Vidare 06: Jhor

"How fast do you want that done?" Miles held his phone tightly to his ear. He nodded a few times as he listened. "Got it. 8 pm." Hanging up the call he looked over at Kai. "You wanna bag and tag?"

"Hell no, but I'm down anyway." Kai laughed as he passed Miles a beer. "What's the mission?"

"Some ghoul fuck has been sighted and confirmed. It makes me sick, the idea of anyone drinking from a leeches wrist. We grab him, knock him out, put a chip in him, and we're good to go."

Garrett held the small injection gun. "Easy peasy. Are we bringing anyone else?"

"Nope. Three person squad." Miles sipped his beer.

"What do we do till 8?" Garrett asked.

"I say we get drunk." Miles teased. Passing Kai a beer, he offered one to Garrett. "You gonna be okay if I party with you tonight?"

"Yeah I'm only gonna have one." Garrett popped the top off on a counter and took a sip. "How Ariana?"

"She's..." Kai sighed. "She's okay I guess. She's spent a lot more of her time alone. I'm worried about her, but at least she got the backlash out of her system. We have a date next week though."

Garrett and Miles grinned together. "You excited?" Miles poked him in the stomach.

"Oh yeah. It's been amazing, even with all the other shit going on." Kai smiled to himself. "Sometimes man I wonder what I ever did to get her attention."

"You're her partner. You have a kid together. Have you ever thought about making it more official?" Miles asked casually.

"What do you mean?" Kai sipped his drink again.

"Like maybe one day getting hitched, having a couple of Rugrats to call your own." Miles said as Kai choked on his beer.

"Ariana...she can't have kids, man." He wiped his face.

"Oh..." Miles went quiet.

Garrett had already downed half of his beer and was looking from Kai to Miles with a grin on his face. "You don't need to have your own kids to be a family. You've got us, you've got Derrick, you've got Ariana and the two of you are just smoking hot." Garrett laughed.

"That's enough beer for you little guy." Kai joked as he started to take it from his hands until Garrett complained.

The three killed more drinks as they talked and laughed, and at seven they all loaded into the car. Miles drove them across town and through some of the worst parts of Denver until they came across a little run down house. "Are you sure this is the place?" Kai asked from the backseat.

"Positive. Information is dead on. Here's how it's gonna go down. Garrett, you have the sedative gun and the tracker gun. Kai, you're on her tail until she's alone. I'm gonna keep on the other side and tail her so we have her flanked. Sound good? When we have her alone, Kai and I will corner her, rough her up if we really have to, and on Kai's signal only Garrett will come running."

"Ready." Garrett put the two medical guns into his pocket.

"I'm out, gimme three minutes to circle the place and then Miles you're in." Kai said as he checked and made sure his gun was loaded.

Garrett and Miles waited until Kai gave his signal through a text, and Miles hopped out of the car. Together the two circled and waited as a young woman emerged from the house. Following her, Kai and Miles could only see each other when they passed a gap in the fences. The woman was in a tight shirt, jeans, and cheap sneakers. "That's it." Miles mumbled to himself.

Pulling off into an alley, she looked over her shoulder and saw Kai behind her, breaking into a run. Miles came around the corner with his gun drawn and pointed at her. "Not so fast there." Panting as she eyed the two of them she had a dangerous grin covering her face.

"You two don't know what you're doing." She said with a small laugh.

"Oh yeah? It looks like we found ourselves a blood junkie." Miles said calmly as he stepped closer to her.

Garrett appeared behind Kai in the alley with the sedative gun in hand, positioning himself closer to the woman. Suddenly the woman broke into a sprint and slammed her fist hard into Garrett's stomach, sending him sideways into the alleyway wall. Garrett let out a sharp cry of pain as he hit the brick, his ribs crunching. Rushing Kai next, she delivered a strike first to his jaw, and then swept a kick across his face and planted him in the opposite wall of Garrett.

"Oh fuck." Garrett stood in shock as the person before him started to grow and change. Her fingers extended out into long points like claws, her legs snapping as they rearranged into something like a horse's lower half. Her face elongated, eyes stretching into strange shapes before they settled on an octagon with multiple pupils.

Standing at nine feet tall, she cackled as the Kai shook off being thrown into the wall. "Holy..." He stared at the freaking form. "Miles, that's not a human."

"It's a fucking Fey!" Miles screamed as he reached for his gun. Standing back up, Miles made three shots into her hide, with a strange and thick green blood running down her arm. Turning to Miles she let out a roar. "Oh fuck."

