Black Knight 02 - Back in Black

by Hartness, John G

  "Oh, you know, the whole 'abomination' thing." I kept poking.

  "Well, you know, James, I do consort with soulless bloodsucking fiends, and the attorneys for the parish. I think I can be a little open-minded about two consenting adults in love. And this young man Alex certainly loves Stephen. He's barely left his side since he got here." I held the phone away from my ear and stared at it. Mike had never been the most liberal friend of mine, now he's consulting a Wiccan priestess and approving of gay marriage? That was a little much for me to believe, even given my recent trip to FairyLand where I brokered a marriage between a human and a dragon.

  "Well, buddy, do you think he could stand a few visitors? This evening, of course." I hastily corrected as I saw a look of panic cross Greg's face. "We could all use a couple hours of sleep, and maybe a little laundry."

  "Laundry? You're putting domestic duties above a case?" Mike's voice was incredulous, even digitized.

  "No, but since I'm stuck here for the next six hours anyway, I figured I might as well have on clean underpants when I meet the client for the first time." Greg made some disgusted noise, and I mooned him. Sweatpants are sometimes the perfect article of apparel. Until I realized that I'd just mooned Sabrina, too. "Mike, I gotta go. Tell Stephen and Alex that we'll be by to ask them a few questions just after sundown."

  "And how am I supposed to explain that to them?" Mike asked.

  "Just tell them the truth. Alex won't believe you, and Stephen has more reason than most to be open-minded about these things." I hung up before Mike could ask any more questions, and turned around to where Sabrina and Greg were sitting, ready to face the music for my ill-advised butt-baring, only to see four pale half-moons staring back at me. The two of them pulled up their pants and turned around, high-fiving and collapsing back into their seats laughing.

  "Nice one, kids." I said as I went back over to sit beside Sabrina. "And in your case, I mean that in every sense of the word."

  She blushed and hit me in the face with a couch pillow, then asked, "What did Mike say?"

  "Stephen's awake. Alex is with him, and I told him we'd be by there tonight." I saw the look on her face when I said her cousin was awake, and continued "He seems to be fine. For some reason, he's healing faster than a normal person." She got the wry tone in my voice immediately.

  "Maybe that's why we haven't been able to get any info out of the earlier victims," she said. "If they know they won't have any lasting effects from the beatings, then why cause trouble?"

  "It makes sense, in a way, but wouldn't they still want the beatings stopped? I mean, what's to keep the trolls from coming back and finishing the job?" Greg asked.

  "I guess that's why we question them all again, especially now that we know a little secret about them. Now we have a little leverage, maybe they'll be more forthcoming." I said.

  "Do you really think we have any leverage?" Sabrina cut in. "After all, these are gay men in North Carolina. It's not like they're not used to being treated poorly. What makes you think they even care about keeping their supernatural heritage a secret? And who would believe you if you did try to tell someone about them being fairies?"

  "Hey! We're a progressive kind of city!" I tried to come to the defense of my hometown.

  "Oh please, there are more bigoted rednecks wearing suits in the skyscrapers uptown than there are in the stands wearing a black #3 t-shirt at a NASCAR race. You think this city's progressive? Try being a little different and walking down the streets at night." Obviously I'd touched a little bit of a hot button for Sabrina.

  "Just for the record, I am a little different, and nobody bothers me at night." Greg chimed in.

  "You have super strength and speed. You can eat anyone who tries to bother you."

  "Good point. But what are we supposed to do about all that?" My partner asked, a little defensively.

  "I don't know," Sabrina admitted. "All I know is that my little cousin either got beat up because he's gay, or he got beat up because he's not human. And either way, I want to kick somebody's ass for it!" She stalked over to the fridge, yanked the door open, and then yelled "And you're out of beer!"

  Chapter 22

  A few hours later, laundered, showered, and fed (except for Sabrina, who turned down my offers of a nice bag of O-positive and opted for drive-thru), we headed to the hospital to talk to Stephen. The sun had just set, and the horizon still glowed uncomfortably, so Greg and I were rocking' the thickest black sunglasses we could find while Sabrina drove my car. She and I took the elevator to Stephen's floor while I sent Greg down to visit Bobby for a resupply run. The past few days had been tough on our blood supply, and I had a feeling that we were going to need to be fully stocked no matter what we learned from Stephen.

  Sabrina stopped us just outside his door and just stood there for a moment, gathering herself. "It'll be fine." I whispered to her. "He still loves you, or he wouldn't have told his husband all about you." She looked at me nervously, then nodded once and put her hand on the door.

  "Come on in, cuz. I know you're standing out there getting all worked up for nothing. And bring your pet vampire in, too." Stephen's voice sounded strong, but if he called me a pet once more I might see what I could do about that. We walked in and Sabrina's cousin was sitting up in bed, looking very little like someone who was beaten nearly to death less than 48 hours earlier. Mike was there, and a very confused-looking Alex.

