“Sure, c’mon in.”
“Do you know a lady, her name’s Cynthia?”
Bert’s face lit up like a kid playing a video game, “Sure, she’s one of my neighbors. Why do you ask?”
“She said you two have been seeing each other. Is that right?”
“Yeah, she’s great, right? We’ve only gotten together a couple times, but I’d take her to Vegas tonight if she wanted me to.”
“Vegas?”
Bert was gushing when he said, “She came over to see me last night. WOW, what a woman! You’ve known both my ex’s. Neither could hold a candle to her.”
Dennis was apprehensive, not knowing what to say. Had he done the same things to his wives? No wonder they both left him. “Listen, she’s a friend, of a friend, of mine. Last night she was talking about . . . She said that you . . . Aw, hell Bert! She’s scared of you. You need to leave her alone.”
Confusion was clear on his face when he said, “I don’t understand. She doesn’t want to see me?”
“Do you blame her? Holy shit, Bert, I’ve seen the photos. What were you thinking?” Bert didn’t say anything. He stood still, puzzled by Dennis’ comments. “You need to stay away from her. She’s willing to let it go if you agree to leave her alone. But if you try to see her again, I’m taking the photos and her statement to the judge, and I’ll get her a restraining order myself.”
“What photos are you talking about?”
Dennis waved the folder in front of his friend, “These photos. Go ahead and take a look!” He slammed the folder down on the table. Dennis couldn’t believe that Bert would play dumb about this.
Bert slowly reached down to the table and opened the folder. There were four photos of Cynthia, standing in a swimsuit, but it was all wrong. He had just seen her, all of her, not like this. Bert shrieked, “Who did this to her?! What kind of sicko perve, would . . .” Bert could hear Samael’s laughter in his head - he didn’t finish.
Bert had seen some disgusting crime scene photos before, but those were of strangers. He could keep his distance and not become emotional during his near clinical analysis of exactly how wounds were inflicted, location of bodies, murder weapons, everything. This was different. He wasn’t a bystander looking at evidence. This was Cynthia. She had just been right here in the living room last night. She looked incredible, nothing like the photos staring back at him. Bert could feel the bile coming up; he swallowed hard and looked at his friend, “Dennis, I could never do something like that. We need to talk to her. I’m being set up. I need to know that she’s okay.”
Some of the anger that had seethed through Dennis’ voice seemed to have ebbed when he answered, “Bert, no. She doesn’t want to see you.”
“But I didn’t do this! She was right here last night. She didn’t look like this!” Then Samael’s voice from inside Bert’s head said, “Bert, so, I see you’ve gotten a better peek at our little pet, Cynthia. She really is divine. I thought the chains were a nice touch, but I’m surprised she kept them on after our little romp last night. She must have enjoyed them more than I did.”
Bert’s eyes went wide, horror spread over his face. He ran to the bathroom and vomited. Bert splashed cold water on his face and rinsed his mouth. He looked at himself in the mirror. How could this be happening? Bert asked Samael aloud, “You sick bastard, you did this?”
Samael’s voice came back loud and clear, absent any type of remorse, “I knew you needed to stay in the dark. You haven’t developed a taste for it yet. She’ll be fine. I guarantee, the next time you see her, she’ll do anything you wish. This world is full of women just like her.”
Bert didn’t care that Dennis was in the other room. He shouted, “The next time I see her? Do you know what you did to her? She’ll never see me again, and I’ll be lucky if I stay out of jail.” Bert looked over his shoulder, knowing Dennis was waiting in the other room for some sort of explanation, some denial that Bert couldn’t give him. Bert had allowed this to happen.
“It’s fine. I can tell that you are feeling cross with me this morning. Oh, Boo Hoo. I kept up my end of the bargain. Look in your briefcase in the kitchen. I believe I promised you wine, women and song or something to that effect. You’ll need to relinquish your body to me one more time.”
“No frickin’ way! Get out! Get out of my head. Get out of my body, now!”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible just yet. I have a few more loose ends to tie up. Then you’ll be rid of me for good. Now go to the dark place so I can get this mess cleaned up before it gets out of hand.”
