Chapter 25
It felt hot inside my room, too hot for anyone to be able to stand. Rolling over in bed I kicked my covers off, hearing them hit the ground beside me.
“Would you stop that?” someone asked and I opened my eyes to see Jared set down a glass of water on my nightstand, the condensation dripping down to the wood, ice clinking in the glass.
“What?” I asked, still groggy and trying to remember what had happened. Images of owls and butterflies danced in my mind but I couldn’t make sense of them. Finally, I remembered the spell; someone had said they were going to do it without me. I shot up and grabbed Jared’s arm as he bent over to pick up the blankets. “The spell!”
“Relax,” he said with a roll of his eyes, “we haven’t done it yet.”
“Really?” I asked, hearing the glee in my voice.
“Really.” Jared threw my blankets on me and sat down on the bed. “How do you feel?”
“I’m fine.” I told him, and it was a half-truth. My throat felt sore, and my head had a slight throbbing to it with every pump from my heart, but the room wasn’t moving on its own, and I felt all right to sit up without falling over.
“Really?” he questioned, eyeing me.
“Really.” I played with my hands in my lap after moving aside the blankets. “What happened? I don’t remember much.”
“I drove you back here, carried you up and Luke gave you some medicine after he sent Violet home. That’s it.” Jared looked away, an odd habit of his but understandable when it came to his cousin. Checking the time I saw that I hadn’t been asleep that long, only a few hours; the sun was only just starting to set. I was surprised I wasn’t out longer.
“Um…thanks,” I said, my voice so small I was embarrassed. He carried me up? “Where’s Luke now?”
“He went to get your car,” Jared inched closer towards me on the bed, eliminating the distance between us. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Uh…okay.”
“Why are you trying so hard?” I could feel his eyes on me, boring into me but I kept my gaze down, trying not to look at him. I had been expecting that question for a long time, and had somehow managed to dodge it.
“I don’t know,” I lied, thinking back to when Luke asked something similar. “For Luke I guess.” It was easy to tell him, he already knew everything about me, but Jared? Jared was…different. He put two fingers under my chin and lifted my face, his own only inches away. I flinched and hoped he didn’t catch it. How could I tell him the truth?
“Luke isn’t a suspect anymore,” he whispered, “so what’s the real reason?”
I tried to look him in his eyes but it was hard. I almost felt like I was going to cry, but over what? The fact that I was probably projecting my feelings over my mother onto Charlie? Because some stupid, naïve part of me thought that if I solved this, I would somehow solve my mother’s death? Or maybe it was because I knew that once this was all over, and the creature was dead, that Jared would be gone. Everyone I had met would probably never be seen again; not Violet, not Richard, not Charlie and not…Jared.
“Well?” he prodded.
I just stared at him, thinking. His eyes glanced down then back up quickly to meet mine. I couldn’t think in a straight line, my feelings were getting in the way...along with the fever. Before all this happened I wouldn’t have cared about people leaving, but now…something was seriously wrong with me. I barely knew him and for some reason the thought of never seeing him again made me sad, and what made it worse was the fact that he wouldn’t—
“Ahem,” Richard cleared his throat behind Jared. “Am I interrupting?” He stood in the doorway, holding a bottle of aspirin. Jared almost leapt off the bed and me out of my skin. How long had he been standing there? Or more importantly, how long had Jared and I been sitting there with not an inch between us?
“No,” I said, swinging my legs over the side. Dr. Wineman eyed us, more Jared than me.
“Here,” he said, walking over and handing me the bottle, “Take two and go back to sleep.”
“I’m fine,” I said, taking two pills out as ordered, “I can be there for the spell.” Richard sighed, no fight left in him. If I was anything right now it was determined.
“I see,” he said, shaking his head, “so you still want to do that.” The doctor paced back and forth between my dresser and the door.
“Look doc,” Jared said, “we know it’s Shadeland doing the killings, so let’s just do the spell before sunset so we can kill this thing, ‘kay?”
