The Company of Darkness (22 page)

“Tell me about it,”
Ash chimed in.

“You don’t know anything about it,” Ethan said with a shake of the head, not wanting to get into that.  All he wanted to focus on was finding Cady.  There had to be a way short of calling in and demanding to be told where she was being held.

Gobi’s eyes bulged wide, jaw dropping in horror.  Leaping over the coffee table, he picked up a couple of forks from the table, holding them up in the sign of the cross.  “You can’t stay here.  I don’t let that shit into my home.”

Fuck
.  He’d told Ash to keep his mouth shut.  “Gobi, he can’t hurt you, he’s bound.”

“Then what’s he doing running loose in your head?”

“I can’t get into it right now, but we need your help.”

“I already told you, I can’t See nothing.  But…”  Gobi paused, his heat tilting to one side, reminding Ethan of a dog trying to figure out how to get a bone.  “Maybe you can.”

“I’ve already tried, I came up with zilch.”

“Except a little mommy dearest.”

“Maybe we’re looking at this the wrong way.  We should stop looking for her
now
, and start looking for her in the future, when she’s not shielded.”  Gobi’s smile stretched wide, proud of himself.  “You’re closer to her than I am, you stand a much better chance of connecting with her there than I do.” 

Was it as simple as that?  Did he just have to widen his focus?

“He’s not as dumb as he looks.  Get cracking then, time is wasting.”

“I’ll need something to mark the floor.” 

In a few minutes they had the sigils laid out.  Ethan was amused to see Gobi disappear for a moment and come back wearing a big silver cross.  As if that would protect him from Asherik. 

“As if I wanted a lunkhead like that,”
Ash scoffed, reading his thoughts. 

Ethan ignored him, knowing he’d fall silent as soon as the ritual began.  “
Dominus in lucem, mittere signum.  In sapientia tua precor.
”  Rocking in time to the chanted words, he opened himself to the universe. 

When the vision took hold of him, he didn’t shut it away when Cady didn’t immediately appear, instead he watched himself being beaten in a dank prison cell, the stone walls choked with moldy growth and the slither of living things.  It was hot and muggy in the close cell, his dirty t-shirt that had once been white clinging to his body with sweat, grime and worse. 

“Thī̀ khuṇ mị̀ dị̂ rạb ngein?”
his jailor demanded.  

Ethan spat bloody phlegm onto the dirt floor. 
“Kin xụ”

A solid hit rocked his head back, and the man tried again. 
“Thī̀ pĕn thī̀ tidt̀x k̄hxng khuṇ?”

“S̄ịh̄ạw pị h̄mū.”
  Another blow came, this one hard enough for him to see stars.  Nodding weakly, Ethan licked his lips, whispering something unintelligible until the man leaned close enough for him to head butt the guy, laughing hysterically as he was tackled to the ground by two other guards. 

Ethan’s eyes popped open as the image snapped off like a switch.  The vivid clarity of the vision held tight to his mind, the feel of the boot tucked tight against his throat, the stench of his own body filling the small cell and the worry of rot.  “What the fuck was that?” he muttered, sucking in a breath. 

Gobi danced beside him, desperate for information.  “Did it work?  Where was she?  Was it bad?  It sounded bad.”

“No, yeah… it was bad, but it wasn’t her.”  Did he even know what they’d been asking him?  Something about money, they wanted to know where he got it from and who his contacts were and he’d told them to fuck off.  It sounded like something he’d do.

“It was you, you dolt.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been to Thailand,” Ethan said aloud.  “And I’m pretty sure I don’t speak Thai.”

“She’s in Thailand?” Gobi blinked.

“No, it wasn’t her, it was me.  Only it wasn’t anything I recognized, so it must not have happened yet.” 

“You’re meant to be focusing on her.”

“I’m trying, would you get off my back?” Ethan growled.

“Gladly, if I could.  It’s not pleasant for me either.” 

“Whoa, you guys are tripping me out,” Gobi murmured, his brow crumpling in distress.  “It’s making me feel all sad and icky inside just to know he’s in there.” 

Ethan stretched his neck first one way and then the other, trying to center himself to try again.  “I understand, it’s not like I like having him along for the ride either.”

“The feeling is entirely mutual, Neanderthal.”

Gobi took a step backwards.  “Hey, I don’t know what he said, but could you keep the hostility down to a minimum?  I have a delicate constitution, I can’t stomach this much aggression without a little herbal refreshment.” 

“I’m sorry, if I could muzzle him I would,” Ethan said, mustering an apologetic smile. 

