Chapter 13
Zhen
The rest of the weekend amused me, to say the least. I barely saw Jo Jo at all. He was too busy playing with Charlotte. I didn’t mind much, because it meant I got an unexpected weekend with Kris, and we absolutely took advantage. But I’d also kind of hoped to hang out with him more.
Clearly, I now competed with Charlotte.
Anyway, I’d barely seen much of Jo Jo until this morning, which made sense. Charlotte and Kris both were due in for work later today, which meant us guys also had to work today at some point. Jo Jo couldn’t ignore Jasha’s sword any longer, and it was the sole reason he was in town. Supposedly.
We trooped out to my workshop to finally deal with the problem child.
I was midway through my breakfast brownie—yes, breakfast brownie because I was an adult and could make decisions like that—watching Jo Jo decipher the sword’s curse. I figured it’d be a ho-hum routine. I only sat here in my workshop as backup in case something screwy happened.
I didn’t expect the screwy to come out of my friend’s mouth. “What do you mean, you already asked Charlotte to be exclusive? You went on two dates!”
“A pretty girl who thinks I’m sexy and funny wants to date me—of course I locked that shit down!” He huffed hair out of his eyes and gave me this look like What’s your problem?
How should I order the list? “Uh, you realize she was engaged like three months ago. Granted, it was an arranged marriage with an asshole, but…”
“We talked about that last night. She said there were no emotions involved in the arrangement. She was mad he cheated on her because it hurt her pride, but she has no lingering attachment to him.”
Jo Jo had been dropped off in the wee hours of the morning, so I’d figured the second date had gone well, but damn. Should I be writing a best man speech?
“You do realize if you screw up with Charlotte, I’ll be obligated to beat your ass on my wife’s account.”
Jo Jo laughed. “I’ll be good to her, promise. I didn’t want to make her feel pressured, but…I dunno know, something just clicked, man.”
My brain was still playing catch-up to the whole scenario.
I’d never seen Jo Jo legitimately date before.
Most women heard what he did for a living and noped right out.
It was an unpredictable profession that impacted daily life, after all.
I could understand why Jo Jo would want to leap on this opportunity because a pretty woman who knew what he did for a living seemed to be just as interested in him. In his shoes, I’d absolutely latch on.
Well, I kinda had with Kris, come to think of it.
In that case, who was I to play judge? The pair of us were not so different.
My phone rang on the table, and I picked it up automatically. Could be a spam caller, could be legit, but I didn’t know the number. A common occurrence in my line of work. I hit Accept and Speaker, still munching on my breakfast brownie. Damn good brownies Grandma had made.
“Hello? Is this Zhen Barre?” A worried yet professional voice came through the line.
“It is. Who’s this?”
“Hi, I’m sorry to be calling out of the blue—”
“Naw, don’t be, that’s a common occurrence in my line of work. Spooky things have horrible timing. It’s a whole thing.”
“Oh, good. Um, my name is Marie Hernandez, Airport Operations Manager of the Demonbreun Airport.”
Jo Jo and I shared a speaking look. Uh-oh. Never a good thing when a bigwig called. Made me wonder what was on fire.
“I don’t know how to say this and it not sound insane.”
“Don’t worry about that, either. No one has topped my top five most insane statements yet. Just tell me the situation.”
“So, um, are you aware that the doll Annabelle is on tour right now in the United States?”
I stopped breathing. FUCKING WHAT?!
The most haunted doll ever, that housed a literal demon, was on a little jaunt around the United States? Like some kind of fucking celebrity? Who in their ever-loving right mind had thought this a good idea?
Jo Jo abruptly dropped what he was doing and raced to the table. “Hi, I’m Jo Jo Ramshaw, also a demon slayer. Please, please do not tell me you lost Annabelle.”
I looked at my friend with horror crawling up my spine. You know the feeling you get when you’re in a haunted location and every fiber of your being begs you to listen to your survival instincts? Yeah. That feeling.
Hernandez let out a gusty sigh that sounded like it was mixed with tears. “I’m afraid we did. Somehow, the suitcase was mislabeled or something. I’m not sure what happened—and believe me, I’m trying to find out—but the doll’s now in lost luggage at our airport.”
I let out a sharp breath. “Okay. Okay, this could be worse. But it’s still in the box, right? No one took a demon-possessed doll out of the box?”
“Not to my knowledge. It’s just in the lost luggage room, and we’re honestly worried about trying to find it. We’ll have to open up suitcases, and I’ve been told the suitcase itself has a warded seal on it, which I don’t want to undo.”
