“Perfect.”
“But we leave tomorrow, you hear me, Sailor? Tomorrow night, and that’s final,” Blaze announces. “You don’t have access to a car, and in your condition, not even you can walk to the nearest city.”
“Wanna bet?”
“I’m serious. If we’re going to do this. We’re going to do this the right way. From what you told me, these demons aren’t a bunch of pushovers. They mean business. Even if we’re just looking around for intel, we have to be smart about it. One wrong move can land us in a lot of trouble.”
“Fine, you got a point. Tomorrow it is.”
“Focus on getting your strength up in the meantime.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I will. Ben’s life depends on it.”
“So does yours.”
Chapter 5: The Hunt
Time moves at a crawl as I contemplate my next move. Alfonse is still in remission and not much has changed since my talk with Blaze and Abby last night. For the majority of the day, my head’s been wracked looking for any possible leads on Ben’s situation. He didn’t say much about anything at the coffee house and our time together was altogether short. All I have is a name. Gareth. And this Gareth works at Hex—worked at Hex, depending on how much damage control the demons in the police force managed to provide. Even then, a shooting is a shooting. Reopening immediately would only bring more unwanted attention right to their doorstep. But that shouldn’t even matter.
I reach for a painkiller on the desk beside me, lob it to the back of my throat, and wash it down with a swig of water.
The club is just a front. It doesn’t matter if it’s closed. The junkies they’ve created are still out there, and they need their fix. I’ll need to find one—no—a couple, alone.
Before I knew that Club Hex was involved in a Sphinx-ring, I had to find out how the Sphinx was getting distributed. Having Alfonse around and using his strength was a catch twenty-two, so I developed other methods, although infrequent. After a score, some people like to enjoy their drug of choice in the comfort of their home, others like to try it on the spot, and a select few find their comfort using at a drug den. With the dens, the user usually pays the dealer for a protected spot where they can trip-out to their heart’s content. It’s a lot better than being out on the street and being arrested from going on a drug-induced freak-out session or doing something they might regret a couple hours later. But then again, they are doing some pretty heavy shit.
Knowing what they know, the demons involved in the ring won’t be dumb enough to cast aside their suspicions with me on the loose. I was chasing leads pretty fiercely back then, but now, more than a handful of them have managed to get a good look at me and lived to tell the tale. If they’re smart, which I know they are, they’ll be looking specifically for me when they do business around the areas I lurked. In my current condition, roaming around drug dens wouldn’t be the wisest decision of my career, and I have a demon inside of me. My wounds are a bit too much to be completely effective in the field without Al. The painkillers dull the pain but my range of motion is still limited. If someone or something were to come after me, demon or not, I’d be in a tough spot. Truth is, unless Al makes a speedy return, there’s no way I’ll be able to defend myself with my wounds. Hell, even if he does come back, his presence will just give away my location to the other demons in the area. It would be counterproductive.
I press my back against my propped pillows in frustration and glance over at my lunch sitting next me. It’s around noon and given the situation, another poorly flavored bowl of soup doesn’t exactly stir my appetite. Sleeping is hard enough, let alone eating. It’s impossible to relax when you know someone is suffering at the hands of demons. When I was tortured, minutes felt like hours, and I knew what I was getting into. Not knowing what demons are capable of and being at their mercy opens up a new level of terror. I wonder how long he can take it before he breaks. If he’s clueless, they’ll most likely threaten someone he loves…someone they can use as leverage. As long as he’s their prisoner, anything is fair game.
My mind shuffles through the same limited bit of information I’ve been rehearsing for the last three hours between medically induced naps. It doesn’t take long because it’s virtually nothing.
White, early twenties, athletic build, blond hair, works at a bar, delinquent past, and no known close connections to the club or Sphinx outside of Gareth.
He’s a loner, I conclude after a heartfelt sigh. The cop that briefed me at Hex said so.
And then, it hit me.
