by D V Wolfe
Tiff stepped back from the curb. “This was so much fun,” she said in a ditzy voice that almost made me laugh. “We really need to do this more often. I’ll see you Tuesday for backgammon.”
“Tuesday,” I said. “We’ll do that thing with our backs!” What the hell was backgammon?
Tiff laughed and gave me a hug and then she gave Noah a quick hug, looking back up the street behind us. Then, she turned away from us down the side street running around the block. The light changed and Noah and I stepped out into the crosswalk.
“On Tuesday, ‘we’ll do that thing with our backs’...” Noah muttered.
“Oh shove it,” I said. “So sue me, I don’t know what the hell backgammon is.” I glanced back the way Tiff had gone and saw that she had already disappeared.
“Well, the way you put it makes it sound more interesting than it has ever sounded before,” Noah said and I could tell he was trying not to laugh.
“Hey,” I hissed at him. “Help me try to find the dinguses that are following us.”
Noah sobered up quickly after that. We didn’t have our badass werewolf protecting us at the moment and I wasn’t armed. Noah started craning his chicken bone neck in every direction.
I shook my head and looked down. “Noah, do you know how to not be obvious?”
Noah looked at me, his eyes wide. “The pack could be stalking us right now, I’m not worried about what the citizens of Clear Rapids think about me.”
We reached Mack’s Outback and we paused so that I could put my injured foot up on the bench. I pretended to re-tie my shoe while we looked and listened for whatever was following us. There was one man in a baseball cap coming down the block on the other side of the street. He was sneaking glances around him and often, his baseball cap brim looked like it was pointed in our direction. He slipped between two buildings directly across from us and I looked at Noah. “Guess Tiff was worried for nothing. Just a creepy guy in a ball cap.”
A scream of surprise carried across the street to us. Noah looked at me and swallowed hard. “Guess you spoke too soon.”
We ran out into traffic, which was deceptively busy for a town the size of Clear Rapids. We were honked at and cussed at from minivan windows, but we didn’t slow down. We hit the sidewalk on the other side of the street and ducked between the two buildings. This was probably the dumbest thing I’d ever done. Actually, probably not, but it was up there and I had so much adrenaline pumping through my chest that I couldn’t recall anything dumber at the moment. The two buildings shared a common twelve car parking lot which currently held two cars, the creepy guy laying sprawled on his back, and one ramped up Faoladh, standing over him with perfectly manicured claws at his throat.
There was a low rumbling growl coming from Tiff that I recognized as ‘wild bite’, but it wasn’t as smooth as I remembered it being. Of course, she hadn’t had time to prepare either. I kept Noah behind me as I circled the pair of them, trying to make sure there weren’t any friends of the creepy guy waiting in the wings. Of course, I had no idea what I was going to do if I found any of the creepy guy’s friends since I didn’t have a weapon. I supposed I could throw Noah at them, but that probably wouldn’t work and it would make future rides in the truck rather awkward.
A flash of color and fur caught my eye when I looked back at ‘creepy guy’. Tiff was squeezing his throat, demanding something from him in ‘wild bite’ and he wasn’t answering. A pair of gray husky ears appeared on the top of his head as he struggled against Tiff’s hold. Recognition crashed down on me.
“Wait!” I screamed at Tiff. She looked up at me, her eyes flashing silver and green for a moment. Her expression began to fade from a wild beast interrupted with its prey, back to human recognition. “I know him,” I said, approaching the pair of them carefully. I’d accidentally snuck up on Tiff once before when she was in full-Faoladh, and she’d scared the shit out of me with how extreme her shifting was. Tiff released his throat and stood clear. I joined her to look down at Mick.
“Hiya Mick,” I said, not trying to hide the annoyance in my voice. “Whatcha doin here?”
Mick coughed and sat up, putting a hand to his throat, his husky eyes moving between me and Tiff.
“Is he a…” Tiff started.
“Cynocephali,” I finished for her. I offered Mick a hand and he took it, getting to his feet. “Where’s Vince?” I asked. “And why are you here?”