“That’s okay, I know it’s not you, man.”  Gobi patted him on the back and came away from it with a shake of the head.  “Beau… that’s a new one.  Kinda old fashioned, don’t you think?”

Distracted, Ethan was already trying to clear his thoughts for another try.  “What are you talking about?”

“Beau Hayes, I got a flash of it when I touched you.”

“I don’t know any Beau Hayes.”

“It’s you.  I figured it was your new alias or something.  I like it better than Barry, that one makes you sound like a douche.”

Beau Hayes.  Ethan was pretty sure it wasn’t one of his past aliases.  “No, I’ve never used that one before, maybe it’s coming up in the future.”  Though he knew how to establish his own identities, the Company sent them to him in packs with all the documentation he needed. 

“Perhaps it’s your next boyfriend.  Could you kindly stop going down memory lane and try again?”

Ethan closed his eyes, taking every last shred of self restraint not to say something snappish back at him, knowing it’d only make it worse.  When he was certain he wasn’t about to lash out again, he opened his eyes, and that’s when it hit him.  Digging into his pocket, he tossed his keys to Gobi.  “Run down to my car, it’s the blue Chevy Nova parked outside.  Bring me the black bag locked in the trunk.”

Gobi bent to pick them up from where he missed the catch.  “Sure, you want fries with that too?”

“Just do it.” 

“Ah… I see.  I’d say it’s brilliant, only you should have thought of this much sooner.”

“Shut up, I didn’t see you offering any brilliant insight at any point.” 

Once Gobi was back with the duffel bag, Ethan rooted around in the bottom until he came up with the delicate gold cross Cady used to wear.  With something of hers to center on, he should be able to target his focus that much better. 

This time when the vision came to him, Ethan was rewarded with Cady’s presence right away.  Losing that surge of triumph as soon as he realized the setting he’d found her in, he watched impotently as the events unfolded before him, sitting back stunned as it faded from view. 

Gobi immediately pounced, the moment he came back to his conscious mind.  “Did you find her?  Was she there?”

Ethan met his gaze, eyes hooded with dread.  “We’re so fucked.”

Cady had an inconvenient problem, apart from being kidnapped by a vengeful shadow operation, hell bent on maintaining their shroud of secrecy.  “I have to pee!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.

Not like an inconvenient pressure in the middle of the night when you’re snuggled up warm in bed and would rather not get up, but the deep insistent pain of an overstretched bladder that wouldn’t let up. 

After the mysterious voice instructed Rikard to bring her to the
campus
, she’d had a bag shoved over her head and been stuffed into the back of a car.  It was impossible to tell how long ago that was, she’d fallen asleep after giving up on trying to count the twists and turns.  Since she wasn’t sure where they’d started from, there didn’t seem to be much point. 

When the car door opened, she’d woken to the sound of birds.  Not like the piercing cry of seagulls she was used to, but actual birdsong, high and sweet and utterly foreign to a city girl.  That was another thing.  Even though the bag muffled her hearing somewhat, she could tell the constant drone of traffic was missing.  No horns in the distance, no roar of engines, no squeal of brakes.  The ground under her feet was softer than pavement at first too, but soon transitioned to the hollow ring of wooden planks and then hard tiles from the feel of it. 

Wherever she was, it wasn’t small.  As they lead her deeper inside the birdsong vanished completely, the quiet hum of electric energy buzzing instead.  Cady was thrust into a chair, the bag still over her head. 

“Leave it,” Rikard barked when her hand reached up to take it off. 

So, he was still around. 
Awesome
.  At least her hands and feet were still free.  But as time stretched on and no one came to deal with her one way or another, her need became more and more urgent.

“I am seriously going to pee my pants here,” she called out again, when the first shout didn’t produce any results.  “Fine, I’ll go all over the floor.  Whatever, I don’t even care anymore.”  Cady was still reaching for the button on her jeans when the sound of the door opening came to her, and she was hauled up to her feet and paraded out. 

Another door opened and she was shoved roughly forward, almost losing her balance with the bag over her head.  The sound of the door being locked from the outside echoed in the space as she tore the hood off to reveal an oversized bathroom.  It was utilitarian in design, like one you’d see in a doctor’s office, with big rails mounted to the wall for people on wheelchairs.  Not particularly caring if anyone was watching or not, Cady quickly relieved herself, breathing deeply for the first time in what felt like hours. 

There were no windows in the room, no vents big enough to crawl through, not a lot to work with to escape, but there was one thing she could try to buy herself some time.  The door locked from the outside, but she had the tools to lock it from the inside as well.  The protection spell Ethan taught her should keep Rikard and anyone else who had a demon inside them from coming through the door to get her, providing an instant lock.  Only, she wasn’t looking forward to marking the four sides of the door with the only ink she had available – her own blood. 

