Minutes to Midnight (6 page)

I glanced at Mike and Darius before giving
the cop a sideways look. I narrowed my eyes at his badge before I
stepped away. "Officer Jones?"

Really?

"Yes." He put a hand over his badge as if I
meant to take it from him. "You're the one I'm here to see."

"Me?"

"Why?" Mike asked, and I heard the slight
hardness in his tone. He was suspicious. And so was I. There wasn't
any reason a cop should want to see me. Unless I left something in
Bonaventure last night, or someone saw us?

Officer Jones looked concerned. "Well, I
have some very distressing news about an acquaintance of yours, Mr.
McConnell. A Ms. Stella Rosenberg?"

I blinked at him. Stella Rosenberg was my
former landlady. I used to rent the apartment above her garage. She
was a real estate sales woman and owned her own company. But… I
hadn't seen Stella in nearly a year… or, not that I could remember.
When I left Atlanta I made sure to leave her a year's rent as well
as an apology for abandoning everything and leaving her with no
tenant. She and I dated for a few months when I first moved in, and
then I'd met Maureen Lafferty and some time after that my memory
became Swiss cheese.

To hear her name now was a surprise.

"What's wrong with Stella?" Mike remembered
her. And he should. He'd been over to that garage apartment plenty
of times after his divorce.

I took a step toward the officer. "What's
wrong? What do you mean, 'distressing'?"

"Can we talk outside?" Jones looked
apologetic. "It's really a matter for you and the police right
now."

I agreed and told Mike I'd be right back. I
followed Officer Jones to the sidewalk outside, and then to the
left and down the alley between The Night Pub and Murphy's Irish
Pub (Savannah is a town of bars—you can't really throw a rock
without hitting one). We walked a few feet until I noticed he
wasn't beside me anymore.

When I turned, Officer Jones had his gun out
and pointed at me.

I did not see this ending well.

A HAUNTED FOREST

"What the hell?" The words just tumbled out
of my mouth before I could stop them. It was just that kind of
morning.

Officer Jones smiled. And it wasn't a
pleasant smile. It was more like one of those Snidely Whiplash kind
of smiles. The alley wasn't like the alleys you see in movies with
tall, seven-story-or-more buildings, narrow with a dead end. In
fact, this alley connected with two other streets, making it
possible for cars to move in and out and then drive down the alley
to park alongside Murphy's. The fact it was moving on toward noon
only helped me. Daylight. No shadows. Which meant no place for
anything unwanted to show up.

"Sorry, Guardian, but you're a wanted
man."

Guardian. Crap. I held my hands out to my
sides with a spell ready. I felt the book flutter inside my chest.
Somehow Officer Jones was involved in whatever was happening,
because normal policemen did not call me that. But those in the
know seemed to like the title.

Did I like the title? Not so much.

"Sorry, Officer Jones. I don't know what
you're playing at, but I'm not in the mood. Where's Stella
Rosenberg? Because if you've hurt her—"

"You'll what? Set me on
fire? Won't matter now, will it, because it won't touch
me
. If you banish me from
this body I'll just take another, but I'll still have your
girlfriend."

Officer Jones's eyes turned yellow. I don't
mean happy, Easter yellow, but a sickly, mucus yellow. Jones wasn't
alone in there. Something was overshadowing him. There were lots of
Planar things that liked to ride inside humans: Daemons, Symbionts,
and Ghosts, to name a few. Those creatures by themselves weren't
typically this aggressive, and tended to live in the shadows, only
taking humans when the human was physically or psychologically weak
or dying. Sort of like taking the car for a joy ride with less than
a tank of gas and running it until it finally gave out.

They certainly weren't this confident by
nature. Which meant that something stronger was guiding this one,
lending it power so it could completely control a living body. And
it was powerful, otherwise I doubted this thing would be pointing a
gun at a Guardian so easily.

I needed more information, and the only way
to do that was to irritate the thing overshadowing Jones and not
get shot in the process. The strength I'd need to shield from a
bullet might take away from the power needed to blow the hitchhiker
out. So, I figured I'd give it a try before some poor bystander out
for a before-lunch stroll, or a regular heading into one of the two
pubs, saw a police officer holding a gun on some kid and decided to
help. "How do I know you're not just bluffing, Officer Jones? Huh,
Officer Jones? How do I know you're not just trying to save your
own ass, huh Officer Jones—"

"Stop that."

"—see, Officer Jones, I'm not really
convinced you have Stella, Officer Jones. I might want a bit of
proof, Officer Jones. Officer Jones, do you hear me?"

"Stop calling me that!" he shrieked, and
that time I heard just a faint echo of whatever was holding onto
him in his voice. It was a gravely echo and bounced between the two
buildings.

"Then prove it to me, Officer Jones—"

"My name is Rippin' Ja—" The officer's face
twisted for a second into an impossible expression, looking a lot
like someone ran his picture through one of those morphing
softwares. Then it was normal again and he held up his left hand,
his right hand holding the gun on me never wavered. The sun
overhead darkened as if a cloud moved over it. That was the second
time today that happened with no clouds. My ears popped just as I
realized he'd sealed us off from the Material World. But to where,
I didn't know. I was still breathing so I knew it wasn't the Dark
World, as physical beings didn't fair too well there. No air. And
if he had put up a barrier, what did it look like to anyone passing
by? Or did they see us at all?

