A Grim Situation

by Whit McClendon

  “My name is Ariana,” she began, speaking carefully and evenly, “and it will take a few minutes to bring you up to speed. I doubt you will believe it all, but Kane says we should give you a chance.” She leaned into the doorway slightly and glanced down at Jim, who was still curled in a fetal position on the floor. “Hey, sorry about the nut shot. No hard feelings, right?”

  Jim groaned in response but did not get up. He did manage to extend his middle finger in greeting.

  Ariana shook her head and smiled, unruffled. “Yeah, I don’t blame you. I hear that hurts a lot. Here,” she gently nudged his gun closer to him with her foot, being careful not to move too quickly. He reached over to claim it, then struggled to a seated position. He racked the slide to be sure a round was in the chamber, expelling the previous round, confirming that she had not tampered with it before returning it. Once assured it was in working order, he trained it on her and struggled to his feet. “You’ve got your gun back, and I’m sorry I threw a knee into your nuts. Now that’s settled, can we all be friends?” Ariana said hopefully.

  “Fat chance, missy,” Jim growled. “Get in here and lie down on the floor, fingers laced behind your head.”

  “No, wait,” Avery interrupted. Jim turned astonished eyes towards his partner, only to widen them further as he watched her holster her sidearm. “She’s OK. I think we can trust her.”

  Keeping his gun on Ariana, Jim hissed, “Have you lost your mind? She’s armed to the teeth, and in case you hadn’t noticed, she assaulted a police officer! I’m not gonna walk right for a week!”

  Ariana spoke up, “Hey, I said I was sorry! You came around that corner like Rambo! What’s a girl supposed to do?” The slightest of grins touched Ariana’s mouth.

  In spite of her concern for her partner, Avery grinned a little as well. She put a gentle hand on Jim’s arm, and he slowly lowered his gun. She whispered, “I’ve got a hunch.”

  Jim looked deeply into his partner’s grey-green eyes, then looked back at the newcomer, his face still hard. Then he sighed, holstered his gun, and relaxed. Folding his arms, he muttered, “All right. But you are definitely taking the heat on this one if something goes wonky.”

  To Jim, she conceded, “Agreed. I’ll take responsibility.” To Ariana, she said, “All right, Ariana, tell us again who you are and what you’re doing here.” Suddenly she remembered something Ariana had said. “And who is Kane?”

  A low, rumbling voice crawled up Avery’s spine, raising gooseflesh along every inch of it.

  “I am.”

  The owner of the voice stepped through the doorway and Avery gasped in shock and took a half-step back. She had trouble speaking for a moment, but finally found her voice, shaky though it was. “It’s…it’s you!”

  Her gun was back in her hand in an instant.

  Chapter 8

  After cleaning up the remains of Raymond Clark, we gathered our wits and drove to the address on his mail. Twilight had arrived, making me feel more at home as darkness approached. Ariana followed the disembodied voice issuing forth from her GPS system and we found ourselves in an older neighborhood in Katy, north of the freeway and only a little way from the campus where we had snatched Raymond from under the noses of the police. We stowed the Jeep at a park at the center of the old subdivision and got out. She pointed her keychain at it, and it made a sharp chirping sound as she armed its security system. She could have used her magick to set a more interesting snare for would-be thieves, and I said as much, but she just gave me one of her looks in response. No harm done; I’d grown used to them.

  “The house is down at the end of the street, at the corner,” Ariana informed me with a gesture toward the homes south of us. “Are you getting anything yet?”

  I shifted my sight to detect the auras of life and magick more clearly, and found the house right away. The physical structure wasn’t quite visible from our vantage point, but I spotted a bloody yellowish radiance over the treetops the way you might see the lights at a baseball field at night from a distance.

  “Yes, it’s definitely where Raymond did his dirty work. Let’s go.”

