Part XXVI

          A phone rang.

          “Shit,” Cee breathed, pulling away from him.  She reached into her back pocket and yanked out her cell, stabbed the screen with her finger, and snapped, “What?” into the speaker.

          Xander exhaled hugely and took a step back.

          “Okay, we’ll be right there,” Cee said.  She slipped her phone back into her pocket and grabbed Xander’s keys off his desk and tossed them at him.  “We have to go to the house,” she told him.  “They’ve caught a Kirid.”

          He caught the keys with a fumble and gave her a dumb look.  “What?”

          “They’ve caught a Kirid,” she told him patiently.  “It’s a high-middle class demon that sometimes carries messages.  They’re interrogating it.”

          “Oh.”

          “Come on!”  She raced out the door and down the stairs, with Xander following more slowly.

          He abruptly stopped on the landing between the second and first floors, his feet unable to move as his brain collided with reality.  Had she just...kissed him?

          Hearing his footsteps come to a halt, Cee came bounding back up the stairs.  “Come on, Pudge,” she said, grabbing his arm and guiding him down the rest of the steps and the paved pathway down the hill.  She shoved him at his car, but he just looked at it.  "Okay, I'll drive.  Keys?"  He made no move to respond, so she took them from his grasp.  "Go around to the other side, okay?"

          He circled the car, opened the passenger side door, and fought his way into the unfamiliar seat as Cee slid into the driver's seat.

          "Mmrph," she grunted as she tried to slide the seat closer to the steering wheel.  Xander saw that she could barely even reach the wheel with how far back he kept the seat to accommodate his gut and immediately became hyper-aware of the way his flab was spilling out onto the center console on his left and smushing into the door on his right.  Shame grabbed his throat so hard he couldn't even swallow, and he stared at the latch on his glove compartment.

          "You okay?"  She sounded worried.

          He nodded as the car rumbled to life.

          "You sure?"

          “Why do we...why are we going?” he finally spoke up as she pulled out of the dark, deserted parking lot.

          “Because this is important,” she said.  He heard the click of her seatbelt buckling.  He knew better than to try to bother with his.  “It’s very rare that we intercept any of their communications.  And they'll need me to make sure that what it's saying matches whatever I can manage to pick up from its thoughts.  It's much harder for me with non-humans, especially a Kirid, but I can do it.  Ken can sort of speak the demonic language, so he'll be doing the questioning.  Darshan and Ling will be restraining it.  You-" she stopped, and he could tell that she turned to look at him.

          He exhaled shakily and kept his gaze on the latch as she made a right.

          "Maybe you shouldn't have come."

          Xander heard the uncertainty in her voice. Or do you mean maybe you shouldn't have kissed me? he thought before he could stop himself.

          She turned into the driveway, giving no indication that she had heard him.  "Well, too late now," she said.  "Just...don't make eye contact with it, alright?  Come on."  Cee hopped out of the car and dashed up the stairs of the porch to let herself in.

          Xander struggled to heft himself from his car and lumbered up the stairs.  Cee had left the door slightly ajar, so he pushed it in and stepped inside.  The stench of skunk spray filled his nostrils as he crossed the threshold and he gagged.  He fished a handkerchief out of his pocket and held it over his nose and mouth as he made his way through the dimly lit foyer and into the cavernous living room.  The lights were on in the kitchen and he could hear a cacophony of banging, grunting, and an occasional strange, high-pitched shrieking that reminded him of a tornado siren he had heard once while visiting his grandparents in the Midwest, overlaid with the faint sound of voices.  As he got closer to the kitchen door, he felt a vibrating sensation increase on his skin.  "Hey, should I -"

          "Xander!" Darshan called sharply from inside the kitchen.  "Do not come inside!"

          He stopped.  "Do you need help?"

          "No," Darshan replied, "we've -"  He was interrupted by a particularly loud thud.  "Cee, you've got to grab it!  No, Xander, we've got it under control.  Do not come in, no matter what you hear, do you understand me?"

