Trick of the Light t-1

by Rob Thurman

  I searched his house, no bigger or better a shack than Wilder ’s, and found nothing. I didn’t expect to. If anything had been here, the person with a knife would’ve found it—the same one I would bet was with Eden House.

  I’d have said they were ruthless before, without qualms about doing what had to be done. Eden itself had been of the Old Testament, and Eden House didn’t much differ. They weren’t much into forgiving and Suffer unto the little children, but torture? Would they go that far? Would Above allow it? And if it was Eden House, why hadn’t they brought a telepath?

  Too many questions. It didn’t matter who had done it. My link to the Light was gone.

  Needless to say my mood was not good when I finally made it home, walking into my bar just in time to see Zeke plant a bullet point-blank in a robber ’s forehead.

  “Wait!” Griffin grabbed Zeke’s wrist a split second too late—the “think” cue not quite making it over the finish line.

  “What?” Zeke looked confused and a little annoyed. “Wrong?”

  “Give me a second,” Griffin muttered. “I’m thinking.”

  “Not too wrong, then,” Zeke said with satisfaction.

  “Son of a bitch!”

  Zeke and Griffin looked up from the crumpled body to me and each sidled a step back. They didn’t often see me well and truly angry. I was cheerful, I was easygoing, I was . . . I was so pissed, I couldn’t see straight. “He was armed,” Griffin said immediately in defense of his partner. “He was robbing the place and he had a gun. He could’ve killed somebody. That guy in the corner. The ones at the pool table. Leo.” He jerked his blond head in the direction of my bartender, who stood behind the bar with arms folded. “Your Leo.” Leo gave me an “Eh, it could’ve gone either way” shrug.

  “And you like Leo,” Zeke pointed out, trying to slide his gun back under his jacket without being seen. “Everyone likes Leo. I like Leo. He gives me free beer.”

  Leo instantly disappeared into the back kitchen, no doubt to call 911. Yeah, right. “I run a business here,” I shouted after him. “This isn’t a soup kitchen or a damn beer kitchen either.”

  “He would’ve killed someone,” Zeke said as I approached him—and he said it honestly, because truthfully I wasn’t sure Zeke had figured out how to lie yet. Either that or he simply didn’t have the motivation to be bothered. “I felt it. It was right there, like acid sizzling in his brain.”

  I ignored the excuse. True or not, it was still an excuse. Zeke could’ve taken him out without killing him. He . . . I gave an internal sigh and let the ire drain away. No. He couldn’t have. He was Zeke, it had happened too fast for him to think it through, and Griffin had been just a moment too late this time. It was a done deal. Now we just had to deal with it.

  “You.” I shoved Zeke into the nearest chair, but without any real force. “You have a conceal and carry, right?” I was almost positive he did. Eden House liked to avoid trouble as much as possible, and on occasion there was some collateral damage while demon hunting. Shouldn’t be, but there was. Eden House or not, the demon chasers were human. They made mistakes or accidents happened. Either way, they could plant guns, knives—hell, samurai swords—on the innocent in seconds to get their own off, if that’s what it took.

  I didn’t wait for his reply. I started to reach for Griffin to give him a shove toward Zeke, but he was already there. “Coach him on what to say,” I said, “and how to say it, quick, before the cops get here.” The how to say it was just as important as the what.

  “The rest of you.” I took in the room of my regulars with a swing of a pointed finger, short nail frosted red. “You are literally on your hands and knees in relief. This man saved your life. That psycho son of a bitch was going to kill every last one of you for the pennies in your pockets. And he may have mentioned doing things to your dead bodies. Bad things. Really, really bad. You’re too scared to remember.” Eyes blinked, a mouth or two gaped, and I repeated it a little more loudly, “Literally on your knees.”

  Chairs tipped over. Pool cues dropped to the floor and my grand total of seven clients went down with them.

  By the time the cops got there, Zeke had his Glock on a table and his head in his hands. “He made me,” he said with a fair imitation of shock. “The bastard wouldn’t back down. He was going to kill everyone. Swear to God. Everyone.”

