The Devil's Harvest

Chapter five

Two days later

Jason drove up and down the streets looking for Van. Years ago Van had stolen the only girl he had cared about and now he thought he was too good to hang out with him. Well, he'd show him. He knew Van was a cop and would be out looking for the people responsible for all the murders. Jason smiled to himself, they'd never find them. He made sure of that. Only he knew of the secret tunnels under the warehouses, and since he worked as a security guard had a master key to the buildings. He had stumbled upon it by accident one time and never told anyone. When he had been accepted into the coven he finally felt like he belonged. He had shown them the perfect place to hold their sacrifices. They could grab people off the streets and disappear into the tunnels where no one would find them. When he had given up his own brother to be sacrificed he had been elevated in the eyes of the coven and now was Malcolm's second in command. It was his turn to find another sacrifice and he knew exactly who he wanted. He couldn't wait to taste Van's blood. He laughed to himself. He wanted to look right in his eyes as he died. He wanted to see the light in his eyes go out as they sent his soul to hell.

In a back alley

Van and Deaq like the rest of the police force were once more out on the streets setting themselves up as bait. Somehow they had to lure who ever was responsible for these murders out into the open. Tonight they were hanging out with the street people. People, who even though they were told to go to a shelter, refused and took their chances living in the alley ways of L.A. Two of them had already been found dead, victims of the killers, but it still didn't cause the rest of them to seek shelter. Van and Deaq were involved with a group of them in a volatile situation when Jason pulled up. Six of the men were accusing each other of stealing what little each of them had. Two of the men had pulled out knives and were arguing back and forth while Van and Deaq tried their best to calm the situation. Jason pulled up near them and got out of his car.

"Hey man, I missed you the other night." Jason said as he walked over to them.

"Jason stay back!" Van shouted a warning to him, he knew that any minute the men could go at it.

"I thought maybe we could get together tonight." He ignored Van's warning and kept walking toward them.

"Get out of here!" Deaq yelled.

"I just want to talk to Van."

"Jason , this is a bad time." Just as Van spoke the fight started. Deaq and Van jumped into the middle of it. Deaq managed to grab one of the knife wielding men and Van was about ready to take down the other one when Jason stepped in the way. Van grabbed his arm and spun him out of the way just as the man lunged with the knife. Instead of hitting his intended target and knife went deep into Van's side. He cried out and spun around his hand pressed against the wound and slid to his knees. Deaq seeing his partner in trouble wasted no time in handcuffing the man he was holding while the man who had stabbed Van ran down the street. Deaq ran to his partner's side as he called in a description of the man over his radio. Van slumped to the ground his teeth clenched in pain. Jason stood watching, the hint of a smile on his face.

"Let me see!" Deaq said trying to examine the wound.

"It's okay, it's not that bad, just burns a little." Van said as he tried to stand up.

"Just stay down. Let me get a look at it." Deaq ripped open Van's bloody shirt and gently pushed him back to the ground and knelt beside him.

There was a half-inch cut in Van's side bleeding badly.

"You're going to need to get that looked at." Deaq said as he applied pressure to the wound to slow the bleeding. He could tell it was deep and hoped it hadn't hit anything vital. He glared up at Jason.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" He said angry that Jason's action caused his partner to be injured.

"I just wanted to talk to him." Jason said looking down at Van.

"Well, you almost got him killed!"

"It's okay Deaq." Van said trying to calm Deaq down, and then he looked at Jason. "Jason you know we're working, you shouldn't be here, you could have gotten yourself killed."

"Well, where were you the other night? We were going to go out and hit a few for old times."

"I'm sorry.........we were in the middle of a case and I forgot the time. I left you a message." Van winced in pain as he tried to move into a more comfortable position.

"Well how 'bout we get together tomorrow?"

"What are you blind?!! You almost got him killed and you want to hang out with him?!!" Deaq shook his head and looked away.

"You know Jason, I don't think us hanging out is such a good idea. We were friends at one time but............a lot came between us. I'm sorry about your brother but........."

"Oh I see, Officer Van Ray is too cool to hang out with me, is that it? He wouldn't want to be seen with some one who got thrown out of the academy. Well we'll see how cool you are." Jason turned and headed back to his car.

Deaq reached down and helped Van to slowly stand up.

"That sounded like a threat to me." Deaq said as he watched Jason speed off.

"Don't worry about him, he's all talk."

Deaq hoped he was right as he helped Van over to the car and they sped off to the hospital.

TBC