Chapter 5
Trevor was leaning up against the hood of the car with his arms crossed over his chest. Zachary was sitting on the hood next to him with a lit cigarette in his hand. Trevor sighed and shifted his feet before looking up at the church from their place in the parking lot.
“Why is it that churches always look so creepy after dark?” Zachary asked out of the blue.
Trevor shrugged, “Don’t know, could be all the fire and brimstone and stuff.”
“I’ll be glad when Angelica gets here.” Zachary said after a moment.
“Why didn’t we meet her at the airport?” Trevor asked.
Zackary glanced over at Trevor before jumping up on the brick wall surrounding the church and sat down directly above the church sign. “Well my friend, that would be too much like saying she can’t make it here by herself.”
Trevor jumped up and straddled the wall beside Zackary with his feet hanging down on either side of it. “Miss Independent,” he said with a nod. “How could I have forgotten the rules of Boo?” Trevor began counting down on his fingers, “Don’t underestimate her because she’s a girl, and don’t get in her way. Don’t try to help her with anything unless you are asked, and whatever you do, don’t try to save her.”
“That’s my Angelica-Boo,” Zackary smirked.
“And don’t talk about me behind my back.”
Both men flinched when they heard the voice directly behind them and looked over at Angelica staring at them with a frown on her face.
Angelica was trying not to smile at their antics. She’d missed her two teammates, though they’d be the last ones to know it if she had anything to say about it. Without a word, she turned toward the graveyard seeing the shadows they cast on the ground as they scrambled to follow her.
As they walked, Zackary tapped Trevor on the arm to get his attention then put his finger over his lips indicating for Trevor to stay quiet.
Angelica wasn’t too fond of being informed of the details surrounding a crime scene when she visited one and to her that’s exactly what this cemetery was. The first thing she always wanted to do was to try figuring everything out on her own and if she had any questions, she would ask. The amazing part was she was usually right.
Chad drove up into the church parking lot just in time to see Trevor and Zachary following a woman into the cemetery. Shutting off his patrol car, Chad got out and jogged to catch up with them.
“I was wondering when you were gonna get here,” Trevor said when Chad fell into step next to him.
Chad shrugged, “The chief wants to know when you’re going to get the hell out of here so he can have his territory back.”
“Oh please,” Zachary moaned. “Trevor’s marked his territory all over the place.”
“What do you mean?” Chad asked.
“One of his favorite forms to shift into is a golden retriever,” Zachary answered, not realizing his innocent comment made Chad freeze and glare over at Trevor who was suddenly looking very uncomfortable.
“You owe me a pair of jeans,” Chad growled but Trevor heard the underlying threat and knew he’d have to make a mad dash for the hills once this was over… he owed him a hell of a lot more than a pair of jeans and they both knew it.
“Will you three be quiet?” Angelica growled. “I’m trying to get a feel for this place.”
“According to my sister and her mate,” Chad added smirking maliciously at Trevor. “There was a demon trapped under the cemetery for a number of centuries. It lived in a chamber underground where it was sealed in and couldn’t escape. Apparently, there was also a fallen trapped in there with it.”
Zackary looked over at Trevor and smirked at the triumphant expression on Trevor’s face. Mentally he was laughing like mad, thinking the whole situation funny. It was only right for the new guy to get in trouble… it wasn’t their fault Chad didn’t know the rules of Boo.
Angelica mentally sighed knowing Trevor and Zachary hadn’t told Chad the ‘rules’ on purpose, hoping she’d go off on him in her usual fashion. Instead, she decided to ignore the mistake just to freak her teammates out for a little while… she’d get them back for trying to get the cute new guy in trouble.
“The demon is a succubus of evil,” Angelica said after a moment.
“What the hell does that mean?” Chad asked, completely confused and frustrated at the same time.
“It means that if you find the most evil spot in the city, you will have the demon’s feeding ground.” She stopped in front of the mausoleum that led to where Misery had been trapped and tilted her head to the side. “This is it,” she said, surprising Chad since he hadn’t told her which one it was. “Has anyone survived an encounter with it?” she asked.
“Two people,” Trevor said. “Kane and Dean. Kane is a vampire, and Dean is one of the fallen we’ve known about for the last few years.”
“Only one of the fallen were involved in this?” Angelica asked indicating the mausoleum.
“Yeah,” Zachary answered. “Kriss was out of town, in Florida I think, with his girlfriend.”
“She’s not his girlfriend,” Chad corrected but didn’t elaborate.
“I’ll talk to the fallen, but the vampire is probably little better than the demon,” Angelica said.
“Why only Dean?’ Chad asked. “Kane is one of the good guys, a little quirky but still on our side.”
