15)

Cassy- At the would be Sanctum Sanctorum

I pulled around to the back alley and up to a old coach house that had been converted into a garage, Kinkade hopped out and strode over to the back door to poke around below a half dead bush before heading back to met me with a dirt encrusted key.

“You get the door, I’ll get Mr. Crispy.”

I brushed the dirt off the key. “Doesn't he worry about someone seeing where he kept this.”

She threw Tarnell over one shoulder again. “He doesn't know about it, one of his other ex’s hid it there and told me in case I ever had to get any of my stuff back and didn't want to deal with any drama.”

I unlocked the back door, opened it a crack to make sure there wasn’t a chain on it and stepped away from the blast of cold air conditioning to return the key back underneath the bush, as Kinkade walked pass she gave me a grin.

After closing the door behind me, I entered a curiously clean kitchen for a single guy, but by the lack of anything at all on the counters I imagined it was largely so clean by being unused.

I caught up with Kinkade as she dumped the body on a somewhat worn antique couch in a large foyer with a grand staircase.

“His wards are probably going off like crazy, let me tell him we’re here before panics.”

Rather then go up the grand staircase like I expected, she simply stood at the bottom step before yelling up the stairs. “Yo, sorcerer unclean, get your ass out of bed. You got guests.”

A nervous voice called back down. “Sally?’

“Yeah”

A frizzy haired man with a wide but fit build wearing a black bath robe appeared on the balcony above the wide entry hall, a large revolver clutched at his side. It looked like a long barrel Smith and Wesson Model 500.

What can I say. Grandpa was a gunsmith. When I told him I was looking for a summer job, he hired me and then my cousin, and gave raises base on who learned the most about guns. My cousin took over as manager at the shop last year, but Colt was kind of born for the job.

“Sally, why are you in my house with a cop.”

How do they always know?

“Got a body we need to get some answer from?” she pointed at the draped form on the couch.

Ramone look at the couch then glared at Kinkade. “Dead people leaves stains, why didn't you put it in the lab.” as he headed over to the top of the stairs.

“I know you don’t like it when people poke around down there without you. Besides I didn't have a key for the basement even if you didn't have the door to it warded seven ways to Sunday.’

He reached the bottom of the stairs and walked up to her as she stood cross armed and grinning. “I noticed that didn't stop you from getting into my house, and I remembered you returning your key.”

He looked a little sad at that.

She patted him on the shoulder. “You said I could come back anytime, just taking you up on it.”

With a frown he turned to the corpse. “I meant if you wanted to talk, not just because you needed a favor.”

Kinkade sighed. “Talking for us was just turning into yelling, asking you a favor means we got to deal with each other without it being about each other, you know?”

He nodded.

Then she pointed over to me, “Besides it’s more of a favor for the MIB agent, you never know when it might help having one of them owe you a favor.’

He turned to me with a calculating look.

Sigh. I should have known. Never trust a witch.

Martin. Explaining his new employees at the Party-Mart

“-and then I took them out back and washed them off before I let them back in the store.’

My aunt nodded as she sipped at her Mutt’s apple juice with the stainless steel straw she had produced from a dimensional pocket, before tossing another strip of bacon flavored Pleading Strips dog treats at Harpo. I had objected to her giving them dog treats, but she claimed it was best for them not to eat “People food.”

That had earned he a sharp look from Tosser, but the nature of the food had been blithely ignored by the rest of the of the tribe as they crashed over and sometimes through the display racks chasing treats as Natalie giggled manically at their antics.

“So any clue what they are?”

She shook her head. “Nope, no one is even sure sure how many Umbral realms there are. New ones are always rising and some of the older or smaller ones seem to get lost.” She shrugged. “Lot of things get called Imps, and these seem to fit the general criteria, so until you come up with a better name, Blue imps will do.“

Tosser seemed to object. “We serve Master.” only to get a unnaturally colored bacon flavored treat tossed at his face. Natalie giggled as he snatched it out of the air, glared at her before sniffing at it and walking over to hand it to Bashful, the female he seemed protective of.

She giggled again. “That you do, snatcher of treats” That got her another glare.

“Master is powerful.”

She set down her drink. “Yes, master is powerful. Which is why the family had such hopes for him. So you can protect master, but you can protect him better when they don’t know you are there.”

They exchanged a long look before Tosser let out a bark and all the imps scattered about the room seeming to disappear into the least lit corners, back behind the products on the shelves and under the counters. Vanishing into the shadows.

As if by magic.

My aunt toddled over on her overly high heeled boots to pass the bag with remaining treats to the spot under the Frozey machine holding one of the trash cans, Tosser’s hand reached out of a area too small for him to hide in to receive it.

“You so lucked out with these little guy, as long as they don’t turn out to want to lay eggs in you or something, I feel much better leaving you down here for now.”

