by Tim Marquitz
“I wonder why he brought you here.” The words were barely out of Scarlett’s mouth when a massive explosion rumbled through the night.
We all spun, staring off at the growing fireball that brightened the distant sky, just the other side of downtown.
I pointed. “Maybe that has something to do with it.” Some days you don’t need your Captain Obvious cape to be super.
~
After a few moments of colorful cursing as he plotted distance, Rahim teleported us across town, popping us in a short distance from where the explosion had occurred. We appeared on a dark rooftop located about a block away from the conflagration. It provided us a clear view of what had gone up in flame.
It was the city’s electrical plant.
Well, technically, it was one of three. The primary plant for the area fed electricity to the eastern portion of El Paseo, powering the vast majority of the city while an outdated old plant was held in reserve in cases where the other two plants faltered. I wasn’t even sure that last one was still on line. This particular one, however, was the sole source of energy for most of downtown and the whole of Old Town.
“This was done on purpose,” Katon whispered.
“You think?” The question was, why?
He rounded on me, Rahim shifting to keep space between us. “I’ve had enough of your mouth, Frank.” His voice was a raspy snarl. “This isn’t some game where you power up and leave the old levels behind. The old rules still apply, even to you.”
“And what rules are those?”
Rahim tried to calm the enforcer but Katon wouldn’t be stopped. “No, he needs to hear this.” His gaze slammed into mine. “The mission hasn’t changed, Frank, even with Abraham gone. DRAC still stands against the bad guys.” He inched forward, pressing Rahim for space, his index finger in my face. “There are only two camps: wrong and right. You don’t get to skirt the line. If you’re looking to take Baalth’s place or you’re angling to live up to Daddy’s inheritance, you’re an enemy. Simple as that.”
“How black and white of you, no offense intended.” I smacked his hand out of my face and Rahim muscled him backward, but I didn’t bother to follow, my attention drawn to the explosion.
Fires trucks swarmed the scene, hoses spewing tons of water across the burning generators and slagged electrical towers. The place looked as if it had been nuked. We could feel the heat from where we were standing, the air thick with the stink of burnt rubber and melted copper. Even the outer fence has been brought down, chain links warped and melted into the asphalt, but there was no doubt the blast had been a focused one. Outside of a few dark scorch marks that scarred the area beyond the fallen fence, there was no damage to the surrounding neighborhood. It had all been contained to the power plant. Well, except for the lack of power. The night was dark all the way into Mexico.
“This was magic,” Scarlett said, staring out across the burning wreckage.
Rahim nodded in agreement. I saw his head bobbing at the edge of my peripheral vision, but I couldn’t draw my eyes from the fire. There was something familiar about it, like the energy from the portal, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. What the hell would be familiar about an explosion?
Katon didn’t give me time to think about it. “You enjoying yourself, Frank?”
I shook off the spell of the dancing flames and turned to look at the enforcer. A smirk peeled his upper lip back.
“I don’t know what’s running through your thick skull, but the look on your face makes me think you might need a change of underwear.”
It took me a second to catch his meaning, my cheeks warming when I did. “You think I’m getting off on this?”
“Sure looks like it.”
“Katon…” Rahim sighed.
“Look at him and tell me he doesn’t look happy about this. He’s even smiling, for fuck’s sake.”
All eyes drifted my direction, and to my own surprise, despite the fury I could feel searing the inside of my face, he was right. A weird, crooked smile had taken control of my lips. I wiped it away fast but there was no mistaking it was there. “I…I—” Steam licked at my eyes, rage and confusion settling into a miasma of uncertainty.
“Stuff it, Frank. There’s something you’re not telling us.” Katon darted past Rahim, a gleam of silver in the lead. The edge of his sword—the one that had been Karra’s—pressed tight against my throat, the blade shifting enough to draw blood. My magic reared up in response. “Tell us what’s going on.”
