Hell's Detective

Chapter Eight- Second Thoughts

Ingleseid hadn't woken up on Holly's couch this time. He'd been demoted to the floor. Tatters was on the couch, so still he might as well have been frozen, which Ingleseid thought was rather unfair considering he didn't have to breathe, and Ingleseid had just inhaled lungfuls of smoke.

He closed his eyes, and it all flickered across his eyes in flashes. Dr Lacere, the vampires, the killer.

The scar across his face burned white-hot. He could almost feel its hand still there.

He pushed himself up, saw Holly out of the corner of his eye.

"Abner-" she began, but he ignored her, staggered to the bathroom. Beelzebub yelped with excitement and tried to follow, but he swung the door shut, vomited into the toilet, then leaned back against the towel rack. What had he done?

"Hey," Holly said from the doorway. Ingleseid nodded at her. She came and sat down next to him.

"How did we get out?" he murmured, and his throat hissed in protest.

"Teleportation spell. A little something I've been working on." She paused. "What happened?" she asked. She wasn't angry like last time. Concern was written all over her face. He felt a pang of guilt when he realized it was for him. He wasn't the one she should be worried about.

"It was him, wasn't it?" she asked quietly. "The killer."

He nodded slowly. It was the only thing that made sense. "He killed them. All of them. Like it was nothing."

"Do you think he has the tooth?"

"Maybe. Probably. It doesn't matter, though, does it? We can't stop him."

"Maybe we can," Holly murmured.

He laughed humourlessly. "How?"

"Way I see it, we find what he's looking for, and everything he's done is for nothing, right? So, all we have to do is find the ingredients for the spell."

"But he has the tooth." And the vampire king was probably long dead.

She shrugged. "It wasn't the only nest of vampires out there. I've been talking to a mate, he reckons there's a tribe in the mountains."

Ingleseid didn't say anything. He didn't know if it was because of the shame of doing nothing, of cowering like a child, or because he didn't want her to search for the tooth. Because if they tried to find the ingredients of the spell, sooner or later the would find the creature it was for.

And Holly wasn't the only one with a best friend constantly putting their life on the line.

"You're scared, aren't you?" she said. Her voice shook a little. "I can see it."

There was no point in denying it. "Yes, I am."

"Stop," she said suddenly. He looked at her.

"What?"

"Stop. Please. I know it's selfish and horrible of me, but I'm asking you, please, don't be scared. Because if you're scared, if you're scared, that means things are bad. Really bad. And I don't want things to be bad. I want us to be able to crack jokes and look in spell books like we always do. I don't want us to end up like those demons." She looked down. "So please, for me, just don't be scared."

He wanted to tell her he would, he'd do it for her, but he couldn't. He couldn't stop being afraid. It was the sensible thing to do, but he couldn't. Holly was always the sensible one.

"What sort of person do you think I am?" he asked quietly.

"Don't know, don't care," she said. "You're my friend. My best friend. That's all that matters."