Chapter 23
Nadia woke up on the bathroom floor confused about how she'd gotten there. As she pulled herself up, she winced as her abdoman protested the movement and, looking in the mirror it all came back. The dream. Being shoved out of her own body, like a spirit of the dead. The torture in Dean's eyes. Dean pulling the trigger. The pain in his eyes as he fell to his knees. She gasped and looked down at herself as pain shot through her body; no bullet hole, no blood, she was alive.
"That wasn't so pleasant for me either," Aidan grumbled.
The sound of Aidan's voice in her head made Nadia's body flush with anger. It was her fault, she pushed her out, she made Dean kill them. She had hurt him. Nadia strode into the bedroom, changed her clothes, threw her belongings in her bag, and left as fast as she could. She knew it was stupid to think she could run away from Aidan; but she couldn't help trying. The bike was racing down the road before 15 minutes had passed.
Aidan had been quiet since leaving the hotel but she couldn't hold her silence any longer, "So, where are we going?" Nadia ignored her, "I'm gonna take the silence as an okay to keep talking..." She waited but still got no response, "You do realize you're going north, right? It is December, so...the farther north you go, the colder it gets... You are on a motorcycle, you do realize that right?" She wasn't sure why, but Nadia's refusal to answer her made her all the more desperate to get some kind of reaction from her other half. She sighed internally, "This is about that dream, isn't it?" Pain shot through Nadia but as quickly as it had come it was covered by a pure white hatred that made, even Aidan, shrink back. She decided not to say anything else for awhile.
Nadia crossed the Oregon border and headed straight for a hotel. This time she decided on more expensive accommodations, complete with a large jacoozi where she could work out the chill. Her body was tense from the cold and the anger towards Aidan. She slipped into the hot water and sighed, "Aidan, I think we need to talk." She was trying to relax her tense muscles but the feel of Aidan coming forward was making it impossible.
"Over your hissy fit now?" Aidan asked.
Nadia bit her tongue and calmed herself, she knew they had to get passed this sooner or later. She decided on mental communication, in an effort to stay calm, No; but the sooner we get this out of the way, the better.
"You do realize your freaking out over a dream, right? Something that hasn't and probably never will happen?"
I'm freaking out because... she tried to find a way to explain it clearly, because, if there is any truth to what happened in that dream; then I may never see him again. And worse yet, is that I may decide to never see him again after this is over; because I can't have him look at me like that. I can't put him through that.
"Okay...so why all the hostility towards me?"
Because you are the manifestation of every bad decision I have made in my entire life.
"Decision? I'm not your decision. I never was. You didn't choose me; I was genetically programed in your DNA."
You're a demon, Aidan, I am supposed to hate you.
"Okay, understood. But I think you know and I will--begrudingly--admit that I am not like other demons. How could I be? I am..." she searched for the right words, "a demon with a conscience. Your conscience; but a conscience none the less. I affect you in ways like: making you more confident and stronger. You affect me in ways like: feeling guilty and horrified and...soft. I really got the raw end of the deal on this one..."
Nadia's muscles were finally easing, along with her feelings towards Aidan. We're both pretty...screwed with this whole arrangement. But I guess we should make the most of it, right? she tried to sound enthused but Aidan laughed. Let's just focus on getting this deal done and then we can think about what will happen afterwards.
"Gee, that's only what I've been saying from the beginning," Aidan mumbled. "Sounds good."
Now, Nadia slid further under water, we need a new plan.
"Well, I can tell you that going north was a stupid idea."
Shut up. I wanted to get away from the sun.
"You deffinitely succeeded."
If I remember right, Florida is second on the list for the highest population of inmates on death row...
"See, south. It's sort of nice that they're all conviently located for someone who insists on riding a motorcycle."
Nadia ignored that, It's the sun, i'm telling you. It fries their brains and makes them kill people. Aidan laughed at that and so did Nadia. Oregon all the way to Florida...Nadia whined.
"Or, here's a thought, we could jump on this cool new invention called a plane and be there in like a few hours..."
You're right.
"I am?"
Well, I highly doubt that Dean is constantly watching airline manifests. Besides, Sam would let me know if he was coming after me.
"Oh yes, you had that touching little conversation..."
Yes, we did. Nadia wasn't going to let Aidan bring her down any longer.
That night, Nadia slept a dreamless sleep.
