667: Issue #5 "Friend or Foe"

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

~ Elie Wiesel

Violet was having a hard time readjusting after we left Las Vegas. She didn’t want to leave Salome and Khaine, and she didn’t want to come back to New Orleans where she knew she’d be stuck.

Thankfully Josiah and the rest of the so-called Council weren’t at Cassandra’s house when we got back; the only one they left behind was Jackie.

We hadn’t bothered to keep everyone updated like we promised, so they hadn’t bothered to tell us where they were going either.

We had, however, got quite the nasty phone call from Josiah once we landed back in New Orleans. Henri had remembered to text Cassandra on touchdown, but the welcome home call had come from Josiah himself.

I happened to have the displeasure of answering that call.

“Hello?” We had just pulled into the drive at the mansion when the phone rang and Henri signaled for me to answer.

“How was your little trip?” Josiah’s voice was surly on the other end.

“Uh, it was good.” I grimaced at Henri, but he could hear the Houngan loud and clear.

“Wonderful. I’m glad you’re alive so I can CHEW OUT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU FOR LEAVING WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!” Josiah’s voice rose in volume. Even Violet, who had been laid out in the backseat, sat up at the roaring.

“Josiah,” I began, not sure how to broach the subject, “There was no time for me to ask for your permission, as you put it. There was an emergency and we had to leave.”

“I don’t care if there was an emergency or not; you are under my care now.” Josiah talked to me as if I was one of the foster children that he had never had.

I took a deep breath as Henri parked the car and hopped out, but I stayed put.

“Violet was the emergency, which I’m sure you know. If she is under your care as you put it, then you should have been concerned about getting her home.” I was curt.

“Violet is the main reason I am so infuriated by your lack of care in this situation. We don’t know if she is safe.” There was a weird inflection in Josiah’s speech.

There was no good way to respond to him without Violet knowing we were talking about her—if she hadn’t heard Josiah already.

But before I could say anything, the phone was in Violet’s hand as she climbed into the driver’s seat next to me.

“Hello, Josiah. I’m glad that you called since you are so concerned about our well-being. I’m fine, Adam is fine, and so is Henri. We all came back in one piece and I only had to kill a couple dozen men to do it.” Violet spit. I couldn’t believe what she was saying!

I heard Josiah start to raise his voice on the other end when Violet tapped the phone and ended the call.

“Violet.” I turned to her, but she just lifted her upper lip in a sneer.

“What? I’m not a murderer; you all can vouch for that. You’re in the same boat as I am at this point.” Violet arched a snowy brow at me.

“True, but that could have waited till they came back and we could have talked to them in person.” I popped the lock on my door and got out.

“I don’t like the way he talks to any of us, Adam. He’s an arrogant, self-absorbed twat with a chip on his damn shoulder. He’s not our warden, we aren’t in prison; we shouldn’t have to answer to him for anything!” Violet slammed the door and came to meet me at the front of the car.

She wasn’t wrong. It was strange how Violet had become so confrontational in just a few days; when I met her she had been a quiet, mousy thing.

“If we don’t have them, we don’t have anything. They are the ones that can get to the bottom of this.” I defended the Council, even though Josiah continued to be a dick.

“Oh, like they have already? Wait…that would be us getting all the information on whatever the hell it is that is going on. Josiah has done nothing but impede us from discovering who we are now!” Violet skipped out in front of me to meet Henri at the stairs.

Jackie had come out and the two were now smoking something from a wooden pipe as they sat on the front porch.

“Well…” I tried to defend Josiah again, but I had nothing.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Violet rocked back on the top step of the porch and curled her bare toes underneath her.

“She’s right.” Jackie puffed off the pipe before handing it back to Henri.

“If Jackie thinks I’m right, then it must be true.” Violet shrugged, smirking at me.

“We’re going to have to tell them that we have both killed now.” I felt like I was compelled to be honest in our situation.

“You didn’t kill nobody just because, Adam. You and Violet had to defend yourselves from—whatever all of that was.” Henri didn’t agree with me.

“What did happen?” Jackie wondered. No one had told him anything yet.

“I’m too tired for this right now.” Violet got up from the steps and just walked inside. I wanted to stop her, but I couldn’t move from my own seat. She didn’t want me to follow her.

“Long story short? Violet is connected to more of us somehow and ended up in Vegas with two of them. She promised to help this guy, Khaine, find his girlfriend, or whatever. Salome had been kidnapped by a group of loan sharks whose leader turned out to be—a Demon.” I had officially said the word out loud.

“Well, there’s those words again: Demons and Angels. How did you know that’s what he was?” Jackie was unusually calm about the whole thing.

“Because he said so. He went by the name Merrick, but he told us his real name was Shax.” I went on a bit further.

Henri’s face went dark for a moment before he took his turn to speak, “Shax. I know who that is. He’s a Goetic Demon.”

“A what kind of Demon?” The word was entirely unfamiliar to me.

“Goetia was the magickal practice of invoking Angels and Demons, described in a 17th-century grimoire called The Lesser Key of Solomon. There are seventy-two Demons in the book and it details what they can be summoned for.” Henri gave us a bit of information.