If I could, I would slap myself on the forehead for being so dense, but it would cause too much trouble. The officer I talked to at the crime scene said that Ben was a loner, and that’s true. Once his father passed away, he got into all sorts of trouble but looked to turn it around after he straightened up a bit. Although working at a nightclub wasn’t the best choice, he was starting to turn over a new leaf, for both his and his mother’s sake.
His mom is still in the picture and as far as I know, she’s the one that means the most to him.
“Blaze!” I launch off my cot, igniting a strip of pain that tears across my midsection. The agonizing sensation stutters my steps, but I can’t afford to waste another second. “Blaze!” I yell again, regaining my stride as I walk towards the door to my room.
“What? What is it?” Blaze bursts through the door, meeting me halfway, distress clearly painted all over his face. I watch as his brown eyes quickly scan my body. “Sailor, what is it? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” I say waving an arm in front of me. “We need to get to his mother.”
“His mother? Whose? Ben’s?” Blaze asks, confused.
“Yeah, I don’t know how it slipped my mind. She’s the only one he’s got and they know about her,” I answer, hunched over in pain.
“Are you sure? Is she local?”
“Positive. And I’m not sure. If they were looking to use Benjamin as pawn, they probably started a file on him the moment he walked in for his interview. We need to check up on her. Make sure she’s okay. You got access to a computer around here? We need to do a little digging.”
“Abby,” he says to himself. “I’m going to get Abby. I’ll be right back!” Blaze breaks into a sprint and I hobble back onto my bed. He must think I’m an idiot for trying to go out in the field like this, but I don’t care. If anything, he’d be one of the few to understand. We both lost our parents from instances involving the supernatural, so we both know the void that losing a loved one leaves behind.
Death is a natural part of life, sure. But when someone you love is taken from you by a force you’re helpless against, it can leave your whole world in shambles…make you do drastic things and still end up hurting in the end. And I, being the ultimate asshole, knowingly did that to him.
“Hey.” Before I can go deeper into thought, Abby rushes to my bedside, laptop in hand. “Blaze already filled me in.” She lands beside me and flips open her laptop without skipping a beat. “Benjamin has a mom and we need to find her, pronto.”
“Yeah.” I gaze at her absentmindedly while she pecks away at her keyboard. “Do you need anything from me or anything? A starting point, perhaps? I know a thing or two about—”
“Nope, I’m fine. Just need you to confirm a few details,” she responds, her eyes still focusing on her screen. “This the guy? Benjamin Evans?” Abby rotates the screen my way, saving me the effort of moving. I lean in just a tad anyway.
The picture of young man is magnified on her screen, blond, probably no more than eighteen if I had to guess. He has the same blue eyes as Ben and carries a smug look, although his body isn’t nearly as developed as his older counterpart. “Yeah, that’s him. How did you d—?”
“Great.”
Her eyes light with satisfaction as she rotates the screen back towards her body before beginning to type away furiously once more. Blaze walks through the door and I manage to catch his gaze while Abb
y continues to work. I mouth ‘how?’ but all he does is smile and perk his eyebrows. “Benjamin Evans…okay he has one emergency contact. Sarah Evans. I’m pretty sure she’s his mom. Over here is the address and her essential contact information,” Abby says while flicking a stray strand of red hair away from her eyes. “One final check.” No hunter is made equal, that’s something anyone could have told you. I can hack, sure. But cracking into a police database in a matter of minutes, if not seconds…well that is a sight to behold. “Hmm…it’s just like I thought. I can’t get anything more current on him. Records haven’t been updated in a while; he’s been a good boy. I think that’s all we can get for now without taking more extreme measures.” I can only imagine what she means by that. “And I’m not about to dig for a tax return on such short notice. Now that would bring too much attention.” She turns and smiles at Blaze.
“It’s your call,” I respond in an attempt to pull her attention away from him, “but I think what we have right now is more than enough.”
“Okay, so do we have everything that we need? The car’s already loaded,” Blaze confirms. “We should check things out while we still have daylight on our side, just to be safe, and get tabs on her as soon as possible. Ready, Abby?”
“Yeah,” Abby promptly responds after folding her computer.
