Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Blood, Sex and Magik ❯ Chapter 6

Blood, Sex and Magik: Six

Alex Conner raised an eyebrow, the redheaded young woman having heard at least some of the phone conversation. "Sister," she frowned slightly, "are you calling in a nun?"

Jess didn't choose to answer that, instead she strode on by the woman and out into the tattoo shop itself. The black haired woman waited there until Alex caught up to her and said, "Don't ask any dumb questions when she gets here."

"Ask who.." Alex started when a figure strode by the windows outside.

The front door slammed open, the young lady striding inside. She let the door bang shut, a slim black clad figure standing in the dim light of the shop, a bit of white at her throat. Long brown hair was pulled away from her face, tied severely back in a ponytail.

"Jess," the woman's eyes glowed with a fierce anger as she glared at the taller tattoo artist, "I told you that I'd kill you if we ever met again."

"It's good to see you, too, Sam," Jess seemed entirely unpreturbed by the death threat. A slight smile, "You might want to hold off on killing me until later."

Alex watched the two of them warily, seeing the electricity crackle between them with wide eyes. 'Is Jess nuts?' she wondered, even as she tried to guess why someone dressed as a female priest would want the lady dead. 'Not that what I've heard about the lady's reputation doesn't make me wonder,' she admitted.

Sam smiled slightly back at Jess, a very cold expression. She looked casually over at Alex and asked, "Who's the cop?"

"Alex Conner," Jess introduced her with a nod, "I'd like you to meet Samantha Teresa, a member of an obscure religious order called the Templars."

Alex looked down at her plain clothes and sighed, "How come everyone seems to know that I'm a cop?" She looked up to meet Sam's slightly amused gaze, "Nice to meet you.." she trailed off. The oddest look appeared on her face, "Templar?"

Sam made a face at that. "You really love throwing that name around, don't you?" she gave Jess a scolding look.

"Of course I do," Jess smirked.

Sam looked at Alex and fiercely said, "Before you ask, yes, I am a member of the Knights of the Temple, and no, I'm not going to explain any more than that." Back to Jess, "So why have you risked calling me?"

"Skinwalker," Jess said simply, then she quietly filled in the female priest about what they knew about the bodies found. Quietly she finished, "It's hunting the bad part of town, probably because it can get away with it easier here."

Alex frowned, looking at Sam. There was such a dangerous aura about the woman, one oddly like the one around Jess. Both women seemed to have seen things that others normally hadn't, experienced things far different that most people had. Taking a closer look, Alex's eyes widened. This priest had a shoulder harness on, probably for a pistol.

"So we need to find this thing and send it back where it came from," Sam said thoughtfully, "not so difficult." She nodded towards Alex, "And why is she here?"

"This thing is killing people in my city," Alex decided to answer that one herself, "and I want to see it stopped. Jess looks like my best bet to do that."

Sam gave her a look, "Don't rely on Jess, you'll regret it."

Before Alex could try to form a reply to that Jess smiled slightly. "Let's get to work, shall we?" she suggested.

Sam looked a bit surprised that Jess hadn't taken the bait. "Right," she answered and with that the three walked out of the shop together.

"So how to we find this thing?" Alex asked, the fall air just a bit cold, the sun fully set.

"Sam?" Alex gave her a look.

Sam closed her eyes, holding a cross in her two hands against her chest, above her heart. Her lips moved slightly, her voice barely a whisper as she murmured something in Latin. All around the silver cross a light slowly built up, shining brighter and brighter, until what looked like a lance of light struck out into the darkness.

"There," Sam said crisply.

Not far away the bookstore was slowing down as they began to close up. The manager Alice Sinclare closed up the till, then she looked up to see a woman standing over by the magazine racks. Waving the rest of the staff to go the black haired woman made her way over, "Hello, I haven't seen you here before. I'm Alice."

The woman smiled back, her teeth glinting oddly in the bright light. 'It's always nice when I know their name,' the thing hiding within the red-gold haired beauty thought. "It's nice to meet you, Alice," it said.

A bright flash of light outside the window, even as Alice felt the oddest chill come over her. The beam of light seemed to come right through the wall, lighting up the odd young woman in a halo of white. The door slammed open, three figures running into the store.

A muscle in Jess' jaw clenched as she muttered, "I knew I should have trusted my hunches." Long black coat swirling around her Jess looked right past Alice to the woman who was standing beside her, "Get away from her!"

"Of course," the red-gold haired woman pushed Alice away from her casually, slamming her up against the wall and knocking her out, "there's such a nice variety of skins here."

"Alice," Jess so wanted to go to her, but she focused on their enemy.

