Good Intentions 3: Personal Demons (34 page)

Alex shrugged. No sense arguing about it. “If something does happen, though—I mean, this is a warzone, right? What if—?”

“If something happens, hide or flee or both,” said Abdul. “Do not get involved.”

“Seriously? Even if it’s to help that driver?”

“Do not help,” Abdul cut him off. “Do not try to come to anyone’s rescue. You do not understand this conflict. You do not belong here. No one needs your American white savior complex bullshit.”

The younger man’s eyes went wide. “My what?”

“I have seen the Internet. I have read Tumblr. I
know
what you would do,” said Abdul with a solemn arch of his eyebrows. The angel pointed a finger at Alex and warned, “Stay in your lane.”

Stunned, Alex looked to Rachel, who only shrugged. “Okay he’s maybe kinda jumped up his own ass, but he’s not on the wrong side of the issue.”

“Wow.” Alex blinked. “Kinda like Tumblr.”

“Mortals here have problems of their own,” explained Farizah. “They do not need the kind of danger that haunts you to compound their woes.”

His shoulders sank. The distant sound of jet engines far overhead broke the silence. “Okay. Anything else?”

“No. You should get moving,” said Farizah. “It is dangerous here.”

As if on cue, a loud boom and an orange flash shook the night. Alex dove to the ground. The angels merely stood and watched. Not far away, the flaming wreckage of the Toyota fell back to the ground amid debris and smoke.

“Patrols will be on their way,” warned Farizah. “We will watch for you. Hurry.”

Rachel took his hand. “See? Told you I’d find a way over the border.”

“I’m betting we won’t have to share the rooftop with anyone on a day like this,” said Molly in the elevator. “It probably goes to waste all through the winter.”

“Will it be a problem if we run into anyone?” asked Taylor. “Are you going to do any, um…flashy stuff?” She held a plain brown grocery bag with both hands. “Sorry. I don’t even know what to ask. Drew warned me not to challenge you, so I’m not doing that,” she joked.

Molly grinned. “I was gonna strip topless and run around in circles. Do you think that’s against the condo association rules?”

“No, I meant…argh.” Taylor laughed, half at herself and half at her companion’s suggestion. “I meant are you gonna make a light show or do something obviously magical?”

“I dunno, do you want a light show?” Molly taunted.

“Obviously!”

The redhead laughed back as the elevator stopped and the doors opened. “Okay, I’ll keep that in mind. No flashy special effects today, though. This stuff is all on the quiet side.”

No one else appeared in the hallway to the rooftop patio. As Molly noted, the weather didn’t exactly draw the tenants outside. Through the windows on either side of the patio door, the pair saw tables, chairs, and well-manicured greenery in concrete planters, along with light but steady rain that left everything coated in water. The green awning over the door provided the only shelter in sight.

“Can we hang out under here?” asked Taylor, gesturing to the canvas. “It’s not like anyone will complain if we drag a couple of chairs over.”

“Nah, I’ve got this.” Molly’s grin held as she walked outside.

Taylor followed, not bothered by the rain so much as the prospect of standing in it for several hours. If this were a quick errand, it would be no concern. Unfortunately, Molly knew her task could take hours. That was why she asked for help.

Molly drew her wand from the inner pocket of her leather jacket. With her face tilted up to the sky, she took a couple of steps away from Taylor and raised both arms high. Then she turned in a playful spin, three times around, before waving her wand in a flourish.

The rain stopped.

Taylor couldn’t believe it. She’d thought Molly was only screwing around, yet she saw the abrupt end to the drizzle as if someone had turned off a sprinkler system. Light rain continued in any given direction beyond the safety wall surrounding the patio. Water still ran down the windows of the neighboring office buildings and condo towers. None of it fell on their rooftop.

“Ta-daa,” declared Molly.

“Holy shit!” Taylor gasped. “I knew you could do magic but I didn’t think you could control the weather!”

“Oh, I can’t control all of it. Mostly it depends on what I have to work with and where I am. I can stop rain in a small area like this with no problem. All of downtown would be harder. I don’t know if I could manage it for all of Seattle. That’s way more than I’ve tried.”

“Yeah, but…just poof? No rain? It’s that simple?”

“It depends on what I’m trying to make happen and what spell I’m casting. Some things are like throwing a switch: they either happen or they don’t. Other stuff takes concentration if I want it to stay in effect. Honestly, the rain stops and starts here so easily I’m at an advantage.” She gestured to the sky directly above. “This here isn’t all that weird, y’know?”