"I think I'll snack on you first." She giggled in a twisted voice as she turned to Kai. "You look juicy." A long and forked tongue licked her lips.

"The head Miles!" Kai screamed. Shots rang out, and one of the bullets punctured her slimy eye, the ooze running down her face. The beast roared and Garrett ran up to her, slamming the injection gun full of sedatives into her leg and pulling the trigger. A loud bang echoed from the gun, and with a swipe, she swung her shot into Garrett and threw him back. Kai had his gun palmed and together with Miles they loaded her with over twenty more bullets. The beast wobbled at the combination of the drugs and the wounds. Miles pulled at his gun but it was empty, and turning his attention to a large pipe on the ground, he picked it up and ran towards the Fey.

Swinging wildly, Miles slammed the pipe into her thick hairy legs and heard a snap as he did. Taking a knee and slashing at Miles, she ripped through his jacket as he fell back. Kai pulled a knife from his leg and jammed it into her gut, twisting as hard as he could, and stared her in the eyes as she growled. Miles got back up with the pipe and smacked her in the head as hard as he could, watching her recoil as he struck again and again. Kai let go of the knife and stood back as Miles beat her head into a mashed pulp of ooze, bone, and brains. Panting, Miles threw the pipe to the ground and wiped the sweat from his face.

"Holy fucking shit dude." Kai whispered at the mangled corpse.

"Get the shovel and the car, I got the body." Miles pulled at his jacket and groaned.

Standing slowly, Kai looked around before he ran across the street, stretching out the blanket in the back. "Not the back seat man!" Miles threw a hand up and dropped the corpse. "In the business of keeping that car as clean as I can. Pop the trunk."

Kai got out as the motor ran and got Garrett into his arms. Setting him as gently as he could into the back seat, he watched as Miles bent the limbs of the fey so he could crush her into the trunk. "This is so fucking stupid." Kai rubbed his own face with an exhausted sigh.

"Let's do it!" Miles jumped into the front passenger seat. As Kai sped off down the road he lit a cig. "You smoke now?"

"Shut the fuck up Miles you body carrying dick." Kai took another drag.

"You're the driver. Pull off at exit 197." They stayed quiet as Garrett groaned in the backseat. Kai pulled off as he was asked to and together they headed out to a large field. Miles pulled the shovel out of the backseat, popped the trunk, and started dragging the body behind him.

The two worked silently as they dug a ten foot hole for hours. Kai brushed the sweat off as he looked up at the moon. "It's three in the morning. Is this deep enough?" Miles nodded and motioned for Kai to hold out his palms for a boost out of the hole. Reaching out he groaned as he pulled Kai out and together they pushed the body down into the dirt. For the next hour they shoveled the dirt back into the hole and patted it down tight. Garrett came walking out into the field with his hand on his head.

"You two okay?" Garrett said with a soft smile. "I assume our friend here is well taken care of?"

"Yeah. But I'm bushed. You get to drive." Kai passed the keys to Garrett. Garrett started the car, his eyes glazed over from the heavy bump on his head.

Squeezing the steering wheel tightly he turned on the radio to keep himself awake. "Why the fuck was she a fey? She was supposed to just be another blood junkie."

"No idea." Miles bummed a cig from Kai. "She was unique, I'll give her that. I can't believe she ruined my jacket."

"Oh shut up about your jacket." Kai threw the pack of cigs at him. "We could have been killed. I got to work in the morning!"

"You're gonna do just fine. The coffee basically serves itself." Miles smiled as they rolled down the highway.

"Eat shit." Garrett chimed in. "That's the fifth time I got my ass pounded in for your stupid order."

"Fuck you Garrett!" Miles thumped him on the shoulder. "Why don't you bring a gun instead of a phone next time?"

"Cool it! He's right to be pissed." Kai shot a look, turning his head.

"You two wanna do more ward visits? More tech support? Is that what being a magician is to you?" Miles waited as they went quiet. "Or how about we go right back to ripping people off for money. Or hell, you could always follow leads from the homeless shelter for every crackpot alien abduction story." The two were bitterly angry but had nothing they could say, each of them biting their tongue at their job history. "This job...this fucking job sucks so bad. We ruin our God damn clothes, we fuck up our bodies, but do either of you actually feel like we didn't do something good tonight?" They sat angrily. "That's what I fucking thought." Miles sat back with an ego filled slump as he folded his arms. Pouting like a child, Miles stared out the window.

