It has just been brought to my attention that the SMAV series has just hit the ten-year mark. It's hard to believe AV and I have been at this for that long. It has been an amazing ride so far, and hopefully we keep bringing out just as many stories to all of you who have kept up with us. Here's to another ten years.
With a groan, Zatanna woke up. She winced as light struck her eyes, making her squeeze them tight. The familiar feeling of sickness, dry mouth, and general blah-ness greeted her like an old friend. One could even say way-too-old friend.
She was hungover. She had been hungover enough times to know what it felt like immediately. Still didn't make it suck any less. Ugh, where was she? Hopefully not at some weird halfway house again.
For those that remembered Jeff's list, that was the Detroit entry. No, she wasn't going to talk about it any further.
Running a hand through her disheveled dark locks, she forced her eyes open and found herself sitting in a chair in Xanadu's fortune telling parlor. Well, that was better than the halfway house by a thousand. She didn't really recall how she got here, nor did she really want to think of the implications of her wandering the streets of San Francisco as drunk as she was. Her dry mouth was starting to go sour, and she sincerely hoped that was because of dehydration and not other activities.
Again, reference Detroit.
The sound of a throat clearing itself got her attention and Zatanna found herself glancing to one side, seeing Madame Xanadu sitting in a nearby chair, looking prim and proper and patiently waiting for the younger girl to come to her senses. She had even been perusing one of her out-of-date magazines. "You're awake," she remarked drolly, flipping a page for dramatic effect..
"Yeah, it seems that way," Zatanna groaned as she grabbed onto the armrests of the chair she was slouching in, using them to help pull her up in her seat. "Good morning to you too, by the way. You got some Tylenol or a gun for my headache? I could go for either one at the moment."
Xanadu was dressed in a robe, one leg crossed over the other, her elbows resting on the arm rests. Her magazine was lying on top of the thigh of her top leg. Without a word, she moved her arms, reaching one hand into the sleeve of her opposite arm. She pulled out a small white bottle with a familiar red label. She tossed it towards Zatanna, who didn't even bother to try and catch it. That was the big reason why it struck her against her head and clattered to the floor.
She glared at the fortune teller. "You did that on purpose," she groused.
"The price for your hangover," the older woman countered as she closed her magazine and placed it on a small pile of other such reading material residing on a side table. "Mind telling me what you did that ended with you slumped in my waiting room?"
Zatanna would have leaned back in her seat if she wasn't already. She would have slumped instead, but gravity had beaten her to the punch, even after she had adjusted herself. She had slowly slipped back down her chair, but hadn't quite reached the point of readjusting. So she settled for blowing air out of her mouth, her lips flapping rapidly for a moment. "I went to a bar," she began and just as suddenly stopped. God, her head was pounding.
"I could have guessed that much. Either tell me your story, or kindly drag yourself into the back. I have business to conduct."
The magician rolled her head to one side to stare at her mentor. "Since when do you have business? Ever? I can't remember a time when you actually had a customer."
"How else do you think this parlor stays open?" Xanadu replied archly. "You are not here when I do my day job."
There was a moment's pause. "Touche," she finally relented. Zatanna closed her eyes as she tried to recall what she did last night. "I went to this place called the…the…I think it was called the Obvious Bar?"
"You found the Oblivion Bar?" Xanadu questioned.
"Invited, more like." A memory popped into her head and a long smirk grew on Zatanna's face. "I met your Jason friend."
Even hungover, she noticed a change in Xanadu's posture. She seemed to straighten herself out, her attention fully on her. "He's a pretty nice guy. He definitely knows how to treat a girl," the younger woman added coyly.
"Yes, he does, even the wrong ones," Xanadu said, taking a pot shot at her. That only amused Zatanna. "I suppose you told him about the hag."
"He definitely confirmed it. He was going to do his own investigating…I think. Things get a little hazy after that."
"It would seem you obtained a powerful ally in this matter," the older woman observed.
"Maybe. So tell me what you found on your end."
Before Xanadu could say what she had been able to learn, the door to the parlor suddenly swung open, the bell ringing. Immediately, Zatanna winced from the sound. Ugh, her headache was pounding harder now.
"Hello?" a cautious voice called out. "This is Madame Xanadu's place, right?"
Opening her eyes that had naturally squeezed shut from the pounding in her head, Zatanna saw a young woman wearing a jean jacket and blue jean pants. There was an anxious look on her face and she was tightly holding onto a book that was pressed into her chest.