“You aren’t listening, you depraved bastard. Get out of my head!”
Bert wiped his face with a towel and stepped into the kitchen. Setting on the counter was his briefcase. He reached inside and saw five very large stacks of cash. More conscious of the fact that Dennis could hear him, Bert thought his question rather than asking out loud. “Where did this come from? Did you rob a convenience store?”
“Do you really want to know? Come on, give me your body; this will be my last jaunt with it. You’ll have your boring life back this evening. Incidentally, I did give Cynthia the night off. I’ve made arrangements for another beauty to stop by at seven p.m. I’ll want to be around until then. I’m sure you understand.”
Bert didn’t care if Dennis heard him. Anger welled up and spilled out when he shouted, “No, I’m done with this! Get out now!”
His friend stepped from the entryway, and took two steps into the kitchen, with a look of genuine trepidation, “Bert, if you want to talk or something, I’ll listen. I just need your word that you won’t see Cynthia again.”
Bert’s eyes clouded. He turned to face his friend with the cash he had removed from the briefcase still in his hand. “You have my word. If you talk to her, tell her. . .tell her, I’m really sorry.”
Dennis couldn’t believe his ears. Bert was what he didn’t want to believe. His eyes wandered to the cash in Bert’s hand. “What’s that?”
Bert stuffed the money back into his briefcase. “I’m not feeling very well. I’m going to call in sick today.”
“You all right?”
“No, Dennis, I’m not all right.” Bert bowed his head and walked to the steps.
Dennis pulled out his cell and dialed Maggie. “I just talked to him. Let Cynthia know he’s going to leave her alone. Give her my number in case she needs it.”
A couple hours passed. Several arguments between Samael and Bert took place. Samael threatened to simply take the body over if Bert wouldn’t give him permission, but something didn’t allow Samael to take over, and Bert wasn’t about to hand it over again.
“I have one more task to accomplish. Then you’ll be rid of me for good.”
“No, I don’t trust you. Not after what you did to Cynthia.”
“I could pinky swear?”
“Samael, no, leave my body.”
“What more can I give you? We had a deal. I do not look favorably on someone who reneges on a deal.”
“That’s hysterical. You don’t look favorably on me? I don’t look favorably on you brutalizing a woman. I wish I could go back to you being a figment of my imagination.”
“I was never a figment of your imagination.”
“Get out.”
“I will get out, but there is this one last thing I need to do, while I still have the use of your body.”
“You don’t get it. You no longer have the use of my body. We’re through. Whatever deal we made was not on the premise of you . . . torturing another person.”
Bert saw his cell phone was ringing. He was going to ignore it, but saw it was Dennis calling him. “Great,” he muttered to himself.
“Hi, Dennis, what’s up?”
“Bert, did you sign out $50,000 from the evidence locker last night for a sting?”
“No. Why would I?”
“The morning custodian mentioned it to the chief. The chief wants to talk to you. He sounds pissed.”
Hesitating, j
ust for a moment, remembering the five stacks of bills in his briefcase, Bert answered, “Oh, yeah, I must have forgotten. It ended up not going down. Say, you didn’t say anything to him, you know. . .”
Dennis cut him off, “About, Cynthia? No. Not a word. You better give him a call; he’s about ready to blow a gasket.”
“Thanks.” Bert took a deep breath, steadied himself the best that he could. He dialed the chief’s line.
A gruff voice growled into the phone, “Crosby.”
“Hey, Chief, it’s Bert. Dennis said you were looking for me?”
“Glad to hear you didn’t skip town. Tell me, Bert, how is it that you signed a large sum of money out from the custodian last night, under my authority, without my knowledge?”
“Chief, I, I don’t know why I did that.”