“Vince,” Mick wheezed and he went back to massaging his throat. After a few seconds of looking at Tiff with her hands on her hips and me, arms crossed and glaring at him, he tried again. “Vince is going through your truck,” Mick winced.
“What the hell!?” I boomed, turning on the spot, heading back towards the street. Mick lunged and caught me by the shoulder and I heard Tiff growl behind me.
“Let her go,” Tiff said.
“Wait,” Mick said. “Something is tracking you.”
I turned back to look at him. “Yeah, you and your tail-wagging partner.”
Mick shook his head. “No, Vince thinks you have a cursed object in your car that’s letting something huge track you. He’s searching for it right now.” I was momentarily speechless. The soul stone. Was it the demon?
“How did you two cook up the idea that something was tracking me?” I asked, deciding to find out what they knew and how they knew it before volunteering any new information.
“A Seer,” Mick said. “She told us to find you and keep you safe. We can’t stop it, but if we can find the object, we can throw it off your trail and if we can get you out of here, it’ll lose you. For a while at least.”
I took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to tell Mick that I knew how it was tracking us. But, that would lead to me having to tell them about the soul stone. Then I would have to argue with him, telling him that I wasn’t willing to get rid of it, especially when the demon on the other end of the fishing pole might be the one holding my contract. Added to this, I also had to figure out a way to say all of this without Tiff tearing me a new one for my stupidity. Mick still had a hand to his throat and he sniffed the air and turned to look at Tiff.
“You’re not a werewolf,” Mick said.
Tiff rolled her eyes. “Not one that you’d recognize.”
“You’re a Faoladh,” Mick said.
Tiff swung her gaze back to him. “You know what a Faoladh is?”
Mick nodded his husky head and made an effort to keep his tongue in his mouth. “My clan name is Donovan. Of course, I know what a Faoladh is.”
Noah and I took the lead while Mick and Tiff talked...dog and wolf shop... behind us as we retraced our steps back to Lucy. I felt guilty for not telling them about the soul stone. Of course, it had acted like a homing beacon for the damn demons. I was pissed at myself, but at the moment it was a lot more satisfying to be pissed at Vince for breaking into Lucy.
“Vince better not be fucking up my truck,” I muttered to Noah beside me, as we turned the corner.
8
Vince was bent over Lucy’s seat, his ass hanging out the driver’s side door when we approached. He didn’t hear Noah and I coming and I decided to take advantage of the situation and kick him in the ass.
He let out a startled cry and then there was a loud thunk that rocked the truck. It sounded like Vince hit his head on the steering wheel. The driver’s side window was down and I moved around the door to lean in the window at him as he stood up.
“Hiya Vince,” I said, trying to keep my voice from betraying how ticked I was that he had broken into my truck. “Whatcha doing?”
He had one hand on the back of his head as it transformed back from his bulldog face to his human one. “Bane,” he groaned looking over at me. “I know your truck is your holy sanctum or whatever, but this is important.”
“More important than the sneaker extraction your ass is going to need, scheduled for ten minutes from now?” I asked, giving him a winning smile.
Vince grumbled. “I put everything back
where I found it. I just need to check the toolbox. I’m looking for…”
“Yeah,” I said. “Your back-up singer told us. You feel some kind of disturbance in the force that may or may not mean that something is tracking me.”
Vince met my gaze and there wasn’t guilt or levity there. His gaze bore into mine and his human face rippled. “Bane, I’m not screwing around.”
“I know,” I muttered. “I also know how they’re tracking me.” Vince’s eyes went wide and he opened his mouth to ask. I shook my head. “Not right now. I’ll tell you later.”
Vince looked around at the rest of us. He nodded at Noah, passed over Mick, and I watched his gaze fall on Tiff. “Who’s this?”
“Tiffany,” I said.
Vince’s eyebrows climbed his bald forehead. “The Faoladh.” It wasn’t a question.
“Pleasure,” Tiffany said.
I looked around the street and I saw several pedestrians turning their heads to look our way. “I love a good family reunion as much as the next person,” I said, then I paused and looked at Noah’s shirt. “Well, probably not as much as Noah, based on his t-shirt…” Noah gave me a dirty look which I ignored. “But we’re starting to attract attention from the locals.” Vince and Mick were both back to human faces, but we still looked like a gang of bounty hunters or a punk rock group. Either way, we were a little too much for southwestern Iowa at dinner time.
