"I'll bet." Mike joined us at the desk, grabbing one of the glasses.
"Damn straight. And she was very interested in you." He pointed at me. "There was almost a sort of…reverence about the way she said your name."
"And you're sure she wasn't goth?" I couldn't stop myself. I was still convinced the woman he saw had to be Rhonda. But there was no way Rhonda had any kind of power, especially something powerful enough to overpower the will of a Hunter.
Darius poured himself another full shot and picked it up. "Positive. Now, as for your problem about getting information, you know I'm not responsible for who you talk to in here. Especially Tango."
"That's what concerns you?" Mike downed his own shot and put the glass back on the desk before he picked up mine. "Not the fact we encountered zombies?"
"There is no such thing, Ross," Darius said, calling Mike by his last name. "All that Hollywood crap, the zombies and vampires and werewolves…none of that shit's real."
Mike glanced at me but didn't say anything, probably remembering our earlier conversation. I narrowed my eyes at Darius. "You're a Hunter and you've talked about Symbionts, but you've never encountered a vampire?"
Darius raised is right hand, finger pointed at me, still holding his next shot when someone banged on the front door before all three of us heard the familiar squeak of its hinges.
Mike's gun literally materialized in his hand as he whispered at Darius. "I thought you locked it back."
Darius manifested a long dagger from somewhere and whispered back. "I thought you did."
Mike slipped to his right and peered through the crack between the office door and the frame. He lowered his gun and re-holstered it. "It's a cop."
"A good cop or a bad one?" Darius's knife abruptly vanished. I didn't think he was a magician or witch or sorcerer, but he was fast enough to make it look like magic.
"Didn't know there was a difference," Mike said as he downed my shot and then stepped through the doorway. "Good morning, officer. We're not open yet—is there something I can do for you?"
I waited until Darius stepped through the office doorway as well, then followed him out.
The cop was young, and not one I'd seen before. My day job was bartending at Kevin Barry's on River Street. KB's was another of Savannah's infamous pubs, and a lot of servicemen and city cops frequented the place. Especially those of Irish heritage.
Bartending was something easy to me. Something that helped me calm my frazzled nerves. And working in a place with Irish cops with a name like McConnell…well…they all sort of knew my face. And I wanted it that way.
I'd kept a relatively low profile after the run-in with Maab. Truth was, I was still settling and finding my legs. And after four months I was still jumpy when I turned a corner. And shadows? I slept with the lights on. I knew what lived in dark spaces. A few of the older cops, including two regular detectives, had made it a point to be there when I was bar-tending and I made sure to give their drink either more or less spirit, depending on how they wanted them for the evening.
Mike shook the officer's hand, as did Darius. When the cop looked at me, he smiled and took my hand in a firm grip. "And you would be Mr. McConnell?"
I glanced at Mike and Darius before giving the cop a sideways look. I narrowed my eyes at his badge before I stepped away. "Officer Jones?"
Really?
"Yes." He put a hand over his badge as if I meant to take it from him. "You're the one I'm here to see."
"Me?"
"Why?" Mike asked, and I heard the slight hardness in his tone. He was suspicious. And so was I. There wasn't any reason a cop should want to see me. Unless I left something in Bonaventure last night, or someone saw us?
Officer Jones looked concerned. "Well, I have some very distressing news about an acquaintance of yours, Mr. McConnell. A Ms. Stella Rosenberg?"
I blinked at him. Stella Rosenberg was my former landlady. I used to rent the apartment above her garage. She was a real estate sales woman and owned her own company. But… I hadn't seen Stella in nearly a year… or, not that I could remember. When I left Atlanta I made sure to leave her a year's rent as well as an apology for abandoning everything and leaving her with no tenant. She and I dated for a few months when I first moved in, and then I'd met Maureen Lafferty and some time after that my memory became Swiss cheese.
To hear her name now was a surprise.
"What's wrong with Stella?" Mike remembered her. And he should. He'd been over to that garage apartment plenty of times after his divorce.