Kai sighed as he put out his smoke. "I don't like killing, but we took a fey off the street with ties to a leech. You're right." Kai gripped his rosary. "Can you try to not be a dick about it?"

"Everything dies, Kai. Just because we have different beliefs on death doesn't mean I'm not afraid of it. I don't wanna waste any of this time here, and as far as I'm concerned the supernaturals that leak out and hurt the mortal world are trespassing." Miles watched as lights went by.

"I don't agree. I know Ariana gave you her whole speech on how every supernatural is here for a reason." Kai nodded as if to remind himself.

"The things here for a reason have a heavy toll and a high body count." Miles argued.

"So do people. Just in case you forgot Miles, if some sleeper finds out what you can do, you're just as much of a freak to them as a vampire, a fey, or a werewolf. You're either their ticket to power and wealth or something to be weeded out of the bloodline. Don't pretend like all of us wouldn't wind up on the pyre if people knew we were out there." Kai held up his rosary. "Faith or otherwise, we're just more freaks in the night fighting."

Miles looked up as he listened to Kai, his heart hardened at the words. He shifted his gaze to Garrett and frowned. "You okay? You got shit coming out of your ear."

The car swerved hard as Garrett went unconscious and slumped to the side into his door. Kai screamed and grabbed the wheel, one of his hands pulling the emergency break as they came to a halt on the highway. Kai hit the hazards and screamed in rage. "What the fuck?" He got out quickly, opening the driver door and grabbing Garrett to put him in the back seat, while Miles got in front, adjusted the seat, and moved over to the side of the road.

"Is he dead?" Miles screamed as Kai got into the passenger side.

"I don't fucking know! Just get him home!" Kai yelled and pointed to the road. Miles threw off the break and slammed on the car, peeling out as he accelerated to 90. Kai checked his pulse, his psalm beginning quickly and his hands filling with the warmth of his faith. Kai and Miles were anxiously checking every minute, their eyes darting from the road to his limp body.

***

"Stupid kid." Miles huffed as he looked down at Garrett sitting in his bed. Marching upstairs, he started breakfast for Derrick and the others. In twenty minutes he let out the yell to call for the others, setting out plates on the table.

The cabal gathered and sat at the table, quietly munching breakfast together before Ariana and Derrick got in the car and headed off to his school, leaving Jason and Miles all eating. "Hey Jason you're picking up more orders tomorrow, right?"

Jason fiddled with the silver ring he got as he ascended to the last rank in The Order of Hermes. "Yeah I'm planning on doing it in the afternoon." The group's handler, Vicente, was a shrewd and paranoid man with little friends he could call his own. He was always quick to point out the racist history of The Order of Nine Traditions, his own being a dumping ground for people of color with indigenous practices.

"Sure you don't want company?" Miles offered.

"I'll be okay." Jason nodded to himself as he took off the ring and spun it on the table with a loud clatter.

"Do you think you could come with me today?" Miles asked with loneliness in his voice. "Kai is at work, and Garrett will probably be out for a few hours."

"What do you need?" Jason looked across at him. "Why not ask Ariana when she gets back?"

"I figured you might be able to help me chase a theory. I also heard you might want to see the library of The Chakravanti." Jason's head perked right up and Miles had a big smile. "I'll take that as a yes?"

"Count me in." Jason said, beginning to inhale his food as fast as he could, and taking off running upstairs to get dressed fully.

Miles and Jason got into the large minivan Jason got when he graduated, and the two gently rode into the city. "What's the theory?"

Miles shifted in his seat. "It's gonna sound a little crazy. Just try to suspend disbelief." He saw Jason nod and took a deep breath. "So Garrett found that photo with Derrick supposedly back in 1986, but we don't know why, or how. I'm betting it's not him. I think it's a cousin or something. The Chakravanti keep extensive death records of previous mages, and Derrick got his parents from his Dad. Maybe it's his Dad."

Jason nodded. "That would make a lot more sense. So what, we find out if his Dad is still alive?"

"Well he's never talked about him in the years he's been with us. We don't even know the guy's name, where he lived, what his gifts were, or why he ditched Derrick." Miles opened a bottle of water and set it in the cupholder.

"What if his Dad's just dead?" Jason looked over.

"Mystery solved." Miles looked out the window. "I've also been looking into the possibility of more records from the eighties, and I've been trying to identify the other kids in the photo."

