Jebediah's Crime: A Heroic Supernatural Thriller (The Hinge Series Book 1)

by Vincent Phan Tran

  He shook his head at the thought of Magda. He'd written off the bullying at school as just that, kids acting like idiots and picking on a girl they found different. It'd been more than that, and he hadn't seen it. Maybe this could've all been avoided. He was starting to wonder if he was a fool.

  But he needed to see it through, now. What was he going to do, sit at his son's bedside, peering anxiously for the slightest sign he'd wake up again? Just leave Mei and Magda? No, he shook his head. He'd left people that needed him once before. He wasn't leaving again.

  A large flash of golden light appeared from inside the building. It was followed by a scream of anger then the sound of things crashing and breaking.

  He surged to his feet. Was this bad enough that he'd have to act now, without back up? Then he heard a girl shriek and the decision was made for him. He swung over the side of the fire escape, dropped to the level below, then jumped down once more to land on the sidewalk.

  He felt the silver cylinder given to him by Flint pressing up against his skin. He prayed he wouldn't have to use it.

  But he knew he probably would.

  Raja burst into the front room of the old building in a flash of light, appearing to the guards as if running through mid-air before skidding to a run. He paused, momentarily out of breath, then turned to the two guards. Both men stepped back from the madness in his glare. The knifeman grabbed up a nearby chair, and with a scream, threw it against a wall. It shattered on impact, throwing metal and wood in random directions. Then he grabbed a small desk and slammed it down in a pique of anger. The legs broke with a loud crack followed by the metal body crashing against the cement floor. He tossed it to the side.

  The clamor scared an already terrified Magda. She screamed loud enough for Raja to hear, and he threw open the door separating the rooms.

  "You shut the hell up!" he yelled, popping a knife and walking toward the girl. She scrambled to the back of the cage and screamed again.

  "Sir!"

  His guard's voice turned him. The other man was hanging halfway through the door with a panicked look on his face.

  "What?" Raja seethed.

  "Please, come see!"

  Raja glared at the cage, then went back to the outer room with his guards.

  The windows in the room were covered with cheap aluminum shades and the fake office stood empty. The buildings true purpose was in the cage behind them.

  Raja stopped next to the guards and stared at the groaning man on the ground. He'd obviously been in a fight. His gray shirt was torn at the shoulder and his jeans were littered with dark spots from a bloodied nose. A battered shoe hung precariously off one foot and threatened to fall off entirely.

  The taller guard spoke to Raja.

  "The outer guards reported a disturbance before we lost communication."

  He pointed to the other guard, a shorter and stockier man. "He went outside and found them both beaten into unconsciousness. This man was next to them and already injured."

  The guards moved to surround the man on the ground. One of them reached out a dark hand, grabbed a fistful of hair, and yanked the injured man's face up. Raja looked down and shook his head with a rueful smile.

  "Good evening, Jebediah. I'm guessing Flint sent you?"

  Jebediah was shaking, beaten up, and surrounded by the kind of men mother's scare their kids with. He still had to smile, though. Raja's accent reminded him of the convenience store guy from the Simpsons.

  The smile must have caught the knifeman by surprise. He leaned in with an odd look and in that singsong voice asked, "Something on your mind?"

  "Yeah," Jebediah spat blood and what might have been a tooth on the floor. "Can you say, 'Thank you come again?'"

  Raja's right-cross slammed Jebediah's head sideways. Light exploded behind his clenched eyes, and he got a floating feeling from his brain colliding against the inside of his skull.

  "You were too old for this game years ago," Raja hissed, reaching for a knife. "Even at your best, you couldn't beat me. I'm faster than you ever were, better than you by miles."

  Jebediah dragged a deep breath in. His shoe, fighting to stay fixed, gave up the battle and fell off. He came up, groaning, to a knee, a picture of misery as he shook his head.

  "You're right," he admitted. "I couldn't stop you …"

  "This is pathetic," Raja said, turning to the closest guard. "Kill him."

  "… from outside the building," the bounty hunter finished.

