Fire Baptized (15 page)

I advanced further down the hallway, straining my ears for any sound, and directed the flames to cover my entire body except my feet. My clothes burned away as I became a walking bonfire. The fire popped and crackled in my ears, but I could still hear the
TV
as I stepped inside my apartment.

“Are you tired of changing your little one’s diapers?” A woman’s voice sounded from the
TV
.

The lights were on in the kitchen, but no one was in there. The odor of death corroded my nostrils. Everything wasn’t going to be okay. Something was dead and lying in my apartment.

The
TV
blared. “Then No Worries diapers are the ones for you—”

I took two more steps, listening for any other noise besides the
TV
. I think I heard bells ringing, but wasn’t sure if it was just part of the commercial.

“Each diaper is carefully spelled with government-approved Earth magic to send your little one’s disasters straight to the toilet—”

My heartbeat pounded in my chest. I headed for the living room.

“Please consult your child’s Witch doctor before using this product. Diapers may cause severe allergies, internal bleeding, and irreversible sex change.”

I passed the door table on my right and turned the corner. The lights in the living room were off. The windows were wide open. Our green curtains swung back and forth.

“No worries, mothers, with No Worries diapers,” the
TV
sang.

My left foot sank into the carpet. I looked down. A puddle of blood formed around my sneakers. I spun my head up, frantically searching the room. I checked my right. My door was closed. I looked to the other side of the living room where MeShack’s door was located.

Something twisted and turned in front of his door. The sound of bells ringing came again. I raised my enflamed hands in the air, shaking with fear and dreading each step.

If it’s the killer, wouldn’t he have jumped out at me?

The object came into view, snatching the last bit of sanity that I’d retained this week.

Gabe’s cut body parts hung in the air by wires, and were arranged in a staircase pattern from small to large as they twirled around his head in the center. It resembled a horrific wind chime. Copper bells were attached to his toes. Each time a breeze rushed by, the bells rang. Gabe’s head was the heart of the wind chime—and was covered in purple.

His vacant eyes focused on me, and something inside my mind snapped. A buzzing droned in my head. The desire to flee, to race away, and crawl into a fetal position rushed me. But I stood there like a statute, stiff and unfeeling.

My bedroom door and MeShack’s were closed. If I found Ben cut into pieces behind one of them, then my mind would split in two. The mere thought of discovering him killed something inside of me.

No.
I would stand out here. I couldn’t move anyway.

Letters were written on the wall behind the wind chime and read, “She is the power in the storm that washes away injustice. The Storm-bringer will protect us and hear our cries in the wind.”

The Palero said the next victim would be offered to Oya. I knew more about Oya then all of the gods. She was MeShack’s god and most Shifters, because she shifted into a water buffalo. I also knew her favorite color was purple, because it was mine too.

Gabe’s head was painted purple. Flies swarmed around it. A few of the flies flew near me and jerked away from the flames.

Then I heard high-pitched yowls that sounded like a cheetah in pain. They rocked the walls and made me shiver.
MeShack.

“La La! Ben!” MeShack yelled from the hallway.

“In here!” I put out the fire until it was nothing but steam rising from my skin.

“I smelled blood and death outside the building.” MeShack sped forward, picking me up in those huge arms. “I thought you were dead, or Ben.”

He stopped, his feline eyes hysterically searching the living room. He spotted Gabe, put me down, and growled. “Ben? Where’s Ben?”

“I couldn’t check,” I whispered.

MeShack lunged for his door, tearing it apart. A yowl and the sound of clothes ripping soared. After a minute, a massive cheetah, half the size of a car, charged out of the room, dived over the couch, burst through my bedroom door, clawing it apart.

I waited. Silence hung in the air for several seconds.

MeShack trotted to me, brushing against my leg.

“Did you see Ben?” I asked.

He shook his furry head no.

An hour later, blood slid over my hands and dripped into the red puddles on the carpet. The stench made me sway as I worked, cutting the wires and releasing Gabe’s body parts, one by one.

“La La, please just talk to me.” MeShack paced.

I’d positioned a four-foot fire wall between us, because he kept trying to stop me. Lifting Gabe’s fingers, I counted each one and dropped them in the large metal tub in front of me. The murky liquid sloshed and splashed against the tub’s walls. An arm floated to the top.

“Just put the fire down,” MeShack pleaded.

“You tried to stop me.”

“Because you’re rearranging a corpse!”

“It’s Gabe,” I said, as the buzzing in my head continued. I hit the side of my face, hoping to stop the noise. Blood sprinkled on my neck and shirt.

“Yes, it’s Gabe,” MeShack muttered. He raised his hands to his head, fisted large lumps of his hair, and then let go. “Fuck. I need to find Ben, but I can’t leave you like this.”

“I’m fine.”

I had a task. Tasks are important. And I had fire. Fire wasn’t like life—it was simple. It lit. It burned. It blew away.

“Where’d I put his feet?” I twisted around, searching the living room. “Oh, there they are.”

I removed them from the couch’s arm. They were small and cold, like ice. I glanced back at the wind chime.
Motherpounder.
I’d barely made a dent in my task. There were so many more pieces to separate from the killer’s craftwork.