“The cop routine won’t work a second time. Sailor already tried and got busted, plus we won’t know who’ll be watching. Friends wouldn’t be too conspicuous. If she has a run-in with a demon posing as an authority, she won’t think anything of us.”
I love how they overlook me like I don’t exist. I’m injured, not dead.
“Wait, I’m coming too.” Yes, little ole’ me. Little ole’ Sailor Ray is coming to tag along. Blaze looks at me like I’m stupid but quickly fixes his face to be more polite. Jerk. “Don’t look at me like that. You said tomorrow,” I say as I rise from my cot, adjusting my unzipped hoodie.
“I said tomorrow night,” he fires back. Abby tries to make herself as small as possible, careful not to draw any attention during our ex-lover’s spat.
“It’s my case. You do realize that, right? There’s no way I can sit this one out. I’m not some toddler whose hand you have to hold. I’m coming with you. I know it’s dangerous, but that lady needs our help.” Blaze doesn’t say a word; I can tell that he’s desperate to put an end to things before they get more heated, but he has no idea of what to say. “Blaze,” I say with a calmer expression after reading the emotions of the room. “I’m an adult and I’ll go wherever I want.” From the corner of my eye, I can see the beginnings of anxiety starting to sprout along Abby’s perfect face. “I’m an adult,” I continue, “but I’m not stupid. I’ll wait in the car and be your lookout. If something suspicious pops up, I’ll shoot you a text. If you don’t respond after that, I’ll honk, but only as a last resort.”
“Sure. I can work with that.” Good. It’s not like he has a say anyway, but I decide not to push it any further and take my blessings as they come. The sooner I’m on my feet and away from these wardings, the better. Being vulnerable is not my cup of tea.
“If Sailor is going to wait in the car, give me a second to get something. I’ll be right back.”
“Take your time.”
“Cool, even Abby is onboard,” I say with a grin a few seconds after she leaves.
“I guess so.”
“I wonder what she’s thinking.”
“Probably of something ingenious, yet practical. It’s always something with her. Embrace whatever she throws your way.”
“Great. I’m all for creative solutions… Hey, quick question.”
“Shoot.”
“Can we stop by my car on the way back, preferably before dark? It’s tucked away a few blocks from Hex. It shouldn’t be too far out the way.”
“Yeah. No problem. We should be able to make good time. We’re not going to be staying too long at Ms. Evan’s, so we should have plenty of daylight left.”
“Awesome. It would suck if it got broken into or something. That would be, like, adding insult to injury.”
“That would be pretty bad...if you’re missing a tail light we might have to go on another manhunt.”
“Funny. And here I thought you were pissed at me.”
“No, not pissed. The new Sailor just seems to have a learning curve, that’s all.”
Tell me something I don’t know.
Chapter 6: Meeting Sarah
“So are you like some kind of tech genius or something?” I ask from the backseat, my brows raised inquisitively. Abby’s handling a small, circular object in the center of her pointer finger. It’s a bug (as in spy gear) and she’s been fiddling with it practically since we hit the road.
“I guess you can say that.” She shrugs.
“Hmm, well it would explain your uncanny talent of hacking into vastly secure networks in record time,” I say lamely.
“Ha. They’re all the same, more or less. Once you’ve solved one, you can solve them all. Especially if it’s done by a third party encryption ‘specialist,’” Abby says while making air quotes with her fingers. “They think they’re all that, so they don’t mess with the code that often when working on stuff for other clients. Lazy craftsmanship if you ask me. Basically, I just run my decrypter through the network once I find what I think is a possible flaw in their code. Saves me a ton of work, although sometimes I have to really get my hands dirty and do it the old fashioned way. It’s pretty entertaining,” she replies nonchalantly from the passenger’s side, “but once I’m in I can do just about whatever I want.”
Did she just say she makes viruses for fun?
“Yup,” I say with a drag, trying my best to be polite even though she clearly lost me. “Totally.”