Before I could even think about it, my hand clasped the blade and pulled it from my neck, the force and speed twisting Katon’s arm around. As soon as the sword was away, I turned and tossed the enforcer aside as though he were a child. Katon slammed into the stair housing, the tiny hut collapsing with the impact. Bricks and pieces of gray mortar toppled over him, burying him in the ruin. His arm jutted limply through the debris.
“The poison doesn’t work on me,” I told the pile of rubble as Scarlett shouted Katon’s name and dug to free him. I wasn’t sure how I knew that, having been paralyzed by the chemicals on the blade before, but there was no doubt in my head. He’d been trying to subdue me, but I felt the poison the instant it touched my blood, and then it was gone, the tingling sting wiped out in an instant.
The how didn’t really matter though, as I had more pressing matters. In my face was a giant werebear, his dark fur blocking my view of Katon and my cousin. My gaze drifted up the blue-black mountain of muscle to the stunted, snarling bear face that somehow managed to mimic Rahim’s human almost perfectly. There was no mistaking the anger that gleamed in his reddened eyes.
To my surprise, I wasn’t frightened.
I’d spent my entire time in DRAC fearing the powers of Rahim and Katon, their ferocity a match for anyone’s, but there was none of that right then. All I saw was the wizard putting on a Halloween costume to intimidate me. It wasn’t happening.
My neck at a weird angle, it was annoying me that I couldn’t look Rahim in the eyes, and then all of a sudden I found myself drifting off the ground, rising slowly until I hovered directly in line with Rahim’s snarling bear face. A smirk hit my lips.
“If you’ve hurt him, Frank—” he let the rest of the threat die deep in his rumbling throat.
I wiped the blood from my neck and flicked it aside, the wound miraculously already healing despite the magical nature of it. There was no mistaking the point that Katon had come at me first.
“The big bad bear act isn’t working, Rahim,” I told him. “Keep your enforcer in check so I don’t have to smack his nose again.”
His teeth glistened as his snout peeled back. “It’s not him you have to worry about if you keep this up.”
I met his grin with one of my own. “From where I’m floating, that sounds like a threat.”
Rahim rose up so he was just an inch or two higher than me, his feral eyes emanating warmth. “This power you’ve gained has gone to your head, Frank, but make no mistake, Katon was right. The very last thing we need is another Lucifer in the world. Those days are long past.” He let out a slow, heavy breath. “Don’t try to bring them back.”
The warning was clear. And though I could honestly admit to not being afraid of Rahim, a voice deep down inside me—something I’d like to think of as an oft-absent sense of reason—told me not to push it any further. Rahim might not have the power I had, but he’d been around a long time and knew way more about his magic than I did mine. I couldn’t bluster and blow him off. He was dangerous, no doubt about it.
I glanced over his furry shoulder to see Katon emerge from the wreckage, Scarlett pulling him free. He didn’t look bad, but he was gonna need to visit a plastic surgeon to scrape the remnants of his pride from his face. I looked back to Rahim. We’d each proven our points and there wasn’t anything left to say. We knew where we stood.
I spun on my heels and leapt off the edge of the building, the darkness swallowing me as I dropped into the alleyway below.
Elev
en
“You always were a charmer, Frankie.”
The words drifted out of the shadows, stopping me cold. My heart thumped against my rib cage, threatening to burst loose as I spun about. It had been months since I’d heard her voice last but there was no mistaking it for anyone else’s. It was Karra. She leaned against a nearby wall, and I thought my head might implode at seeing her. As it was, my eyes misted against my wishes, and I sniffed to quell their revolt.
It had been so long, all I could do was stare.
Though she would never be able to disguise her true nature—a necromantic badass—there was a sense of domesticity about her that I’d never seen before. Gone was the tight black outfit and roach-stomper boots, her normal couture of weapons missing. Instead, she wore black slip ons that led up bare legs to a short black dress with a white skull sequined onto her chest, a pink bow in its non-existent hair. Right below its smiling face was the slight swell of her belly. Our baby. A lump threatened to choke me at seeing it. I took a hesitant step forward but she remained where she was.
