Shifting Problems

by Jason Paul Rice

  I acted quickly and manipulated the air in the room. “Aer sit potentia. Praebueris fortitudinem. Aer sit potentia. Praebueris fortitudinem.”

  I started to develop heavy pockets of air and condense them. I projected the powerful pocket of air at the Empusa. She calmly deflected my wave to the side and it crashed into a bookshelf, knocking it to the ground and sending old books everywhere.

  The old volumes kicked up a few decades worth of dust and the Empusa started choking. With her distracted I rushed her, lowered my shoulder and rammed into her belly. It felt like running into a brick wall and I fell. I needed to scratch that move from my repertoire.

  I grabbed a clump of dust off an old duffle bag and heaved it into the sexy vampiress’ face. She gagged some more and I did something I never thought I would. I punched a woman in the face. A vampiric demon who was trying to kill me, mind you.

  She stepped back, shocked. I could tell she hadn’t been hit in the face before. Maybe she was just a bully that needed to be punched in the nose.

  The hissing wail that she released indicated otherwise. She reached back with her golden arm and backhanded me across the cheek. I was surprised my jaw didn’t break as I spun around from the impact. I tried to remember how to defeat these creatures and it finally came to mind.

  I needed my vampire kit from downstairs. I wanted to use magic, but it would only destroy the house and piss off this demon.

  She pointed a golden index finger toward my face. I tried to assess what she was doing when I noticed the tip of her finger had turned orange. Sulfuric acid shot from her fingertip as I ducked. A spray of the skin burning liquid streamed over my head and a few stinging droplets landed on the back of my neck.

  I jumped up as the Empusa rushed me, planted her shoulder in my gut and toppled me to the ground. That was how the move was supposed to work. We rolled around on the ground and fell through the secret door.

  Even though I landed on top of her, the eight-foot drop knocked the wind out of me. A strong, golden hand engulfed my face and started to smother me. I ripped and clawed at the powerful grip to get loose. Nothing. I decided to take one out of Gretchen’s playbook.

  The Empusa must’ve been getting a sexual arousal from the fight so I reached out and grabbed her taut nipple. I yanked and twisted at the same time and suddenly I could breathe again. Perhaps I had found a weak spot. I punched her in the other breast from close range using the Bruce Lee One Inch Punch technique.

  It jolted her back enough so I could get to my feet. I ran for the steps so I could grab my vampire kit from downstairs. I reached the top and a death grip clutched my shoulder. She dragged me back and wrapped her powerful arms around me. She squeezed, and the air rushed out of my lungs.

  She tightened her hold and I started to see spots and became lightheaded. I threw my head back and heard the crunch of broken teeth. My head throbbed but it broke the hold and I spun around. The Empusa spat a spray of blood in my face and kneed me in the testicles.

  I supposed that was fair for my earlier actions. She pushed me back and tackled me onto the steps.

  We tumbled over each other a few times and thumped down the flight of twenty-five steps before crashing into my front door.

  Reginald pounded on the wall. “Mike, say buddy, you need me to come over and help you out.”

  I screamed at the wall. “Just fine, Reg. Thanks anyway. We can talk later.”

  I wiped the salty blood out of my eyes and ran for the vampire kit. I needed to get my specially crafted crossbow that shot blessed holy crosses to kill vampiric creatures. I didn’t have any silver bullets or special lights to scare her away.

  Her hissing increased to a fever pitch as she wrestled my front door before slamming it shut.

  My kit wasn’t in the place I had left it. Damnit.

  I ran into the living room as the Empusa released another Super Soaker strength blast of sulfuric acid. I bent backwards Matrix-style to avoid the spray that covered my couch and singed the fabric. I felt a deep pain in my lower back as I collapsed and jumped up again. Running to the other side of the room, I searched around on my bookshelf for the vampire kit. I knew it wasn’t there but panic had kicked in.

  The vampiress clutched my upper arm and spun me around several times before tossing me into my bookshelf, which crashed to the ground and knocked the one next to it over in the process. I pushed a pile of heavy books off my chest and sat up.

