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Chapter Forty One
Several days later she was questioning her sanity for ever thinking she wanted to see him for any reason. He took one look at her seated at the bar and blew up. Way out of proportion as far as she was concerned.
"What the Hell? I thought I told you to get her ass on a plane!"
"Calm down dad," Will said, hands up in a ward off gesture. "We know how you feel about it, but...
"Calm down? Don't fucking tell me to calm down! She's an accident waiting to happen, you know the fucking rules!"
"She's not exactly a civilian," Josh tried.
"Oh bullshit, she's a fucking child!" He turned his fiery gaze on Anna and she cringed.
"Tell me, have you done some training, maybe in martial arts or at least weaponry?" He spat.
"Well actually....
"Fuck that, I don't give a rats ass if you did learn how to wield a knife, you'd never get a chance to use it. I know ten year olds who could take you down without breaking a sweat. You're a liability, and a selfish one at that." He stalked away from her and sat at the opposite end of the bar.
Will followed him and Josh sat down with her.
"Maybe we should tell your dad about me," Anna said quietly. "If we explain the whole story...
Josh shook his head. "Will and I have talked about this, but dad hates anything that isn’t human.”
“But...” she started.
“No Anna,” Josh told her, “I know what you’re going to say, but being human to begin with isn’t likely to matter to him. He might feel sorry for your circumstances, but if he knew we were letting you drink from us, he would blow a gasket. He's a stone wall when it comes to what he believes, he doesn’t even know the meaning of the word flexible. Will's gonna tell him what we decided on in the car- that you called us after you learned about Jenna and the male Faerians."
"Yeah, and like I said in the car, that might explain why you came to see me, but it doesn't explain why I came with you."
"I know. He'll just have to deal with it."
Half an hour later Jack walked over to them, arms folded across his chest. "Interesting story, I'll allow it's possible, still does not explain what you are doing here, and my son can't seem to explain it either. So maybe you can?"
Anna met his eyes. "I cried when they were going to leave, begged them to take me with them in fact."
Jack narrowed his eyes. "Why?"
"Like you said, I'm selfish." She turned away from him and picked up her beer.
"That's it, that's all you have to say?"
Anna glanced at him, "What more can I say? I want to be with them, I guilted them into taking me, case closed."
Jack grabbed the beer she’d set back down and turned to the bartender, "She's underage you know."
The man frowned, "She showed me an I.D."
"Fake."
"Miss, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." The man said nervously.
Anna glared daggers at Jack and stood up.
"No, she’s not leaving," Jack told him, "the damage is done, just bring her a coke. She needs to be where I can keep an eye on her."
"Okay, but no more drinking," the man cast Anna a scolding look and went to get her the soft drink.
Anna was fuming. He was such a bastard, there was no reason for that except to be a bastard. She sat back down and clenched the edge of the bar so she wouldn't be tempted to knock him on his ass.
Josh put a hand on her shoulder and she looked up at him. His eyes widened and he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the restroom.
"What? I'm not going to do anything, as much as I might want to," she said through clenched teeth.
He leaned in, "Your eyes Anna, they’re flashing."
She was startled to hear that. "Really?"
He pushed her gently towards the ladies room and she went inside, staring in wonder at herself in the mirror. Her gums ached a bit, though her teeth hadn't extracted. She rubbed them with her tongue and her eyes flared with that golden light from deep in their depths. Pretty, she thought. Eerie, otherworldly, but really pretty.
As her anger dissipated the light receded. Strong emotion did that? Good to know.
She went back into the bar and saw the boys and their jackass father seated at one of the booths. Well, she didn't have to sit with them to listen. She went back to her place at the bar and tuned in.
"......and that's just the tip of the iceberg. This is going on everywhere, and I mean all over the world. But it's really concentrated in large American and European cities. The Creator has apparently decided the human race is in need of a wakeup call. I've discussed this with a number of others and from their histories as well as ours we’ve determined that the demon gates are usually watched, if not consistently guarded, by angels. But there are times when the angels seem to be called off duty, whether it's to teach a lesson or the Almighty is just disgusted with us is anyone's guess. Right now we’re certain the gateway of Dantalion is open, but we don't know about the others. We know it's happened before but our history is a little sketchy on this, in fact it's as if our ancestors purposely omitted certain details or hid them. I don't know why. So at this point all we can do is be a stop gap measure. Keep an eye on things and take out whomever we can whenever we can."
"Shit." Will leaned back against the seat rubbing his chin. "I remember reading something in our literature about the Guards at the Gates. It wasn't very clear but it definitely made a point about the angels that watch over them, and how there were so many gateways to the Jinn’s dimension, or wait no-that the demons were constantly moving the first gateway, but that it was much harder to accomplish with the other three."