“You realize, I don’t care how sick you are. You pull yourself out of bed, get down to the precinct and turn that money back in. Once you’ve returned the money, you’re going to write a statement detailing why you broke procedure, why you lied to a fellow officer, and for added measure explain why you forged documents for a case that doesn’t exist. You’re going to meet with your union rep., and you’re going to make an appointment with Internal Affairs. Sometime in between all your errands, I’ll expect you to bring me your shield and gun. Am I clear?”
“Chief, I screwed up.”
“Your damn right you screwed up! You are not going to take anyone else down with you, you understand?”
“Yeah, I understand.” The chief disconnected the call. Bert had never heard him so furious about anything in his life.
“Okay, Samael, care to tell me why I withdrew all that money last night?”
“Wine, women and song cost money.”
Bert sat down with his head between his legs on the side of the bed. He didn’t see any of this coming. He looked at his issued weapon on the nightstand, his photo identification and a rolled up piece of metal setting right beside. He picked up the rolled up metal to examine it and realized it was his shield. He was exhausted, broken, and knew life as he knew it - was over. Bert mumbled to himself, “Private security won’t be so bad. The money might even be better.”
“Way to go, Sport. Look on the bright side. Go ahead and lend me your body. I’ll make sure you go out with a bang!”
“Get out!” Bert roared, loud enough that anyone on the street passing by would have heard. Within seconds, his doorbell rang. “Wonderful, Samael, is there anything else I don’t know about? One more surprise might actually do me in today.”
Chapter 22
Lauren
I received a strange call from Dennis asking what Detective Ross had asked about during our midnight interview the other night. He mentioned that the detective wasn’t himself lately and wanted to make sure that nothing had happened that Dennis needed to be aware of. When I pressed him for further detail, Dennis would only share that Detective Ross had been under a great deal of stress and was having problems in his personal life. I shared that we had an interesting conversation that night, that I believed he might also be under the same influence of Samael, but that I still didn’t know any additional information about Samael that would be of use to Dennis.
Max and I decided we needed to meet with Bert away from the police station, to try to help him in some way. We found the detective’s home address and decided to try to catch him in the morning before our meeting with the Council and Cabinet.
Detective Ross came to the door. “Can I help you?”
“Hi, Detective Ross?”
“Yes, who are you?”
“I’m Lauren and this is Max. We wanted to talk to you, about Samael.”
Detective Ross stiffened, but nodded, and held the door for us to come in. “So, what did he do to you?”
“Um, that’s kind of a long story. Detective Ross, you do know what Samael is, right?”
“I know what he is. He’s usually shouting at me and hasn’t said a word since I opened the door for you two. I can hardly wait to hear where this is going. Call me Bert.”
“Bert, Samael’s bad news.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious.”
“So he’s not in there with your permission?”
“I’m not sure how he got in here to begin with. I was interviewing Jimmy Jacobs, and then I had a black out. Once I was coherent again he asked my permission and I gave it to him, but that was before I found out what he was doing to my neighbor. I’ve been trying to get him out, but he won’t leave.”
“Would it be okay if I talked to him?”
“I’m not going back into the dark, if that’s what you mean.”
I looked at Max, not understanding what Bert meant. Max shrugged and answered, “Samael should be able to hear, Lauren. Just let him talk; you don’t have to go anywhere.”
Cautiously I began, “Samael, I know you can hear me. The Council and the Cabinet know where you are. It’s only a matter of time.”
A wicked grin spread on Bert’s face, “So you came here to warn me? I’m touched, truly touched.”
“Not to warn you, to ask you to let go of Bert. Let him go before they kill him.”
“I’ve always liked your dramatics, Lauren. You and Max won’t allow them to harm Bert. Why do you think you’re here? To watch? I think not. Or maybe, Max, are you volunteering to host me again?”
“No!” We both shouted in unison.
Max looked squarely into Bert’s eyes, “You need to leave him, Samael.”
“But I like this body. Obviously, it doesn’t have the perks of yours.” Samael’s gaze looked from Max to me. “Speaking of perks, Lauren, I’ve missed you, terribly. I’ve been on your mind as well, yes?”
