16)

Martin- In the restroom of the Party-mart.

I heard Natalie yelling outside, and as she never yelled, unless there was someone to yell at. It sounded like something I should look into.

I looked back from the yelling to the young man in the mirror who was desperately trying to give nothing away as to what was going on in his head. I had determined that he was not the most cooperative of people and was trying to play well above his level of ability.

Oh, well. I had tried to give him his best chance.

"It sounds like some trouble on my end. I wish you the best."

He looked, well, mostly resentful and sullen, but agreeable as he nodded in return while grumbling something under his breath. It looked to be the best I was going to get, I guess.

The windows of the store rattled with the sounds of thunder outside, “Sorry. Got to go.”

My aunt was firing fairly strong bolts of electricity off into the fog lingering at the edges of the light coming from the inside. It was still daytime by the clock, but the dark expanse outside made whatever she was shooting at invisible, even after I turned on the security lights.

Something I had paid for out of my own pocket by the way. My boss, Ali was perfectly happy with what he considered frivolous expenses only as long as he wasn’t paying for them.

I headed out, ready to back her up. For once not having to fear using my full strength and getting in trouble by being seen by the norms.

Only I did not see anyone to target, just my Aunt. Who was in a mood.

“Screw you, you stinking scumbags! Try to lure me out with a frecking siren song! Me! I will burn you out from mouth to butt hole you pieces of-”

The crack of another bolt of golden lightning firing from the spell weave she held out in front of her shooting out into the distance drowned out the rest of her rant. As she paused for breath, I notice the faintly luminous fog was slowly trying to slowly reel back as murmuring voices lingering within it bickered with each other in panicked tones.

“Problems?”

Natalie turned to me and grinned. “Punk ass bitches started trying to mesmerize me with singing to draw me out into the fog for who knows what. I gave them a taste of Aesir lightning instead.”

“So... got it out of your system?”

She nodded happily then gave a suspicious look at the retreating fog before dropping her spell weave “Nothing like frying some dank dwelling gimps too chickenshit to just start a real fight to brighten my day.”

She rushed up and gave me another hug. "Gotta go Marty, but as soon as my girl gets this all sorted and I get to bring the hammer down on someone's kneecaps. I promise I will get you out of here."

She stepped back and began another spell weave. “And don’t go collecting any more monstrous followers, you can't take them all home. There are rules even for people like us.'

Take them home? “Who said anything-”

She interrupted me. “Your little sister has been asking about you too, not to me, since she knows I don't want to get into it with Kevin. But you should talk to her while she is still young enough to be curious to want to know you. Toodles."

I started to say something, but it was too late. She was off with a stack of prismatic colored circles rising up from the ground to take her away.

I stood and enjoyed the quiet for a moment before a questioning murmur arose from the darkness beyond the lights.

“Yes she is gone, but you will not do any better starting anything with me. In fact, it will go even worse, and I am in a much better mood than she was."

There was nothing but quiet in response, so I headed back to the store to put together a late lunch.

The afternoon calls from the people who insist on speaking with the manager would soon start.

Donovan- Taking a moment for himself.

I looked at the mirror, it couldn't work, could it?

There was a little resistance, like putting my hand through a really thick spider web, but my hand passed through the mirror to the other side.

I held it there for a moment, but it felt like my hand was starting to go numb. When I pulled it out it felt like the pins and needles sensation you get when your foot had fallen asleep.

That could be bad. Which is maybe why those two didn't try it, and it may not be the best way to escape. Plus climbing through might make another copy of me on this side that I would have to take down again.

For the moment, with the beasts upstairs fed and distracted, I had some time, and I had drove all the way out to this store for reasons of my own before my Uncle had decided to make me into a remote control killer.

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The keys to the register were in the desk drawer of the cheap desk sitting in the shitty little office, and stuffed up on a shelf was a canvas shopping bag.

The resister had exactly four hundred and thirty seven dollars in fifties, twenties, tens, fives, and ones as well as some change I didn't bother with. After dumping the cash in the bag, one by one the bills started reappearing in the register.

All with the same serial numbers, but as long as I spread it around, if I ever got home, no one would notice until I had enough real cash in change from buying groceries and stuff to put in the bank to pay off some bills for the family. Then had a good week or two of partying it up.

After that first refill, I didn’t bother with anything below a twenty as I stuffed the bag almost to the top. Another plastic bag got filled with some off brand cigarettes that had been hidden away under the counter, some of which I had never heard of while the rest were the normal cheap knockoff stuff I normally smoked anyways.

My wallet got filled with some fifties, as well as ten bills folded over in each of the other three pants pockets. The bags went out back under the dumpster. I don't know if or when I would get the chance to go home so there wasn’t a spot that was a better place to stash them. But I didn't want any of the three terrors to find them and stick their noses into my business.

Next. Doublevan was a knockoff copy of me, along with everything I had on me when the shit went down. Which meant he must have also had a copy of my gun. Right, maybe?

Maybe Miss mean green took it from him, maybe it dissolved away like he did along with his stuff when I killed him. But there had to be at least a chance it was still lying around somewhere.

Which is why I was crawling around on the ground looking under the display racks when someone or thing knocked on the front door.

Cassy- Heading down to the laboratory at the Sanctum

I insisted on taking Tarnell’s legs when me and Kinkade took his corpse through the metal door with multiple locks at the back of the foray and headed down the stairs

“Let me help you there, don’t want to own anyone anymore more favors”

Kinkade put on a bewildered, hurt innocent look that was ruined by a sudden smirk.

The downstairs was actually feeling chilly between the air conditioning and the wards painted on the ceiling and walls to control the temperature, and humidity, to preserve the contents of the room. Which itself resembled a high school biology lab crossed over with the city morgue and a cluttered study.

