V
Ten hours into a flight to Yemen with five more to go and Shaw still hasn’t recovered from drinking with Demons. Their team sat mixed in together, Jordan trying to give Shaw dried pollack soup for his hangover. The poor bastard focusing on keeping down the tofu and ribbons of eggs and looking miserable during last-minute team building.
Dix sits in between the humans and the supernaturals, trying to sleep as much as possible. He slept like the dead, sitting straight up and unmoving. Sauda made them even check if he was still breathing.
Adorna sits with Malik Watson, teaching him about demons, and somehow convinces him that he can withstand her siren call with practice. Sauda is debating whether to let Adorna have her fun or to save Malik from trying to have sex on their flight in front of everyone. It was easy to trick someone who had no clue about Demons that if you could ignore a Succubus’ call that you could fight against any Demon, but without a Castor or an amulet, Malik would drop his pants any second.
The Captain and the Major sit in the front rear-facing seats, looking at everyone while going through files.
The small cabin of the plane is bright as darkness covers everything outside of them. The cities below look like a galaxy of stars as Sauda admires the twinkle. A patch of clouds falls under her window and the plane shakes. She looks away and closes the window, not wanting to catch a pair of eyes in the dark fog. Anyone who has ever ridden a plane would tell you it was turbulence, and they’d probably be right, but Sauda knew that sometimes when it's dark, and high up, there are things that are curious and playful. Not every bump was a plane hitting a pocket of air, but something nudging a plane, and the last thing she wanted was for it to see her and want to play chicken in the sky.
“1900 at home,” Maddox says looking down at his watch, “you got someone at home missing you?”
Sauda smiles at him. If it were anyone else, this would have been a pick-up- line. Maddox, who has had his nose in the mission details all flight, didn’t seem like he was trying for that but they still had a lot to learn from each other.
“Not really. My familiar will stay there from time to time, but he comes and goes as he pleases and I don’t think he misses me, or will ever admit it.”
Maddox’s brows furrow and Sauda sees a permanent wrinkle starting to form. “Is ‘familiar’ like a new term for a lover?”
“What?!” Sauda chokes back her laugh. “You’ve seen ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’ right? Her familiar is Salem, her black cat. Mine is Samuel Dean.”
“You have a cat named Samuel Dean?”
“Hellhound. Like a… Demon wolf.”
“You have a Demon wolf named Samuel Dean??”
Sauda shrugs at him. “He really likes the show ‘Supernatural’. Sammy Dean and my father watch it together. They forced me into watching it, and it’s actually an amazing show. Incredibly accurate. I think there might be a Demon behind the set.”
Maddox relaxes in his seat and squeezes the bridge of his nose. “You are telling me... that your familiar is a Demon wolf from hell, who came to earth to watch a show with your dad?”
“No.”
Maddox slits his eyes and looks at her.
“My father lives in hell, being a Demon Marquis in hell and all. We watch it with him there. Kind of Father-Daughter-Familiar night kind of thing. Samuel Dean picked the name himself, so don’t look at me.”
“I don’t know which one I am having more trouble believing: Hell, your father being in hell, or there being a TV in hell.”
Sauda laughs and leans a little closer to him, “Just wait til you try to contemplate the idea that God really exists. If there's hell, there must be heaven, right?”
Maddox laughs with her, “thank you for that little tidbit to keep me up at night.” He looks at her, face becoming serious. “Are you… Christian?”
“It’s a complicated answer.” She sits straight in her chair and faces him head-on. “A Half-Demon can’t possibly be Christian, right? I’ve been struggling with this idea my entire twenty-seven years of existence.” She holds up her hand and starts ticking things off of her fingers. “I know God exists, my father is a fallen Angel and I’ve met Angels still in good standing. I’ve prayed before when I was in sticky situations and they’ve worked out afterward. I’m even able to hold crosses and they light up in the presence of evil when I need them to.”
Maddox nods along.
“The confusing part is when you try to figure out what ‘Christianity’ really is. I don’t think just believing is enough. And then there is the frustrating world of Organized Religion. Christianity is supposed to be about love, forgiveness, and teaching. Organized Christianity focuses on how different is wrong and unchristianly—it’s a social event and I don’t socialize with the intolerant. Which is sad for the Christians who are actually christianly. Not that they’d approve of me, anyway. I only follow a few of the commandments. Is that as confusing as it sounded?”
Maddox shrugs. “I was raised Catholic. Not exactly devout. I’m not a regular Mass attendee. How did your mother get mixed in with a Demon—”
“Cap!”
Adorna comes tearing up the aisle, grinning from one ear to the other. Watson runs up behind her waving his hands and Shaw covers his ears, putting his head in his lap.
“Cap,” Adorna stops in front of them and smiles even wider, “Malik just tried to show me his Little Watson.”
