Out of the Black (49 page)

Elena and Kyle Mendez sat in a small booth as far from the lights of the dance floor as they could find. They'd left the others at the larger banquet tables soon after dinner.

"I still don't feel right being here." Kyle said, looking uncomfortable in his
suit. "You know- celebrating."

"I keep expecting to turn around and see Derry and that annoying party high-five of his." Elena nodded. She slipped her arm around Kyle's shoulders.

"Maybe because I didn't see... it just doesn't feel real."

"Believe me honey," Elena said, staring across the sea of reveling college kids and off-duty cops, "Seeing didn't help."

After a thoughtful pause, Kyle asked, "Are we going to be all right?"

Elena turned to him. She felt the urge to say something profound, but then she saw him. He just looked so earnest. She smiled just like she loved him- big and stupid. "Well, we did save the world, which aint too shabby." Their lips met.

Across the room, Issak stood apart, at the intersection of the bar and the wall of the reception hall. He felt alone, or at least like he should be. Anne had been by just a few minutes ago for what seemed like her hundredth check on him. She took her new body-guarding quite seriously. That, or she rightly feared that he would bug out of here the first time she wasn't looking. She was desperately focused on making him comfortable.

"And how are we doing?" She asked brightly from over his shoulder. He'd lived far too long with Dek to be surprised by these little ninja surprise moments. Bittersweet memories closed in on him.

"Anne. What a pleasant surprise." He said with British butler irony.

"So frumpy." She gave his shoulder a smack. "You know, there's dancing to be done."

"Anne, I am the oldest man in this room by well over a thousand years. You'd probably hed etter luck with Ping's grandad... wheelchair and oxygen tank notwithstanding."

Anne made no response other than a finger imperiously leveled at the dance floor. At first he thought she was ordering him to boogie, but then she flicked her eyes to follow her finger and he got the message. Reluctantly, Issak turned from the isolation of the drink he'd been nursing and let his gaze follow her finger to the dance floor.

As he'd feared, there was Sean O'Bannon, standing shakily behind his walker, shuffling slowly around the dance floor, shaking his hundred-year-old butt. Near him, looking much better preserved, his wife risked all by dancing over and giving his unstable frame a playful bump with her hip.

"See Issak?" Anne said in mock awe, "They fear not even the booty bump! What's your hang-up?"

Though he tried to hold on to it until it turned to love, he couldn't help the laughter that spilled out of him.

In the middle of the banquet tables, Miranda Todd smiled and shook her head. "That your old man?" Miranda pointed to the old man shuffling across the dance floor in the wake of his walker.

Ping shook his head. "Nope. That's Grandpa Sean. Dad's around here somewhere... probably hitting the food line again."

"Boys! Look!" a middle-aged detective one table away shouted. All eyes moved to the bandstand, where the newlyweds had finally appeared. The groom looked uncomfortable in his tux, but the bride was radiant in a shimmering white gown. "Can you believe that's our little Rae?"

"All growed up." A hard woman of about forty said, "Now don't start getting misty on her big day, Cliff."

"Aw... Let's fill her locker with shaving cream." Cliff said.

"Cops." Miranda said in disgust. "You ever considered applying at the Bureau?"

"They don't know I already filled it with marbles." Ping smiled back.

"Gotta steal you for a dance, babe." Miranda's husband interrupted from behind.

"I'm pretty sure there's some kind of federal requisition you need to fill out in triplicate to get that kind of thing." Ping said.

Miranda's eyes sparkled as she departed into the crowd.

Ping turned to his right, and to more weighty matters. "So, Jerry, I need further assurances of my privacy." Ping said with his most grave face.

Jerry's wife giggled.

"I assure you Detective," Jerry's smile ruined his intended air of gravity. "I applied your diaper with complete professionalism."

"So, I'm not going to be seeing any diaper-related pictures on the net?" Ping asked.

"Don't worry, Detective." Jerry's wife said, "I'll never let them out of my sight."

"It's been the cause of much marital strife." Jerry gave a solemn nod.

Ping rolled his eyes.

"Tell us about the demon fight again, Uncle Ping!" the younger of Jerry's kids pleaded from his seat across the table.

"Which one?" Ping replied, preparing for yet another rendition.

"Library of doom older boy said in ominous tones.

"Hellevator surprise!" the younger boy shouted.

"Care for another dance?" Anne said from over Ping's shoulder.

"This time, I lead." Ping said assertively.

"Get used to disappointment." her eyes sparkled... that cute dimple flashed with her smile.

As they re-entered the dance-floor, Rae heard her twelfth "Right on dude!" from a twenty-something student. This one had the meticulously messy hair of the coffee house crowd, and had opted for shaking Alex's hand- most of the others had gone for either the high or low five. She smiled as the kid disappeared into the crowd. "You know, if you were a vocabulary TA, I'd say you were a miserable failure... dude."

Alex didn't respond. He just kept up the disturbingly direct stare he'd been giving her all night. "What?" She said for the twelfth time tonight.

