Midnight Squad: The Ties That Bind

by J. L. M. Visada

  “You don’t really care about any of that though, do you?” Grim waited calmly, and Sunset just shrugged and shook his head no.

  “Fine, but here’s the part you should care about. I know pain. The biggest secret of pain is that there is a point that the pain overwhelms the body, and the body just shuts down its own pain receptors. See, the trick is to get your victim as close to their threshold of pain without actually tipping over and allowing the body to numb itself. You see, I think that you assume that anything I do is going to kill you quickly, and so you think that since you’re so tiny, and so easily…broken, that we won’t have any way to make you talk.”

  Sunset nodded with a determined grin, and I realized that he was absolutely right. As little as he was, anything I could think of would almost immediately kill him. It would be like trying to torture a mouse. You might just crush him to death trying to hold him in place.

  Grim laughed, “Oh little fella…you will talk. In fact…you’ll tell me any and everything I want to know before I’m done.” Grim poured out the sugary concoction onto a cookie sheet. It was clear, and incredibly hot. Grim let it begin to cool, “See, you are tiny. I know it. You know it. It’s really just a miracle that we didn’t kill you, or at least mangle you up pretty badly when we duct taped you the first time. That being said, if you give me enough time, and enough motivation…I can come up with something. Now add a little peppermint for flavoring, and some food coloring for appearance.” Grim poured the peppermint into the molten mass of sugary glop, and then a little red food coloring.

  Using a spatula, Grim began mixing the sugary mess until the red was well-mixed throughout. “So I figure that since you are smaller, you probably also are a little more easily burned. The trick is to burn you without destroying the nerve endings. I want pain, but if I destroy the nerve endings then your pain will end.” Grim was now kneading the sugary stuff. It was hot, but it had cooled enough that he could touch it. It looked painful, and he had to frequently jerk his hands away when he found a spot that was still way too hot.

  I still hadn’t realized what he was planning, until Grim began to start forming the sugary mess around Sunset’s body. It was blistering hot to the faery, and he screamed in agony. Grim was careful to cover the legs first, and then when he was sure that the faery couldn’t escape, he untied the faery from the shish kabob. It was hard to watch, but I couldn’t turn away. I was seeing a side of Grim that he often tried to keep hidden. There was real pleasure on his face when the faery started begging. It was equal parts horrifying, and enlightening. For all his goofiness, this cruelty was a real tangible part of the man.

  Grim formed the last of the sugary mess, around Sunset’s body. He left the head exposed so that he could talk, and Sunset did more than that. He screamed, and even begged for death. It must have been like being dipped in liquid fire. The burning didn’t destroy, it just melded, and conformed to you. The faery was in complete agony. That’s when Grim started questioning him.

  At first the faery refused to answer, but as the mixture cooled, his screams grew louder. I couldn’t figure it out, but then Grim looked up and said, “As it cools, it hardens. It also shrinks. Heat expands, and cold contracts. Since our little friend is in the center of this, the sugary mix is shrinking away from his body as well. It’s burned his skin, and melted into the wounds. Now that it’s shrinking as it cools, it’s starting to pull away, and that means it’s pulling at those same wounds. Now if this works like I think it will, the sugar will keep cooling, and the pain will keep growing. He’ll talk.”

  My stomach lurched at the realization of what we were actually doing. Grim eyed me and said, “It’s okay if you don’t want to be here for this. I understand. This isn’t the kind of thing decent people should be a part of.

  “I…I have to stay. I don’t know if it makes any sense, but I just have to.” When I finished talking, Grim just gave me a nod, and then went back to interrogating the little faery. I couldn’t leave. What we were doing was…wrong, and leaving would be like turning my back on it. I know what we were doing was necessary, but I couldn’t just pretend it wasn’t happening. If we were doing something as horrible as this, then something inside me made me stay there. I had to be a witness to it, or else it was like I was ignoring the atrocity we were committing.