"That's what the sign says, right?" Zatanna replied, perhaps a touch irritated. "What do you want?"
"I need your help," the young woman immediately responded, fully entering the waiting room and letting the door close behind her.
"Huh, so you do get customers," Zatanna said as she glanced to her mentor.
Xanadu ignored her, instead uncrossing her legs as she stood up. Her sole focus was on her customer. "That book is radiating power. Wherever did you get it?"
"I think that's part of my problem," the woman said. "I'm being chased by this monster and it wanted this book."
Zatanna felt lost. What was so important about the book anyways? She wasn't seeing anything all that special, despite what Xanadu said. Then again, her head was foggy and hungover. Summoning up some magic so that she could peer through the magical plane, she then noticed exactly what the fortune teller was talking about. There was this dark aura that permeated the book, not quite foreboding per se, but it was definitely attention getting.
That caused her to frown. When Zatanna first learned magic in this very city, she was practically assaulted by all of the residue magicks that infested it. With the magic she was sensing from that book, she should have noticed it instantly. In fact, she was just now beginning to notice the magicks contained in the fortune telling parlor, ones she was quite familiar with.
Something didn't feel right about that.
Xanadu approached the woman, but stopped by the curtain that separated the waiting room and the actual parlor. "Come, you are in a safe place," she assured the troubled woman. "Tell me about this monster of yours."
A grateful look appeared on the woman's face as she immediately walked through the doorway. "Zatanna, come," Xanadu ordered sharply, causing the dark-haired woman to wince again.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," she grumbled as she struggled to get out of her chair. She stumbled once she was on her feet, but she managed to keep upright.
Xanadu didn't look that impressed. "Clean yourself up and then join us," she then ordered.
"Nag, nag, nag." Zatanna stopped when she noticed the look her teacher was giving her. "I mean, okay, I'll do that."
"My name is June Moone, and I'm an antiquity restorer for the Palace of Fine Arts."
Zatanna had done as she had been commanded and made herself presentable. Admittingly, she just used a spell to rid herself of her hangover; you would too if you had a magical cheat code too.
Of course, she felt she needed to change out of her casual wear and had put on a new outfit. It wasn't her stage show costume because she didn't feel as if it would instill a lot of confidence in this museum worker. There was a time and place for fishnet stockings after all.
Instead, she looked as if she were about to drop some jaws in the streets of San Fran, or so she thought. Blue jeans, a cute top that showed off her girls, and a styling leather jacket that juuuuust reached her waistline. Yep, she was ready to hit the streets and she had a feeling she would be soon.
"I specialize in the restoration of old manuscripts," June continued. "It's fun, especially when it's books with history to them. Sometimes, I can't help but wonder what it was like to have actually written these books."
"An admirable profession," Xanadu praised. "I am safe to assume that the book you carry is one such book?"
June shook her head. "Not exactly. I was doing some research on it and I kinda went real late. It was when I was cleaning up and placing the book in the vault when I was attacked."
"What were you attacked by?" Zatanna asked. The three of them were seated around Xanadu's table, her crystal ball situated at its center. The normal ambience of the room was giving this little meeting a creepy vibe.
"I honestly don't know," the woman confessed. "It was this ugly…thing. It demanded I turn the book over to it and I ran. It was like something out of a horror movie, ya know? And of course I kept looking over my shoulder like an idiot. Every room I passed through, this darkness would just fill it. It sounds crazy, I know."
"And we believe you," Zatanna assured her. "Don't think that we don't."
"I wouldn't blame you if you didn't," she replied. "Even as I'm telling you this, I'm questioning if I saw what I saw."
"Such is the nature of the supernatural," Xanadu intoned. "Please, continue."
"Well, naturally I tripped at the worst moment. The next thing I know, I'm flipped over onto my back and this monster is hovering over me. When I say its face was nightmarish, I mean I'm going to have nightmares about it for the rest of my life. It looked as if its skin had dried out and it was all wrinkly. Its eyes were glowing with pure evil and it had these misshapen teeth. It said something about wanting to feed on something, but I have no idea what."
"Why not?" Zatanna questioned.
"Well, it got interrupted." June looked down as she reached a hand up to this necklace around her neck. She slipped her fingers behind a little metal cross and held it up for them to see. "My necklace suddenly began to glow and it threw itself away from me. That's the best way I can describe it. That's when I grabbed the book and got out of there."
Xanadu held a hand out. "May I?"