  “Hey, hold on,” Ariana said, touching my arm to keep me from leaving. “I know it’s Texas and all, but I’m a little conspicuous out here.” She gestured to herself, clad in a black tactical vest, a semi-automatic pistol strapped to each thigh, and a backpack loaded with witchy goodies. She had a black baseball hat on, her long, blonde ponytail sticking out the back, and I knew there were several knives secretly stashed in her clothing. “A little help?”

  I smiled as I focused my will, waggled my fingers for effect, and cast a spell to adjust her appearance. Ariana’s SWAT team look wavered and shifted, then suddenly, she was wearing a flimsy sundress that left little to the imagination. Her lithe muscles moved smoothly under her tanned skin, and although built for speed rather than softness, even I thought she looked quite fetching that way. She looked down at herself and squeaked in horror, then gave me another hard look. “All right, just a moment,” I surrendered. Another waggle of fingers and the sundress became a pair of casual shorts and a pale blue t-shirt, an outfit I had seen her wear on occasion.

  She looked down at herself again, and the change apparently satisfied her. “Wiseass,” she muttered at me, then she started down the street without checking to see that I followed. Still grinning, I decided to get a move on. I swept past her in an eyeblink and stopped a few houses away from our target, sheltering in the deepening shadows of a stately old oak tree that adorned someone’s front yard. Calling on my power again, I dimmed myself so that I wouldn’t be seen and surveyed the street. From my new vantage point, I had a clear view of the house that had formerly been occupied by the late Raymond Clark.

  A car sat at the curb, its motor still running. As I watched, the driver cut the engine, and both occupants stepped out of the car. I swore as I recognized the tall fellow in the brown suit and the short woman in the deep blue top, the same police we had run into at the college. They would probably be trouble, especially if they got into Raymond’s conjuring space. They could ruin our only chance to find additional clues. A forensics team would destroy everything that would be helpful to us. We had to get in there before that happened.

  In spite of my concern for the situation, I found my eyes glued to the dark-haired woman, and I watched her draw her gun and disappear with her partner behind the cover of the sheltering shrubs that decorated the yard. I listened, and I heard them call to Raymond before entering the house. A few seconds later, I heard them go inside.

  Ariana strolled past me on the sidewalk. She had seen the police as well but was making good use of my illusion to seem like no threat at all. She glanced in my direction and tilted her head at Raymond’s house, though she kept walking as if she hadn’t a care in the world. I sped ahead and stopped on Raymond’s porch. I could hear faint rumbles from inside as the two police moved around the house. Ariana stepped onto the porch beside me, and I allowed her glamour to disappear so that she could see her guns and other equipment. To my surprise, she didn’t draw one. She must have seen my questioning look.

  They’re cops, she thought at me, her voice clear inside my mind. If I have my guns out, they’ll shoot first and ask questions later.

  We could enspell them again, I suggested.

  Ariana shook her head. If they’re on this case, they won’t stop until they either get somewhere or they’re called off the case. No telling when or if that might happen. I think we should talk to them. We need to stop them from making a mess in there anyway. They could get hurt!

  I mulled over the situation for a moment. Ordinarily, I’d prefer to magick them both into a stupor, do what we needed to do, then leave them with the suggestion that they found nothing. I thought of the female cop. Something about her called to me, something that felt like magick. What kind, I had no idea. But even so, I knew then that I couldn’t just walk away. I had to talk to her, find out who she was.

  All right. We’ll talk t
o them. But if something goes awry, I’m enspelling them both. I paused before adding, Watch out for the woman. She’s the more dangerous of the two.

  Ariana gave me a quizzical look, but then silently opened the door and slipped into Raymond’s house. I dimmed myself and followed closely.

  The house was simply furnished, nothing special. Nothing screamed ancient evil at us. We heard low voices towards the back of the house, then the sound of a door being unlocked and opened. Silence fell, and I figured they’d found what we were looking for. We made our way down the hallway towards them. A door was open, and light spilled out of the room to splash on the wall opposite. Ariana pressed her back against the wall while I simply stood there, listening. After a minute or two, we heard the clacking of computer keys. Ariana’s eyes widened. If he has any spells on that thing, and they read them aloud, it could be trouble. She carefully peeked around the corner. Dammit, she guessed the password; she’s in!

