Page 12

Chapter 12

Nathan

The drive to HQ seemed to take no time at all, and soon enough he was logging in for the day and making his way to Sloan’s office for that report. It was early afternoon now, and HQ was bustling with activity. He passed out various greetings to people as he walked the familiar path.

He braced himself before he knocked, certain that navigating this conversation was going to be just as difficult as last time, if not more so.

The door was closed, which meant Sloan had someone with him. He rapped a knuckle on the door and waited. When it swung open, he was surprised to meet Isaac Morrow’s eyes.

Isaac lifted his chin. “Captain Accardi, good to see you.”

Nathan smiled. “Paladin Morrow. Hope life is treating you well.”

“Well enough. Your turn.” He slapped Nathan on the shoulder as he passed, his green eyes twinkling like sunlight through a tree canopy.

Nathan slipped inside and shut the door on Isaac’s retreating back.

Commander Sloan was seated at his desk, closing a file folder and tucking it in a drawer as he gestured for Nathan to take a seat across from him. The room was quiet save for the soft hum of his computer and the barely audible ticking of the clock on the wall beside them.

“Good morning, Commander,” he said as he sat.

Sloan leaned back with a greeting nod. “Good morning. Have you had a chance to go by the morgue? This case has me on pins and needles.”

Nathan did his best not to think about Storm’s arms around his body. It had been much easier at the Rink, because Storm had recognized how uncomfortable Nathan was with the prospect of retelling everything they’d seen. Nathan didn’t have to speak a word; Storm just somehow knew .

He shook himself. Storm wasn’t here, so he had to be strong. “Yes, I did.” He recounted everything he’d learned there, how there were claw marks inside the chest cavity and strange findings in the stomach contents and toxicology report.

“Bone and sulfur? What could that mean?” Sloan asked, sitting back and rubbing a hand along his jaw.

Nathan had rehearsed this part in his head on the drive over. “Well, I spoke to Storm?—”

“Who?” Sloan asked sharply.

“Storm. The halfling that the defectors put me in contact with. I thought they might want to know about whatever this is, so I called him.”

Sloan’s expression smoothed, and Nathan continued quickly. He knew Sloan wouldn’t like this part, but he hoped Storm’s contribution would make him see that working with the defectors and their demons could have its advantages.

“He came by the morgue to take a look, too, actually. He seems to think it’s possible that a hex bag was used to make the victim susceptible to possession. Bone fragments are often used in hex bags, according to him.”

Sloan cut a hand through the air. “Hold on. Why didn’t you take any of your own team with you to the morgue? I assigned this case to you as a captain in the guild. I expected you to involve your squad.”

Nathan faltered. “I’ve been keeping them apprised of the situation, sir, but you gave me permission to seek a truce with them?—”

“Yes, a ceasefire. Not an alliance. Warn them about the boy’s death so they can keep their ears open, certainly, but calling a demon to accompany you on guild business?”

Nathan’s mouth went dry. “I apologize for the misunderstanding, sir.”

Sloan’s gaze was like shards of ice. “Don’t apologize, Captain Accardi. Do better. Remember that you are a paladin, and therefore, your duties to this guild should come first.”

His mind raced. He had to salvage this somehow. He hadn’t expected Sloan to take so much offense at the realization that Nathan had been including the defectors in his investigation.

“But sir, I think they were right about the hex bag.”

Sloan scoffed. “Captain, give me a break. What are you suggesting, that that boy somehow swallowed an entire hex bag?”

“Well, no, but given the other drugs in his system, it’s not impossible to think that he may have ingested something else that acted as a hex bag. A pill capsule, maybe.”

“A pill capsule?” Sloan repeated, looking incredulous. “That’s not possible, Captain. They’re feeding you lies, don’t you see? No, these people are twisting your head around the same way they twisted Hawk and Morgan and Faer, and you’re falling for it. You’re working with this demon like he’s a human. They’ve somehow made you believe that because those demons look human, they actually are human.”

