by Mark Harritt
Chapter Two
Eli carried Cynthia back to the apartment. He placed her on the bed, and began putting equipment away in pelican cases. It wouldn’t do to walk around New York with that much armament on him. The only thing he kept was his Springfield XD. He changed jackets. The chain mail was showing through the leather, and would attract too much attention. He called a friend, Detective Roy Mayland.
“Hey Roy, how’s it going?”
Detective Mayland had been asleep. He picked up the ringing cell phone and listened. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He had to think for a minute to place the voice, “Eli, is that you?”
“Yeah, how’s it going?”
“Pretty good. It’s been a while.”
“Sorry it’s so early. I hope I didn’t wake the wife.”
“Too late. She’s awake.”
“Sorry. Apologize for me.”
“She’ll understand when she knows who’s calling.”
“Yeah, well. Still, tell her I’m sorry. I’m in town. I was working, and I found a missing girl. Her name’s Cynthia Rowland.”
“You mean, the little girl kidnapped from the park?”
“Yeah, I have her here with me.”
“How did you find her?”
“You know me, Roy. I have contacts in places you don’t want to know about.”
Mayland paused as he thought about it, “Yeah, Eli, I know. All too well.”
Detective Mayland and Eli had worked together when Mayland was working Criminal Investigation in Iraq. Mayland had quit the Army afterwards and applied for work with the NYPD. Since then, Eli had popped up in New York several times. Every time Mayland got a call from Eli, he knew it was going to be interesting. Mayland knew not to ask too many questions.
“So, Roy, can I meet you at University Hospital of Brooklyn. I need to get her into the hospital. The people that had her gave her something. I don’t know what it is. She needs to get checked out.”
“Is she going to be okay?” Eli could hear the concern in Roy’s voice.
“Yeah, she’ll be okay. She’s sleeping, and her breathing’s good. Better safe than sorry, though.”
“Okay, I’ll meet you.”
Eli hung up. He could hear the sound of emergency vehicles in the distance. He looked out the window. He couldn’t see any smoke, so there was still time for them to get there and take care of the fire.
----------------------------------------------------
Thirty minutes later, Eli was handing off Cynthia to Roy. She was still wrapped in the coat.
“Can you tell me where you found her?” Roy asked.
“Roy, you know better than that.”
Roy nodded, “Okay, Eli, just asking. What about the people that took her?”
“You don’t have to worry about them anymore. They won’t be hurting children again.”
“Eli, you should let us handle this kind of thing,” Roy chastised him.
Eli shook his head, “Roy, if I did that, Cynthia would be dead right now. I got there just in time to stop them. Believe me, if I thought the NYPD could handle it, I’d give you a call and step back. You know what I do. You really think a beat cop could handle some of the things that I deal with.”
Roy thought about it, and then shook his head, “No, not after Iraq. That thing almost killed me. What was it you called it?”
“An Efreet.”
“Yeah, well, you saved my ass in Iraq. No problems.”
Roy took the girl from him, “Hey, Eli, you need to stop by before you leave town again. Nancy would love to see you. The kids are getting big, too. Dave asks about you.”
“I’d love to, but I can’t promise anything right now. I have something else in the works. Tell Nancy that I’ll stop by when I get a chance.”
“Okay, Eli. She’s going to be disappointed, though.”
Eli shrugged, “You know how it is. It’s business. Tell her I’m sorry. Give your kids my love.”
“Okay. Don’t be a stranger though. Three years is too long.”
They said their goodbyes, and Detective Mayland took Cynthia inside the hospital. Eli pulled his jacket tight around him to fight off the cold. He turned south and began walking. He had an appointment to keep. Eli walked south on Bedford Avenue to a greasy spoon he liked. He was glad the meet was there. A few toughs eyed him as he walked. He pulled back his jacket and showed his pistol. They didn’t know who he was affiliated with or what kind of juice he had, so they left him alone.
He opened the door of the restaurant, enjoying the hot air that spilled out. The place was old. It looked like it hadn’t been refurbished since the sixties or seventies. He walked past the patrons to a booth in the back. The patrons were mostly refugees from closing night clubs, trying to get something to eat before they went home.