What was that? “I thought you were going to get me out of here.”

She took a look at the Frozey machine. “Why are they labeled just Red and Blue, how are those even flavors.”

“That is not pertinent, we are going to talk about that part about leaving me down here.”

She turned with a smirk, then pointed at the machine with a expectant look.

I would have tried to stare her down, but we had played this game too many times as children. So…

“The company keeps changing the names of the flavors, but they always tastes the same, unidentifiable. Now what do you mean by leaving me down here.”

She crossed her arms and looked away, at first I thought she was just planning on making something up, but she looked angry.

“Someone sent the idiot who shot you. The gun was bespelled with a compulsion, and until I know who did it, you are safer down here.” She waved her hand in a vague gesture. “Barring opposing armies coming at you from both sides”

“How the hell did that happen anyways? Was there some kind of prophecy about a war to be held over a run down party store in a...what happened to the outside?”

I looked out at the dimly lit vast expanse of roughly flat stone heading out into a thin illuminated orange mist.

“Middle of the changing lands, it does that.”

She stares out the window for a moment. “So I need you to call off Otto and his team.”

Imp Otto’s head popped around the corner with a curious look, sniffing at the air in case my aunt had more treats to throw, before varnishing at a soft bark from the Frozey machine.

Ah, right. “I told them to wait until I called. Where are they now.”

“Hiding, kind of, on Khalid’s rooftop.”

“Kind of?”

“Otto waved at me.”

Another bark sounded off to keep store Otto in hiding. Okay, maybe the name was a mistake, but this was going to be fun. I had been waiting for this for eight months.

“Didn't you two date for a while?”

She turned, highly irritated as I carefully kept up a innocent look. “We had dinner one time, I was hungry and I needed to debrief him.”

I tried to look baffled “But he said you always show up when he comes to the precinct.”

Yes! Her fist were clenched now. “Because he won’t leave without talking to me. What the hell is wrong with him?”

I reached out to rest my hand on her shoulder. “Aunt Nat, when a boy likes someone...”

She flipped me off.

“He described you as fun sized.”

She added her other hand for a double one finger salute as she headed for the rest room. Where she shut the door and after a moment started talking to someone, a moment later she opened the door.

Then she called me over to laugh at the gun who shot me.

Who she apparently suspected of poor hygiene.

That savage. As if shooting me wasn’t bad enough.

Donovan- In the rest room of the Party-Mart

The shorty in the mirror stepped away and I could here a distant murmur of voices and a woman’s laughter coming from the other side of the glass.

A woman’s laughter. Never a good sign.

I couldn't make out what they was saying, but it gave me time to finish doing up my pants.

By the time I was done washing my hands, because what I had just gone through had been that bad, not because I was letting another woman boss me around, the little guy with the blue eyes and gray hair was looking back at me. Nice shirt on, silk I think, and he was a lot less angry looking then I would have expected.

“I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

What?

“What?”

“It was a choice you could have made, but whoever did this to you removed your ability to make any other choice. It was not your fault.”

I could hear the woman shout at him, asking what the hell he was doing and that I was a asshole. Good question lady, and watch your mouth. Bitch.

He looked back to me. “She has reasons to be protective of her family, but her real anger is toward whoever compelled you, you are just a stand in for them until she knows who they are.”

That got him a punch in the arm, as he looked over he got another one, he winced but did nothing to stop her. He got out a “Nat..” before hopping back with a grimace from what looked to be a kick at his shin. I could hear angry clomping footsteps heading off.

Yeah, guess she’s unhappy with both of us now. “Thanks for taking some of the heat off me. I would hate to be my uncle right now.”

His lips went thin for moment as he looked down in thought. “Yeah, family can suck.” He looked back up at me. “But from she said about your uncle, I really do not think he would have any reason of his own to send you after me. Anyone in the know could guess what would happen if they went after any member of a my family. But she likes to make examples, so you are still not safe because she likes to hold everyone involved responsible for ruining her day all the way from top to bottom.”

Well shit. “Man, she literally sent me back to hell, and like you said it wasn’t even my fault.”

He shook his head. “Sending someone to eternal damnation is what she would consider a good start. You might be better off right now concentrating on figuring out a way to get on her good side.”

I stared back at him, oh, you going to try to play me. “I’m thinking you might have a suggestion about that, player.”

Good, he got he message and now he’s looking at me like at me like someone in the game instead of a piece to be played.

He nodded in acknowledgment. “She or someone working for her are going to be coming down there again to have a look at the spell work that made the copy of the store, and those ladies of yours may be a problem. Be ready to help make them less of a problem and I might be able to talk he into treating you as someone to be rescued from a bad situation instead of someone to be marked off her list.”

He leaned forward. “Fear her list.”