Mercy for the Damned (6 page)

“I found us a witch,” he grinned.  “Told you I could.”

“A witch…” I couldn’t help but be skeptical, especially given my failure at the pagan shop.  “How did you find her?”

“Craig’s List.  No seriously, she came highly recommended,” he back pedaled at seeing my face.

“To do what?”

“You know, magic stuff.  She said she’s had dealings with demons before, and she might be able to help us.”

I couldn’t quite trust any of it, either the woman was dicking with him and wouldn’t show at all, or more likely clinically insane.  “What makes you think she’s not a crock pot?”

“That’s crackpot.”

“Whatever.  You know what I mean.  You seriously called me down here to meet a witch you found on Craig’s List?  Have you even talked to her?”

“No, she’s meeting us here, she didn’t want to give me her phone number.  Like
I
was the crazy one,” he snorted. 

“She’s never gonna show,” I sighed, sinking down onto a barstool.  I was wrong though, as the doors opened, and the woman strode in, her kitten heels clicking on the hard floor with short, businesslike steps. 

“Mister Davies?”

“That’s me,” Parker straightened a little, and I recognized the look he got in his eye whenever confronted with a good looking member of the female population. 

“I am Jadeluz Santiago.  You are looking for a witch?”

“Whoa, you didn’t say anything about being hot in your profile,” Parker’s grin widened, and I couldn’t resist a roll of the eyes.  Did he think that kind of compliment would make her swoon? 

“Watch it, I can turn you into a toad,” her lips twisted into a wry grin.  Her accent was thick, but understandable.  I guessed Hispanic of some type based on her name and dark features, but she could have been Italian.  Her aura was a swirl of bright greens and purples, with flecks of pink.  Almost dizzying if I allowed myself to stare at it for too long, and I tried not to.  Overall she was a beautiful woman, with that look about her that if she took off the conservative skirt and let her hair down she’d be all kinds of sexy. 

“Santiago,” I frowned, wondering if she was in some way related to Detective Santiago.  I didn’t come right out and ask her, it would be like asking everyone named Miller if they were related. 

“Do I know you?”

“No, I don’t think so, I’m Mercy,” I smiled to cover what I’d been thinking.  “Nice to meet you.”

“So, you’re the one everybody is all in the uproar about, huh?” Her eyes swept over me critically, and I couldn’t help but wonder how much he’d told her about me. 

“Guilty as charged,” I smiled, extending a hand.  For a moment I thought she might not take it, but then she did, clasping it with both hands.  Instead of shaking it, she held my hand for long seconds, until it started to get a little uncomfortable.  “Um… Ms Santiago…”

With an open smile, she let go of my hand, overcoming whatever reservation she might have had about meeting me, from whatever she picked up from my hand.  “You can call me Luz.  Now, your man said something about you needing the real deal, a witch with power.  What kind of power are you looking for?”

I traded looks with Parker, wishing I’d had a chance to look over what he’d told her already.  “We have a couple of problems we need help with actually.  First, I guess, do you know anything about possession?” 

“If you are looking to get rid of a demon, you’d be better off with a priest.  Exorcism is a tricky business,” she shook her head.

“Actually, we’re trying to get rid of a fallen angel.  I don’t suppose you have much in the way of personal knowledge when it comes to them?”  It was too much to ask for, but instead of shooting me down, Luz gave another wry twist of the lips.

“Actually, I’ve known one… intimately,” she admitted.  “A real sonofabitch, but he did have his amusing moments.”

My face fell.  I knew Adam spent a good deal of his past reveling in more than his share of earthly delights, but the thought of coming face to face with one of his conquests left a little to be desired.  “You um, you know Adam?” I asked in a small voice.

“Adam?” her brows drew together in puzzlement.  “No, his name is Remiel.  I was a little bit wilder in my younger days,” she winked at Parker.

“I’ll bet,” he smiled back, leaning against the bar. 

It suddenly got a lot easier to breathe.  Not that it meant there weren’t scores of women out there that he’d been intimate with, but I definitely didn’t want to meet any of them.  Especially not any with such lush attributes.  “So, anyway, we have this problem with a fallen angel.  He managed to possess a friend of mine, and we need both a way to force him out, but then a way to somehow keep him from doing that to anyone ever again.  Is such a thing possible?”

