Loose Ends (The Hammer Commission Book 3) Read online

  "You like it?" She said and turned to look at him, letting the unzipped jacket fall open as she did.

  "Oh yeah," he said, and then looked at her, and she watched his eyebrows go up and the smile form on his face. "What's young woman like you doing with a car like this?"

  "Oh," Beth said giving a shy smile, "I like my cars like I like my men, big and powerful."

  "Still, a car like this must have set you back, quite a bit," he said moving closer.

  Beth noticed he wasn't terribly attractive, but he was pretty large and looked to be strong. She wondered what he was doing out at the station this late at night? The attendants had to be here, of course.

  "Oh, I'm a stripper," Beth said and watched as his smile got even larger, "I can afford it."

  "I'm Bill, you work around here?" he asked eyes on her now, and not the car.

  "Beth," she said and gave him another smile as she considered him with a hunger much different than the one he was. "I work in Portland; I was just home to visit the family."

  "Kind of late to be making that trip, isn't it?"

  "I work late hours," Beth said, "plus there's less traffic, less people around."

  "Yeah, there is, isn't there?" he smiled, "You know, I'm heading to Bend, any chance I might get a ride with you? I can chip in for gas."

  "Oh, I don't need no gas money," Beth said and unconsciously licked her lips, "go on and hop in the passenger's seat."

  Beth watched as he did just that, with a look on his face that made it clear just what was on his mind. The gas station attendant finished filling up her car, and closed the tank, giving her a look like he thought she was crazy.

  Beth just laughed and got in the car and drove off.

  The moment the gas station was out of sight, Bill turned to her, "So, do you do anything other than dance?"

  Beth smiled, "Oh, I do all sorts of things."

  "I bet you do. How about we pull over someplace up ahead and you can show me?"

  "What's the rush?" Beth teased, "Bend is still a long drive away."

  "Oh don't worry, baby, we're going to have a nice long night, you and me. And if you're good, real good, I'll even take you home with me."

  Beth pulled the car over; he had a knife out and a rather feral expression on his face.

  "I love a man who takes control," Beth smiled and unfastened her seatbelt.

  He grabbed her and pulled her to him, dragging her over the console. She swore a little, it wasn't exactly comfortable.

  "Boy, you are one ugly bastard," she laughed and put her hands to either side of his head as she brought her face close to his.

  "What did you call me?" he growled at her and she could feel the tip of the knife pressing at her belly.

  "Oh, don't worry, you'll like it," she told him, enjoying the confused expression on his face as she used on him the same line he undoubtedly had planned to use on her.

  Then she drained him.

  He tired to push away from her; surprisingly he dropped the knife and screamed as he pushed against her with his hands. But he was no match for her new strength and she held him firm. She even kissed him as he struggled, taking a moment to savor his life's energy before letting him slip into unconsciousness.

  Once she'd drained him dry, she got out of the car, went around and opened the passenger's side door and dragged him out of the seat.

  Looking around as she relieved him of his wallet, she didn't see much beyond the trees, so she carried him over into the woods a few feet, and then just tossed the body into the brush and returned to the car.

  Smiling she looked in his wallet, he had eighty dollars and a condom. She took the money, threw the rest of it out the window and then pulled back out onto the road.

  "Guess you chipped in for gas after all, Bill," she chuckled.

  She stopped again in Bend, to get something to drink and to use the lady's room. She met Shelly there. Shelly was into girls and wondered if Beth would like to come back to her house?

  Beth left Shelly's body in a drainage ditch on the side of the road. Shelly had tasted good, but different. And she hadn't had as much power as Bill did, or come to consider it, as much as Steve or her father. While food was food, Beth decided to stick to men, at least for now, as Shelly had really whetted her appetite. She'd taken four people's energy so far today and she could feel it, she could easily take more, lots more!

  She wondered if it was possible for her to eat her fill? And she wondered what she would feel like once she did? Would it take ten people? Twenty? A hundred? That would be something! A hundred people, all of their power inside her! Six felt wonderful and amazing, but how would it feel to finally by full of this new power?

  She started to hum to herself happily as she thought about it, making plans for which of the people she'd eat and which she would let live. She'd have to find a better way of dealing with the bodies too. The last thing she wanted was to clutter up her living space with stinky dead bodies!

  She stopped in Madras for gas, just to be on the safe side when going through the pass, and also because she figured she could pick up another guy at the gas station to drain.

  Sure enough, all she had to do was leave her coat in the car and act like she was freezing and some lowlife offered to 'warm her up.' He warmed her up alright! Just not in the way he expected, she was sure.

  She'd dumped his body on the reservation, throwing him off a bridge and into the river below. He'd made a nice splash when he hit, then she got back into the car before any traffic came by.

  She debated if she should stop at Government Camp, she might pick another, but then again it was pretty cold up there and even with all this power, she really would rather avoid that. Besides, she'd be back at the apartment in a couple of hours. She started thinking about how to handle Tommy once she got back. She'd show him the broken cell phone when he asked why she hadn't called, tell him she was crying and going to call him and she dropped it.

