CHAPTER NINE
Asset Retrieval
Tori Hey guys,
Kai has joined the chat
Zak has joined the chat
Tori I just got some videos from Sam… He's requesting back up for
going to get Dean and Aaron. I think Kit is there too.
Zak Is there blood?
Tori No, doesn't look like it…
Zak has left the chat
Tori Not it.
Kai Damnit.
Dean
Bang!
Slam!
What the hell? I cracked open my eyes and realized I was on Aaron's couch, with a hangover, and wearing the same jeans and gray t-shirt from
last night's escapades. At least I managed to get my shoes off, one point to me. With that thought, I rolled over and closed my eyes again.
Bam!
The thunderous crack of the fridge door slamming was my cue that I would not be getting anymore sleep. I sighed and sat up, my head hurt like a bitch, then pushed off the couch and trudged to the kitchen. And, lo and behold, there was Sam behind the counter, making blech, food.
"Hey there! Look who's awake," he said entirely too cheerfully, "hungry?"
I braced my hands on the counter, and shook my head sleepily, "Not really."
"Too bad." He gave me a haughty smile as he dropped some sort of vegetable into the pan.
I took a seat at one of the stools across from him and rested my head in my hand, in an attempt to block out the sunshine coming in from the window over the sink.
Thwack. Scraaape.
"Oh my God man!" I groaned, taking my hand away from my face, "Are you trying to cook as loud as possible?"
"Yep." He smirked, and finished scraping his omelet onto a plate.
"Ugh…" Aaron wandered into the kitchen, no shirt, and looking only slightly better than me, though he had managed to put on lounge pants last night. "What the hell is going on down here?" He groaned, coming to stand next to me.
"Nothin'," Sam smiled, "just cookin' breakfast."
Aaron gave him a dirty look, then wandered to the coffee machine next to the sink, "You make breakfast loud…" he grumbled, grabbing two cups from the cupboard overhead, "Yes?" he looked at me and held the coffee pot up.
I nodded enthusiastically. "Don't worry man," and took the steaming cup of ambrosia, "he's just got his panties in a twist because he didn't get to
come paintballing."
Sam cocked his head, "Actually, it was more the having to take an Uber at three a.m. to go get your drunk asses." He said through a mouthful of egg. "But hey, at least my panties are clean and I don't smell like ass." He dropped his plate and silverware in the sink, making Aaron and me wince.
"I don't smell like ass," I mumbled, took a sniff at my armpit, and gagged a little, "Okay, maybe I do."
Aaron snickered and took his phone out of his pocket, his face immediately sobering.
"What is it?" Sam asked,
Aaron held out his phone so Sammy and me could see, it was a message from Kai, reading: "I think we found your fae." He set the phone on the counter and opened the attached video clip. It was a twenty four hour gym, in flames. Firefighters were rushing to put out the flames while EMTs were running back and forth, and if we had any doubt this was our guy, two bodies were laid out in front of the gym, their rib cages split open.
My lips thinned and I looked up to Aaron and over to Sam, both looking just as unnerved as I assumed I did. I looked at my watch, "It's 9:35, how long will it take us to get there?"
Aaron stopped texting, "About fifteen minutes." He looked at Sammy and me.
"Awesome. Let's clean up and gear up."
"Wait." Aaron turned around and grabbed four small bottles out of the cupboard, two with purple-ish liquid and the other two with silvery. He set one of each on the counter in front of me. "Drink those first." He ordered, then tossed the silvery one back.
"Uh, heh, what are they?" I grimaced, looking at the suspicious liquid in front of me.
"Silver is a cleansing draught, purple is a vitality potion." He tossed the purple one back with a 'blech' and a whiskey grimace.
"Yeah, I don't--"
"They'll clear up the hangover." He stated and walked out of the kitchen.
Sam eyed the potions with a wrinkled nose, then looked at me and shrugged, "Bottoms up, I guess?"
--
"Ugh, that purple energy potion or whatever tasted like crap," I
scraped my teeth against my tongue, "I can't get it off my tongue."
"Sorry, I ran out of Zak's." Aaron answered absently, pulling the SUV around the corner to the gym. The video clip didn't do it justice. The place was torched. Fire trucks had put out the blaze by now, but the dark smoke billowing up from the one story building was still enough to block out what little sunshine there was on this already gray day. Even worse was that there didn't seem to be many ambulances lingering in the parking lot, which meant there weren't many survivors…
"Jesus." Sam whispered from the backseat.
