A Stitch on Time 5 (16 page)

“For murder.”

I shook my head. “No way, that’s not possible.”

“Listen here,
freak
, in my line of work I’ve grown to accept that anything is possible. So why don’t you move your slutty little frame away from the loser before I arrest you as well. Whatever was going on here smells a lot like solicitation.” He leered at me, while leaning over the desk. “I think I might take great pleasure in frisking you to make sure you’re not hiding something illegal, like palm cards or a spirit board.”

The way he looked me up and down made me want to puke.

“I have a license for all those things.” In a world where Ouija boards were illegal, he should know someone like me would have the right to own them. The average person might not but as a spook catcher, I did.

“I’d still be interested in frisking you.”

Papan leaped off the chair so fast it tipped over with a loud thump. When he vaulted over the desk—papers, manila files and pens went with it. Before anyone could stop him, he’d wrapped his right hand around Shapiro’s throat and shoved him hard against the wall. He stepped in close and said, “You pathetic piece of shit. Don’t you ever speak to her like that again!”

Even from where I stood, I could see the shimmer of amber in Papan’s glare as he raised his nose in the air. Whatever Papan scented made his frown deepen.

The detective didn’t lose composure as he said, “Put me down before I add assault of a police officer to your list of offences.”

The other detective snuck up behind Papan.

“If you touch me, Burns, I’ll make sure the paramedics are the only ones who can get him breathing again.”

Detective Burns stopped his advance. “Take it easy. We’re just doing our jobs.”

Papan snorted. “You barged into my office with a ridiculous accusation. How is that doing your job?”

“It’s not ridiculous,” Shapiro mumbled. His face was turning red.

“Put him down,” Burns said, calmly. The other two cops didn’t move and were still crowding the doorway.

Papan tightened his hold on Shapiro and I knew that if he didn’t stop soon, we were going to be in a hell of a lot more trouble.

“Let him go, Papan. He’s not worth it,” I said. “He wants you to make a mistake.” This was the same thing I’d said to him last time, and it worked then. Hopefully, it would be enough to get through to him now.

Burns had his gun pointed at Papan’s back. “Listen to her.”

“Don’t let him get the better of you.” I wanted to diffuse the situation.

Papan held Shapiro for several more beats before stepping away. His breathing was labored and sweat dripped from the tips of his dark blond hair. When he peered over his shoulder and met my eyes, I could read just how close he’d come to completely losing his shit. His eyes flashed amber, then green, before turning amber again.

“Don’t let him get to you,” I whispered.

Papan blinked several times before his gaze flicked back to green. He extended a hand, reaching for mine.

Before I could take it, Burns grabbed Papan’s wrist and was about to restrain him when Shapiro yelled, “No! The pleasure of shackling him should be mine.” He gave me a disgusted glare before pulling a pair of handcuffs from his pocket. He turned to grab Papan’s arm and yanked the left behind his back. “Cuff the girl. We’ll deal with her at the station.”

“Leave her out of whatever the fuck this is.”

“Papan, it’s okay.” I wasn’t thrilled at the thought of being handcuffed and dragged away in a police car under bogus charges, but what else could we do? “Who did he supposedly kill?”

The hatred in Shapiro’s scowl almost made me recoil, but when your own parents couldn’t look you in the eye without glowering, you get used to it.

“Hurry up and restrain her, I’m getting sick of hearing her fucking voice.”

Burns approached me and as he reached for my arm, one of the windows behind Papan’s desk exploded. I barely dodged the incoming colorful sphere. It barreled into Burns, slamming against his shoulder and sending him to the floor.

“What the fuck was that?” he said with a grunt.

Shapiro only had one cuff on Papan and as he rushed to secure the other, a second sphere flew in through the other window. This one smacked the determined detective square in the back, so hard he lost his grip on Papan and stumbled to his knees.

One of the uniforms rushed to Shapiro’s aid, helping him stand as Papan backed away. Shapiro protested with every step, but the young police officer wouldn’t release his chubby arm and maneuvered him out the door. The other cop stood near Burns as he struggled to stand.

