dark faerie 06 - ever dead (11 page)

“Show me what you got.”

Benton’s grunts echoed between the buildings as he continued to bunt his sword against the taller Unseelie. Both kept crossing blades without gaining much ground on the other. If he didn’t overtake the faery soon, he’d be worn down too much to fight. Unfortunately, Benton didn’t have the advantage of their endless energies. Even so, his fire elemental powers did afford him extra human strength, more than a mere mortal man would have. This dark Fae was not just Unseelie…

He was also Sluagh.

He was part of the darkest of creatures that lurked within the boundaries of the land of Faerie. To see one in the human realm was to know what real nightmares were made of.

Benton couldn’t let him win. To let one Sluagh live was to unleash an army of a hundred Unseelie on humankind. There would be no surviving if more aggregated together and overtook the human realm. They had to take this one down, it was life or death for more than just them.

“Nautilus! I could use some help here.” Benton called out to his comrade, hoping for some back up before his arms went numb.

Clang! Their swords slammed together against a large garbage can, sending sparks into the belly of it and igniting a fire. They both spun and met swords again mid alley.

“Working on it!” Nautilus pressed his teeth together as the smaller of the two Sluagh laughed hysterically at them.

“You puny Seelie! You’ll never win! You’ll never win!” He hopped on his feet, sending his long coat flying up in the breeze, still cackling at him.

Nautilus shook his head, already tired of the taunting. He was pretty sure the smaller guy was a distraction while the other one wore out Benton as he kept him busy. He had to get rid of this flea once and for all right now or it’d be too late for them both.

“Don’t hold your breath.” He tossed a stream of blue fire laced with a string of electrical currents toward the shorter Sluagh, slamming it right into the guy’s chest, sending him flying backwards and slamming against the wall.

With the weaker one of the two out of the way, Nautilus turned towards Benton’s opponent and prepared another blast of energy.

“Benton…now!” He shouted, hoping the young human elemental remembered the many tricks they’d prepared for in dozens of fighting sessions back at the Seelie Palace for times such as this one. If they had one thing going for them, it was teamwork they’d spent weeks perfecting in the fighting ring back home.

Benton immediately obliged and somersaulted backwards, flipping his body out of the way as Nautilus sent a stronger blast of fire and lightning to slam against the bald Sluagh faery.

But he managed to block it, ricocheting the assault away from him with a tilt of his wide sword.

“
Shelyk
!” Nautilus cursed under his breath as the Sluagh focused his attention on him now. Careening towards him, Nautilus readied for the impact when a sudden crack of fire slammed into the Sluagh from behind as Benton thrust his Empyrean blade straight into the back of the bald Sluagh.

“Eeee!” A deafening screech filled the air as his body disintegrated into ash flying into the air and finally landing near Nautilus, but not without dusting him with some of its particles.

As silence ensued, Benton rushed toward the shorter of the two Sluagh, who was now barely waking from the shock Nautilus had given him. With the fiery blade, Benton sliced through his body, ensuring to ignite it into a violent and consuming fire, leaving nothing but a pile of ash as it consumed the faery’s entire body.

Breathing hard, Benton turned toward his comrade, who was stood with a deeply creased frown on his face.

“Thanks for the corpse ash shower.” Nautilus sighed, giving his body a good shake, dusting the film of soot now clinging to his outfit and exposed skin. Even his tautly pulled dreadlocks were lightly coated with the remains of the bald Sluagh threat.

Benton laughed and extinguished the flame as he sheathed his sword.

“You’re welcome, dude.” He shrugged and turned to walk back towards their camp within the boundaries of Faerie as if what had just happened was commonplace.

“You needed a shower anyway, stinky.”

Chapter 22

The next morning Hank woke up early and put in a long session in his Dojo. The added exertion of the longer session seemed to help his psyche and he manipulated the staff time and again in a series of blocks, jabs and spins.

By the time that finally bowed to his unseen opponent, he was covered in sweat. Glancing over at Luci, he noticed that she had her head cocked to the side as if unsure of what came next.

He could feel her confusion over the happenings of the last couple of days.

Drying himself off with a towel, he suddenly froze; his eyes moving slowly back toward Luci.

He had abruptly realized that he wasn’t just assuming that he knew what Luci was thinking as he usually did. Over their years together, they had developed a sort of unspoken communication with each other. He could tell if she was sad, agitated or happy by the way she reacted to a situation, or the way she responded to him or his commands.

But this was…
different
.

Moving across the room, he kneeled in front of the red dog and stared into her eyes.

Not feeling anything anymore, he sighed as he leaned back away from the dog.

“That was weird,” he mumbled as he started to stand.

It sure was.

Hearing the voice in his head, Hank tripped over his feet and landed on his butt.

“What the hell?” he shouted excitedly.

Luci just stared at him, seemingly waiting for his next command.

“Did you just talk to me?” he stuttered with nervous excitement. “Wait, that’s impossible,” he continued, now embarrassed at his outburst.

“Forget I said that,” he continued with a short, forced laugh as he pushed himself off of the floor. “I’m feeling crazy enough without bringing you in on it.”

Shaking his head in frustration, he continued to dry himself off as he headed for the shower.

“Just give me a minute girl,” he called back over his shoulder. “I’ll get a quick shower and we’ll head for work.”

That had been the plan for the day. Get up early, get in a long workout and head back to life as he knew it. He felt like he desperately needed to get back to what he knew, to get back into the groove of his “normal” life again.