First thing in the morning, Nadia went to the lobby to book a flight. She was able to land a seat in bussiness class for a flight that left in two hours. The airport wasn't very busy, so she decided to take a few minutes to enjoy the scenery. The snow had melted a couple of days earlier so everything was lush and wet. After a cup of hot chocolate at a little cafe, she sat on a bench that overlooked the Pacific Ocean. It was hauntingly beautiful. The cold was biting through every layer of clothing and timing was ticking down until her flight arrived, so she jumped on the bike and headed straight to the storage facility she had already rented a unit in. Packing as much in her backpack as she could, she walked the short distance back to the airport and started the long journey through security.
It felt like it had been hours by the time she made it to her assigned seat and plopped down. Business class wasn't too full, but she was still surrounded by other travelers and sleeping didn't come easy; but it was the best way to pass the time.
A few minutes later she was woken up by the passenger beside her drumming the arm rest along with the music blasting from his headphones. Personal headphones my foot, she thought to herself. Aidan was tucked comfortably away in some far corner of her mind; oblivious to the commotion around her. Without a second thought, she--fueled by irritation--turned to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He pulled off his headphones, "Yeah?"
She smiled sweetly, reached out and took his hand, "I think you're getting tired. You should sleep," she stared him straight in the eye. His expression glazed over and he nodded before his head dropped. She sighed in relief, glanced around to unknowing passengers, and drifted back to sleep herself.
Six and a half hours later, she exited the plane in Jacksonville, Florida and headed straight for Avis. The mustangs and cameros were tempting; but in the hopes of staying, inconspicuous so she chose a Chevy Aveo.
The Avis guy lead her out to the parking lot on the side of the airport and when the heat hit her, her mood deflated. Ugh, she grumbled. Todo, we're not in Oregon anymore... She tried to enjoy the warmth still left in the air as he searched for the car; but the humidity had her sweating before that was possible.
"Found it," he hollered over five cars. "Right this way," he waved. With a sigh, she surrendered to the weather and walked to the car. He handed her the keys and opened held the door open for her, "Here all by yourself?"
She felt him look her up and down and recognized the wistfull tone to his voice; it was all she could do to not roll her eyes. Instead she smiled, "Yup."
"Well, there are a lot of great beaches around I'm sure you'd love," his smile was sickeningly flirtatous.
Gag me. "I'm not really a beach person. Hate the sun, actually," she grumbled, trying to shut him up. "Well, thanks. Have a nice night," her voice was cold. It wasn't that he was bad looking; but he just didn't realize who he was being compared to in her eyes. There was no way he could measure up to a demon hunting, death defying, arrogant, gorgeous green-eyed--she thought back to her conversation with Sam a month ago--angel. Before he could say another word, she was starting the car and pulling away. It was all she could do to wait until she left the parking lot to roll down the window; she felt like she was suffocating, the air was stifling.
Like she'd done what seemed like so many times already, she pulled into the first decent hotel she saw and got a room for three nights. That was all she would allow herself to stay. She needed a time limit; that she'd learned from her much-too-long stay in San Quentin. Another thing she learned, was that she needed to be more prepared. This time she wasn't going to go in expecting all the inmates to be conveniently located in one wing; only to find them separated into three different areas. For that type of research, there was something she was going to need.
Nadia went to the front desk and asked where the nearest computer store was and the clerk hastily wrote out directions. She hurried out to the rental and fought traffic to get to where she had been directed. The nerves settled a bit when she saw the familiar yellow sign of a BestBuy; the familiarity of it made her feel more grounded.
On a mission, she stride into the store and went straight to the computer section of the store. She walked around the displays scanning each of the descriptions, not really sure what she wanted and didn't want. "Can I help you find something?" She turned to find a young woman gazing at her questioningly.
"Yeah... I need a laptop," she looked around, "obviously," she laughed. "It has to have wireless internet, a fair amount of memory, CD/DVD burner...and that's all I know for sure."
The girl smiled, "Okay. Is there a price point you have in mind?"
She shook her head, "Nothing matters except finding one with everything I need."
"Alright. Um, what will you be using it for mostly?"
Looking up prison statistics so I know where I'll kill the most people at a time. You know, nothing big, she thought to herself. "Research mostly."
