by Martha Woods
* * *
“No, not him. One of the overnight guards saw me running and just opened fire, didn’t even yell a warning they just started shooting.” I huffed an irritated breath out through my nose, reaching over to the glovebox for an aspirin. “I thought I was worth more than that, but I guess not, they’ve always hated me there.”
* * *
“Where are you now? Just give us the word, me and Vincent can be there before you know it, we can get you somewhere safe…”
* * *
“No, no don’t do that. Soon as they get themselves gathered they’ll just swarm the apartment, what you two should focus on doing right now is getting the hell out and telling everyone what happened. We can meet up afterwards when we’ve both done what we needed to.”
* * *
By now he knew that there was no arguing with me when my mind was made up, the best that he could hope to do was go along with whatever it was that I had planned. At least this time I had something approaching a plan, I wasn’t quite certain how it was all going to work out but I knew that I had somewhere to go after this, most people who get framed and shot by the police do not tend to get that far.
“Where should we meet?” He asked, “It can’t be anywhere in the city if you’re going to be hunted by the police, they’ll be crawling through every block looking for a cop killer.”
“I know, that’s what’s so dangerous about all of this.” I rubbed at my temples, feeling the aspirin starting to dull the edges of the headache I’d had ever since I’d gotten in the car. “Do you know any safe places? Anywhere that no one would look, not even other hunters?”
“I know a few places, we were always encouraged to find our own spaces where we could go underground if we needed to, but most of them are in the city…” He snapped his fingers, the sudden clarity of his voice telling me that he was smiling in triumph, “I remember a place! It’s an old abandoned house on the outskirts of the city, no one goes out there because there’s supposed to be chemicals that leached into the soil, so it’s completely abandoned for miles out. There’s no reason anyone should be out there looking for us.”
* * *
I nodded, this night was already weird enough, may as well go out and hide in the old chemical dumping grounds, that’s a metaphor for my current life if I’ve ever heard one. He was right though, who in their right mind would go and hide out in a place thought to be a complete biohazard? If your goal was to kill whoever it was that ran in there you could probably just kick back and wait anyway, they would either come crawling back to safety or die out there, either way your job would be done. Though I had no doubt that Damon had picked a place that wasn’t too contaminated, if it was he wouldn’t have even considered sending me there.
* * *
“Alright,” I said, “You and Vincent let everyone know what’s going on with Rick, then you get over to the house to meet me. I shouldn’t be more than an hour or two, but first I need to go and see someone.”
“See someone? Do you have another friend or something that you haven’t told me about?”
“I wouldn’t say friend,” I sighed, “But she needs to be let in on what’s happening. If they’re coming after me they’ll probably be coming after her, much as we don’t get along she doesn’t need that on top of everything else that’s happened over the last few months.”
* * *
“Her? Who- oh...” I could hear the wince in his tone, “Good luck with that then, I don’t imagine that this is going to be a pleasant conversation for either of you.”
“No, no it’s not. But I’ve got to go do what I’ve got to do, and you do too.” I hesitated, biting my lip before just saying it out right, “I love you. Both of you, so much. I’ll see you soon ok?”
* * *
“We love you too Amy, be careful.” I disconnected the call before I could start talking again, if I started telling him how much I cared about the two of them I wouldn’t stop, and I’d already risked talking on my number enough as it was. Flipping the phone over in my palm and smacking it against my palm, I popped the battery out and pulled the sim card free, reaching out my window and dropping both behind one of the support columns shrouded in darkness. I know that the typical movie thing to do would be to toss them both as far as I could, but phones are expensive and I’m not made of money, plus I really liked my phone.
* * *
Once all this blew over I could come back and hope that they hadn’t been snatched up by some lucky janitor and shipped off to China, but the chances of that happening were honestly pretty low.
I let my forehead bounce off the edge of the steering wheel, taking a deep breath and focusing for a moment on the throbbing pain in my leg. The bleeding had slowed, possibly even stopped completely, but I still needed help making sure that I didn’t get an infection, plus if I moved wrong it would just split open again, it was still an open wound after all. Time was of the essence when it came to dealing with something like this but… god, it’s not too late to change my mind right?
* * *
“Oh just sack up and do it already,” I said to myself, punching the horn in frustration and opening my eyes wide, “Time to go and face the music.”
I turned the key in the ignition and revved the engine, taking a few seconds to wake myself up fully before speeding out of the garage, deciding that the faster that this was dealt with the better.
Onward to Alexis’ club.
Chapter 4
The club in many ways was just like I remembered it, classy without being prissy and pretentious, down to earth enough without welcoming complete slobs, for all the faults that I had with her Alexis knew how to make a club pop. And the girls that were on duty, well, they were all witches like me and were here for protection, but what were the chances that they would be as beautiful as they were?
