Authors: Jack J. Lee
“Hold on, Aidan. I’ll do it.” He didn’t even pretend to protest. As I headed for the house, he gave me the smile of a death row inmate who’d just gotten the Governor’s call. I went up to my room and picked up Paul Swenson’s journal and then walked to her room. Her door was closed. I heard Mina and Andi talking in her room. I knocked.
I heard Mina’s subdued voice, “Who is it?”
“It’s me. Can I come in?”
There was a pause, then “It’s open.”
Mina was lying on her bed with her arm over her face. Her voice sounded like she’d been crying. Andi was next to Mina on the side of the bed. Mina didn’t have to explain to me what was going on. I’d touched her soul. There wasn’t a person alive who knew Mina as well as me. She was an intelligent, type A, alpha female whose life had been pulled out from underneath her when her parents were killed.
First, she had to become a parent to her younger brother and sister at an age when most girls were only concerned with boyfriends, partying, and college.
Next, she had to deal with money problems and the possibility of selling the home she loved. Then she found out that her parents had been lying to her all her life; not only about what her father did for a living, but about who he really was—a monster-fighting paladin. And she now had to deal with monsters of her own who wanted to kill her and the rest of her family.
It didn’t help that she was engaged to a guy with the same job as her dead dad. Anyone in her situation would be on edge. No surprise that her home, the last vestige of her old normal life, had become her refuge and that she’d want to keep it exactly the way it was before her parents died. It must have bothered her to have Tim, Aidan, and Drew move into her parent’s bedroom. By putting up the shed without her permission, Aidan had unwittingly messed with Mina’s last lifeline.
I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it coming. My only excuse was the idea about caring for a particular place—loving a home—was so foreign to me that even though it was obvious that Mina loved this house, I just hadn’t realized how important it was to her until she snapped.
Mina had been on the edge of the abyss for months. Now that I understood, it was amazing that she’d held out for as long as she had. I knew she was deeply embarrassed at her outburst, but that she was still extremely angry and upset. I had to tell her that the home she loved was not really hers but that ‘Hey, because it was now mine, and she was engaged to be married to me, it was all going to work out—yeah right.
Andi stood up, “I’ll leave you guys alone.”
“No. Please Andi, you need to hear this too.” I sat on the bed and reached for Mina’s hand. “I found out I was a paladin a couple hours before I met you guys. One day, I’m living a comfortable life doing exactly what I want and the next, I’m fighting a monster and drafted into God’s Army. I’ve been majorly pissed since then. You guys have to be feeling the same way.”
Andi gave a little laugh, “Vic, it’s got to take a lot of work to be that cool and mysterious. ‘A comfortable life doing exactly what you want.’ What does that mean? What were you doing before you became a paladin?”
I thought for a moment how to phrase my answer. Ah the hell with it, “I robbed banks.”
Mina sat up, “WHAT?”
“Oh my God! That’s so cool!” Andi leaned forward on the bed. “What banks did you rob?”
Her sister didn’t seem as enthralled about my old career. I got the feeling she thought I was being a bad role model. “You were a bank robber?”
I put my hands up. “It’s not nearly as romantic or as exciting as it sounds. I just broke into ATMs late at night. I never carried a gun or even a knife. Until I was attacked by a Jotunn, it was one of the most sedate jobs I’ve ever had.”
Mina frowned, “At our party when I introduced you to Steve, didn’t you say you tested bank security systems?”
I tried out my best innocent grin, “I thought it was pretty good summary of what I did.”
Andi thought it was funny. Mina looked like she wanted to punch me.
I took both of Mina’s hands, brought them to my lips, and kissed them. When I peeked at her face, she didn’t look any happier. My current approach wasn’t working.
I took a deep breath. When I spoke again, I dropped my grin. My voice was serious, “Mina, all I’m trying to say is I understand what it feels like to have no control over your life. I understand how the anger builds up when your life is ripped apart without warning. Every new change throws you off balance. It totally makes sense to me—I know why you lost it when Aidan put the shed up.”
As she looked into my eyes, our souls merged. She learned with absolute certainty I understood. Mina threw her arms around me and buried her face into my neck. I felt her tears but there was different feeling to them. She still wasn’t happy, but she was better. I knew she didn’t feel as alone as she had a few minutes ago.
I looked up at Andi and saw approval. Whatever issues she might have had with me, she still thought I was good for her sister.
I gently pushed Mina back until I could see her face. As I wiped the tears from her face, she smiled. “Mina, I also have to tell you how glad I am I finally saw you lose your temper.”
“What? You’ve seen me lose my temper more in the last couple of days than most people do in a year!”
“Yeah, but this was the first time you regretted losing your temper. You don’t know how intimidating it is to be around perfection. Look at you. You’re beautiful, intelligent, considerate, level headed, and have a great sense of humor. Andi, tell me if I’m wrong, but don’t you agree that your sister is just a little too perfect?”
With a giggle, Andi replied, “He’s got a point there, Sis.”
Mina’s cheeks colored as she smoothed her hands against my chest. “So, what’s wrong with perfection anyway?”
“I’m a flawed man. You make me want to be better. Throw me a few bones and show me some imperfections. Give me a chance to reach your level. Don’t stand too high above me.”
“Alright, that’s enough! If you get any sweeter, I’m going to puke!” Andi clutched her stomach to make her point. “Mina, I can’t believe you just sat there and took that load of BS! You need to slap some sense into him.”
We began laughing together. Andi was right, what I’d said was hokey and sickening. I was glad she thought it was a joke. The sad truth of the matter was that everything I’d said was how I really felt. It was great, and at the same time totally embarrassing that Mina knew it.
I needed to change the topic. “Hey guys, I thought you might want to check out one of your father’s journals.”