  It went on an hour or so there as someone came to drag off the carcass in a nice black plastic bag. The cupful of brains they left on the floor. Oh, they took a small sample, but the rest . . . oatmeal gone bad and it was seeping into my ancient wood floor. I had Leo out with a mop and some bleach, but the floors were old and cracked. We’d be spraying that spot with a good shot of potpourri deodorizer every morning for a while.

  They took Zeke to the police station for the paperwork. Griffin went with him as his “lawyer friend.” No, Griffin wasn’t a lawyer. I wasn’t quite sure what they were taught when Eden House took them in and trained them, but they were as educated as any college grad. Better yet, they had enough fake ID to walk into the White House, get a Twinkie from the vending machine in the basement, then high-five the Secret Service on their way out. If Griffin told a cop he was a lawyer, I knew he’d backed it up with something.

  Zeke had still been doing a good job as he left. You would’ve thought he actually gave a shit about blowing that guy’s head off. The guy was a killer; the guy had a gun; the guy went down. It was Zeke’s philosophy about this entire situation, but let a cop see that and, justified or not, he would look at Zeke a little more closely . . . maybe for a long time.

  But Griffin had run over it with him a few times before the sirens approached. “You’re upset. Yes, he was going to kill you, but you’ve never killed anyone before. You’re shaken up. And throw in a ‘Shit, why’d we have to pick this bar? Why didn’t we go down the street?’ ”

  Zeke repeated it faithfully under his breath, and damn if he didn’t actually look almost distressed when the first cop arrived. Ten years ago, he would’ve killed the guy, stepped over his body to the bar, ordered a beer, and been unable to fake a twinge. Of course, ten years ago he was fifteen and wouldn’t have been served, but the point was the same. And inside he was still the same as he’d been ten years ago; he’d just learned to fake it.

  Like I said, I thought he knew right from wrong. No, that wasn’t true. I knew he knew right from wrong, but he knew it in such a black and white manner—the results often ended up the same as if he didn’t. Lack of the gray areas . . . it made for Old Testament justice.

  “Hey, whatcha doing? Milking your goat on the Sabbath? Really. Now, where’s that nice round rock I’m going to stone you with?” Five minutes later, “By the way, you won’t be needing that goat anymore, will you?”

  Too bad I didn’t need a goat.

  Exaggerated, all right, a little. Even with his issues, Zeke wasn’t that black and white. Although I was amazed with his problems that Zeke had been able to attach to Leo and me. As for Griffin—it was just a given, as I’d thought before . . . the Universe. They were two halves of a deadly whole. Zeke needed Griffin and Griffin needed Zeke. Griffin needed to take care of someone. He was a fixer. Wanted to fix, had to. Was it the way he grew up in foster care, surrounded by the weaker kids? A common-sense answer, but was it the right one?

  Apparently Zeke’s acting lessons paid off, because four hours later, Griffin called and said tiredly, “It’s over. There will be more paperwork and a token appearance in court, but everyone is agreed it’s justifiable.”

  “He held up good, then.” I’d finished painting my toenails and was now cleaning the Smith. Both were bright and sparkly.

  Deadly too.

  “He did good. One cop almost had him slipping, but he caught himself. He’s come a long way, you know?”

  I loaded the gun silently.

  He hesitated. “All right. He hasn’t, but he can pretend now and that’s more than he could do before.”

  I slammed the cylinder hom
e and said quietly, “It’s not his fault he’s the way he is. It’s not your fault either, Griffin. You’ve saved him. If you hadn’t been fostered with him for those years, he wouldn’t have survived. He certainly wouldn’t be free.” From what Griffin had insinuated about the seriousness of what had happened when Zeke was fifteen, Zeke would be locked up somewhere. Still.

  “Don’t be ashamed of him, Griffin,” I went on, and put the gun on the table. “That only makes me ashamed of you.”

  His voice went dark. “I’m not ashamed. No one else could’ve survived what he has. No one else could learn to function like he has.”

  I pulled the ponytail holder from the top of my hair and let my hair fall haphazardly around my shoulders. “Then be proud. Of yourself. You’re mostly responsible for that.” I disconnected and left him with that thought. Two seconds later I cursed myself. I’d forgotten to ask if they’d blown up a demon or an iguana earlier today. I hovered a hand over the phone, then let it go. One day my curiosity truly was going to be the death of me.

