14. Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen
Clay
“I’m n-not really that i-interesting.” It was easy to see his nerves taking over, and I didn’t want that for him. I believed he had good reasons for his actions. I just wanted him to tell me what they were.
I attempted to set him at ease. “See, like that. You were perfectly fine when you got here, but after I mentioned how much I was interested in you, you got nervous and the stutter you usually control popped up. I promise you, Justin, nothing you tell me will make me less interested in you. We all have idiosyncrasies, but they set us apart from other people. I’m open minded, and I really want to know why you’re so on edge. ”
“S-sorry. I—”
Suddenly, Justin stopped speaking as if his air had been cut off. An entirely different expression crossed his face, and he tilted his head a bit and smirked at me.
“Okay, time for a shot of truth. I’m Ramon Blanco. You can look me up if you want. The kid found me on the internet.” His voice was deeper and he had an accent I hadn’t heard from him.
“Excuse me, what?” What the hell? His entire demeanor changed in the flash of an eye. My astonished stare didn’t seem to slow him down.
“I’m what you might call a spirit who possessed your friend, Justin. See, he and Eve came to New Orleans with a group of douchebags for his birthday. They summoned me back from a place between Heaven and Hell, and I saw my shot to get a second chance to find out who the fuck killed me.
“I died in St. Louis in 1996. I was shot by some bastard I might know, but I need Justin to give me the chance to find out which one. You could help with that, you know.”
My eyes went wide for sure. “Say again?”
“Oh, you’re one of those non-believers. Hey, come with us to St. Louis and help the kid out.
He’s not keen to do as I say, so I have to take over and make him do the shit I need him to do.
Right now, he’s screaming bloody murder in my head.
” He even laughed a laugh I hadn’t heard from Justin in the few times we’d hung out.
“Why would we go to St. Louis?” I was damn near in a panic because it seemed as if Justin had a multiple personality disorder or maybe a catastrophic mental breakdown.
I wasn’t a doctor or even a good scholar. I had no idea what a mental disorder looked like or how severe one could become before the person was a threat to themselves or others.
Justin scraped his thumb along the grain of the wooden tabletop before he smirked.
“Well, you could come along to keep Justin from coming to harm. I need to go to DeLuca’s on the Hill.
My social club meets there, and I’d like to talk to a few of my former colleagues.
You see, I used to belong to a family—or la famiglia—in St. Louis.
We had a company... a business... a thing. ”
He emphasized the word thing as I’d heard in mafia movies and television shows, nodding with me as I figured out what he meant.
Justin—Ramon?—then continued. “I was high up in the food chain before someone shot me. I just wanna know who before I leave the kid alone. This is my only shot at figuring it out before I get dragged back to Hell.” He appeared as though he was completely serious.
I had no idea what to say, so I simply nodded again. “Is this for real?”
“I’m not kidding around.”
“Is this some sort of a test to see if—hell, I’m not sure what kind of test this would be.” That was no fucking lie.
“It’s not a test. This is for real, and I don’t have a lot of time. I did some bad shit back in my day, but I want to know who killed me. Is that too much to ask?”
The sincerity on his face wasn’t fake—or to the best of my ability to judge it didn’t look fake. “Well, if you need me to go with you to St. Louis, I’ll go. I, uh, I guess the harvest can wait a couple of days.”
I was torn between keeping Justin safe and calling the cops to lock him up. I was attracted to him and didn’t want him to be committed to an institution, but dear god, I was afraid he was going to hurt himself or someone else. I couldn’t live with myself if he did.
“Have you ever heard of The Hill? It’s a section of St. Louis City that’s largely Italian, but not entirely.
Various other groups run different parts of the city, but my family runs The Hill.
One of them killed me, and I wanna know who.
The kid is gonna help me, and if you care about the kid, you’ll help too. ”
The server returned with our food—ribs, brisket, coleslaw, and corn on the cob. I ordered another beer because my hotel was close enough I could walk—or crawl, if necessary—but I was fucking worried about Justin.
Without waiting for my response, Justin picked up a rib from my plate and dug into it with a fervor I hadn’t seen from him before.
He was sheepish about eating, or so I’d noticed previously.
Nothing about Justin’s current behavior fit with the man I’d met and become attracted to—though, the invitation to have sex more than once certainly fit the personality of the man currently sitting across from me.