  The device inside his shoe exploded with a deafening boom. The detonation hurled the others away while carrying Jedediah into the taller guard. He crashed to a halt on top of the other man.

  The guard grabbed for his gun. With a snarl, Jebediah rose and his hand flashed down, palm heel out and fingers curled. It slammed into the man's throat with a sickening crunch and shattered the larynx. The guard's eyes bulged with agony and his hands scrabbled at the ruined throat, jerking and kicking as he strangled to death.

  Grabbing the gun from the dying man's holster, Jebediah came up in a crouch and brandished the weapon while he turned and …

  Down dammit. Get low! his mind screamed at him.

  He'd spotted the other guard leveling his gun. The man fired. The heavy caliber firearm sounded like a cannon in the small office. Bullets punched tennis ball-sized holes into the wall above his head, and one carved a burning groove across his back.

  Jebediah leapt, jerked to a side-roll in mid-air and levered his gun up. He fast triggered. It flamed twice and two rounds exploded low into his target. The guard's leg broke in half, blown apart at the knee. He screamed.

  Jebediah hit the ground and twisted up, yelling and firing again and again, his heart juddering and pushing oceans of adrenaline. It made his blood molten. The world moved around him in slow, crisp moments of violence. His rounds crashed into the guard and opened a cavern in his belly. The guard had just enough time to gasp before a fury of bullets decimated most of his face.

  The bounty hunter came to his feet with his gun at arm's length, frantically scanning the room for a target. But it was empty. The door leading to the back was still swinging from Raja's retreat.

  And from a distance he heard a girl screaming and screaming.

  Raja sprinted for the cage and hauled the squirming girl out by the hair. He held her off the ground and placed a knife against her throat. She was staring at him and her eyes were so big and so dark and a thin line of blood began to ooze where he was cutting her. He pressed the knife harder to—

  "Raja!"

  The knifeman spun. Jebediah charged through the door and the room exploded with gunfire. Raja staggered and dropped the girl to the ground. She screamed and cupped her hands over her head.

  "Magda! Behind me! Go out the door!" Jebediah yelled.

  Her skinny legs pumped and she sprinted toward freedom.

  Raja looked with one arm bleeding. Then, his hand blurred and a knife streaked at Magda's back.

  Ohmygod. Jebediah dropped his gun and threw himself forward, his arms outstretched and frantically grabbing, clawing for the girl. He latched onto her shirt and threw her behind him while pushing himself forward. He grunted in pain when three inches of steel slammed into his side. Magda scrambled to her feet and stared at Jebediah in a panic.

  "Go goddammit! Get out!" he yelled. The girl paused only for a moment, then ran out the door.

  Jebediah looked to Raja. The other man snarled with murder in his eyes, then drew his other knife and stalked forward.

  The bounty hunter reached across, gripped the knife still in his side, and with a sickening rush of pain, he dragged it out. He gulped air in large breaths to dispel the dark ghosts blurring his vision. He pushed himself to his feet.

  "Old bastard. I want that knife back," said Raja.

  "You come get it, you kidnapping fuck," responded Jebediah.

  Both men stared malice at each other. Then, with a savage cry, they flipped their knives down like claws and charged across the room at each other.<
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  Raja powered forward, his body curving with the strength he used to drive his blade down. Jebediah swept his own knife across to parry. The blades collided and sparks chimed off their razor edges. Jebediah immediately reversed his motion and whipped a blow toward Raja's eyes.

  The younger man swayed back, swift as a cat, and brought his knife straight up to bounce the blow high. Then, Raja clenched his free hand into a fist and clubbed it against Jebediah's side, tearing at the open knife wound. The older man screamed and staggered back.

  Both men circled each other. Jebediah was stronger and had years of experience over his opponent. But Raja was faster, and he had specific expertise in a blade, his knife fighting skills honed through endless practice. Finally, he had the energy of youth.

  Neither men would stop. But one had to fall.

  "I'll get the girl back," Raja taunted. "Who's going to stop me? You?" He rushed forward and attacked with a blinding combination. His knife swept left and right so fast all Jebediah could see were flashes of silver. The bounty hunter desperately dodged and parried.