“But you’re wrong,” Richard thrust his hands before him, frustrated. No matter how much he told us we weren’t going to believe him. I guess I understood how he felt, he was determined to prove to us that we were wrong, but I just didn’t think that anymore. Though, it didn’t take much to change my mind lately. Whenever I was pointed in one direction someone began pointing to another and I stupidly tried to go both ways at the same time.
“And how do you know we’re wrong?” Jared didn’t seem to be in the mood to listen to anything the doctor had to say. “You won’t even tell us how you know it’s not this thing.”
“Well how do you know it is?” the doctor stared Jared down, both of their gaze’s unwavering. I remained silent, shrinking onto my bed by lifting my knees for something to hug. Something told me I wasn’t allowed to take part in this.
“You told us exactly what it was back at the college,” Jared explained, hands on his hips. “And to top it off that Bayani guy told us it was too. We don’t need any other proof.”
“Excuse me…” I said, my voice almost inaudible.
“He told you it was the Shadeland ancient?” Richard questioned.
“Uh…excuse me…”
“He told us enough for me to know we’re on the right path.”
“Guys…” my head still hurt and their voices were getting louder with each sentence. I had something to say, but I just couldn’t find a way to get it out, to make them hear me.
“So you—” the doctor was near shouting now when Luke cut in on him. He jumped around the corner into my room, fury on his face.
“What’s going on in here?” Luke yelled and rushed to my side. He stuck an arm around me and looked up at the two men. “If you’re going to fight do it somewhere else!”
“It’s okay…” I said, “but I just…I had a question.” I shrugged, wondering if that had even noticed me during their argument.
“I’m so sorry Liv,” Richard said and Jared just watched me, waiting. “What did you want to ask?”
“I was just wondering,” I started, the doctor’s guilt clear in his eyes over his behaviour. “Is it really so dangerous to summon this thing?”
“It is extremely dangerous,” he told me. “That is why—”
“I thought you said it was only dangerous if there wasn’t a pureblood there,” Luke interrupted. “But you’ll be there and so will I.” Caught. Richard obviously didn’t want me or Jared to know about this.
“Yes…but it is still dangerous for those of an impure blood line,” the doctor glanced at Jared, “and more so for humans. Do you even have a plan as to what you’re going to do when we summon it?”
Jared took out his gun and waved it in the air. “This’ll do it,” he said with confidence.
“A gun will not simply kill—”
“But cursed bullets will.” Richard’s eyes widened but quickly narrowed towards me. What was it about cursed bullets that frightened so many people? How were they so much worse than regular ones?
“All right,” he said, “we will do the spell. But you won’t like the outcome.” The doctor walked out of my room, leaving me alone with the bounty hunter and my defender.
“Do you think it’ll work?” Luke asked us, heading for the door as well. He stopped to face me, wanting me to answer and not Jared.
“I hope so,” was all I said, since I really wasn’t sure what I believed
anymore.
My apartment felt very open now that all the furniture had been moved. The couch had been pushed against the back wall while the coffee table rested on top of it, crooked. The single chair sat beside the window, making a clear spot in the center of the living room; perfect for summoning spells. At least, that was what I kept telling myself.
No matter how much anyone said it, I still had a strong feeling that we were wrong; that the spell wouldn’t really get us anywhere. I tried to dismiss it along with the waves of dizziness. I hoped these feelings were only a result of my fever. Clenching my phone in my pocket I watched as the doctor ground the pixie’s dust together with the mermaid’s scale in what would never again be my cereal bowl.
He mumbled something under his breath but I couldn’t understand it, most likely because he didn’t want any of us to hear it. Jared stood by the television, watching the doctor work his magic while Luke sat next to me, cross-legged, his arms holding up his knees.
Richard picked up the dragon’s venom and dripped it into the bowl. Something about the purple liquid made me feel uneasy, remembering how it had dripped onto my hand. Thinking about it made the back of my hand feel warm. I shifted my position, giving away how uncomfortable I was.
