“I just killed him.” I whispered.
“He deserved it. This is the job of the Knights. Which, by the way, I will have to yell at you for that when we get back.”
“How do we get back?” I asked.
“I guess we continue down the road, see about finding-“ A sound of footsteps hushed her. “Oh no.”
“What, ‘oh no’?” I asked.
“That spell. The spell you did. It has drawn them.”
I looked back to Amy. Her eyes were darting towards the buildings, and she started to back away, towards the center of the street. “What is…them?”
“Things we do not want to meet.” She shook her head. “We cannot outrun them.”
“I thought you said they couldn’t get on the roads. That they were safe.”
“Usually.” Amy whispered. “But when they are drawn, well, I had not expected that.”
“Then what do we do?”
“We find an alternative plan.” Amy thought for a moment. “You need to learn a new spell, fast.”
“A spell? Won’t that draw them closer, whatever they are?”
“Yes, but it is a risk we will have to take.” Amy said. “There is a lot of magic here, Eric. You will not need a circle to do this.”
“Yea, that was a bit weird. Will I always be able to do that?”
“It is possible.” She nodded. “But right now, both of us need you to focus on our problem. Getting home.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “What do I imagine?”
“Look into your mind, and imagine creating a door. Create a door, and think of it as a gateway to home.”
“To home?” I thought of my apartment. I thought of the futon that I slept on, the makeshift shelves and piles of books. My mind grasped at the magic around me, bringing it to me and taking it in. The heat poured into me again, but it was nowhere as bad as previously. Now it was like a subtle warmth.
I imagined my hands in my mind, pulling at a window, pulling it open so I could head through. It wasn’t a very complex idea, but it took root in my mind. I pulled at that idea, pouring more energy.
I said a word, a simple one, because I felt it was what best described what I was doing. “Open.” I opened my eyes to see, opening up for me, a small white hole. It was about the size of my fist. Definitely not big enough to step through. “Crap.” I murmured. I was so tired. Even that spell, so quickly after that fireball, had just wasted me.
“Eric…” Amy said. “I do not want to rush you, but they are getting closer.”
I looked back to the buildings. A number of shadows were slowly crawling forward towards us from them. “Amy, what are they?” I asked.
“We are not going to find out today, okay?” She placed her hands on my shoulders. “Pull the portal open further. They cannot follow us once we are back on Earth.”
Whispers started to reach my ears. I couldn’t tell what they were. So many of them were speaking, they all started to blend into white noise. “Amy, they’re trying to talk to me, I think.”
She shook her head. “Ignore them. Now. Nothing they say is true.”
I nodded, and turned back to the portal. I gathered my will, forcing myself to push the portal open. I pulled it open, bit by bit, like trying to push something wet and sticky, that simply didn’t want to move.
I could hear the whispers growing louder. Each moment was another step up in their volume, and I could only wonder what these things would do whenever they met their prey.
“Eric, come on, just a little more.” Amy urged.
I pushed harder and harder. Soon, the voices were roaring in my head, drowning out any of my thoughts. I wasn’t going to die, not now. Not after all this shit.
“It’s open!” I heard Amy shout.
I felt something grab my jacket, bringing me out of my focus. I saw, behind me, something that had once been human. I hoped.
It was a skeleton, with a gray mist surrounding it like muscles and flesh, in one of those classroom cutaways they use to teach anatomy. Where its eyes should have been were two black pits, staring lifelessly at me.
Amy flicked out the knife and sliced at the thing, severing its hand at the wrist. “We are LEAVING.” She hissed as she shoved me through the portal.
I don’t remember much after that. I remember the cold that I had felt earlier in the portal, and then the familiar feel of my carpet against my skin. The last thing I remembered before losing consciousness was a shadowy figure, talking into a radio.
“Yea, we found him. Call an ambulance, the guy looks bad.”
Chapter 27
I opened my eyes.