"Yeah, that's right," Josh put in, "actually it said there was more than one gateway to the first dimension and they could be moved which is why we see the Jinn so frequently."
Jack was nodding, "Right. I'll talk to some people and have them look that up in their material, the Guards at the Gates or Moving portals, something of that nature. In the meantime we need to bring a few of the fuckers down. At the moment I've been keeping tabs on a ring of three, one for each of us." He reached into his briefcase and pulled out some papers. He scanned them then pushed them across the table to the boys. Anna shifted so she had a clear view.
Gerald Crenshaw, age thirty seven, non descript average looks, profession-banker. Jean Lauriat, age forty-one, looked a bit like a linebacker, profession-accountant. Lisa Courier, age thirty two, pretty freckled face, profession-accountant.
Anna thought it was strange how the demons were grouping by profession, since in the case with that Lucien guy he had been a lawyer and the DA and other attorneys were involved.
Josh voiced the sentiment. "Notice a pattern here? First Lucien the lawyer and his lawyer friends, now Gerald the banker and his accountant friends. Why?"
Jack nodded, "Well, if a demon managed to take possession of me and the two of you were being dogged, it stands to reason I could help those possessions along. We already have a bond, couple that with the persuasiveness of demon and since the Dantalion are more powerful it makes it a bit easier for them anyway, and there you go, there's your connection."
"As simple as that, huh?
Jack leaned back against the seat and folded his arms, his expression challenging. "Do you know why murder cases often go unsolved?"
"Enlighten me."
"Because the idiot investigators imagine complicated motives, therefore overlooking the evidence in their face. Most people are not complex, and in my experience demons follow that pattern. These might be a bit more organized and determined than their Jinn predecessors, but it's doubtful there's some big plot centered around law firms and banks. Far more likely these lawyers and bankers are greedy and morally corrupt making them easy marks."
Will's lip twisted in a rueful smile. "Organized and determined to do what exactly?"
"Live in our bodies, but also spit in God's eye I imagine."
"Okay, but the fuckers we've been killing all our lives, what makes them different?"
"Power. They don't have as much. It takes them so long just to get themselves into a body it's far too much work for them to help others of their kind in any big way. Of course they do help, but they might only manage to influence one or two people in the course of their stay. In this case it appears the shitheads are moving much, much quicker."
They were all quiet for a minute, drinking their beers. Anna asked the guy sitting next to her for a cigarette and he obliged. All of the things involving the shadow men, their dimensions and demonic influence was fairly new to her, but the worry on the three hunters' faces gave her a chill of foreboding.
As if on cue the Simon and Garfunkel song Hello Darkness came on the jukebox. She loved the song, but right now it made her feel nervous.
Jack glanced her way and she turned her head quickly.
"About her, exactly when are you going to grow a pair and send her home?"
Anna was watching them out of the corner of her eye and both boys shifted uncomfortably.
Josh spoke up, "I like her company, she reminds me of why we do this, what we're protecting. Will and I form no relationships with anyone, ever. It's nice to have someone who knows who and what we are, who understands to a point, and who's cute and bubbly on top of it. Makes life less lonely and dark."
Will looked impressed by the explanation. Jack, not so much, though there was something in his expression that border lined on understanding.
Jack leaned forward, his posture intense. "This life is lonely and hard. Forming attachments like this seems to make life a little sweeter, I know, I've been there, but take it from me, in the end it only makes things lonelier and harder. Imagine if something happens to her, the guilt you would feel. I understand that since she's Faerian it seems different, but she's not equipped for the physical demands of this work. As a healer it would make more sense for her to become a nurse, she could be of real value in a profession like that. She's a beautiful young girl who could have a life, the kind that we're deprived of. Do you really want to see her jaded like we are? If you care for her you should send her home."
Poor Will and Josh, that lecture would make a whole lot of sense if only she were just a faerian. She couldn't help but like Jack a little bit after that speech, and the fact that he thought she was beautiful made her heart trip a little.
"You're right but the problem is at the moment she's a little lost and being with us helps her make sense of things that she's been wrestling with for years." Josh looked at Will for help.
"Yeah, so we know she can't stay with us forever, but you know just for a little while."
"I believe you said that before." Jack's voice turned flat. "I said my peace so if you're determined to learn the hard way, so be it. Your guilt to wrestle with, not mine." He stood up, strode over to the bar and ordered a whiskey massaging his temples. Anna felt a stab of guilt for causing a potential rift between him and his sons. But what could she do? She really had no other place to go. She stared into her glass of soda and tried to think of alternatives but came up with nada.
Josh and Will came over and sat on either side of her. "Hear everything?" Will asked and she nodded.
"We should go get a room, it's getting late."
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