Angelica glared at him, “There are no good vampires. The sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be.”
Chad frowned, “You’ll only be getting half the story if you just talk to Dean. Kane knows stuff that Dean doesn’t.”
Angelica turned her glare on Trevor, “Who is he again?”
“He’s the new guy, Chad.” Trevor answered. “And as much as I hate to say this… he’s right.”
Angelica turned around and walked alone into the mausoleum leaving the three men behind. There was no way in hell a vampire could be considered one of the ‘good guys’… they were all evil as far as she was concerned. She’d never met a good vampire and wouldn’t believe it unless she’d seen it with her own eyes. To date, the number of good vampires in her world was zilch.
She carefully made her way through the upper chamber of the building and saw the tunnel leading underground. She was still new to most of her powers… had only started harnessing them in the last few years.
She’d always known something was wrong with her but never really knew what it was until she was approached by Zachary when she was getting ready to graduate and head off to college. At first it had angered her because Zachary had a thick folder on her with over half of the weird stuff she had done since birth.
Her mom had died when she was a baby and she had no idea who her father was. All her life she’d been shifted from one foster home to another but she couldn’t blame the adults. If she was normal and had a foster kid who was constantly being stalked by ghost and demons… she’d probably send it back to the store for an exchange too.
She’d been called a freak all of her life and doing work like this actually made her feel better about herself. She killed monsters for a living and it was a good living.
At twenty-four years of age, she’d never had a real boyfriend, or even a girlfriend that she could hang out with on the weekends. She had one best friend but that was her and Zachary's secret. Other than him, she’d always gone by the strict personal policy of not letting anyone too close… it could save their life.
“This place is gross,” Zachary complained in a whiny voice. “It’s all dead and stuff.”
Angelica turned around and shined her flashlight right in Zachary’s face causing the man to sputter and cover his eyes.
“There goes my night vision,” Zachary growled. “How am I supposed to see women in the dark now?” He reached blindly for Trevor and took his hand. “Lead me, I’m blind.”
Trevor jerked his hand out of Zachary’s hold and glared at him. “Will you stop that? What are you, five?”
“How about you three go back to the front of the church and wait for me there? You’re distracting me from doing my job,” Angelica said.
“Okay,” Trevor said. “You know what to do if you need us.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Angelica watched them walk out of the mausoleum and couldn’t help but smile when she heard Zachary.
“Does this mean we can get away from the dead people now?”
That question was followed by a loud whap and Zachary cursing up a blue streak all the way across the cemetery.
“At least I got what I wanted,” Zachary shouted which was immediately followed by a girly scream and Angelica could only imagine Trevor now chasing Zachary around the parking lot.
Turning back to the tunnel, she shined her flashlight down it and started to move forward. While they were distracting, she hadn’t wanted her team to see her display of power or anything she did that pertained to the supernatural. The less people that saw what she did the better. It was a paranoia she’d carried since she was a little girl and she didn’t think it would ever go away.
Taking a deep breath, she continued down into the bowels of the earth focusing on the main area of supernatural activity.
Chad watched Trevor chase Zachary around, over, under, and through the car. At one point, Trevor had shifted into a tabby cat, leaving his clothes behind on the ground so he could move faster.
Chad quirked an eyebrow when the two had a standoff in the middle of the parking lot. Zachary hunched over trying to catch his breath and Trevor, still in his tabby cat form, standing there with his back hunched up and all the hair on his back and tail sticking out, making him look twice his size.
“What are you, the two stooges?” Chad demanded. “We shouldn’t have let her go in there by herself. What if there are vampires still in there?”
“Let me give you some useful information,” Zachary said still out of breath. “Right at this moment, the scariest thing down there is her.”
Trevor chose this moment to attack while Zachary was distracted. Zachary fell backwards screaming at the top of his lungs while trying to get an enraged Trevor cat off of him. Chad decided he’d had enough and tried to pick Trevor off of Zachary. Trevor dug his claws into Zachary’s shirt when Chad lifted him up, refusing to lose the battle.
“No tuna for you!” Zachary yelled.
Trevor hissed and spit at him until Chad finally lifted him free of Zachary’s shirt. Trevor twisted his body this way and that, trying to break free of Chad’s hold. Thinking that Trevor needed to cool off, Chad walked around to the front of the church and dropped Trevor into the fountain.
Trevor shifted back into his human form so he could glare at Chad.
“That’s only partial payback,” Chad said with a smirk.
“Oh, I like him already,” Zachary smiled.
Trevor glared at Chad before standing up completely nude and walking back to where his clothes were still on the ground. He silently pulled on his jeans and was pulling on his shirt when he heard Chad speak.