  Normally, it takes a ton of focus, training, and will to perform magick, to make it work as it is meant to. That doesn’t mean that some knucklehead can’t accidentally initiate a dangerous spell. Even toddlers can turn on the stove and cause a fire, and some incantations can be the same way; the simple act of reading the words aloud could bring catastrophic results. Before I could stop her, Ariana was already talking.

  “I wouldn’t open those,” she called around the corner, “and whatever you do, don’t read anything you find in there out loud. That would be bad.”

  I sighed and shook my head. We could have swept in there just as we had before, bewitched them both, and they’d have been none the wiser. But Ariana is an act-first, discuss-later kind of woman, and it was already too late. I just stepped back to enjoy the show.

  When the male cop came around the corner, Ariana neatly grabbed his gun in both her hands, pushed it off-line, and twisted it. He instinctively pulled it back towards his body to keep her from getting it, and she just went with the motion, adding momentum to the knee she slammed into his groin. He grunted in agony and fell to the floor, clutching the ache that was rapidly gaining prominence in his nether region, and leaving his gun in Ariana’s practiced hands. To his credit, he managed to escape, scuttling backwards and disappearing back into the room he’d come from.

  Ariana examined the gun she’d just acquired. Nice, she said silently, at least the guy takes care of his equipment.

  I heard the female cop ask her partner about his gun, and I froze in place. There was something in her voice that shouldn’t have been there. I struggled to identify it, to put a name to the sensation that had blossomed in the pit of my stomach at the sound, but although it was strong, it was also elusive. The woman was no witch, I was willing to bet my life. Even so, her voice carried a hint of ancient power.

  Before I could stop myself, I said to Ariana, It’s OK. Introduce yourself to them first. I’m not sure why yet, but we need to give them a chance. They’ll work with us.

  Are you sure? Ariana’s voice in my mind was uncertain, but willing.

  Sure enough, I replied, go ahead and show yourself. Be careful. And maybe give him his gun back first as a sign of good faith.

  Ariana carefully placed the gun on the floor where they could see it, then stepped into their line of sight.

  Moments later, so did I.

  Chapter 9

  It wasn’t the first time I had stared down the barrel of a gun, and considering my line of work, it certainly would not be the last. It wasn’t entirely unexpected, as police officers tend to be a twitchy bunch anyway, but the genuine fear that rose in her eyes as she whipped her gun from its holster and pointed it at me was a surprise. My glamour was in place, so I should have looked like an ordinary human. I glanced at the male cop, who had also drawn his gun, but he looked more confused than anything. I looked back at the female and became aware of the intense power radiating from her. I raised my hands slowly to show I meant no harm, and sent a hint of calming magick her way to ease the tension. This time, it slid off her like water breaking on the rocks. She blinked a couple of times, and then glared at me.

  Uh oh, I thought at Ariana.

  Are you kidding me right now? Ariana’s mental voice was awfully irritated. I couldn’t blame her. She kept her hands raised. Seems like she knows you. An old friend?

  Doubtful, was the best I could come up with. Ariana rolled her eyes.

  “You…” the woman’s voice was hard, and although her hands were shaking, her stance was firm. “What are you?”

  At her side, her partner glanced her way in confusion, but kept his gun trained dutifully on us.

  Ariana spoke up gently, “Look, let us explain. There’s a lot going on here that you don’t understand.”

