Midnight Squad: The Grim (37 page)

           
“No! Why would I want to save them? What possible reason
could you give me to save them?” I racked my brain. “Your mate wants them. With
everything he’s done to you, isn’t it worth saving them just to keep him from
getting what he wants?” I know I must have looked every bit as desperate as I
felt because Alhambra was gloating.

           
After a few moments she said, “I could save them. That
would definitely be a start. It wouldn’t be much, but it would be nice to get
at him early. Still…there’s always the possibility he might just hunt them down
later. It would be a lot better if I just destroyed them all.”

           
“No!”

           
“Joseph, don’t be silly. I’ll destroy them, and then you
and I can go off together. You were so much fun last time. Don’t look at me
like that Joseph. Oh fine! If you’re going to be silly about this, I’ll let you
keep one of them. The vampire could be fun. We could take turns with her.” I’m
sure she was going to say something else, but I pulled out the revolver and
unloaded it on her. All five rounds ripped through her. I panicked. My finger
kept pulling the trigger. The gun was empty, but there were six more dry clicks
before Alhambra wrapped her fingers around the barrel. She did not look happy.

           
“Joseph? Why are you being so silly? You enjoyed
yourself. She’ll have just as much fun.”

           
I couldn’t take it anymore, “Enjoy! Enjoy! Bullshit! It
was the worst three months of my life!”

           
“Oh don’t be silly, you had nothing but pleasure those
months. I even took away all those nasty little scars. I practically remade
you. You could barely lift your left arm over your head when I got you. If your
military leaders had known how you were hiding your injuries they’d have forced
you to retire. Now there’s nothing wrong with you. I’ve repaired you. I’ve
probably added twenty years of comfort to your quality of life. You owe me!”
She said it as though everything was decided.

           
“Fuck you! I was hoping you’d help me. I was even willing
to agree with you if you’d have saved them. The truth is that was the worst
three months of my life. Sure, you gave me a lot of pleasure. Did you ever ask
yourself if I wanted to feel that way? Sure, I felt pleasure, and rape victims
sometimes cum. That doesn’t mean they….we weren’t raped! What you did to me was
the worst experience of my life. You were complaining about what happened to
you. Fuck you! You did the same thing to me for three months, but I didn’t get
any powers because of it. No! Instead, I had to go to a mental hospital where
they mind fuck me for another few months. They medicated me, used experimental
therapy on me, and did their best to make me believe that everything you did
was just a figment of my imagination. You raped me physically, and emotionally.
They raped my mind. My father knows I was tortured, but would he even be able
to look at me if he knew everything? I still don’t know how I’m ever going to
have a real relationship with anyone?”

           
“Oh please, you didn’t seem to have any problems getting
it up for the ghost!”

           
“I didn’t say sex! I said relationship. I could fuck a
sheep if you get me horny enough.”

           
“You don’t seem to have any trouble with the vampire.”
Her face twisted into a wicked snarl.

           
“Listen Bitch!
I really like
her. I’m doing everything I can to avoid screwing things up with her, but every
time I get near her; I can’t help but question my feelings. Do you think she’d
really want me now if she knew everything? The fucked up part is that in my
head I know that none of this is my fault. In my head, I know Penny likes
me…all of me. My head knows these things, but something inside me says differently.
You put it there. I don’t know if you meant to put it there, or if it was an
accident. What you did to me twisted some part of me, and I don’t know how to
fix it. I’ve been working with all of you here, and every around you was like
dying. I did all that I could to stay in control. Everyday it’s gotten harder
to treat you professionally. Shit! It’s been hard to treat you like anything
but a rabid dog that needs to be put down.” I was crying. I’d gone past reason,
and now I was just sobbing and screaming at her. Alhambra looked back at me in
shock.

           
“Joseph? I…I…I never realized you felt this way.” Her
brown skin was turning pale.

           
“Did you ask? No! You take so much pleasure in the fact
that you can break us with pleasure. Did you ever wonder why they all killed
themselves? Suicide doesn’t seem like a bad option once someone takes control
of your body, your emotions, and leaves nothing else. The sick thing is now I
know that you know exactly what it’s like, and what do you do? You make sure we
go through the very same thing you do, but without any of the benefits. That
makes you even worse than your mate. I may be wrong, but from what I
understand, your mate had to ask you to become Jinn. He couldn’t make you
become what you are without your permission.” My blood pressure was spiking,
and I felt my pulse exploding through my veins. Tears kept running down my
face, and while I’d never admit it later, I even had snot bubbles coming out.

           
“Joseph…I’m sorry.” Alhambra actually looked shaken.

           
“That’s the really fucked up part. I forgave you. That
Hebrew you keep saying is dead, is very much alive, and even if you don’t
believe it….I
do
! I forgave you because it’s what he
expects from us. He forgave our sins, and we have to forgive each other. I
forgave you. I hate what you did to me. I can’t ever forget it, but I forgave
you. The fucked up part is I can’t seem to find a way to forgive myself for
everything we did together.” I was broken. This was what I’d been avoiding all
these months. I was on my knees staring up at her crying.

           
“Please stand up…I’m sorry!” Alhambra pulled me to my
feet. Tears were building up in her eyes. “I know it doesn’t make anything
better, but I’m sorry. You’re right. I’ve become the same as the monster that’s
tormented me all this time. I’d like to say I didn’t know, but I knew. It just
seemed to make it tolerable if someone else shared my pain. I guess I’ve been
trying to lie to myself all these years. Take this back.” She shoved the
necklace against my chest.

           
“What the fuck? I don’t want it! You take it!” I shoved
it back into her chest.

