Chapter 7

Eron rushed out into the backyard with Wytchraven on his heels.

“This is bad,” Eron whispered.

The bloody trail was smeared all over the fence.

A rustle of wings.

Eron spun. Fist raised.

“Wait!” Wytchraven’s raised her hands as she flinched back.

A black crow perched on her shoulder.

“I didn’t hear it coming,” Eron eyed the crow.

“She’s my… friend. I had her keeping an eye on things back at the ranch.”

The crow cawed and nattered in Wytchraven’s ear. She listened.

“Okay then. What’s your crow friend telling you?” Eron shrugged. Magic.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Wytchraven was horrified, “my Dad’s gathered everyone and their headed for the west side of town.”

“Of course they are.” Eron cursed. He tried to calculate how much time they had before people started dying. “Can she tell you how long ago this happened?”

“Not exactly. It’s more like I’m seeing things from her perspective. Doesn’t exactly translate directly to human.”

“Sorry about this,” Eron said.

“What are you doing!” Wytchraven protested as Eron swept her off her feet into a princess-style carry.

“We don’t have enough time to drive if we want to stop the bloodbath and I can’t leave you out in the dark alone when there’s a skinless body, guy, walking around.”

Eron jumped high into the air.

Wytchraven screamed in his ear the entire way.

Fortune favored them this night.

They landed on the freeway ahead of the Harris posse.

Eron jumped down to the street and released Wytchraven, who stumbled and sat down on the asphalt.

“Oh my god! What the fuck! A warning would’ve been nice!”

“I did,” Eron said.

Headlights approached. Engines roared. They weren’t slowing down.

“Not going to stop are they?” Eron rolled his neck and shoulders. “You should probably get of the road. I’ll stop them. One way or another.”

Wytchraven hopped to her feet and ran toward the approaching trucks. She yelled and waved her hands in the air.

“Brave, but kind of dumb,” Eron sighed. He shifted from smash mode to rescue mode. He reached out to grab Wytchraven and get her to safety.

To his surprise the vehicles slowed then stopped.

Armed men jumped out of the lead vehicles and rushed forward to grab Wytchraven.

Eron beat them to it. He pulled her back and placed himself in their way.

“Dammit, London!” Old man Harris hopped out of the lead truck and stomped toward them. “I’ve had enough of your nonsense!”

“Mine? What about yours? What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Going to war? Why?” Wytchraven mirrored the old man’s intensity.

Eron had to forcefully keep her behind him.

Mason pushed his way past the semi-circle of armed men. He grabbed his father and pulled him back before walking up to Eron and Wytchraven.

“Tony came back,” Mason said.

“What?” Wytchraven said.

“Yeah, explain.” Eron didn’t expect that.

“He showed up at the house. All beat up,” Mason let out a long breath, “said that they kidnapped him and roughed him up. He managed to escape.”

Mason didn’t need to specify the they.

“That doesn’t make any sense…” Wytchraven said.

“Definitely not. We were just at Tony’s place. Remember the skinless body in the bathtub? It was gone… with bloody footprints leading out of the house. Something weird is going on here.”

“I’m not calling you a liar, nor will I argue. I can only tell you what I’ve seen and heard with my own eyes and ears,” Mason raised his hands placatingly. “Tony was clear that the people in the west side are planning to take our cattle.”

“Bro, they’re the ones with people going missing,” Eron rolled his eyes.

“I understand and I’m not denying that, but we live in a world of monsters,” Mason said.

“Shit,” Eron muttered. He heard vehicles coming. From the west this time.

The headlights turned the corner and the second armed force arrived.

“I will smash anyone that shoots!” Eron roared.

Everyone around him flinched at the sound and lowered their guns a fraction.

“I’ll talk to them,” Wytchraven said.

“You sure?” Eron wasn’t.

“Yeah, they won’t shoot first.”

Wytchraven raised her hands over her head and approached the new arrivals. She ignored her father’s and brother’s protestations.

“So… Tony showed up huh? Pretty convenient that he suddenly appears and sends you out here hours after we find a body, sans skin, in his bathtub. Aren’t you wondering? If that wasn’t his body, then whose was it?”

Mason frowned.

Eron could see the wheels spinning in his head. He had figured the oldest Harris sibling as being the most reasonable among the men in the family.

“Did he mention it all? Did you even ask?”

“No…”

“Why the hell not?”

“I-I-I don’t know. It didn’t cross my mind,” Mason chewed his lip.

“It’s like you said, man. There are monsters in our world now. You know what else is new? Magic…”

“What’re you saying?”

“Tony is suspicious as fuck,” Eron said. He scanned the armed group. There were a lot of them. “It looks like you brought everyone.”

Mason was staring at nothing. It looked like he was thinking really hard.

“We brought most of our shooters,” Mason said absentmindedly.

A shiver ran up Eron’s back. It surprised him. “Where’s Tony now?” he already knew the answer.

“Back home. He was hurt pretty bad,” Mason said.

“With your mom and little brother, I guess?”

“And two guys to watch the place.” Mason appeared to come to a realization. “Shit!” he turned and rushed to his father’s side.

Eron tried to listen to two sets of frantic conversations at the same time.

Behind Eron, Wytchraven attempted to convince Gabriel to pull his group back.

In front of Eron, Mason tried to get his father to understand his concerns about Tony.

“Yo!” Eron raised his voice. “I honestly think your wife and kid are in serious danger. Now, I can get there pretty quickly, but if I leave then you’ll all just start shooting each other. I can promise punishment for the survivors, but what does that really solve? People will die and… then what?”