I didn’t have to ask twice. Mina and Andi paged through the notebook together. After a few minutes of studying it, Andi looked up at Mina, “Geez, Dad was an incredibly boring writer.”
Her older sister sighed, “You’re so right. Oh, reading this is so painful. This is so like Dad. With his sense of humor, I’m sure he wrote it like this on purpose to torture us and he’s up in heaven laughing at us.”
I was a samurai contemplating hari-kari. It was time to wimp out or slit my belly. “You guys want to hear a joke that’s in the same vein—not so funny?”
Two sets of scary blue eyes turned my way. “I found out recently that your parents set up trust funds for all of you. I don’t know the exact amount, but there’s enough to pay for your living expenses while you go to school.”
Frowning, my true love asked warily, “Why is that a bad joke?’
“That’s not the joke. You know how the White House works? It’s the President’s home but it’s owned by the Government, not by the man. A paladin’s house works the same way. It was your Dad’s home while he was a paladin. Now it’s mine.”
Mina sat in stunned silence. Andi replied, “Oh boy Vic, you’re right, that’s a really bad joke.”
Mina jumped off the bed, stalked to the door, and held it open. “Vic, I know the part about the house isn't your fault, but the part about keeping secrets from me after you promised, sure the hell is. I can’t stand to look at you right now. Please leave, and take your self-serving compliments and my poor Dad's journal with you.”
She slammed the door behind me when I left. Well, that had gone about as well as I’d expected. I dropped Paul Swenson’s journal back in my room. I knew eventually one of the Swensons would want it. I then went out to the back yard. All the guys were in the shed.
“Drew!” I tilted my head toward my truck.
He made a vague ‘I’m busy’ motion in my direction.
“Drew!” This time he gave me a ‘Jesus! Really, now?’ look.
I pointed toward my truck and started walking that direction. He reluctantly headed my way. After he climbed in the passenger seat, I drove to a strip mall few miles away. It had an Irish Pub I’d been wanting to try.
We got seated right away. We ordered a pitcher of Guinness. When we got it, he poured himself a glass and took a long swallow and set it down. “Vic, how long has it been since we last saw each other?”
“It was almost eight years exactly this month, in Columbia.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Did I ever thank you for helping me out?”
“No.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
“A lot of things have changed since then.”
“They have.”
“Like, when did you start menstruating?”
I blew beer out my nose as I started laughing. Drew was exactly right. I was acting like a girl. I’d gotten into a fight with my girlfriend and wanted to talk about it with my best—my only friend. After I got control of myself, I answered, “I think it comes with being a paladin. Every paladin comes with a true love. You can’t help but fall in love with a woman who’s genetically designed to match all your desires. It gives you a different set of priorities.”
“So, what you’re saying is that falling in love turns you into a girly man?”
“Well, I only have a sample size of one, so I can’t make any general conclusions.”
“But it’s been your personal experience…” Drew gestured for me to finish the sentence.
I paused to think about my answer. “I think I prefer the term ‘sensitive’ over ‘girly man’, but yes, it’s been my experience that falling in love makes you more sensitive. I’m in a bit of a low right now, but if I had to be honest, the highs that come with being in love make up for the lows.”
My buddy rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Remember Sam Turkel? He was our pilot in the Philippines. You’re starting to remind me of him.”
“In what way?”
“After he got diagnosed with leprosy, he kept going on about how it wasn’t so bad.”
We both began to laugh.
Drew rubbed his eyes. “You feel better now?”
I actually did. It had been surprisingly helpful to talk to Drew about my problems. It helps to put things in perspective. Given the choice and depending on the situation, I was pretty sure that nineteen times out of twenty, I’d pick Mina over leprosy. I nodded. “So, how’s it going with the combustible bullets?”
“Buying metallic sodium wasn’t a big deal. We bought a four hundred and eighty gram ingot for four hundred dollars. Then we spent about twice that on a progressive reloading press and four or five sets of dies and a couple of hundred hollow point bullets. It took Aidan and Tim about three hours to modify a couple of dies to flare the hollow point open, make a fitting for another die that’ll extrude exactly the same amount of sodium into each hollow point, and another die that swages the hollow point back to its original configuration.”
“Does it work?”
“It’s a giant pain in the ass. We ruined a bunch of bullets before Aidan figured out how much to anneal the copper jackets, and you have to watch the press at every station, every step of the way. The metallic sodium requires very careful handling, and we’re only getting maybe one perfect bullet out of five or six. Aidan thinks it might stop the Jotunn from easily healing from their wounds but he’s not sure. When the hollow point penetrates flesh, the jacket peels back and the lead mushrooms and then tumbles. The metallic sodium gets smeared along the wound and then ignites. It doesn’t take long for the ambient oxygen in the wound to get used up and then the flame peters out.
The sodium sears flesh but the end result looks more like a chemical burn; the damage doesn’t go very deep. I can see why no one else uses sodium bullets; there’s not enough increased lethality to justify all the trouble. It’s a waste of time.”
“How did you test the bullets?”
“I bought a whole pig carcass and took it out to the desert west of the City and fired rounds into it from four hundred meters. Tim and Aidan were bummed they couldn’t go out there with me.”
“If you already made sodium bullets and tested them, what are you doing in the shed?”
“Me and Tim were making flaming bullets the old fashioned way with magic. Tim bought a stock Remington 700. Aidan is helping him duplicate my rifle, using the laws of similarity combined with an amazing ability to shape and mold metal, wood, and plastic. I can’t believe what Aidan can do. He put a magic suppressor on my rifle. The only thing you can hear now is the sonic boom from the bullet traveling through the air. He turned the sound energy into heat and then sank it into the bullet. And…” Drew thumped the table twice to make his point, “he’s cast a spell on my M24 so when a bullet passes through the barrel, all of the friction heat goes into the bullet!”