Firefight in Darkness (17 page)

“You knew her?” Blythe asked, astonished.

Loretta turned to her son, who was watching her curiously. “Yes, yes I knew her. I met her when I was seventeen and started working at the club. She must have been thirty by then, she looks quite a bit younger in this picture than she was when I knew her, but it’s definitely her.” Then she looked back down at the picture, and back up at Blythe, and her mouth opened in surprise. “Goodness, Blythe, you look just like her! I didn’t even notice before. Are you related to her?”

“I’m her granddaughter.” Blythe managed, her thoughts racing as she tried to figure out the logic of it all. “So she worked at the club with you?”

“Yes, but only for a few years. Then one day, she and her little boy were gone.” Misty eyed now at the memory, Loretta sniffled. “She was such a nice woman, so lovely and kind. She took good care of me when I started out. I was so sad when she left, without even a note or a goodbye.”

“Mama, you remember her son?” Jax asked, his hand resting on his mother’s shoulder in comfort.

“Barely, he was just a little thing, maybe six or seven, but she brought him around every day. I didn’t pay much mind to him because I was busy doing my own thing, but I do remember him being there. Cute boy, black hair, light brown eyes. Quiet and well mannered as far as I remember.” She handed the picture back to Blythe, only to suddenly press her hand to her heart. “Lord, is he the uncle you’re looking for? The one who did bad things?”

“Yes.” Blythe frowned down at the picture, a sick feeling in her stomach. She glanced up at Jax, who was watching her, a strange mix of uncertainty and dread in his eyes. “Do you remember where they lived?” She turned back to Loretta, who still looked shocked and dismayed.

“I believe they lived near the airport, in a little house she rented. I might still have the address in my book.”

“See if you can find it.” Jax turned to Blythe as Loretta rushed out of the room to find her address book. His face was grim. “Well, that literally was lucky.”

“Tell me about it.” Blythe huffed, blowing at her bangs as she considered. “God, that means he lived in El Paso for awhile as a kid. I wonder why Bristol would have come here, of all places. And, no offense, but why was she dancing?”

“Back then it was one of the only ways to make decent money as a single mother.” Jax rubbed his chin as he thought. “This puts us one step ahead of him now, as I don’t think he intended on us finding out about this. If she has the address, then we need to go there immediately and see if he’s there.”

“Sounds good to me.” She agreed, rubbing her arms to chase away the chill that suddenly raced over her.

♦ ♦ ♦

Their luck held out, as Loretta did have the address of where Bristol had lived all those years ago with her son. With their devices on and ready, they pulled up to the house and parked on the street. Together, they stepped out and leaned against the car to get a better view.

“This looks like a really old neighborhood.” Blythe observed as she stared around at the quiet street cluttered with tiny, nondescript houses that were, in most cases, worse for the wear. She spotted an elderly man mowing his lawn several houses down, and a few beat up looking pickup trucks drove by as they got out of the car.

“This isn’t the best neighborhood, but it’s certainly not the worst.” Jax commented as he looked at the house that Bristol had rented over thirty years earlier. “She cared about where she raised her son, she wanted him to have a decent shot at a decent life.”

Snorting, Blythe eyed the petite house with its peeling beige paint, ancient shutters, and weed infested lawn. “Too bad he didn’t get the message.”

Ignoring her sarcasm, Jax used the scanner on his device to look for a demon presence, only to have it turn up nothing. Immediately he switched to scan for Dryad, and when the radar line wound around the circle, it picked up two dots, one red, one green.

The red dot, as he concluded by its appearing right beside him, was Blythe. But the green dot was near the front porch, as if he had been sitting there for awhile, waiting.

“He was here, probably only a few hours ago, but we’ve missed him.” Shutting the device off, he slipped it into his pocket. “I thought he led us to El Paso because of me, because of my connection to this town. But now I know he led us here because of his own connection to it.”

“At least you know he’s not going after your mom.” Blythe reminded him, patting him on the shoulder. “So what now?”

“Since Dante lived here for a few years, there’s a chance he discovered some of the other demons who live here. He might have paid them a visit.”