“So could you make it start again?”

“Starting rain is harder than stopping. Don’t ask me why. I didn’t make the rules. But to do that spell, I need some materials to work with, and they aren’t cheap.” Her grin spread even wider. “Need some cash if you wanna make it rain.”

Taylor groaned. “Does that qualify as a pun? It sounds like a pun.”

“I’ll take whatever I can get,” said Molly. She turned to look over their surroundings, and more importantly the view. “Okay, so like I said, this job might take a while. I need you up here to keep me company and to take over when I gotta hit the bathroom or whatever.”

“You mean you need me to
spell
you?”

Molly looked back at her and slapped one hand over her face. “Okay. I had that coming for my bad joke. Anyway, yeah. You don’t need to know magic for this. All you’ll have to do is hold my wand and stay focused. Most of the actual magic happens up front.”

“That’s why I’m carrying this?” said Taylor, holding up the brown bag.

“You’re carrying that ‘cause you grabbed it before I did,” said Molly. “One sec.” She stepped to the edge of the patio, where a small safety wall at about hip level prevented her from walking straight over the rooftop’s edge. Molly raised her wand to her lips and whistled across the tip. As she whistled, she slowly turned from northwest to south.

“Okay,” she said. “Gimme the bag? Thanks.” Molly pulled the package from within and tore it open, unceremoniously tossing small bits of uncooked meat here and there around the patio.

“Was that the spell?”

“Yup. Actually, that was two spells. One to speak the right language, the other to make sure I reach the audience. The call has to fight against some wind, y’know?” With the package empty, Molly pulled a couple of the patio chairs out well away from their tables. She looked at the other chairs with a frown. “Dang, we should’ve brought a towel.”

Taylor looked around at the chunks of meat now laying around the patio. “I gotta say, this is totally not where I thought my weekend would take me.”

“I know, right? See, this is why you should never trust anyone who says they can tell your future. That stuff is always deliberately vague shit you already want to hear. Do you think any of those fortune-tellers working their own shops would say you’re gonna be on a rooftop with a witch and there’ll be random butcher meat all over the place? Who’d believe that?”

“Guess I can’t fault your logic,” Taylor muttered. “How long do you think this will—oh!”

The hawk swooped in only a few feet in front of her, snatched a hunk of meat in its talons and took to the sky again. Taylor felt the rush of air from its flapping wings on her face. Her eyes followed it up into the air, allowing her to see the next one on its dive. “Wow,” she said. “I didn’t think we’d get red tails.” She watched with awe as the second hawk flew up with its meal firmly in its grip.

“Is that what they are?” asked Molly. She shrugged as Taylor looked back at her. “Seriously, I don’t know one from another. Onyx and I just call ‘em freeway hawks.”

“Freeway?”

“Yeah, I mean you see ‘em on lamp posts all up and down I-5, y’know?”

Taylor laughed. “But you knew we’d get hawks? You just said ‘birds’ before. I figured you were talking about crows or something.”

“Oh, I work with crows all the time, but I don’t send them on this kinda job.”

Within minutes, a third hawk came in for a run. The first two returned to take up perches on the backs of the patio chairs. Fascinated, Taylor held her silence and watched as Molly stepped up with her wand pointed to the east, away from the hawks.

“Okay, guys,” said Molly. “I need you to take a trip for me. Find some people like me up in the mountains. Thataway.”

Taylor blinked, thinking this was surely a warm-up to the actual spell. Then the hawks flew up into the air again and took off toward the east. The third hawk came down on the same chair as a fourth came in to claim another piece of meat. Molly gave essentially the same instructions to each. By the time she was done, she’d sent six birds of prey off to the mountains.

“Those directions didn’t sound very precise,” Taylor ventured.

“Yeah,” said Molly, watching the last of the birds go until it veered around another of the downtown towers, breaking her line of sight. “Most of this is non-verbal, actually. Speaking is more for my benefit than theirs. The magic translates. Critters know what I mean.”

“So that’s it? We just hang out now?”

“You do. I gotta stay under the sky and try to think bird stuff.”

“And then I take over for a bit whenever you need?” asked Taylor. Molly nodded, but said no more. Taylor thought it through. “Should we try it now? I don’t want to wait two hours and then goof it up. Then you’d have to start all over, right?”