  The cop ignored her, every fiber of her being focused on me. “I said, what are you? You’re not human! You can’t be…” her voice trailed off as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

  As much as I hate to admit it, I was perplexed. If she were a witch, she might have sensed that I wasn’t human, but witches were well-acquainted with the paranormal and the existence of magickal beings. That’s Magick 101 stuff. But how could she possibly tell what I was? I focused intently on the cop, trying to gain a sense of her. Although I could feel the waves of power coming from her, there didn’t seem to be any structure to contain it, none of the discipline that I often felt from a practiced witch. The answer slowly dawned on me. I released the breath I had not known I was holding as I came to the realization that she wasn’t a witch at all. At least, not one who’d been trained. Her powers had to be innate, natural. Which probably meant that somewhere in her family tree, someone had done some dillydallying with one of the Faerie. I shifted my perception and was surprised by her cobalt blue and deep indigo aura, shining so brightly it rivaled Ariana’s paler blue. She definitely had magick in her blood, and it was potent. Interesting.

  Although that was remarkable enough, there seemed to be more to the situation that I didn’t understand. She was acting like she knew me, not just that I wasn’t human. I decided to speak plainly. I looked into her eyes and hoped that the illusory mask I wore expressed my sincerity. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to frighten you. I will not harm either of you. I am Kane. Milady…um…ma’am, I don’t believe I know you.”

  She stared at me with eyes gone sea-green in anger, her jaw clenched. Then she replied in a low, menacing voice that did little for my confidence. “It was a long time ago. You killed my grandfather. I should shoot you right now and be done with it.”

  At her side, her partner scoffed before he could stop himself. “Avery, are you kidding? Your grandfather died when you were a little kid. This guy doesn’t look more than 35. What are you thinking?”

  Her eyes never left mine, and the steel in her voice left no doubt that she believed what she was saying. “It was him. I can feel it, Jim.”

  “What does that even mean, you can feel it?”

  I kept my voice low and calm as I answered him. “She is…special.” I saw the recognition in Jim’s face, and I turned my attention back to Avery. “You are…aren’t you? You know things. You see things. You always have. Am I right?”

  At first, she said nothing, but she lowered her eyes as if to consider, and when she raised them back to mine there was something in them besides the cold anger that had risen upon my arrival. “Maybe,” she whispered.

  Ariana quietly spoke up. “That’s rare. We know what it is. We can help you understand it. Yes, it sounds completely crazy, but if you can feel things, if you know that Kane is…different…then it’s true. You have power in you.”

  I could see Avery turning things over in her head. Then she glared back at me, the gun barrel aimed at my left eye. “But you killed him. You slashed him open with your…” she glanced at my hands and frowned when she didn’t see what she expected, “with your claws. I was there.”

  I have to admit, Ariana’s voice actually sounded amused in my mind, that does sound like you.

  Woul
d you shut up? I replied. If I did kill her grandfather, I must have had a perfectly good reason for doing so. I don’t kill just for fun. I paused. Anymore. Ariana rolled her eyes at me but stayed quiet. I don’t know, though. Maybe I did, but I can’t be sure.

  “Ma’am, I don’t know anything about your grandfather.” That much was true. I’ve slain humans beyond counting in my time, and although there was a possibility that I might have killed the man, I had absolutely no idea if that was actually the case. “I’m a kind of private investigator, specializing in these kinds of cases. We’re here to find the one responsible for hurting those innocent people. The man you apprehended was only a contractor, working for someone else. We’re after that person. We have a feeling she may do something soon that will hurt a lot more people, but we don’t know what.”

  “She?” Jim’s eyebrows rose. “You think a woman was behind these…whatever these pills are doing to those people?”

  Ariana nodded. “Yep. We know that and little else. We were hoping to find out something here, but when we saw you’d gotten here ahead of us, we knew we needed to stop you before you did something to get yourselves hurt. There’s dangerous stuff in a place like this.” She looked at Avery, who was still staring at me with those gray-green eyes. “C’mon, we’re here to help. If you shoot him, you’ll probably just piss him off anyway. Please, let us help you.” Then she added, “Look, can’t you feel that he’s not here to hurt you? Look with your heart. What do you think?”