  The two knives clanged against each other over and over. Jebediah was cut once, then again. Each time it drew a trail of blood through the air.

  Raja smirked. "I'd be more worried about her grandmother."

  The bounty hunter desperately thrust forward, then yelled when his body clenched around his injured side. The flare of pain made his hand jerk open, and his knife fell with a clang on the ground. He felt the abusing fists from the guards and the wound from Raja's thrown blade. He was exhausted and completely spent.

  Too old … stupid old man … he thought.

  Raja reversed his knife and hit Jebediah full in the face with its hilt. The blow brought the older man to his knees. Raja slammed a foot into his chest, stealing his breath and dropping him to his back. The younger man knelt and cut his blade across the air in mystic shapes.

  Raja gave a contemptuous glance at the shallow bullet wound on his arm.

  "What were you thinking, old man? That all your years on this earth could've possibly made you ready for me? There's nothing you've learned that could make you my equal. Nothing!"

  Without turning or looking, Raja brought a hand up over his shoulder. It caught the table leg Magda was trying to swing at the back of his head. The girl had snuck back in during the fight. He yanked the club out of her hands and tossed it to the side, his eyes never leaving the bounty hunter.

  "I would have given you the girl back unharmed. When you're looking up from hell, you remember that."

  "There's one thing I learned …" said Jebediah, panting in pain.

  Raja raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

  "One way I learned to beat you …"

  Raja looked down at the exhausted man with an incredulous stare. "Really? And what's that?"

  "Sacrifice," he replied. Jebediah pushed a hand against his pants pocket. It struck the silver cylinder Flint had given him. A needle punctured his skin …

  … and Rain flooded into this blood.

  It felt like he'd been struck by lightning. He spasmed and screamed. Energy seemed to explode in all parts of his body at once.

  Raja took a confused step back.

  Jebediah kicked up with both his feet. He flew straight up in the air, landed in front of Raja, then pushed a hand almost lazily against the knifeman's chest.

  The force of the blow picked Raja up and threw him several feet. He hit the ground hard and skidded backward before coming to a groaning halt. The knifeman came up with disbelieving eyes, then stood and ran toward his enemy. His blade stabbed out again and again in another stunning display.

  But, none of his strikes cut the bounty hunter. This time, Jebediah's hands went left and right with a speed untraceable to the eye. Raja's knife was either slapped to the side or missed because his target simply dodged away.

  And in return, Jebediah's fists hammered into Raja. A blow to the knifeman's gut staggered him. A backhand drew blood from his mouth. Finally, a kick delivered straight to his chest put him down on his back again. This time, he didn't get up.

  Jebediah moved forward as if to stomp on the knifeman. He stopped when Magda screamed.

  "Jeb, stop. Listen," she yelled while staring at him. He would find out later his eyes were glowing gold and red.

  He looked at Magda as if remembering she was there. Then he heard it. The sounds of wings beating against the air joined with a bestial trumpeting. It was the sound of a something coming to burn them to death.

  Shira was coming.

  He grabbed Magda into his arms and barreled straight toward the back wall of the building. He struck it full on with his shoulder and the force exploded the wall out in a shower of concrete. He paused a few feet away from the building.

  "Is he dead?" Magda asked from his arms.

  They looked back toward the building and the hole they'd just made in the wall. Through the swirling dust and crumbling concrete, a shadowed figure holding both his knives stalked toward them.

  And a plume of fire shot up in the distance.

  Jebediah ran. His Rain-enhanced speed made him a blur through the cobblestone streets of the Warren. He jerked to a sudden halt several blocks away, out of breath and strangely weakened. The drug was wearing off.

  "Jeb, over there!" He followed Magda's finger to a familiar humvee leading a caravan of other vehicles. He sprinted toward them and the door opened.

  "In! Get in! She's coming!" yelled Lt. Riley, his eyes scanning the sky. Jebediah reached the car, shoved the girl in the backseat, then jumped in himself. Riley gunned it back toward Mei's compound with a squealing of tires. Ara was sitting shotgun, and Ray was in the back with him and Magda.