June looked confused, so Zatanna decided to clarify for her. "If we could see your necklace," she gently said. "We may be able to give you a reason as to why it did what it did."
"Oh!" June immediately moved both of her hands behind her head, fiddling with the clasp that was behind her neck. Undoing it, she then held the necklace out to Xanadu, who accepted it and brought it closer to her.
After a moment, she then spoke, "I can feel an old enchantment within this necklace. Wherever did you get it?"
"It was a gift from my grandmother. It's some kind of heirloom, I think? She just said it had been passed down my family for generations."
"It is a good thing it was." Xanadu held the necklace back to her, which June accepted back. "There is a warding spell contained within it. It was that which drove away the dark entity that attacked you."
"A spell?" the young woman questioned, even as she put the necklace back on, fiddling with the clasp behind her head. "You mean like magic?" She glanced down at the cross. "Wouldn't a blessing be more appropriate for…?"
Well, since she brought it up, Zatanna had to agree. There seemed to be something wrong with having a spell placed on a cross.
"You could view it as such," Xanadu responded, clearly not the least bit hung up on that. "In a way, you are blessed that it contained such power. Without it, I fear you would not be here."
June froze before she seemed to shrink in on herself. "Do you have any idea what it is?" she asked weakly.
"I need to ascertain more information before I can tell you something more definitive," Xanadu told her. "Such as the book you brought with you."
Said book was lying on the table in front of June. Her hands instinctively went to rest on top of it. "This is an old manuscript, the Sworn Book of Honorius."
Xanadu actually jerked in her seat, her eyes darting down to the book. "The original?" she pressed.
"Uhh, yeah, it is."
A frown appeared on the older woman's face. "I'm afraid that does not narrow down what this creature possibly is. Any number of ancient apparitions and dark creatures would kill to have that book."
Zatanna held up a hand. "Uhh, for the rest of the class, could you tell me what the Sworn Book of Honorius is?"
June actually answered her. "It's considered one of the oldest spellbooks, or grimoire, in the world. It's like the granddaddy of them all. I'm sure you've heard about the Necronomicon, right?"
"Yeah, with Cthulhu and all that. Who hasn't?"
"Well, this book predates that by centuries. In fact, you could say the Necronomicon is inspired by it."
Oh, well, that explained Xanadu's reaction. "Is there something special about the original? Aside from it obviously being the original?"
"You can buy copies of it online if you want one."
"None of which would serve the purpose of this dark entity," Xanadu interjected. "The power this grimoire possesses cannot be passed on by the mass production of today's modern printing machines. The men who wrote it used enchantments and spells to give it power."
"And that isn't transferable by a printing press, got it." Zatanna looked to June. "So what can this thing do?"
"Demon summoning, spell casting, treasure location," she listed off. "If you believe in that sort of thing, of course."
Zatanna felt her insides go cold. She vividly recalled her first and last encounter with a demon and that hadn't been a pleasant experience. Her eyes staring down at this grimoire, she couldn't help but ask, "So why did you bring this here? After you escaped the monster, I mean."
"I didn't really know where else to go," June confessed. "I did a google search for getting away from monsters and spirits, and this place was one of the top results, so I came here."
Ah, the magic of the internet. For some reason, Zatanna had forgotten about that.
Zatanna turned her head to gaze at her teacher. "So any ideas as to why it attacked June?"
The fortune teller shook her head. "There are far too many possibilities to make an educated guess. I suppose I could search the magical plane, but perhaps a more physical approach is necessary. Go to the museum and see what you can discover."
"You want me to go to the museum? Why? What if that monster is still there?"
"Then you can defeat it and end this poor woman's suffering," Xanadu said matter-of-factly.
"But what if it gets me instead?" Zatanna countered.
"Then that is a risk I am willing to take."
Okay, so someone apparently had a lot of money, because damn.
Zatanna stared up at the famed Palace of Fine Arts. The architecture was awe-inspiring. A towering edifice with a dome on top stood at its center. It was complimented with these looming arches in its design, wings of columns that stretched out on either side. It was surrounded by a garden that encircled a lake.
Yeah, someone really shelled out some big bucks for this place.
Yet, this wasn't the place she was heading for. She was heading for the main museum rather than its garden. It was a rather less impressive building, but everything was less impressive than that iconic edifice. The main building, from the outside, looked like three rectangular buildings, each connected further back from the front, columns filling in the gaps between the three. A staircase led up to the entrance, thankfully not that steep-looking.