His smile broadened. "You look absolutely gorgeous."

"Aw stop."

"Ravishing... Sensational."

"Ok, more."

He let his eyes wander across her, savoring the experience. Her dress was white with scintillant thread woven through. It was simple, elegant, and hung on her at all the right places. Her earrings were simple titanium studs. Her necklace was an elegant titanium weave. Her new ring was a simple titanium band. The jewels were in her smile, in her eyes. She shone like daybreak in Antarctica.

"You are the love of my life."

Unconsciously, her hand went to her necklace. Alex watched her do it.

She noticed him noticing and smiled. "I still miss it." She admitted with one of her dazzling smiles. "It was a real confidence booster."

"You look the same to me."

"Yeah, but you've always been weird."

"And now it's gone," Alex looked at the crowd around them, "what do they see?"

She thought a moment as they resumed the slow spiral of their dance.

"I guess they see what they want," she said, lips near his ear. "But I'm still gonna miss it the next time I need to fight off a mess of disco zombies."

"No you won't" Alex said, stepping back and taking her hand. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it just above the knuckles.

"Oh yes I will." She said with a playful grin.

Alex kissed her wedding ring then gave her that unnerving stare. "No," he said, lips brushing across the cool metal of the ring, "You won't."

Her smile broadened with understanding.

"I had a feeling you'd still want the Amp," he said, moving in closer, "and no one gets to mess with my baby." Their arms slipped around each other.

"You know the best thing though..." He said, looking into her eyes.

She dropped her eyelids slightly, giving him a suspicious look. "The ring makes me fly, too?"

"We're down to one rule now." His smile stretched slowly across his face.

She felt the heat spread across her face. "And which one is that?" she said, wondering how much longer before they could leave the party.

"Yes, now we get to lie... I've been waiting so long." Alex said with a mostly straight face, "I may even be open to the idea of hanging out in the bedroom now and again."

"You're a sick man, Ahmed."

"And you're a beautiful woman, Ahmed." He laughed, "But now is the time for dancing!" Alex seemed distracted for a moment, as if he'd heard his name mentioned close at hand, then the music stopped and their song started.

"Show-off."

"Impressed?"

"Eh." She shrugged, but then they were dancing and the world seemed to fade until it was only them and Frank Sinatra, spinning through the faceless crowd in slow circles.

Every now and then, their reverie was broached by a 'Right on dude/bro'/man' from Alex's friends, or a threatening 'Now you take care of her' from Rae's friends.

"Get a room." Hawthorne shouted above the music as she danced by in the embrace of an immense tattooed cop with a boss scar on his neck.

Indeed.

***

It was late. The last rays of sun had long since deserted the entranceway to the Kwoon. Ping's parents had been defeated for the third time and were upstairs licking their wounds. This thought brought the most disturbing image to Anne's mind.

"What?" Ping said, noticing her shudder.

"Nothing." She raised the pink plastic sword with the worn padding and arched her eyebrows. "Your chit-chat will not save you from my copious annihilation."

"Why? Are your guts going to splash on me or something?" Ping asked with an arched brow.

"No, I mean my copious annihilation... uh, of you." Anne shifted her feet, fidgeted a bit with her hair with her left hand, bit her lip.

"Ah." Ping said, allowing a grin to pull at the corners of his mouth. "You are a killing machine, Miss Kelley, but we have ground to cover with your bantering skills. And besides- It is your suffering that will be copious!" Ping shouted, lunging in for the attack, and the melodramatic battle was on.

She parried his fierce purple sword and compensated as he tried to pivot his "blade" around hers. She forced him to parry a slow motion counterattack, watching his technique. She compensated again as he tried to break the geometry of her attack.

She made the mistake of focusing too much on his blade work, so the kick to her knee caught her by surprise. She readjusted her weight and kicked his retreating leg cross-body. The kick compromised his geometry by twisting him off the line of the fight between them. He compensated by leaping in the direction of the twist. He pivoted to face her again, slashing downward, trying to catch her leg.

"Let your kneecap be the first installment in the payment schedule of your demise!" He shouted, shaking his sword for emphasis.

That got him a laugh. "It is
your
doom that is amortized across these payments, pal!"

"You only laugh because you realizeow little of that payment was principle!" He tried to use her laughter to cover his next attack, but her sword thunked off his head three times, leaving him confused. Thinking back, he was pretty sure one of those hits came out of the air directly above him. For such a big girl, she sure could catch air.

"Your kung fu is for kittens." She said playfully from behind him, her plastic sword tapping him on the shoulder with each word.

"Man, that's annoying." He sighed, rubbing his head.

For my wife, Amber. Without her faith and patience, this book would still be an idea I wished I had time to write down.

For little Dek Kerhin, the first (of many, I'm sure) baby to be named after a charact
er in this book.

Special thanks to the people who read this book when it was a word doc, and then a sheaf of poorly bound eight by eleven. Thanks for all the suggestions, encouragement, and especially for the criticism.