It took me several moments to figure out where I was. My vision was blurry, like someone had stuck a bad pair of glasses over my eyes. It took a bit to clear up.
I was sore. That was the first thing that told me I was good. If I had been dead, I probably would have felt just perfect. But, here I was, all bent out of shape and sore. It felt good, in its own way. I was alive.
I was in a private room in a hospital. My arm was hooked up to an IV, presumably giving me what passed for lunch for people who had been unconscious.
The first thing I did was check for other people. My room was empty, but I could hear the noise of business outside, people working to their own rhythms.
I found the call button on my bed, and jabbed it a few times with an aching finger. A few minutes, a man in a nurse’s outfit, around my age, appeared.
“Hello, Mister Carpenter.” He said with a bright smile. “You just won me twenty bucks.”
“Huh?” I probably sounded even dumber than I remember.
“We had a bet on when you’d wake up. Good to know I won. I’m Nurse Ferris.”
“Uh, hi, Ferris. I sure hope that’s your last name.” I could reference movies from the eighties. That was a good sign. I reached a hand up and rubbed at my forehead. “You guys were betting on when I’d wake up?”
“Yea, a little morbid, but we wanted to know who’d gotten rushed to the private suite and was getting gifts every day.”
“Private suite? Gifts?” I shook my head. It was only at a more detailed glance around the room that I saw that two of the chairs in the room were filled with boxes and bags, with cards attached to them. The guys at work wouldn’t have done all that. And what was with the suite? “Uh, how long was I out?”
“It’s Tuesday. So, you were out for nearly three days. You got pulled in Sunday night.”
“Great.” I rubbed at my head. “Listen, there was probably a blond woman who was admitted about the same time I was. Uh, about five-eight, wearing jeans and a sports bra?”
“Oh, yea. She was released yesterday. She had a pretty kickass healing rate. But, I think she was somewhere around-“
Amy burst through the door. “You clever, clever man.” She smiled when she saw me. “Nurse, could you give us a minute? In private?”
Ferris looked to me.
“Uh, yes, please.” I added, and watched as the nurse left. “Okay, so, what happened?”
“You got us home.” She grinned. “It was very good work. The portal came out onto your living room. There were still officers who were looking into your place, after the call to nine-one-one you made.”
“So, they got the were I had in the apartment? That’s good. I won’t press charges, but it’s good to know they didn’t think I was cuckoo.”
She nodded, and paused for a moment. ‘So, how are you doing?”
“I hurt like a bitch, but I guess that’s expected. What’s the damage report?”
“A few cracked ribs, but apart from that, you are very bruised. You came out lucky from that one.” She walked to my bedside. “And by the way, I am very impressed with the fire spell. That was…well, amazing. You did it like you had done it before.”
I shrugged. “Well, I guess I just did what came to mind. You told me fire worked well on Arcanes, so…hell, it was worth a shot.”
“True, but you exhibit a rather unique talent for visualizin
g spells. It is something we will have to look into.”
“Sure, but maybe like, in a few weeks? When I don’t feel like shit?”
“Ah, yes.” She nodded. “Of course. But for now, let us see you are rested.”
“Yea, I shouldn’t have any problem at all in this suite. Speaking of which, who the hell is paying for all of this?”
“Well, stay as long as you want. It looks like Ishmael put you up for this. Teresa, the people from your work, Matt, and I all sent gifts, though there are a few from people who think that getting in good with the new Knight of the Bay might be a beneficial thing.”
“So, did they confirm it or something while I was out?”
Amy laughed. “Oh, no. See, once you can get on your feet, you are going to have to meet the other leaders, and they get to vote on whether you will be accepted. Your killing of Lucien was lawful, but they will have to confirm you for actual Knight status.”
“Fantastic.” I rolled my eyes. “That just sounds great.”
“Oh, it is. But you’re the one who got your ass into this mess. It’s your own damn fault.”