Remember when Zatanna mentioned she had dressed herself up? Yeah, that included heels, something she seriously would have regretted if the steps were as steep as the ones at those Mayan ruins. She would have died halfway climbing those.
Well, she might as well get this over with. One hag-haunted museum, coming right up! Climbing up the stairs, the dark-haired woman's only companion was the sound of her heels striking the white marble the stairs were made of.
As she reached the top, she discovered that the entrance wasn't out front like she thought. No, a clever optical illusion made her think that as she found herself passing underneath an arched threshold, one that led into a plaza with a statue at its center. So scratch that three-building description, there were two wings on either side of her, connected to each other by the main wing directly ahead of her. It was further behind the statue that a set of doors were present. Encircling the plaza were the same columns.
Passing by the statue of a man sitting on a rock, Zatanna was heading for the doors when she heard, "Fancy meeting you 'ere."
Whipping her head around, she saw that British guy in the trench coat, leaning his back against the statue's pedestal, his hand shoved into his pockets. That was the guy that took her to the Oblivion Bar!
"Are you stalking me?" she demanded as she spun completely around. "Cause I'll have you know, I can use something a lot worse than mace on you."
"I believe it." The man pushed himself off the statue and casually strolled towards her. It was pretty clear he wasn't all that concerned with her threat. "That said, I think we have an investigation to conduct, don't ya think?"
"I don't even remember your name," Zatanna bluntly responded. "And my dad told me not to go off with strangers."
"Oh, I'm sure he did," the blond man agreed. He had the same unshaven stubble on his face, making the magician wonder if the guy ever shaved, or if he did, did he just grow back quickly. "I bet you were a complete daddy's girl."
"And Daddy taught his girl some nasty tricks. Come any closer and I'll show you them."
That caused him to stop his walking, leaving him standing a few feet away. "So if I understand you right, if you know my name, we'll be Even Stevens, yeah?" Without waiting for an answer, he said, "John Constantine's the name. There, now we're friends again, right?"
"You don't know my name, though," she pointed out.
John Constantine stared at her. "How snookered did Blood get you? The entire Oblivion Bar knows you're John Zatara's girl. You admitted as much."
Zatanna blinked her eyes. Okay, so she was having some missing memories. She hadn't had that happen since…well, it was probably best not to reveal that. It was a more recent occurrence than she liked to admit. "How do I know you're telling the truth?" she ventured.
Constantine held up a head, one finger extended. A small ball of yellow light appeared above it. "You mind?" he asked.
"Depends. What trick does it do?"
"It'll clear up that messed up memory of yours. Should clear up this little misunderstanding."
Really? Zatanna had to admit, she was rather curious about it. "By all means then," she consented.
With a flick of his finger, Constantine sent the yellow orb floating over towards her. It rose through the air until it came into contact with her forehead. In an instant, flashes of memories burst through her head. She recalled entering the Oblivion Bar, meeting Eddie and Nick and all the other strange creatures there. She remembered Nick getting pissed off at Constantine and her magically sitting him down. Then came everyone staring at her, realizing just whose progeny she was. Then came Jason Blood and the parts she could remember.
That was followed by running into Constantine outside of the bar. They chatted for a moment and then suddenly teleported, appearing outside of Xanadu's fortune telling parlor. Constantine sat her down on the ground next to the door, and that's where things ended, her falling asleep, and Xanadu finding her there, using her magic to move her to the chair in the waiting room she woke up in.
Then, just like that, they were gone. Zatanna blinked her eyes before she shook her head. Well, that was certainly a handy trick. Faintly, she wondered how many times Constantine had done the same to himself. A British guy who knew where the local watering hole was certainly had nights where he got blackout drunk.
"So, mind telling me why we're here?" Constantine asked. He had taken the opportunity to close the distance between them more, coming to stand next to her.
"There was a supernatural occurrence here," Zatanna answered him automatically. "A researcher here was attacked because of some special book of Honorius."
Constantine snapped his head towards her. "The Sworn Book of Honorius?" he demanded.
"Yeah, that's its name."
"Bloody Hell. How long has it been here?" He looked up at the building in front of them. "I'm surprised there's only been one attack."
Okay, so it seemed Zatanna really needed to look into all of these mystical artifacts and spell books. She was finding herself on the outside looking in when things like grimoires were brought up. Admittingly, that was partly her fault since she had chosen to hang out in Gotham and immerse herself in the local population there.