"Why are you so worried about it?" Jason asked.

"Call it an uneasy feeling. I keep having this gut instinct that says to keep digging. It's probably the same feeling Garrett has whenever he uses that program. I think everyone wants to feel like they have a bead on what's going on around them."

When the two reached a large house in the suburbs, an old woman smiled as he stepped out of the car. "Miles!" She cried.

"Hey Grandma." He went forward and hugged her.

"And who is this young man?" She pointed at Derrick, her arms shaking. She looked to be at least in her eighties, a soft yellow shirt moving with the breeze and tipping her sunhat from time to time.

"This is a good friend. His name is Jason, and we work in the same cabal." Miles smiled as Jason came forward and shook her hand.

"Oh a dapper little Hermes follower!" She said with a big smile. "Who's your mentor?" She asked.

"David Galveston." Jason watched as she started to laugh.

"Tell me uh...Jason?" He nodded. "Is he still such an asshole?"

Miles had a shit eating grin and watched as Jason started to clam up. "Take it easy on him, he's only been on his own two years." The woman started to laugh heartily, her silver hair jostling as she did.

"Come in dears. See the library." She led slowly into the house.

"Is she your grandma by blood?" Jason asked quietly.

"Sort of. She's in my family, and she's my mentor's mentor. So I just call her grandma. We've had six people from my family tree join the Chakravanti in the last hundred years." Miles shrugged. "Seems to be a family practice, but if you ask me, Id say we have a bloodline of clumsy or suicidal people."

"Oh." Jason pulled open the door for the old woman who only fussed at him as she went through.

"Take all the time you like." All over her house was bookshelf after bookshelf, and in some places the walls had actually been fitted to make more shelves. Her basement door was open, showing only more to come, and all but her room and a small kitchen were occupied by dusty guests. Jason had a smile like a kid in a candy store.

"Death records?" Miles asked her.

"Basement." She pointed.

Miles headed downstairs, walking slowly between the alphabetized shelves. Sifting by magical order first, he found a large record of each of the members' deaths from the last hundred years. Pulling the tome off the shelf he sat on the floor, and gently moved the pages to the 2000's. "Let's see here. Derrick Parker. Parker?" He made a face at the book. "Interesting last name. Derrick Parker, son of Jesse Parker and Carolyn Brewer." Eyeing the mother's name, Miles put his fingers to the mark next to each of their names. Jesse had the same mark of Derrick, the Akashayana, but his mother held one he didn't commonly see. Setting a bookmark inside the page he flipped back through the book to find Jesse.

"Jesse Parker, born 1979, still living. Gotcha." With a second bookmark in place, he went to the shelves with various orders in place. One by one he looked for the mark that his mother had in the Akashayana book. "True Solifacti." He stared at the shelf. The True Solifacti or Children of Knowledge were originally acid fueled alchemists, they focused on transformation and exploring their own inner mechanisms. "Huh. Let's see." Hunting for the right page, he thumbed through and waited for the right year. "Carolyn Brewer, born 1982, missing since 2006."

Miles got a note card, jotting down all the information he could about Derrick and his parents. Sliding the books back onto the shelves, Miles climbed the stairs and saw Jason pouring through various books on history. "Hey Grandma, I need to track down a couple names."

"Sure dear." Taking a photo of the card, he sent the information to her phone. "I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

"Jason you good to go?" Jason didn't look up, one hand munching an apple as he read.

"He can take the book, just return it." The old woman smiled.

Putting a hand on Jason's shoulder, he finally got him to look and motioned that it was time to go. "We got what we needed. I think I have a lead."

"Oh!" He waved to the old woman who just chuckled as she went back to sweeping the floor.

"You two be good now okay?" She called out to them.

***

"Carolyn Brewer hasn't been seen in over ten years." Miles slapped down the information in front of Jason and Ariana. "Jesse is still alive though, he lives over in Aurora."

"What are you saying?" Ariana asked.

"Maybe we go pay Jesse a visit." Miles took a long drink of coffee.

"And say what exactly? If he ditched Derrick, he doesn't deserve to be in his life." Ariana shook her head. "And if he finds out who we are, we can't guarantee he won't come for us."

"His picture from when he was younger doesn't look anything like the photo from '86." Jason looked it over.

"Don't we owe it to Derrick to find out what happened to his Dad?" Miles asked the table.

"Not if it's gonna hurt him." Ariana kept shaking her head. "I won't do it."