At least, it seems, until the prodigal son had called from the hospital after his suicide attempt and no doubt guilted his parents into using their influence to get him out. Since the hospital’s janitorial staff were supplied by Brennon Staffing, it isn’t hard to connect the dots.
“So how exactly are we going to play this? Your Herbalife scheme isn’t going to work here.” Houston pointed at the huge NO SOLICITING sign on the gate.
“I’m going to tell the truth,” I replied.
“You’re what?”
“As much of the truth as I can without sounding like a crazy person.”
“That’s not gonna be much.”
“I’ve got it figured out. I’ve been rehearsing and everything. All you need to do is tag him when we meet him. Then we can track him later and do what we need to do.”
“I hope you know what you are doing.”
“Look, no mind reading in there. Keep your ward up. We can’t risk the lemure knowing what we are. Just tag and look sympathetic.”
“Okay. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
I knock on the door. “Listen, you’ve never seen a host before. They guy is probably going to be in really bad shape after five days. If the demon has been feeding its vices, there is no telling what condition the host is in right now.”
“What if it recognizes you?”
“It shouldn’t be able to. It will be using the host’s eyes to see. Demons in their natural form see differently than when they are in a host body.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing.”
The door opens. A man in his early sixties is standing there with an irritated look on his face. “Can I help you?” he asks.
“Mr. Brennon? I’m Nancy—”
“This is a no soliciting community,” he says as he starts to close the door.
“I’m a doctor. Not a salesperson.”
“Excuse me?”
“Dr. Nancy Werlock. I’m here about your son, Lee.” I offer him one of my old business cards.
“The hospital said they wouldn’t report the…incident,” he says as he opens the screen door to take the card. “Marriage and Family Counseling? My son isn’t married, Doctor.”
“But he has a family. You and your wife.”
“Since when do people like you make house calls?”
“Since…um…since I was at the scene when your son’s ambulance was involved in that accident.”
“You were there at the accident scene with that jumper?”
“Yeah. My car was directly behind the one the jumper landed on.”
“My God. I’m sorry. Come in. Come in.” He opens the door and lets us into the front room. “We weren’t expecting anyone. The hospital said they wouldn’t report. With everything he’s been through.”
“Its fine, Mr. Brennon. Lee isn’t in any trouble. I’m just here to help in any way I can.”
“He thinks the hospital sent you?” thinks Houston at me.
“What did I tell you?”
“What happened to telling him the truth?”
“I did tell him the truth!”
“He thinks the hospital sent you!”
“GOOD!”
“How is Lee holding up?” I ask.
“Honestly? It’s like he’s a completely different person.”
“You have no idea,” thinks Houston.
“Stop it. Now!” I smile politely at Mr. Brennon. “What do you mean?”
“I think maybe this finally put the fear of God in him. He’s only been home a few days, but it’s…it’s like I have my son back, Dr. Werlock. I’ve got my son back.”
“Where is Lee now?”
“He’s out on the patio with his mother.”
Houston and I share a confused look as we follow Mr. Brennon.
“Helen. Son. This is Dr. Werlock,” says Mr. Brennon as we step off onto the patio.
“Wow. Er…Hi,” I stammer as I get my first look at Lee. He’s sitting next to his mother, who is in a wheelchair. They both give me a rather confused look. They aren’t the only people here confused.
Lee stands up and takes a tentative step forward. He is far healthier than I expected. There is no obvious indication of demonic corruption at all. His black hair is shoulder length and disheveled and he hasn’t shaved in a couple of days, but the scruffy look suits him. He’s wearing blue jeans and a muscle shirt, both of which he fills out rather well. I’m beginning to think Steve’s apprentice made a mistake.
“Dad, I thought you said the hospital wasn’t going to get anyone involved?” He extends a hand to me.
“I already told your father, there isn’t anything to worry about,” I say as I shake his hand. “This is my appren…assistant. My assistant, Houston.”
“Nice to meet you,” says Houston as he shakes Lee’s hand with his right hand while tapping him on the shoulder with his left. A moment later, the telltale smoky wisps begin to rise off of Lee’s shoulder. Houston’s tag succeeded.
“Nice to meet you both,” says Lee. He looks back at me. “How can I help you, Doctor?”
I make eye contact and notice that his pupils have a cat-like shape. “I’m sorry,” I say. I didn’t mean to say it out loud. We’re too late. The lemure has completely taken over the host. Lee is gone.
Lee the Lemure grinds his teeth with a sudden realization. “I don’t want to talk to her,” he says. “I’m going inside.”
“Lee?” his mother grabs his hand. “Honey, it’s Okay.”
“No, it’s not!” he yells. He drops his head as his mother pulls her hand away. “Mom, I’m sorry.” He kisses her on the forehead before going into the house.
“Mr. Brennon, I apologize,” I say.
He offers a slight smile. “Don’t be, Dr. Werlock. That was the first time he actually apologized for one of his outbursts in years. I’ll take what I can get.”