“You’re not fine,” MeShack insisted. “You’ve completely lost it, but now you need to get it together so we can find Ben. Then I’ll give you all the time in the world to do . . . whatever you are doing.”

“I have to do it now. It’s the least I can do.” I shook my head over and over as I held Gabe’s feet. Tears fell out of my eyes.

Ben? I can’t think about Ben. No.

MeShack couldn’t find Ben’s scent outside of the apartment or on the stairs. He could only sniff out the killer. So he’d tried to follow the killer’s smell, but the storm had washed his tracks off the streets.

“How long will this take?” MeShack pointed to the tub full of Gabe.

A familiar roar vibrated outside the apartment door. The walls shook. My plants fell off the living room’s bookshelf onto the blood-soaked carpet.

MeShack ripped off his shirt. His skin rippled in preparation to shift.

I held up Gabe’s foot to calm him. “Relax, it’s Zulu.”

“How do you know?” MeShack asked, unbuttoning his jeans and staring at the foot in my hand.

The door exploded into pieces. Wood splintered and busted into jagged bits.

“Lanore!” Zulu stomped through the torn door. Nona flanked his right.

Zulu spotted me, raced my way, and then stopped as he noticed the fire wall. “Lanore?” His eyes went to the foot in my hand. He froze with his mouth open.

“You don’t know how to knock on a door?” MeShack snarled. His sharp claws materialized at his fingertips.

“Your apartment reeks of death.” Zulu kept his eyes on me. “The stench goes all the way outside the building. People were pointing and saying it was from here.”

MeShack stormed his way. “What the fuck does that have to do with you tearing down my door?”

Zulu remained standing. “I thought the killer was still here.”

“How do I know you’re not the killer?” MeShack asked.

A smirk plastered on Zulu’s face. “Because you would’ve been the first victim.”

MeShack lunged with his claws in the air. Zulu snapped his fingers. MeShack’s claws disappeared.

Fuck.

I could see the realization in MeShack’s eyes.

A growl erupted from MeShack’s chest. His jaw elongated. Yellow and black hairs sprouted over his copper skin. Muscles ballooned and shredded his jeans as they ripped away the material. He fell on all fours, transforming into a cheetah.

Zulu lifted his hand, and snapped again, but this time I knew it wouldn’t work.

MeShack wasn’t the typical Shifter. My father had used him as a lab rat, making him stronger. To my dad, it was completely normal to cut and fill a young boy with his blood and set him ablaze. Dad wanted MeShack to protect me when he wasn’t around. So when MeShack was in cheetah form, he was fire baptized.

MeShack snarled. Fire shot from his nostrils as he lunged back, preparing to pounce.

“No more!” I mentally formed balls from my fire wall and flung them at both men.

Zulu ducked the balls.

MeShack hadn’t seen me throwing them. Flames snatched at his back and raced to his paws. He let out a bleating sound of distress, falling on the floor and rolling over and over until the fire disappeared.

“Hey.” I waved Gabe’s feet at both of them. “Don’t fight! I can’t jump in the middle and referee tonight.”

I trudged through the murky carpet and dumped the feet. “I can’t take a dick-measuring contest.”

A popping sound came from where MeShack was located as he shifted back to Human form.

Everybody’s eyes followed me as I gripped the scissors from the end table. “I know MeShack has a big one. And from what I’ve felt, Zulu is big. Both of your dicks are equally big.”

I cut a wire holding a kneecap and snatched it off the wind chime.

The copper bells rang.

“What is that?” Zulu’s voice came out low with a murderous tone as he gazed at the killer’s handiwork.

“It’s my latest gift.” I drew the wire out of the kneecap and deposited it in the tub.

“When did you feel his dick?” MeShack asked.

Ignoring MeShack, I gazed at the wind chime and wiped slime on my jeans. I could swear Gabe’s eyes concentrated on me as I worked.

Silence hung in the room. I went back to my task of cutting wires, removing body parts, and placing them in the tub. I was almost done.

“Me don’t know why she put body over there.” Nona extended her hands out to the sides.

“I’m almost done.” I counted the toes in my hand. All ten were there. I threw them with the rest of Gabe. “There are drinks in the fridge and cookies on the counter.”

“Oatmeal?” Nona asked. “Me smell oatmeal.”

“Yep.”

“Me love oatmeal.” Nona marched to the kitchen.

“Why is Lanore like this?” Zulu asked MeShack, perhaps establishing a temporary truce.

“I don’t know,” MeShack whispered, as if I couldn’t hear him. “She’s been doing this since I told her I couldn’t find Ben.”

“Ben is at my shop.” Zulu shrugged. “That’s why I rushed over here.”

I dropped Gabe’s elbows. My legs buckled under me as I fell to my knees. The carpet was warm, wet, and reeked of decay, but I didn’t mind. Relief swam into every pore of my body.

“One of you did it!” I raised my hands in the air and lifted my head to the gods. “I asked you to keep him safe, and you did!”