  Yeah, he'd eat that right up.

  She'd have to dump the car of course. Then she'd have to make up a story as to what happened to her car.

  Whatever, she wasn't worried, she'd think of something. Tommy would be so happy to have her back, she was sure he wouldn't be asking too many questions. Besides, if he got too difficult and she couldn't use her power to handle him, she'd just get rid of him too.

  17: 20,000ft over Oregon

  Mark leaned back in the seat on the jet and studied the reports coming in on his laptop. They'd found Cole's body wrapped in a comforter out on the balcony of his apartment. Forensics had just reported that he'd had sex just prior to his death, but Mark had already figured that out, the poor guy was naked after all and had Beth's scent all over his body.

  If he hadn't known that she'd already killed both of her parents, her father in cold blood, he would have been surprised. But now? Now he was getting a little worried. This gal was pretty cold-blooded and apparently completely ruthless and as hard as nails. He just wondered if she was like this before? Or if it was the corrupting influence of the powers she'd gotten from the devil?

  Odds are he'd never know, because word had come down from the special court the government maintained on these affairs that she was to be killed on sight. At this point that order was being kept only to this team, the powers that be recognized that a single officer with a gun wouldn't stop her, and they were still trying to keep operational security on the whole affair.

  If she made it to Portland however, well, that could change a lot of things.

  The phone by his chair beeped then, Mark picked it up hoping this was the people at Manresa getting back to him. He'd texted them the number before they took off, and other than Woods, they were the only ones with it.

  "Hello, this is Mark," he said answering it.

  "Ah, Mark. This is Father Aimes," the man on the other end said, introducing themselves. Father Aimes was the Commission's archivist and head librarian, Mark had worked with him before and rather liked him.

  "F
ather Aimes! It's good to hear your voice. Please tell me you have something for me?"

  "Yes, I do Mark. However, it isn't very good."

  Mark sighed heavily, he had been afraid of that. "Well, tell me what you found."

  "This has happened before, but only once that we can tell. However when you consider the ramifications, that once was more than enough. It was in Switzerland, about five hundred years ago."

  "What happened?"

  "Some minor noble who dabbled in the black arts and was jealous of his older cousin's position found a way to do what you believe this young lady has done. He too made a deal with the devil and got many inhuman powers through the use of the flesh of a devil and an arcane ritual. Best we can tell, he killed an entire village, and then holed up in a large mountain keep after killing most of the people who lived in it.

  "One of the nobles who was in the Church's favor marched on the Keep and attacked it, losing almost the entire force he'd sent in. From what the survivors told the Commission members sent out to help, holy items had no special effect, and neither did holy water, prayers, banishment, or any of the other things that work on devils."

  "So, nothing that we use will work?"

  "Holy weapons or blessed weapons will only do normal damage. But unblessed or non-holy weapons," Mark heard Father Aimes sigh, "they have about as much effect on the changeling as they would on you."

  "What about silver? Or cold iron?"

  "Again, no effect. Only weapons that have been blessed will have any effect, and as the changeling can drain power from anyone they grab, they can fix that damage quickly."

  "Any other bad news?"

  "The more power they gain, the more things they can do, feats of speed, strength, healing of both themselves and others. They can sway the unfaithful and the mentally weak with their words, and do magic, major magic, Mark. If your changeling knows or learns any of the major arcane rituals, they will be able to do them."

  Mark shook his head, "Ritual Magic? This just keeps getting better and better. How did they kill that guy?"

  "Basically they starved him out. They attacked with cannons and other artillery, from as far away as they could. Destroyed the keep and chased all the surviving wildlife away, and killed everything and anything in the area. When winter came, they used their cannons to cause avalanches in all of the passes leading to the area, as well as around the keep itself.

  "By the time the next summer came, their changeling was down to much more human abilities as he'd run out of food to eat, as well as people to drain. Eventually they just wore him down enough that they were able to hack him to death, when they finally sent soldiers in to fight him."

  "How long did it take?" Mark asked.

  "Two years, and it looks like close to six thousand dead."

  "So if we let her get into a major urban population center, we're screwed," Mark said.

  "While not the words I would have used, Mark, the sentiment is correct."

  "And we have to bless our swords, knives, bullets, everything that hits her."

  "Correct," Father Aimes told him, "And have your guns blessed as well. Even the magazines, or clips, or whatever you use. I'm not sure if it matters, but this isn't something you want to take chances on."

  "I won't, Father. Trust me; I won't take any chances at all. Any idea why we haven't seen any of these before?"

  "Yes, it is a very difficult ritual, and a number of factors have to be present, as well as a person with the correct affinity. These things were not common in the past and are even less common today."

  "Okay, thank you, Father Aimes."

  "You're welcome, Mark. Bless you and go with God. I fear you will need his help and blessings very much before you are done with this."

  Mark hung up his phone and sighed.

  "None of what I heard sounded good," Michael said to him.