“You don’t have to be here,” Dr. Wineman told me, “it’s all right if you want to wait in your room.” Why? So I could listen in and then hear the gunshots? No thanks. Not knowing what was going on was worse than knowing.
“I’m fine,” I said, ignoring another dizzy spell. The doctor eyed me and I hoped I hadn’t wavered. He went back to mumbling to himself and added more venom.
“This is the final ingredient,” Richard said as he lifted the victim’s blood from the carpet. Behind him Jared cocked his gun, ready to shoot anything that moved. The sound made me reconsider where I was sitting; if the creature appeared between the doctor and myself, I would be in the line of fire. The doctor looked at the gun over his shoulder, “You won’t need that.”
“Says you,” Jared growled, shifting his feet to prepare for an attack. I saw the doctor actually roll his eyes and I knew he was thinking something along the lines of “typical human”. The mermaid had a similar expression when we had first attacked her. It was a glimpse under the doctor’s mask for me, showing his arrogance towards the human race. I had been told more than once that that was how I often appeared to those around me.
The doctor poured all the blood into the bowl before reaching into his pocket to pull out a single match. He flicked his wrist and flame rushed up, making me jump. Luke touched my shoulder and for once it actually made me feel better. Richard dropped the lighter into the bowl and it exploded in pink and yellow flames.
“I summon thee,” he whispered and the fire rushed upwards, scarcely missing the doctor’s face. Neither he nor Jared flinched, unlike me and Luke. He set the bowl down on the carpet and folded his hands in his lap, eyes shut.
After a few moments the fire died down to pink embers and I risked a glance at Jared, limbs as rigid as they could get.
“Nothing happened,” Luke whispered to me and I agreed. Besides the light show, nothing had changed. The doctor kept his eyes closed, so I remained silent and waited. I wasn’t about to interrupt whatever was happening, not now. Not after everything we had done to get the ingredients.
A breeze ruffled my hair from the window and I looked over to find it shut. Everything was locked tight, I had made sure of that, so where was the breeze coming from? The doctor opened his eyes, revealing them to be a deep fuchsia. I wondered if my surprise showed on my face as he stared at me…no…he wasn’t staring at me.
I refocused my eyes to see a slight smoke between us, only a foot away from where I sat. It swirled in the air, not nearly as big as when I had seen it before hanging over Charlie, hanging over Heather. The thought of it being smaller didn’t make me feel any better about its presence.
Another breeze flew past me and around the room, releasing a low humming as it went by. The temperature dropped low enough for us to see our breath and it set Jared on high alert. He slid his feet till he was opposite the window, giving him a clear shot when the creature was fully formed. Richard never signalled him to lower his weapon.
After a long minute, the smoke began to change again, trying to take form in our world. It struggled as it changed, like it was having difficulty. Eventually it lowered itself onto the ground and hovered until finally, it formed…into a small, yellow butterfly.
The creature fluttered its wings and puffed away the excess smoke in the air. Wiggling its legs it faced me before turning around to see the doctor, his eyes still that deep pink.
“What is that?” Jared asked, sounding more annoyed than anything. I was still stunned in disbelief; the same butterfly I had seen at Alex’s house, and then with Heather and even at the mermaid’s river was now sitting in front of me, declaring itself a demon. I just didn’t know how I was supposed to react. Jared smirked, “This’ll be easier than I thought.”
He holstered his gun and made his way to the bookshelf. Picking out the largest one he could find he came back and lifted it high over his head.
“Not the book!” Luke jumped to his feet and ripped the novel right out of Jared’s hands.
“Hey!” The bounty hunter protested but Luke was already putting the book back where it belonged. If I was able to concentrate clearly I would have laughed, knowing how Luke was when he had a book; they had to remain pristine, not a crack in the spine, not a dent in the pages. In a weird way, I understood what how he felt.
