CHAPTER 12
When I woke I found that I had slept near eighteen hours.
My first thought was that the room had become awfully drafty. My second was that the argument happening on the street, currently nearing a heated climax, was much louder than it should have been. But a look straight up revealed it was turning out to be a rather nice, cloud free day, a fact I drew heart from, since insurance would surely later raise an eyebrow at my latest home improvements.
A few minutes later my door opened and Benny stepped in, dressed in full Junior Enforcer garments. He looked at me in silence, slowly shaking his head in a mock gesture of teacher-like disgust. Then with a soft chuckle he grinned and stepped forward to observe my handy work. The medals on his breast jingled as he moved.
“I see you’ve blown a hole in the ceiling,” he said matter of factly, “And the wall.”
“It was not my intention,” I responded, propping myself up on an elbow.
“Indeed. Well, this is in violation of a fair amount of rules.” He took a small book from his back pocket, flipped through it and read from a page. “Malicious destruction of property via magical means. Disturbing the peace. Unregistered use of uncommon spells. The list goes on.”
I frowned, “Are you here as an Enforcer?”
“Right you are,” he declared brightly, his grin expanding, “You registered with me and I volunteered as your official babysitter.” The book was flipped closed. “You, my old chum, are going to get a warning this time. But let me not catch you blowing up your house in the future. It gets the neighbours all flustered and crying about potential injury and what not.”
“Oh. Thanks.” My head was still spinning and body fatigued, more so than after my previous use of raw energy. Last time had felt like a rough morning after too many beers. This was more a rough week after too much crack. The result, I expected, of having my demon feed from me. The little bastard had drained me right down to the dry bone.
“Are you feeling alright?” Benny asked, noticing what must have been a grim appearance on my part.
“Not really. Feel like shit.”
“I’ll bet you do. Heard from your mom you got frisky with a blue guy.”
“Yes. My demon…” I replied, hesitating. I had a vague recollection of my mother being present, of her saving me…
“Hey, no need to explain yourself to me” he cut in, “What you do with your demon on your own time is no business of mine.”
“Ha ha.” I muttered.
He chuckled again and gave me a slap on the shoulder, then composed himself and adopted a more serious expression. “I don’t mean to do this to you buddy, but there’s a woman downstairs that claims you smashed up her car with a pile of bricks.”
“I did what?”
“Probably the ones you shot out of the wall.”
The memory returned and I sighed. “Yes, I may have done that.”
“Look, no problem. Offer to pay for the damages. Just make sure she doesn’t open a case. If she does that, I’m forced to take action and you get a black mark against your name. You don’t want one of those, trust me. You’ll have Enforcers camping out in the garden.”
“I can’t afford to pay for the damages.”
He shrugged and waved a hand dismissively. “Hell, don’t worry about that. It’ll take her half a year just to get the right paper work.”
“Oh. Good.”
“Can you stand?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Take a minute. Lay back, visit your place of calm and breathe deep for a bit. Your Spirit will gather again in no time.”
“Okay.”
“Meet me downstairs. We have some things to discuss anyway.”
“Right.”
He turned on his heel and left. I did as he said.
Sure enough, my Spirit rushed back to me in abundance with each deep inhalation. Being in my place of calm seemed to amplify the intake of Spirit.
Downstairs a pair of raised voices drifted up to meet me, one if which I assumed to be the woman who’s car I had destroyed. From the snippets of dialogue I caught Benny was fighting a losing battle against her insistence to open a case.
After five minutes I felt energised, enough to stand at least, and took one last deep breath before going to face my accuser.
It turned out to be a woman approaching her sixties. Even without any magical assistance, I could tell from appearance that she was the kind of person who would fight this till the ends of time.
I descended the stairs; below me Benny had blocked her entrance at the front door. He looked over his shoulder at my approach.
“Ah, here’s the young man now,” he said to her, his tone of voice reflecting a failing attempt to be her ally. “Jet, meet Mrs. Nelson.”
The woman locked eyes on me and scowled, an expression that would have bitter librarians everywhere nodding in approval.
“Now you listen to me,” she snorted, slipping past Benny and shuffling into the house, “I don’t know where you think you can get off destroying a pensioners car, but you are going to hear from me in court. Understand?!”
“My deepest apologies, Mrs. Nelson,” I responded, holding up my hands in surrender, “It was an accident. You see, I’m just recently coming into magical abilities and I haven’t quite…”
“You keep your excuses to yourself, young man,” she continued, poking a finger in my face. Amazingly the shriek of her voice rivalled that of my demon. “Its reprobates like you that are turning this town into a hazard just to live in. With your magical nonsense and bad attitude, shooting up the walls and smashing up a well looked after vehicle as if you just think you own the world. High as well, I’m willing to bet. I assure you there will be blood tests, so best you come clean now and we can at least start on the right foot.”
“I’ll pay for the damages, ma’am.”
“Oh you most certainly will! I promise you that!” She was getting into her pace, eyes glaring over the retro spectacles as she leaned up to spit the words into my face. It would not have surprised me if she had some relation to Paul. Or at least attended the same prestigious school of intimidation tactics. “You will be paying for the damages and having your name slapped with as many black marks as I can manage!”
