Every wretchedness and shortcoming,

The faltering that has you in its clutch,

These make up the world that you reserve

In all of its abasement.

From The Inkishafi by Sayyid Abdalla Bin Ali Bin Nasir

Translated from the Swahili by D.H. Tracy

 

Chapter Fourteen

 

The path down to the bat caves was marred with years of pockmarks and pitted ruts. Despite the well-worn path, the gravel was still loose beneath my boots and the overgrown brush made a good attempt to hide the empty broken beer bottles, rain-stained cigarette packs and various sundry bits of garbage--windblown plastic grocery bags and empty fast food wrappers hidden throughout the bramble.

I wasn’t sure why the local kids called it the bat caves, there hadn’t been any bats seen in this area in quite some time. Too many vagrants wandering around at all hours stirring up the air with their noise and nonsense, I guess.

Finding a body down along the tracks wouldn’t have really surprised me, though. It was a good place for all kinds of bad things to happen; plenty of darkness and cover for all sorts of wretched things to occur. Finding a ritual slaying left clearly marked for anyone to stumble on--now, that was just plain stupid.

Why the hell would someone leave it so that the cops would find it? That was the mystery? I guess that’s why Cage had called me. He wanted to know what kind of monster did the killing.

Apparently just because I was Other, he assumed that I knew what all the monsters were. Sight unseen. Yeah, let me pull this fucking rabbit out of my hat.

I slid down the edge of the hill, my hands towards the ground for balance, knees bent, back arched backwards to try to keep from wiping out. My boots kept catching on the gravel as I tried to keep my balance. I was amazed no one had gone over the edge and just kept going. Down at the bottom led to the train tracks. And beyond that, the river.

The stench of dead fish lying in a July Midwest haze was such a wonderful smell. I wanted to gag as the humidity wrapped around me and the acrid smell of death permeated the air. You could almost feel it, like a viable, touchable thing, waiting for you, to jump out and rub up against you, something you could sink your fingers into. Knowing that you’ll cringe the moment they brush up against the slime.

I stood up when I reached the bottom, and I could see the tracks and the gray murky sludge of the river beyond. The Rock was a cool, flowing whirl of undertows and sandy muck. Should be nice and pleasant this time of year, if you’re a flat head catfish…or a drowning victim. I was lucky enough, or unlucky, depending on what kind of mood Cage was in, to have Dragon with me. He insisted on following me on this expedition. Insisting that he not leave my side. Some lame-ass shit about how Kieran would expect him to watch over me.

Whatever. I now had a guard dog. Or would that be cat? Either way, Cage was just going to love this. Probably about as much as the cop at the top of the perimeter had loved it when we arrived. His attempt at steely eyes as he tried to dissuade me from bringing my companion trampling through the crime scene obviously didn’t work. Let’s just say the eyes lacked the mettle--or metal--to persuade me. He told me it was my ass.

It usually was.

The scene was roped off and swarming with crime-scene techs. Not to mention an array of colorful uniforms. I had clipped my ID to my tank top when we got out of my truck, and I made sure it was still attached as I wandered up to the nearest uniform.

Granted, the ID was a little old and the most credentials it offered was Hunter and the Silent Court emblem, but Officer Tall, Mean and Bordering on Neo-otherworld Fascist about had a stroke when I requested to speak to Inspector Cage.

“Look, woman. I don’t care who it is you think you need to see. You are not getting past this police line.” The guy was as big as a fucking oak tree and as white, purebred and hard-assed as a Neo-Nazi on the Fuhrer’s golden birthday.

“And I said I want to speak to fucking Inspector Cage, now!” By the third time I’d said it, I’d lost my patience. I’d already taken an aggressive stance, feet apart and arms loose at my sides. I didn’t realize it, but my hair was beginning to blow in a wind of my own making and light was beginning to pool around me like a small beacon.

“Lars!” Cage’s voice cut through the crowd stilling all movement and sound. It figures the guy had a name like Lars. It fit him.

I could hear Cage stomping his way through the gravel towards us, each step precise and obviously annoyed at the interruption. Good, at least I wasn’t the only one having a sunshiny wonderful day.

“Is there a reason you’re making such a commotion at my crime scene?” That was Cage; he wanted order, peace and quiet while they sifted through the muck.

“Just keeping the riffraff out of the scene, Inspector,” he said with a nod towards me.

“Look here, you little pissant,” I said, taking a step into him. Call me fucking riffraff. As if. I could feel the color drain from my face as I went from zero to pissed in two seconds.