He took the gunslinger seat to watch the door at the front of the restaurant. The waitress walked over. He looked at her. She was African American, in her mid-forties, and life had not been kind to her. He could see the woman that she used to be, the hope that she had when she was young, and the beauty that she had been. He smiled at her. She smiled back.
“How can I help you honey. My name is Carol. Do you want to start out with something to drink?”
He was early for the meeting, so he decided that he was going to get something to eat. He didn’t look at the menu, ordering coffee, black, and three eggs over easy, hash browns, and wheat toast. She walked away with the order, put the ticket in the window, and brought him back a cup of black coffee. The china was ancient, and had a chip on the rim.
“Do you need cream with that, honey?”
He took a sip of the coffee, “No, this tastes pretty good.”
“Okay, but you let me know if you need anything.”
She walked away to wait on other patrons. He sat there, sipping coffee, waiting for the food to be delivered. Ten minutes later, Carol brought his food to the table. He gave her a twenty for everything, and told her to keep the change. It was a large tip for the service, and she smiled, grateful for the extra money.
He cut into the eggs to let the yolk run. He applied salt and pepper liberally, and used a piece of toast to dip into the yolk. He liked the taste, and kept eating. The food disappeared quickly, and he piled his silverware and the napkins on top of the plate to make it easy for the waitress to collect. She came back, grabbed the plate, noticed that he needed more coffee, went to the counter and came back with the coffee pot. She smiled at him again, showing more interest in him as she refilled his coffee cup. He returned the smile.
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to keep drinking coffee for a while. I’m supposed to meet someone here. They should be along soon.”
“Don’t worry, honey, you take your time. It’s a cold night out there. You get free refills anyway.”
He thanked her. Some of the night club refugees were beginning to leave the restaurant. He sat there, waiting for the inevitable. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to blows, but you never knew how these things might end up. If she was in a particularly spiteful mood, she might have the entire group attack him. He wasn’t willing to put it past her to do so.
He knew she would be pissed off. She wouldn’t show it, but she didn’t like it when he spoiled her projects. She was very good at what she did. Men and women often committed horrible crimes for the touch of her hand, or a whisper from her lips. He thought about it, remembering what he had done in his past. Thank God for his sisters. They saved his life, and ultimately, his soul.
The door opened, and she walked in. All motion in the restaurant stopped. As soon as she entered, every head turned to drink in the sight of her. Even people facing away from the door felt her presence, and turned around. He watched as lust replaced the normal expressions on the faces of the patrons and employees. He continued to sip his coffee.
She was beautiful, amazingly so. Today, her hai
r was red, not like it was dyed, but naturally red, with copper highlights you can’t get out of a bottle. Her hair was shoulder length, cut in a page boy hair style. She was wearing a mid-length black leather coat, a black mandarin dress that was mid-thigh, slit to accentuate her long legs, and cut deep in the front to show off her décolletage, which was ample for her frame. She had on four inch, red, gladiator high heels. Her skin was pale, with subtle freckles across her face.
She looked around, and saw him at the back of the restaurant. She had a large smile on her face as she put one hand on her hip, and pointed at him, “You! You’ve made me so mad. I can’t believe what you’ve done. You are one very, naughty boy.”
At that point, every man in the restaurant wanted to be her naughty boy. Now that she had made her entrance, and everybody knew that she was there, she walked through the restaurant, the four inch heels clicking on the floor. She had one hand on her hip, the motion of her hips exaggerated as she walked. Every head in the restaurant followed her. Her hips synchronized the heartbeats in the room to her rhythm. The rhythm was sensual, sexual. She walked to his table, put one finger down, showing off the red finger nail polish, and tapped the surface of the table. She still had the hand on her hip. She pouted.
“I can’t believe you did that to poor Marty. Do you really believe that he deserved that?”
He motioned to the seat across from him, and she slid in, slowly, to accentuate the movement of her voluptuous figure. He raised his hand to attract the attention of the waitress, “Another coffee please.” He turned to her, “How are you Lilith. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other.”
The waitress grabbed another cup and the coffee pot. Eli took a sip of coffee, not willing to play her games. Lilith pouted at him, then smiled at the waitress as she brought the coffee. Lilith asked for cream and sugar. Carol licked her lips with the tip of her tongue, feeling the sexuality of Lilith deep in her psyche. She took her time pouring the coffee, basking in Lilith’s approval. Eli took it all in, knowing the power that Lilith welded.