“I could get you for indecent exposure,” Chad exclaimed with a chuckle.
“And I could get you for cruelty to animals,” Trevor shot back.
Zachary doubled over with laughter and ended up falling on his side. Chad sighed wondering what kind of people he’d gotten himself mixed up with.
Angelica entered the main chamber and flashed her light around trying to get a feel of the room’s dimensions. She couldn’t understand how a demon as powerful as Misery could be sealed into a room that was almost as pure as the soul of an angel. Something else had traveled through here after the partial cave in if the footprints in the dust were any indication.
Guiding her light down to the floor, she spotted the seal and saw it for the trap it was designed to be. Walking around the edge of it, she wanted to get a better look at the intricate work. She’d almost made a complete circuit when she saw blood traced into the shape of a smeared symbol right on the outer perimeter of the trap.
Kneeling down, she held her palm over the symbol trying to see if she could detect any kind of energy. This was one of her powers for some reason. She could feel different auras whether it’s the aura of a person, monster, or a whole town. There was no energy to be felt around the symbol but it seemed as if the purification of the graveyard had originated from this spot.
Something dark and evil scurried in the darkness behind her. Angelica twisted around too fast and lost her balance, her palm pressing on the blood symbol as she caught her balance. Tingling sensations raced up her arm making her jerk her hand back in surprise. Shining the light on her hand, she saw the symbol now traced on her palm and she could hear the soft pounding of the heart the blood had once belonged to.
The room was suddenly filled with the resonating sound of two voices chanting together in a language she was sure had been forgotten long before the Egyptians ever came into existence. Standing up, Angelica shined her flashlight erratically around the room trying to pinpoint the source of the voices. Suddenly, the light fell on the translucent image of a man standing in the center of the room.
“Who are you?” she demanded, scared out of her wits and fighting not to show it.
Syn was just as surprised as the woman before him. His eyes widened when he realized he was seeing a vision of his soul mate in human form for the first time in over a millennium. While her appearance was the same as her past incarnations, her soul was bared to him as freely as an open book. He would know her anywhere.
His gaze jerked to their surroundings wondering just where that was. Syn growled only seeing a cave of sorts. Was it too much to ask for some kind of landmark to lead him to her?
It was her, she was alive and since her soul had somehow reached out to him, then maybe she was slowly awakening. His eyes raked over her body, remembering every detail of the past and present… dark hair, dark and knowledgeable eyes, soft skin, and full lips that begged to be tasted.
Movement caught his attention and Syn growled at the vampire slowly closing in from behind her. He wanted to warn her but knew she could not hear him. His lips silently formed a quick spell that would protect her until he could reach her. The words echoed within his mind as the vision of her began to fade.
Angelica felt her heart race as the man looked at her with appraising eyes. She felt the sudden urge to cross her arms over her chest in an effort to block him out but refrained. She was about to ask who he was again when she saw his eyes fade from dark brown to blood red.
She had a fleeting thought that perhaps this man was the demon. She suddenly felt fangs pierce her shoulder and the vision of the man vanished. She barely registered his lips moving, saying something but she didn’t catch it. Instead, she focused her energy on the vampire that actually thought she was going to be his entree for the evening.
Reaching up with her left hand, she grabbed the vampire by the hair in an attempt to pull it away. What happened next she wasn’t entirely sure of.
The second her palm touched it, the vampire started to scream and pulled its fangs from her neck in an attempt to escape. However, the symbol on Angelica’s palm kept it in place. Angelica turned as the vampire crashed to its knees. Its eyes rolled into the back of its head and its body started to shiver uncontrollably. The mouth was open showing off a nice set of fangs but sound was no longer coming out of it.
Angelica continued to press her palm into its forehead and slowly, it began turning to dust. Finally, all movement stopped and she slowly pulled her hand away from the vampire’s forehead. A dust statue of the vampire now sat before her, its mouth open and its hands up close to its throat as if it had been trying to fight something invisible that had been choking it. She nearly jumped out of her skin when it suddenly crumbled to the ground.
She shined the flashlight back on her palm and stared down at the blood, which had been glowing bright red, before slowly fading back to the dark, wet lines they had been.
This was a new experience for her and the prospect of yet another new power rattled her even more than usual. She didn’t need to be more different than she already was. The PIT team had nicknamed her Boo for a reason… in her mind it was just a nice way for them to call her a freak.
Hastily rubbing her hand against her black jeans, Angelica wiped the symbol off her skin then looked to make sure she got it all. A frown appeared on her face when she saw the blood was mostly gone, but a red mark was now embedded on the palm looking like an attractive birthmark.
Her eyes widened remembering the male demon, his eyes turning a glowing red… the same glowing red that the symbol had glowed.