Luz considered for a moment, lacquered nails tapping against full lips.  “It could be done.  We might need something to jolt him free of the body, but you could maybe help with that.”

“Me?  What could I do?”

“Please.  I can feel the power radiating off of you from here.  Are you trying to tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about?”

“No, I guess not,” I admitted sheepishly.  “I’m just not supposed to talk about it much, and I’m still not really sure what I can do to help.”  I wasn’t aware of anything within my power to help knock Azazael out of Ben’s body. 

“
No te preocupas
,” she waved away my concern. “You want to bind this dangerous angel, for how long?”

“Does eternity seem like too much to ask for?”

“That will take a lot of power, at least a circle of five, maybe seven,” she frowned, tapping with her finger again.  “I will have to put out the feelers, see who I can raise.  When are you looking for this to go down?”

Parker and I traded looks again.  “See, that’s the thing.  We have to go bust our friend out of the demon realm first.  I don’t suppose you have a way to help us with that?”

“You want to go to the shadowlands on purpose?” Her brows rose, as if I’d said the stupidest thing she’d ever heard. 

“It’s not that I want to, but that’s where Ben is.  Trust me, if it was up to me I’d never go back there, ever again.”

“Then you’ve been there before.  You don’t remember how you got there the first time?”

“Of course I do, I just don’t know how to get past the gate guard.  He’s very… imposing.”  That was an understatement. I’d never met anyone who looked as capable of tearing a person limb from limb.   

“That’s where they’re keeping her boyfriend too,” Parker contributed, and I shot him a look.  So much for pretending we were an item.  The first time a good looking woman came into it, he forgot his promise to me.  Typical. 

“I thought you were her boyfriend?”

“No, I’m available, Senorita,” he winked broadly.

“
Que sorpresa
,” she smirked.  “I’m not.”

“I’m devastated.”

“I doubt it, but it’s sweet of you to say so,” she laughed.  “When are you looking to break your friend out?”

“Soon,” I replied, happy to redirect the conversation away from Parker’s flirting.  “I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard of a way in or out of there besides through the main gate?  We have it under good authority that witches have found a way to travel there unnoticed.” 

“I can’t help you there, I’ve never been into that dark shit before,” a shake of the head was given.  “I’ll put the word out though, into the great beyond.”

“The afterlife?” Parker blinked.

“The internet,” she smiled.  “Listen, why don’t you go do something manly and leave us alone for a little girl time.”  Luz made a shooing motion with her hands and Parker’s face fell.

“Can’t I stay and watch?”

“Parker!”

“What?”

“How about you play the quiet game for the rest of the day?”  As annoyed as I was with him for de-evolving back to the smarmy Parker I’d known for the past few years, I was dying to find out what Luz wanted to talk to me alone about.

“Alright then, I’ll bid you ladies good bye.  But if either one of you need me for anything, anything at all…” he fixed his baby blues on Luz.

“We know where to find you,” she finished his sentence for him.  “Is he always like that?”

“Most of the time.  Actually he’s a pretty cool guy if you get to know him better.  But like most men, he turns into a drooling idiot when faced with a beautiful woman,” I gestured to her. 

“He must drool all the time then,” she replied, her smile losing some of the edge it’d had when Parker was in the room. 

“What did you want to talk to me about?”

“You hear some weird shit when you hang out around the people I do.”

“I can imagine.”  She was easily one of the strangest people I’d ever met, but not in a bad way, just… interesting.

“I heard about what happened to you, when you got taken by the demons.”

“I’m surprised you know who I am at all,” I frowned.  How exactly did something like that get around? 

“Oh please, we have seen the signs coming for a long, long time.  Even before the prophesies
los angeles
keep so closely guarded.  My sisters have had the sight for as long as there have been witches.  We know when something big is coming long before those stuck up bastards do.”

Wow, she didn’t pull any punches when it came to telling it how she saw it.  “They’re not all like that, you know.  Some of them are very nice.”

“Of course you’d say that, you’re on their side.”

