Heaven can Wait Page 6

  There was a pause. I stayed quiet to give him time to compose himself before he went on. If I pushed him I could break him and then he would be back with the chattering voices of the mad dead.

  “They-“

  He might have continued speaking but his voice was drowned out by a roar of anger that hit me in the centre of my chest. I had no physical body to feel the impact, but there was no physical aspect to the force that ‘hit’ me either. That shouldn’t have happened. It had never happened before. Then again before tonight I had never conversed with a dead demon. This was quite a night for firsts.

  I pulled myself together and straightened up. Usually I never felt anything when I was in my astral form. I hadn’t thought that it was possible for a spirit to feel anything. Did the dead feel? Now wasn’t the time to ask.

  “You really thought that because I am no longer among the living that all my power died when I did? You are wrong girl. Your wings have been clipped and you are nothing to me.”

  Again the force hit me. Stronger this time it knocked me on my astral backside.

  “If you do not want me to do worse than knock you on your astral ass you would do well to get yourself away from this place. And take that mongrel bitch with you!” The demon spat it’s words with such venom that I cringed. I felt the words as a minor shade of the pulses of anger that had hurt me before.

  My instinct was to jump back in my body and run with Selene as far from this place and it’s accursed ghost as I could. But something made me hesitate.

  “Still so eager to have me leave?”

  “Don’t test my patience.”

  I shrugged. I figured that was what Selene would have done in the face of such threats. If I was going to put on a show of confidence that I didn’t really feel, acting like Selene was the best way I could think of.

  “Seems to me that you could do with some practice learning patience. You’re going to be dead for a good long while.”

  Antagonising demons wasn’t the best way to assure your longevity. I could only hope it was different when they were already dead. I braced myself. Sure enough;

  “Bitch. How dare you?!”

  This time I was ready. I had closed down my empathic abilities. The burst of concentrated rage staggered me but did not take me down. I firmed up my resolve and shut my abilities down further. The next wave washed over me and my astral form didn’t even wobble.

  “That’s how I dare,” I retorted buoyed up by my success. I still wanted to run away and cower in a corner, if my guess had been wrong . . . But it hadn’t been and I wouldn’t go off and hide after a success like that. So; “Now why don’t you shut your dead mouth and keep your dead ass out of this.”

  My defiant statement brought a cheer, albeit a subdued one, from the demon’s dead victims. There was one voice of dissent and it wasn’t one of the dead demon’s minions.

  “You claimed that we are avenged. You claim that you want to know who did this to us. You want information so that you can bring justice to those that put us here.

  How can I trust that that is so when the reason I am here, why I was tortured and killed by this monstrous thing, walked in here with you?”

  CHAPTER SIX

  The voice was a woman’s but deep and husky, as though in life it had been deepened by cigarettes and alcohol.

  “I walked in with . . . What?” I was struggling to deal with the implications of what the dead woman had said.

  “Don’t play dumb.” That from the demon again.

  “Your friend sent me and my friend here knowing full well what would happen to us.” The husky woman said. “What I suffered was down to her as much as that gross thing.”

  I regarded Selene, still impatiently standing there oblivious to the activities taking place on a different plane around her.

  I shook my head not wanting to believe, “No, Selene can be unforgiving, harsh, cruel even but she wouldn’t knowingly endanger innocents.”

  “Do you really believe that?” the husky woman asked. “Let me tell you what happened and then we’ll see what you believe.

  That woman you came in with first approached me and my friend in Haver’s bar. We were there preparing for the night’s work when she approached us with what seemed to be a fantastic offer. She said there were going to be a couple of guys coming in and she wanted us to get them to procure our services. She gave us a basic description, just that they would be in suits and well groomed, that was enough because Haver’s usual clientele were never up to that much. She offered us enough cash that we wouldn’t have to turn tricks for the rest of the night.

  “It wasn’t nearly enough for what was in store for us. What she knew was in store for us. We were nothing but bait, a lure so that she could find this place.”

  I realised that I was standing there shaking my astral head in disbelief.

  “She wasn’t in any particular hurry to get us out of the mess that she put us in. They tortured me for hours before they were finally through. I was long dead when she decided to put in an appearance. So why don’t you just take your false promises of vengeance and your murdering friend and piss off!”

  The dead woman’s speech was over. Venting the pent up anger seemed to take a lot out of her.

  “I’m sorry.”

  The woman gave no answer other than a quiet sobbing and tears that would never be shed.

  “Your false platitudes mean nothing, girl. Now there truly is nothing more that you can learn here,” the demon said. “Unless you want me to give you all the details of what we did to her and the others before we killed them. Oh, I had some fun with her, oh yes. Ha ha ha ha ha.”

  It was still eager for me to leave. With all of the fight and bravado drained out of me, I couldn’t disagree. I didn’t want to be here anymore. I opened my mouth to speak, realised there was nothing I had to say and closed it again. Could Selene really have used those women like that? There was only one way to find out. And I could put myself out of reach of the demons sick laughter and the dead woman’s sobs at the same time.

