by Tracy Sharp
Maybe she should just walk over to them and let them get her. Maybe they’d kill her quick.
Candace looked around on the ground and found a rock. She threw her arm back and whipped the rock toward one of them.
And put a nice, spidery crack in the passenger window.
“Lovely.” She stared at them, feeling emboldened by their relatively stationary position. They weren’t coming after her.
She stomped toward them and waved her arms, yelling, “Shoo! Get out!”
They vanished into the ether.
“That was trippy.” Walking toward the cruiser she dialed Ezra back.
He answered, sounding out of breath. “Candy?”
“I’ll meet you later. I have to go in. Captain’s pissed.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” He echoed the same phrase she’s used with him earlier.
“I’m okay for now, Ez. I’ll call you when I’m done.”
He was quiet, and then said, “I’m going to wait for you outside the precinct.”
“No, don’t do that.” Christ, that was all she needed. For someone at the precinct to see Ezra waiting for her like they were dating or something.
“Don’t argue. I’m waiting for you.”
She heaved out a breath. “Fine. Just, don’t wait in the parking lot, okay? Make yourself... unnoticeable.”
“I’m already unnoticeable.”
“True.” She looked around, her eyes peering into the night, looking for the reemergence of the strange shapes.
“Why, are you dating someone at the precinct? Another cop?” To his credit, Ezra kept the jealousy mostly out of his voice.
“First of all, it’s none of your business. Secondly, I don’t want anyone thinking I, a police officer in the state of NY, need a body guard. Because I don’t, Ezra.”
“I realize that, Candy. Even though you’re the one who called me.” The humor in his tone made her prickle. Of course he was right. Still, she didn’t have to like it.
“I’m hanging up, now, Ezra.”
“See you later, Candy. I’ll be the one with the cloak and dagger.” He chuckled.
Candy ended the call and headed toward her cruiser, which was, thankfully, free of phantoms.
For the moment.
12
Candace
When she approached Healy’s office, she knew something wasn’t right. A couple of other cops, McKay and Tessier, were in his office, watching her with wary eyes. Healy’s face was dead serious, and when he looked at her, a chill ran over her.
“Have a seat, Beck.” Healy watched her beneath hooded, dark eyes, like someone would watch a cobra.
Candace sat, her nerves jumping beneath her skin. “What’s going on?”
“This is what’s going on.” He turned his laptop so that she could see the screen. She squinted at the image on it. “It’s dark. I can’t make that out. What is it?”
Healy glanced at McKay, whose shifty eyes flicked to her, and he smirked.
She looked at Tessier, who was soft spoken and level headed. She’d always appreciated his clear eyed fairness when assessing any situation.
He spoke, his voice low. “Come on, Beck. You know what happened earlier. You lost it. It turns out somebody recorded you with their cell. Happens to a lot of cops.”
She frowned. Her heart beat kicked up. “I’m confused here, guys. I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about. Seriously.”
Healy sighed, titled his head to the side slightly, and hit the play arrow on the video.
Candace leaned forward and peered at the moving image on the screen. When she realized who the moving image was, she gaped. “That isn’t me.”
“It sure looks like you.” Healy nodded at the laptop.
She felt her eyes widen as she watched herself walk toward the house she and Brodie had been watching earlier. Her image climbed the stairs to the wrap-around porch, took a few steps back, and kicked the door in.
Candace was speechless as she stared, wide-eyed at the screen. With her heart in her throat, she waited to see what would happen next.
Then it did. She saw herself dragging Skeets by the hair, kicking and screaming. Her image then threw him down the stairs, followed him down, and proceeded to kick his body, which was now curled into a fetal position, all over. She booted his back, his shoulders, his head, his hands covering his face, his knees covering his belly. It went on and on.
“That isn’t me,” she whispered, horrified. “That isn’t me.”
Figures gathered on the porch, aiming cell phones at her.
She shook her head, unable to tear her eyes away from the shocking images on the laptop screen. “Someone doctored the video. Put my head on that woman’s body. But that is not me.”
“It’s your body, too, Beck,” McKay said. “I’ve seen you enough to know. We all have.” The comment was filled with obvious meaning.
Tessier gave him a disgusted look. “Don’t be a douche, McKay.”
Candace glared at McCay. “Really? You’re seriously sexually harassing me, right now? What, you think I’m having a weak moment, so you can just go at me?”
Healy looked at McKay, a warning on his face, “Stow that shit, McCay. Right now.”
He turned back to Candace, looking at her with cautious eyes, so he didn’t see the little kiss McKay blew at her.
Candace was up in a flash, before she knew what she was doing, she’d landed one good punch to McKay’s mouth and smashed his lips against his teeth.
Healy and Tessier pulled her away. She smiled at McKay touching his fingers to his cut and already swelling lips. He gawked at the blood. “You crazy bitch.”
Candace tried to lunge out of the arms that held her back. She’d had enough bullshit for one day.
McKay grinned at her through his grisly teeth. At least one of the front ones looked chipped. It was hard to tell through the blood.