“Oh, but it’s much too difficult to locate every demon here because there’s almost three million demons on this planet.” Blythe rattled off mockingly, only to turn up to glance at him with a grin. “Right?”

He snorted and shook his head, amused by her rather than insulted. “This is true, but odds are he knows who the hot shots are in this city, and it so happens that so do I.”

“Well, what are we waiting for then? Let’s go.” She punched his arm playfully and began to turn around to climb into the car, only to have him snag her back and pull her against him.

His face was just inches from hers, his eyes intense but his smile teasing. “I forgot to give this to you earlier, even though you claimed you didn’t want it.” He gave her a fast, hard kiss, then released her, stepping back to round the front of the car towards the driver’s seat door.

She stood where she was, biting her lip against the need that was pulsing through her at that moment. The fact that he could incite it within her with something so simple as a quick, meaningless kiss, meant she was in deep trouble.

Frowning to herself, she got into the car and found she had nothing clever to say for once.

♦ ♦ ♦

They pulled up to what looked like an old, run down bar on the outskirts of town beside the border. The white stucco of the building had rust stains on the sides of it where nails had been exposed and bled in the rain over the years. There were no windows, except a couple of boarded up ones near the back, and only one small, barred door off to the side. A sign above the door read
Ricky’s
in faded red and green print. Despite it being only four o’clock, there were already four or five cars parked out front.

“Lemme guess, we’re going in to see Ricky?” Blythe joked, hoping to God there were no cockroaches inside. She already felt apprehensive about the cleanliness of the place since the sidewalk and asphalt around the building had cracks in it where weeds were joyfully growing. That was, in her experience, never the sign of a well maintained establishment.

“He’s a good guy.” Jax replied easily, opening the door for her to enter. She rolled her eyes and slipped past him, her hand itching for her gun that was hidden in her waistband. Now that she knew how to shoot, she was dying to have to chance to actually use it.

The inside of the bar was dimly lit and cluttered with tables, chairs, a pool table, darts, and a few ancient arcade games. A long, wooden bar stood at the far end, with bar stools beneath it already occupied by a few shady looking bastards. Over the bar hung an old television set, currently set to a baseball game. Other than the cheering sounds from the crowd on the TV, the bar was silent as a tomb.

Jax pressed gently into the small of her back to edge her further into the room, leading towards the bar. She noticed a door off to the right that she assumed led to the backroom. Out of that door came a man, and when he saw them he stopped in his tracks.

“Jackie!” He smiled, giving Blythe a good view of a few gold teeth, as he opened his arms wide and then held out a hand to shake Jax’s. “How long’s it been, ah? One year, two?”

“One, I think.” Jax grinned as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “You’re looking good, Ricky. Your old lady treating you alright?”

“Nah, I caught the bitch cheating last year so I kicked her ass out.” Ricky laughed, the movement shaking his belly. He was a bit shorter than Jax, but a big man nonetheless, with broad shoulders and large hands, and an Italian looking face with a generous nose and thick eyebrows, all under a balding head with dark strands of hair combed to the side. His eyes were dark and calculating, despite his overtly welcoming demeanor. When those eyes shifted over to meet hers, she saw them narrow in suspicion. “Well, well, what have we here? Jackie, what’re you doin’ bringing a Dryad into my place of business, huh? I do somethin’ to piss you off?”

“She’s helping me find someone, Ricky.” Jax said simply, keeping the mood light and casual. “In fact, that’s the reason I’m here.”

“And I’m always here to help, aren’t I?” Ricky smiled again, though it didn’t reach his eyes this time as he turned to look back at Jax. “C’mon back, Jasper and me were just putting away our latest shipment.”

He turned around and headed back through the door he’d come out of, with Jax and Blythe following.

The door lead to a staircase that went down to what she could only assume was a basement, and part of her was screaming
trap!
despite her curiosity and her drive to find Dante. She kept her head up as she headed down the stairs into the dark underbelly of the bar, which smelled of dank wood, bitter alcohol and thick smoke. In the dim single light swinging from the ceiling, she could actually see the smoke hanging in the air, and when she spotted the large metal table in the center with a man seated at it, cigar in his mouth, she discovered the source. Scattered on the table were plastic packages of what looked like white powder, which were being cut open by the man and measured out, then placed into smaller plastic bags and set aside. Her eyes widened as she realized what it was, but she kept her mouth shut.