“No, sir, I don’t think that at all?—”

Sloan shook his head. “I’ve heard enough. I’ll consider the hex bag idea and bring it up with the council, but there’s no way any kind of ingestible pill resulted in that boy’s possession.”

Nathan ground his teeth together. “Sir, I think you’re being too hasty. This is a good theory?—”

“A theory that came from them . They’re just trying to twist your head around, and you refuse to see it. The halflings are monsters, and people who abide them are no better.”

“They haven’t hurt anyone!” He didn’t mean to shout, but he couldn’t take this anymore. Why couldn’t Sloan see that he was becoming overwhelmed by his own bitterness? “We’re focusing on the wrong things, Commander.”

Sloan’s cool expression didn’t waver. “Then perhaps you’re the one who’s lost sight of what we’re doing here, Captain.”

Nathan looked down at his feet, threading his fingers together with his elbows on his knees and pursing his lips to keep from arguing more. It wouldn’t get him anywhere. It took everything he had to take a breath, raise his head, and say, “I’ll defer to your judgment in the matter, sir.”

“Yes, you will,” Sloan agreed coldly, and Nathan didn’t miss the threat in his tone. He paused, and Nathan wondered if that would be the end of the meeting until Sloan said, “Your squad is patrolling tonight, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Have you heard about Shiloh’s team yet?”

“Shiloh’s team, sir?”

Sloan passed a hand over his face. “They were attacked last night while out on patrol. Which wouldn’t be anything noteworthy, as that’s the whole reason we patrol in the first place, but these were… human.”

“Human? Human like the kid in that footage?”

Sloan nodded. “Two humans, both extraordinarily strong. We… We lost Zeke. Maxwell spent all night working on him in surgery.”

A pang of shock hit him. One of these people killed a paladin? “What… What happened? How did they manage to kill one of our people?”

“They were trying to contain the threat without the use of lethal force, because they were human. But they didn’t know how to make them stop fighting . Zeke was trying to hold one of them, and they grabbed one of his knives.”

“They stabbed him with his own knife?” Nathan breathed.

Sloan nodded, then shook his head. “It shouldn’t have happened. We have to figure out what’s causing this. Both of the humans’ chests exploded after Zeke was stabbed. Shiloh said he also saw a skeletal-looking hand reaching through one just before the human died.”

“So it’s definitely possessor demons trying to break through,” Nathan said. And this incident proved that it was definitely more than just one possessor trying to break free.

“It looks that way, certainly. We need to know why and how to stop this.”

Sloan shouldn’t have dismissed the drug idea so easily, but Nathan couldn’t push the subject any more without risking punishment. The best thing he could do was find the truth, no matter what.

“With your permission, Commander, I’d like to question the demons of In Extremis. There’s a chance someone there knows something, and I think necessity dictates that we utilize all avenues available to us right now.”

Sloan’s face soured. “No, you’re not going anywhere near those demons anymore. They’re clearly hurting your judgment. I’ll send someone else to question the demons of the club. I want you off the case. I’m not sure you’re thinking clearly anymore.”

“But sir,” Nathan protested.

“You need to remember who you’re loyal to, Captain Accardi,” Sloan said.

“I’m loyal to the guild, sir. I never forgot that. It isn’t my fault they made a halfling my point of contact.” He hesitated, then took a calculated risk. “I thought you wanted me to find out where their base is.”

Sloan’s eyes narrowed.

“Give me a little more time with them. I’ve spoken several times with them all, and I think if I keep at it, they’ll invite me to see their operation soon.” He felt slimy as he said it.

Sloan tilted his head. He looked tempted. “You have one more week with them, and then I’m pulling the plug on this truce. It’s going nowhere, and I won’t risk losing any more paladins to them. In the meantime, you’re off the possession case. Maybe I’m overloading you, and that’s why you’re faltering.”

Nathan fought to keep his expression passive. He wasn’t faltering , and yet he ached with relief that Sloan hadn’t shut down the truce completely.