"Well, we're about to figure out what happened here. Think you can protect yourself?" she said.
"I believe I can figure something out." Then, the two began to walk up to the front doors. When they reached them, Constantine actually reaching out to open one of the doors and hold it for the dark-haired woman. Taking the offer, Zatanna strolled in and came to an immediate stop.
Good Lord, what was that stench?!
Nose wrinkling, Zatanna covered her nose and mouth with one hand. "What smells like rotten eggs?" she couldn't help but ask.
Constantine's face hardened as he came to stand next to her, the door closing behind them. "Nothing good, love," he answered her. "Nothing good at all."
Almost unwillingly, Zatanna began to venture further into the museum. The smell only grew worse until they found what they were looking for. It was pretty obvious too.
There were a couple of suits of armor that were lying on the floor, large gashes in their metal frames. One was relatively intact while the other had fallen into literal pieces. The smell was quite strong here too. "Okay, tell me if this is normal for whatever happened here," she inquired from her new friend.
Constantine didn't seem bothered by the smell, something Zatanna found herself jealous of. "It's only normal if something supernatural has been here."
"What, like a poltergeist?" Something about that clicked in her head. Movies always said that the smell of rotting eggs was a sign of a poltergeist infestation. Was that what happened here?
"Not necessarily." Constantine replied. "A lot of malevolent beings smell like that." He coolly gazed at the scene in front of them. "You're the one that led us here. Any idea what happened?"
"According to the researcher, some monster attacked her, wanting the grimoire she was working with. She said she was being chased by darkness that filled each room behind her. She ended up tripping around here, I'm guessing, and she saw the monster right before her enchanted necklace ran it off."
Constantine grunted. He walked over to one of the ruined suits of armor. "Did she mention this?"
"I don't think so," Zatanna replied as she began to follow the blond man. However, she felt like something was tugging at her. It was a nagging sensation, something that made her frown. Yet, when she took another step forward, it grew stronger.
What the heck was—
Suddenly, she was yanked forward. The entire room took on this faded, brownish tint. It looked exactly the same, save for the suits of armors standing on either side of the doorway in pristine condition. Whipping her head around, Zatanna found herself spinning around, searching for whatever had done this. It was at that moment she realized Constantine wasn't anywhere around.
No, seriously, what the hell was going on?
The sound of footsteps reached her ears then, Zatanna spinning back around to face the entrance to the room. June Moone came running through the doorway as if the Hounds of Hell were hot on her tail. She was carrying a couple books in her arms, one of which the dark-haired woman recognized as the Sworn Book of Honorius. An important detail though, was that June was the same faded brown color as the rest of the room.
The woman turned her head, slowing to a stop for whatever reason. Following where her eyes were looking, Zatanna found herself watching as the entire doorway faded into black darkness.
Suddenly, the suits of armor began to move. They turned on their stands, swinging up their swords that struck at the darkness. An ear-piercing shriek rang out, causing Zatanna to immediately slap her hands onto her ears. There was a muffled quality to the scream, but that didn't do much to dull just how painful that was.
The suits of armor began to move then, turning to face the darkness, only for the darkness to suddenly lash out. Spikes of darkness ripped through the suits before tossing them away, each one ending up where she and Constantine found them. June spun back around to begin running again and tripped over her own two feet, collapsing to the floor, where both of the books went sliding away from her, one further than the other. That was just how June had described her story.
Then something came out of the darkness. It was withered and old, long gangly hair hanging from its head. A flowing gown covered its body, though considering how thin it was, it was threatening to fall off at any time. It flipped June over onto her back and hovered over her.
It paused there, seemingly staring into June's soul. Then, it slowly began to turn its head, a creaking, bone-cracking sound that only ended when its head was staring towards Zatanna. Even faded, its eyes seemed to stare right into the magician.
"And what do we have here?" the creature spoke. "An interloper, I see.
Zatanna wasn't certain what was going on, so she just stared dumbfounded. The creature leaned backwards until it stood up straight, rotating its body to face her completely. "You should have minded your own business," it warned her. "No one interferes with the Enchantress."
Then that ear-bursting shriek came from the creature as it lunged at the magician, its arms raised up as she reached for her. On pure instinct, Zatanna called upon her powers, taking a step back as she too threw up her arms. "Enogeb nomed!" she shouted.