“That’s a good idea,” said Molly. “Okay. Come stand next to me and face this way. They all went off in different directions, but we know it’s generally east, right? Have you ever been to the Cascades?”

“Sure. Plenty of times. Our high school had a Friday ski bus.”

“Good. Try to keep that general image in mind. All you have to do is imagine where you want the birds to go. It doesn’t have to be exact. Next step is the wand.” She held it up, keeping her eyes to the east rather than looking to Taylor. “Wands are only tools for keeping you focused and channeling magic. The magic comes from the caster. Even if you don’t know how to use any magic, you’ve got some inside you.”

“That’s encouraging. Oh, hey—I shouldn’t have a nail in my pocket if I’m doing this, right?”

Molly’s grin seemed wider than ever. “Right. Take it out.”

“Why’s that funny?” Taylor asked as she complied, setting the nail on the nearby table.

“It’s not funny. I’m glad to see you take this seriously. Okay, stand here with me. I’m gonna hand off the wand. You don’t need to get all dramatic with it,” she said, striking a pose with the wand up high. “Keep it low at your side if you want. Just make sure it stays pointed east. Got it?”

“Cool,” said Taylor, standing almost shoulder to shoulder with her.

“Think about those birds. They’re still over the city now, right? Maybe just now getting over Lake Washington? Think about what they see. Imagine what it must feel like to fly…and hold out your hand.”

Taylor only caught on to how much Molly was actually concentrating as she gave those last instructions. It all seemed so casual, but by the time Molly passed off the wand, Taylor knew this required serious thought. Given the novelty of the moment, she didn’t need much encouragement to think of the birds. She’d never been so close to red tails before despite seeing them in the city and the suburbs throughout her childhood.

Nothing changed immediately when the wand came into her hand. Molly spoke softly into her ear, but Taylor hardly kept track of the words. She tried to keep the hawks at the forefront of her thoughts. Soon she barely noticed Molly’s voice at all.

She envisioned the hawks and all they saw with the same clarity and immersion of a dream in the middle of the night. Her imagination all but overtook her vision. The sound of wind filled her ears, yet it came through differently than she remembered—because, Taylor realized, the hawks had very different ears than her own.

Taylor stared at the bluish windows of the office tower two blocks up from the rooftop patio. In those windows, she saw the constant motion of water in a lake. She knew it had to be Lake Washington, which lay almost two miles past the building.

“Still with me?” asked Molly.

“Yeah. Yeah, sorry.” Taylor blinked, but didn’t break her stare. She realized Molly hadn’t said anything for a minute or two. When did she stop speaking? What had she said before that Taylor had now missed? “Sorry, it’s…it’s like I can feel them. What they’re feeling. What they’re thinking about.”

“What are they thinking?” asked Molly.

“Mostly about maybe getting more easy food when this is done,” Taylor chuckled.

“Yep. Birds are like that.”

“This is amazing,” breathed Taylor.

“I know, right? This is more of a bond than I usually create with animals. Most of the time I work up a rapport long enough to ask some questions or maybe for a favor and I let ‘em go to it. This job is gonna take some time. They’ve gotta go all the way out to the mountains and fly around there for a while. Figured I needed to make this a little more solid to keep ‘em on task.”

Taylor slowly nodded. Soon the images she saw in the office tower windows changed from the rippling water of the lake to the overhead sights of Bellevue on the other side. “Did you…did you want to take over?” Taylor asked softly.

“I can,” said Molly. “Unless you’re having a good time?”

An electronic chime and a vibration at her side threatened to interrupt her thoughts. Taylor realized she hadn’t given Molly an answer yet. “Um. Sorry. That would be my boyfriend. Kind of,” she added hesitantly. Her cute, slightly older, bound-for-wealth-and-success fraternity leader boyfriend who was not technically a boyfriend despite his expectations. Presumably he wanted her to come over, or to do something with her. Or maybe to know where she was.

“Do you need to get that?” Molly asked without judgment.

“Um.” Taylor didn’t look away from the rippling water of the lake in the tower windows. She wanted to see the far shore, and the mountains beyond it. She wanted to see her friends through this whole mess, too.

She wanted more than Brendan.

Her hand fumbled for the phone. “Can you turn it off for me, actually?” Taylor asked, holding it out to Molly. “I’ll call him back later.”

“Gotcha,” said the witch. “I’ve been there, too.”

* * *

“Hey, man,” hissed Wade. “Anything here seem weird to you?”