“Fair enough, Commander. I’ll do whatever it takes to prove to you that I’m still a loyal member of the guild.”

He stood and saluted, ignoring the way his stomach twisted, not at the thought of losing Sloan’s trust, but of being unable to see Storm again.

* * *

He spent the rest of the day at HQ, writing up the official report for his morgue visit and training with his squad. At dinner, he made his way to the cafeteria with the others, his mind elsewhere. He probably needed to update the defectors about the attack on Shiloh’s squad, if only because it meant this was an ongoing problem like they’d all feared and not an isolated incident.

After getting some food in the buffet line, he found a sun-warmed seat near the stained-glass windows and took his phone from his pocket, creating a new group chat with all the phone numbers he had for the defectors and their demons. Ira, Wolf, Alex, Luke, and Storm.

Hey, this is Nathan. Added all of you I had numbers for to tell you we’ve seen two more cases of possessed humans, and we lost a paladin last night to one of them. It looks like the first one wasn’t the only.

Luke

Who?

Zeke. Young guy. Sloan said one of the possessed used his own knife against him.

Alex

He was just 19.

Nathan scrubbed a hand through his hair, his stomach twisting. Alex wasn’t much older than Zeke. They’d probably crossed paths during their training years. It hadn’t been a full year yet since he joined Shiloh’s squad.

For some reason, he longed for a response from Storm.

Ira

Do you think the squad was targeted, or was it a random attack?

We don’t know, and that’s the problem.

Luke

What’s Sloan’s plan?

Sloan took me off the case. Doesn’t like the pill idea. He’s putting a different team on the investigation of the footage I showed you.

Wolf

Why not you?

He thinks I’m ‘spread too thin.’ A punishment for involving you all, I think.

Storm

Fucker.

Nathan bit back a startled laugh. Storm’s only contribution so far was indignation on Nathan’s behalf. A kernel of warmth settled near his heart at the realization.

It’s better this way. I have leave to handle the relationship with you all as I see fit. For now, at least.

He didn’t know what would happen in a week when he still had no base of operations to give Sloan—because he wouldn’t be revealing the Rink’s location to anyone in the guild.

He’s going to send paladins to In Extremis at some point, but I’d like to go there and question some people myself.

Alex

An unsanctioned club visit? Naughty Nate.

Nathan snorted out a quiet laugh, muffled behind his hand so he didn’t draw any attention to himself.

Sloan doesn’t want to pursue the pill theory. Who better to question about demonic pills than the demonic club scene?

Wolf

That’s a pretty good point.

Storm

You’re not going alone.

I can take care of myself.

Storm

I know you can, but I’m coming. Besides, if paladins are the target, you could be in danger.

Nathan smiled. It was nice to know he cared.

I’m always in danger.

Storm

Just be careful.

Nathan set his phone down, taking a long drink of his ice water to cool the flush working its way up his neck. He couldn’t believe a demon was getting this kind of schoolboy reaction from him. When he’d wrangled his body’s stupid reaction, he picked his phone back up.

Always.

When the sun drew long shadows on the ground and the cloak of night chased away the dying rays of light, Nathan met with the rest of his squad in front of the administrative building. The mood was a somber one. News of Zeke’s death had spread through the compound like wildfire, uttered in solemn whispers and punctuated with desperate prayers.

Judah, the youngest and newest member of the squad, folded his arms tightly over his chest and broke the heavy silence hanging over the squad. He’d been in Zeke’s graduating class, although Nathan didn’t know if they were friends or not. “What if we see more of those things tonight?”

Nathan nodded. He’d expected questions. “You were all taught an exorcism, weren’t you?”

“An exorcism?” Aidan repeated. “I memorized those rites ten years ago for history class, but there’s no way I still remember it well enough to attempt in the field . Possessions are things we read about in textbooks, not actual things we’ve ever had to deal with before.”

The others all gave various agreements—except Judah, who’d taken that history class just last year and probably still remembered the rites better than any of them.