  I looked around for the Empusa, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. I turned right and caught a quick, blurry vision of the bottom of her hoof, right before it blasted me in the forehead. I crashed onto my back, dazed. The room spun around in a circle and I could barely make out the image above me.

  The Empusa lifted her hoof and readied to smash my head into the hardwood floors. I knew the wizard game could be a dangerous one and getting my head smashed in by a vampiric demon seemed a fitting end to a short, magical life.

  I heard sirens and swirling blue and red lights replaced the image of the Empusa. Was I dead? It sure felt that way. I closed my eyes as the front door was busted off the hinges and the Blawnox Police rushed through the door, guns raised.

  An officer kneeled next to me. “What the hell happened here?”

  “Just a little fight. A friend and I got a little drunk.”

  He looked around the room at the utter destruction. “What about the roof? Someone said they saw something fly through your roof.”

  “Must have just been a big bird. I’ll clean it up officer.” I was delirious and hoped my spoken words were matching up with the ones my head had intended.

  The officer narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice. “Look buddy. Domestic abuse can go both ways, okay? You just give us her name and we’ll make it stop. You don’t need to protect her.”

  Did he really want to hear the truth? I didn’t think this town was quite ready for that. I smiled through the pain. “Really officer. It’s nothing like that. I apologize for the disturbance and promise it won’t happen again.”

  I assumed the police had scared away the Empusa just in the nick of time. Oh no, the box. The police took some notes and asked me a few more questions, but I could only think about one thing. As soon as they left, I reset the door so that it was as close to fully shut as possible.

  I raced up the stairs and into the attic. I couldn’t believe the cops didn’t want to inspect the attic. I ran over to the corner and dropped to my knees. I pried the floorboards up and felt a cascade of dark magic. I pushed the old blanket to the side and the box was still there.

  I really needed Alayna to open this thing with me. I’ll admit it, I was scared of its power.

  I covered it with the blanket, reset the floorboards and headed downstairs. I pounded on the wall. “Reg. You wanna come over for a few beverages?”

  “Sure thing, young blood. I’ll meet you out on the front porch.”

  I helped Reginald get his chair onto my side of the porch and we went inside. I poured two glasses of Jameson, handed one to Reginald, and sat down on my loveseat. Reginald’s eyes were about to pop out of their sockets as he assessed the damage. “Young blood, you got blood all over your face and, what is that? Is that a hoofprint on your forehead? You better be careful, you only get one dome now.”

  “Oh shit. She spat blood in my face. Help me collect a sample.”

  Reginald held the plastic ramekin as I flaked some of the dried blood off my face. I marked it and put it with my samples.

  “Did you find anything out about the werelion?”

  “I can’t really test them without Alayna. Considering she is going to be super mad when she sees this house, it’s going to be hard to ask her for help. I know this is big though, and I know there is something in that box. They wouldn’t send a Manticore and Empusa to destroy that box if it weren’t a big deal.”

  “So what’chu know so far?”

  “A lot of clues that don’t really work together. Shifter murders. I don’t know how they fit in to the sex
clubs and dog killing rituals. Then I have to figure out how all this fits into the G20 threat. And my head is scrambled on top of it all.”

  He laughed. “I can imagine. That hoofprint don’t look like she’s gonna go away any time soon. That son of a gun is deep, young blood. I’m surprised that didn’t crack your skull.”

  “I met a girl, Reg. She’s awesome, I tell ya.

  Reg tilted his head. “Maybe it did crack your skull. Yeah, man, I was here yesterday when you set up the date. Sounds like you changed your mind pretty quick on her. Guess head injuries can do that. Ha ha.”

  I shook my head. “Not her. This is a different girl. Only, there’s one problem.”

  “Man, there’s always a problem, ha ha.”

  “This is a big problem. She’s Gretchen’s daughter.”

  He pushed his lips out. “Ain’t that about a bitch. It’s always something, huh?”

  “I don’t know what to do.”