"Holy shit." Aaron murmured. White knuckling the steering wheel, he pulled the SUV as close to the police barricades as possible and killed the engine. "Sam," he looked in the rearview to the backseat, "call Zak."
"Already on it."
He nodded, scanned the scene for a few more seconds like he was looking for someone, then hopped out of the car. "You two stay here." He ordered, before slamming the door shut and jogging past the barricades. I watched him weave through the cars until he stopped next to some silver sedan to talk to a tall, dark haired dude in jeans and a green hoodie. Kit?
I'd met Kit briefly yesterday after paintballing, when he'd joined Aaron and me at the bar for some harmless pool hustling. But with his superior hustling skills, general smart-assery and whiskey tolerance, I hadn't pegged him for a cop.
I looked behind me and saw that Sam was still typing furiously. I huffed, "Screw this." And hopped out of the car, slamming the door on Sammy's protests. Almost instantly, the sickening smell of crisped human hit my face. I don't think I'll ever get used to that smell. No one seemed to notice me as I weaved through the barricades and cars, and came up behind Aaron and Kit, who were discussing stuff.
"Did you call him?" Kit asked looking serious, and also warmer than me in his dark green hoodie, jeans and scuffed sneakers.
"Sam's on it." Aaron replied, his focus more on the building than on Kit.
"Hey there Dean." Kit nodded somberly when he spotted me over Aaron's shoulder.
Aaron looked over his shoulder, his expression less than happy. "I told you to stay in the car." His glare did not improve as I sauntered up to him and Kit, becoming the third point in our little triangle of trust.
"Did you actually think that I was gonna listen to that?" I laughed. As Kit snickered and Aaron gave me a 'fine, whatever' glare, I shoved my frozen hands into my pockets and stepped in closer so I could hear the whispers better.
"As I was saying," Kit sighed and looked back to the building, "it's pretty bad in there… The fire trapped a lot of people inside." He looked back to Aaron and me, worry written all over his face.
"How many victims?" I asked seriously.
Kit looked between Aaron and me, "We don't know if there are still bodies inside, but…" he took another deep breath, "The count so far is about twenty five, we don't know which ones are human or mythic yet."
"There were that many people at the gym that early? Seriously?" My exercise usually just involved running from something that was trying to kill me. I mean, I knew there were people who liked to go to the gym, I'd just figured it would be after lunch.
Kit canted his head and nodded. I looked to Aaron, but he hadn't seemed to have heard Kit, his eyes were fixed on the torched gym and the body-bag that the EMTs were currently hauling out.
"Can you get us in there?" I asked, rubbing my hands together and turning to Kit, whose stare had returned to the gym. I wasn't sure if he had heard me, but before I had to repeat myself, he turned, hands casually in the pockets of his jeans, and gave me a once over. He arched a suspicious eyebrow, and sighed.
"I'll see what I can do." Then walked off toward the gym.
Five minutes later, Kit, Aaron and me were ducking under the giant police tape 'x' hastily stuck to the door.
Kit coughed, and took a step closer to me. "Alright, Sherlock," he shoved his hand in his pockets again, "you've got approximately four point five minutes before we need to skedaddle… So, you know, look hard."
As I looked around, all I could think was 'shit'. The low ceiling was blackened and its innards were falling out. Wires, ventilation, and lights
making a kind of nightmarish rainforest. The floor was a nasty, scorched black, some, well, a lot, of the of the workout equipment was melted, creating a sickening smell of melted plastic and burnt flesh.
"A pyromage must have been here, and not a well trained one either." Aaron said to no one in particular as he looked around the room.
"A guy like you? How do you know?" I looked around.
He pointed to the unnaturally round burn marks spread across the room. "Natural fire spreads quickly from one flammable thing to the next, it doesn't focus its energy in one spot."
"Yeah, that's what we're thinking too. This place was a sleeper guild." Kit said softly. Then stepped between Aaron and me. "C'mon, let's go." He led us past what was probably once a spin classroom, judging by the melted bikes, then into the back of the gym. And lying next to the free-weights was one of the victims, un-burnt and still un-bagged.
As Aaron took another deep breath, I knelt next to the poor guy, his rib cage cracked open, just like all the others and what was left of him, ghost white from the complete blood loss.
"Does this look familiar to you or somethin'?" Kit asked casually.
"Yes." I stood up and dusted my hands on my jeans, "Unfortunately."
Kit arched an eyebrow at Aaron.
"I'll explain later." Aaron said, sounding frustrated.
Kit smiled, "Yeah, let's just keep this to ourselves for now. In the meantime…" he nodded his head to the back exit. "You guys gotta go."