Chapter 7

Seraph wished she had put on socks before walking across the kitchen floor. The cold traveled straight up through her feet and made her shiver. She usually didn't mind the cold, but her injuries were making her irritable, so the cold was getting to her more than normal. A warm cup of coffee would be just what the doctor ordered, so she started up the coffee maker and grabbed the newspaper off the table. Alone in the house with both Gabe at work and Brad with his friend, Patrick, Seraph planned to buckle down and get some serious job-slash-car-slash-apartment hunting done. The classifieds were the first step.

At this point almost any job would be better than living off of her savings. She couldn't afford to keep being so picky. There was nothing saying that she had to stay with a job she hated, but putting off work while trying to find her 'calling' would only hurt her in the long run. She also promised herself that no matter what she would take at least one class at the local community college. While it was still true that the idea of becoming a student for the next several years was daunting, learning was never a wasted effort. Even if she didn't continue her higher education it would be time well spent.

The coffee machine buzzed that her breakfast was ready. She grabbed a mug and stood with her hip resting against the counter, gazing out the small window above the kitchen sink. The backyard needed to be raked. Maybe when she was feeling better she would take care of that. She took a sip of her wonderfully warm black coffee. Or maybe she would make Brad do it.

The whispering started softly but quickly grew, swelling up around her like a rising tide. The mug slipped from her numb fingers and crashed unnoticed to the floor. This time there was no separation of voice and visualization.

The damned voice murmured its commands, as demanding as ever. It showed her a dark, man-made room. In this room was her new task, retrieving the Emblems of the Seasons– the Arrow of Winter and the Horn of Summer. There was something else hidden in the room, Seraph could feel this hidden thing like a hole in her memory. Like something she knew she had forgotten, and had no hope of remembering. The knowledge clawed its way inside her head and dug in, overwhelming everything else.

Seraph sank to her knees as tears ran down her face. It wasn't over.

~ ~ ~

Seraph heard the sound of the front door opening and the carpool driving away. She didn't move as Gabe wheeled into the kitchen and headed for the refrigerator.

"Look who's up. Feeling better?" Gabe asked.

"No."

Gabe stopped half way into the kitchen and turned to her. Without speaking he moved back towards the table.

"It happened again," she said.

Gabe sighed and put his hand over hers. "What does it want this time?"

"It wants me to get something else for it," Seraph shrugged. "Whatever it is, it feels closer this time."

"You're not going for it now?" Gabe exclaimed. "You... you're still all injured! What if you have to wrestle another bear?"

"Gabe, jeez, chill. I'm not on my way out the door."

"Oh." Gabe shifted in his seat. "Well, good."

"And before I go out again I'm going to get a gun."

"What?"

Seraph looked up at her brother. "What, what? Since when are you freaked out about guns?"

"I'm not, I just don't think..." Gabe trailed off.

Seraph's eyes narrowed. "You know, I may have handled guns in my military career. You know. Once or twice."

"Yeah, I know that. It isn't that I don't think you know how to use a gun."

"Well then, what is your problem?"

"It's just... that was before..." Gabe waved his hand vaguely. "this."

"This?" Seraph asked, her voice quiet. She sat up straight in her chair. "I am not crazy."

"I know you're not crazy. I wasn't saying you were." Gabe said defensively.

"Then what are you saying?"

"I don't know," Gabe sighed. "Nothing, never mind."

Gabe wouldn't meet Seraph's eyes as she glared at him. Finally she looked away and pushed the newspaper out in front of her. "Before... I was looking at want ads. I need a job if I want to move out and get out of your hair." Seraph laughed a little. "Don't get me wrong, it means a lot that you've let me stay here, but I'm going a little stir crazy. I need a place of my own."

Gabe was silent for a moment before looking up at her with a pensive expression. "Not to piss you off again, but do you think you can move out while... this is happening? I mean, how well can you hold a job right now?"

Seraph couldn't move as Gabe's words sunk in. It was true. She couldn't leave. There was no way to tell when an attack would happen– there was no way she would to be able to hold down a normal job. Without income she wouldn't be able to rent an apartment. She was stuck here, completely dependent on her brother's hospitality for as long as this curse lasted. Her hands tightened into fists as the realization set in.

"No... I guess I can't." Seraph said softy.

"Hey," Gabe reached across the table and grasped her hand. "It will be alright."

He didn't know that, not for sure, but she felt better anyway. It was a strange thing. She sighed. Someday– someday soon– she promised herself, she would be the one making the decisions in her life.

"You're right. I shouldn't go half cocked after 'something', that's 'somewhere' like I did last time."

Gabe blinked as he took a second to re-align with Seraph's train of thought. "Uh-huh."

"First I should figure out where the damn thing is. Instead of driving around in circles, I should just triangulate it. It feels like it's in the city, shouldn't be that hard."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Mmhm. I can do that tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? You sure?"

"Yeah," Seraph said. "It'll be fine. I'll just be driving around. I won't get into any trouble. I promise." Seraph cocked her head to the side. "Think Brad will let me borrow his car?"

"Maybe," Gabe shrugged. "If you don't bleed all over it."

