“He isn’t with us,” Aaron said, “but we know who he is and it’s good he was here to help. He likely won’t show himself, and it’s probably best if you aren’t introduced to him.”
Denny looked pissed, and it was obvious he wasn’t happy having people around he felt he couldn’t control.
I wondered why Abbott was here, and how he’d known to come. He’s too well known in the community to be seen fighting supernatural shit — he and Denny probably make it to some of the same political social gatherings. I was assuming Abbott was still around and just staying in the background so Denny wouldn’t recognize him.
I was zapped and close to collapse, but I ignored the warning signs and took the half dozen steps to Aaron.
Luckily, Aaron saw my legs giving out and pulled me to him before I fell. With my head against Aaron’s chest, I spoke soft enough Denny wouldn’t hear. “Did you see the shield the one who got away put up? It zapped my laser and drained me, which is why I only managed to kill one of them — the second one zapped my power. I think he even managed to get a
boost
by the energy meant to kill him. What the hell?”
Aaron pushed energy into me as I talked. Slower this time, so while it hurt, I could stand it without letting those around me know I was in pain.
“Yes, I saw it,” he told me, his mouth at my ear. “I need to do some research to be sure, but I believe they’ve sent an upper echelon jerkoff in, probably in response to all of the ones you’ve killed.”
I turned in his arms, faced the other men, and looked at the chief. “Denny, can you check tonight’s nine-one-one calls to see if anyone in the vicinity of the first explosions reported a disturbance, or maybe a party with too many cars parked somewhere? If you’ll take us back to our car then the rest of us are going to go get something to eat while I try to replenish what that asshole drained out of me. We’ll eat in Fort O, so we won’t be far.” Aaron’s energy was only going to help so much tonight. I needed food — physical energy as well as the metaphysical kind.
I turned to take the final dozen steps toward the squad car and almost collapsed despite the energy Aaron put into me. Nathan caught me before I hit the ground, and handed me off to Aaron who carried me to the car like a baby. It’d been years since I’d been zapped so bad I had to be carried, so of course it had to happen when Abbott was probably watching.
Shit
.
Nathan drove, and Aaron and I sat in the back seat. Trading energy in a moving car isn’t easy, but we’d gotten decent at it, and it was easier when I could relax and accept it properly.
Aaron sat on the back seat with his legs spread and sat me between his legs with my back to his front. I felt him relaxing his shields and I did the same, so the energy flowed from each of his chakras into mine. Within a few minutes we were basically sitting inside of one aura, and it doesn’t get much more intimate than that. I relaxed in his arms and basked in the warmth, trusting I was safe for the moment, at least.
I startled when the engine turned off, and looked around to see we were in the Waffle House parking lot.
Aaron and I both worked together to turn us back into two separate auras without trauma. It isn’t especially hard, but you don’t want to do it too abruptly, either. We took a few minutes to pull away, and then got out of either side of the car and walked to the restaurant.
I wouldn’t be able to hang out in the woods and make it
my
energy, which meant I was vibrating at a different frequency. It feels a bit like having the flu, as if I’m not really myself, but at least I could walk across the parking lot.
I’m a vegetarian, so finding a place to eat in the middle of the night in a small town wasn’t easy, but we’d long ago learned we could all get something good here.
Thankfully, there were only two other tables filled with people, so when we walked to the far end of the building to sit, we were a good distance from the other patrons.
I was starving, and ordered not only eggs and hash browns, but also a waffle. Abbott met us there and ordered a coffee, which he again held and brought to his lips a few times. I sat between Aaron and Nathan, and Panda and Abbott sat across from us. I had the feeling Abbott had seen what Aaron and I had done to replenish my energy, but I figured it was best he realized up front how close Aaron and I are. I couldn’t tell if I saw jealousy, or if he was just unsure of his place, but he was undoubtedly upset about something.
I took the bull by the horns and demanded to know how Abbott had ended up uninvited to a fight.
“I saw the explosions from my living room window and realized what they were,” he told me, his voice imperious and distant.