  The next day I felt like death would be a relief.

  The bar was closed. It closed every year on the same day: the anniversary of Kimano’s death. Zeke and Griffin had asked a few times why the closing. They’d never gotten an answer and finally gave up. Message received: Private, so don’t come knocking on the door and don’t ask why.

  Leo stayed those days. Leo had known Kimano. We had history, the three of us. Leo could never miss Kimano like I did, but he did miss and he did mourn him as a brother of the spirit, if not the blood. But even if he hadn’t, he would’ve been there for me. The bottom line was that the two of us were too much alike to ever come together in any permanent way, and we wouldn’t belittle what we had with anything temporary. It wouldn’t be enough and then there would be regret dimming what was so brilliant between us now—that bond that couldn’t be broken.

  It was nice, knowing that.

  But the potential of what could’ve been if one of us had been only the slightest bit different was always there. Yet another bond that couldn’t be broken. There was a wonderful warmth in knowing that as well.

  He slept in bed with me the night before. I woke up to blinds-filtered Nevada sunshine with his arm heavy around my waist, simple solace. He was one of the rare ones who knew sex didn’t necessarily equal comfort.

  I stayed in bed the entire day and he stayed with me. Other than food and bathroom breaks, we curled up and said nothing. Once in a while he’d chuckle against my shoulder and I’d curl my lips, instinctively knowing just which Kimano memory had come to mind.

  We’d done this for years now. At first we talked and laughed about them, but now we knew the routine and the flavor of them so well, that when he laughed, I knew. And when I groaned and covered my eyes, Leo knew. Kimano had never been good at his job, but he’d left more memories behind than if he had been. He was much softer hearted than he should’ve been. Our mother had raised us to be tough, to do the job at hand, no matter what it was, and do each one as if it were your first, last, and only job. Hold people accountable always. Be accountable always. I liked working; it was easy for me. But Kimano let the slackers slide, because he was one himself.

  There was a soft, heavy breathing by my ear and a few stands of straight black hair wafting over my cheek. Leo had never failed to stand by me . . . or lie by me, if that’s what I needed . . . which was a change for him in his younger days. He’d been big, bad, and full of anger. He’d mellowed over the years. He was still big and bad if you put him to the test, but he’d learned a little more tolerance and a lot more patience. What he did to those who pissed him off in the past . . . well, it made seeing him throw a man through the plaster bathroom wall seem considerably mellow, almost kindly in fact.

  I, on the other hand, had gotten a little less mellow with age. Taking care of Kimano’s killer might take care of that; it might not. We’d just have to see.

  My eyes drifted to the picture on the dresser. A stark black and white—it was Kimano in a patch of grass with his arm slung around the shoulders of a grinning coyote and a sharp-eyed raven on his shoulder. Lenore. He’d written Arizona across the back of the photo. He always said I had the worst memory for the fun things, the silly things. Maybe he’d been right, but the bad things . . .

  Those I never forgot.

  The gold bars from the slats in the window slowly passed across the wall, only a shade lighter color than the wall itself. Then night came, later night, and finally by the clock, midnight. I rolled over to face an already-sleeping Leo, wrapped my arm around his waist, shut my eyes, tucked my face against the blazing heat of his neck, and let the new day begin.

  Chapter 4

  The first customer through the door the next day was Griffin. He looked like he’d had a hard two nights. Between the cops, justifying Zeke to Eden House, and a possible exploded iguana, he deserved the look. He sat down at a stool as I patted the top of his head and said, “Morning, sunshine.”

  He swatted at my hand and muttered, “Screwdriver.” I looked up at the clock: ten a.m. I shrugged and served it up. At least he was getting his vitamins. He took a drink, then took his first good look at me, and winced.

  “Is that a comment on how I look, Griff?” I bent over, folded my arms on the bar, and rested my chin on them to study him expectantly. “I’d think twice before answering, just for your personal safety.”