“Who is she talking to?” Zulu asked.

I wiped the tears from my face.

“Ben has been with you the whole time?” MeShack’s eyes opened wide. “When were you going to tell us this?”

“MeShack, light those candles that you always pray to, so we can thank whoever did this.” I pointed to him, grinning. Blood dripped from my finger. I lowered my fire wall until it was only two feet.

MeShack ignored me and stalked over to Zulu. “I’m going to remain calm because La La has clearly snapped, and if I kill you she’ll be pissed—”

“I would be more than pissed. I wouldn’t survive Zulu’s death or yours.” I stood up. “No fighting. And thank the gods that Ben is safe.”

Zulu glanced at me. Worry covered his face.

“When did Ben come to you?” MeShack asked.

“He ran to the shop with my card. He said that someone knocked at the door. Gabe looked through the peephole and got scared.” Zulu stepped toward my fire wall. “Gabe picked Ben up, put him on the fire escape, gave him the
MFE
card, and told him to just ask the card to lead him there.”

MeShack scrunched his face up in confusion. “Why did he have to ask the card?”

“The card is spelled. It guides you to the shop,” I explained to MeShack as I slung Gabe’s leg over my shoulder and hauled it to the tub. “There’s Fairy glamour all over The Inked Guerilla. You can’t get to the shop unless you have a card. If you don’t, then all you’ll see is a brick wall with graffiti.”

“Did Ben say if he saw who was at the door?” MeShack crossed his arms around his bare chest.

In that moment, I realized he was nude.

“Gabe gave Ben a message that said,
Rocks is her
e.”

“Rocks?” I asked.

“Yes.” Zulu headed toward me. “Could I help you with what you’re doing?”

“I don’t trust you, Zulu.” MeShack stepped in front of him. “I think it’s too much of a coincidence that Ben went to you—”

“MeShack, stop,” I said. “I gave Gabe the card to give to Ben, just in case there was an emergency.”

“What are you?” MeShack remained where he was standing, staring at Zulu. “How could you control my claws?”

“How can you create fire?” Zulu walked around him.

Crunching came from the living room entrance. We all turned to see Nona carrying a large bag of oatmeal cookies in her left arm and ramming several in her mouth with her right hand. Crumbs fell from her mouth onto the floor.

“What?” Nona shrugged her shoulders. “Me love cookies.”

“Lanore.” Zulu stood an inch from my fire wall as I flung Gabe’s ears into the pile. “I would love to help you. Can you tell me what you’re doing?”

“I’m sending Gabe to the Fairy realm. I’m going to put his body together and then set him on fire.”

“But, Lanore, he should already be in the realm,” Zulu said.

I raised the fire wall back to four feet.
He doesn’t get it, either.

Zulu held his mouth open for a few seconds and sighed. “Can you put the fire down, so that I can help you? I promise.”

I told the fire to leave, and it disappeared.

Mumbling a curse under his breath, Zulu walked over to the wind chime, cut a wire, removed a thigh, and plopped it into the tub. Slime oozed down Zulu’s hands. The muscles in his jaw twitched. He headed back over and repeated the actions.

Minutes passed. We’d almost finished, only Gabe’s head remained.

I stood back, gazing at the head.

This was the end for Gabe. His sister and he had hustled and blackmailed men. I wondered what happened in their childhoods to push them to that life.
Where were their parents or family?

Zulu glanced over his shoulder at me, noticed my hesitancy, and said, “I’ll take care of his head.”

I nodded as he cut it down and carried it to the pile.

MeShack grumbled behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder.

“You lied, La La.” MeShack grabbed his box off the door table and took a joint out. “You said Zulu wasn’t interested in you.”

I groaned. “No. I said we’re not dating.”

In the hope of ending this line of conversation in front of Zulu, I delivered fire to the tip of MeShack’s joint.

Just smoke and shut up.

“Thank you.” MeShack blew out circles. “He’s in love with you.”

My heart stopped beating. I faced Zulu. He gazed at me, and I avoided his eyes.

An uncomfortable silence prevailed. Except for Nona’s chomping, everybody remained quiet.

After a minute, I figured it was best to finish my task. Deal with everything else later. I raised my hands in the air, summoning flames and directing them to Gabe’s body. Fire filled the tub. Blood boiled, emitting a soupy aroma. The body parts sizzled, as the edges of the tub bent inward.

“Go home, Gabe,” I whispered. “I’m sorry I put you in danger.”

We all watched the bonfire, until it lowered to smoldering flames.

“Nona, if you’re done snacking, me need you to take this outside?” Zulu asked.

Nona strolled over, munching. She picked up the big tub with one hand. It had to be hot, but she didn’t flinch as she carried it out of the apartment.

Zulu focused his dark blue and gold eyes on me. “We should talk about your safety. This is the second body found here and the third time the killer has left you something—”

“I don’t trust you.” MeShack inhaled the joint and then motioned for me to take it.

“This isn’t the time to smoke,” I insisted.

“We’ve been sitting around a corpse wind chime for almost two hours.” He snorted. “If there was ever a time to smoke, it is now.”