Tim Marquitz - Echoes of the Past

I cleared my throat, not wanting to think about it. There was nothing we could do to bring Abe back. Even my dating a necromancer couldn’t fix dead. Not in the ways that mattered, so there was no point dwelling on it. I stuck to the business at hand. “I think it was a specter. It came out of nowhere and hit me while my back was turned. The thing never said a word or claimed any kind of allegiance, and I wasn’t able to pinpoint its controller.” I shrugged. “It could have been a government agent.”

Rahim’s eyebrow lifted. “Why would you think that?”

“I had a visit from a group called the Department of Supernatural Investigation.” I rubbed my forehead where the bullet had gone in. “They made quite an impression.”

“The DSI?” Michael shook his head. “They’ve been around for a while, but they’ve never done much beyond sniffing at the tails of paranormal investigator frauds and psychic scam artists.”

“Well, it looks like they’ve got a new agenda, and Uncle Sam has opened his checkbook to them; wide. Worse still, they’ve got their foot in the supernatural world. Their head honcho is a wight.”

“Really?” Rahim glanced up at the cloudy sky. “I guess that would make sense given what’s happened, but this really isn’t a good time for them to start digging deeper into our affairs.”

“Tell me about it. They seem to think I had something to do with the storms. They’re just waiting to find an excuse to play judge, jury, and executioner on my ass, and whoever else they think is involved. DRAC is probably in the crosshairs, too, so keep your eyes peeled.”

Rahim’s shoulders sank as he turned to Michael. “Have you heard anything about them recently?”

Michael shook his head. “They’ve never been a concern, but I’ll look into them deeper. If they’ve got a legitimate source in the supernatural, there’s no telling what they could dig up on our people and resources. They could cause all sorts of trouble for us.” He looked to me. “Other than trying to get to the bottom of the storms, did they say what their focus was?”

“Only that they were sanctioned to defend the U.S. from supernatural threat.” I laughed. “Maybe we can take a vacation now that the para-cops are on the job.”

“Doubtful,” Rahim replied. “Sounds to me like they’ve an open-ended agenda; one that doesn’t exactly bode well for any of us. If they’re looking to police the supernatural realms, we can expect them to be involved in everything we do from here on out.” He growled as he looked back to the streets below, his voice sounding like his counterpart bear. “We don’t need this shit right now.”

Amen, brother. We had a hard enough time keeping the supernatural bullshit down and out sight as it was. Now with a government agency diving into the pool to muddy the waters, things were gonna get more difficult. Even better, since the U.S. formed a supernatural swat team, you could bet your ass the other major players in the world had enough information and motivation to do the same. Given the fluidity and hazy boundaries of the other realms, it was pretty damn likely we’d be stumbling all over these groups every time we stuck our big toe over the U.S. border or into another dimension.

“Go see what you can do to keep this quiet a little longer,” Rahim told Michael. The telepath nodded and walked off. After he was gone, Rahim pulled away from the ledge and waved me along. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slow. “I don’t know how to say this, Frank, so I’ll be direct and hope you understand it isn’t meant to be personal.”

With an introduction like that, how can it be bad? My shoulders sunk a little.

Rahim shuffled, looking at me but not really meeting my eyes. “DRAC is going through a rough time, not that I need to tell you that, but…Rachelle is taking Abraham’s death very hard.”

We all were, but I knew what he was getting at. Abraham died because I couldn’t save him, and I’d chosen to take the blame for our not telling Rachelle until after the battle. She needed Rahim way more than she needed me, so it only made sense. I knew there’d be backlash from the decision, but I wasn’t sure what it would be…until now.

“She doesn’t blame you-“

“Sure she doesn’t.”

“She’s just hurt, Frank,” he countered, his voice speeding up. “No matter how close any of us were to him, Rachelle had his heart. He was her life. It’s only natural for her to be angry. She’ll see things true once things calm down some.”

“What are you asking of me?” I had a pretty good idea. Despite it all, I could feel my cheeks warming. It was something I didn’t want to hear.

He swallowed hard. Always so confident, so certain, it worried me. “I think it best if maybe you took some time away from DRAC, let things settle a bit.”

There it was. My punishment for letting Abe die was banishment from the cool kids club. I started to argue, but clenched my teeth and bit back on the disappointment that threatened to spew out. For all her oddness, Rachelle had never been anything but kind to me, and I knew Rahim was right in asking for this. I certainly didn’t want to rub salt in the wound of Abe’s death. I’d be a constant reminder of what she’d lost, and that was simply cruel. Rachelle didn’t deserve that.

“Fine.” I couldn’t bring myself to be more diplomatic.

Rahim winced and drew another hard breath. “If something comes up…” he motioned to the street.

I waved him off. “Yeah…yeah, I appreciate it.” I knew it was the right thing to do, for Rachelle and all of DRAC, but I’d lost Abe, too. They weren’t the only ones hurting, but I’d dug this grave and would have to lie in it. There wasn’t any turning back now. Responsibility was a motherfucker.

For just a second, I contemplated telling Rahim about the message I’d received from my uncle but thought better of it. They had enough on their plate with Abe gone and the DSI stepping up. Hasstor didn’t make it seem like the world would end tomorrow, so I figured I had a few weeks for shit to cool off before I dumped a steaming bowl of it on DRAC’s doorstep.

I wandered over to the ledge and looked at the scene below. I didn’t have a clue who’d sent the specter after me, or what they wanted, but given all the crap lately, I figured I could handle it on my own. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a few resources of my own.

“Tell Mike goodbye for me, yeah?” Rahim nodded as I walked away. I’d been caught off guard coming back from my powwow with Hasstor, but it looked like I’d been given a breather. It was time to shore up my defenses and make myself less of a target.

I was thinking I’d get a dog or two…hundred.

Back at home, I tried to reactivate the protective wards, but wasn’t able to. They were beyond me in a technical sense. Not much more than a magical speed bump anyway, I wasn’t too worried about them, but it was an inconvenience. It served as a great early warning system. At least I’d arranged a few other surprises should someone feel the need to kick me while I was down. I also finally managed to put a call in to Karra to let her know I was back from my inter-dimensional jaunt, somewhat safe and sound. We hadn’t been off the phone for more than ten minutes when I felt the gate in my spare room triggered. Her essence filled my senses a moment later.

It was Heaven.

The proverbial Heaven, not the battle-scarred Heaven we’d just fought to free from the clutches of rebellious angels, just to clarify.

The bedroom door flung open and I heard her quick footsteps in the hall as she headed toward the living room. She popped in, and like a true romantic, she said the sweetest thing a man could ever hope to have his woman say to him: