Fallen Stars (The Demon Accords) (2 page)

“Like, that is it?” I asked before looking back up at Stacia’s glare.  “Oops, sorry.  Go ahead, Stace.”

“Any
way
, Brock sends his regards and hopes we can be of assistance,” she said to Ned.  His expression was curious, neutral, and slightly tired.

“Welcome, Stacia and Chris.  And who is this who comes to us in four-footed form?” he asked, a rebuke crouching somewhere in his words.

“This is Awasos, who only has four-footed forms,” I said evenly, understanding that weres don’t like to draw attention to their world by doing things like appearing in wolf form.

“What?  What the hell does that mean?” said a lean six-footer standing just behind Granger and to his right.  Granger was frowning, the hidden rebuke now fully visible on his face.

“Ah, he means that Awasos isn’t like us,” Stacia said.  “He doesn’t have a person form.”

“I don’t do word puzzles, Mr. Gordon, Miss Reynolds. I simply don’t have any patience left for them,” Granger said, flicking his right index finger once.

The giant took two steps forward and grabbed me by the neck with both hands and lifted me straight off the ground.  I weigh over two hundred pounds, but he didn’t seem to be straining at all.  Stacia looked at me wide-eyed as I struggled to control Grim. Multiple death sequences were offered for my approval before giant-man foot had completed the first step.  They ranged from crushing his skull to decapitation and arm removal.  I vetoed all of them.  Grim offered a non-death resulting version.  I agreed.  He executed it.

I suppose I was intended to squirm and holler, generally showing my helplessness.  Instead, I went still as Grim turned my head to stare at Granger, the Alpha, even as his minion showed strain on his huge face and now trembling arms.  Slowly, inexorably, his arms were pulled down, as if my weight had doubled, tripled, quadrupled in seconds.  As if some unimaginable force was Pulling me down.  Something, like, say, vampire energy techniques.

My feet touched ground and I grabbed his wrists, breaking his grip on my throat.  Both my arms shot forward and slammed his steamer-trunk-sized chest.  The big fella flew nicely, sailing over the pool tables and slamming into the wall in a very satisfying manner, crunching the sheetrock.

Next, Grim grabbed Stacia by the hips, picked her up, and put her behind us.  The maneuver was fast but not full speed.  Still, the pack looked shocked.  Stacia sighed and walked back about twenty feet to sit on a table.

“What are you doing?” I asked, frowning.

“This is a new shirt.  I don’t want it spattered with blood,” she said, starting to text on her phone.

The band had stopped playing when I threw the goliath.  Now the entire bar watched as I held my conversation with Stacia.  The wolves had started to move forward but stopped, puzzled, as I held up one hand but otherwise ignored them.

“Yeah, I get the new shirt thing, but you’re still too close.  You need another fifteen or twenty feet to avoid blood sprays.  Trust me. I know.”

“I’m good,” she said, not looking up this time.  I sighed and turned back to the Pack. 

“I tried to tell her, so it won’t be my fault, right?” I asked the growling group.

Before any of them could answer, the shorter female werewolf walked past me and slapped a very startled Ned Granger.  She was a were, so the slap had real power.  It almost knocked him out.

I stood, frozen, as did all the others, watching the confrontation.  Granger was shocked and uncertain, never a good look for an Alpha.  She swung her hand back to strike again. 

“Rose, stop!” he said, grabbing her hand.

She yanked free, still spitting mad.

“You swore you would get help for our girls.  You
swore,
Ned!” she shouted loud enough to echo across the bar.

“Afina told me that this man –" she pointed at me, “—could save our babies!  And you
attack him
?  I will, so help me God, leave your useless ass if you fail our children, Ned Granger!”

“Rose, I was just trying to get answers for him bringing a were in fur,” he said, on the defensive.

“The Malleks told us he was unusual…remember?  They said he would have a different kind of companion and that he was insanely dangerous!  And you had to play games with
him
?”

“Rose..” he began, but she spun away from him and approached me.

“Mr. Gordon, please help us—please help me?  My babies are taken…in the hands of something evil and we can’t do anything to stop it,” she pleaded, grabbing my shoulder lightly, ignoring everyone around us.

“That’s why we came, ma’am,” I said.   If she was facing a demon problem involving children, I wasn’t going to abandon her. I was suddenly faced with the memory of a teenage girl slipping away from life, bleeding out in my arms.  Her killer was equally dead, but I still ranked it as one of the worst failures of my life.

But my less-than-warm welcome had pissed me off.

“It’s the stupid posturing of an Alpha who can’t protect his own children,” she said.  Behind her, Granger’s face was a painful mix of anger and anguish, but he said nothing.

I took a step back, studying the small, distraught woman in front of me.  A bit over five feet tall, she was pleasant looking but not eye-catching like the redhead who was with her.  And certainly nothing like Stacia, but she had a presence, a force of personality that I could literally feel.

I looked at Granger, who, despite the anger, looked more worried than I had ever seen an Alpha look.  The others were also all worried and even scared.  The hostility they had exhibited when we first walked up had been a mask for their other concerns.

“What did you mean when you said your
babies
?” I asked.

“We have twins, girls, Polly and Cassi.  They’re both in trouble, as is another child of the pack.”

The band decided the drama was over, so it started playing a song about a "Red Solo Cup".

“You’ve got
three
children possessed?” I asked, whispering the last word.

“Is everything okay here?” a voice asked from behind me.  Two individuals were standing even with Stacia but looking at the rest of us. A male and female who wore jeans and casual Polo shirts but looked completely official despite the clothes, as in federal type official.  The male was about six-two, dark-skinned, and muscular.  The female was Asian and equally fit. 

“Yes, Agent Krupp, we’re fine,” Rose said, her voice firm as she spoke to the woman.

Behind the two agents, I could see a group of similarly attired federal types approaching a table next to the bar.  They were all watching us carefully even as they took seats.

“Are you sure?  It seemed like there was a…disagreement brewing,” Agent Krupp noted.  Her big companion said nothing, but he seemed very curious about me.  Stacia, who looked up briefly from her texting, flexed one tanned leg in front of her like she was stretching a muscle. 

To his credit, the male agent didn’t glance her way, but the struggle was evident in his eyes.

“No. Mr. Gordon is considering doing some consulting for us,” Rose said.

“And just what do you consult in, Mr. Gordon?” Krupp asked me.  She was an intense personality, with frighteningly intelligent eyes, watching everything at once.

“Ah, spiritual stuff,” I fumbled.

“He’s psychic,” Stacia offered from the side.  I gave her a look, and she shrugged and went back to texting.

“Psychic?  So you’re here to solve the murders for us?” Agent Krupp asked, bemused, with one eyebrow raised.

Murders?  I went still for a moment, thinking it through.  When Stacia had originally told me about this job, she had mentioned both demons and murders.  We didn’t have any other details, which was what the meeting tonight was supposed to provide.  All I knew now was that there were three possessed children.

The group of feds at the bar were talking quietly and the band chose that moment to take a break, which let me listen in with my enhanced ears. 

“- who
are
those two that the Steel Flower and Dison are questioning?” one of the two males asked.

“I don’t have a clue, but
I’d
like to be the one questioning
him
!” the blonde female said.

“Okay, deal!  I’ll take the blonde and you take the muscle dude and Connor here gets the dog.”

“Seriously, I thought we were here to keep an eye on the splinter group?” the other dude, who was most likely Connor, said.

“You mean what’s left of them.  I see Simon. He’s just to the right of Granger.  And the redhead is over by Mrs. Granger.”

“She’s not in danger. The unsub never killed any of the females in the splinter group, but I see one other just behind the hulk there.”