“Great,” she muttered. “Just great… I’ve been marked.”
What Angelica didn’t realize was that the symbol is what killed the vampire. Without a moment's hesitation, Syn had made sure she was now protected by an invisible force that would allow her to kill anything threatening her more effectively. The mark didn’t make her invincible, but it helped her chances of surviving an all out battle.
Angelica looked around and knew she couldn’t leave this place accessible to more vampires should they come looking for their master. She’d determined that’s what the demon man was… their master. He was the one responsible for creating the vampires here. A graveyard should always remain sacred and undisturbed, especially if it was once used for evil.
Approaching the tunnel leading to the church basement, Angelica turned around to give the huge cavern a last look over. Stepping further into the tunnel, she looked up at a huge rock in the ceiling and focused her mind on it. It began to move back and forth, loosening the rocks and earth around it until a soft steady rain of dirt and smaller rocks started falling.
Finally, she gave it one last big telekinetic pull and the entire cavern caved in on itself.
Turning her back on the chamber, she calmly walked down the tunnel listening to the rumble of the large stones and rocks still falling behind her. A few clumps of hard dirt struck her shoulders but she didn’t pay it any attention. She just calmly began her journey back to the surface.
Chad was pacing back and forth, worried about Angelica and how safe she actually was down there. Trevor and Zachary sat on the steps watching him go back and forth and looking almost like they were watching a tennis match.
Chad knew they were doing it to relax him… Trevor had already joked about the fact that they acted like children whenever Angelica did stuff like this because they were worried about her. Their fighting, chasing, and yelling were distraction tactics that kept them from going after their teammate. As far as the two guys went… Chad liked Trevor but didn’t quite trust Zachary. Something about the fire starter spiked an odd fear in him.
Trevor froze when he felt the ground under his feet vibrate slightly and he could hear a distant rumble. It brought to mind the sound from the other night when the tunnel had caved in on Kane. He hadn’t seen it, but he’d heard and felt it… just like he heard and felt it now.
“Did you feel that?” Chad asked, stopping to look at the other two men.
The three of them raced up the steps to the church doors only to stop when they were pushed open from the inside. Angelica stood there staring at them, blood on her right shoulder and a haunted look in her eyes.
“Were you boys about to break rule number five?” she asked with a grin on her face knowing there really was no such thing as the imaginary rule book of Boo. It was just a long time running joke between her and Zachary and because they pretended it was true… so did everyone else. That or they believed it to be real.
“Rule number five?” Chad asked.
Zachary rubbed the back of his neck, “Yeah, that’s in the Laws and Rules of Boo. Rule number five is, ‘Never go after Boo, even if you think her life depends on it’.”
“I need to learn those, don’t I?” Chad mocked thinking that rule was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard.
“Don’t sweat it,” Angelica said. “There’s usually a two week probation period where you’re allowed some leniency. After that… I stomp you.”
Chad cocked an eyebrow wondering if he shouldn’t have worn boots because this group they called PIT was completely full of it.
“I think a good, strong cup of coffee is in order,” Trevor said after a moment. “Let’s head back to my place.”
“I’ll ride with the newbie,” Angelica said latching onto Chad. ‘It’s been a while since I’ve been in a police car.” She smirked wondering if he would let her ride in back.
Chad and Angelica walked down the steps with Chad looking a trifle uncomfortable leaving Zachary and Trevor at the door.
“I never got a probationary period,” Zachary complained but his eyes had narrowed on the blood that was still fresh on her shirt and the end of her hair near the wound. All jokes aside… she was staying with him tonight so he could tend the injury and watch over her.
“You didn’t deserve one,” Angelica called back.
Zachary stomped his foot, “But that’s so not fair. I’m better looking than he is anyway.”
“No you’re not,” Chad, Trevor, and Angelica said simultaneously.
“I am too!” Zachary shouted. “I’ll bet money I have a bigger...“
“Shut up and get in the car,” Trevor yelled from the driver’s side of his car.
Zachary whipped his head back and forth looking for Trevor and growled when he saw his friend starting the engine.
“I’m still better looking,” Zachary muttered and his head started smoking before his hair burst into translucent flames.
“Hey Ghost Rider,” Trevor yelled out. “I told you no fire in the car unless it’s to light a cigarette. Put your ass out.”
Still muttering, Zachary let the flames in his hair die down before flinging himself into the passenger seat and slumped down, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting at the dashboard.
Chad pulled out of the parking lot and looked in his rear view mirror at the strange woman in the back seat. Shaking his head he asked, “Where are you staying tonight because someone needs to look at that shoulder.”
“Zachary’s,” Angelica said with a shrug.