I took a step toward the officer. "What's wrong? What do you mean, 'distressing'?"
"Can we talk outside?" Jones looked apologetic. "It's really a matter for you and the police right now."
I agreed and told Mike I'd be right back. I followed Officer Jones to the sidewalk outside, and then to the left and down the alley between The Night Pub and Murphy's Irish Pub (Savannah is a town of bars—you can't really throw a rock without hitting one). We walked a few feet until I noticed he wasn't beside me anymore.
When I turned, Officer Jones had his gun out and pointed at me.
I did not see this ending well.
A HAUNTED FOREST
"What the hell?" The words just tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them. It was just that kind of morning.
Officer Jones smiled. And it wasn't a pleasant smile. It was more like one of those Snidely Whiplash kind of smiles. The alley wasn't like the alleys you see in movies with tall, seven-story-or-more buildings, narrow with a dead end. In fact, this alley connected with two other streets, making it possible for cars to move in and out and then drive down the alley to park alongside Murphy's. The fact it was moving on toward noon only helped me. Daylight. No shadows. Which meant no place for anything unwanted to show up.
"Sorry, Guardian, but you're a wanted man."
Guardian. Crap. I held my hands out to my sides with a spell ready. I felt the book flutter inside my chest. Somehow Officer Jones was involved in whatever was happening, because normal policemen did not call me that. But those in the know seemed to like the title.
Did I like the title? Not so much.
"Sorry, Officer Jones. I don't know what you're playing at, but I'm not in the mood. Where's Stella Rosenberg? Because if you've hurt her—"
"You'll what? Set me on fire? Won't matter now, will it, because it won't touch me. If you banish me from this body I'll just take another, but I'll still have your girlfriend."
Officer Jones's eyes turned yellow. I don't mean happy, Easter yellow, but a sickly, mucus yellow. Jones wasn't alone in there. Something was overshadowing him. There were lots of Planar things that liked to ride inside humans: Daemons, Symbionts, and Ghosts, to name a few. Those creatures by themselves weren't typically this aggressive, and tended to live in the shadows, only taking humans when the human was physically or psychologically weak or dying. Sort of like taking the car for a joy ride with less than a tank of gas and running it until it finally gave out.
They certainly weren't this confident by nature. Which meant that something stronger was guiding this one, lending it power so it could completely control a living body. And it was powerful, otherwise I doubted this thing would be pointing a gun at a Guardian so easily.
I needed more information, and the only way to do that was to irritate the thing overshadowing Jones and not get shot in the process. The strength I'd need to shield from a bullet might take away from the power needed to blow the hitchhiker out. So, I figured I'd give it a try before some poor bystander out for a before-lunch stroll, or a regular heading into one of the two pubs, saw a police officer holding a gun on some kid and decided to help. "How do I know you're not just bluffing, Officer Jones? Huh, Officer Jones? How do I know you're not just trying to save your own ass, huh Officer Jones—"
"Stop that."
"—see, Officer Jones, I'm not really convinced you have Stella, Officer Jones. I might want a bit of proof, Officer Jones. Officer Jones, do you hear me?"
"Stop calling me that!" he shrieked, and that time I heard just a faint echo of whatever was holding onto him in his voice. It was a gravely echo and bounced between the two buildings.
"Then prove it to me, Officer Jones—"
"My name is Rippin' Ja—" The officer's face twisted for a second into an impossible expression, looking a lot like someone ran his picture through one of those morphing softwares. Then it was normal again and he held up his left hand, his right hand holding the gun on me never wavered. The sun overhead darkened as if a cloud moved over it. That was the second time today that happened with no clouds. My ears popped just as I realized he'd sealed us off from the Material World. But to where, I didn't know. I was still breathing so I knew it wasn't the Dark World, as physical beings didn't fair too well there. No air. And if he had put up a barrier, what did it look like to anyone passing by? Or did they see us at all?