A thrill of satisfaction shot through her and she spat at him.
“McKay, take a hike,” Healy barked, shoving Candace down into the chair. “Beck, what in hell has gotten into you?”
“Someone doctored that video,” she said, taking a gulp of air. It was hard to catch her breath. What was happening to her was unbelievable. The entire day was like a bad dream.
Healy pointed at the laptop. “Beck, get a grip. Look at all those kids recording you. Several versions of this incident were sent into every television station on every network in the nation. You get that? You’re national news. You’ve gone viral.”
She covered her face with her hands. “Captain Healy, I swear to you that I never did this. I’m not violent.”
“I think McKay and his dentist would beg to differ,” Healy said. “You’re suspended without pay, pending an investigation into this incident. You’re lucky I don’t throw you in jail for this, and for assaulting McKay. I know he was yanking your chain, but you can’t act this way, Beck. What is going on with you? Are you on something?”
She dropped her hands into her lap. “No. Sir, just listen to me. I was running from Brodie. He was chasing me. How could I have done that,” she pointed at the laptop. “If I was running from Brodie?”
Healy’s frown deepened. “Why the hell were you running from Brodie?”
“Because...” If she told Healy what had actually happened, that Brodie’s body was taken over by some kind of phantom demon, he’d definitely think she’d completely gone off the deep end. “He wasn’t acting like himself, Sir. He tried to attack me. Just look at our car. The windshield is shattered.”
Healy studied me, his face doubting. “Where is Brodie now?”
“I don’t know. I ran from him and I lost him.” It was half true. She had been running from him, and she didn’t know where Iona’s clean up guy took Brodie’s remains.
“How did you end up driving past the break-in at the shop on Charm Street? Mystics.”
Shit. “I circled back around to the car.”
Healy continued studying her
, his elbows resting on his desk blotter and one finger tapping on his lips. He slowly let out a breath. “Why didn’t you call for back up when Brodie tried to attack you?”
“He’s my partner. I didn’t want to throw him under the bus. I thought he’d come to his senses and we could just move on.” She had hoped he would come to his senses. But it hadn’t turned out that way.
Healy’s eyes narrowed as he considered her explanation. “I don’t know why you’re lying to me, but I know you’re not telling me the truth.”
Beck dropped her eyes and looked at his hands, now resting on his desk. The moment seemed to stretch on forever. She hated lying to him. It felt like it might feel for a child to lie to her father. A good, loving father. Not a corrupt, criminal one, like her father was, who lied as easily as he breathed.
“Give me your gun and your badge,” he said quietly, his face a study in pity and disappointment.
Both went through her like a knife.
But, placing her gun and badge on his desk gutted her.
Ezra
When Candy walked out of the precinct, she looked like she’d lost her dog. If she’d had a dog. Come to think of it, I didn’t even know if she liked dogs. But she did seem like a dog person. I opened my door and walked toward her. “What happened?”
She glowered at me. “I was suspended.”
I gaped at her. “What? Why? Were you late again?”
“No. My partner was taken over by some kind of dark, phantom demon that slid into his body like it was trying on a suit.” She stopped in front of my car, and when she looked up at me, I saw a flicker of fear in her eyes. “It came after me, using Brodie. Ezra, these things are after me.”
Cold pierced my heart. “Stay with me. We’ll get everything straightened out.”
I didn’t know if this was true or not, but I knew that she needed to hear it.
She didn’t look like she was buying it. “How?”
“All the strange shit happening right now has to do with a sociopathic fledgling conjurer named November Knight. You remember us talking about her earlier, right?”
“Yeah. I do. I think she’s the one responsible for burning a couple of teenagers alive in a car last night. I was treated to the crime scene today.” She swallowed down rising bile. “It was horrible, Ez.”
“Yeah. That sounds like her work. She’s been setting Saint’s Hallow on on fire. She doesn’t care who she kills. So far there haven’t been any fatalities except the couple in the car, but if she keeps up at this rate, there will be plenty. Baal found her, attracted by her desire for revenge against school bullies. It was a match made in hell. Anyway, we need to exorcise Baal from her, send him back, and then close the portal into hell.”
“You mean the one I fell into.” She opened the passenger door and climbed into the car.
I got in beside her and started the engine. “Yeah. Strummer says the demons were after me. I guess you’re in it now. Sorry about that.”
She sighed, sinking into the seat and resting the back of her head against the head rest. “It’s okay. I always knew the job would get me in serious shit one day.”
“You didn’t bank on it being the supernatural kind.” I pulled away from the curb and headed toward Saint’s Hallow.
“No. I didn’t. But I wanted to put away bad guys and rescue people. Demons are bad guys, too.” She hesitated, watching the road. “I’m suspended, pending an investigation.”
“So, they suspended you because a demon wearing Brodie’s body came after you and you ran from him?”
“No, they suspended me because while I was running from Brodie, a woman who looks exactly like me, with super human strength, grabbed the suspect we were watching from his home and kicked the living crap out of him. The entire episode was recorded on several cell phones, and then sent the footage to multiple news stations. It’s been airing on every network, probably worldwide, since.”