“How…” The words were slow coming out. “How are you?”
She nodded. “I’m okay—” she started, unconsciously running a hand across her stomach. “We’re okay.”
I drew closer and reached for her, wanting nothing more than to lay my hand on her belly and feel the life we’d made growing inside. She shook her head and sidestepped me, bringing me to a halt, fingers clasping at air. My heart sank into the gallows of my ass.
“I just—”
“I know, Frankie, I know.”
My gaze dragged itself to her face. There was no mistaking the sadness that lingered in her expression, but there was no also no mistaking the steel that lurked beneath.
“I can’t,” she told me. “Not yet.”
“I understand,” I said on reflex, but I didn’t…couldn’t; not ever. There they were, right in front of me, my woman and child, and I couldn’t even touch them, couldn’t hold them and let them know how much I’d missed them, how much I wanted to be with them.
My thoughts must have played out across my face because Karra took a half-step back. A cold chill nipped at my spine when she did. Watching her back away from me was a misery I could never have prepared for. It struck me as hard as any blow I’d ever been dealt. I drew in a deep breath, letting it settle into my lungs before I found the strength to speak again. Bile stung the back of my throat, anger rising up to devour my sorrow. There was no other way to deal with it.
“Why are you here?”
It was her turn to sigh. “You looked like you might be in trouble.”
The words bounced around inside my head, both pathetic and painful. Talk about mixed signals. “You’ve come to rescue me but I can’t come near you.” It wasn’t a question.
She nibbled on her lower lip, clearly realizing the awkwardness of what she intended. “I know, it’s just…”
It was weird seeing her so flustered, so lacking in confidence despite her willingness to deny me the chance to be with her, them. That wasn’t the Karra I knew. “Everything’s fine,” I lied. She didn’t need to know any more than that. My skull turned up the volume, deep tribal thumps setting my temples to dance.
“It’s not, though, Frank.” She shook her head. “That portal you have the little alien girl opening…there’s something not right about it.”
That was when I realized she’d been using CB to spy on me. I didn’t know whether to be pissed or glad she cared enough to peek on me through her link to Chatterbox. “You’ve been watching me?”
“I have,” she admitted, braving a step toward me. “I can feel its baleful energies through the connection. It’s not natural.”
I reached out for her hand but she snatched it away.
“Please, Frankie. I can’t. Not yet.”
A storm filled the empty space between us.
“Damn it, woman! I didn’t want to do it,” I shouted, not even caring that she crept further away. “He knew it was the only way to save you. Why can’t you see that? I didn’t want any of this.” I’d done it all to save Karra and still I’d lost her.
The uncertainty seared across her face was a spur in the side of my fury. I spun and slammed my fist into the nearest wall. Brick shattered, a gray fog enveloping my hand as it smashed its way through the wall. The scent of old dust filled my nose. I ripped it free, shards of rock and mortar showering my feet.
Karra stared at me through narrow eyes, the feather light touch of her senses tickling my skin. “Whatever you’re doing, Frankie, be careful.”
My rage filled my tongue with vitriol, but then I felt her.
A quiet, tiny blip drifted across my senses, so much like Karra and yet so different. Slow and steady, as though the whisper of a heartbeat, I could feel a willowy presence reaching out to me, reaching for me. My fury fell in its wake.
“A girl?”
Karra gave a slow nod, a silvery tear sliding lonely down her cheek.
“I—” Once more I reached out, but the look in moist Karra’s eyes kept me from drawing nearer. For all her indecision, she would hold true to her word. She wasn’t ready for us and there was nothing I could do to change her mind. My shoulders slumped as hope gave way inside, a withered slug beneath a hail of salt.
“You’re not your father, Frankie,” she told me. “Remember that and don’t become him. We need you to be you.”
She was gone before the words fully registered, the sound of my heart echoing sullenly in the silence of the alley.