A bright, white light appeared, taking on the form of a circle with rune markings filling its insides. The light swallowed up the entire scene whole. Zatanna wasn't blinded by light, but she did find herself in a world of pure white light. Then it faded back into the museum room, all of its original vibrant colors present, but with Zatanna holding her arms up, the magical seal hovering in front of her hands.
"What the bloody hell are you doing?!" Constantine demanded from where he stood, holding up both of his own hands. Each hand was bathed in orange light, each one forming their own identical seal. "Put that down, will ya?"
Zatanna blinked her eyes as she looked around her. She could feel her magical energies tingling throughout her body. Slowly, she released them, her magical seal vanishing from sight. It was only then that she lowered her arms.
Constantine did the same, his own seals fading from sight. "You gonna tell me what screw looses popped off, or are ya gonna make me guess?"
The magician shook her head, her dark hair washing over her shoulders. "I…really don't know. Just now, I felt like I got sucked into some other place. It looked just like this place, just…faded, if that makes sense. I saw June come running, and everything she said happened…well, it happened."
The blond man slowly nodded his acceptance. "It sounds like you got pulled into a memory."
Zatanna raised an eyebrow. "Pulled into a memory?"
"For people that are sensitive to them, they're constantly getting yanked into 'em." He frowned for a moment. "What's your specialty again?"
"None that I know of, unless you count my backwards speaking spells."
This time Constantine shook his head. "Each mage has a talent for certain things. Your backwards speech is just a style. What I mean by specialty is that some people are better at controlling fire, or the like, savvy?"
Oh, so that was thing. Zatanna vaguely recalled Xanadu mentioning something about that when she first began learning magic, but it wasn't really a concern at the time. "I really don't know," she admitted. "I kinda just got into this magic thing. I guess I just haven't specialized."
Constantine raised an eyebrow this time. "Come off. People naturally gravitate to what they're best at. It's no different with mages. Surely you found yourself using certain spells."
"Not really, I haven't. I just kinda go with the flow, ya know?"
The blond man stared at her. "Well, this is a bother. You're gonna want to check into that before ya get hurt. If you're gifted towards memories, you could find yourself in a tight one and be rightfully screwed. You'd be walking into 'em and not even realize it."
Hmm, that kinda explained what happened to her now. She had felt that strange pulling until she was literally yanked into what happened with June. Was it possible she had walked right into her memory of her attack? Because of that, she knew how the suits of armor were damaged.
However, the way that monster had reacted to her presence…
Zatanna began to walk towards Constantine, who had turned away and taken a knee next to the closest suit of armor. "Have you ever been pulled into a memory?" she couldn't help but ask.
"Not really," he answered her, the man poking a finger into the gash, running it along its jagged edge. "I've heard others getting pulled by 'em."
"Well, I think that just happened to me. I felt this nagging feeling until the entire room just became this faded version of itself. I saw June come running in here, just like she described to me and Xanadu. I even saw how these suits of armor got damaged."
Constantine grunted as he pulled back his finger. "That's handy. So what happened?"
"Darkness was chasing her when the armors attacked it. There was this scream before the darkness attacked. It looked like spikes just tore through them and they were tossed away."
The blond man nodded. "I can feel an enchantment on the suit. Chances were a spell was placed on them to react to the presence of evil. It's not uncommon for old suits like these to have that feature, lucky for this June."
"The thing is…I saw the monster that attacked her. And it responded to me, like it turned to face me and spoke to me. Then it tried to attack."
Constantine went still before he turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. "It attacked you?" he repeated.
"Yeah," she confirmed.
His eyes glazed over as he turned his head back around. "That shouldn't have happened unless…"
Zatanna stared at him. "Unless what?"
"I think it's safe to say we ain't dealing with an apparition. This is something very real and very powerful."
"Tell me something I don't know."
Annoyingly enough, Constantine didn't answer her. Instead, he leaned forward, as if he were reaching for something. When he leaned back, he turned once more, but this time he was holding something up. "Here's the something ya don't know."
Zatanna stared at what the blond man was holding. It looked like some sort of card, or rather a badge. However, there was a picture on it along with a name…
Immediately, she snatched the badge from his hand. It couldn't be! She read the name over and over, but it didn't change one instant. "Eric Gordon," she read out loud.
"I'm guessing that name means something."
She nodded. "Yeah, this is the guy that Anita took me to, the body that got attacked by the hag."
Constantine stood up. "I think we know what attacked your June Bug now."
Yeah, they did. And now Zatanna was thinking that perhaps Eric Gordon was attacked for a reason other than his latent magical powers.