“We need to find a hotel near a wooded area or a park,” I said.
“We passed one on our way into town,” Mick said, speaking up for the first time since we got back to Lucy. I glanced over at him. “I...I think it’s called Timber View.”
“Sold,” I said. I looked around. “Where’s your Jeep?”
“Around the corner,” Vince said, pointing behind him.
I nodded. “We’ll follow you.”
Noah climbed in next to me and I turned the engine over. Mick was talking to Tiff and after a moment he nodded and jogged off behind Vince. Tiff got in beside Noah and closed her door. Noah and I turned to look at her.
“What was that all about?” I asked, trying to hide my grin.
Tiff pretended to pick a piece of lint off her shirt. “Nothing. He was just saying that he was sorry his ‘wild bite’ was so rusty.”
I rolled my eyes and merged with the oncoming traffic. “Sure he was.”
We followed Vince and Mick back to the edge of town and into the parking lot of a bungalow-style motel. It was set back from the road and surrounded by trees on three sides. The stand of sycamore trees behind the bungalows at the far end of the area would probably be enough for what Tiff needed. I pulled into a spot in front of the bungalow furthest from the office and got out. I jogged across the lot and scared the crap out of the little old guy behind the desk. Either my appearance or the mere fact that there was a customer had him almost catatonic. I asked if we could have bungalow twelve because of the great view and he practically threw the keys at me. I signed the ledger book as Dahlia Scrotum, handed over three twenties, and took the key.
By the time I got back to Lucy, Noah had pulled my black duffle bag out of the toolbox and had it on one shoulder with his orange backpack over the other. Tiff was carrying her black leather messenger bag and Mick was standing next to them, talking to Tiff.
“Where’s Vince?” I asked, approaching them.
“He’s walking the perimeter,” Mick said.
I rolled my eyes and jammed the key into the doorknob. The door swung open and we all filed in just as Vince emerged from the other side of the lot behind the main office. I waved him over and headed inside behind Tiff. The bungalow was seasick. The interior paint was seasick blue and the shag carpet was seasick green. There was a faint aroma of sour milk and Lysol.
“Five-star resort,” Noah muttered as he dropped onto one of the beds. I ignored him and turned back to look at Vince who was the last one inside.
“Spill,” Vince said, shutting the door behind him. “How are you being tracked?”
I shook my head. “You first. Lay it on me. Why exactly are you and Mick here?”
Vince pulled out a chair at the little table, sat down, and leaned back so that he could move the curtain aside and glance out at the lot.
I looked over at Tiff and Noah. Both of them looked visibly shaken by the look on Vince’s face. It kind of made me feel better, knowing that I wasn’t the only one worried by their behavior. I’d known Vince and Mick for several years now and this had to be the most serious I’d ever seen them.
“A Seer told us that there was a dark force tracking you,” Vince said.
“You mean besides hell and Festus?” I asked.
Vince shook his head. “This is serious, Bane.”
I held up my hands. “I’m just asking in case the Seer didn’t know that I was already hellward bound.”
“Whatever it is, it’s bent on killing you, Bane. It’s crucial to its survival and it won’t be deterred. It’s coming for you and it has a force at its fingertips.”
“This is what the Seer said?” I asked.
Vince nodded. “And it has a tether on you so it can keep finding you. We assumed that meant a cursed object.”
“Naturally,” I said.
Vince hung his head. “But I couldn’t find it.”
I sighed and stood up, digging the necklace out of my pocket. “It’s because I have it.”
I could hear the air in the room being sucked in by the other four around me as they leaned forward to look at the symbol dangling from my fist.
“Is...is that a soul stone?” Tiff breathed.
I nodded. “Got it off of Mastick in Sicily. Festus says demons use them….”
“As payment,” Vince said. He held his hand out. “Let me see it.”
I stepped back from him. “No. We’re not burying this or destroying it or anything like that.”
“Why not?” Mick asked. “That’s how the damn thing is tracking you.”