Alex had her gun in her hand, holding it on the woman. 'She looks so.. human,' the young police officer thought nervously. "Don't move," she ordered.

"No," the woman began to walk to wards them. Bang! The gun went off, then again. Bang! Both bullets were dead on target, but the woman merely stopped, swaying a bit. With a little frown she stuck a finger into one of the bullet holes, "You damaged this skin."

Ignoring Alex's stunned look Jess softly said, "Sam?" She reached into her black coat, grabbing at something as she warily watched the creature.

"We need to get it out of the skin before I can take it out," the brown haired priest said crisply, Sam having pulled a pistol from beneath her black garb.

"I think I can manage that," and Jess sounded truly furious as she pulled three gleaming throwing blades out of her coat, She threw, driving two deep into the startled creatures eyes, then another between it's breasts.

Streams of black ooze exploded from the eyes sockets as it weakly cried out, "You ruined this skin! Ruined it!" The flesh touched by the ooze seemed to be corrupted, breaking down somehow.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Jess hissed. She raised her hands, the words coming easily to her. The knives buried in the now slowly rotting flesh exploded into flames, the fire spiraling up and out over the thing's entire body. The fire danced in a perfect column, burning just the body within not any of the store around them.

In seconds, the tatters of flesh fell away, revealing something... else. It looked almost like a cloud of knives, gleaming blades on tendrils of flesh that bobbed and weaved in a delicate dance. It's didn't speak aloud anymore, instead it's voice seemed to cut into their brains, "You ruined my skin, so I'll just have to take away yours."

Sam and Alex exchanged a glance, then both guns went up and opened fire, Spent shells dropped around them, bullets racing into the cloud as it jerked and twisted in midair. The smell of gunpowder and oddly incense filled the air, and the thing splatted wetly to the ground.

"Think it's dead?" Jess asked, another knife in her hand.

"Nope," Sam walked over and took a vial out of her pocked. Unscrewing the cap she poured the fluid over the creature, smoke rising from the body.

"Is that holy water?" Alex asked weakly.

"Acid," Sam answered crisply, "it's more effective."

"Oh," Alex blinked.

Jess strode right by the smoking remains, reaching Alice's side. A bit of blood marked her brow, but other than that she looked all right. She got one arm under her legs, the other under her shoulders, then picked her up.

Sam had the oddest look on her face as she watched Jess go by her, carrying her friend over to a couch. She drew a black bag from her pocket, calmly sweeping what was left of the creature inside. At Alex's curious look she said coolly, "I intend to dispose of this thing."

"I suppose I couldn't ask you to give me that as evidence?" Alex asked. Sam shook her head gravely no, and Alex sighed, "I don't know how I'm going to write a report on this."

"Don't," Sam advised gently, "let it remain unsolved. There's no way that anyone on the police force would believe you anyway."

Jess looked down at Alice worriedly, feeling a bit of relief that her eyes began to shift beneath her eyelids. Alice finally peeped out, looking relieved at seeing Jess there. "What happened?" she asked, wincing as she sat up.

"Nothing you need to worry about," Jess said softly.

It was nearly a half an hour later that they all met up again back in front of Jess' shop. The tattoo artist had taken Alice home, refusing to explain until tomorrow. She wasn't really looking forward to it, but Jess figured that Alice did deserve some answers.

"Is your friend all right?" Alex asked.

"Pretty shaken up," Jess shrugged, "but I put a sleeping charm on her. She'll sleep soundly until morning, free of nightmares."

"Hmm," Sam studied Jess thoughtfully.

"Thank you for your help," Alex smiled wryly, offering her hand. "I think I'll head back to the station, let the Doc. know that the killer's been dealt with."

Jess shook the hand firmly, and without hesitating at all said, "If something else like this comes up, come get me."

"Thanks," and with that Alex climbed into her unmarked car and was gone.

Jess turned to look at the priest, trying to read something in the woman's calm gaze. Finally she had to ask, "Well?"

"You've changed," Sam finally had to say, "you aren't like when we met before."

"I guess so," Jess quietly agreed. There was a haunted look in her eyes as she continued, "I know the evil that I did, and I can't even claim any good intentions. I was just a bitch, and I did what I was told." A pause, "Happily."

"What finally pushed you too far?" Sam sounded curious.

"Kids," Jess' voice dropped down to a whisper, "I don't hurt kids."

"Forgiveness isn't mine to give," Sam said, and Jess closed her eyes, "only vengeance." A pause, "So I guess I'll just have to kill you another time."

A long moment of silence, and Jess opened her eyes to find the priest gone.

To be continued...