Hellhound (Supernatural #1)

12: An Ugly Revelation

That was how I found myself sitting on a desk, watching the sparkles fly from Mr. Davidson's hands. It was so worth it; spending my lunch out with a teacher, that is. He had shown me all kinds of cool fireworks; he was a bit like Dr. Strange, green lights appearing as he moved his hands in front of him. They moved as he willed them, carried papers and tubes across the room, exploded into a shower of green sparkles. However, what I didn't entirely understand was all his talking about giving and taken, about limits. I mean, sure I had watched Once Upon A Time; I knew all magic came with a price. But how did it cost him anything? Better yet, if it cost him to use magic, why would he give me a free show?

I asked Tate about that once we left Mr. Davidson to correct some papers and we headed to the cafeteria. "What he meant is that there are things beyond his powers; life and death, for example. Cliché but true; he can't bring back the dead, he can't create life. Magic, in his case, is energy. Energy is fickle but powerful. Warlocks and witches are usually hired for protection spells, and sometimes healing spells. However, with something as a hellhound investigation, they are no good. We are looking for someone, but if they do not have a direct connection, they couldn't locate them, no matter how hard they tried."

"Not even with, like, I don't know, a locator spell?" So I had seen a few seasons of the Vampire Diaries, sue me. Tate seemed to get the reference though. See, if supernaturals could watch a TV show about the supernatural, why should I not also use it as a point of reference. It gave me a nice idea about all that might be possible; then Tate could either tell me that it was complete rubbish or that it was real.

"No such thing as a locator spell I'm afraid. If there was, hellhounds would have lost some of their power in the supernatural world a long time ago."

Even when going to the cafeteria late, my usual table was still empty. Colton and Jackson were nowhere in sight, which wasn't really surprising. There had been no recent new murder they could come and harass me about, and I would text them if there were any new developments in the other two cases. When not really them, I would text Colton. Jackson simply tagged along. It was nice to simply sit down at the table for a moment and eat my sandwich. Something that was completely devoid of anything supernatural. Only two slices of bread, mayo, egg, pickle, and ham. Nope. Nothing supernatural there. Regardless, the conversation was bound to return to that topic. Since Tate had first brought it up two nights ago, it seemed to be the only thing he and I talked about anymore.

"How many more different kinds of supernaturals are you going to introduce me to?" I asked between two bites.

Tate looked thoughtful as he ate his own sandwich. "Well," he started around a mouthful, "I think I'm done. I mean, I could introduce you to more - I could probably track down a necromancer or a ghost - but it would be entirely up to you if you wanted to meet them." I blinked at him, managing not to choke on the food in my mouth. Necromancer? Someone who brought back the dead? And a ghost? My mouth went dry, for some reason, this suddenly got a lot more real. No, that wasn't the right word; it had felt real the moment Devin had shown me his own trick. Welcoming. That word suited better. The thought of necromancers and ghosts made it all much less welcoming. "You don't have to, and honestly, even if you wanted to, it might have to wait. I have taken precious time away from the case to show you what I have so far."

I nodded, not knowing what to say.

This case of missing supernaturals. Aside from having told me that it was happening, Tate hadn't actually told me anything. He hadn't shared names of the missing people, he hadn't shared any information he already knew. He claimed he hoped I could help, yet he wasn't sharing much about his case. How was I supposed to help him anyway? If he and Dean were supernatural P.I.s, I figured they ought to have the resources to help them. I didn't have any resources that might be of use to them; I could ask for the occasional favor at the police station, but even those were running low. Asking too much at once and people would get suspicious. Yet another TV show I could suddenly relate my life to; Arrow. Look at Oliver asking Felicity for help; she ended up suspecting something was up and she joined the team. Only if Dad even suspected something was up, he wouldn't join the team. He would shut down the operation and take over. He would do the right thing. He would do what I should have done the second I suspected something strange was happening.