          "Um, okay.  What should I do?"

          "Just...stay out there.  And don't look in."

          Xander frowned, but turned away and, once again, cautiously settled himself on the large green couch.

          "Alright, Ken, ask it again."

          A series of guttural rumbles came from the kitchen, their unearthly cadence sending Xander's skin puckering up with goose bumps.  An answering rumble, impossibly deep and raw, actually caused his teeth to vibrate.

          "Summer," Ken said.

          "It's lying," he heard Cee say.  From the sound of her voice, her jaw was clenched, hard.  "I saw snow."

          "Hit it again."

          Even from his seat on the couch, which had to have been twenty five feet away from where he estimated the others to be, he felt Cee's energy rise, the warmth smoothing and soothing his skin and the fiery, spicy scent alleviating the skunk-like stench in the air.  The answering wail immediately caused him to clap his hands over his ears.

          The first rumbles came again, and Xander realized that that must have been Ken, somehow speaking the demon's own language.  This time, the roar that answered him sent picture frames flying off the walls and clattering to the floor throughout the house.  Again, he felt Cee's energy blast the creature, and again, it shrieked.

          "The same...in the city," Ken gasped.

          "It looked like..." Cee paused, and he could hear her panting.  "It looked like the mountains."

          "Alright.  Ken, ask about him."

          This time, Ken's question went on longer, and the demon was eerily silent for a few moments.  Then, it laughed, and the sound filled Xander with such terror that he involuntarily stood.

          "No!"  A series of deafening crashes came from the kitchen, and he saw a shadow block the light pouring from the kitchen door.  He heard Cee scream.  He bolted to the door and made it into the kitchen just as a black shape engulfed in veins of emerald light crumbled into dust in front of Cee, who was slumped against the lower cabinets on the other side of the room, clutching her left arm.

          Without knowing how he got there, he was kneeling next to her.  "Cee?  Can you hear me?"

          Nothing.

          Hands shaking, he brushed her hair out of her face, searching for signs of awareness.  Her eyes were closed and her skin was ashen.  He sucked in a ragged breath.

          Ling was beside him.  "Here, Xander, let me."  She reached across him and felt Cee's forehead.  "She's alive, just unconscious.  Her arm..."

          Xander looked down and saw blood pouring from a wide gash that ran the entire length of her forearm.

          "Darshan, my kit," Ling said.  He ran from the room as Ling began to rub her hands together furiously.  She slowly pulled them apart as if a large, tight rubber band was wrapped around her palms and the resistance was fighting her efforts.  Between her fingers grew a pale blue ball of energy, and Xander smelled lilies.  Ling plucked the energy out of the air with her index finger and thumb and gently laid it in Cee's wound.  They both watched as the light dissolved into Cee's arm and the tissues began to knit themselves back together, raw, torn flesh softening and paling as it mended.  The wound tightened and shrunk until it appeared to be a few weeks old, still red and angry, but ultimately closed.

          Ling sighed and slumped back slightly.  "She'll be alright."

          "Are you okay?" he asked her.

          She gave him a tired smile.  "Yes, I'll be alright, too.  Fixing things takes a lot of energy, too.  I'll sleep for about fourteen hours, eat a huge breakfast, and be right as rain."

          Darshan returned and handed Ling a navy nylon bag.  She unzipped it and extracted a roll of bandages and a jar of what looked and smelled like herbal ointment.  She ripped off a length of bandage and dipped a section of it into the ointment, taking care not to touch it, and gently wrapped it around Cee's arm.  Just as Ling affixed a piece of cloth tape to the bandage, Cee began to stir.

          "What...Xander...why..." she muttered, her eyes fluttering open and seeing him.

          "It's alright, Cee," Ling said in a soothing voice.  "He wasn't here.  Just rest."

          Her eyes closed again.