“Officer, that will be enough. Ms. Tennai is here at my request. And Rihker, turn off the glamour. Now. I’ve no time for this shit.”

I wanted to say, “But he started it!” But it’s a little hard when I’m being shuffled past Officer Burly Bad Ass by Cage’s deathlike grip on my arm.

Guess he was firmly put into his place. But it still pissed me off that he’d said that shit, so I flipped him off in passing. Call me childish. I know.

“Your friend stays put,” Cage said as he glared at Dragon.

“Fine,” I replied with a shrug as I looked back at Dragon. He and Officer Friendly were having a staring contest. Bet I knew who was going to win.

The caves were a sheared wall of rock, muted beige in the afternoon sunlight. There was a large shelf that opened into the wall’s face and the gaping entrance of the cave. It didn’t go back very far, maybe fifty feet, but it was enough for the local teens to party in or for a bum to live in for a while; his own personal mansion with a lake front view. Nice, if you didn’t mind sleeping on the ground and pissing in the trees.

Today the ledge was painted with a circle of blood. A pentagram with candles was marked for each of the four corners of the earth. Each element of the universe was given homage to. There were markings in blood on the rock wall by the corner for the earth, but I had no idea what they meant. Ancient languages weren’t my gig. In the center of the pentagram were the remnants of the body.

From where I stood outside the circle, I could still feel the power trickle along its edges as it ran up my skin like a million ants on the march. Earth magic is hard to miss when you’re kin to it. I could cross the circle if I wanted to, but to do so I would take a little of the Darkness that was called here into myself.

Call me crazy, but I so did not want to be feeling that shadow creeping through my aura. Or have it remember me on some dark night.

I looked at the body. No point in calling it him or her. There wasn’t enough left of it to even tell. Its torso was a mangle of meaty clumps. Each limb was severed from its body and sliced wide open; the bones glistening in the warmth of the sun.

It wouldn’t be long before the flies that buzzed back and forth around it set up homes for their larvae, let alone the gnats that were swarming the congealing blood that pooled the entire circle. They too seemed to be looking for a place of their own.

“So what do the markings mean?” Cage asked as he looked at me intently.

I was so engrossed in the mish-mash of remains that he had to snap his fingers in front of me to get my attention. “Hello. Rihker.”

“What? Oh, sorry,” I said turning to catch the annoyance in his pale hazel eyes. Seeing that glare of aggravation cross Adam’s features reminded me why I was glad we’d broken up. He was so self-serving.

“I have no idea what the markings mean,” I said completely blank-faced.

“What the hell do you mean, you’ve no idea? Why did I call you here if you can’t tell what any of this shit means? Why the hell is the Silent Court sending you as their liaison if you can’t help me?”

I just loved watching his skin turn three shades of red. Seeing him come completely unglued as his perfect little world of peace and order fell apart at the seams. It just made something in me smile.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I should really be over all of this getting even with him at every turn. I should be well beyond the twisting of the blade at any opportunity I could find. But let’s get real. He dumped me for some pretty pathetic and immature reasons. He dated me, fully aware that I was part Pixie, and when it came down to it, I was too much of a monster for him to handle. So, call me vindictive, but his shallowness just pissed me off. And obviously still does.

“Relax, Cage,” I said, rolling my eyes as his histrionics were beginning to cause another scene. “I said I couldn’t read the hou-ha. That doesn’t mean that I can’t tell you what it was that did this. And it doesn’t mean that I can’t track it.”

His semi-tanned brow creased in disbelief. Adam obviously had been working late quite a bit, because his sturdy square jaw needed a shave. By the way he was rubbing it in uncertainty, it was obviously bothering him.

“Don’t fuck with me, Rihker. I’ve got too much Other World bullshit going on lately, and the Mayor is breathing down my back for some answers. Are you sure you can tell what did this?” he asked as he stepped into me, the glare of his eyes shooting poisonous darts--if it were possible.

I sighed in annoyance at his stupidity. How quickly he forgets what I am. Unless it suits his purpose, that is. “Yeah, I’m sure,” I said as I walked to the edge of the circle.

I knew I was going to regret doing this, but I’d be damned if I left here with Cage, of all people, thinking that I wasn’t monster enough to track a fucking whack-job cultist.

“Clear the circle,” I said as my toes reached its thick, bloody edge. The scene had gone quiet, like when you just get a baby to sleep and you’re afraid to make a sound, afraid that a pin-drop of noise will start the screaming again.