  He took a drink and shrugged his shoulders. “Ain’t nothing to do. You can’t force stuff like that. Just let things happen.”

  “I’m actually trying the opposite. I give Gretchen a hard time, but this is her daughter.”

  “And she gave you her number, right in front of her mom?”

  “No, that’s just it. She’s a survivor. I met her at a meeting. I sort of met her when she was meeting Gretchen a few days ago. It’s like a beautiful piece of fruit dangling in front of me.”

  “The good ole forbidden fruit. Always tastes the sweetest, ha ha. Just got to be careful cuz they’re poisoned sometimes. Say, Mike, I been meaning to ask you something. And feel free to say no.” Reg lowered his head.

  “What’s up, man?”

  “I was just wondering if you might be able to do me a solid and take me down to see the eclipse down the city. I was thinking maybe we could go to the Party at the Point. I understand you got your stuff going on and I don’t expect you to do it. I was just thinking if you weren’t doing nothing.”

  “Reg. I’d love to take you down to check out the eclipse.”

  “That means a lot, Mike. I know you gotta borrow a car and haul my ass around, so it ain’t going to be no picnic for you.”

  I hadn’t thought about that part. “Reg. You’re my best friend, man. I’d be honored to party with you. Who cares if we have to jump though a few hoops to make it happen.”

  “That’s my young blood brother, right there. Ha ha.” He held out his drink and we clanged our glasses together as I spilled some booze on my loveseat.

  We had a few glasses of Jameson and then we had a few too many. My head was spinning and I felt sick. I leaned back on my loveseat and don’t remember anything else. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

  12

  Four tiny fingers and a thumb slapped me in the face. Hard. Not the wake-up call to a great day I was looking for.

  I jumped up from the loveseat. “Owwww.”

  “I should have hit you harder. What the hell happened here?” She pointed around at the utter destruction. I had meant to clean it up last night but I had fallen asleep.

  I got defensive. “An Empusa crashed through the ceiling. She trashed the place. I just tried to get her out of here. It wasn’t my fault.”

  “No. Nothing is ever your fault. Never. I can smell the booze. You passed out drunk.” She focused on the floor. “My books, look at my books I lent you. Those are worth more than their weight in gold and you’ve destroyed them.”

  “I didn’t mean to. They aren’t destroyed, messed up a little. I have some samples from the Empusa and werelion if you want to help me figure out this mystery.”

  She yelled, “Enough.” It was the first time she had ever yelled at me. “It’s time you help yourself. Not only have you put my life in danger, but you’ve destroyed the house I let you live in.”

  “I promise I will pay to fix everything. It just might…”

  “Enough,” she screamed again. “You only worry about yourself and that needs to stop now. I’ve been assisting you every step along the way and that ends now. I’m going to the Deep Burrow for a fortnight so I can enjoy Samhain. When I return this house better be in ship-shape or you better have the duckets to fix everything. And I mean everything.”

  She grabbed a book, clutched it under her arm, shoved the mangled door to the side, and walked down the steps of my porch. Her words hurt because everything I had been doing was to protect the entire city and possibly the world. I hadn’t bought anything for myself other than magic supplies and Jameson. I actually thought I was a good person.

  Colossus came out of the open closet. He must have run in there when Alayna had busted in. Losing my connection to the magic world wasn’t good. I didn’t have the guts to open that box without my mentor. She had given me inspiration and confidence when everyone else had pushed me aside.

  Now another problem piled on top of everything else. I had two weeks to get my apartment fixed or I would have Alayna to deal with. My magic days appeared to be headed for a tragic, premature ending.

  I tried to shake away the hangover and thumping pain that might have been a concussion. The shower hadn’t worked to clear my head. I got Colossus some fresh water and cooked up some bacon and eggs. I chopped up some of the meal and put it into a bowl for my dog.

  Colossus chomped away at his breakfast as I forked some scrambled eggs into my mouth. “Do you hate me too, buddy?” I mumbled with eggs spilling out the side of my mouth.

