Grim Echoes

Chapter 24 - Will

 "Was what she did stronger than that?" Will mentally compared that to what she did the night he'd met her. Ander was right it was similar but different. He'd experienced what she did with the demons, although it would have knocked the wind out of normals, wouldn't have taken down the demons if they hadn't been caught off guard. To put an angel on its knees? Nope.

"Than the music box?" Ander looked over at Will. "Yes, it was much stronger. I would have fallen if I was not already down. I think if she had been yelling at me instead of the angel, I would have been subdued as well. It was similar to what she did to the demons, but stronger. More to subdue than to knock something over,"

Will's eyes narrowed as he thought about what this meant. He'd spent enough time taking out demons to know that whatever she'd done wasn't some weird rare power they had. The angel had been in pain when he attacked. What could hurt angels just from yelling at them? Maybe it was some force field thing that came from her hand? A spell?

He shook his head, he'd let Mason figure it out. She liked solving puzzles. He didn't. He liked taking things apart and putting them together better than they were before. Or hunting things, monsters or something to eat didn't matter much to him. Nothing had changed. As soon as they got to Mason's, after he'd apologized for crashing, he was gonna pass Maeve off to her. Tired of feeling weird and thinking about shit that bothered him.

"The angel recognized her, it wanted to know why she was here," Ander said muted and stared at the floor.

Fuck. Maybe they shouldn't have stopped to grab their bags and the werewolf from the motel before they headed out. His eyes flicked to the rear-view mirror. Her serene face caught his attention, and his chest tightened uncomfortably. Wanted to smoke, but instead reached for his flask. Didn't feel like listening to Ander bitch about him smoking in the SUV again. The burn was a welcome friend as it slid down his throat.

 Fuck! He'd almost been rid of her and the discomfort and confusion she brought. Now it wasn't possible. Too much to ask of Mason. She wouldn't go for it, not now. It'd been a lot simpler when he thought only demons wanted her. Those greedy fucks wanted everything for one reason or another. He took another drink. The excitement of beheading an angel went down a level. Didn't know it talked to her. Why in the hell hadn't Ander said that first? Could have interrogated the prick if I hadn't gone for the kill, Will chastised himself.

"She said something else... right before the angel manifested." Ander swallowed hard.

"What?" Will glanced at Ander as he turned right.

Ander shifted in his seat and picked at his pants, a sure sign he didn't want to tell Will whatever it was he had to say.

"She mentioned him." Ander's hands balled into fists "I meant she mentioned the possession."

More good fucking news. The last three days with her had been unsettling because of the psychic shit. Even though she'd sworn she wasn't, how else could she have known that? "She knew about the sorcerer?"

Ander nodded and swallowed hard again.

"How in the nine hells does she know about him?" Had to be psychic. Will had no tolerance for psychics, always in your head. It was like they raped your mind. Fuck all that.

"I have no idea. She said she was sorry for my pain." Ander played with the fold in his pants leg.

"Sorry for your pain? The fuck is that supposed to mean?" Will almost laughed at how ridiculous it sounded.

Ander shrugged. "I suppose that she felt sympathy for me. She was sincere." Ander's voice took on a hard edge.

 Will paused before he responded. Ander could sniff out a lie from a mile away, probably cause he was so good at it himself. If he said she was being honest, then she probably was. However, it didn't make Will feel better. In fact, it made things more complicated. Ander had also believed her when she'd insisted she wasn't psychic.

"Ok noted. How do you think the angel manifested? I'm pretty sure it wasn't an archangel like you said, so it couldn't have done it on its own." he paused and prompted Ander. Will could tell he was freaked out, had to keen him focused. Couldn't deal with Ander mentally checking out right now.

"So someone had to have summoned it,"

"Exactly, which makes things more complicated. We just pissed all over somebody's months or years of work to summon an angel."

"Good point. I had not even considered the human who summoned the angel," Ander murmured, more to himself than Will. "If we have time before we destroy the body, I could do an autopsy and-"

Will pinched his lips. "Don't think there will be. Mason will want it gone quick. Plus, whoever summoned might be able to track it," Will said quickly.

"We are taking it to Mason's? She is going to kill us," Ander said miserably.

Will grasped the steering wheel tighter, he'd already told Ander that. Had he forgotten, or had he zoned out? Shit, had he missed Ander spacing out? Moisture on the steering wheel caught his attention. Damn it, the cut on his hand had re-opened. Probably from lifting the bodies. He lifted his hand and wiped on his black cargo pants.

"Can you think of a safer place to get rid of things that shouldn't exist?"

Mason's was locked down like Fort Knox. Not just physically. But the amount of magic, all types of magic, that was on the floors, walls, windows, ceilings, fucking everywhere. He was pretty sure Mason had replaced the fucking bricks with magic bricks, so the actual building was magic. He chuckled to himself. It sounded fucking ridiculous, because it was. But she was the most paranoid person he knew, and he knew a lot of paranoid people. In his line of work it was pretty much all paranoid soldiers or people who were unlucky enough to have stumbled upon the truth.

And the truth was, the world was full of monsters trying to kill you. The worst part was realizing how goddamn mainstream those assholes were now. They were in every apartment building, ever suburb, shit they were even out in the boonies on farms. He swore their singular goal was to fuck themselves into every part of the world, infecting people with their jacked up DNA until there was nothing left but half-breeds. Then what would they eat?

"No. I suppose not. I just," Ander's shoulders slumped, and he looked out of the window. 

Will decided to not push him to finish his sentence. He entered the parking lot near a small group of buildings. It was supposed to have been phase one of several groups of buildings that eventually would form a "Outdoor town center" but it never took off. It had a stupid convoluted way to get there off the main highway, so no one came when they'd put up the first set of buildings. Eventually, it was abandoned, and they sold off most of the land.

He pulled around back and parked the SUV. Will wasn't sure how, but Mason, being well Mason, somehow managed to get a hold of the land and made sure the only thing built on it was a parking lot. Since it was a parking lot for the football stadium, she made bank. And it was one of the farthest parking lots and one of the smallest, so security cared a lot less about it. They parked there whenever they took the less direct route, or rather the underground way.

Will got out of the vehicle and opened the back door to check on Maeve and made sure she was still asleep. He looked up at the sky. Between the parking lot and the buildings, there was another lot with storage buildings and a small area filled with trees. The area filled with trees was where the underground entrance was hidden. Thankfully it was dark, but even so, they had a lot to carry. Usually didn't have the corpse of an angel and werewolf in their SUV. Will sat Maeve up and then slid her to the edge of the seat. Her eyelids didn't even flutter. She was out. Perfect. No desire to show her their secrets.

"Are we going in the back way?" Ander held two of their spare duffel bags in his hand.

Will was sure each held a head inside. "Yeah, we are gonna take her in and then come back for the rest."

Ander nodded. Will carefully slid Maeve out of the SUV and held her upright. From a distance she looked drunk, not passed out. He supported her weight with one arm and started walking and kept her feet just above the ground. Ander was on lookout, closed the SUV door behind them. Quickly they disappeared into the trees and then down into Mason's keep.