“I know,” I said. “But it’s a soul stone. We can’t just leave it somewhere and hope the demons coming for it won’t fuck up any innocent standing in their way to getting it. And this symbol.” I looked down at the necklace in my hand and shook my head. “It’s driving me nuts. I know I’ve seen it somewhere before. And besides,” I looked back up at Vince and then at Mick, Tiff, and Noah. “If I have this, the demon will have to come find me to get it back.”
“You’re saying that, like it’s a good thing,” Noah said. A stab of guilt hit me in the gut at his words. To me, it was a good thing. But I hadn’t stopped to think about what could happen to Noah if the demon did track us down. I set the necklace down on the little table and shook my head.
“I don’t know what to do. It seemed like a good idea to hold onto it at first, but now, we don’t have any more demon-slaying-stakes, so if it does show up…”
“You’re S.O.L,” Mick finished.
“And you’re right,” Tiff said. “You can’t leave it here in Clear Rapids.” She looked at Vince and Mick. “Depending on how trustworthy and talented your Seer is if this thing that’s following you is putting out that much disturbance in the force, it would level this town, looking for the stone.”
Vince nodded. “She’s the best, so I’d say that’s probably accurate.”
“Damn I hate it when Nya is right,” I said. More to myself than the rest of them.
“Nya?” Tiff asked. I saw her nostrils flare slightly. Tiff had only met Nya once and the two hadn’t exactly hit it off. Mostly because Nya had almost stabbed Tiff, thinking she was a run-of-the-mill werewolf. I guess Tiff had never really forgiven her for that.
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s a long story. Suffice it to say that Nya got word from some of her super snitches that there is a pissed off Duke of Hell wanting my head on a pike and now, apparently, his BFF has joined the fight. So I guess it’s two demons that are coming after me now.”
“Along with their legions,” Tiff said, shaking her head. “Man, Bane, when you step
in shit, you never do it half-way, do you?”
I debated mentioning to the group at large that Nya said there was a sword that she thought could kill a big baddie demon. I wasn’t sure if I believed it. I knew Nya’s heart was in the right place, but the odds of there being a sword that existed to slay demons was right up there with closing my eyes, calling for Kazam, and asking him to use wishful thinking and pixie dust to break my contract with downstairs. It was a nice thought, but in the meantime, I had to plan for the worst.
“A couple of demons,” Vince said. “Well, that’s a relief.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I’m glad one of us feels that way.”
Mick shook his head. “But, you know how to kill demons now, right? Those stakes you used…”
“Which I’m out of now, remember?” I said. “And which have only ever killed Empty House demons. Not the possessed ones or anyone higher up.”
“You don’t think the stakes will be enough for the other kind?” Tiff asked.
I shrugged. “Nya doesn’t think so. She’s checking with her sources, but she didn’t sound hopeful.”
Vince nodded. “So you need bigger guns.”
“Yeah,” I said. “However those might manifest. And we’ve already had one run-in with a carload of demons yesterday.”
“Jesus, Bane,” Vince said, staring out the window again. “They could have followed you here.”
“Well, that exact car of demons couldn’t have,” I said. Vince turned back to glare at me and Noah drew a finger across his throat and then made an explosion gesture. I rolled my eyes. “It was a car fire, not a car explosion. Always so dramatic, Noah.”
“If those big baddie demons sent them, you’re lucky to be alive,” Vince said.
“So what do we do?” Noah asked.
“Get the hell out of here,” Vince said. “Go find a desert in the middle of nowhere and pitch the stone out the window.”
“Sure,” I said. “Just as soon as we finish this hunt.”
Vince growled low in his throat and Mick put a hand on his shoulder, silencing him. “It’s Bane, Vince. You think she’d leave a job to do something that someone told her to do and might save her life? Not happening. Best to just play along.” Vince and I both glared at Mick, but he didn’t miss a beat. “So,” Mick said. He stared down at his hand and then Vince’s arm. It looked like Vince had gotten some of the demon goo on him. Probably from when he was digging through my truck. Mick stood up and moved to the back of the room, to wash his hands in the sink. “You three are here because there’s a werewolf pack in the area?”