  "Ummm, Stephen, did you just call him a..." Alex trailed off as he looked over at me, seeing nothing about me that screamed "vampire." After all, the traditional mythology does not include skinny, 6' 4" redheaded vampires with pointy noses and hair that shot out in every direction out from under a Clemson Tigers purple baseball cap.

  I nodded to him, and held out my hand. "Mr. Glindare, good to see you again. I suppose you must be Stephen." I said, holding out my hand to him.

  "Ah yes, your friend mentioned that you were a detective. What gave it away? The fact that I'm in a hospital bed, or do I have the scent of fairy about me somehow?" Sabrina's cousin might have been her favorite, but he wasn't making any of my top ten lists.

  "I'm not sure, Mr. Neal. It was either the fact that you're the only person in the room I've never met, the hospital wristband with your name on it, or the driver's license photo I saw the other night when you were lying in an alley covered in your own blood after being beaten to a pulp." I let me hand drop and walked over to Sabrina. "Has your cousin always been a putz or is this a new thing?"

  "Definitely a new thing." She replied. "Stevie, what's wrong with you? Jimmy and his partner have been helping me find out who or what beat you up the other night. Why are you being such a jerk?"

  "I don't like parasites." He replied sullenly.

  "And I don't like..." I trailed off, as usual lacking in the witty rejoinder department.

  "What, vampire? You don't like fairies? I bet you never met one before right now? Or you just don't like queers? Was that it? That's what I expected. It goes with the hat."

  "Oh now, come on pal. For one thing, we just got back from a trip to FairyLand, so I've met a bunch of fairies, and I don't have anything against gay people, and...what's wrong with my hat?" I was a little taken aback there, and honestly couldn't remember what hat I was wearing. I yanked it off my head and looked. "Oh, I get it. You went to Carolina, didn't you?"

  "No, but I've met enough Clemson grads to know what you're all like. Big louts who love tractor pulls and shotguns, drink cheap beer and listen to bad music, and have never had an original thought in their lives." He looked over at Sabrina and said, "If this is the type of detective you're working with, I'm not surprised you haven't found anything."

  "Wow. I figured you'd be a little more open-minded, what with the whole stereotype thing working against you and all. Just for the record, pal, I've never been to a tractor pull in my life, I listen to perfectly good music, and while I do like shotguns, my beer is just fine! And furthermore, I am not going to sit here and debate the validity o
f stereotypes with a gay dancer who in the mother of all stereotypes, happens to really be a fairy!"

  "Good point. You were right, Mike, he does get wound up pretty easily. Sorry about that, pal, just yanking your chain." Stephen broke into a big grin and held out his hand while Mike and Alex tried unsuccessfully to hide their grins behind their hands.

  I shook his hand, flipped off my friend the priest, and said, "Now that I've passed your sensitivity training, can we get down to business?" After nods all around, I looked around for a chair. Finding none, I sat on the edge of the bed at Stephen's feet. "Now," I began, "You know it was a troll that attacked you, right?"

  "Actually, I had no idea what it was. I just knew that some giant had grabbed me, pulled me into the alley, and started talking some gibberish about going with him. I told him I wasn't going anywhere with him, and he started to beat the crap out of me. I thought he was just a big dude, I didn't know he was a...troll?" Stephen trailed off, looking at me a little befuddled.

  "Yeah, a troll. Lemme guess, you didn't know trolls were real, right?" I said.

  "That's a pretty good guess. Hell, I didn't even know fairies were real until I got to know Otto. I just thought I was, you know, talented."

  "Being one of the Fae has nothing to do with your ability at dance, Stephen, just like the fact that I'm a vampire has nothing to do with my rapier-like wit." I paused to glare at Mike, who was suddenly afflicted with a coughing fit. "It just means you're a bit faster, more agile and stronger than a human. And it means you'll probably live forever. Unless that only counts in FairyLand, then forget I said anything." I threw that last bit in because he and Alex were exchanging those meaningful looks that couples exchange, and I didn't want to deal with any relationship drama just then.

  "Ok, but what did this troll want with Stephen?" Alex asked.

  "We have no idea." I said bluntly. "Stephen was our best lead, and if he can't remember anything, then we've got nothing."

  "I really wish I could remember anything. All he said was, 'come with me, fairy,’ and pulled me into the alley. I sprayed him with mace, and then he beat the crap out of me. Lemme think." Stephen sat there wracking his brain while I waited. After a couple of minutes he looked up, frustrated, and said, "I'm sorry. I've got nothing. I really wish I could help."

  "I know, Stevie. I know." Sabrina stepped forward and took her cousin's hand. I stood up and started to pace at the end of the bed as Greg came in carrying a small Styrofoam cooler.

  "Got lunch for the week, bro!" He said, holding up the cooler. The entire room froze, looked over at the pudgy vampire in the doorway, and we all just broke up laughing. "What?" Greg said, looking around in befuddlement, his natural state.

  "Nothing, pal, nothing." I said when I could catch my breath. "Stephen, if you're sure that you can't remember anything else about the attack, then I guess we'll head out. There's nothing much for us to do here, and these rooms aren't meant for this many people."

  "I'll stay," said Sabrina. "We've got a lot of catching up to do."