“Where’s your car?”
He glanced at Aaron and then looked back to me. “I flew.”
I thought about that a minute and decided not to comment on the flight part, but to stick to my questions on why he’d come. From his spot on the mountain he likely
could
have seen the explosions, or at least the smoke. I finally asked, “Could you tell it was demonic fire? Or did you just assume it probably was since it was in the battlefield?”
He said it was the latter, and then he tore into Aaron about bringing me into the face of danger. I was shocked. He was
really
angry, his voice full of venom as he ranted with his voice low enough to keep the employees from hearing.
“You were so all-fired worried about her the other night you were prepared to start a species war, and tonight you drag her into a fight with demon-kind? She’s a mere
human
, a fragile mortal, and she has no
business
facing this kind of danger.”
Aaron knew how I would feel about this kind of talk, and I’m sure it’s why he let Abbott keep talking. I heated my hand and reached out to rest it on Abbott’s arm. I’m not sure exactly how, but I can make my hand feel as hot as an iron to other people, but the heat doesn’t hurt me. Supernatural beings have very fast reflexes and they heal quickly, so they aren’t damaged when I touch them, but it
does
get their attention.
Abbott’s reflexes kicked in and he was immediately on the other side of the restaurant. I didn’t even see him move.
He glared at me as he walked back to us, but I was certain no one in the restaurant noticed. It was so fast, it was as if he disappeared and reappeared.
Actually, I wasn’t sure if he’d moved quickly or had
actually
disappeared and reappeared.
He was obviously angry, and he bit out the words, “What was the purpose of that?”
I didn’t let his anger affect me, and answered, “To make the point that I’m perfectly capable of holding my own in a fight. Aaron brought me in tonight because this is what I’m good at. We’ve fought hundreds of things from that plane of existence and I’m still standing before you, scaring the crap out of you. I have the ability to
kill
these things, not just injure them. So, put a lid on the male chauvinist crap and let us figure out what happened in case we run into the shielding bastard with the ability to zap my laser again.”
We were all speaking very, very low. I could talk below the level of human hearing, and they aimed their words my direction and kept it low, so I was using a combination of hearing and lip reading. But, I was sure the Waffle House employees and other customers weren’t hearing us.
“Actually, Kirsten,” Aaron told me. “Abbott was speaking more to your status as human, rather than your gender, and if the demon we encountered is who I think he may be, then I
am
going to need to keep you away from him. I’ll pull people together who can send him back, but I don’t want you trying to kill him.”
I shook my head. No way was I stepping down. “If we send him back he’ll just return again, and where will that leave us? No, I need to take this guy out. I have other tricks,” I reminded him. “I won’t give him a chance to zap my laser again.” I thought a second and asked, “What are the odds this dude is in on the disappearing women?”
We’d kept most of my abilities secret because, since I’m human and I’m usually up against beings that aren’t, I need every element of surprise I can muster. I generally only use my other skills when no one is around who’ll live to tell about what I can do. This way, when I’m attacked out of the blue, the attackers only think I have the laser thing, so they try to restrict my hands. They don’t know I have what amounts to a thought weapon, and it doesn’t matter that my hands are tied behind my back.
Aaron’s phone rang — Denny had a possible line on where the humans were who had called these things. We got in the car, minus Abbott, who I guessed was going to fly again.
The food had helped and I was no longer in danger of collapse. Aaron and I sat in the back again, but this time we only held hands, with power trickling slowly from Aaron’s right hand into my left — palm to palm.
Denny was a few miles away in his unmarked car that
looked
like an unmarked police car, completely defeating whatever purpose the lack of identification was supposed to provide. We followed him to the house, and when I got out of the car I had to stop a few seconds to brace myself. I could feel the hurt and chaos coming from the house, and I knew it would only get worse when we went in. This didn’t mean these were our bad guys, but it meant they were
somebody’s
bad guys.