* * *
On any given night the club was usually packed, a girl of seemingly everyone’s taste coming out to greet whoever was lucky enough to walk through the door, though I suspected that at least some of them were using a glamour against some of the more weak willed clients. If you’ve got the knowledge why not use it right?
* * *
Honestly the club was so nice that if I hadn’t been called here all those months ago on business I probably would have eventually found my way here sooner or later, if not from sheer curiosity than anything else. I’m still straight, I think, I’m not sure, but I’m not blind, I know beauty and quality service when I see it. Anyone who came, upper class or not, male or female, was welcomed with open arms and a wide smile, there was something special about that.
What they would not welcome however was me tracking blood and attention through their front door, which is why I parked in the back alley and covered my car with a nearby tarp, making sure the rag wrapped around my leg was secure before limping my way over to the back door, waving over at one of the dancers that had stepped out for a smoke break.
* * *
“Hi!” I started, trying to make up for the obvious pain I was in with an overcompensating amount of enthusiasm, “Do you think you could go get Alexis for me? I’ve got some things I need to speak to her about.”
She just stared at me, eyebrows raised into her hairline before she turned on her heel and marched back indoors, barely remembering to snuff out her cigarette before opening the door. A shame, I wouldn’t have minded the rest of that. Making myself as comfortable as I could on the ledge outside, I readied an explanation for either Alexis or the bouncer, whoever they thought was better equipped to run off the bloody weirdo that had ambushed them outside on their smoke break, though I was leaning towards it being Alexis. She was no pushover, far from it, the only reason that she had a bouncer in the first place was because neither she nor her brother could be seen effortlessly throwing people out onto the street, that was the sort of thing that would attract the wrong kind of attention towards themselves.
* * *
“Well well,” That silky voice said
from above me, heels clicking against the concrete, “What have you gotten yourself into now Amy?”
“Hey Alexis,” I said, finally looking up at her and managing a weak smile, “You think I can come in?”
* * *
She looked me over critically, obviously trying to discern if this was a trap or ploy of some kind. I thought I should be mildly insulted, but given the circumstances of recent months and the entire reason we’d met to begin with I suppose I couldn’t blame her. I was having trust issues myself lately, it’s probably going around.
* * *
“Alright,” She said, reaching out and pulling me to my feet, “But don’t track blood on my carpet, otherwise you will be paying for it.”
* * *
I snorted, at least that was like the Alexis that I knew, when we were still something kind of approaching friends. It probably wasn’t going to last but at least for now it was nice for a touch of the old to be back. “I’ll try not to,” I said, tapping at my leg, “I wrapped it up tight after all.”
“Right,” She replied, a flash of concern passing over her face before she turned back towards the door, “Well come on then, we don’t have all night. You certainly don’t by any means either.”
* * *
Five minutes later and I was seated in her office with my leg propped up on the coffee table, her brother pouring some kind of stinging powder against the gash and readying a needle and thread. They’d also taken the liberty of pouring me a drink, which can’t have been good for my blood flow but was doing wonders for my pain, only a hiss passing through my lips when he stuck the needle in for the first time and got to work sealing up my leg.
* * *
“I want you to tell me very slowly what has actually happened, I personally am perplexed that you would come to me of all people when you’ve been injured, I would have assumed that you would have called one of your numerous boyfriends for help.”
And there we go, there was that more familiar bite in her tone, I would be lying if I said that I’d missed it. Almost wasn’t fair that I couldn’t move at the moment, it was the sort of tone that just immediately made you want to start slapping.
* * *
“Alright, first of all can we not do this right now?” I rolled my eyes, placing my glass down on the side table. “I’m with Damon, I’m with Vincent, everyone’s gotten used to it so can we just… not?”
“If you say so,” She said, with that tone that said that this was far from the end of the conversation, “Let’s focus on what you’re doing here of all places then, considering that neither of us like each other and would rather be on opposite sides of the city on our good days, how about that?”
* * *
“Because I came here to warn you, you stupid asshole!” I shouted, finally at the end of what patience I’d been able to muster up, “If you can stop bitching at me for two seconds I can tell you what I came here to say, I can answer all your questions, but can we just drop the bullshit between us for just one night?”
* * *
Alexis sniffed, hand tightening into a fist for a moment before she sighed, falling back into her chair and rubbing at her temples with her fingers. “That’s… ok, fine. For tonight we’ll just forget about everything that’s happened between us, there’s no Vincent, no Damon, you’re just an old acquaintance who walked through my door with a hole in her leg and a distinct lack of answers. Now, do you mind giving me some?”