“Tell that to them,” I snorted.  “Half of the guys upstairs think I’m an abomination.”

“That’s because you’re a woman.  If it was a man who had been given the gift, they would have called it a miracle,” she snorted.

“You’re preaching to the choir, honey,” I muttered.  “So, am I the something big your friends saw, or were you talking about something else?”

“My
tia
Lucia saw you first, actually.  I’m named for her, on my mother’s side.” 

“What did she see exactly?”

“That’s the problem with having the Sight.  The future keeps changing.  Little decisions you make every day that you don’t expect to make any difference end up fucking things up, or setting them to right where they should be in the first place.”

“Okay.”  Interesting, but it wasn’t all that helpful.  “What did your
tia
say about me in general?”

“She said you were going to drive the heavens apart, I think we can agree that’s already happened,” she sniggered. 

“I’ve already heard that one.  Did you hear anything else?”

“To be honest, I didn’t really pay that much attention to her stories when I was a little girl,” she shrugged.  “I thought she was telling fairy tales.”

“You heard about me when you were growing up?” my jaw dropped.  I wasn’t sure if that was kinda cool or plain creepy.

“I told you, we always know first,” she held up a single finger proudly.  “But I remember that you were a symbol to us women.  Like the Virgin Mary, but a symbol for the modern day.  You’ll bring about real change.  Talk about a lot to live up to,” she gave me a commiserating smile. 

“It’s a real bitch,” I agreed aloud.  I decided I liked Luz, even if she did make Parker act like a total idiot.  “Any advice?”

Her eyes went distant for a moment as she laid her hand over mine.  “Don’t be afraid of change.  It might scare the hell out of you, but you’re strong enough to handle it.”

“Change.  Gotcha,” I waited to see if there would be any more.

“You’re not alone,” she added after a few seconds.  “Even if it feels like the loneliness is unbearable and you can’t go on, you are loved, and you will never be truly alone.” 

That didn’t sound promising. 

“Oh shit, is that the time?” she looked at her watch, releasing my hand.  “I got to get home before things fall apart.  I’ll be in touch about the binding, or if I hear anything about another way into the shadowlands.” 

“Thanks for your help, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

Luz gave me a brief but fierce embrace.  “What are sisters for?”

Chapter Six

As the days went on, I felt more and more restless, like I needed to do something instead of wait for a break to come to us.  Raziel had come and gone, delivering us copies of all of the prophet’s rantings, but nothing proved very useful.  Promising to try to find an angle on another way in to Midian, he left the same night, but in truth… I think he was uncomfortable hanging out in the same place with Sam. 

Matty, Sam and Daphne took to hanging out at my place most nights.  One night after work we were sitting around, watching more TV than actual brainstorming, when Matty came up with an interesting idea. 

“Maybe we can work out a trade?  Capture someone Raum wants, and trade him for Adam and Ben?”

“I don’t know.  An angel, even a fallen one, would be quite a coup. I’m not sure who he’d trade for.”  I couldn’t help but be skeptical, besides me, I wasn’t sure who else Raum would be interested in.

“No, I think he might be onto something,” Daphne shook her head.  “We just need someone even better… Who would be better?”

“Too bad we can’t catch Nathanael, he could use a year or two in there, it might knock him down a peg or two,” I muttered, while Sam hid a smile behind his mug of hot chocolate.  “Nelo?  Who do you think Raum might be interested in trading our friends for?”  I figured he would be the person who knew Raum the best out of all of us.  The little demon looked up from where he sat with Mimsy in his lap. 

“Someone with power, he covets power above all else.”

“Power… who else has power in his court besides him?”  I hadn’t seen anyone else to match his skills, except for maybe… “Oh!  What if we snuck in and stole Oriana?”

“He would undoubtedly want her back, he relies on her gift of the Sight,” Nelo agreed.

“How would we get in and out?  There’s no way that gate guard is gonna let you sneak by with Raum’s favorite witch,” Matty pointed out, but I wasn’t ready to give the idea up yet. 

“Nelo, could you…”

“I couldn’t hide her from Naberios’ gaze, just as I couldn’t when you escaped, Mistress.  I don’t even know if she would come with me.”