“What’re you trying to say?” Old man Harris spat.

“You pull back to the other side of the underpass and give me your word as a man that you won’t start shooting the minute that I’m gone and I’ll go check on your wife and kid.”

“Why should I even believe you?”

“Ultimately it’s a moot point. I’m what you call an ‘outside context problem’ for you guys. There’s nothing you can do to stop me from just breaking all of your guns and trucks… say,” Eron mused, “that would keep you from shooting each other.”

“What about them?” Old man Harris gestured to the other group behind Eron.

“I’m not talking to them. I’m talking to you.”

“Dad, I think we should listen to them. I didn’t notice it at the time, but now that I think about it there was something off with Tony.”

“Because those animals beat the crap out of him!” Old man Harris practically spat in his son’s face. “Probably has a concussion.”

“We don’t have time to argue about this. What does it matter if we hold back for a few minutes? Besides, he’s right. We can’t do anything with him around,” Mason said.

The seconds ticked away.

Eron tried not to care, but he was actually starting to get worried about the Harris mom and toddler.

Old man Harris barked the order without warning. “Pull back to the other side of the freeway. Get some shooters up there. We do not shoot first.”

Mason rushed back to the truck and came back with a flare gun and a handful of flares.

“What’s this?” Eron received the dubious gift.

“Send up one if there’s a problem. Two if it’s clear. We’ll come back you up.”

Eron raised a brow. The offer of backup was dubious at best.

“Please… keep my mom and little brother safe.”

Eron nodded after a moment and jumped up into the dark night sky.

Eron’s landing kicked up cloud of dirt and grass in the enormous front yard.

The equally huge ranch house was well-lit with a mix of lanterns and electric-powered lights inside and torches on the exterior.

He listened closely before making a move. He heard the sounds of a child playing on the second floor and someone bustling about in the kitchen, presumably Mrs. Harris.

“Got to have a meal ready for the returning warband,” Eron spat in disgust. He was already regretting helping them out.

He grew more concerned with every passing second.

He couldn’t detect anyone else in the ranch house or the immediate vicinity. No guards. No Tony. He looked at the dark processing facility in the distance and the large barn nearby. He considered checking those out, but decided to ensure the Harris’ safety first.

So, he climbed the front porch and rang the doorbell.

Predictably, Mrs. Harris refused to open the door when she saw Eron through the peephole.

The newly-replaced door was reinforced steel. It took effort, but Eron forced it open. Regrettably, he damaged the frame to do so.

Mrs. Harris met him with a beefy-looking revolver aimed at his face.

“Relax, I’m here to make sure you and your child are safe.”

The woman pulled back the hammer.

Eron sighed. No one ever relaxed when you told them to.

“Okay… don’t waste your rounds. Tell me where Tony is and then we can both relax.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mrs. Harris said as she backed away toward the stairs.

“Yes, yes,” Eron waved a hand. “I know your kid is playing upstairs. You can go get him. Just point me in Tony’s direction. I know he’s not inside the house. Where’d your two guys take him?”

A momentary look of confusion flashed across Mrs. Harris’ face. She concealed it just as quickly.

Eron felt like the floor had just dropped out below him and he was now slowly falling into a deep abyss.

“Mrs. Harris, I’ve got really good hearing and I only heard two people in here. You in the kitchen and your son upstairs. Was I wrong?”

The woman scowled. Her finger was on the trigger. The gun was steady in her hands.

Eron listened again. There was no difference. He itched to simply walk past Mrs. Harris.

“Tony’s supposed to be in the guest bedroom.”

“And the two guys that are supposed to be guarding the place?”

“Chuck and Gerry? I don’t know… one’s supposed to be watching over Tony and the other’s patrolling around the house.”

“I was just outside and I didn’t see or hear anyone out there.”

Mrs. Harris slowly backed up the stairs while keeping her gun on Eron.

“Oh, c’mon…” Eron followed.

They reached the second level hallway and Mrs. Harris’s eyes widened.

Eron saw the discarded assault rifle next to the empty chair by a closed door.

“Guessing that’s the guest room,” Eron said.

Mrs. Harris nodded. Her face had gone pale.

“Go get your kid.” Eron strode to the door and pushed it open without stopping.

The stench hit him like a punch in the face. Just like back at Tony’s.

The skinless body on the bed looked the same.

“Jesus protect us!” Mrs. Harris whispered from the hallway.

“Your kid!” Eron snapped.

Mrs. Harris’ eyes widened as she turned and ran down the hallway.

Eron kept an eye on the body as he backed away to follow. He wasn’t going to let the damn thing get up without eyes on it.

Mrs. Harris emerged from her toddler’s room with him in her arms.

“Stay in the hallway.” Eron held his breath as he stepped back into the guest room. He watched the body for any hint of movement as he went to the open window and reached out to fire two flares into the sky. This qualified as a problem.

Eron moved back to the doorway so he could keep an eye on the body and the two Harris family members.

“Is that Tony?”

“I don’t know, Mrs. Harris. You tell me.”

“But… I saw him, talked to him. Dressed his wounds. I sat right in that chair,” she pointed to the folding chair next to the bloody bed.

“Magic.”

The toddler mumbled something Eron couldn’t understand. Baby talk.

He was content to wait in silence for the others to show up.

He needed someone else to watch over the mother and son.

And he needed Wytchraven’s magic to point him in the right direction. Because he had no idea what to do next.