Drawing my gaze back to the creature I saw it was carefully balanced on the doctor’s fingers, flapping its wings to stay up. As its wings moved I felt the cold air brush against my face; it was the same cold I had felt so many times before, usually with death in the room, but this coldness actually felt kind of nice against my overheated skin.
“Don’t touch the books,” Luke ordered, giving Jared a stern look. It was very out of place on his features but sent the appropriate message. He and the doctor were rather alike, I thought, they both looked harmless, despite how menacing they tried to appear. Maybe that was why Luke liked him so much.
“Fine,” Jared said, pulling out his gun again, “I’ll just shoot some holes in your floor.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Richard said as the butterfly hopped off his knuckle, “he won’t hurt you.”
“He?” I questioned, noticing how he had given it a gender. It approached me in the air, softly floating on the air, too slow for it to be natural.
“Yes,” the doctor said, motioning me to put out my hand. As I put my fingers in the air the creature landed on them, tickling me as it had before. “Meet Azazel.”
“Azazel as in…?” I trailed my sentence off and the doctor nodded.
“Yes,” he assured me, “there is a demon in your lore named Azazel, but they are not the same. He’s quite nice, he doesn’t hurt people.” Oh. I was going to say X-Men… I decided to keep that to myself, feeling silly.
“Tell that to all the women he killed,” Jared said with a huff. He remained in a battle stance, still not convinced we were safe. For some reason I felt we were; all the fear and uncertainty I felt before was gone now that I could see the creature. Maybe it was just the knowing that eased my mind.
“Why is he a butterfly?” I asked, watching as the ancient danced back and forth between my fingers. I could feel a smile on my face, enjoying his simple beauty. “And why does it get so cold when he’s nearby?”
“I’m not sure,” Richard confessed, “this isn’t his true form. It may have been too hard for him to become whole in this world so he chose…this. “ He gestured to Azazel, as if that would explain everything. “But when he tries to come into this world he’s unintentionally bringing the ether with him; making it cold. It’s quite common when purebloods come through.”
“You really didn’t do it,” I whispered to him, “did you??
?? Azazel shifted his feet left to right then back again, as if to convey a shake of the head.
“If he didn’t do it then who did?” Jared asked, setting his gun away and kneeling down next to me, getting closer to look at Azazel. Luke remained at the bookshelf, taking small, wary steps towards us.
“And who was Bayani talking about?” I asked, feeling that question was more important than Jared’s, even though they were essentially the same. Rosa’s brother had said it was an ancient creature, a creature not normally found here. Azazel and the killer both fit that description well.
With a frozen gust, the creature jumped from my hand and towards the side table by the couch. Slowly, he landed on the remote, a familiar feeling of curiosity growing inside me. Jared and I both followed him, wanting to know what he was doing.
He sat on the television remote, right on top of the number five. Circling around on the white number he finally flew over to the television. What did he want?
“I think he wants us to turn the TV on,” Luke suggested, now next to the doctor. I saw that Richard’s eyes were back to their normal colour as he stood up, brushing invisible pieces of lint off himself.
“Great,” Jared said sighing, “we brought an ancient demon from Shadeland so he could catch up on the Kardashian’s.”
I raised my eyebrows, wondering if Jared really knew who they were and why he would know. I couldn’t imagine being a bounty hunter allowed him to watch too much reality TV.
I picked up the remote and turned on the television, watching as Azazel returned to the doctor’s side, landing on his shoulder. Rubbing my arms for warmth I saw Cindy come onto the screen, reporting on a car accident that had happened earlier that day.
“Could you mute that, please?” Richard requested and I did so. “What did you say?” He held one finger in the air and stared upwards, listening to something.
“What are you—” Jared began but was shushed.
“He’s trying to tell me something,” the doctor explained, “it’s hard to understand.”
“What?” Jared mocked. “You don’t speak butterfly?”
“Most of Azazel’s essence is still in Shadeland,” Richard explained with a remarkable amount of patience, “it’s hard to hear him through the Ether.” Luke and I exchanged a glance, wondering what “Ether” was. I had read the term before and all I imagined was it was what made up Shadeland; a pink dust or smog coming to mind.