She led Nadia to the other side of the display counter, "These are my personal favorites if you're looking for something that is good for surfing the net and downloading music. This one here comes with the new Microsoft 7; all the others, you'd have to buy the software separately. It has good memory and, it's unlta thin, so it has a pretty impressive battery life."
"I didn't think about that. Long battery life would be awesome." She looked at the price, $829.99; not bad. "Facial recognition?" she read on the card beneath the computer.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool. Any sensitive information you might have on here can be protected so that only your face will allow it to be opened."
That sounded very good, "I'll take it." She realized how that quick and relieved response might be taken, "My brother..." she added.
"Yeah, I have one of those. They just can't seem to be happy enough with their own computer, can they?" she smiled.
"No. They can't."
Once she had the computer back at the hotel, she was dying to play with it and get some research done; but she was exhausted. She plugged it in to charge and then decided that a couple of hours of sleep wouldn't hurt, so she curled up on the bed and switched off the light.
A couple of hours later the alarm woke her up and she slapped it off and then laid there trying to talk herself out of bed. "You know, you could just let me take over for awhile and let yourself get some sleep..." Aidan responded.
"Yeah, you'd like that wouldn't ya?" she replied to the ceiling. She sighed and went into the bathroom to wash her face and wake herself up. After running downstairs to grab a bagel and hot chocolate, she sat in one of the comfy chairs around the table and turned the laptop on.
"Ooo, a new toy..." Aidan sounded very excited.
"It is not a toy. It's for research," she continued to reply out loud; it made her feel less crazy--as backwards as that sounds--and less alone. "Got to love the internet," she said a half hour later. "As of yesterday, Florida State Prison had 391 death row inmates. The highest number of executions they've had is 8, back in 1984."
"I'm about to put a big blemish on their record."
"Those won't be executions; those will be considered deaths," Nadia pointed out. "Wait," she continued reading off the screen, "Union Correctional Institute also holds death row inmates..." To be sure, she scrolled through pages and pages of the inmate population at both prisons, counting each time the "Release Date" column read "Death Sentence." She was confused and upset to find that only 62 inmates had "Death Sentence" beside their names in Florida State and 3 in the Union Correctional Institute.
"Well, where are the other...326?" Aidan demanded.
"I don't know," Nadia snapped in reply. "It said all male death row inmates are housed at one or the other."
"Wait! Go back," Aidan hollered. Nadia flinched and pressed the backspace button. "It gives their eating schedule..."
"So?" Nadia said. She could tell Aidan was coming up with something cunning and--to her--exciting.
"Poison."
"What?"
"Poison. You could get in there and slip something into their food. Something rare or exotic. Something that would be hard to detect or wouldn't be thought of fast enough." She was sitting on the edge of her figurative seat, "Look up poisons."
"Oh, well why don't I just look up how to make a bomb and the White House blueprints while I'm at it?"
Aidan sighed and rolled her eyes, "Facial recognition, remember? Besides, I think the FBI has better things to do than monitor things like who's looking up obscure poisons. Their too preoccupied with things like, oh...mysterious prison fires, for instance. And if someone does say something--which they won't--you can say you were curious or you were writing a story or something."
As much as she hated to admit it, Aidan had a point. Nadia typed "poisons" into Google and scrolled down until she found a 10 popular poisons list. Castor beans, water hemlock, and strychnine were the most intriguing to both her and Aidan. She looked for more information on castor beans and discovered that they were from India and Eastern Africa and that one--if chewed well enough--could be fatal. What Nadia found most interesting about them, was that they looked like a bean. Like a bean that could blend in well with all the other food on a prisoner's plate.
"Water hemlock is found all throughout North America, particularily in wet marshy areas--like Florida--and should be handled with extreme care. It is commonly mistaken for Queen Anne's Lace and the root is the most toxic." Nadia thought about what she'd read, "Well, that might be the easiest to find; but I'm not sure how we'd get enough of it in to poison all the inmates..."
She moved on to strychnine and read all she could find, "I don't think this is our best bet. It's got to be hard to find and it works through inhalation or injection; I think we should stick to poisoning the food. That sounds safest."
"Too bad, that one sounds fun," Aidan referred to how the poison kills; strychnine attacked the nervous system and caused extreme contortions and extremely painful death throes.
"Yeah, sounds like a blast," Nadia rolled her eyes.
