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Skull and Jax flew overhead, keeping an eye on the Nova as they followed Jodie to Terry’s place. Jax wouldn’t believe Maxius tried to open a portal then and there. Had he gone back to Dolareg? Could it be over that easy? Jax mind spun with questions.
“Do you think Maxius left?”
Skull turned his head and looked at Jax.
“I don’t know, but for the sake of argument I’m going with no. He didn’t get what he came for.”
Jax nodded in agreement.
“So, where do you think he went?”
Skull honestly had no idea, but since only a few of his men were with him, he assumed he had a base set up.
“Probably back to wherever the others are.”
“Others? Great I hadn’t thought about it. Who knows how many he has brought with him? Can you do that?”
“What? Open a portal that easily? I don’t know I have never tried it. Though I have the spell and all that memorized it doesn’t mean I can do it.”
Skull hadn’t thought about his ability to open the portal or any portal. He was lucky they got here unharmed.
“Maybe we should test out your skill at it. We may need it.”
Jax made a good point. If they needed a quick escape or away to save Jodie, he should be able to command his magic. Skull wished for the first time since being here that Will was here with them. He’d know what to do and how to defeat Maxius without anyone else getting hurt.
Jodie and Joyce drove in silence. Both had men they loved on their mind. Jodie thought about Terry. She wished he was here. That he’d be opening the door to his place and giving her a big hug. Asking her ‘coffee, tea, or me.’ That was an inside joke with them. In college they had read the book as a joke. Jodie had brought it home one evening after a library mishap. Terry always joked if he ever stopped working in the book industry, he wanted to be a flight attendant.
“I don’t think the little skirt would fit you. You got big thighs.”
“I do not have big thighs!”
Terry looked down at himself, which made Jodie laugh hard. Terry was perfect. Nothing on him was fat or out of place.
Jodie smiled as she thought of the good times with him. She could see out of the corner of her eye Joyce was lost in thought as she looked out the window. Joyce started to think about everything that had happened to her since she met Mitch Hamlon. She knew from the moment she set eyes on him he was the one for her. His death was so sudden and weird. Then again, a lot of things in their marriage were sudden and weird.
She had gone to give him his morning coffee and found him passed away in his sleep. How had she not known he’d died? They slept in the same bed together. She asked herself this question over and over. She had set the coffee mug down on the nightstand. Slowly she got in bed next to him.
“It’s time to get up honey. We have a big day ahead of us. That book store you wanted to take Jodie to opens today.”
Mitch hadn’t moved.
“Come on, don’t play possum with me.”
She poked him in the side.
“Mitch come on!”
Sometimes he’d just lay there and wait until Joyce was good and freaked out before he’d move and scare the hell out of her. He thought it was funny.
Joyce shoved him hard and nothing happened.
“This isn’t funny, damn it. We got things to do today.”
She got off the bed and went to shower. She wasn’t going to play his stupid game today. After she got out of the shower and put on her robe, she went to check on him. He hadn’t moved. The coffee was untouched.
“Okay this is getting to be a bit much.”
She stood at the foot other bed with her arms crossed over her chest. She glared at him. As she glared at him, she looked at his chest. It hadn’t moved.
“Mitch,” she said softly as she moved to touch his feet. Jodie hit a bump on the road. The jolt of it brought Joyce back to reality. Tears stung her eyes.
“So, are we gonna talk about what the plan is,” Jodie finally said to break the silence.
“I have no idea, sweetie. We have all the books, right?”
Jodie nodded.
“All but the one at my place.”
“Are you okay?”
Joyce put her hand on Jodie’s arm.
“I feel fine.”
Joyce gave her a look.
“Don’t lie to me, young lady.”
Jodie didn’t know what to say. In all honesty she felt broken emotionally and mentally. But physically she felt wonderful. Like she was on some weird drugs.
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth. Some weird things have been happening to you.”
Jodie really didn’t understand much of what happened. It was like she was having an out of body experience. She was there, but not there.
“Okay. I feel like an alien in my own body. I feel good, which worries me. Shouldn’t I feel tired or in pain? Something other than like I ate Xanax and washed it down with a gallon of wine?”
Joyce squeezed her arm gently.
“I wish I knew, honey. All this is new to me too.”
Something in Jodie told her Joyce knew more than she was saying.
“Yeah.”
Jodie looked in the rear-view mirror to check on Boston who was sound asleep in the back of the Nova. He was covered in dried blood. If he wasn’t already scary looking, he was now. As Jodie pulled the Nova in front of Terry’s home Joyce realized the car was new.
“What did you do to the car?”
“I didn’t do anything. Skull helped me with it. Saved me thousands of dollars in restoring her.”
Joyce was impressed.
“Maybe he can do that to my body.”
Jodie laughed.
“I don’t think he could do that.”
“Well, just suck the fun right out of my life, why don’t ya?”
Jodie turned off the Nova and got her purse from her around her neck. She fished out the keys to Terry’s place.
Boston came awake suddenly. His eyes were full of panic. He sat up in and looked around. Once he saw Jodie and Joyce he relaxed. He licked both of their faces.
“Let’s go inside,” Joyce said as she opened her door and got out. Boston waited for someone to let him out, before bolting to the front door. Terry hadn’t come back for him like he promised. He wanted to make sure he was okay.
He barked at Jodie.
“Okay Sir! Give me a moment.”
Jodie unlocked the door and Boston pushed on the door with his head the moment she pulled the key out of the lock.