“Listen, Miss Hernandez, I am so, so glad you called. Thank you for using common sense. You absolutely should not open a sealed suitcase, that’s like Don’t Do That 101. Thank you for being smart. I’m on my way, okay, do NOT go into the lost luggage room. Shut that room down and post security.”
Her voice perked up. “Thank you! I’ve got security on the door already. What’s your ETA?”
“Fast as I can fucking get there. And I live, like, twenty minutes away from the airport with traffic. Just hold the fort down.”
“Will do. Meet me at the Arrivals door, it’s closest to the luggage room.”
“Got it.” I hung up and told Jo Jo as I grabbed my brownie plate, “I’m getting Kris. Grab the two black duffle bags near the door, those have all my gear, throw them in Kris’s car. I’ll meet you there.”
He shooed me on and I was out of the workshop in a flash and into the balmy morning air, up the back steps, and into the kitchen.
It was only nine a.m., early for Kris, and knowing my wife, she was curled up in bed still.
Which was usually fine but meant I had to wake her up for the incoming shitshow.
I wanted my wife nowhere near this city right now, not with this situation. But goddamn if my protective instincts didn’t rival the logic screaming Jo Jo and I weren’t enough. If the worst-case scenario happened, Kris would have to be our distress signal.
I skidded to a halt in the doorway of the bedroom and, sure enough, there she was, snoozing peacefully with two kitties draped across her chest and thighs, a huodou conked out at the foot of the bed. It looked cozy and sweet but, unfortunately, I needed her up. NOW.
I went for the bed, sidestepping Guo, and shook her shoulder. “Kris, wake up!”
My wife’s eyes fluttered open, but there was no discernable intelligent life anywhere. She was very much in blank document mode. I tried again. “Kris, we gotta go.”
She lifted her eyes by degrees, a woman absolutely not in the mood for my shit. “My excellent book kept me up past midnight. I like my sleep, so this better be good.”
“They lost Annabelle.”
It took long dragging seconds for my words to click. “Like, the haunted doll? From the movie? Is that really a thing?”
“More like demon-possessed doll, and very real, but yes.”
Kris abruptly looked more awake. “What do you mean lost?!”
“Airport called, they’ve lost the doll. It’s in lost luggage somewhere and that’s really not good.”
She immediately sat up and shifted cats off her lap, causing much protest from the cozy felines. “Yup, let’s go. Give me details on the way.”
“Happy to.”
While she half stumbled, half ran into the bathroom to put real pants on, I grabbed her purse and keys. Her Volvo was behind my truck, and it wasn’t worth the hassle to back her car out just to take my truck. Speed was the name of this game.
Jo Jo was already in the back seat by the time we got in. I drove, mostly because Kris obeyed speed limits and we ain’t got time for that.
She half turned in her seat to speak to both of us. “All right, fill me in. Annabelle is demon possessed?”
“Right. No one’s sure what demon.” I grimaced.
“The last priest who tried to do a showdown with the Raggedy Ann doll opened the protective case and sat in a room alone with it for an hour. Came out catatonic, with bleeding eyes, and didn’t speak for months.
So, obviously, no one’s willing to try that again.
The Catholic church renews the ward on its box once a week because it’s all they can do in terms of keeping it sealed.
They’re not strong enough to exorcise the demon. ”
“Sweet eight-pound baby Jesus.” Her voice sounded strangled.
“’Bout sums it up. If, god forbid, that doll breaks out of the case? It’ll do things to people that will make Hannibal look like Hello Kitty.”
Jo Jo scoffed in the back seat. “We’re minorly capable adults, we can find the doll before all hell breaks loose.”
“Dude, knock on wood when you say that shit!”
Through the rearview mirror, I watched him promptly put knuckles to head. Which, honestly, was about right.
Kris kept us on track because, let’s face it, she was the adultiest adult in the car. “So, Plan A is to find the doll, get it back in the right hands, redo a seal if the seal is undone?”
“Bingo.” Look at her, being all smart and cute.
“If that fails, Plan B is what?”
“Depends on the situation. If the seal on the suitcase is undone and the box is out, we cram it back into the case with more seals, yell at the idiot who opened it to begin with, then hand it back over to the right people. If, god forbid, the doll gets completely loose and out of its box, then we’re fucked and will have to call in more people.
Jo Jo and I alone are not nearly enough firepower. ”