  Thirty minutes later, we knew everything. Katy’s parents were long gone before the faeries ever showed up. The dullahan’s had been given an order. They were supposed to be pretending to be Katy’s parents so that none of the neighbors would be suspicious, and then when the opportunity was right, they were supposed to spring a trap on us. Emilia’s parents had been taken away by a pack of rogue werewolves. The dullahans made a deal with Emilia that if she agreed to keep tabs on us, then her parents would be released. Of course the dullahan chief neglected to mention to her that the werewolves had probably already killed and eaten Emilia’s parents. They weren’t really concerned about Emilia finding out because after everything was over they were probably going to kill her anyway. Near the end of the interrogation, Sunset gave Grim the location of the dullahan chief and the village. I realized that Grim could be a harsh, even cruel man if the situation called for it, and yet he was still Grimmy. I was nauseated by what he’d done, but I cared about the big lug. I didn’t think any less of him. I just accepted that he’d go to places that I couldn’t.

  Sunset was having a hard time breathing. “What’s wrong now?” I asked.

  “The sugar is finally hardening. When it finally hardens completely, he won’t be able to breathe. Sorry little guy, but it looks like you’re nearing the end of your road.”

  “I might be gone, but at least I outlived Who and my worthless sister.”

  “Yeah, about that.” Grim smiled and then yelled, “Bring them back in!”

  Penny and Danika brought the two faeries back in their jars. They were both completely okay. The confusion on my face must have been pretty obvious because Penny laughed, “I replaced the rubbing alcohol before I brought the stuff in here. He just poured water in the jar. These two have been completely safe the entire time.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. Grim had pulled a fast one right in front of me. Sunset gave a rage filled howl, and started cursing us again. He was suffering, but his hate outweighed his pain. Grim grabbed the shish kabob stick, and pulled Sunset up off the cookie sheet. When he held him up, Sunset looked like a lollipop. “Hey Danika?”

  “Yes?” She said warily.

  “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a faerypop?”

  Danika took the lollipop and licked it. That’s when I realized why he’d put the peppermint in the mix. Danika took one long slurp of the lollipop. “One.” Then she took another big slurp, “Two.”

  “Oh God, you’re not really going to?” Niki squeaked.

  Danika bit down and we all cringed as we heard a brutal crunch. “Three.”

  “Oh I think I’m going to hurl.” Niki rushed to the sink, and started dry heaving.

  “Honey? Are you okay?” Danika said as she kept licking the rest of the lollipop. Half of Sunset was still imbedded in the candy, but thankfully we couldn’t really see him anymore.

  “You just ate him.” Niki turned three shades of green.

  “And he was delicious. My compliments to the chef.”

  Grim gave a slight bow, “I’m just glad you enjoyed.”

  “Don’t encourage her. I still can’t believe you ate him.”

  “Well, in my defense…your brother is a really great cook.” Danika took another big, crunchy bite.

  Chapter 18

  “Just let it go honey, it’s no big deal.” Danika groaned.

  “No big deal! You ate someone.” Niki screamed.

  “Yeah, one of the bad guys.”

  “That’s not the point.” Niki’s voice was growing more shrill.

  “What is the point exactly?” Danika’s voice was equal parts confusion and frustration. It had been thirty minutes since Danik
a ate the faery, and Niki was growing more panicked by it with every second. We’d piled into the van and were off to meet with the local chief of the Dullahan. I guess Niki finally realized that Danika isn’t just an average girl in dire need of a shave whenever the moon gets full. Well, the blinders were off, and Niki was either going to just have to accept what Danika was or move on. I kept my fingers crossed hoping they’d work things out, but even I knew this problem had been stewing just under the surface for a long time.

  “The point is that people don’t just eat other people.” Niki’s eyes were watering.

  “You’re absolutely right, but honey...if you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly human. That means I’m not exactly people by most standards, and for the record…werewolves do eat other people.” Danika made little quotes with her fingers on human, and again when she said people.

  Niki’s face was frozen in horror. “I-I-I-I-I” She stammered. Whatever she was trying to say just wouldn’t come out. She was about to start bawling.