“It’s not just a case in a textbook anymore. You all need to run to the library and print off a copy, because we might need it tonight,” he said bluntly. “We have reason to believe those people were possessed, and yes, they might not be the only ones out there. We need to be prepared. It’s no different than any other monster we’ve faced, except this time the human life is right there in the middle of the fight. We’ll need to be able to hold them down and perform an exorcism. I’ve stocked the SUVs with extra med-kits and holy water. We can do this. We just have to be ready.”

Aidan’s face was pallid, but he steeled his spine. “I’ll go to the library and print off copies of the rite for everyone. Give me ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes we can manage,” Nathan said, waving him away. “Thanks for doing it. I’d rather have them and not need them.”

While they waited for Aidan to rejoin them, the rest of them piled into the SUVs and started the engines to let them warm up. It was the tail-end of winter, and the nights were cool this time of year. Judah huddled in the passenger seat, his hands stuffed into the big pocket of his hoodie. Frederic was quiet in the backseat, and a few minutes later, the door behind Nathan opened to admit Aidan.

“I passed four to the other car,” he said, handing out pieces of copy paper. “Do you need one, Cap?”

“No, I’m good. I refreshed my memory this afternoon after meeting with Sloan,” Nathan replied, guiding the SUV out onto the long driveway and checking the rearview to make sure the other car was following behind him. “I suggest you all look over it while we drive, see if you can get it memorized before we stop, but bring the paper with you just in case.”

“Hell yeah,” Frederic murmured gruffly, flicking on one of the overhead lights and ducking his head to read, whispering the words under his breath.

They found the deserted parking lot of a darkened shopping mall and circled the metaphorical wagons, emerging from their vehicles and arming up. They were pretty close to the college, so they would patrol the outskirts of the campus as well as the surrounding neighborhoods. Nathan partnered them all off, instructing Judah to come with him. Just like he’d been with Alex, Nathan was protective of him.

After a quick comms check to make sure all their radios were in working order, they branched off. The distant hum of cars beyond their quiet bubble reminded Nathan that they weren’t actually alone. A city like LA never really slept.

“You know, when I was a kid, I wanted to come to this college,” Judah said conversationally as they followed a well-maintained sidewalk past a manicured lawn dotted with trees.

“Oh, really? How old were you when the guild picked you up?”

“Seven. But I used to ride the bus to school, and it would take that road right over there.” He pointed across the darkened campus toward the distant road, where street lights and passing cars were visible. “I always thought the buildings looked so huge and cool, you know, like something out of a movie.”

Nathan understood, though the buildings reminded him a lot of the brick facades of HQ. The domed student center and the glass-walled library were impressive, though. They probably looked like castles to a seven-year-old. Buttery yellow light glowed from within the windows, and the wide sidewalks were lit with wrought-iron lamps, casting streaks of light across the mown lawn.

“It looks like you found your way here in your own time, after all,” he pointed out, smiling lightly.

Judah’s smile seemed tight around the edges. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I did.”

“Something on your mind, Paladin Whitlock?”

“No. Yes. I don’t want to talk about it.” He scuffed his boot on the pavement.

Nathan swayed a little closer and nudged him with his elbow. “Come on. You can talk to me about anything.”

“Anything?” he asked, raising his head to look imploringly at him. His hazel eyes were big and hopeful.

“Absolutely.”

Judah blew out a breath, and the words began to tumble out of him with increasing speed. “Okay. I just… you don’t think we’ll be ordered to go after Hawk and Morgan, do you? I worked the sign-in desk a lot, and I knew those guys, and they’re not bad people. I just really don’t want to have to choose between following orders and hurting them. Surely Commander Sloan wouldn’t order us to hurt human beings? That’s not what we’re supposed to be doing here, is it?”

“Okay, okay, slow down.” Nathan patted his shoulder. “I… I don’t know what Commander Sloan is going to have us do in the future, to be honest, and it’s not something I want you to worry about right now. I’ve reached out to them, those who’ve defected from the guild, and we’re working to build a truce between our groups. I hope that my efforts will assuage the anger that some in the guild harbor toward them.”