The only creature that could
make this kind of null space would be a…well…I didn't know of
anything in the Angelic or Dark Worlds that
could
do that. So was it something
that actually lived in the Spirit World? Was that
possible?

"Oh ho ho, you're a clever one, Guardian."
Officer Jones, aka Rippin' Ja—, said as he wiggled the index finger
of the hand he'd made the invisible field with. "You get me to tell
you my name and you have power over me."

Power over him? I racked my brain. What kind
of creature had issues with its name? Rumplestiltskin?

Wait…I'd recently read something about names
and power in some book. I just couldn't remember what it was. I
assumed playing dumb wouldn't work, and I didn't know if my power
could dispel the field, bounce around in it, or have any effect at
all. Hell, I could try and fry his ass and get mine in the
process.

And that's the moment I
realized we weren't in the alley anymore. I glanced around to take
note on how big a field he'd made—to see if he'd included the
buildings—and realized I could see
through
the field. But what I saw
wasn't Savannah. In fact, I didn't know where it was. It looked
like the set of the haunted forest right out of
The Wizard of Oz
. No Yellow Brick
Road. Just a bunch of angry-looking trees. Smoke. Ravens with
blinking red and yellow eyes.

Looked like I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

"Yeah." I refocused on him. "That's me. I'm
a clever one. So, you have Stella and now you've taken
us…somewhere…. why? What do you want from me?"

"Me? Oh, I don't want anything from you,
Guardian. But I work for someone who does. The first set of
snatchers failed last night. But I won't. So I took your little
girlfriend to make sure you did as you were told."

"I still don't have proof—"

"Darren!"

I froze at the sound of a familiar voice.
Stella. Other than Nona, Stella was the only person that called me
Darren on a regular basis. I took a step back and glanced around.
"Stella?" I called out. "Is that you?"

"Darren! It's so good to hear your voice!
Where am I?"

I didn't know. So I focused on Officer Jones
Rippin' Ja—. "Where is she?"

"Lower your hands, Guardian."

"Not 'til you show her to me. I want to know
she's fine."

"It won't matter. She won't be released
until I have you in custody."

I wasn't liking the sound of that. I
especially didn't like it when he reached behind him and threw a
pair of handcuffs on the ground in front of me. "Put those on, and
I show you."

He was kidding, right? Too bad I wasn't.

RiPPiN' JA

The ground wasn't pavement anymore, either.
It was dirt the consistency of ash mixed with pieces of broken
stone. It looked like a long-dead battlefield. But where in the
hell was there a battlefield like this? Especially one as devoid of
life as this one? The moon?

I had a decision in front of me. The voice
sounded like Stella's, but knowing the types of baddies I'd already
encountered, I preferred not to go on voice alone. I could create a
tiny sun to see around me, but that would make me vulnerable to the
gun. Now that I wasn't in the alley anymore I wasn't that worried
about ricochet or blowing Officer Jones Rippin' Ja— up. He had a
dear friend of mine who had nothing to do with me. I'd left Atlanta
to avoid putting anyone else in danger. And this jackass had
brought her in.

"Not going to wait forever, Guardian. I
could shoot you. Wound you. And I could just take you. But my boss
wants you alive and healthy."

That sentence was revealing.
I suspected he doubted he could really wound me with my power
focused. He knew I was a Guardian. That was a name known in the
other Worlds. But did he know about the
Grimoire
in my chest? Maybe. Should I
put myself in a much more vulnerable position by handcuffing myself
to help a voice that might or might not be Stella?

An idea came to me. "So I've got part of
your name, right?"

He glared at me.

"I'll put the handcuffs on only if I have
your word on the name Rippin' Ja— that you will release Stella,
unharmed." I hadn't really figured it would work because I only had
a partial name, but the reaction in his face told me a different
story. His eyes turned red, then back to yellow. Now he looked
pissed off.

"You foul meat sack," he said. "You tricked
me into half. So I will agree and make that promise because you
commanded it." He now held the gun in both hands. "Put the
handcuffs on."

I stepped forward and picked up the heavy
metal. They clinked as I started to snap one on my wrist.

"Close them behind you."

I wasn't sure why he believed binding my
hands behind me would make me vulnerable. I could sling a spell
without my hands. All I needed was intent and will. I didn't even
have to say it out loud. So…did he not know about the magic spells?
Or was it that his boss didn't know. "You let her go first."

"No deal."

"Too bad." I dropped the handcuffs, set my
feet wide, and pointed at him. I figured if he feared my hands, why
not use them to intimidate?

"Isatum!"
I shouted as he fired his weapon. I didn't know if
my blast hit him. His bullet went wild and pinged off a nearby
tree. The splintering wood dusted me and the ground as I ducked
behind a five-foot-high piece of concrete wall.

Another shot pinged off the cement. I
assumed I missed hitting him since he was still firing. I also had
to wonder if I missed because a part of me did not want to roast
the innocent officer he was overshadowing. This wasn't Officer
Jones's fault and I wasn't a killer.