I shrugged, though that worked some muscles I probably shouldn’t have used. “Yea, uh, I guess it is. Freaking ay. Well, I guess we’ll just wait until that happens, right?”
“I told them you would be ready in a week.”
“A week?” I shrugged again, which made me wish for morphine or something. “Well, nothing I could do but wait.”
Later that day, I got another visitor. This time, it was Detective-Inspector Hernandez, who this time had brought his partner with him. Detective-Inspector Li was a short Asian woman who carried herself like she was a foot taller than Hernandez. The two made an odd pair, but it was San Francisco. Oddity was just one of the hallmarks.
They came in during the afternoon, as I was watching the news on the TV in the room. “Mister Carpenter,” Hernandez said. “May we speak with you?”
“Uh, yea.” I shifted myself as best I could without straining any of my injuries, and grabbed the remote to turn the television off. “How can I help you?”
He pulled out a notebook. “This is my partner, DI Li. We had a few questions regarding the past few days.”
I felt myself slump back into the hospital bed. “Of course, sir.” I started to wonder what part of the last few days they wanted to ask about. “I'd be a better host, but right now I'm sort of the worse for wear.
Li offered a little smile. “Mister Carpenter, were you at the apartment of the vampire Rico Inez at any point last week?”
I shuddered a little as I thought back to that night. The memories of the Bliss were still fresh in my mind, and it was an experience I didn't want to relive. But, I certainly wasn't going to hide that from the cops. “Yes, I was, Inspector.”
Hernandez then picked it up from there. “In fact, you were there with Jackson Taylor, a local mob officer and two of his enforcers, plus a woman we haven't identified yet.”
“Yea, I was. The initial idea was that we were there to do an intervention for the sister of one of his 'enforcers,' as you so colorfully called them.” I replied, not really feeling any need for keeping a lid on the sarcasm. I was in a hospital bed. I wasn't really feeling diplomatic at this point.
“So, this sister, why did she need you to intervene?”
“Because she was staying with two Bliss dealers who had her hooked.” Jackson hadn't told me how much I could talk about, so I decided to just be upfront with the cops, and not bother with keeping Jackson's dealings secret. If he didn't like that, he could be more specific next time.
“And these two vampires were Bliss dealers?” Inspector Li asked. She scratched something on a notepad.
“Yea, I saw the drug there myself.” I skimmed over the fact I had taken a full hit of the stuff myself. “Listen, is there a point to all of this, Inspectors?”
“Yes, there is.” Li nodded. “We'd like to know if you thought this was part of a gang conflict.”
“Gang conflict?” I paused a moment. “Listen, things went to hell when we were trying to get Becca out. I don't know what happened, but yea, they did fight. I was just there for the girl. What happened after the fight broke out is a bit of a blur.”
Hernandez and Li exchanged a look, and then Hernandez continued. “Mister Carpenter, two nights ago you made a 911 call, disappeared for several hours, and then a man matching your description was seen entering Kingston Fisheries. Six hours later, you appeared in your apartment, which was having a crime scene unit go over it, along with a blond woman.”
“Yea, if that's how you say it happened.” I said. Had I been in the Other Side that long? “What do you want to know?”
Hernandez looked intently on me. His brow pinched. “Listen, I want to figure out what the hell is going on here. We've got a missing girl returned to her home, werewolves going crazy, and people somehow appearing in the middle of thin air. You were at the crime scene of Raymond Francis last week. Since then, you've popped up in several reports to cross the Arcane desk.”
“Yea, I have.” I nodded. “Inspector Hernandez, if I told you, you either wouldn't believe me, or you'd think I was crazy and you'd be crazy for believing me if you did.”
Li crossed her arms across chest. “Try us, Mister Carpenter.”
“The Arcanes have a position in their societies, for someone who mediates and assists the various races in a city. A Knight. Recently, I was put into that position, and I'm working to help the vampires and weres in what way I can.”
Hernandez arched a bushy eyebrow. “You, Mister Carpenter? Why you?”