“You might as well get him out of here,” I said to the young cop. Mainly because I knew what was hovering inside the office.

The constable hesitated only a few moments before assisting Burns to his feet. “We need to arrest these two,” Burns kept saying.

“As soon as I get you safely downstairs, Preach and I will come back for them.”

“No—”

“Just get out of here before it’s too late!” I yelled. These cops had no idea what we were dealing with, but I did. Orbs—ectoplasms—were dangerous spooks, and these were already shrinking in size. The last time I’d seen that happen, there’d been an otherworldly explosion.

A third orb sailed through the shattered windows. The three spheres hovered in midair as if waiting further instructions.

“Hurry up!” I yelled. “Get out.”

The uniformed officer rushed Burns out the door.

I pointed at the colorful balls of contained energy—different shades of blue, green and even red. “Papan, we need to leave too.” I backtracked, trying to close the distance so I was next to him. We didn’t want to be around these things for long.

“Are those orbs?” He stepped closer to the door, reaching for me.

I grabbed his hand, keen to leave together. “Yes, and if we don’t get out now—”

“Fox, watch out!”

I was too slow to react and something smacked into my right hand. I lowered it to my side, watching strands of pink energy, instead of blood, leak out of me. This wasn’t another orb—it was clearly a wraith in the form of someone I recognized instantly, and she was already glistening orange. Once a spook became this wild and violent, they attacked and fed off the chaos they caused. The mounting energy was triggered when she touched my hand, which meant someone had organized this attack.

I’d confronted plenty of these spooks in the field, but only met one other in this condition—Professor Spooker. He’d been strapped to an obscene spirit-splitting chair he’d designed himself, and was lost in the ghostly patch when he bit me and caused my energy to bleed.

The circumstances might now be different because we were in an office rather than another patch but, coupled with the orbs, we were headed for a very volatile outcome.

I sucked in a cold breath and turned my attention to the new threat.

“What in the fuck is she?”

I looked over my shoulder and spotted Papan too close for comfort. “You can see her?”

“She’s so bright.”

“She’s a wraith. Let me talk to her, okay?”

He nodded, but didn’t move.

The spook had short spiked hair, though it was long at the front. She wore tights and a close-fitting top—both orange now that her temperature was rising. When I met her eyes, she didn’t seem to remember me. Even after she’d gone to so much trouble to contact me.

“Lee,” I said.

Her face shot up, head twisted at an unnatural angle as she regarded me with vacant eyes. She’d reacted to her name, but might not understand anything else.

“What have they done to you?”

She sniffed the air between us. “You smell so good. I bet you taste even nicer.” Damn, you’d think I would have learned my lesson. But no, just as Professor Spooker had surprised me, so did Lee. Before I could stop her, she grabbed my arm and bit into the underside of my right wrist. Wraiths couldn’t be reasoned with because hunger and violence was their sole purpose—oh, and blowing shit up. Judging by the intensity of her color—orange, now blending into red—she was close to detonation.

I dragged my arm away but energy continued to leak out of me.

“You’re delicious.” Her face was gaunt and hardly resembled the woman I’d known. “I know you, don’t I?”

“Yes, Lee. It’s me, Sierra.” I held my oozing arm. “Why are you doing this?”

She shrugged. “I’m so hungry, and you taste so good.”

“Who did this to you?”

She looked down at herself and her features flicked back to human, but the orange was almost completely morphed into red. “Oh my God, Sierra, you have to help the other girls before they do the same to them.”

“I know, you already told me.”

“I did?”

“Yes, last night. I’ll take care of the other girls. I promise.”

She opened her mouth to answer but started glowing brighter and her features shifted.

“I’m so sorry this happened to you,” I said before stepping in line with Papan, threading my fingers with his.

“Sierra, what’s happening to me?” Lee turned fiery red and the three orbs circled around her. They would soon collide and cause an explosion.

We don’t need to be here when that happens.