The waitress went back for the cream, and he pointed out the sugar on the table. Lilith picked up the sugar and began pouring it into her coffee, stirring the coffee as she did. Carol brought the cream, and Lilith took it without acknowledging her. Carol looked hurt at the slight. Eli touched Carol’s hand. She looked at him, and seemed to wake from a trance. Eli smiled at her, paid for the coffee, and gave her a dollar tip. She smiled at him and topped off his coffee. She turned and walked back to the counter.
He replied to Lilith, “Marty was his name? How ordinary. When I first ran across him in Yugoslavia, he called himself Magnus Dragomir.”
Lilith nodded, “yes, he was always dramatic. Truth was, I found him selling used cars in Ashtabula, Ohio.” She waved her hand in the air at the memory, “Oh, he was sexy, but he had no real ambition. He did have a taste for bondage, though, and exploiting women. I introduced him to magic, and from then on, he was mine. Still, sixty years was a good run.”
She took a drink of the coffee, then stared at him over the top of the cup. It was a sultry stare, and he pushed down emotions that he hadn’t felt in many years.
“Did you miss me, lover?”
He cleared his throat, “That was a long time ago. And no, I never looked back.”
The pout was back. She reached across the table, and ran one finger against the back of his hand. It was hard to ignore the sensation of her finger against his skin. The pout changed into a seductive smile, “That’s not a nice thing to say to a woman. You’re supposed to tell me that you love me, you miss me, you’ve thought of me every minute since we parted. That’s how you seduce your lover. You can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it. We used to have such fun.”
It had been an extremely long time since they were in the same room together, and at that time, they were naked. She had been his downfall. Afterwards, much later, he began to work against Lilith, and others like her. Since then, they had spent the time dancing around each other, never in the same place, trading blows in the fight between good and evil.
He didn’t have the defenses back then that he had now. He had been so naïve. He shifted his hand back from her finger, just far enough so that she would have to move towards him to continue. It wouldn’t do for him to fall to her seduction, not after what his sisters did for him. They found the only person that could save him, and brought him to Eli’s side. He was very lucky that a statement against the forces of darkness needed to be made. Eli was given a second chance to make amends, a chance that he would never waste.
The pout reappeared at this very slight, though powerful move. She was Lilith, men didn’t resist her, “That’s not a nice thing to do. I remember our times together fondly. You remember that night when . . . “
He raised his hands to forestall her trip down memory lane, “That’s past. It won’t do you any good to try and use it against me.” He pointed up towards the ceiling, “I’m in good graces now, and I plan on staying there.”
She leaned back, the façade of seduction dropping from her face. The soft, inviting angles of her face became hard and unexpressive, “I should have these men kill you.”
Eli felt the mood of the room change. The patrons and staff were cued to her emotions. Eli could feel them looking over at his table, aggression apparent. He nodded, “yes, you certainly could try. I’m notoriously hard to kill, though. Just ask your pet vampire.”
Lilith sighed. She ran her long, red nail around the rim of the coffee cup. “I really don’t know why we’re here, talking to each other. I would prefer to settle our long differences right now, with your corpse on the floor.”
He took another sip of the coffee, “Ah, but then your master would be very upset with you. You know what he does when he’s upset. I imagine it would be centuries before he finished with the punishments he designs for you. From what I understand, he’s quite inventive when it comes to punishment for those who fail him.”
The fear in her eyes betrayed the truth of his statement. She leaned back, the hard edges of her face softening. “Point taken. One question before we start.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“Did you enjoy killing the twelve women of the coven? That’s brazen, even for you.”
He put down the coffee cup, “That offense, I put at your feet. Those women already made their decision. They murdered, and were willing to murder again. I’ve lost my taste for trying to rescue those who don’t want to be.”
She smiled, the seductress once again, “What if I told you that one of those women was a police officer. She was investigating the disappearances of children in the area. She infiltrated the ‘coven’ to discover who had stolen the children. She was about to blow the whistle on everybody down there. You killed an innocent woman.”