          Ken spoke up from behind them, "How the fuck did this happen?  We had it, I don't understand..."

          Xander turned to see Darshan shaking his head, both hands gripping two of the legs of the kitchen table, which had been upended.  "We thought we had it, but we didn't.  At least we got some information, and at least we're all still alive."

          "Let's talk about this tomorrow," Ling interrupted.  "We need to get Cee to bed, and I will need to do the same very soon."

          "Alright, Ken and I will carry her -"

          "I can get her," Xander said.

          They all looked at him.

          "I mean, it's not a big deal...she's not exactly heavy...just...just tell me where to put her..."  He trailed off, looking down at the droplets of Cee's blood shining like gruesome rubies on the white tile floor.

          Ling answered him.  "Her room is the second door on the left upstairs.  I'll go up before you."

          He stood and then bent down to pick her up as the others watched silently.  He slid his arms beneath her knees and around her shoulders and lifted, shocked at how light she was and how tiny she seemed in his huge arms.  He stood straight and looked down as she nuzzled into his soft chest, causing him to blush.  He caught a tiny smile on Ling's face as he raised his eyes.

          "Follow me," she said.  He followed her out of the kitchen, trying to ignore Darshan and Ken staring after him, and through the living room, taking care to go slowly and not bump her injured arm into anything.  He felt his belly bouncing into her slim form as they ascended the stairs and the part of his mind that usually would have made a disgusted comment about it was strangely silent.

          He reached the top of the steps and turned left, seeing that Ling had already made it into Cee's bedroom and had flipped on a dim lamp perched on a nightstand.  The room was a good size, with walls the color of dark sand, and framed, brilliantly-colored photographs of nature scenes arranged in clusters all around.  Her furniture was dark, almost black-stained wood, and the sheets and comforter that Ling was folding back on the large bed were a crisp white.

          She turned as he entered the room.  "Not quite what you were expecting, hmm?" she asked.

          "Not quite," he agreed.

          She smiled.  "She likes to sleep on the left," she told him, so he circled around to the other side and gently deposited her into the bed.  Ling unlaced Cee's complicated-looking boots as Xander just stood there, anxiously searching her face.  Some of the warmth had returned to her skin, and she seemed to be breathing regularly.  Her flame-colored hair curled around her face, a strand touching her lips.  He grazed his fingertips across her cheek to brush it away.

          "She...she will be okay, right?"

          Ling bent to place the boots beneath the bed and answered him as she straightened wearily.  "Yes, she will.  The combination of all the energy she expended trying to keep the Kirid from escaping and trying to read its mind coupled with the wound and the energy she had to expend to destroy it like she did just drained her.  She'll most likely sleep through the night and the day tomorrow, and I wouldn't advise her to get out of bed for another day after that.  She usually doesn't listen, though."  Ling pulled the comforter up and tucked it around Cee's sleeping form.  "I'm afraid I don't have the guest bed made up for you, and I am quite incapable of such a feat right now, as I'm fairly certain I will fall over in about five minutes.  There are sheets in the linen closet in the bath-"

          "Is someone going to stay in here with her?"

          Ling stopped.  "She'll probably sleep for quite a while..."

          "But what if she wakes up?"

          The dark-haired girl tilted her head thoughtfully.  "Would you like to stay with her, Xander?"

          He instantly began to sputter, "I mean, not in the - I would sleep on the floor, of course, I just - if she wakes up alone...in the dark..."

          She smiled again.  "The bathroom is at the end of the hallway.  There are sheets, blankets, and pillows in the linen closet.  Use whatever you need.  Now I need to sleep.  Goodnight, Xander."  She trudged out of the room and pulled the door closed behind her.

          Xander stared at the closed door for a moment, and then back at Callisto's pale face.  He was struck by how tiny and helpless she appeared, the blankets pulled up to her chin in the large bed that she barely occupied a fraction of.  He gave a little sigh and decided to go find a pillow.