After finally agreeing on their poison of choice, Nadia and Aidan scoured the internet for everything they could find on water hemlock. "There is a plant specialist not too far away that probably knows where we could get some of the plant," Nadia said.
Aidan growled in annoyance, "Look, I now you were trying to impress Dean and Sam by doing things their way so that they would accept you as a real hunter... But, here's the thing, you are not a hunter. Not like them anyway. You are half demon. You have abilities they could never dream of; use them."
Nadia watched the images and listened to the storyline that Aidan played for her. "You want me to just walk in there and ask for some very toxic and dangerous water hemlock?"
"Why not? All you'd have to do is make everyone let you in and implant the suggestion that it would be a good idea to hand you the plant into her little pea-brain. And you know what? If you don't feel comfortable doing it; I'd be happy to take over for awhile."
"Yeah, I'm sure you would." Nadia thought about that and how Aidan had actually been quite well behaved and even nice. "Alright, this can be a test run. If you behave, then maybe I'll let you out more often."
Aidan rolled her eyes, "So this is my goldfish before you let me get the puppy that I really want?"
Nadia smirked, "Yup. Take it or leave it."
An hour later, Nadia pulled the rental car into the parking lot of Santa Fe College. "Alright," she sighed and turned off the car, "you know what to do. Make it quick and behave."
"Yes, mother," Aidan replied dryly before pushing her way to the front. She opened the door and shoved the keys in her pocket after locking the doors. She scanned the building and the campus around her, funny how we keep ending up on college campuses after you skipped out on yours, she thought to Nadia.
"Bite me," Nadia replied.
Aidan smirked. She stretched her limbs and enjoyed the freedom for a minute before heading toward the building. She remembered every door and hallway to the biology department and Dr. Christine Chance, the plant specialist's office. A quick glance down and hall showed no one and through the window, she could see an older woman leaning over a microscope. Aidan gave herself bright red hair, glasses, and a scrawny body before she opened the door to the lab. The woman looked up in annoyed surprise and Aidan walked straight up to her without any apologies or introductions. "Can I help you?" Dr. Chance asked. Huh, what are the chances of that? she thought.
"What?" Nadia asked.
Another "Chance..." Remember that delicious and oh so helpful, piece of man at San Quentin? His name was Chance too, Aidan pointed out but Nadia ignored her so Aidan focused on Dr. Chance. "I need water hemlock. The more, the better."
Dr. Chance chuckled in disbelief for a second, "Excuse me?" She stared at Aidan, but when she didn't respond, she continued, "That is a very dangerous plant, I can't just hand it out to every rude girl who barges into my classroom."
"Yes, well," Aidan responded airily, "I am not just every rude girl... Now, like I said, I need water hemlock. Preferably the root."
She stared at Dr. Chance with that hypnotic gaze and the doctor's face melted into blankness. "Of course," she said in a daze, "I will be right back." She turned and went through a door at the back of the classroom and re-emerged a minute later with a large shoe box and handed it to Aidan. "This is all I have."
Aidan opened the box and found it half full of dried roots with all of the plant chopped off the top. The roots were very small so there were dozens of them inside. She put the cover back on, "Thank you. How toxic is this stuff?"
"Um..." she tried to blink away the haze that Aidan was surrounding her with; but it was useless. "A single bite of them has been known to kill an adult."
Aidan raised her brows, impressed, "Thank you very much. You've been an immense help." Aidan nudged Nadia as if to be sure she was paying attention to how polite and well-behaved she was being. Then she turned and walked out of the building with the shoebox safely in her hands. Once she got to the car, she placed it gently into the passenger seat and left the parking lot with out a backward glance.
"See how much easier that was?" Aidan said smuggly.
Nadia rolled her eyes, "Of course it's easier, you're not giving them a chance to use their brain."
"Using your brain is overrated anyway." She felt lighter and was rearing to go as she drove back to the hotel. "Tomorrow is D-day. She said one bite could bring one of those pieces of crap down, and with what she gave me, we should be able to wipe out all of 'em."
"Right. As soon as we get back we have to plan exactly how we are going to get it into the food of just the deathrow inmates and no one else."
You're such a party pooper, Aidan thought back. She could feel Nadia's apprehension, don't worry, this is going to go so much smoother than San Quentin. And Nadia knew she was right; what had just happened at the college told her that much and they would be long gone before the hemlock actually took fatal affect. A walk in the park.