“Sure, the same way I miss a cavity after I go to the dentist. We aren’t playing with you. Get out, go wherever you go when you aren’t leeching off of a human.”
“Ahhh, that is the question. Where does one go when he has been defeated? You remember the dark, Lauren? I spent decades in a cave, hiding in the dark. No. Not again.”
Max spoke up, “Bert, I know you can still hear us. Can you force him out? Try to push him away.”
Daggers looked back through Bert’s eyes, “Max, I’m hurt. Bert allowed me in fair and square. Much the same as you did.”
“I only hosted you to get you to leave Lauren alone. Detective Ross has a life to get back to. You’ve had your fun. You’ve been enough of a disruption. Let him go.”
That same wicked grin shone through when Samael responded, “Yes, Bert let me have quite a bit more fun than you ever did! We’ve had a couple interludes with a very lovely lady. I got to play ‘real life’ cops and robbers. We’ve become rather chummy. I am surprised to see you two again. Lauren, is so protective of you. I thought she’d not let you within spitting distance.”
My stomach turned at what this could mean. I didn’t dare ask.
Bert spoke, “Listen, I appreciate what you two are trying to do. Samael has made a mess of a few things for me lately, and I need to break out the cleaning supplies.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I have to go turn in my badge and gun to the chief – I was suspended. I have to meet with my Union Rep. to try not to get tossed out on my ass, permanently. I’ve got to meet with a patrolman who took pictures of Samael’s conquests etched all over one of my neighbors. And I need to explain to Internal Affairs why I ‘borrowed’ fifty thousand dollars.”
“Bert, he tricked you. He promised you a lot of things. Samael is evil. You can break free. You can have your life back.”
“I’ve made a mess of everything. My career is over. For what?”
Max was encouraging Bert. “You still have your life. Take your body back. Tell him he’s not welcome. Tell him to get out.”
“You think I haven’t tried that?”
I could hear Samael’s voice through Bert’s words, “It really is a pleasure to see you two again. Lauren, my dear, I’ve missed you terribly. We never had a proper rom
p, what with everything going on. I believe Bert could provide you some lovely photos of just how thrilling a night with me could be. They are lying right there in that folder.” He pointed to a folder on the coffee table.
I picked up the folder and saw the gruesome images as Max shouted, “Samael, get out of him, now!”
“I will, in due time. I’m just about finished.”
“I mean it, Samael. Leave him now.”
“You miss me, don’t you, Max? So lonely without me. I do confess that I miss Lauren terribly: the soft touch of her skin, the little noise she makes when she orgasms. I’m sure you’ve discovered a host of new sounds since my departure.”
“Samael, this is your last warning. Leave him now.”
“Or what? You’re going to pry me out with a chisel? I think not. I’ll release Bert when I’m able to finish my tasks. Isn’t that right, Bert?”
Silence echoed out, not so much as a twitch of his muscle or a blink of his eye: Samael was definitely in control. He was strong, so much stronger than I remembered him. Max’s resolve was unyielding, “Bert, can you hear me, Bert? The body is yours; you only have to tell him to leave. Tell him to leave right now.”
Samael laughed through Bert, a loud, sinister laugh. “I believe it’s a little more complicated than that, Max. I’m not quite strong enough to phase out and live on my own, and if I leave Bert, I’ll have to take refuge in a host. Are you volunteering? Is that what I’m hearing?”
I looked at Max, knowing the answer we needed to give to Samael. Max nodded slightly, wordlessly agreeing that this was the only way. I looked back at Samael, “If that’s what it takes, yes, Max will host you again.”
Max said nothing to contradict my offer. Samael looked perplexed, “Really? You’re offering up your soul-mate to host me. He will share you with me. I thought this was repellent to you?”
I didn’t answer his question, instead asking my own, “Samael, what happened to you? You were the one who said destinies shouldn’t be altered. You attacked me that day in the woods because I had bent someone’s destiny. What you’ve done to Jimmy, Bert, and all those innocent people…it just doesn’t make sense.”
Destiny's Wrath (Destiny Series - Book 3) Page 13