It was his turn to smile, “You mean Detective Gaffigan, who was paid by the mafia to turn a blind eye to their operations. The same one who helped them kill a transvestite hooker that knew about her activities with various organized crime members?”
The smile disappeared from her face. She knew she had been outmaneuvered.
He spoke, “Now, can we get down to business?”
She looked at her manicure, seemingly unaffected, and nodded.
“Something new has occurred. There’s going to be an incursion.”
“Incursion? What do you mean? An incursion of what?”
“From another reality.”
He sipped his coffee. She had forgotten hers completely. The conversation had taken an interesting turn and intrigued her, “Continue.”
“Our masters are jealous masters. They vie against each other, but they brook no interference from interlopers.”
Her face stayed non-committal, “Fascinating. I’ve heard rumors about this happening before.”
It was his turn to show interest, “Really, when?”
She shrugged, “I’m
not sure. Before you were alive, certainly. Before I proved my worth to the Master.” She inhaled, her chest expanding deliciously, “And what is this to us? Why am I here?”
He didn’t like what he was about to say any more than he thought she would.
“We have different strengths. Yours are the ways of magic, the use of demonic powers, subtle treason. Mine are the ways of the warrior, tactics, strategy; the use of weapons against the monsters your master has created.” It was his turn to inhale, “Our bosses wish for us to combine our strengths. They want us to work together.”
She stared at him, and then began laughing. Her feminine laugh made the restaurant patrons look towards her again, the sexual tension rising in the restaurant. She laughed for a good, long time, “Oh, that’s rich. We’ve been circling each other for millennia, two dogs vying for the same bone. Now, they want us to work together? That’s foolish.”
He wasn’t enjoying this at all. The entire restaurant was watching them. He understood the reasons that had been presented to him, but he knew that she would use every opportunity to attack him, to betray him. It was her nature. There was nothing he could do about the situation, however. He would have to play frog to the scorpion. He was trapped in this swim across the river.
“Evidently, everybody else is busy.” He held up a hand to stop the question on her tongue, “And no, I don’t know what they’re busy with.” He put the hand back down on the table, “There is no one, or no higher beings that are available to deal with the situation, as it is. They want us to deal with it, our past beside the point.”
Her laugh tinkled across the restaurant again, “And when is this supposed to occur? If they’ve decided this, did they tell you where or when we should work against this ‘incursion’?”
Eli nodded, “yes, I know the place, and, approximately, the time. I don’t know who all is involved, or the magnitude of the response that’s needed to contain it.”
She put her finger in the coffee, then slowly put the tip of her finger in her mouth, looking innocently at him as she did so, more seduction. He wondered if she even knew she was doing it. “When and where?” she asked.
He slid a piece of paper across the table to her, “That has the information on it. We have a fortnight to get there. Here’s the phone number I’ll be using for the duration of this assignment. Text or call, and I’ll pick you up on the way. Bring whatever you need. I’ll be bringing resources with me as well.”
She sat with her finger in her mouth, alternately sucking it, and licking it, “So, two weeks from now. Do they not understand, that we’ll be as interested in killing each other as we will in stopping this ‘incursion’?”
Eli smiled, “I think we can assume that once we’re finished with this mission, and the incursion is stopped, that hostilities can commence again.”
She continued to suck on her finger, “I hope you’ll be a gentleman, and give me notice when you decide when the dance will commence anew.”
An expression of innocence appeared on his face, “Of course. When have I not been a gentleman towards you?”
Genuine mirth played across her smile at this statement, neither one foolish enough to believe that the other one would play fair, whatever ‘fair’ might be. If either one could achieve the upper hand, they both knew that the situation would be exploited.
The meeting was over. She slid across the bench seat, moving slowly, seductively, her décolletage wiggling as she did. Eli sat with stone face though he did enjoy the view. He would never let her know that, though.
She stood, and used her hands to straighten her coat. In actuality, it was just a chance for her to accentuate her curves with her hands. She did it with a wiggle that drew the eyes of every man in the room. There was a group of four at the front of the room that were entirely too interested in her movements. One of them, a large man with prison tats scrawled across his skin, stood up and walked over to Lilith. The man’s tattoos and attitude indicated a brutality that would be used if he felt the need. His muscularity indicated time spent in the prison yard lifting weights.