  "Good," I replied. "I was hoping you'd say that, because I want to make sure somebody is here with Stephen just in case someone, or something tries to get at him again. Can you meet us at our place with the case files on all the attacks tomorrow night? I want to look at all the data and start to re-interview the other victims. Maybe one of them remembers something."

  "I can do you one better," she said, reaching into her purse and pulling out a USB memory stick. "I've got all of the case files with me, so you guys can start tonight while I hang here with my cousin." I took the memory stick and tucked it away in my pocket.

  "That's great. Mike, can you get in touch with your witch friend and see what she knows about trolls and fairies? Maybe there's some kind of secret Wiccan database that she can tap into. Greg, let's get back home and see what's in these files. Stephen, if you think of anything, give us a call. Sabrina, if anything bad happens, call me immediately. Please do not try to stop a troll on your own." I started out the door and stopped when I realized everybody was still staring at me.

  "What?" I asked.

  "I think we're all waiting for you clap your hands and yell 'Break!' coach." Sabrina said with a smirk.

  "Oh, shut up. And gimme my keys." I snarled.

  "I wondered if you were going to remember them before or after you got to the parking lot." She handed them over and I turned to go.

  "See you tomorrow. Be careful." I said on my way out the door.

  "Aye, Aye, Cap'n." Said Sabrina to my back as I headed down the hall. "Oh, and one other thing!" She yelled. "Take a couple more showers, you both still sparkle!"

  Chapter 23

  Greg and I got back to our place early, and I tossed him the memory stick. "Can you copy that onto your computer, then I'll put it on mine and we can both look at it?"

  "Why don't I just put it on the server and we can both look at the files on the TV?" He said, kicking off his boots and emptying the cooler into the crisper.

  "Yeah, that works, too." I said, sitting on the couch.

  "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?" He said, as he reached down beside the entertainment center and stuck the USB key into a computer I couldn't promise I'd ever seen before. He grabbed the remote and sat on the couch next to me. "I set this up a couple weeks ago while you were out on a surveillance run. We can surf the Internet with the TV as a monitor, or use it to review case files, like we're doing now."

  "You did this all for porn, didn't you?" I asked, smirking at his uncomfortable blush.

  "You want to go back to working on a laptop?" Greg asked, punching me in the shoulder.

  "Ow! No, this is great. Thanks, bro." We spent the next couple of hours looking over case files with nothing to show for it. The more we looked at photos of brutalized young men, the less we knew. As the sun came up, we were no closer to any clues than we were when we sat down, and a whole lot grumpier.

  Just as I was about to give up and get some sleep, something struck me. "Dude?"

  "Yeah?" Greg grunted.

  "What did the crime scene techs say about all the earlier attacks?" I asked.

  "Man, they said a lot of stuff, but it was mostly a whole lot of nothing." My grumpy partner replied.

  "Yeah, but what did they say about where the attacks happened?"

  "What do you mean?" Greg asked.

  "I mean, were the victims attacked there, or were they attacked somewhere else and dropped there?" I said. There was an idea forming, but I wasn't sure what it meant.

  "The crime scene reports said that none of the assaults occurred where the men were found, but the victims could remember nothing about the attacks."

  "So why was Stephen found where he was attacked, and none of the others?" I asked.

  "I have no idea, dude. You'd have to ask the troll that beat him up."

  "That's exactly what I plan on doing, but I think first I need to ask a few questions of our other victims."

  "Jimmy, dude, I don't know if you missed the memo, but they all said they can't remember anything about their attacks."

  "Man, you are tired if you believe everything a victim says about a crime." I replied.

  "Why would they lie, man?"

  "I don't know. That's why we're going to see them tomorrow night. Now let's get some rest." I got up and headed to bed. "Don't stay up all day on the preteen chat sites, you perv."

  Greg threw a pillow at me. I caught it and winged it back at him. "What's to say these victims won't just lie to us, too?" He asked as I got to me bedroom door.

  "They will. That's why we're taking Sabrina."

  "Because she's a cop?" He asked.

  "No, because I'm less likely to eat them in front of her. We'll mojo them into telling us the truth, assuming our mojo works on fairies."

  "And if it doesn't?"

  "Then we make Sabrina wait in the car while we have dinner." I went into my room to grab a little sleep, leaving Greg to whatever trouble he was going to get int
o online while I slept. I just hoped he wasn't hacking online poker sites again. The last thing I needed was a beef with the no-necks that own those things.

  I slept through the day, waking up just once to find Greg snoring on the couch, wireless keyboard in hand and an abandoned chat window on the TV. I shut everything down, tossed a blanket on him, and went back to bed.

  I awoke early in the evening the next night to the smell of coffee and the sound of the washer running. I knew before I even got out of bed that Sabrina had gotten there, because Greg does laundry about as often as I go tanning. I stumbled out of my room to see her standing over my partner's prone form. He was still on the couch, blanket tangled around his waist, with the keyboard balanced somehow on his forehead. She was looking down at him, shaking her head and chuckling as I walked up to her.