June 30th,
“This is bad, Nancy,” says Steve. Steve, Houston, and I are sitting in my living room. Steven looks like he hasn’t slept in a week. Whatever is going on in the Pine Barrens is worse than he originally let on. But whatever that issue may be; it pales in comparison to our current problem.
We have a skinwalker on our hands.
“Steve, I don’t even know what to say.” I pour him another cup of coffee.
“Nothing you could have done, Nancy. From what you described, the host probably died in the ambulance before even reaching the hospital. Lemure had a fresh body to move into.”
“So even if we exorcise the demon at this point, we’re left with a corpse,” says Houston.
“Yeah, that ties our hands in a lot of ways. Normally, we can do the exorcism and then deal with the surviving host a number of ways. The host knows they are possessed, after all, so they generally are happy to cooperate and keep their damn mouths shut afterwards. But dead bodies are…problematic.”
“But the body should be, I don’t know, decomposing? Isn’t that what happens from the corruption?”
“That’s what is supposed to happen,” I say. “But the only demonic marking is the eyes. It’s almost like the lemure healed the body somehow. He sure didn’t look like someone with a decade-long drug habit.”
“The good news is that Houston managed to tag him. That is going to be a huge help. Sonny is flying in from L.A. tomorrow. He’ll be able to track our skinwalker easily with the tag in place. It is going to have to feed its vice eventually. When it does, Sonny may be able to jump it.”
“But what about the Brennons?” asks Houston.
“What about them?” asks Steve.
“They seemed happy. They’re family is whole again. Now they’re gonna be left with a corpse just as they think things are getting better.”
“Houston, the Brennons are in danger so long as that lemure is wearing Lee’s body,” I say. “Demons can access all sorts of powers once they possess a physical form. It could kill both of them and make it look like heart attacks or strokes. And then it inherits every
thing, including whatever life insurance policies they have.”
“He didn’t act like he would hurt them.”
Steve takes a deep sigh and rubs his temples. “Key word there, son, is act. This is a demon that already killed the person who summoned him. And it knows we know about it. It will do everything it can to secure itself. And if that means taking out the Brennons, it will.”
“You guys are talking like all demons are inherently evil. I thought I was supposed to abandon concepts of Christianized demons in my studies.”
“It isn’t about good or evil,” says Steve. “It’s about chaos. With demons you are dealing with entities that have completely alien mindsets to us. They don’t process stimuli like mortals do. They don’t possess empathy as we understand it. Mortals are a means to an ends for them. It isn’t that they set out to be evil. It’s that they don’t even consider whether or not their actions are what we interpret as good or evil. They just want what they want, and they go after it.”
“And what if what this one wants is to just have a family?”
Steve starts laughing. “Really?”
“Steve, you’re tired.”
“Did you just hear what your boy said?”
“Steve.”
“I’m going to the gym.” Houston grabs his keys and walks out.
“Did I hurt his feelings?”
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me?”
“He only just found out a couple of months ago he was a psion. You’re talking at him like he’s an idiot.”
“What he said was stupid!”
“What he said was in line with a new apprentice trying to understand.”
“It isn’t my job to help him understand.”
“Well it IS mine.”
“Well my job is to protect the Veil, not coddle your boy toy.”
“What!? My boy toy? Ye gods! Don’t even…”
“You have no idea what I have been dealing with!”
“That’s because you haven’t told me!”
“I can’t!” Steve drops his head in his hands. I sit next to him on the sofa.
“Steve, what is going on? What aren’t you telling me?”
“I’m sorry about what I said about your apprentice.”
“Apology accepted. But that doesn’t answer the question.”
“The Council said we aren’t supposed to tell anyone except on a need to know basis.”
“Okay, well, I’m neck deep in a lemure escape. I need to know.”
Steve leans back on the sofa and looks at the ceiling. “We’ve lost three Justicars in the last year. I wasn’t in the Pine Barrens because of the cairn. I was there because that is where they found Anatole’s body.”
“Anatole’s dead? Steve, I’m so sorry. Why would the Council keep this secret?”
“We think something is hunting Justicars. The Council was afraid that if it became known it could cause a panic or encourage…opportunists.”
“I don’t understand.”
“A lot has changed since you took your hiatus from the Craft. Last few years, there has been a lot of noise about revealing the truth about witches. There are those who think the world is finally ready to handle the truth.”
“That’s ridiculous! Do these people not watch the news? Religious tolerance has regressed over the last decade. We’ve got people of the same religion killing each other over translation errors and they want to throw magic into the mix?” I’m trying to process what Steve has just said. Anatole was his mentor. He had trained him ever since he was nine. “Steve, I’m so sorry.”
“Someone or something is hunting Justicars. We don’t know what or who or even why. The first one was last year. Ito Daisuke. He was investigated some kappa activity when a bus crashed into his car and crushed him. We thought it was an accident. He was investigating kappas. What the hell kind of danger is there in that?