I glanced over her shoulder and saw Benny sagging in defeat. He met my gaze with an expression that said “this is going nowhere,” then nodded to her and tapped a finger to his temple.
“What?” I mouthed back.
He repeated the gesture; nodding at her and tapping a finger to his head. I clicked.
“No!” I mouthed frantically.
“Do it!” he mouthed back.
“No!”
“Oh for Christ sake!” he muttered out loud, then grabbed Mrs. Nelson by the shoulder and turned her to face him.
“Young man! How dare you…?!” The words trailed off and her mouth popped open in confusion.
“You will let Jet pay for the damages and forget about this,” he said firmly, “There is no necessity to blacken the name of a young man who just made a mistake. Isn’t that right Mrs. Nelson?”
“Yes, that seems fair.”
“Perfect. Now be a good girl, go home and do your taxes or something. Alright?”
“Yes, I’ll go do my taxes.”
“Run along now.”
He released her and she shuffled off out the door, not giving me a second glance.
I shook my head. “That was downright mean.”
“Oh please. Were you going to stand here all day listening to that? She had a voice like a drowning cat. There was hardly a scratch on the damn car, anyway. She just has nothing else to keep her occupied.”
“Then at least tell her to go phone her grandchildren. Brighten her day.”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. Next one is yours. Let’s take a walk.”
We stepped outside and strolled towards his car, an understated little vehicle that begged to go unnoticed.
To our left, Mrs. Nelson was climbing into
the damaged vehicle in question. As Benny had stated, it bore only minor signs of damage.
Benny spoke as we walked. “Now listen, we have a mini test game of poker this evening.”
“Yes?”
“There’s a little place in town called Jack’s Panic. 4pm. Low key, mostly drunks, we’ll see how it goes.”
“Got it.”
We arrived at his car. “And Jet…”
“What?”
“I would seriously consider taking care of that demon problem. Sooner or later that little bastard will be impossible to keep at bay. It’ll stroll right in and repeat the feeding process whenever it feels like it. Not pleasant.”
I shuddered at the thought. “I’m doing the best I can.”
No sooner had the words been spoken a second car, bright red and shimmering, slipped into place behind Benny’s. The contrast between the two vehicles was a clichéd declaration of middle and high class standards.
“What do we have here?” Benny muttered curiously. “Know any celebrities?”
I shook my head.
One of the red beast’s doors opened and out stepped Selena, looking as appealing as ever in the strangely provocative formal business-wear. Her expression upon seeing Benny, however, managed to be even more intimidating than usual.
“Miss Stephania,” Benny said loudly, smiling at her approach.
“Mister Kingston,” she responded dryly.
“How’s the training business?”
“Fine,” She glanced at the medals on his breast. “I see you have still not made full Enforcer. How unfortunate,” The tone suggested she thought this was anything but unfortunate.
He let out a short bark of laughter, one that barely covered the sting. “Oh Selena, you have remained so delightfully observant.”
“I have come to see my student, Mister Kingston. If you would be on your way that would be appreciated.”
“Now now, Selena. We have to fill out an incident report. Your student did a fair amount of damage. Rules are rules, after all.” He smiled placidly as her glare ignited his face with restrained anger.
“Yes, Mister Kingston. Rules are rules. If you would have the report sent to me via official courier that would be fine.”
“Will do.” He shot her one final smile, gave me a sharp pat on the shoulder, “Stay well, Jet. Try not to destroy any more buildings,” then climbed into his car and drove off. Selena watched the rear of the vehicle till it disappeared around a corner.
“You know Benny?” I asked uneasily.
“Yes,” she replied, “We have met before. Once upon a time we worked in the same section of the Department of Magic.”
“That makes sense.”
“We did not always see eye to eye.”
“Right.”
I shuffled my feet, acknowledging that she had likely guessed Benny’s involvement in my previous illegal activities.
“I heard via Mister Kingston that you had trouble with your demon,” she changed the subject swiftly.
“Yes.”
“Serious?”
“I think so, yes.”
She turned and looked up at the house, spotting the hole that gaped out onto the street. “This is a serious offence, Mister Clarence. I assume Mister Kingston opened an official case, as he said?”
Nothing seemed less appealing than causing further conflict between Benny and Selena. “Yes.”
“Good. It fed from you? The demon?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“The process by which a demon feeds on its host is very specific, Mister Clarence. And often holds clues as to the nature of the demon itself.”
“It reached into my chest and did something to my heart.”
“Similarity to how your father died, as I recall.”
“Yes.”
“Interesting. How did it gain entrance into the physical world?”
“Lots of noise, banging at the door, tapping at the window, that kind of thing. I couldn’t keep focus. When I opened my eyes, it was there.”
“Very well. You are in grave danger, Mister Clarence. The demon is gaining strength at a phenomenal rate. For your safety we will be speeding up the process. Tomorrow you will face your demon and attempt to defeat it.”
I gaped. “Tomorrow?”
“Yes. I would not do so ordinarily, but I believe that if it is put off any longer you and those around you will be at great risk.”
“What if I’m not ready?”
“I will do my best, Mister Clarence.” She gave me a glance up and down and shook her head. “We have a meeting in two hours. This gives you enough time to change your clothing, at least. Good day.”