Jax had told her there were demons who smuggled drugs in from the underworld and sold them to the willing human masses. So it shouldn’t surprise her that Ricky was one of those demons. And judging by the large wooden crates lining the back of the room, she assumed he didn’t just smuggle drugs, he smuggled weapons too.

“Why don’t you come on back into my office, Jackie. Leave the girl out here, she’ll be fine with Jasper.”

Ricky chuckled as he made his way back through a door that led into a tiny office at the back of the room. Jax paused and, turning to Blythe, placed his hands on her shoulders.

“Be good.” He murmured, impulsively kissing her forehead before following Ricky into the office. He shut the door behind him, leaving Blythe alone in the basement with the man named Jasper.

She rubbed her fingers over the spot on her forehead that he had just kissed, troubled. With a sigh, she turned around and faced the table, where Jasper was still seated, busily dividing up the powder.

He was an old man, probably in his sixties, heavyset with graying hair and a ragged looking face with hangdog brown eyes. Beside him, his cigar smoked in an amber ashtray.

He said nothing, didn’t even look up at her, until she sat directly across from him at the table and smiled.

“Hi, Jasper.” She greeted, pleased when he looked up at her and sneered.

“You think I don’t know what you are?” He grumbled, his voice gravelly and deep, accented with New York just like Ricky’s voice had been.

“I get tired of having to hide it all the time around the humans, so it pleases me for you to know what I am.” Blythe informed him cheerfully as she eyed the drugs. “Some business you guys got here.”

He huffed out an indignant snort as he went back to his work, his hands trembling slightly with age. She pursed her lips as she watched him, wondering how the hell she was supposed to entertain herself while Jax was busy chatting it up with Ricky. Why did she have to get stuck with the boring guy?

“So how long have you been living up here, possessing humans and the like?” She tilted her head to the side to express her curiosity, hoping he didn’t just ignore her. When he looked back up at her again, she saw a flash of red in his eyes, just like she had seen in Lenny’s days before. Seeing it unnerved her, but she was determined to stand her ground.

“I’ve been in this body for damn near twenty five years.” He suddenly coughed, his entire body shaking with it. He slammed his fist down on the table as he fought his way through the coughing spell, his leathery face turning an odd shade of red.

Glancing around, Blythe noticed a bottle of whiskey sitting on a crate behind her. Grabbing it, she handed it to him and he gulped down a few sips gratefully. Exhaling roughly, he set aside the bottle.

“Maybe it’s time to upgrade.” She mused, watching the way he popped a few pills into his mouth from a container in his pocket.

“Ain’t gonna change now. I’ve had a good life with this body.” He stared at her again, noting the sincere interest in her eyes. Figuring he’d humor her, he continued. “Ricky and me, we’ve been together since the beginning. We run this town, and the border, and because we’re smart, we keep good relations with the Furies and the Enforcers. That’s how come we’re still doin’ business after all these years.”

“By good relations, you mean you rat other demons out?” Blythe concluded, folding her hands in front of her on the table as she leaned in, intrigued.

“We ain’t no rats, we just keep an eye on things.” He replied gruffly, puffing out his large chest with pride. “And for doing so, we get left alone.”

“I’m sorry, my demon education is ridiculously lacking.” Blythe grinned, her eyes sparking with interest. “Can you tell me how you guys get to the surface, from the underworld, I mean.”

“When humans ignorant of the laws of heaven and hell open a portal, we come in.” He answered, his droopy eyes menacing. “They’re fools, which is why we don’t have no problem possessing them. Easy, ignorant, fools.”

“I see…” Because she did, and because the gleam in his eye sent more warning signals off in her brain, she decided to back off of that question. “So where do demons go when they die? You do eventually die, don’t you?”

“Eventually.” He grinned, showcasing rows of crooked yellow teeth as he reached for his cigar, puffing on it generously before continuing. “But when we do go…let’s just say that there’s depths of hell even demons can’t escape from.”