in already. “Umm, no don’t worry about it. We can always question him again at another time. Did Mr Jay say why he was here?”
“I was going to ask him when he arrived so I could gage his response.”
“Cool. Thanks. Well, we’re going to go to Blackmoars as soon as we’ve unpacked the van, I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”
“Are you sure this is a good idea, Lupa?”
“Yes. Dameon deserves to find out why. And to take these fuckers down.”
“Ok…”
Lupa hung up before Slasher could try make any more reasons for them not to go and wandered back out of the apartment to help Dameon bring his mattress up the stairs, it was the last thing left in his van. They pushed it down the hall and through into the clean bedroom.
“Wanna unpack anything before we go?” Lupa asked gently.
“No. Gotta keep moving, y’know? Let’s do it. I’ll drive.” Dameon turned around and headed for the door but Lupa grabbed his arm.
“Hold up, if we’re sneaking on to this property don’t you think we should make sure we’re prepared? In case… well, there’s anything there? And… you kinda stink. You should shower.”
Dameon laughed and gave his armpit a sniff, pull
ing a face as he did so, “Yeah ok, I’ll shower and pack some shit. Come to yours in half an hour?”
“Yep.”
Lupa left, walking the short distance to her door. She sure felt strange about him being so close. But in a way, she kinda liked it. It would certainly make somethings a lot easier. And some things more complicated… Lupa sighed and crossed to her bedroom, changing her shirt for a tight long sleeved one, and changing into her black jeans. She went to the bathroom and brushed her messy hair… she couldn’t really plait it anymore, out would have to do.
Lupa went back to the kitchen and pulled her long, thin knife out of the silver infused jacket hanging up, deciding to also grab her silver throwing stars. Why the fuck not. She hadn’t used them in a long time, but she liked the feel of them on her person. Throwing them in her bag she also grabbed a torch and her lock picking set from one of her kitchen cabinets.
She rubbed her eyes, shit. She was feeling tired all of a sudden, how much sleep had she had recently? She couldn’t remember… bad sign. Lupa went to the coffee table and pulled out a draw, she riffled through it and found a packet with two blue pills in it. She was pretty sure they were Owls that she had bought at least a year ago… fuck. Would they be ok? Lupa shrugged and fished one out, she grabbed a beer and washed it down. One way to find out.
Lupa heard Dameon knock on her door, grabbing her bag she opened it. “You ready?”
“Sure am, Red, wanna sniff me?” Dameon held his arm up with a cheeky grin.
“I’ll pass. I trust you,” Lupa returned the grin, closed her door and followed him down the stairs, “You sure you wanna drive? I don’t mind…”
“Nah, I like driving. Besides, my music is better than yours.”
Lupa rolled her eyes as she hopped into his van. What had got him in such a fucking cheeky mood? She supposed it was better than him looking like he was going to kill everyone… but still… Maybe he’d had a little something to help too. Though she doubted it, Dameon’s mother had died of an overdose after all.
✽ ✽ ✽
It was full dark by the time they reached the spot where the Scott’s were supposed to have lived. The sky was grumbling with thunder but the rain wasn’t falling yet. Dameon drove passed the driveway and pulled his car into a grouping of trees, driving in as deep as he could to hide it. Lupa was feeling pumped and ready to go, the Owl having done the trick in waking her the fuck up.