“I’m sorry,” Malik says looking between Adorna and his two superiors. “I don’t know how it happened. It just... oh shit.”
Sauda tries to hold back her laughter. Maddox sits straighter in his chair, face turning red as he clears his head and looks away.
“Are you done tricking the Nulls now Adorna?” Sauda asks.
She just shrugs her shoulders as Jordan comes skipping up. “‘Little Watson, huh?” Jordan’s eyebrows shoot up as he looks down and everyone’s eyes follow to Watson’s unzipped pants.
He instantly covers himself and whispers, “It’s not small.”
“Specialist Watson, I’m blushing.” Adorna puts her hand over her nose and smiles, while fanning herself with the other.
“Okay. Okay,” Sauda waves her hands in the air to get everyone’s attention. “Time to calm down. No more teasing.”
“And shut up. Please.” Shaw begs, his head still in his hands. He looks skinnier, sickly and more exhausted than when he first climbed on the plane.
Wason zips up his pants and turns towards his brother, “what’s doing?”
“I think it’s magic.”
Ashleigh shrinks back as everyone looks at her. She scoots behind Adorna and Jordan. Adorna reaches out and clasps her hands.
“Most nulls can’t feel power, or magick at all,” Adorna says. Ashleigh slides even closer to her and wraps her arms around Adorna’s arm. “But there are some humans we call ‘negatives’. Just being around magic can make them physically sick.”
“Damn,” Sauda says.
“What?” Maddox asks.
“We don’t go up against magic,” Sauda explains, “mostly gangsters with guns, and little men with political power. Even then, in certain situations, we use Fingers to cast spells. Protection, camouflage… these kinds of things. Now a member of our team can't be cast on or around.”
The whole team looks at Shaw and he sinks further into himself.
“Going on a mission without knowing all this will get us killed,” Maddox whispers.” He looks at everyone and sighs. “... We got four hours’ til boots on the ground. Pack up, sleep, get ready to deplane.”
Sauda and Maddox watch as the rest of the team breaks off: Malik to comfort his brother and Adorna, Jordan and Ashleigh to the rear.
“I wonder how much food is left,” Jordan whispers.
“I’m pretty sure you ate it all,” Ashleigh laughs.
“I’m so hungry,” Jordan grumbles.
Maddox looks up and down the small luxurious cabin. “I didn’t know the army had a private plane like this to spare, at least, not for us. You made it seem like they hated us.”
“Oh, they do, and this isn’t their plane. We’ve tactfully gained it.”
“Tactfully gained?”
She giggles at the look of confusion on the Major’s face.
“So these pilots are innocent civilians? Is that necessary?” The Major asks, lowering his voice.
“Come on, Major. you got the briefing lecture from the Colonel, didn’t you? The Army doesn’t want to be linked to us, so we do things under the radar... ish. Meaning, without the Army’s resources and they secretly pay for it later.”
“When you say ‘pay for it later’, do you mean monetarily or figuratively?”
“Both.” Sauda smiles at Maddox’s unease. He really did not understand what he was getting into, and he had no choice but to jump in feet first. “You got the black box I sent everyone, right?”
“Yeah. It had all kinds of identification for me, and credit cards, but with different names. I brought it with me but I didn’t know what it was really for?” The Major looks at Sauda’s serious face as she nods.
“Our plan to de-plane separately and go through customs is a lot easier if we use passports from all over Europe and Asia. Not too many countries trust America.”
Maddox looks at her with a smile. “Countries that were colonized don’t really trust too many countries in Europe either.”
Sauda didn’t like the way he said: “colonized”. That was the safest, most politically correct term for the stealing of land and the murdering of indigenous people.
“Can you speak another language?”
“Spanish. You?” The Major asks.
“Twelve.”
Feeling smug, Sauda leans back and closes her eyes. She hears the slight crunch of bones and a gasp and assumes Jordan took the form of a pet. Then she smells the rancid fear.
“Adorna. Put it away.”
Adorna’s voice deepens to octaves lower than natural as she says, “I never get to have any fun.”
Sauda hears the shifting of skin as Adorna chuckles.
“Sweet Jesus in heaven,” Dix curses.
Adorna and Jordan break out laughing and the smell of urine hits Sauda’s nose.
“Don’t call him down here. He’s no fun,” Adorna laughs.
Sauda opens her eyes as Shaw sways past to the bathroom, covering himself with an overnight bag.
“Oh sweet Lord, Major, will my eternal soul be damned from working on this team? Can I call my priest?” Dix jumps up and races up, almost jumping into Maddox’s arms.
“We’ll find you a confession during downtime,” he says narrowly avoiding Clinton sitting in his lap. “Can everyone just play nice… I’m going to sleep.”
Everyone agrees and sits quietly until the plane gets ready to land on the tarmac.
“All right, folks! Separate and regroup in two hours at the rendezvous point. This is just a recon mission. Easy-peasy.”