  "Yeah, none of what you didn't hear was any better. I better write this up and send it out to everybody," Mark said, pulling out his laptop. "This just got a whole lot worse."

  "What did you mean just now on the phone when you mentioned ritual magic?" Michael asked him. "You've mentioned magic before, just what exactly is it?"

  "The word 'magic,'" Mark began, "is really more of a catch-all to describe a number of things that defy either rational explanation or the common understanding of the world around us. I'm sure you've heard the expression 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic', right?"

  "So you're saying its advanced technology?" Michael said, looking puzzled.

  "Not advanced, so much as different. Life begets power, power begets life. That may sound a little biblical, but your new ability, your new strength, those can be considered magical, and to an extent perhaps they even are. But that power comes from you, your life. Lycanthropy is really something of a disease or a condition, when you get down to it. It harnesses the body's natural power in a different way than that of a normal human.

  "However, while it gives you things you may consider gifts; it also comes with shortcomings as well. Even if you don't view them as such.

  "Now, Beth's magic, or her power, is different, because of where it comes from. It's not a disease, as she cannot spread it to others; also it's not one of the powers of life. It comes from the underworld, so it is probably based on one of the powers of the spirit world, which are either incredibly weak or just non-existent in the average person these days. But because she used the flesh of a demon, which innately has this power because it comes from the spirit world, she was physically altered just enough that she can now suck the power that comes with life from people and use it to improve her own new magical abilities, which we know so far to be strength, speed, healing, and some level of physical invulnerability."

  "So you're saying that she's not human anymore?"

  Mark nodded, "Just as you and I are not human anymore. But where we have become monsters, or lycanthropes to be more specific," Mark said and winked at Jess who was giving him one of 'those' looks, "she has become something devilish, or some might even say demonic."

  "What's the difference?"

  "Well, devils come from Hell. Demons tend to be evil creatures that have not come from Hell, but which have come from other places. Beth may be devilish now, because she has bonded to the flesh of an actual devil, but she herself did not come from there, she started out as a human, just as you and I did."

  "So, just as we're not true lycanthropes, she's not a true devil," Michael concluded.

  "Exactly. But lycanthropes and lycanthropy depend on the power of life, just as humans do. So being compatible, we get most of the powers of a lycan because of that. But not Beth. A devil's powers come from the spirit world, Hell in particular. But she can't use that power, because she's based on the power of the living. So, in order for her to get power, she has to steal it from something she is compatible with, namely other living creatures."

  "Okay," Michael said, nodding slowly, "I think I get it. She can't use the powers a devil has, so she takes people's life energy and uses that to do things a devil would."

  Mark nodded, "Yes, she uses it to do things a devil would. But, devils can't channel that much power from the spirit world into this one, so their powers are very limited in this world."

  Michael's eyes widened, "But Beth can get all of the power she wants. All she has to do is kill people!"

  Mark sighed heavily, "That appears to be the case. Beth's existence is exploiting a loophole. Humans normally do not have, and cannot have, much in the way of innate magical power. Because they need that power just to continue living. It's why human sacrifice has power, because you release it in that moment. It's also why people who sacrifice themselves to save others from impossible situations are often successful, because they unconsciously transfer their life's energy into the power to get that task done."

  Michael pondered that a minute.

  "So, what is ritual magic then?" Michael asked, going back to his original question.
/>   "Ritual magic is a method and a means to increase the effect of a body's natural magic in order to do things normally you could not. The ritual is like a chemical equation, where you bring things together in a certain sequence and shape to try and do something that would normally take stronger magic."

  "Like using a lever to move a rock, instead of just trying to push it by hand," Michael suggested.

  Mark nodded, "Just so. Also, a ritual lets you combine the magic of more than one person, so a well-trained group can do more than a single person. Or it lets you harness the force of some magical flow, like the one we saw in that cave back in Virginia."

  Mark shook his head and leaned back in his seat, "What this all comes down to, is that Beth will not only be able to gather far more magic than even a powerful human or monster can, but that she will be able to do magical rituals of immense power. Thankfully, because no one has ever done those before, that we know of at least, they're not written down anywhere. She'll have to discover and develop them herself."

  "Which will take time," Michael pointed out.

  "And lives," Mark added. "This is probably why she wants to head to the biggest city in the area."

  "Just what kinds of things can ritual magic do?"

  Mark shrugged spreading his hands in frustration, "I don't know. As I said before, there are a lot of different things that get called magic. I don't know if her power will be based on the power of life, or on the power that corrupted her, or perhaps some combination of the two, not unlike herself. The only thing we can be sure about, based on her actions, is that it will be used for evil and not for good."

  Michael and the others in the cabin all nodded quietly in agreement. No matter what Beth may have once been, what she had become was painfully clear to all involved.

  Ten minutes later Denise spoke up from her seat behind them.

  "Got another hit on her credit card!"

  "Where?"

  "Pilot Travel Center, in Chemult on highway ninety-seven. It's about fifty miles north of Klamath Falls."