Twelve
Fuck them!
The thought echoed in my skull, over and over, the words repeating, the sound building into a mantra, which threatened to overwhelm me.
“No,” I screamed, hoping to quiet the voice in my head but it wouldn’t be silenced.
Fuck them all.
My lungs ached as I tried to catch my breath. I hadn’t been ready to see Karra anymore than she’d been ready to see me. Her standing in the alley was the equivalent of stitches being torn from an ulcerous wound. I hurt, blood still oozing, the infection of love gnawing at my nerve endings and setting them aflame.
What the hell was I thinking?
There weren’t any happy endings in my world that didn’t come without an exchange of cash in a backroom massage parlor. I should have known better. Daddy Dearest had fucked us up the first time around, his feud with Longinus keeping me and Karra apart. Now it was my turn. I’d done what even Lucifer hadn’t tried: I took Longinus out of the world forever. As much as I wanted to believe Karra could get over her father being a part of me, it was delusional to think it was possible. Even if she had deep-seated daddy issues, I couldn’t imagine her wanting to be in a relationship with the demon who would forever feel like her father, his essence battering her senses on a daily basis.
My feet scraped the sidewalk as I made my way back to the asylum, the night quiet save for the continuing howl of distant emergency vehicles as they fought to contain the blaze at the power station. The streets were dark with only the rare flicker of candlelight behind curtained windows, the last survivors of the neighborhood hunkered down to wait out whatever shit storm had hit Old Town this time. They were getting used to it, Baalth’s presence having drawn more supernatural grief to the area than it deterred. He’d kept the peace, but he’d kept it by force. Now this Hobbs guy had stepped in and made a play, drawing me into it. If things kept going the way they were, there wouldn’t be an Old Town left to fight over. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. I could stand to walk away from all of this.
Fuck you!
“Fuck me?” I answered the voice in my head. “No, fuck you.”
I laughed, realizing I was talking shit to myself, a nearby curtain fluttering at the commotion, a shadow slipping out of sight the instant my eyes lighted on it. The furtive movement only made me laugh harder.
Seeing Karra must have shaken something loose in my skull. While I doubted any psychological litmus test devised would find me
in the normal range, I didn’t usually talk to myself; much. Well, I didn’t argue with myself; that often. A low chuckle spilled from my mouth, and I had to agree with me. The Planter’s guy would need to roll up for me to convince anyone there was someone more nuts than me out tonight.
I glanced around but it was just me and the almost invisible quaver of the settling curtain, which was probably a good thing. I was heading to an asylum, after all. I didn’t need anyone to check me in for good. It was bad enough that Rala—the alien from another planet—thought I was weird.
A few minutes later I’d made it to Gailbraith without running into anyone, having someone put a bullet in my head, and I’d mostly contained my chitters. Mostly. They slipped out occasionally when I wasn’t paying attention, kind of like my throat was birthing baby hyena farts. At least I couldn’t taste them. They might have smelled, though, given the look Rala gave me when I jumped into the surgical theater.
She let out a little squeak and clutched Chatterbox to her chest, stumbling back into the light setup, starting it bouncing. “What is with you people?”
“I see you got the generators working.” The lights flickered for an instant before coming back to full. “Sort of.”
Rala shook her head. “Uh, I didn’t—”
“That would be me.”
I turned to see Veronica stroll through the doors at the far end of the room, opposite the shattered glass balcony. Her eyes took the measure of me, starting at my feet and working her way up to my face.
“Outside of a little blood on your collar there, you don’t look the worse for wear. Did Hobbs go down easy?”
“He didn’t even bother to show up.” I touched my neck where Katon had cut me, feeling the bloody remnants crusted there. “This was…something else.” For some reason, I didn’t feel like sharing what happened between me and Katon or any of the rest of what went down. I could only imagine Veronica opening her mouth about it and making me want to punt her back to Hell where I wouldn’t have to listen to her.