“Uh, I’m not sure what’s going on, but should I call someone? Justin, this is a little different, uh...mood than I’ve seen in the few times we’ve gone out together.” Would my comments set him off? Fuck if I knew.
Suddenly, Justin’s demeanor changed again. “Please, Clay, forgive me, but it’s not me—”
Then Justin’s face changed again. “God, he can be a whiny bitch. Anyway, you gonna help us, or don’t you give a shit about the kid? If you come along, I might not get the kid killed.”
My brain was scrambled as I sat there watching the whole thing play out right in front of me. What did he mean he might not get the kid killed?
This was definitely new territory for me. “I...” I pulled my phone from my jeans’ pocket to call 9-1-1, when there was a loud growl next to me. I glanced down to see one of those big fucking dogs and the man holding the leashes. “Oh, hey.” Maybe I was the one suffering from a mental break?
Justin stared at the man as if he knew him.
“Look, EZ, you gotta give me a break on this. Someone left the prison door unlocked and I was in the right place at the right time. I just need to find out which one of the theivin’ bastards popped me.
Knowing what you know about me, you gotta let me find out, EZ. ”
The handsome man with the smoldering good looks who I’d seen in my dream the previous week stared at me. Along with the gigantic dogs.
“You know the rules, Ramon. If you’re summoned during a séance, you return to Hades when it’s done. You don’t go rogue and possess an innocent human.” The guy with the dogs jumped as if he was going to hit Justin, but I wasn’t about to let that happen.
I grabbed his bicep. “I can’t let you hit him.” I stepped between EZ and Justin, who was cowering behind me.
The man turned to me, smiled, and snapped his fingers. “Okay. Damnation, go get him.”
The dog lunged for Justin, bared teeth and snarling.
The other dog went around the table to stand behind Justin, and suddenly, the dog disappeared for an instant before he appeared again with the strangest thing I’d ever seen: A nearly transparent man was dragged by the leg along the travertine tile.
The other dog jumped on him and breathed fire right into the man’s face.
Both dogs’ eyes were glowing red as they turned to EZ, awaiting further instructions. I glanced around the room to assess the other patrons’ reactions, but everyone was completely still as though a movie had been paused.
“Ho-ly fuck! What the hell?” I hurried over to Justin, who was flat on the floor with his eyes closed. I quickly touched his neck, grateful to feel a strong pulse. The relief was all encompassing.
EZ smirked as he snapped his fingers at the dogs to get their attention. “Run him to Hell.” Before I could blink, the spirit was running with those two massive dogs chasing him, snarling with jaws snapping.
Suddenly, Justin opened his eyes and gasped. “Jesus Fuck! What’s going on?”
“I have no idea, but I’m glad to see and hear you.” I held his face in my hands and gently kissed his lips. The entire encounter had to be a wild fever dream, but I wouldn’t waste the chance to kiss him before I woke.
“Sorry to bust this up,” the guy called EZ said.
“But I gotta get going. Ramon will be destroyed unless you can provide any redeeming quality he might have. I can give you two weeks in human time, but that’s it.
He broke the rules, so he’ll be punished for that.
Meanwhile, I have to find out who released him.
If you don’t think he’s worth redemption, go on about your life and never give him a second thought.
But if you think there was a moment where you felt any compassion for him at all, then maybe try to find out who killed him and why. ”
I helped poor Justin from the floor and wrapped my arm around his shoulders to steady him. “Give him a day to think about it.” Fuck if I knew what else to say.
“What kind of dogs were those?” Justin asked.
EZ smirked. “They’re hellhounds. This is their job, to retrieve spirits that escape to cause turmoil on the middle plane. I’m what you could call a demon hunter, and Damnation and Hellfire are my counterparts. I find ‘em, and they take ‘em back where they belong.”
With a quick salute and a muttered, “I’ll be in touch,” he was out the door and the noise inside the restaurant resumed. I scanned the room to see no one seemed fazed by what had just transpired.
I took Justin’s hand and led him out of the restaurant and straight to my truck. He hadn’t spoken since EZ disappeared, and I was afraid he was going into shock. Did Justin need medical attention? How would I even explain what happened to a medical professional?
“Justin, darlin’, please talk to me. I’m freaking out, but you’ve gotta explain to me what’s really going on. I’m not sure what I believe or what I don’t.” I opened the passenger door for him and helped him inside, buckling him into the seat because he didn’t move to do it himself.