Cluttered but still very neatly organized and tidy, with everything in just the right place.

We laid Tarnell on a table as Ramone dashed off to a side door to change into a set of black scrubs and a dark red sort of over gown apron thing that opened from that back, and covered him from head to knee over the scrubs. He shot us a dirty look at finding us just standing around and got out a set of heavy duty scissors to cut open the curtain that was still wrapped around the corpse.

Kinkade took the opportunity to wander around the room and move things around randomly from spot to spot behind his back.

I tried to give her a “stop that” look which she blithely ignored.

“Ah dam, did you light your hand on fire and pull out this heart or something.”

I guessed that comment hadn't been aimed at me. It was more of my ride a long's kind of thing.

Kinkade leaned over the corpse and look down into the hole in his chest. "Naw, you can see the hole's bigger on the inside, someone put a curse on him that lit him up from within to keep him from talking."

The necromancer snapped on a set of gloves and began poking at the wound, pulling down an overhead light to get a better look at the insides. "Burned a hole into the lungs as well, I'm going to have to sew those up if you want him talking, it might be a while. Does someone want to order in some food?"

I pulled out my phone. "I got it, I can put it down as an expense. Shoot, no signal down here, I'll head upstairs and wait for the order. You can supervise down here Sally."

I ignored her sharp look, “Besides you two should catch up.”

My look told her that maybe next time she shouldn't decide to speak for me when it comes to favors owed.

With my highly trained detective skills, I found the drawer full of take out menus in the kitchen. Skipping past the top ones as things he must have just eaten recently and settled on a local chicken place a few menus down.

The girl answering the phone said hi and asked If I wanted my regular order, I asked for the same but for three which turned out to be quite a bit, apparently, Ramone could eat.

Which is normal for Arcanes, we burn a lot of calories using magic, but a whole chicken, a slab of ribs, and four sides seemed excessive for one guy.

Kinkade got back up top with an annoyed look on her face. I caught her up to date. “Food will be here in a bit, could you let him know to come up.” She started to object. “I’m doing the buying, you can do the flying.”

She rolled her eyes, but she still went back down.

Ramone proved to be fairly hygienic. No stained gloves or apron on him when he came up and he had washed his hands after being what must have been most of an hour elbow deep in dead vampire.

Lunch was fun with me asking the two of them how they had met with Kinkade shooting daggers at me all the while.

Not literally, although I imagine she could.

The spell weave to waken Tarnell by pulling his spirit down and animating his corpse went surprisingly quickly. Our necromancer seemed well practiced and from what have been bad past experiences had padded cuffs on reinforced straps ready to hold the dead man down in case he was less than happy to have been brought back.

The corpse sat still for a good long moment as the necromancer finished his spell, then his eyes slowly opened.

They looked dull with a faint film over them, the irises were wide open making the center of his eye nearly all black, and his voice was weak like he couldn't get much air in his lungs.

“Please no more...I’m sorry.”

I looked at the other two, questioningly.

Ramone nodded at the dead man. “Sally said he was a cop, odds are he didn't go to a good place.’

“Who…? Please… don’t send me back to the people with the clubs, and the ropes.”

Kinkade leaned forwards. “We can put you someplace better, still not nice, just boring, and cold, but you need to answer some questions.”

“Anything...”

The other two looked over to me, guess it was my turn. "Tarnell, who told you to go after Martin Thibedeau"

“The pale man...”

“Little more help there Riggs.”

“Grimaud, Foster Grimaud”

Well shit.

Kinkade flinched, she at least had some clue how bad this was going to get.

I leaned forward again. "Did he say why Tarnell"

“He said it was unsettled business...he said it was my price for becoming immortal… my last payment for saving me from my heart problems.”

I looked down into the charred hole in the middle of his chest, well it was true he wasn't going to have any more problems with his heart.

I nodded over to Ramone. “I got all I need for now, could you store him in case I need to talk to him again?”

In response, the necromancer began kicking some latches on the wheel of the gurney, “Got a deep freeze just for that, but it will cost you for anything long term.”

“I’ll cover it, I’ve seen weirder things claimed on my boss’s expense account”

Ramone closed the eyes of the corpse and commanded it to sleep before covering it with a sheet. "Sounds like you know the name, so who is…you know what? Never mind, I don't want to know who that is, what this was all about, and how it involves the Thibedeaus. This is all way above my pay grade."

I offered him an agency credit card, but he waved it away saying he preferred to be owed a favor. We said our goodbyes and headed out to the car.

Kinkade got in the passenger seat and sighed. "Grimaud. The Thibedeau's hatchet man.”

I winced "Yeah, he answers to the Thibedeau’s Patriarch. I think this might be the sort of thing that gets taken care of by the Families and we lesser mortals just keep our heads down and agreed with whatever story they decide to tell us.”

My partner for the day gave me a cold look. “Not in my family.”

I started to speak, then realized I didn't have anything to say in my defense. Then I gave it another try. "This doesn't involve your family or anyone else's. It's an internal matter for the Thibedeaus and after I let mine know what's going on, it's thankfully out of my hands.”

The other side of the truck went cold as Kincade stared down with a determined look on her face. "Martin is my family, and a lot of other people owe him. Big. If someone is gunning for him, then someone and their whole line will burn before I will let them take another shot at him."

I stared out the windshield instead of looking at her and carefully explained. "Natalie Thibedeau gets the first shot when it involves her family by blood, including Martin Thibedeau, and either she will do the burning herself, or I'll get the hell out of your way.

From the corner of my eye, I could see her thinking that over before she nodded. "Good enough…for now."

I let out a breath and started the car.