At least that
had
been the plan.

***

Arriving at his desk a half hour later, he found a note on it instructing him to see Captain Jericho ASAP when he arrived.

Snapping his fingers lightly and pointing to the side of his desk, Lucifer settled into the spot while Hank headed for his captain’s office.

“Where the hell were you yesterday,” Jericho shouted when he spied Hank entering his door. “I was trying to get a hold of you all day!”

Hank couldn’t help but wonder in
which
day he’d tried. The one where he was in Faerie? Or the one where he was at the farm?

“Sorry sir,” he responded after a few moments, “I was up north, visiting my grandma. Cell coverage is pretty spotty up there.”

Captain Jericho waved off his answer.

“I know you weren’t on call this weekend, I just thought you might want to know that two more piles of ash showed up yesterday.”

Shit,
Hank whispered to himself.

He remembered wondering if Benton had struck yet again while he had been following him into Faerie yesterday…at least on
one
of the yesterdays.

“Thanks for trying to find me sir,” Hank responded, not knowing what else to say.

“Have you come up with any leads on this thing yet?” Captain Jericho asked, looking up at him through bushy eyebrows. “So far we’ve been able to keep the whole thing under the radar as far as the media goes…I mean who gets excited about a pile of ash anyway?”

Jericho pushed himself out of his chair and ambled around the desk before planting himself on the front edge and looking at Hank seriously.

“But that will change…eventually. When they find out that there is some sort of human DNA inside these piles…”

Captain Jericho was an imposing figure. Wide-shouldered with little fat, he’d been on the job for over thirty years, working his way up the ladder through hard work and intuitive thinking. Hank liked him as a leader, and felt guilty anytime he sensed he was letting the man down.

“Nothing I can put into words yet sir,” Hank admitted finally, knowing that there was at least
some
truth to the statement.

“I haven’t talked to the Medical Examiner yet about this weekend’s victims of course, but if they also appear to be this
other
type of life form, I have been working on a theory.”

Captain Jericho glanced at his watch and pushed himself off of the desk.

“Spit it out, Hank. I have a meeting with the Chief in five minutes.”

Hank gulped before continuing.

“It would seem to me that these…beings aren’t supposed to be here,” he replied nervously. “My thought is that someone…from where they
are
supposed to be…is trying to fix the situation.”

Captain Jericho stopped what he was doing and looked up at Hank incredulously.

“And just where the hell is it that they are
supposed
to be?” he whispered unbelievingly. “What the hell kind of theory it
that?”

Hank shrugged nervously. “I don’t know quite yet,” he replied, thinking it wasn’t a
complete
lie. “But you have to admit, the DNA proves that there is something different about the people.”

Captain Jericho shook his head as he finished collecting the papers off of his desk.

“I’m not as brave as you, Hank,” the captain muttered as he turned toward the door. “When the chief asks, I am
not
going to convey that particular theory to him. I like my job too much.”

Pulling up beside him, he placed a hand on Hank’s shoulder.

“Son, I like you…a lot. But this
fantasy
theory of yours won’t fly. The way I see it, you have two options. Either come up with a different theory…or find some way to
prove
this cocklemamy story of yours.”

Starting for the door, “And if I were you,” he called back over his shoulder as he left the room, “I wouldn’t repeat that story to
anyone!”

***

“Get that red demon
out of here,
Hank!” Doctor Jacoby nearly shouted when they entered the lab.

Smiling despite his foul mood, Hank clicked his fingers lightly and pointed to a corner beside the door. Luci moved to that location and sat down as he made his way to the examining table.

“Find anything new on this weekend’s victims?” he asked quickly, hoping to sidetrack the doctor’s reluctance to having Luci in the lab.

It seemed to work as a small smile spread across the doctor’s lips.

“This is all
very
exciting, Hank,” he whispered conspiratorially as he leaned closer.

“As you suspected, your victim from Saturday was yet
another
type of being, with little in the way of human DNA, although there was a little. I haven’t finished with the two from yesterday yet, but so far they both seem to closely match the one from Saturday.”

Hank nodded absently. Being right on
this
case had so far not gotten him very much.

“Were there any trinkets this time around?” he asked dejectedly.

“As a matter of fact,” Doctor Jacoby grinned as he turned and pulled out a plastic container. Opening it, he then reached in and pulled out an evidence bag.

“I found this in one of the piles from yesterday.”

Hank took the bag and looked at the item through the plastic. It was a heavy, round medallion, seemingly made of silver with a black design in the center.

“Interesting design,” Hank mumbled as he looked it over. “Any idea what it means?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Doctor Jacoby replied, “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“I guess I had better sign for this,” Hank said looking up at the doctor. “I have some sources that may be able to identify it.”

“No problem there,” The doctor replied as he slipped a clipboard across the table. “This thing kind of gives me the creeps anyway.”

“Yeah,” Hank responded, “This whole case is creeping me out a little.”

***

“Yep! I seen dat there before,” Roscoe replied when Hank showed him the medallion.

“You have?” Samuel questioned Roscoe suspiciously.

Roscoe nodded animatedly. “Yep! You remember fella that done pushed me down?”

“Of
course
I remember that dummy. Twernt more than a day or two ago!”

“It were yesterdy,” Roscoe replied with a wink. “My backside’s still sore.”

“I remember it like it were Sunday,” Samuel piped in again, shaking his head unbelievingly.