  It was just as simple a matter to put my spirit back in my body as it was to draw it out. A simple matter for me at least. Presumably anyone with the talent for astral projection in the first place would find it so. Or maybe not, there were plenty of cases of unexplained deaths that shouldn’t have happened or there were no scientific or medical reason for the death. Could some of those have been caused by people removing their souls from their bodies and not being able to get them back? I shivered, something I should probably think about but where I didn’t want to dwell. Besides I wasn’t human so whatever I discovered may not apply, I wasn’t going to call up Halberd to ask the elders for me. What I did was instinctive more than anything else, I didn’t want to think about what the consequences of an over-analysis of my talents could mean. My eyes locked on Selene still standing there, besides, I had more pressing things to think about.

  I jerked into a sitting position with a sudden breathe of musty air. My eyes weren’t open fast enough to tell if Selene had been startled by the sudden activity. Probably not.

  I took a couple more breaths. I ignored the hand that Selene offered and got myself up off the ground.

  “So, did it work?”

  I bent to retrieve the blanket, shook the worst of the ash off the underside, causing little rippling waves in the ash that was still on the warehouse floor in the process, and proceeded to put the cartoon covered blanket back in a roll.

  I hadn’t responded to Selene’s query and hadn’t made eye contact since returning from my astral projection. Now I did. Now I turned and brought my gaze up to the bounty hunter’s unnaturally blue eyes. I had wondered if Selene would notice the change in the way I looked at her. Apparently she wasn’t that observant.

  “Hello,” Selene raised her thin eyebrows as she asked me again, “Did you learn anything productive from your chat with those dead people, or what?”

  “I’d say so,” I answered. My voice chilled the air in th
e warehouse.

  Now, finally, Selene noticed that something had changed. “What’s up?”

  I opened my mouth, closed it again and walked out of the warehouse.

  It was a clear night. Stars speckled the sky, visible out here where deeper into the city the lights of civilisation drowned them out. A light breeze brushed over the exposed skin of my arms lifting goose-bumps where it touched.

  Selene followed me out of the warehouse still carrying my jacket. I knew that one of my faults could be my stubbornness, but when I was in a mood I didn’t care. I was definitely in a mood right now.

  I didn’t ask for my jacket back. Instead I marched across the empty car park to my car. I unlocked the door and plonked myself in the driver’s seat. I put my key in the ignition but didn’t start the engine.

  Selene rattled the handle on the passenger side. I hesitated and half-surprised myself by leaning across to unlock it for her.

  “How could you do it?”

  I asked the question while Selene was only halfway into her seat.

  “Do what?” Selene said thrusting my jacket at me.

  I tossed the garment onto the backseat, cluttered with all sorts of paraphernalia as usual, without looking. Selene pulled her door closed. I had my hands gripping the steering wheel.

  “I spoke to a woman in there. She said you used her and her friend as bait,” I had my eyes hard and locked on the bounty hunter. My voice was thick with emotion. I promised myself I wasn’t going to spoil my tirade by crying but recognised it would be difficult.

  “How could you do something like that? You sent that woman to her death.”

  Selene didn’t have the grace to look embarrassed; she just sat there looking back at me. She said nothing, not even bothering to say anything in her own defence.

  “You sent them to die! How could you give another human being over to the monsters?”

  I narrowed my eyes. This was going to be below the belt but I said it anyway, “But then again you aren’t really any more human than I am. Maybe you don’t always mind when the monsters get to have a bit of fun.”

  Selene’s eyes flashed. I regretted the words as soon as I spoke but I couldn’t take them back.

  Selene glared at me and I was looking into eyes that held death.

  “Don’t ever associate me with them again.”

  I shivered but I was too stubborn to let it go, despite that I was now as afraid of Selene as anything else we had faced together.

  “Fine,” I said brusquely. “But you got that woman killed.”

  Selene’s eyes were still dangerous. “I did what I needed to do to locate the demon’s lair.”

  There was still no hint of an apology.

  I didn’t know what to make of this. Selene had never shielded me from her ruthless side. She showed no mercy when she executed the creatures with which she dealt, but to intentionally cause harm to an innocent . . .

  I shook my head. “You don’t believe you did anything wrong.” I made it a statement.

  Selene’s gaze had lost some of it’s venom but there was still that air of violence that was only barely being held in check about her.

  “You’ve seen a lot, but you haven’t seen enough obviously. When you deal with the things that I do on a daily basis you learn that the results always justify the means.”

  “How can you live like that?” I was really having trouble dealing with this one. I wanted to let it go, at least for the time being, but just didn’t seem to be able to.

  “It’s this attitude that keeps me alive.”

  “That’s no way to live.”

  Selene disagreed, “It’s the only way to live and ensure that you keep on living.”

  I shook my head, finally taking my hands off the wheel long enough to start the car. I looked back over my shoulder while I reversed the car around. Returning my eyes forward I headed for home.

  “So did you learn anything interesting?” Selene asked after a few minutes.

  I was grateful for the need to keep my eyes on the road. There was literally no traffic on the streets close by the Zone at this hour but I had to concentrate on keeping the car on the dark road.