  The dog stopped eating and looked up at me. He sauntered over to me and mashed his head into my shin. His wet nose made me smile and I scooped him up. I hugged my new friend and he licked my cheek a few times.

  It tickled and felt nice that someone cared about me. I gave Colossus a kiss on the forehead and set him back down. He raced back to his bowl of food and dug in again. We finished our breakfast and I let Colossus out into the backyard.

  I grabbed the laptop and started going over all the evidence that Gretchen had sent me about the shifter murders. Nothing really jumped out about the killings, so I dove into the boring stuff. I tried to read everything about the murderers and noticed one distinct pattern.

  Fourteen of the twenty shifters had receipts from the same upscale barber shop located downtown. I found the address and phone number, but how would this tie into the murders or G20?

  I knew hair could be used to manipulate a person’s soul, to make it do things it otherwise wouldn’t consider. You could even make a voodoo-type doll using the hair as enchantment to create a spiritual connection. How did this correlate with the sex rings? I needed to talk to the barber and the McNights. The latter was going to be tricky.

  Harold and Raquel McNight were powerful and connected. I couldn’t just walk up to the front door and start demanding answers. I had to be smooth on this one, much smoother than before. I texted Gretchen and asked her to dig up anything she could find concerning the McNights.

  She agreed and ended her last message with an explicit threat to stay away from Satoku.

  I cleaned up the house as best I could, starting with getting my bookshelves upright. I tended to the books first and hated that the fight had caused me to disrespect this important literature. I loved books, and gently scooped them up, smoothed out any wrinkled pages, and put them back in their places on my shelves.

  I did a sloppy job patching up the attic, but the roof was almost fully covered and good enough for now. I pushed all the broken pieces of roof, floor and my storage items into the corner of the attic. Thank you very much, Empusa.

  I reflected on the fact that I had dueled with three members of the demon world and scored a draw every time. I hadn’t used magic the way I expected I would in a supernatural fight. Due to the cramped quarters, potential danger and magnitude of the situations, I’d hardly used any magic.

  I hung out with Colossus and Reginald for a little while. We walked down to the pharmacy so I could get some dog food and supplies to treat my little buddy’s cigar burns. I still couldn’t belie
ve someone would do that to this precious dog. We went back home, and I dabbed some of the gel on the burn spots.

  I got ready for my upcoming date. I had switched the restaurant with Suzette so that I could stop by the barber shop first and ask a few questions. I had made it so they were right down the street from each other in the Cultural District. I took a long shower, shaved, and put on my freshest scent.

  I’d hardly ever worn nice clothes, but I did own a few decent outfits. I put on my black dress pants, long-sleeved gray button down, leather belt with a silver dragon face buckle, dark dress socks and shiny black dress shoes.

  Despite the brisk October night, I eschewed the services of a jacket and jumped into the backseat of the Uber car. She dropped me off downtown at the barbershop.

  I read the writing on the awning--Glenn’s Stylistic Cuttery and Barbershop

  All right, Glenn, let’s get this over with. I assumed Glenn was an ornery old barber who wouldn’t want to talk to some young kid, but I had to take a swing. The place in no way resembled a barber shop. I walked past a few times from the opposite side of the street.

  It appeared to be a high-class joint. A red awning with of the shop’s name in gold lettering welcomed customers and led them right up to the glass front door. I saw more women than men inside the building. Odd barbershop.

  I crossed the street, entered through the glass door, and checked the place out. A counter with a cash register to my immediate right. Chairs for cutting lined up behind the register on the right. Five spots on the left for getting perms and a few sinks behind them for washing hair. Barber shop?

  The bubbly woman behind the counter wore a gold name tag that said Tara, and asked, “Are you here for a cut? Have you been here before?” She grabbed her drink from the desk.

  “No, I haven’t. I’m actually looking to talk to Glenn if he’s around.”

  She laughed and almost spit out her Diet Coke. “I was going to ask if you had an appointment, but I don’t think you do.”

  I got nervous and tilted my head to the side. “What makes you say that?”