“A woman who looks like you?”
“Exactly like me.”
A shapeshifting demon. That was bad. Not that any demon was good, but some are more troublesome than others. Shapeshifting demons could make your life difficult. And if they actually wanted to kill you, their ability to shift into someone you know made it frighteningly easy for them. “Oh, damn.”
“Under statement, but, yeah.” She tried to stretch her legs but the challenger wasn’t conducive to stretching. And Candy has long legs. In a glance I noted the outline of her thigh muscles beneath the thin, light blue denim and a hot flush moved over me. I wanted to sigh. I imagined little hearts floating around my head.
And then reined in my crush. Candy was in real trouble. “It was a shape shapeshifter of some kind. Something that could mimic you exactly.”
Her long fingers tapped out a beat on the tops of her thighs with the classic rock tune on the radio. “Yeah, well, when I get hold of it, I’m going to kill it.”
Easier said than done. “We will. We’ll send them all back to where they came from, and we’ll clear your name.”
She said nothing.
Yeah, that’s me. Super Geek. I got all the cool lines. Chicks dig me.
Despite the tapping of her hands to the beat of the radio song, I could feel the tension coming off her as she sat next to me. She was strung as tightly as a violin. I couldn’t blame her.
Finally, she said, “How, by telling the world some crazy story about demons and shapeshifters? Monsters from hell? That will go over great.”
I thought about it. “We’ll say she was an amazing look alike paid by some unnamed enemy of yours. Or someone with a bone to pick with the department.”
She looked doubtful, but her eyes squinted in consideration. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“We’ll figure out it.” I hoped.
She sighed. “Whether we do or not, I think my job might be gone for good, Ez.”
Something unusual in her tone made me glance at her, and my heart broke. She looked defeated.
It was possible her job as a cop with the department was gone. But one thing I wanted her to know was that she didn’t need a police badge to fight the bad guys and rescue people.
Looking at her grieving her lost job as a police officer, I knew it wasn’t the right moment to tell her.
But monsters came in many forms, and there was a shortage of slayers.
13
Ezra
“It does if there is a bigger plan,” I said. We were back in Saint’s Hallow, and the gang was already back at the beach, preparing for the next show down with Baal-November.
“Why would the devil want to mess up my job?” Candace couldn’t figure it out. It made no sense to her. “I get that they want to drag me back into hell, but why mess up my job? It makes no sense.”
Strummer was speaking to the group in low tones, and they listened to him, hanging on every word. I thought I knew a little something about the occult. But this guy was the real deal. I felt like a babe in the woods in comparison.
“What do you mean, a bigger plan?” Candace walked beside me, and I could feel the heaviness in her heart. The loss of her job was more than just the loss of employment. It was the loss of her identity, of who she felt she was. It was the loss of her very self. And so she literally felt... lost.
“I doubt the shapeshifter took it upon itself to go after that guy and make you look like an insane cop. That order came from higher up in the hierarchy. Somebody is trying to break you. Weaken you so you’ll be easier to take down.”
She walked beside me and I could smell the slight sulfuric scent of hell on her. I wondered if it would stay with her now, no matter how many showers she took. “I thought it was you they were after. Not me.”
“Because you were along for the ride. Now that you’ve been in hell, you can’t just shake it off.” I turned to her; her reddened, blue eyes grabbing at my heart. “Some of it will stay with you.”
The stink of hell was on me, too. I’d yet to discover all the new and wondrous ways my trip
into Hades had changed me.
“Great. I’ve been branded by hell. Jesus, Ezra. I’m really freaked out, here. I mean, I’m seeing phantoms, ghosts, stuff I’m not meant to see. Stuff I don’t want to see. They’re seeing me. I don’t want it. Any of it.”
I gave her a sad smile. “Candy, it was never your decision to make. The second you saw a crime scene as more than just a crime scene, the moment you knew there was something supernatural involved, you were in it. It happened before I came into the picture. I’d say you were chosen.” I didn’t know for a fact if this was true, but I felt it in my bones.
“Chosen?”
“Probably from the day you were born. I’d say your police training was kind of pre-training for this world. Every single thing that’s happened to you in your life has led you to this place. Don’t you see that?”
She looked off into the distance, thinking, and realization and recognition lit her eyes. “Yeah, Ez. I guess, now that you say that, I do.” Then she frowned as she looked toward the beach. “There’s someone new with the group.”
I followed her eyes. Candy was right. I hadn’t noticed her before, but there was another female with the group, whom I’d never seen before. Her light blonde hair seemed to glow in the dusky light made by Strummer’s flashlight. There was also some kind of wind up or battery operated lantern sitting on the ground, lighting their faces. I’d seen them in the camping sections of Walmart and Target. Great for power outages and plotting demonic exorcisms.
It was full dark now, and the glow of the lantern cast weird shadows around the group. This young woman was sitting in a puddle of artificial light.