“Yeah, Abby is a miracle-worker when it comes to technology,” Blaze chimes in happily from the driver’s seat, making eye contact via the rearview mirror. I can virtually see him gushing with glee. Yuck.
“Yeah, I can see that.” I try my best to not let it rattle me. Apparently, I am the jealous type. “So let me get this straight. The plan is to bug her, right, Abby?”
“Right. But just to be on the safe side. We can talk to her all we want when we get there, but if she doesn’t have any information, what good will it do? The bug will allow us to listen in on what’s going on in her home without actually being there. The one I’m holding right now will go somewhere in the living room or wherever a central location would be, in case she has an unexpected guest. I have a second on standby as well if the opportunity arises to place it somewhere a bit more convenient.”
“Like…?”
“Like between her cell phone and her cell phone case, if she has one. No one checks between those things and they only get cleaned, like, once a year, tops,” Abby states.
“Makes sense.”
“It also backs as a tracking device that I can monitor on my phone,” she adds with a hint of excitement. It’s almost as if she surprised herself with her own intellect. “You can even use it to pick up conversations from the bug…but that goes without saying.”
“Yeah…totally…so, can I borrow it?” My fascination gets the better of me. I know it’s lame, but I’m a sucker for cool tech. But then again, isn’t everyone?
“Sure,” Abby answers while tinkering with her phone with her free hand. “Just be careful with it.”
“Epic. Thanks.”
“Speaking of epic. How are you feeling, Sailor?” she asks as she twists back to hand me the bug.
“Better, but far from great,” I reply. “The medicine is doing its job. I’m not really in that much pain unless I position myself awkwardly or make sudden movements. So right now, I’m good.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“Me too.” Ever since I left the safe house, I’ve been feeling better, but it’s hard to tell if it’s from the pills or if Al has made his return. It’s been around three days since he expended most of his energy stabilizing my condition—
so that’s three days of rest for him. Virtually all of the wardings I’ve encountered so far have been enough to nullify his power in his weakened state. I know he is still around; the seal on my forearm is more than enough proof that my parasitic demon friend is alive and kicking. I just don’t know if he’s been able to gather any energy while being oppressed by the markings I’ve been around while on bed rest. I’ve definitely been sleeping for two, which is odd considering that demons don’t necessarily sleep.
I mess around with the bug for a bit, but without a target, it’s like a glorified button. After about a minute, I’m done and return it to her, slightly let down. For the rest of the ride, Abby and Blaze remain relatively silent.
By the time we arrive at Sarah Evan’s house, twenty minutes later, I find myself resting my head against the side of the window, fighting a spell of drowsiness. It’s horrible, I know, especially given the circumstances of the trip, but in my defense, my body demands sleep and the pill I took before lunch is known to cause drowsiness. If I knew we were going to go out on a mission, I wouldn’t have taken it.
“We’re here,” Blaze announces as he puts the car in park. “It’s just a wellness check, Abby. We’re not digging too deep. Stick to the surface,” he says while checking his pistol’s clip. “We’re just two friends who haven’t heard from Ben in a while.” I groggily watch him ready a second gun before turning from the driver’s seat to face me. “Sailor,” he says and I perk up attentively in my seat. “This one’s for you.” The weight of the pistol lowers my hand. It’s just what I need to wake me up. “We’ll be in and out, but just in case something happens and you need to defend yourself before we can get to you, you have protection.”
“Oh,” Abby cuts in, “before I forget, here’s my phone.”
“Huh?” My eyes gravitate from Blaze’s brown eyes to the sleek black phone in front of me. I place the gun on my lap and grab Abby’s phone, confused. The interface is completely foreign to me; clearly tampered with beyond the basics. Seriously, what is her IQ? “Don’t close out the application that’s running.” Abby’s finger points to a black ‘X’ on the top-right corner of her screen. “I’ve got a mini-cam on me.” I look up from her phone and do a quick scan of her body. “It’s my choker, dead center. Cool, right?” I direct my eyes to her neck and spot the tiny camera woven in the center her black neckpiece, disguised as a jewel.
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