“What does it…sound like he’s trying to say?” Luke leaned closer to the doctor, as if that would help him hear it as well. He grimaced when he found nothing.
“He’s trying to tell us something about the blonde woman,” Richard’s brow furrowed, frustrated, “something about the creature is there?” Azazel flapped his wings hard, breathing cold air all around the room. “Yes, he’s sure the killer is involved there.”
“Cindy is the killer?” Luke asked, scared. He actually liked her, after she had apologized for spreading his picture around he seemed to feel better about what had happened, knowing someone actually felt guilty. I was still on the fence as to whether I liked her or not.
“Not necessarily,” Richard said, “it’s not clear. He’s trying to tell me who but…his connection with this world is weak. It sounds like he keeps saying… ‘man’?” Suddenly the temperature rose to its appropriate degree as Azazel disappeared into a puff of smoke, his message undelivered. The glowing embers in my cereal bowl died out, leaving nothing but ash behind with the muted television.
“What happened?” I asked, wanting to learn more from the ancient.
“He’s gone,” the doctor stated the obvious, “even with the extra power from the mermaid’s scale he is not strong enough to keep a connection for so long. The blood only supplied a limited connection for him.”
“But he’s come through before, a few times,” I said. How could he leave so fast?
“When you saw him it was probably only a short time, correct?” I nodded, knowing it was only a matter of minutes at most. “Then when he showed himself to you, that was most likely all he was able to sustain. Which reminds me…when did you see him? Azazel is a very shy man, he doesn’t show himself easily to others; especially…” Richard shrugged, open palms.
“I saw him at the…Alex’s house,” I said, avoiding the “you-shouldn’t-have-done-that” look from Luke, “and then with the mermaid and then with Jared, at Heather’s house.”
“You saw him at the siren’s place?” Jared questioned, surprised. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Was he really asking that? He had mocked my ideas at every turn, he even mocked the butterfly at the Shoemaker house!
I didn’t say anything to him and instead looked away, angry. He was not allowed to question my decisions now.
“Focus,” Richard said, “we need to figure out who Azazel was talking about.”
“All right,” Jared sighed and turned to pick up the coffee table, I moved out of the way as he set it onto the ground and planted himself on the couch. Begrudgingly, I sat next to him, arms crossed. “What we know so far is that it’s a man.” Jared rolled his eyes, knowing nothing was narrowed down.
“And the killer works for the channel five news,” Luke added, sitting on my other side.
“Great,” Jared muttered, “just great.” I thought about it, considering the meaning of Azazel’s message.
“Maybe he didn’t mean ‘man’ as in male,” I thought aloud, “maybe he meant ‘man’ as a race. Like he was trying to tell us the killer is actually human?” I looked at the men around me, watching as they contemplated the idea.
“It’s possible,” Dr. Wineman said touching his lips. “We shouldn’t rule it out.”
“Do you think we should talk to Bayani again?” I asked, since he was the best lead we had at the moment; the only other one being the giant bat seen outside Heather’s home, and high above the trees of the northern woods. If all else failed, I would mention it again, just in case.
“I’ll do that on my own,” Jared said as he pushed himself off the couch, “I’ll get more out of him that way.” As he walked to the door I followed him, putting on my shoes as fast as I could.
“I’ll go with you,” I said, not wanting to stay home.
“Hell no,” Jared pushed me back with one hand as he opened the door, “you’ve still got a fever, you need to stay here.”
“I’m not letting you do this alone,” I grabbed his hand and threw it away, hoping that would help me assert myself. “I’m going!” Jared ground his teeth, staring at me before he looked away, as always. He walked out the door and I followed after him, steps determined to keep up.
As I shut the door behind me I swore I heard Luke say, “I’ve never seen her do that before.”
Well, I thought, I’ve never had a good enough reason before.