“Because I'm a neutral party.” I said. “I'm just trying to help.”
Hernandez didn't look satisfied with that answer, but he seemed as if he couldn't think of anything else. “Very well. Since, well, the stabbing of Roy Fisher was in self-defense, we won't charge you for that. Would you like to press charges against him?” At my nod, he asked. “You don't mind if we call you up at some later date to follow up, right?”
“Not at all, Inspector.” I said, trying to sound as pleasant as possible.
“Well, thank you for your time.” Hernandez pocketed his notebook, and he started for the door. Li, however, stayed behind for just a moment, after Hernandez left.
“Was there something else, Inspector?”
The petite woman met my eyes. They were dark and large, and there was a certain emptiness about them, like something was missing from the woman. “I know what you are, Mister Carpenter.”
It was the way she said it, emotionless and cold, that did it for me. I shuddered just a little, fearful of what she was. Something in the back of my brain told me that she wasn't human. “Why, whatever do you mean?” I asked, trying to play it off as nothing.
“Your kind doesn't belong in this era,” she said, simply. “And you are playing a most dangerous game, Carpenter. See that you watch your back.” And then, as if a switch was flipped, she smiled and said. “Get well soon, Mister Carpenter.”
When she left, I felt a distinct urge to cuddle in under the sheets and hide. I was scared. Li hadn't moved like a were or vampire. What was she? I decided that, after I was out of the hospital, I'd take a look into my mother's notes. Maybe there was something there.
I slept for a good few hours, before being awoken by the sound of the door. I had a window, and could see that it was night outside. Not that the brilliant lights of the hospital's halls didn't try to tell me otherwise.
“Who's there?” I looked to the door, and groaned. It was Nick. “What the hell do you want?”
“Well, someone's not a morning person.” Nick grinned as he stepped into the room and closed the door. The man was dressed in a suit again, and had a little brown bag in one hand. “I thought I'd bring you a little treat, as a thank you.”
“I take it Marshal Thomas is doing well?” I asked him.
Nick nodded. “Indeed. He's doing very well. He should be making a full recovery in a few weeks, with nothing more than s
ome scars, a battered ego, and a worried wife. Here, catch.” He pitched the bag in an underhand toss to the bed.
I caught it, and I broke the seal with my thumb to open it. “Seriously? Gummy octopi? That is awesome.” I grinned, and pulled out one of the gummy creatures and started to bite on the tentacles. “How did you know I liked these?”
Nick shrugged. “Oh, I have my ways. You're quite the eccentric fellow, though I always like to know what to get the people I'm sending my Christmas cards to.”
“Christmas cards, huh?” Once I had nipped off all the tentacles, I popped the body of the octopus into my mouth. “Uh, so, besides the update, what brings you here?” In the back of my mind, the warning from my dream-mother came back to me. Don't trust this man.
“I wanted to congratulate you on bringing down Lucien. That was no small feat.”
“You talked with Amy, I take it?” I asked him.
The man nodded. “You know, I'm seriously tempted to give you a job offer.”
“A job offer?” I arched an eyebrow. “Im already working two jobs.”
“Why, as a Federal Marshal.” He said. “We'd have to put you through training, but I expect you'd do superbly as one of the team.”
I paused for a moment. He certainly didn't beat around the bush. “I'm flattered, really, but I would have to say no.”
“Is it money?” Nick asked. “Because we do pay very well. And you would get your choice of assignment. We could even keep you here in San Francisco, should you wish.”
“No,” I decided to take a leap of faith, and bluff my way through this. “Because I know that my mother worked for you, and you ruined her.”
Nick froze. For the first time, I saw concern and worry on his face. “You can't know what happened.” He said. “It's much more complicated.”
I had found something.
“She trusted you, she worked for you, and whatever happened, she came out on the butt end of it.” I glared at him. “Take your offer and shove it. We can work together in the future, but I'm not going to work for you. Not until I know everything that happened with my mother.”
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