Seraph just ignored him and continued talking. "I'll get one of those big maps that they have at AAA... I still have my compass... Yeah, that'll work."

"Sounds good."

"I'll give it a couple of weeks, to get ready and to get better."

"Sounds better."

"Besides," Seraph said as she stood up from the table. "There's a two week waiting period before I can get a conceal-carry permit."

Gabe just shook his head and sighed.

~ ~ ~

The wind ruffled Seraph's hair, blowing it into her face. She pushed it out of the way while keeping one hand firmly on the folded map in her lap. It had been a long time since her hair had been long enough to get this annoying, and it was still too short to tie back. Once the wind died back down, Seraph adjusted her sunglasses before returning to the task at hand.

She could feel the pull of the emblems, directly south of her, which was easy enough to mark on the map. She drew a line straight south from where she was past where the last two marks intersected. Seraph sat back on the park bench and regarded her work.

The three lines on her map, each drawn from a different part of the city in the direction she felt the phantom pull, met where the emblems were. Or at least where they should have been. Seraph glared down at the map. Instead of connecting over a building, the lines clearly marked a major street.

Seraph rubbed her chest. Of all of the things wrong with her right now, the punctures hurt the worst, stabbing her with every breath. Since she had driven, she hadn't been able to take anything for the pain and it was making it hard to think.

There was no way these things could be in the middle of the street. Not only did that not match her vision, but surely something as large and unusual wouldn't be left out in the open like that. Perhaps they were in a car? Seraph was certain that she would be able to feel them moving, but if the items had been moved to a car at some point while she was not paying attention, and if the car was parked while she was driving all day, she might not have noticed.

Of course, that all seemed really unlikely to her.

What other possible way could the items be in the middle of the road? They would have to be under it and that would mean...

Shit.

Seraph put her head in her hands as she cursed God, fate, the powers-that-be, and whatever else she could think of to blame. Of course, it was simple, she just hadn't wanted it to be true. The emblems were in the sewers.

The emblems were in the goddamn sewers.

Slowly, almost grudgingly, Seraph stood. She had other things she needed to do today. She put the map away, shoving it into her backpack harder than she needed to. It was the second backpack she had had to buy since coming home. Remembering what happened to the first made her scowl. Focusing on something she could do something about, Seraph pulled a marked up AutoTrader out and scanned the listing she had circled for the address she wanted.

A serviceable Nissan pickup, which was miraculously in her price range, was Seraph's next stop. She would feel better once she had her own car. She had been able to borrow Brad's car, but she couldn't count on having it whenever she wanted. The rental had been fine– if expensive– while she had it, but she had needed to give it back. Not to mention the rental company was less than pleased about her bleeding all over it.

Seraph scowled again as she thought back on the bleeding and the bill. She sighed, at least with her own car, even if she couldn't control where she went, she wouldn't have to rely on others to get there.

The attack happened with a suddenness the drove her to her knees. Images of the dark room, the arrow, and the horn paraded behind eyes. All the while the voice repeated its demands, seeming to condemn her for her hesitation. Seraph gritted her teeth against the mental invasion. Then just a quickly as it started, it was over, leaving Seraph trembling on the cold ground.

"Are you alright, miss?"

Seraph jerked her head up at the unexpected question. An older man stood over her with genuine concern in his eyes. Other passersby were stopping to stare as well. She must look like a lunatic, on her ass in the middle of the sidewalk.

An attack had never happened to her in public before. Even during her week long bender right after this whole mess started. They had always happened in relative privacy. Intellectually she knew that this could happen, but like someone who always left their front door open and is surprised to come home and find the place ransacked, Seraph felt both terribly idiotic and numbingly violated.

"Do you need help?" the man asked, reaching out his hand towards her.

Seraph flinched back.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, scrambling to her feet, ignoring her screaming ankle and clutching her things. Seraph darted around him keeping her head down as she desperately avoided eye contact.

"Hey!" the man shouted after her. She simply ignored him as she fled to her car. She felt the eyes of the gathering crowd her boring into her back. Humiliation fueled her flight and quickly she was in her car and peeling away from the curb.

This was not okay. If she was not careful some well meaning stranger could get her locked up in a magic ward. She would have to hide until she was well enough to go into the sewers.

Not that anyone was ever well enough to go into the sewers.

Seraph fumed as she sped down the road– her heavy breathing was making her chest hurt. The kaleidoscope of emotions running through her was refining itself into anger. She slammed on the brakes, almost running a red light. Her anger felt good. It was simple and easier than fear and confusion and pain, but she couldn't afford it right now. Impotent outrage would only cloud her judgment and in this already foggy situation she couldn't let herself become blinded. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. A car honked behind her, jerking her back into the here and now. She pulled forward slowly and resumed driving at a pace that was much less likely to annoy police officers.

She didn't drive far. A store front caught Seraph's eye and she quickly pulled into its parking lot. She hadn't planned on doing this today, but she wasn't going to pass by the opportunity when it jumped out at her. Nobody looked twice at her as she approached the store. Seraph limped through the heavily gated door under the sign that proudly proclaimed 'Leather Goods and Firearms'. She knew she should start filling out paper work and applying for her permit now, not later.

It was best to try and get her gun before the voices made that too difficult.

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