The only creature that could make this kind of null space would be a…well…I didn't know of anything in the Angelic or Dark Worlds that could do that. So was it something that actually lived in the Spirit World? Was that possible?
"Oh ho ho, you're a clever one, Guardian." Officer Jones, aka Rippin' Ja—, said as he wiggled the index finger of the hand he'd made the invisible field with. "You get me to tell you my name and you have power over me."
Power over him? I racked my brain. What kind of creature had issues with its name? Rumplestiltskin?
Wait…I'd recently read something about names and power in some book. I just couldn't remember what it was. I assumed playing dumb wouldn't work, and I didn't know if my power could dispel the field, bounce around in it, or have any effect at all. Hell, I could try and fry his ass and get mine in the process.
And that's the moment I realized we weren't in the alley anymore. I glanced around to take note on how big a field he'd made—to see if he'd included the buildings—and realized I could see through the field. But what I saw wasn't Savannah. In fact, I didn't know where it was. It looked like the set of the haunted forest right out of The Wizard of Oz. No Yellow Brick Road. Just a bunch of angry-looking trees. Smoke. Ravens with blinking red and yellow eyes.
Looked like I wasn't in Kansas anymore.
"Yeah." I refocused on him. "That's me. I'm a clever one. So, you have Stella and now you've taken us…somewhere…. why? What do you want from me?"
"Me? Oh, I don't want anything from you, Guardian. But I work for someone who does. The first set of snatchers failed last night. But I won't. So I took your little girlfriend to make sure you did as you were told."
"I still don't have proof—"
"Darren!"
I froze at the sound of a familiar voice. Stella. Other than Nona, Stella was the only person that called me Darren on a regular basis. I took a step back and glanced around. "Stella?" I called out. "Is that you?"
"Darren! It's so good to hear your voice! Where am I?"
I didn't know. So I focused on Officer Jones Rippin' Ja—. "Where is she?"
"Lower your hands, Guardian."
"Not 'til you show her to me. I want to know she's fine."
"It won't matter. She won't be released until I have you in custody."
I wasn't liking the sound of that. I especially didn't like it when he reached behind him and threw a pair of handcuffs on the ground in front of me. "Put those on, and I show you."
He was kidding, right? Too bad I wasn't.
RiPPiN' JA
The ground wasn't pavement anymore, either. It was dirt the consistency of ash mixed with pieces of broken stone. It looked like a long-dead battlefield. But where in the hell was there a battlefield like this? Especially one as devoid of life as this one? The moon?
I had a decision in front of me. The voice sounded like Stella's, but knowing the types of baddies I'd already encountered, I preferred not to go on voice alone. I could create a tiny sun to see around me, but that would make me vulnerable to the gun. Now that I wasn't in the alley anymore I wasn't that worried about ricochet or blowing Officer Jones Rippin' Ja— up. He had a dear friend of mine who had nothing to do with me. I'd left Atlanta to avoid putting anyone else in danger. And this jackass had brought her in.
"Not going to wait forever, Guardian. I could shoot you. Wound you. And I could just take you. But my boss wants you alive and healthy."
That sentence was revealing. I suspected he doubted he could really wound me with my power focused. He knew I was a Guardian. That was a name known in the other Worlds. But did he know about the Grimoire in my chest? Maybe. Should I put myself in a much more vulnerable position by handcuffing myself to help a voice that might or might not be Stella?
An idea came to me. "So I've got part of your name, right?"
He glared at me.
"I'll put the handcuffs on only if I have your word on the name Rippin' Ja— that you will release Stella, unharmed." I hadn't really figured it would work because I only had a partial name, but the reaction in his face told me a different story. His eyes turned red, then back to yellow. Now he looked pissed off.
"You foul meat sack," he said. "You tricked me into half. So I will agree and make that promise because you commanded it." He now held the gun in both hands. "Put the handcuffs on."
I stepped forward and picked up the heavy metal. They clinked as I started to snap one on my wrist.