The man walked up and put his hand Lilith’s waist, “hey, pretty lady, how’s about you come over and spend some time with me and my friends. I promise you, we can show you a good time.”
Lilith giggled, and wiggled again. The thug pressed his case. “I think you should come on over. My boys and me would be real interested in talkin’ to you.”
As the thug talked, his hand slid down. Lilith looked over the table at Eli, and put one hand over her mouth, aping surprise, “I guess he’s serious. I think you may have to defend my honor.”
The thug sneered at him, “Little man, if you know what’s good for you, I suggest you sit there and shut up. I’ll crush you if you get up.”
Eli kept sipping coffee, and continued to sit. Lilith’s eyes darkened, hellfire flashing, “If you want my cooperation, I suggest that you do your bit here.”
He sighed. He knew it would come to some kind of confrontation. It always did when it came to Lilith. He reached for his gun, but Lilith swayed, blocking any shot that he might have. He considered shooting through her, but he didn’t think the bullet would penetrate far enough to kill the thug. He started sliding across the seat. The thug stepped around Lilith, and put a hand in his shoulder, “I said stay out of it little man. You won’t like what hap . . .”
He grabbed the thug’s hand with his right hand, his fingers on the outside of the hand, his thumb in the meat between thumb and forefinger. He twisted with the right, and used his left hand to give more leverage. He continued his slide out of the seat, turning tightly, the hand and arm of his adversary coming with him as he turned, and the body following. He stopped, turned in the other direction, and the thug flew through the air. The thug landed on his stomach, arm extended behind him, the impact shaking the room around them.
Eli put more pressure on the wrist. He felt it snap. The thug began screaming as the bones ground together. Eli finished by stomping the back of the thug’s neck. The screaming stopped. The thug’s friends started to stand up, hands clawing at their waistbands. He pulled his XD, and shook his head. The three sat back down, hands up in the air. Everybody else in the restaurant shrank from the confrontation. One man kept saying, “it’s cool man, it’s cool.”
Eli holstered his pistol, watching the three at the front table. They watched everything he did, hands still in the air. He picked up the coffee cup, and took another drink, watching them over the rim. One of them started to lower his hands. Eli sat the cup back down. The hands went back into the air. He walked over to the counter, and pulled his wallet out. He pulled out a twenty and sat it on the counter.
He smiled at the waitress, “Sorry about the inconvenience. You serve very good coffee here.”
Carol studied him, a look of unease on her face, suddenly afraid of Eli. The situation had changed dramatically and now she was afraid he was going to shoot everybody in the restaurant. He smiled, “Don’t worry, we’re leaving now.”
He looked back at Lilith, “Well, are you coming with me?”
She looked at the corpse on the floor, then looked back at him. “You’ve become too familiar with the use of violence. What happened to the man I once loved.”
“You never loved me. You seduced me, turned me against my family. I’m only here by the intercession of the Carpenter, and the prayers of my sisters. If they hadn’t begged him to save me, I would’ve spent all eternity in hell. As it was, he took pity on my sisters, and on me, and brought me back. I’m very lucky he decided to use me to make a statement to your boss. So, now, can we dispense with the false tears?”
Eli motioned towards the door. Lilith stepped over the corpse on the floor, and walked in front of him, her hips swaying suggestively from side to side, the slow, erotic stride punctuated by the click, click, click of her heels. He hated himself for it, but his humanity responded to her sensuality.
Still, he didn’t lose his caution. He walked behind her, ready to deal violence if necessary, paying particular attention to the three friends of the man he had just killed. As Lilith approached the door, he leaned forward, and opened it.
“My, always the gentleman,” Lilith stepped out into the cold of the early morning. Lazarus stepped through the door behind her, watching the sun of the new day as it begin to lighten the eastern sky.
The police arrived thirty minutes later. They canvassed the crowd, but they weren’t able to get a good description of the man who had killed Marcus Santiago. Nobody could remember the incident at all. It was as if they had all wakened from a dream and found the body on the floor. The police were puzzled, but they didn’t worry about it too much, not with Santiago’s police jacket. They felt that whoever killed him had done the community a favor. Being a saint had its perks.
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