She had to move fast, there was no telling how long they’d give her in the bathroom and if there
were
cameras in there, they’d see what she was up to right away.  It turned out to be a lot harder to make herself bleed than she’d thought.  Without any kind of weapon and lacking vampire teeth, Cady looked around for anything sharp she could cut herself with.  A rough metal edge under the toilet paper dispenser did the trick and she only hoped she didn’t catch hepatitis or worse from it as she hurriedly drew the symbols on all four sides of the door frame.

A brief knock sounded on the other side, Rikard’s voice coming through impatient.  “Hurry up in there, I haven’t got all day.” 

Cady stepped deeper into the room, not wanting to sound like she was pressed so close to the door.  “Yelling about it is going to make it go slower, not faster.  Just give me a few minutes for chrissakes!”  She thought she heard swearing but didn’t stop to listen, returning to the bloody duty, heart hammering wildly in her chest the whole time. 

“I’m almost done!” she cried out, desperately trying to fix the words to the spell in her head before she began.  The words came out in a guttural whisper as she pushed through the casting, trying to find the right balance between saying them quickly and getting it done right – she wouldn’t get a second chance with this, Cady was sure of it. 

“Oi… what are you doing in there?”  Another knock came and it took all of her concentration not to slip up as the words fought her.  The sound of the key in the lock made her heart skip and Cady thought she might pass out.  She ground out the last needed syllables and pictured the rusty barricade in her minds eye as Rikard tore the door open, only to be met with the invisible wall of protection as it snapped into place. 

Cady staggered back from the doorway, despite the integrity of the spell as she dragged in a deep breath, dizzy with the effort. 

“What have you done?” Rikard gasped, his gaze going to the bloody sigils on the frame.  “Take it down and come out before someone notices.”

“The hell I will,” she snorted, leaning against the sink with a smug smile.  True, it didn’t get her any closer to escaping, but it was worth it to see the look on his face. 

“I’m serious,” he said, his voice dropping to a low whisper.  “I won’t be able to hide this once it’s spotted.”

“You take it down yourself if you’re so worried about it,” Cady taunted him, guessing that wasn’t how it worked from the way his brows knit together in consternation. 

“Why are you doing this?  You’re only making it harder on yourself.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, am I supposed to make it easier for you to terrorize me?”

“They ask me to bring you, I brought you.” 

“So the terror is just an added bonus then?”

“I didn’t mean…”  He cut off the words with a great effort, his voice pitched just as low.  “It’s nothing personal, this is my job.  You’re bleeding.”  His brows twitched closer together, eyes focused on the drip of blood on the tile floor.

“Yep, that’s what happens when you’re forced to write with your own blood.” 

“You should wash it out.  A cut like that could turn septic in a heartbeat.”

Was he for real?  “Like you care,” she scoffed, but Rikard didn’t say anything.  His head cocked to one side and then he let out a long breath.  Backing away from the door, he let it swing shut.  “That’s never good,” Cady frowned at the closed door. 

The sound of voices came through the door, muffled but besides Rikard’s deep tone came a feminine lilt.  A few minutes later, just long enough to make her scalp itch in anticipation, the door opened again, and a woman stood there, a cordial smile pasted on her lips.  Blonde, in her early thirties, she wore a peachy blazer with the arms rolled up over a cream colored blouse.  Pointed boots peeped out from the bottoms of dark jeans and Cady caught sight of chunky heels. 

She had the look like she might’ve been a beauty queen ten years ago but there was a hardness to her that made Cady think she wouldn’t have passed the world peace question.  Her hair was still cut in pretty, layered waves and she stood up real tall, shoulders back, like she could take on anyone dumb enough to stand in her way. 

“Hey there, ain’t you a pretty thing,” she smiled with the twang of a southern drawl.  Cady couldn’t quite place which part of the South she came from, but she didn’t sound like a hick.  There was a shrewdness behind her eyes that said she didn’t miss a thing.  Her gaze flicked to the sigils drawn on the doorway.  “And resourceful too.”  Without skipping a beat, the woman stepped through the doorway, either negating the spell, or she didn’t have anything demonic bound to her.

Cady held her ground, there wasn’t much room for her to maneuver in the bathroom, but maybe she could get past her and… then be trapped by her own spell. 

“Cat got your tongue?” the woman prompted.  “I suppose I should introduce myself.  You can call me Alma.” She offered a hand, but Cady didn’t move an inch.  “Come on now, I won’t bite.”  Her smile didn’t falter one bit, even when Cady didn’t thaw.  “But they will.”  Alma stepped aside to reveal the armed guards on the other side of the doorway. 