I glanced back at the were pack and spent a few precious seconds noting body language.  Now that I studied it closer, the group looked like two groups thrown together, neither fully meshing with the other.  The tall guy near the Alpha who had been so pissy about Awasos might be Simon.  The redhead the feds mentioned had to be the hottie standing with Rose Granger, and there was a real young looking guy, almost hidden behind the goliath.

I glanced over at Stacia and noted the screen of her smart phone was pointed in my direction, deliberately.  Impossible for a regular human to read, but I could easily make out the text message written on it, as she intended. The contact name at the top of the screen was Big Momma, which was her nickname for Afina.

‘New pack joined Asheville Pack a month ago.  Members of that pack have been murdered one at a time starting in Kentucky where they are from.  Murders were in public place and crossed state boundaries so FBI is on case.’

“I’m not here for your case, Agent Krupp.  Mrs. Granger has some issues with her home—you know—feng shui and all that,” I said.  “But I’m glad to know that the Bureau has assigned one of its Behavioral Analysis Units to the job.”

Her eyebrows lifted slightly at my guess, but she didn’t contradict me.

“Agent Krupp, as my wife indicated, there is absolutely no conflict here.  We are delighted to have Mr. Gordon and his companions here in our establishment,” Ned said.

Their bar?  Interesting.

At the word
companions
, Agent Krupp glanced at Stacia and then looked down at Awasos.  Well, not down so much as sideways, as his head wasn’t much lower than hers in his sitting position.

“It’s illegal to have animals in a dining establishment, Mr. Gordon.  In addition, he appears to be a wolf.  You do have the proper permit to own such an animal, don’t you?” she asked.

“Wow, things must be slow if the Bureau is sending a Behavioral Analysis Unit out to check dog tags,” I commented as I pulled out my wallet and the set of tags I keep tucked in it.

Agent Krupp frowned at the dog tags in my hand, then reached over and pushed my open wallet down so she could glance at
my
license.  It was just a fast glimpse, but she seemed the kind of agent who memorizes details at a glance.  Great!

Finished with me, she then turned her attention to the tall, lanky Simon.

“Mr. Masten, Agent Dison and I have a few more questions for you,” she said, redirecting her attention to the others.  I stepped back out of the way, clearing the way for the two agents to get to Simon.  I was more than happy to have her attention on him.  The less the government and I interacted, the better. Unfortunately, Special Agent Krupp didn’t seem the type to be diverted once her curiosity was aroused.  And her sideways glance at me as she moved past indicated that she was still very curious about me.

“So Mr. Gordon, will you come look at my problem tonight?” Rose Granger asked me, trying to be nonchalant but not quite able to cover the desperate tone in her voice.  Agent Dison glanced at her, frowning.

“Sure, Mrs. Granger.  We’ll follow you.”

Chapter 3

The Granger house was a massive, stacked-stone mansion on the outskirts of Asheville, tucked at the end of a cul-de-sac.  The property appeared to occupy a multi-acre parcel that backed up to a thick forest. 

“Nice digs!” I noted as we got out of the car.

Stacia, who grew up in a fairly low-income family, tried not to be impressed.

“Most weres live over two hundred years.  Plenty of time to accumulate money.  I would be worried if it wasn’t a McMansion.  And the whole Pack contributes to the Pack headquarters,” Stacia said.

Ned Granger got out of his Escalade and looked pointedly at our vehicle.

“Nice Volvo,” he said dryly.

“Well, it doesn’t stand out like some people's rides, but that’s what we want.  It’s also big enough for him,” I said, flicking a thumb at the furry beast beside me.

“Well, it probably beats my gas mileage,” he said begrudgingly.

“Yeah it’s not bad,” I said.

Rose and Stacia were both looking at us with disbelief.  Guys and cars, what can we say?

Mrs. Granger led the way into the main foyer, moving past a number of weres who stood around with worried expressions.

I immediately felt a wave of darkness roll over my senses.  Something truly evil occupied the house.  Stopping in place, I did a slow circle with my eyes closed, getting the lay of the land, so to speak.