“So, now someone is summoning Demons? And Angels? I am so confused.” I wanted to bang my head on the banister next to me.

“I don’t know if anyone is evoking them; they could just be walking around amongst us.” Henri gave another option.

“That’s wonderful. Just wonderful.” I stood up and kicked a rock off the step.

“What about the other two, Khaine and Salome?” Jackie was curious about the others that were just like Violet and me.

“They stayed behind. I don’t know what they’re going to do any more than we do. She looks like some swamp faery and he’s a giant wolf. They don’t look normal.” I had been thinking about the two of them on the flight home, wondering what they were going to do all alone without any idea of what they had really been through.

“They are going to need both of you; make sure you don’t lose contact with them,” Jackie advised me.

“I won’t.” I pulled my phone from my pocket and scrolled through to Khaine’s contact information. It was sort of nice to have another guy to relate to, given the circumstances.

“I’m going to go take myself in for a drink and some TV. Join me?” Jackie rose from his seat and we followed him inside.

A drink actually sounded really good right about now.

“Violet’s fine; she’s asleep.” Jackie joined us in the living room with three cold beers.

“I figured; she’s kind of been through a lot these past few days.” I replied. Boy, had she. If anyone deserved Josiah’s trust, it was her. She had gone above and beyond to save a couple of total strangers after being magickally transported to the other side of the country.

“So have you. How you holding up?”

Jackie flounced down between me and Henri.

“I’m—great. A little hot around the collar, but I’m good.” I wasn’t entirely lying. I seemed to be holding it together better than Violet, but what did I know. I was just as much of a mess as she was…

“We need to do something with those hands of yours; you’re leaving scorch marks on everything.” Jackie pointed at the blackened top of one of Cassandra’s throw pillows.

“Yeah.” I was embarrassed that I was leaving my mark everywhere.

“You know—I’ve seen you touch Violet several times and there’s not a burn on her.” Henri chimed in.

“Yeah.” Another one-word answer from me. I didn’t want to hurt her, so I didn’t. Maybe if I wanted to not burn the couch—it wouldn’t burn.

“She’s cute, Adam.” Henri grinned, playfully punching me in the shoulder.

“Not you too. Nate said the same thing to me the other day and I told him that I was in no position to be in a relationship.” I shook my head quickly.

“That doesn’t mean that you can’t—” Jackie teamed up with Henri.

“No. I wouldn’t do that to her.” I blurted, chugging my beer.

“Wait—you’re telling me you wouldn’t if she offered? I mean, you’ve been single for months now.” Henri was surprised by my response.

“That’s exactly what I am saying. Single or not, I just wouldn’t.” My face was stoic.

They knew how I usually was with women; I wasn’t exactly proud of my past. But even if I was still interested in sleeping around, I wasn’t going to do that to Violet.

“My, how you’ve changed.” Henri chuckled, swigging his own beer.

“I still have wants, but I don’t want her like that.” I guess I wasn’t making myself clear.

“I wouldn’t mind.” Of course Henri wouldn’t; he was worse than I was when it came to women.

But just the notion of him and Violet—I was seeing red for some reason.

“I don’t think she is interested in you.” I grit my teeth, sending sparks flying from my mouth. Henri noticed this too and quickly shut his mouth.

“You’re probably right.” Henri covered his mouth with his beer and turned away.

I settled myself and finished off my beer before it got too warm from my touch.

“Did you know that Khaine is an IVF baby too?” I steered the conversation down a different path.

“Another one?” Jackie looked baffled, “That makes three. What about the other girl?”

“I don’t know. Never got to talk to her much, but Violet did.” I assumed that Salome probably was as well.

“Did Khaine ever get to talk to his grandfather?” Henri asked, but his guess was as good as mine.

After we found out that Walter had passed, we all got out of there. Khaine was in no emotional state to really talk about anything; he just promised to keep in contact.

“I don’t know about that either. I hope that he did, though.” I felt my eyes starting to get a bit droopy. Sleep was calling my name.

“Get some rest, Adam. You look ghastly.” Jackie scooted his hip into me till I was forced to stand up.

“Where is everyone?” I was careful not to rip the scales from my face as I rubbed my eyes.

“They all went to the cemetery yesterday and found something. They wouldn’t tell me what, but said that they’d be gone for a while and wanted me to keep an eye on you three.” Jackie gave the impression that he wasn’t a hundred percent happy about the arrangement.

“I wonder what they found.” Henri was curious, but I was thinking about something else.

“Why wouldn’t they tell you anything?” I cracked my neck; everything felt heavy at the moment.

“I don’t know. It worries me actually; I’m a bit irritated that they wouldn’t tell me a thing.” Jackie and I were on the same page.

“Keeping the Baudin boys in the dark as usual.” Henri clicked his tongue.

“I’m about where Violet is with Josiah. He’s mad that we just left without asking his permission, but they went off to investigate the crime scene and not bother to fill us in on what they found.” There were the sparks again.

“Don’t get all bent out of shape, Adam. We will know soon enough.” Jackie finished his beer and shooed me out the door to finally sleep.