  “No.” He took another drink. “It’s the way you feel. Sad, angry, and a little hormonal. Is your per—” He stopped, very wisely, and took another drink. “Sorry. It’s the empath thing. Normally I don’t get much off you. Sometimes nothing at all. You must’ve had a bad day and I must’ve had a shitty yesterday to even bring all this up.”

  Since he was right and apologetic, I let it go. He’d told me about being an empath a long time ago, when Eden House had come looking for him . . . their own telepaths and empaths picking up him and Zeke. If burning demons worked, the House would probably be out there scouring for their own little Stephen King fire starters too.

  About being an empath, he’d said back then, it’s mainly boring. He’d pointed at the people in the bar. Cranky, horny, hungry, horny, pissed off, horny, sad, horny. After a while of that, he’d snorted, it got real old real fast. A thankless talent, I thought. There weren’t too many people running around filling the world with joyful vibes. Being an empath would really, well, suck. But it was useful for the job. Demons, they felt nothing like humans. They had one emotion humans didn’t have, at least not to this degree. It was murder, greed, and a longing, all wrapped up in one single ribbon of emotion so intense that it didn’t have a name. He said when he closed his eyes he could see it . . . dark purple with jagged streaks of bile yellow and blood red.

  When I asked what Zeke “heard” when he psychi cally touched demons, Griffin said nothing good. It was all Kill, eat souls. Weak. He’s weak. He’ll give his up in a heartbeat. Zeke could only read the very surface of anyone’s thoughts, though. The bigger and badder demons like Solomon . . . the more-controlled demons . . . could and did pass for humans at times. But Zeke was the strongest telepath Eden House had, just as Griffin was the strongest empath. To my knowledge, the only demon they couldn’t pick out was Solomon, although they didn’t have to, because Solomon had been bold enough to tell Eden House he was setting up shop. That was before Zeke and Griffin’s Eden House days. Solomon’s human body was probably in his late thirties. A very sexy late thirties.

  Yep, they definitely had to pick those bodies out of a catalogue: Hot Soul Suckers—check out the discount late-nineties models at the back of the book.

  “I heard through the grapevine. Something happened.” Griffin finished the screwdriver and exhaled, eyes clearing slightly. “Something about the Light of Life. Remember me telling you about that a few years ago?” He didn’t wait for a comment, which was convenient for me. “No one’s giving out anything specific. Just that there was a body and no sign of the artifact.”

  “Of
which you still don’t know anything—what it actually is or does,” I said matter-of-factly. Trinity and Jackson hadn’t told them. Then again, neither had I, but that was one case of the less they knew, the better—for everyone. Not that that made my next comment any less manipulative, but sometimes you have to be deceitful to warn those you care about . . . without blowing your own plans. It still felt wrong, a feeling I wasn’t used to. “Some trust your House gives you guys. Makes you wonder how badly they’re going to paddle your asses if they find out I’ve been going on demon hunts with you.” No House telepath could read them now. Zeke had learned to shield his casual thoughts and taught Griff to do the same. It was one of the few occasions when Zeke was his teacher, not his partner.

  Zeke chose that moment to come in. “You must be psychic,” he said matter-of-factly as I rolled my eyes, although for him it was a good effort. “Demon hunt tonight. That tip you gave us looks good. Going?” He ordered a Corona while I considered it. I’d heard there was a bar a few miles from mine where people were getting rich, famous, and laid like crazy. That had soul selling all over it, and I’d passed the news along.

  Sitting on the stool next to Griffin, Zeke beat his hands in a slow, hypnotic tempo on his legs and frowned when I put the bottle of beer in front of him. “Where’s the lime?”

  I looked over at Lenore on his perch. “Bird, lime.” He flashed a beady eye, flew over, plucked one out of the tray, strutted over, and stuffed it in the mouth of Zeke’s bottle.

  “There you go.” I smiled cheerfully. “Enjoy.”

  He scowled. “I fight demons. Isn’t that enough? I have to take on bird flu too?” But he pushed the lime on down and took his chances. He took a swig, than glanced at Griffin. “You don’t look so good. You got up way too damn early. Could hear you banging around in the kitchen.”