  “Honey, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me, baby.” Danika reached out to her lover, and Niki recoiled in fear.

  “I don’t know if I can deal with this.” Niki’s lower lip was trembling.

  “Honey, we can talk about thi-“

  “No! I mean I seriously don’t know if I can deal with this.” Niki interrupted.

  “Honey?”

  “I love you. I just don’t think I can handle this. I mean how do you handle a fiancé that’s a cannibal?” Niki sounded ready to break.

  “The same way you handle your older brother.” Grim’s voice was frustrated. His knuckles were white from stress. I suppose he just couldn’t take their discussion any longer.

  “What do you mean? I mean, you’ve never eaten anyone.” Niki snapped.

  “No, I just turned someone into a tasty werewolf snack. I’ve killed men, women, and even children. I tortured my men until they finally killed themselves. I won’t go into all the details, but let’s just say that in this car there’s only one monster, and it sure isn’t your future wife.” Grim growled.

  “But wh-“

  “No buts, Sis. You found someone you love, and someone that loves you. Do you know how rare that is? Some people search their whole life trying to find just that one person to share their life with. Now if you want to fuck up the best thing that ever happened to you, then go right ahead. That being said, if you keep talking about this then you can walk home because in case you haven’t noticed, people are trying to kill us, and it’s getting pretty damn hard to keep track of all the people gunning for us. So cut this oh, woe is me crap.” Grim’s voice wasn’t angry. He actually just sounded tired, and beaten down by everything.

  “Bro?” Niki reached out and put a hand on his shoulder.

  “I thought you loved her. I guess you fooled us then, huh, Little Sis?” Grim’s voice turned icy. Niki winced as though he’d just slapped her.

  “I do love her…it’s just...”

  “What? You don’t like that she’s a werewolf? Either you love her or you don’t. Figure it out, because right now you’ve got about ten minutes before we’re knee deep in Dullahan bullshit. For all we know it might just be another trap, and so you can either die as a happy couple, or die as two single women. Right now I don’t have the time, or luxury, to give a flying fuck.” Grim was really starting to get angry.

  “You really think this could be it?” Niki sniffled.

  “Let’s see, we’re going to talk to the local bigwig of the Dullahan. From what Penny says, these guys are basically the hit squad for The Darkness. So yeah, I’m pretty sure this is going to go pretty badly. So figure out where you two stand with each other soon, because the clock is ticking.”

  We were all quiet for a few minutes, and then Niki started crying, “Oh Baby, I’m so sorry.”

  Danika started sobbing, as well, “Honey, it was my fault. I should try to remember that you aren’t used to this kind of stuff.”

  “No, it was my fault. You were just being you, and I love you. Please forgive me.” Niki and Danika grabbed one another and started kissing and apologizing.

  “About time.” Grimmy laughed.

  “Well, if I’m going to die, I don’t want to die with my little Puddin’ Pop thinking I might not lov-“ Niki looked up at her brother. Grim was grinning from ear to ear. “You manipulative shit!” Niki screamed and punched her brother in the shoulder.

  “What?” Danika questioned.

  “My dorky brother’s playing you and me for suckers. All that anger, you didn’t mean any of it did you?”

  “Let’s just say that when it comes to acting, Al Pacino has nothing on me.” Grim laughed.

  “You manipulative bastard!” Niki laughed. “So we’re not in any real danger?”

  “Of course we are, but that’s nothing unusual. We’re going to have Dullahans crawling all over us. That’s pretty jacked up no matter how you look at it, but as long as we don’t fall for any of their tricks, we should be good. Under better circumstances we’d never do this. I mean, it’s pretty crazy, but if we don’t do this, then we might not find Katy’s parents.” Grim was still grinning, and so Niki punched him in the shoulder again. Everyone was laughing except for Katy. She looked ready to come unglued. Janine kept whispering to her, and trying to soothe her as much as she could, but Katy was definitely on edge.

  Niki kissed her lover one more time, “I’m sorry. I know I kind of freaked out. I’ll try to be more accepting in the future.”