“Papan, we have to run.” Without a second’s pause, we turned from the wraith and the orbs. We took the stairs two at a time until we reached my office. That was when the first explosion hit. The impact forced our feet off the floor. My hand slid from his and I landed on my side. I managed to sit up, careful not to cut my hands on the littered glass. Half of the corridor window was already in smithereens.

“Is that it?” Papan asked and his voice sounded so far away.

“No, take my hand.” He did and as we stood, I shouted, “Whatever you do, don’t let go of me.”

“I’ll never let go of you,” he said.

I flashed a quick smile as we turned to continue down the stairs, but the next wave of the explosion hit with so much power it pushed the shockwave through the building and raced after us faster than we were moving. It caught us in midstride, flinging us into the air for a few slow-moving seconds before the blast shoved us out the window.

I held onto his hand. We were two stories from the ground, so it was vital not to lose my grip on him. Survival instinct took over and the street below disappeared, becoming black. We fell for a lot longer than I thought we should, but I eventually ended up on top of Papan.

“Are you okay?” I touched his face and chest, glad when I felt his heartbeat.

“What is this place?” He looked around, while holding my hips steady.

“Welcome to my dark patch.”

“How did we get here?”

“I called it up,” I said with a shrug. “It’s a new trick my sensei taught me.” One I should’ve used as soon as we left his office, but with one shock after another… I really needed to remember this trick because it was going to save me a lot of scrapes and bruises, not to mention money on First Aid supplies.

Papan looked confused. “But you only pull demons inside, right?”

“Or anyone who’s been touched by the demonic.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted them. I hadn’t meant to make the truth sound so crass.

“Ah, that explains it.” His eyes shimmered. “I guess my new demonic blood is making this possible.”

“Papan—” He stopped me by placing his index finger on my lips.

“You don’t need to say any more. We’ve already had this discussion and I meant what I said.” He scanned the darkness. “I’m fine with your decision, especially if it means sharing even more with you.”

I lowered my mouth to his and we kissed inside my personal patch.

Funny how I’d been so scared about this patch before and now could use it to defeat hordes of demonic beings, heal myself, and share an intimate moment with my lover. We took our time, paying special attention to exploring as much of each other’s mouths as we could. This reprieve wouldn’t last.

“Are you ready to go back?” I hoped we’d end up as far from the building as possible so we could run from the police, but knew we wouldn’t be so lucky.

Papan nodded.

“Shapiro will be there, and Burns…”

He sighed. “I know. It’s probably best to face them sooner than later.”

I pressed my forehead against his and released my dark patch.

“Thanks for my birthday present,” he whispered seconds before chaos and rain dampened everything.

We were on the concrete path located on the side of the building.

Two police cars were haphazardly parked on the curb and another—which I assumed belonged to the detectives—was neatly parked beside them. Sirens blared in the distance as smoke puffed out from the demolished building. Bricks, wood and glass spotted the area, but miraculously had fallen outside the radius of my dark patch, forming an oval shape around us.

“I feel bad for the owner of the building,” I said, standing and offering Papan my hand. “I’ve brought so much crap to it.”

“The owner doesn’t mind.” Papan took my hand and pulled himself up.

“How do you know?” My office had been a safe haven for so long, but lately had become a sore spot. I used to love spending hours inside thinking things through or hiding out from the rest of the world. It wasn’t until this year when my life changed so drastically that I started resenting it and only stopped by when necessary. Too many bad things had happened since the
Obscurus
found me and decided to make their move. “Do you know the owner?”

“The building belongs to me.”

“What?”

“Over there!” someone yelled, followed by the sound of pounding footsteps.

“You didn’t think I’d forgotten about you, did you?” Shapiro grabbed Papan by the hanging handcuff around his wrist, forcing his arms back so he could finish what he’d started upstairs. Papan didn’t fight him. “You’re in a lot of trouble.”

“Wait, where are you taking him?”

Shapiro ignored me and shoved Papan forward, guiding him towards the car.

I took a step to follow but Burns blocked my path. “We’re taking him to the local police station for questioning.”

“But he didn’t do anything!”

“Ms. Fox,” he said with a sigh, running a hand over his tired face. “Your boyfriend is under arrest for suspicion of murder.”