* * *
I nodded, actually believing her when she said it this time. “Yeah, ask away.”
“Alright, just what happened to you Amy? I know that you’re reckless and you jump into things head first, but you’re usually either smart enough or lucky enough to not get hurt. This-” She said, pointing at the almost sutured up gash, “Is not like you, something must have happened.”
* * *
“I take it you heard about those witch murders that happened recently?” One look at her face and I could tell that she was intimately aware of what had happened, a flash of revulsion passing over her features before she schooled them into an impassive mask.
“I was aware of them, hard not to be considering the circumstances of why we met in the first place, wouldn’t you agree?” Her eyes hardened, fingers curling around the armrest as she almost spat, “Did the person who killed those witches do this to you?”
* * *
“No, not them,” I said, “Damon killed him, he won’t be hurting anyone else. But the people that were helping him…”
* * *
I sighed, there wasn’t much choice except to explain the whole situation to her in detail, given that she’d been kept out of the loop on quite a few things recently. She’d wanted space and I’d been all too happy to grant it, but in doing so I denied myself a very powerful ally, if I’d done my part to push us past our issues maybe things wouldn’t have had the chance to work out so poorly, but it was too late to correct any mistakes from the past, all we could do was move forward.
* * *
“I’m sure you heard how the hunters attacked us recently as well, but I’ve found out that they did so as part of a partnership with the killer, it was to draw me away so that he could go back and kill a witness to the crimes that I had been interviewing.” I chewed at my lip, even with a hole in my leg still finding it difficult to admit. “They knew which witness to go after because my boss, Rick, is involved with them, he’s been supplying them information as part of a plan to wipe out paranormals in this city and to ‘protect’ the normal people.”
* * *
Alexis kept a remarkably calm expression considering what I had just told her, the raising of an eyebrow and a quick inhale of air the only indications that she had actually even heard me, her tone overly strong and certain to cover the clear confusion she had over that particular turn.
“Your boss? The man in a very influential position in the police force, one of the men who utterly failed to keep a number of my employees safe and who almost let the true killer roam free once again, that Rick?” She frowned, looking out the window of her office overlooking the floor. “I can’t say that I’m honestly that surprised, but this really does complicate a number of things, chief among them being how freely we’ll be able to move and live now that the police have some idea we exist. Was he the one who did that to you?”
* * *
I shook my head, though my answer wasn’t exactly going to make her feel better. “He shot a lab technician and then he shot himself in the arm to make it look like I did it, one of the overnight guards shot me when I was running away.”
“Ah,” She said, “So not only have you been more or less marked with death by the police, you are also most likely going to be the topic of a city wide manhunt by the time the sun rises over the mountains. I still have no idea why you came to me of all people with this, because I have absolutely no answers for you.”
* * *
“Despite everything between us, which we can work out another day, you’ve always been reliable. You always wanted what was best for your girls, and you want what’s best for us as a people, if not necessarily as individuals, I figure if there was anyone that I could trust to listen to me and not rush off to do something stupid it was you.”
* * *
“Me? Not Joseph?”
* * *
I laughed, “I love Joseph, I really do. He’s the kind of leader that we need around, he knows how to play the game and when it comes to it he’s absolutely ferocious in a fight.” I leaned forward as best I could with my leg still perched on the table. “But he definitely has one hell of a temper, if I came to him in the state that you saw me and said that the police had shot me without so much as a single word of warning he’d lead a one man crusade and have half the force dead by morning, then come back the next night to get the rest of them.”
* * *
She nodded, as far as I knew Joseph hadn’t told anyone aside from me about what he had done to Chicago all those years ago, but obviou
sly he wasn’t short on horrifying stories of his past deeds. The palor that her skin turned from whatever she was remembering was evidence enough of that, and it was with belated astonishment that I realized that I probably didn’t even know the most bloodthirsty things that he had done. As far as I knew burning down an entire city may very well have been no more near the top of his list as… not paying for a cup of coffee. I’d seen the way that he had been fighting when we’d been trying to fool the kitsune, he obviously loved battle, and he was none too shy on killing either, his past was more than likely an ocean of red.
* * *
“Well as… glad as I am that I’m not going to wake up tomorrow to find that half the police force has been drained of blood and left in the street, I’m afraid that doesn’t change one very important fact, I don’t know what to do with something like this.” She shrugged, “I’m not equipped to help you set up for a war, or stash you away anywhere, or-”
* * *
“I know, I know,” I said, raising my hand to calm her down, “You’ve already done enough, you and your brother, I really only wanted to come here to tell you to be careful, and to pass the word onto Faye as well. I’ve got Damon helping out there, but just in case you know?”