“Then in April, Udaill Zaman was working on a cairn leak outside of Istanbul. He was struck by a truck on his way back to the city. The driver blacked out behind the wheel. Freak accident. At least, that is what we thought. But then Lord Advocate of the Eighth calls and says he wants the driver mind-scanned.”
“What?”
“So we scan him and find out the blackout was caused by a possession. Something took over his body temporarily to ram into Udaill’s vehicle.”
“And it wasn’t related to the cairn? Djinn maybe?”
Steve shakes his head. “No residue left behind. No demonic prints to speak of.”
“And we’re sure it was a possession and not mind control?”
“Lord Advocate sent one of his own telepaths specifically to check for mind control. No memory scarring.”
“Let me guess. Then you mind-scanned the bus driver?”
“Same thing.”
“What happened to Anatole?”
“We still don’t know for sure. We don’t even know why he was in the Pine Barrens. He was supposed to be in Geneva.”
“Has anyone tried to breach the Veil to ask him?”
“For now, the Council has said to stick with mundane methods until we have a better handle of what we are dealing with. Trying to communicate with one of the victims might just give whatever this thing is a fresh target.”
“If you’ve ruled out demonic activity, and it wasn’t mind control, that only leaves the Fae or Divinities.”
“We have someone looking into the Unseelie, but I think that is going to be a dead end. We’ve got folks inside the College of Divinities looking into any reasons why a random god or goddess might be pissed off enough to start killing Justicars. I don’t know. I just…don’t…know.”
July 1st
“You’re quiet today,” I say to Houston. He shrugs and continues to stock the shelf. “So you never told me what happened with Terri.”
“Nothing to tell. It was a dead end. Just seems like my family is weird in that the power skips over kids sometimes, that’s all. I took the tree and I plotted out the psions in the family and they all follow normally down the maternal side. Just sometimes it skips over kids.”
“So how are things going with you and Sharlena?”
“She starts a new apprenticeship next week.”
“That’s awesome!”
“It’s in New York.”
“Oh, um…”
“It’s good for her. Lady works in theater. Art Director for some place on Broadway.”
“New York is only a few hours by train.”
“She’s not gonna have time for a relationship.” Houston pushes away the empty box and starts to open another one.
“Houston, I’m sorry about Steve’s behavior.”
“Okay.”
“I mean it.”
“Okay.”
“Houston, you’ve been through a lot over the last few months. Your progress has been extraordinary, but I think maybe I’ve been pushing you too much.”
“I’m not a child, Nancy. And you aren’t the one who has been pushing me.”
“You know you can talk to me, right?”
“Yeah, sure. I’d love to hear your thoughts on…oh, right. I can’t hear your thoughts. You’ve got your Iron Wall ward up.”
“Houston…”
“What are you hiding from me?” he says as he stands up.
“It’s not the first time I’ve used the ward around you.”
“Yeah but that was months ago when I couldn’t control it and was just randomly picking up people’s thoughts. You are doing it now because you don’t want me to know something and you don’t trust me.”
“It has nothing to do with trusting you.”
“Something your pal Steve told you not to tell the kid? I’m too stupid to understand?”
“Don’t go there.”
“Is it about me?”
“No, it has nothing to do with you. It’s an issue with the Council and it is on a need-to-know basis by order of the Council! It has nothing
to do with you so you don’t need to know.”
“I’m not a kid. I’m not your boy. I’m not some starry-eyes Goth playing at magic. And I’m damn tired of feeling like everything is happening around me and I can’t do anything about it.”
“You aren’t a kid. You’re my apprentice. You aren’t my boy. I like to think you were my friend. And I know better than anyone you sure aren’t Anastasia, bless her heart. You are a prodigy. But I also know that the last few months have upended everything you thought you knew about the world and yourself and that is an enormous burden to carry.”
“I just…I felt so stupid last night. I wanted to punch him in the face.”
“I would recommend against trying. Steve’s trained in Bartitsu and Pankration.”
“They like Jiu-Jitsu?”
“I…no idea. You’d have to ask him.”
“I’ll just take your word for it.”
“Don’t ever feel stupid about asking questions or challenging assumptions. The Craft exists to challenge assumptions of what is and isn’t possible. Steve is just under a lot of stress right now. He’s normally a great guy. Give him a chance, without trying to punch him in the face. I think you two would get along well.”
“And he could teach me how to…be a barista…or whatever that is he does. Bartitsu, you said?”
I just shake my head. “What am I going to do with you?”
“So now that I have successfully made you feel guilty, I was thinking of taking the rest of the day off. Anastasia will be here at three, and all the stuff she isn’t supposed to see has already been inventoried. I just gonna take a walk to clear my head. Take care of some personal stuff.”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“By the way,” he says just before walking out the door. “The tree’s on my desk if you want to look at it.”
“I’ll look at it later,” I say. “I don’t want to go through your stuff.”
nancy werlock's diary s01 - episodes 1-7 Page 11