  Riley yelled back "What the fuck, man? You were supposed to wait for us!"

  "Later," Jebediah said out of breath. "Drive."

  The vehicles raced away at breakneck speed.

  Ray looked at Jebediah and Magda with concern, then cast a fearful look up to the sky. He cursed, slid back part of the humvee's roof, and stood up in the opening. The wind slapped at his body, but the big man stood firm.

  He peered upward and behind them and gasped. A vision of hell approached in the distance. Shira's crimara rocketed toward them like a red demon. The lizard's huge mouth opened, and fire streaked at the escaping vehicle.

  Ray focused his gift and shoved his hand into the air. A pillar of rock shot up from the ground and struck the fire blast. Both exploded. The crimara screamed in anger and launched another blast.

  Ray crossed his arms in front of him and yelled. Another rock shield rose to block the fire, but this time, it was followed by a wave of earth vomiting up from the ground. It crashed into Shira. The dragon spun in the air out of control, then snapped her wings to try and catch herself.

  She settled into a precarious glide that took her close to the roof of a building. She landed and shook her head as if to clear herself, then launched herself back into the air. But she stopped and hovered.

  Each road in front of her had tunnels of rock covering them as far as she could see. She couldn't tell which one contained the fleeing caravan.

  She roared frustration into the air, then took to the skies and flew back toward House Rakash.

  Ray dropped into the backseat with numb legs. He was struggling to breathe. His nose was bleeding and one of his eyes was bloodshot. Moving that much earth had pushed him beyond his limits and come very close to killing him. He'd need time to recover.

  Jebediah tried to say something to him but couldn't. He was tired like he'd never been before. He thought another hit of Rain would probably fix that, then realized he probably shouldn't even look at the stuff again. His eyes were becoming too heavy to keep open. Before he passed out, he heard Riley ask Magda a question.

  "What happened to his other shoe?"

  Chapter 18

  The squad of humvees sped through the compound's gated entrance, past the overlooking guards in their high-wall firing stations before grinding to
a halt in front of the house. Magda didn't wait for the car to stop. She swung her door open and sprang out of the still slowing vehicle.

  Mei stumbled down the steps outside her front door as fast as she could. She reached the ground and held out her arms just in time to catch the barreling girl. She folded her arms around her skinny body. The grandmother felt Magda's chest heaving up and down, and the girl's matted and dirty hair was itchy against Mei's aged face, but the smell of it was heaven. Both of them were crying and holding each other like nothing else existed in the world. As if they weren't sitting on the footsteps of a fortress, surrounded by men with guns whose job was to protect them or die. Or protect them and die.

  "Are you hurt?" Mei asked in Vietnamese.

  Magda felt the scars on her hands from the wire mesh of the cage. Then she looked at Mei's face lined with worry, and she shook her head.

  "No. I'm okay." She smiled and kissed her grandmother's face. "You saved me from the monsters."

  "Always," Mei sobbed, crushing the girl to her chest and kissing her head. "This is my fault. I should've just given them what they wanted."

  Mei pulled back and looked at Magda. "If the world were burning, I would save you," she promised.

  Jebediah got out of the car. His steps were a little unsteady, but his walk was still sure. He'd recovered after passing out during the middle of the ride, and now leaned against the open door and looked over at the pair.

  "Christ, how'd you do it?" asked Riley, coming up behind him and standing at his side. "How'd you get her out? All by yourself?"

  Jebediah shook his head and didn't answer. Instead, he leaned his head against the door and closed his eyes.

  "I need to sleep. It feels like I haven't slept in forever," Jebediah said.

  "Yeah," Riley agreed and stepped closer. "You look done in, for sure. It's crazy. I'd swear you look …" he searched for the words to describe it.

  Jebediah stared at himself in the car's side mirror. "I look older," he said. His hair was now more gray than black, and there were lines on his face that hadn't been there before. His shirt was soaking wet and reeking of stale sweat.