“Hold your water lily,” Joyce said as Boston pushed on it again. Jodie turned the knob as he tried a third time to push the door open. The door swung open and hit the wall which made a banging sound. Boston rushed inside, barking. He went from room to room to look for Terry.
Jax and Skull landed as Jodie was about to close the door. Skull put his hand on the door. When the door didn’t shut Jodie opened it to see what was blocking it.
“I almost forgot about you two.”
She stepped back to let them in before she closed and locked the door behind them. Boston ran to the last place Terry was and started sniffing for him. When he couldn’t find him, he started to whine.
Jodie followed the sound of his whining.
“I know, I miss him too.” She knelt and wrapped her arms about the Great Dane. She put her head on his shoulder and hugged him. Boston whined louder.
“It’s gonna be okay.”
Even as she said it, it felt like a lie to her. As she held on to Boston, she felt tears start to come. She sniffed, and then squeezed Boston tight before standing up.
“Terry wouldn’t want us to be upset.”
Boston hung his head and whined softly.
“Okay Sir, I’ll leave you to be sad in peace.” She looked over her shoulder to see him go lay in Terry’s bed. Terry had left a dirty shirt on the bed. Boston was using it for a pillow. If Terry were here, he’d tell Boston to get down. He was always afraid Boston was going to rip up his bed. When Jodie first got him, that’s what he did. He had chewed a hole in the mattress and ripped open all the goose down pillows. Boston had a ball playing in the feathers and tracking them all over the house. It was like a scene from Turner and Hooch. Terry yelled at Boston for the mess and Boston tried to cute his way out of it.
Jodie made her way back to the others. Her purse sat on the floor by the front door. She picked it up.
“I guess we should look these over and see if we can find the one with my story in it.”
Joyce wasn’t sure that was the best idea.
“Maybe you should wait on all that. There are some other things I think we need to focus on right now.”
Jodie paused, and she sat down in the couch in the living room. The others stood in the dining room area.
“Like what?”
Joyce smoothed her hair out before coming to sit with her.
“We need to get Terry’s body. And Skull did say he saw something in the sky. We should check that out. Make sure no one demons or whatever come through.”
Jodie’s face went stoic.
“His body?”
She could feel the tears starting. Jodie bit her lip to keep them back.
“Right. We need to get it and make sure the police don’t do anything with it.”
She turned to Jax.
“What if you two went and did those things?”
Skull and Jax traded looks.
“Sure, we can do that. Where should we umm... put his body?”
“I... I don’t know.”
Joyce put her hand on Jodie’s arm.
“He can have my plot next to Mitch.”
Jodie blinked.
“No Momma.”
“Yes, Jodie, its safest for now. Or we can cremate him.”
“Maybe that’s better. Put him in your plot for now then we can do that.”
Skull thought a moment.
“Don’t you two worry about it. We’ll handle it.”
“Do you remember where the thing was you saw,” Joyce asked Skull as she stroked Jodie’s arm
Skull nodded.
“I do.”
“Okay good. We’ll stay here. It seems safest for us.”
Jax and Skull didn’t argue with Joyce. They left Terry’s place and headed for the museum. As they flew along Jax wondered what Skull had in mind.
“So, what’s your plan?”
“We will burn Terry’s body and put it in something for Jodie.”
“Okay. And the thing you saw?”
“Check it out and see if I can close it. Keep something else from ending up here.”
It seemed easy, but nothing ever truly was. Even as they talked about the thing Skull saw on the computer over Google Maps, the shimmer in the sky was in fact still opened, slowly leaking magic from Dolareg into the human realm. With the portal open things from the human realm were ending up in Dolareg. At first it was just a bird here or there. The more things that passed through it, the larger the shimmer got. To a human eye it wasn’t visible, but demons and supernatural beings could see it.
***
Quinn was finally allowed to get some fresh air, if one could call it fresh. Since the crimson mist came the beauty of Dolareg had faded. Quinn was eager to explore his own cave of crystals. He hadn’t told anyone, but he’d been collecting things here and there since everything had started to change.
He made his way to a large oak tree. There was a knot hole in the front of it. No other demon could fit through it, but it was no problem for Quinn. As he squeezed through it, he fell a foot inside the tree. Quinn landed with a bounce on something odd he’d found, that wasn’t something anyone would ever see in Dolareg. Quinn wasn’t as stupid as Rall thought he was. In fact, he was the smartest of his species, but he let his master think he was an idiot. Quinn learned the thing he’d landed on was called a dog bed. A few of them had appeared in Dolareg. He wasn’t sure what a dog was, but the dog bed and the pile of others he’d found was nice. He slipped off the dog beds and put his feet on the cold ground.
“I know it’s in here.”
Since the human had come to Dolareg, Quinn knew she’d be back, and when she came back, he’d have something for her. The Creator wasn’t the first human to travel to Dolareg. She was just the first one to truly bring it life. Quinn’s people used to rule another land, and a human came to them. Their presence alerted the larger demons to them.
Quinn spotted the statue in the corner. He rubbed it happily.
“Yes, she’ll really like this. Master will not be happy with Quinn, but The Creator must have it!!”
What Quinn had was the First Demon. It had appeared as if by magic, and Quinn had found it. He had put it here for safety. Something about it told him it belonged to The Creator. Rall had free what he thought to be the First Demon. No one knew for sure what really happened. The First Demon statue had found its way out of Rall’s throne room.