Cady took her hand and shook it, not quite sure what would happen if they shot through a spelled doorway.  Technically it was to keep demons out, not anything, as Alma proved by strolling through it.  

“There now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”  Alma smiled over her victory, holding onto Cady’s hand longer than she was comfortable with.  Then again, nothing about this situation made Cady feel comfortable.  Alma pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and wet it at the sink, easily washing away the sigils on the doorframe and Cady felt the spell unravel.  “There now, I think it’s time you and I had us a little talk.”  She stepped out of the room, but before Cady could follow, the guards came in, one of them picking up the hood and holding it out to her.

“Seriously?” Cady sighed, tugging it over her head when he shrugged apologetically.  Almost immediately, they took her arms, escorting her out of the bathroom and she heard Alma’s boots ringing on the floor ahead.   The guards forced her into a seat, this one reclining, throwing her off balance, and before she could recover, they secured her arms and legs with soft but strong Velcro straps.  “What the hell?” she objected once she figured out she couldn’t move. 

The soft hood was removed, revealing a large room with a pair of dentist type chairs in it.  Rikard was nowhere in sight, and she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing, or a bad thing. 

Alma squatted by a low fridge and came up with a bottled water.   “I apologize for all the cloak and dagger shit.  We do like our secrets here,” she smiled, lifting the bottle to Cady’s lips, but she turned away, afraid of being drugged.  Alma shrugged and took a long drink herself. 

“Where am I?”

“A safe place, where we can talk about what’s happened to you.”  The woman turned to set the bottled water on top of the mini fridge.

“Then why am I strapped down?”

“It makes us feel safer.”

“Why do you need to feel safer?  I’m the one who got kidnapped.  I’m the one who needs reassuring.  What could you possibly have to fear from me?  I’m just a girl.”

“Well, that isn’t exactly true, now is it?”  Alma straightened and Cady saw a hypodermic shot in her hands. 

“I’m ready to cooperate now, you don’t need to do anything drastic.”  Cady squirmed away from the needle, but the restraints held her fast. 
Fuck a duck…
  What was she supposed to do now? 

“Bless your heart,” Alma smiled.  “It’s a touch late for that now, don’t you think?”  The needle bit deep and Cady mashed her lips together to keep from crying out, frozen in place to keep from getting jabbed any worse than she needed to be.  “There now, we’ll let that cook for a while and we’ll be all set.”

“What did you give me?”

“Just a little mescaline, sweetie, nothing to lose your shirt over.”  Setting the needle down, she grabbed what looked like a tackle box and started unpacking disposable electrode pads, arranging them on a tray beside her.  “Don’t you worry, you’re gonna be just fine.”

Terror set in as Cady’s lips went numb and her heart felt like it wanted to jump out of her throat.  Her stomach roiled and burbled, sending another flare of panic.  “No… I can’t… I’m going to be sick.”

“That’s okay, it happens.  We’ll get you cleaned up if it does.”  Busy peeling the sticky sides off of the electrodes, Alma stuck them on either side of Cady’s head and then unbuttoned her blouse to reach inside and stick two on her chest.  “I like your bra, it’s real cute,” she smiled. 

“Why are you doing this?” Cady wailed, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. 

“I told you, it’s time to have a little chat.”

“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, just let me up.”  Dizziness seized her with slippery hands, throwing her off balance despite the fact that she was lashed down.  “I can’t do this.  I feel like I’m drowning.”  Her head thrashed to one side and that’s when Cady realized she wasn’t the only one being hooked up to electrodes. 

A girl, maybe sixteen or seventeen (it was hard to tell with her lying down on the other chair), regarded her with calm, green eyes.  Her long blonde hair fell down past the headrest on the chair in a straight line, almost touching the floor.  “Relax, it’ll be fine.  I’ll take good care of you,” she said with a sunny smile.

Cady believed her.   Almost immediately her heart began to calm, the spinning in her head receding to a gentle rocking, like they were on a boat.  She’d been on a boat once with Ethan.  Wait… she wasn’t supposed to think about Ethan.  Cady licked her lips, trying to pull her thoughts into a straight line.  “Who are you?”

The girl’s lips didn’t move, but Cady heard her voice inside her head all the same.  “I forget.  Sometimes I’m the rabbit and sometimes I’m Alice.  Which one do you want to be?”

Then they were together standing on the deck of the boat, watching Cady cradle Ethan’s bleeding body in her lap.  “This isn’t the beginning,” the girl said.

“Nope.  This isn’t even the end,” Cady replied, looking down at herself with calm detachment.