  “I learned that I can speak with dead demons, that’s pretty interesting.” I was surprised I could show humour, pretty feeble but humour nonetheless, when I was feeling so angry and, what? Betrayed?

  Selene might have got the impression my mood had lifted a little, or maybe not. Apart from the bout of anger the way she spoke to me never really altered.

  “You thought you couldn’t?”

  “I thought I needed to connect with some part of the deceased’s soul in order to talk with them,” I explained. “Seeing as demons are soulless creatures I just figured . . .”

  I realised who and what I was sitting next to. I knew demons had no souls, but what about semi-demons?

  “Damn, I’m sorry.” First humour now feeling apologetic? I could have sworn I used to be better at holding a mood. Was I starting to go soft, or softer anyway? Maybe so, compared to the woman sitting next to me Genghis Kahn would have been considered a care bear.

  Selene shrugged. “Just tell me what you got.”

  I did and by the time I was finished I had pulled the car up to the side of the road outside my apartment building. We sat there for a moment with the engine idling before I shut it off.

  “Delco, Diablo and Caine,” Selene mused.

  I realised that the bounty hunter had recognised some significance in the law firm’s involvement that I had missed.

  “You know something?”

  Selene looked at me sideways. “I don’t know anything.”

  I wasn’t going to give up that easily, not after going through all that. I still wasn’t comfortable with my new view of Selene.

  “You suspect then.”

  Selene had her hand on the inside handle and was about to open the door. “Thanks for your help.”

  “You can’t leave me guessing like this. Come on, tell me what’s going on.”

  Selene shook her head as she got out of the car. Even though her weight was hardly considerable the car bobbed on it’s suspension when she left it.

  “Selene,” I called, leaning across to look out of the passenger door. I was talking to myself. Selene was gone.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  My real name is Celestiluma, or light of heaven in my native tongue, my given name is Faith Jones. It is this more mundane, humanly acceptable, name that was printed on the laminated ID I had dangling around my neck. The length of cord that I had the ID attached to made the badge hang right between my breasts. The cop that was ostensibly checking my ID at that very moment was taking his sweet time about it. He couldn’t be checking to see that the picture on the badge, the usual bad reproduction that seemed to be the only thing those passport booths were able of producing, matched my face because his eyes hadn’t travelled that far up my body yet. Fair enough I am tall for a woman, not a giant by any means but a good few centimetres above the average, but if I had been a man he wouldn’t have taken this long.

  I forced a small cough, regretting that the motion made my breasts tremble slightly under my blouse giving the lecherous young cop something slightly more titillating to look at. At least the cop got the point and finally brought his gaze up to look me in the eye.

  "Ms Jones, you are expected," the cop said, his eyes finally studying my face like they had been studying my other assets less politely. "Detective Braun is waiting for you inside."

  I work as a sort of part-time police consultant. When I'm not doing that I'm reading up on supernatural species and mythology, I would have liked to have studied it formally as a degree or something but my background closed the doors firmly on that idea.

  The cop, he had never introduced himself to me and the only thing to identify him as different from the dozen or so other uniformed officers milling around the scene was his number, 068. Cop number 068 moved himself aside and lifted the yellow and black crime scene tape th
at was strung across the doorway. It must be bad if they put the tape up and had a man watching the access when the scene was still active.

  Even if I had been an average-sized or smaller woman I would have had to duck low to get under the tape, even with cop 068 holding it up in the middle for me. The knee length skirt I was wearing didn’t help matters, nor did the heels on my shoes. Whenever I went out in public I tried to present myself as well as I could, I was probably not too different from most mortal women in that respect. I put special effort into making myself look professional whenever I was called in to consult with the police. I tried to make sure I looked like I was taking this seriously and putting in all my effort. It was hard enough for me and others like me to get any sort of acceptance from the mortals around us, to be able to offer advice and have a chance that that advice would be listened too and evaluated as if it had come from someone like them I had to make a special effort. It didn't always help but I kept making the effort anyway. One thing I didn’t need was make-up. My complexion was flawless and my lips always a naturally vibrant red, maybe on nights out I could have done with something to accentuate my eyes, but then again I didn’t get to do nights out so it had never posed a problem.

  I could feel cop 068’s eyes on my backside as my skirt rode up my thighs. I straightened up on the other side of the tape and didn’t look back. I smoothed my hands to slide the grey shirt back into its proper place. It was too hot for stockings or anything like that so my legs were smooth and bare. My legs were long and shapely, if a little pale compared to the bronze tan most women were already sporting despite it only just being the start of summer. The tanning salons and fake tan companies had been raking it in it seemed. I made sure my blouse was still tucked into the skirt and smoothed the pale garment down as much as I was able. My ample chest meant I had the choice of tucking the blouse down firmly which would keep it smooth but leave it stretched tight across my chest and would draw more the just 068’s attention, or leaving it slightly loose. I chose to leave it that little bit loose. The thing about crime scenes is that they are full of cops and the thing about cops is that most of them are still male, no judgement that is just a fact. Because most crime scenes are filled with men, and men would notice things like a tight blouse and wouldn’t be inclined to be thinking the most respectful sights with that in mind, again no judgement just another fact, I really had no choice.