  Danika shrugged, “Hey, you aren’t the first human that’s had to adjust to living with a werewolf. It takes time, but it’s time well spent if I spend it with you.”

  Those two were back to being sweet, and adorable again. In fact you could almost go into sugar shock just watching them.

  “You know what the best part of making up is?” Danika questioned.

  “What?” Niki’s voice was curious, but a little scared. It was like she was afraid that her answer might start the problems all over again.

  “Makeup sex.” Danika wiggled her eyebrows.

  We all started laughing, and those two gave each other quick little pecks on their cheeks. “Mmmm, makeup sex. It’s right up there with grudge sex, New Year’s Eve sex, Christmas morning sex, Valentine’s Day sex and snuggly Sunday morning sex.” Niki laughed.

  “And remembered to pick up your underwear sex, and remembered to put your socks in the hamper sex, and of course to put the toilet seat down sex.” Penny added.

  Everyone but Grimmy just stared at Penny. Grimmy was doing his best to try to ignore Penny’s statement.

  “Remember to put the toilet seat down sex?” I asked.

  “They say you are supposed to use positive reinforcement when you are training…er um…educating someone.” Penny smiled like a Cheshire Cat.

  “You’re training Grim?” Janine laughed.

  “I prefer to think of it as rewarding his good behavior, and it’s educating, not training. You train dogs, you educate people.”

  “Do you even use the toilet?” Niki asked, and at first I was a little surprised by the question, but then I found myself wondering the same thing.

  “Well, technically no, but that doesn’t mean I want to see it just sitting there with the lid open. It’s disgusting…and I kind of keep expecting it to start telling me to feed it.” Penny said nervously.

  “You are just so freaking weird sometimes.” Niki laughed. “No wonder you two are perfect for each other.” Niki laughed, and Grim and Penny both practically glowed with approval.

  “So you really use sex to train Grim? How does that work?” Janine asked.

  “Well, I got him to quit leaving his underwear on the floor, he now uses a coaster for his drinks, and he’s become a real snuggler. What can I say? The books were right about positive reinforcement.” Penny laughed.

  “The books?” I asked.

  “Yeah, there are a lot of children’s books that are big on positive reinforcement. I thought it
was a bunch of hooey, but Grim took to it like a fish to water.”

  Niki cackled, “Oh that is so wrong. Only you could take something like a children’s book, and combine it with sex to train your boyfriend.”

  Grim smiled as he turned down another street, “It’s like the Kama Sutra according to Doctor Seuss. I would, and could, in the rain. In the dark, on a train, in a car, up a tree, I really like it, don’t you see? In a house, in a box, with her in a blouse, cause she’s a fox. I would do her here or there. I would do her anywhere.”

  We all erupted with laughter. We would still be laughing, but Katy hissed, “I’m glad you all can find this so funny. I’m sure my mom and dad are just laughing it up in some hell hole.” The van ride was quiet after that. When Grim finally pulled to a stop, there was a collective sigh of relief. The van had begun to feel oppressive.

  We got out, and Grim sent Danika and Penny to circle the property. When they got back Danika explained that the faeries were in the northwest corner of the property. Grim then sent Janine to go explore the faeries more closely. Ten minutes later, Janine came back. She was nervous, “They look like they’re ready for war.”

  “Well then we’ll just have to give them what they want.” Grim smiled.

  “We don’t have any weapons.” I said, and saying that without sounding like a complete wimp isn’t easy.

  “Think about it. They aren’t particularly powerful. They rely on illusion to get what they want. We let Danika and Penny rampage through them, and then we just pick up the pieces afterward. Janine, you might want to sit this one out. They’re so tiny that if you pass through them you might kill them accidentally, and I know how you feel about that.” Grim wasn’t making much of a battle plan. It was more like he was just itching for something to hit.

  “So DD, you ready to throw down with something about one eighth your size?” Danika asked.

  “As ready as I ever will be.” I answered.

  Penny leaned over and whispered, “Be careful, and remember that it isn’t real. It’s all in your mind. So ignore their tricks.”