           
“Please Joseph! I’ve become like the very monster that
still torments me! I don’t know how to be free. It’s been so long since I had
anything resembling freedom. I still want to be free, but right now, I’d just
go out and be the same monster I’ve been for all these years. I don’t want
that. I don’t have any right to ask it of you. Help me remember my
humanity…please!” She held out the necklace. If I took it from her then I could
have her use her powers to save the others. It was tempting. It was my best
opportunity, and all I had to do was let her be my slave.

           
“Keep it. I’ll help you anyway that I can, but I won’t be
your master. If you really want to remember what its like to be human then
you’ll have to accept your freedom. You have to keep that necklace. I can’t
believe I’m offering this, but I’ll help you. Together we’ll get through this.”
My stomach was in my throat. The last thing I wanted was to be within a
thousand miles of her, but she needed my help. I closed my eyes, said a quick
prayer for the strength to get us through this, and then held my hand out. “We
can do this together.”

           
Alhambra was tentative to say the least. She was like an
abused dog, beaten until all it knows is abuse. Her eyes were wide and nervous.
“I’m…I’m scared. What if I can’t do this?” I looked right into her scared brown
eyes and I said, “If you fall, we both work to pick you back up. Then we start
again.” I’m not sure where that came from. As strange as the words sounded
coming from my mouth, we both found comfort from them. Ally took my hand. I
looked into her smooth brown features. “I promise. As long as you keep trying,
I’ll keep doing everything I can to help you.” My words struck home, and her
face showed nothing but gratitude.

           
“Grim, I’m in. Now what are we going to do?”

           
“Well, I was hoping you might be able to just cross your
arms and pull an I Dream of Jeanie.” Ally just stared at me in confusion. “It
was a T.V. show. It was about a genie. Ok clearly this reference fell as flat
as a pancake. I was hoping that you’d use your magic to rescue them, if that’s
ok by you?”

           
“I can’t Joseph. I’d love to, but I can’t use my magic.
Eisen has cut me off.”

           
“But you teleported us here?”
I
was confused.

           
“I was only able to do that because my mate wasn‘t aware
I was still alive. I guess he thought I was trying a last ditch attempt to save
myself. The moment I used my powers he felt the pull of magic. He knows I’ve
survived the explosion, and he‘s almost completely blocked off my access to my
powers. He can’t make me do anything, but I can’t access my powers either. If
you kept the necklace then we might be able to still use my magic.” She wasn‘t
quite as angry about that as I‘d have expected. I stared at the Jinn, and she
stared at the ground. I wasn’t taking that necklace for anything. It was just
wrong.

We’re
still in bad shape, but at least there were two of us now. With two people, I
might have more options. “Ok. So you can’t use your magic. That doesn’t mean
you can’t help? Can you use a gun?” I asked. When she nodded yes I almost did a
cartwheel. We’d just went from definitely going to die, to just probably going
to die, and I liked those odds a whole hell of a lot more. I handed her the
E.P.I.C. “Ok get on that hill over there. It’s got a real good range. Just put
the crosshairs over the enemy, and then pull the trigger. It’ll make them puke
until their own feet pop out their mouth. I need you to shoot the drivers. Keep
shooting them until they have to pull over. Then shoot any guards you can. Be
careful not to shoot me, or the other girls. I’ll creep up and if I catch them
unprepared, we can rescue our team. Can you do this?” I asked nervously. We
wouldn’t have a second chance to rescue the girls. She nodded, and I started
looking around for a good hiding spot. I needed a place where I could creep up
on them when the time came. I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I
finally confronted them, but all I could do was hope.

           
“Joseph…” I turned around. “Before they get here it might
be a good time for you to say a prayer to your dead Hebrew.” I nodded and
started to move away. “Joseph…” I stopped and turned around again. “If it’s not
too much trouble, could you …please…say a few words to your dead Hebrew about me?
I don’t think it’ll do any good, but right now we could use all the help we can
find.” I smiled, and slid off into the darkness.

           
I heard the low rumble of transport’s diesel engines
growled like two angry beasts across the desert. My stomach clenched in
desperation as they both peeked up over the horizon. We were outnumbered, and
outgunned. We’re fucked unless I can get the girls out of the back of the first
transport. I tried to pray, but I couldn’t even figure out what to pray. How exactly
do you put all of this into words? What was I supposed to ask, “Hi
God.
Could you please have them decide to pull over and get
in a conga line so I can shoot them all at once?”, or maybe, “Hey Jesus, if
you’re not too busy could you please do a mini-rapture, and take all those
guards away?”, maybe, “Perhaps a smiting? Hell I’ll settle for the holy hand
grenade.” Finally, I just prayed that somehow we get through this.

           
The first transport came up over the horizon. I was
worried that the E.P.I.C. wouldn’t work. I was also worried that Alhambra would
just decide it wasn’t worth the headache and leave me standing out here in the
dark. I held my breath as the first transport passed by, and it was all I could
do not to panic. When the second one passed I slumped to the ground. I was so
certain everything had gone to hell that I did a double take when I heard the
brakes hiss. Both transports stopped, and the driver in the first transport
practically dove out of the vehicle and began vomiting. It wasn’t long after
that when the driver of the second transport stopped and fell out of the
vehicle, landing with a thud. Vomit already covered his shirt. The second
transport opened up completely and all the soldiers came out. All of them were
retching, and puking.

           
Silently, I edged my way up to them. They’d all grouped
together. Thankfully, in the hurry to get out of the transports, nobody was
carrying a weapon. I edged up even closer. Alhambra kept firing the E.P.I.C.,
but now everybody had gotten so sick that none of them had anything left
inside. Their dry heaves muffled any sounds I might have made approaching. When
I got as close as I was comfortable I pulled back the hammer. The click got
everyone’s attention.