"Close them behind you."
I wasn't sure why he believed binding my hands behind me would make me vulnerable. I could sling a spell without my hands. All I needed was intent and will. I didn't even have to say it out loud. So…did he not know about the magic spells? Or was it that his boss didn't know. "You let her go first."
"No deal."
"Too bad." I dropped the handcuffs, set my feet wide, and pointed at him. I figured if he feared my hands, why not use them to intimidate?
"Isatum!" I shouted as he fired his weapon. I didn't know if my blast hit him. His bullet went wild and pinged off a nearby tree. The splintering wood dusted me and the ground as I ducked behind a five-foot-high piece of concrete wall.
Another shot pinged off the cement. I assumed I missed hitting him since he was still firing. I also had to wonder if I missed because a part of me did not want to roast the innocent officer he was overshadowing. This wasn't Officer Jones's fault and I wasn't a killer.
Up until this point I'd only used that spell to destroy changelings and killer plants. I didn't want to hurt a living person.
It sounded as if Stella's voice had come from my left, so that was the direction I dodged. I didn't dare shout out to her again. I didn't want him to re-site and aim at her. Or what might be her. I still wasn't completely convinced she was really here and not safe in Atlanta doing her job. Could be a facsimile for all I knew. Even a doppelgänger.
That's when the sun disappeared.
Darkness.
Nice trick. That meant she could be two feet in front of me under something and I'd never know it. Or I could run off in one direction and become hopelessly lost. Best thing to do was illuminate everything.
Another bullet pinged off the top of the piece of wall. I didn't know what kind of gun Officer Jones Rippin' Ja— had. I really needed to pay more attention to Mike when he tried to educate me on firearms. I didn't know how many bullets he had. Either way, I had to get a light up into the air so I could see better, but I also needed to create shadows I could hide in.
I chose a moon light spell Sam had taught me while she was here. The light would be bright enough to see by and it would make shadows. Lots of shadows.
I was going to have to sacrifice a bit of energy to send it up, but I had to see where I was going. I absently wondered if there was a spell in the book for night sight.
Another thought occurred to me. If I shot him, blasted him, banished it, or whatever—what guarantee was there that I'd get out of wherever it was he'd taken us? There was the possibility I could wander around forever in this haunted forest.
That idea scared the hell out of me, mo
re than getting shot did.
I cranked up the amperage and sent as much power as I thought I would need into the thought before I whispered, "Immaru." A ball of soft blue light shot into the air. It did what I wanted it to and more, casting everything in a blue haze within a half-mile area. The piece of concrete I was hiding behind was part of a larger building to my right. More of it, still intact, now visible under the artificial moon.
And there, propped up against the wall of that building, sat a struggling figure. Whoever it was, Stella or not, they were restrained and needed help. I moved to the farthest side of the piece of wall and guessed how long it would take me to sprint through more of the debris, get to her, free her and then get out of the way of Officer Jones Rippin' Ja—
"That was stupid. That just made you visible." I felt a hand on the back of my neck. He shoved me forward into the dirt and pushed his knee into my back. The force pressed my face down and I tasted a bit of the fine ashy dirt and spit it out. I heard the clink of the handcuffs again as Officer Jones Rippin' Ja— grabbed my right wrist and folded that arm behind my back and then pulled up on it, trying to make my wrist even with my neck. I yelled out because it hurt and balled my hands into fists. Both of them.
Creating the tiny moon made me a bit light headed, but there was no way I was going to lay there and let him handcuff me. I closed my eyes and focused on the book. And the book answered.
I heard the jingle of the cuffs and he laughed. "I'll just bind your wrists, snap on the leg irons, and you'll be ready for delivery."
"What's—" I tasted that nasty ash again and choked before I could finish my question. "What's so special about cuffs? You think they'll stop magic?"
"Actually—they will." He laughed behind me. "In fact, they'll nullify all of your magic and make you little more than a sniveling, puny human."
Minutes to Midnight Page 4