I looked at Aaron to see if he felt it, and I knew he could without asking. His face was drawn, his body turned sideways to the house, protecting his chakras from the hatred and violence emanating from the small run-down house.
Aaron looked at Denny, his face grim. “You should let us handle this one. Drive one street north and sit in your car with your gun and salt out. Do not unlock your doors until you see us again, and should an unknown person threaten you, don’t try to be a hero, just drive away and don’t look back.” He turned his head and added, “Panda, you’re with us this time, let’s go in the back.”
The house was tiny, and likely built in the fifties or earlier. We walked around it and into the backyard, easy enough with the gate standing wide open. Aaron didn’t even slow down at the back door, he kicked as we approached and it disintegrated into small pieces. Abbott had been waiting for us in the back yard and he went in with us.
There were six men in the kitchen, and we had them all subdued in less than about ten seconds. I didn’t do a thing, and let the guys handle this one. Sometimes I don’t argue with the fact that I’m a girl and a human, and I’m weaker than they are. I insist they let me do what I’m good at, and to be fair that means I stand back and let them do what they’re good at.
Once the men were subdued I asked, “Who’s in charge?”
None of them answered.
Without looking around to find him I calmly said, “Nathan?”
Nathan stepped forward and partially changed. He’s a beautiful man and a beautiful lion, but he has this half and half thing that’s creepy-scary. Still beautiful in its own way, but it would also fit well into any horror movie and scare the crap out of audiences everywhere. His face has both human and feline characteristics, but they’re horribly warped into the same face. He stands on legs with feline muscles and human joints. He can choose to have either hands or claws, and right now he had claws. He was completely furred, with his lion’s mane around his face and a long tail with a poof on the end, swishing in irritation behind him. His clothes shredded when he changed, so he was nude, with a pile of rags on the floor at his feet.
Two of the men pointed to the man who’d been leaning against the counter when we came in, wordlessly telling us he was in charge. Progress. I decided not to ask if they’d been calling demons and just assume they had.
I looked at the leader and asked, “Do you have control over the beings you called?”
“If’n I’d a had control, d’ya think I’d a let ‘em make a ruckus?”
“Maybe. Isn’t that the purpose of bringing demons here? To create a mess? Lots of chaos? All of them have been sent back except one, I need you to call him here.”
“No.”
“No? Do you want to rethink that?”
Nathan stepped forward and reached for him, and while the idiot redneck shied away physically, he still refused to call the demon back. He was more afraid of the demon than he was Nathan. This didn’t bode well.
Abbott stepped up and vamped out. He went all translucent and, well, evil looking. His fangs grew really long, his eyes somehow changed and sank into his face and grew darker, and I could see networks of veins through his skin. Even I was a little scared.
Our demon caller looked from Nathan to Abbott and changed his mind, agreeing to call the demon.
Abbott saw me looking at him, and he held my gaze without changing his face back to his human look. I wasn’t sure how he could speak with those long fangs, but he did. “This, too, is who I am. Thank you for not shying away.”
His voice was guttural, inhuman, but I reminded myself it was still Abbott. I nodded, and then looked around the room, noting the men Abbott had used his gaze on were all subdued, sitting as if in a stupor.
“We’ll wipe their memory,” he told me. “They won’t remember Nathan or I looking anything other than human.”
“Sure,” I said with a small shake of my head. I wasn’t used to the option of wiping people’s memory, and didn’t especially like the idea of supernaturals with that particular power. I was thankful I seemed to be immune, and promised myself I’d work with Lauren until she would also be impervious to having her mind fucked with.
Panda remained upstairs with the mostly catatonic men while the rest of us went to the basement with the ringleader. He had a circle already mostly formed, and he lit some candles and did some stuff with what I assumed were herbs. I had no idea how this worked, though I knew Aaron would call foul if something didn’t look right.
I had to work to keep from running upstairs and out of the house as the ringleader chanted what I assumed was Latin and his voice assaulted the portion of my aura outside my shields. The room vibrated with evil before he started, but his words added to the sense of terror and dread, even though I couldn’t understand them.