“What if it doesn’t?” Judah asked fretfully. “What if it doesn’t get better? What if?—”

“Shush, now,” Nathan said kindly. “You can’t think like that. You have to have faith.”

“In the guild?”

“In God, Paladin Whitlock,” Nathan said. “Above all else, above even the guild. Institutions come and go, but God is eternal, and He has a plan.”

Judah blinked at him like Nathan had said something particularly surprising. “I’ve never heard anyone in the guild so much as hint that it would be anything but everlasting.”

Oh, that. “Well. I…”

“No, no. It’s refreshing. I think you’re right. Obviously things are changing. Two paladins have left the guild for halflings. I know people want to think they’ve gone rogue or turned evil or something, but I actually feel like it might be the opposite?”

“What do you mean, opposite?” Nathan asked. They turned down an alley between two tall buildings. Besides a couple of maintenance vehicles, the area seemed deserted, and the cloak of darkness would be ideal for monsters to hide in. Nathan absentmindedly turned on his lapel light, and Judah did the same.

“I think maybe it means the halflings aren’t as bad as we originally thought. They used to be human, right? And humans aren’t all good or all evil. Maybe halflings are the same.”

Nathan wondered if he would still think that if he knew that the black-eyed halflings like Talon weren’t halflings at all, but leviathans who’d never been human. Nathan didn’t want to disabuse him of the notion, however, so he held his tongue. Judah seemed far more open-minded than some of his older counterparts, and the defectors needed all the allies they could get.

“I think you’re right,” he said after a moment. “Especially after having spoken with some of the halflings that Alex and Luke are friends with. I just wish others in the guild thought so.”

“Yeah, we’re not really known for our open-minded—” Judah stopped, pointing at something ahead of them. “Uh. What’s he doing?”

Nathan followed his gaze. Ahead of them on the sidewalk, a young man stood like a statue. He wore a backpack and a college hoodie. His head tilted to one side like a wolf listening for prey. It was unnerving, but maybe Nathan was seeing a threat where there wasn’t one. Perhaps the guy was eyeing them distrustfully, two unfamiliar men meeting him in a darkened alley with no one else around. Perhaps he felt threatened by their approach.

“Just… keep your distance,” he said carefully, pressing closer to Judah so they could both give the stranger a wide berth. “Don’t mind us,” he said as they drew even with him.

He hadn’t moved at all, hadn’t even turned to watch them pass. Was he having some sort of medical emergency? Should they stop and see if he needed help?

“Mister?” he asked, pausing beside him. “Sir, are you okay?”

His head jerked toward Nathan so hard that he heard the bone pop. Beside him, Judah startled. The stranger’s face was shadowed, but when his body turned, each limb jerked like a marionette, a twisted imitation of human movement. Adrenaline barreled through Nathan’s veins. This wasn’t natural.

“Nate,” Judah said nervously.

“Sir,” Nathan said, raising a hand. “Sir, stay back.” God, he didn’t want to have to hurt him. There was still a person inside this thing, right?

A low, snarling growl tore from his throat, and he lunged at them. Nathan caught his wrists, but his momentum sent them tumbling to the unforgiving concrete.

Judah depressed the button on his radio. “Behind the science building, help now, over!”

“Get him—get him off me!” Nathan shouted, struggling to push him away. His fingers, hooked into claws, hovered just above Nathan’s eyes. Horrid sounds spilled from his mouth, unnatural gurgles and hisses that Nathan wouldn’t have thought possible from a human mouth.

“I’ve got him!” Judah grabbed him by the backpack and jerked hard, falling back on his rear with the stranger prone on the ground between his legs.

The stranger recovered first, flipping over and lunging at Judah, who shrieked and tried to crab-walk away. Nathan threw himself at them, using his bulkier weight to pin the stranger down. An elbow nailed him right in the eye, and he twisted away, his face throbbing.