Apparently no one wanted to enter that circle unless they had to. Call me crazy, here I was about to do it just to prove a point. One of these days being such a hardass is really going to come back to bite me. Let’s just hope it wasn’t today.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting all of the tension and Darkness leave me. I was hoping that only the Light would course beneath my skin. I said a silent prayer to the earth to keep the Darkness at bay, to forgive me for treading where I did not belong, and for the Light to lead me. Then I stepped into the circle.

The instant my foot passed that bloody outline the screaming started, and I wasn’t sure if it was me, the dead girl at my feet or the world around me. Suddenly the world went black, and it felt like a door had been slammed on my reality.

I could feel the cool, reaching hands of Darkness as the night extended its dexterous grasp to caress my skin and pull me into its madness. The sky above was an ink-black bed of flashing stars and a three-quarter moon riding high in its dark plateau.

Cage and the team of techs were gone. The warmth of a sunny afternoon was now swallowed by the darkness, and I was completely alone with the memory of a murder.

I could hear the soothing song of crickets chirping in the tall grasses along the banks of the river. In the distance the low hum of traffic. But the girl just kept screaming, her voice raw with terror as she pleaded for mercy.

It pissed me off a little to know it was a woman who’d been murdered. Did it always have to be a woman? I mean, why were we the chosen few?

She was stretched out in the circle, her body naked in the soft light of the moon; open and innocent to the dark hands that would come to collect her soul. She wasn’t tied down in any way that was visible, and yet she was a prisoner to the circle itself.

I could feel the evil permeating through the darkness around me, thrumming through the night with every small breath of the wind, every lilt of river song. It felt as though the magic grew stronger the longer I was held in this warp of time as I tried to see what had happened. I felt like a weight was pressing on me, making it hard to breathe as I searched for the creature that had called the magic.

As soon as I thought of the creature, I felt him there on the ledge, drawing the diagram in blood with bony, tenuous fingers. His blood, and his victim’s. And then I noticed some of her gaping wounds.

Slices through her chakra--her body’s points of power--arms and legs; throat and belly.

I turned and studied the creature. He was a silhouette to the darkness, dressed in a black gown with a hooded cover, his body a shadow hidden among shadows. Had I not known where he stood, the images on the cave wall would have appeared as though by an unseen hand. Yet I felt each line, each circle, like a fist to my gut.

I could feel myself being drawn by his power. Lifted from my feet by his magic. And I was suddenly hovering above the circle, weightless in the night, like just another breeze. I could hear voices shouting through the darkness. But no one was there, no one but me, a dying girl and a creature of Darkness.

The shouting was bleeding into the nightmare, and the creature visibly tensed with annoyance. He paused in his drawing as if sensing the voices.

I watched in horror as he took up more blood upon his own palm and began to draw more swiftly, hurrying now to complete his magic. The girl’s skin split open to the bone at her arms. Then her legs did the same; the muscles exploding like ground meat, blood splattering everywhere. Her screaming suddenly stopped, her terror a distant memory of the wind.

I hovered above her--an unsuspecting bee, waiting to be swatted away.

The creature drew more symbols, and the girl’s torso ripped open as if claws were gashing her open from the inside out. Bile rose in my throat as her entrails pooled out of her in an exploding fissure of stench and gore, the smell of death, blood and bowels heavy in the air.

I could feel myself beginning to gag as the horror swept over me. I wanted out of this circle. I needed my feet returned to the earth, and the light of day to fill me. I called the Light with every ounce of my being and the creature turned towards me, a scream like a hollow, condemned soul flying at me through the darkness. The noise pierced my ears until I thought my eardrums would explode from the pain.

The girl’s limbs tore away from her body, blood splashing in an arc all over the front of my clothes and face, and I screamed. I screamed until light exploded from my body and I was thrust out of the dark circle. Out of the Darkness. The last thing I saw before I hit the ground was a flash of a skeletal face, and long silver hair behind the hood of a cloak.

Cage and three other cops rushed towards me as I lay on the ground, spots of yellow and black dancing across my eyes. I hit the ground in a heap, landing on my tailbone, elbows scraping the gravel and cracking my head back on the rocks. As I tried to figure out what it was that I saw, Cage began screaming at me. “Don’t you ever fucking do that again! Do you hear me?”

I blinked at him a few times before I sat up. “Jeez, Cage, I didn’t know you cared.”