“We’ve got to hold him down,” he said, trying to grab the boy’s scrabbling hands. He found Nathan’s wrist first, jerking him forward and rolling them. Nathan cursed as he toppled over and landed on his back. A slender leg slung across his waist, and Nathan barely had time to raise an arm to fend him off as he lunged toward his throat like a rabid animal.

Teeth sank into Nathan’s forearm, and when he took a breath to scream, the stranger slapped a hand over his open mouth. Something small and cylindrical fell into his mouth from between his fingers. Panic seized him, and he managed to capture the thing between his tongue and the roof of his mouth. It was dangerously close to the back of his mouth.

The stranger’s teeth were still embedded in his skin, but the pain was an afterthought as he grappled with the slick capsule. God, he didn’t want to swallow it. The stranger’s black eyes—all black, even the sclera—were bright with triumph. He thought Nathan had swallowed it.

Hands dragged him off Nathan, and he rolled over, letting gravity do the work for him. He spit the capsule out onto the concrete, sucking down a greedy lungful of air.

“Get his hands! Freddy!” someone was shouting, and Nathan turned, pulling himself together to help his squad, who were trying to hold him down.

The stranger fought hard, kicking Frederic with his free leg. He grunted but didn’t go down, pouncing on both of his ankles with all his weight. Aidan had his left arm, while Judah had his right.

“Cap, do the exorcism!” Aidan grunted. “He’s too strong!”

Nathan threw himself into the fray, pinning the boy’s shoulders down. “ Exorcizo te, omnis spiritus immunde ? — ”

He thrashed wildly, and then, quite abruptly, the black faded from his eyes and the fight drained from his body. Normal brown eyes blinked up at them, filling with tears.

“What—what’s going on?” he asked, his voice trembling.

At once, all four men released him as though burned.

Nathan leaned in, meeting his frightened eyes. “Sir? I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

“I…” His body convulsed, and a gasp of pain escaped him. “What was that? I— ahh !” His body arched off the ground, and his chest heaved.

“Oh shit,” Nathan said, throwing himself at him once more. “It’s trying to break free. We have to exorcise it before it kills him.”

“What?” he shrieked.

He put a hand over the boy’s heart and the other over his forehead, stumbling through the Latin words as quickly as his panicked tongue would allow. Bone cracked under his palm, the boy’s sternum bowing outward, and Nathan’s stomach roiled. Blood soaked into his shirt, mixing with the blood trickling down Nathan’s bitten arm.

“ Et in nomine Jesu Christi Filii ejus, Domini et Judicis nostre, et in vir ? — ”

The boy’s chest broke open, and a bony, claw-tipped hand ripped through his shirt, wrapping painfully tight around Nathan’s wrist. His screams trailed off, his body convulsing. He couldn’t survive this trauma, and the demon was almost free. The footage of the first incident had shown them that the demon couldn’t escape a dead host. There was only one thing to do.

“God forgive me,” he sobbed, drawing one of his knives. Rearing back, he brought it down hard, through the boy’s throat and severing his spinal cord. His body slackened, and the demon’s rattling growl cut off like a mute button had been pressed. The pressure from those bony fingers disappeared from his wrist, and calm silence filled the air around the panting group.

Aidan broke it first. “God in Heaven,” he whispered, crossing himself. “We have to clean this up. Nate’s blood is all over him. We…” His eyes went a little glassy with grief, but he pressed on stubbornly. “We can take him to Maxwell. He can cremate him.”

“But…” Judah looked from one horrified face to the next. “No one will know what happened to him. What if he has family?”

“Look at what this looks like, kid,” Frederic said, his voice hollow. “Four men holding down a screaming, bloody young man?”

Bile rose in Nathan’s throat.

“But that’s not—we weren’t—” Judah broke off. “We’d never ?—”

“No, we’d never,” Nathan agreed hoarsely, telling himself his eyes were watering because of the pain in his arm. “But the police won’t understand what just happened.”

Aidan sniffed hard, pushing himself to his feet. “I’ll bring one of the cars. Then we’ll take him with us.”