Seven Come Eleven

Chapter Eight

There wasn’t a lot to see along the highway to Arizona. Wide expanses of flat land, broken by hills and mesas lined the highway. Small antelope darted across the rode and cows seemed content to graze in the middle of nowhere without shelter in sight. The sky was endless as well, deep blue with puffs of clouds drifting by.

“I don’t get to do this nearly enough,” Jake said as he drove along the barren highway. They hadn’t seen a car since they had gotten out of the city.

“I’m surprised you don’t do it more often.” Nadia made sure the scarf that held her hair back from her face was secure. She now understood his affection for this old car.

“You know after this is all taken care of, I see no reason we can’t travel more. See the desert and maybe the rest of the country.” He glanced at her but returned to watching the road.

“You were in a band, didn’t you guys travel?” Nadia felt a wave of relief when he spoke of this being over. She had very little doubt that he would survive this rather anyone else did or not.

“That’s not the same. It’s show up, do the show, and leave. We didn’t really stay in one place long enough to explore,” he explained.

There was a storage place just as they turned onto the main street of a tiny town that seemed to rise up out of nowhere. There had been no road signs and there were no signs announcing the name of it. Jake turned in quickly, not bothering with a signal and perplexing the people behind him.

“We have to start somewhere.” He shrugged as they parked.

“It can’t be this easy, can it?” Nadia read the sign advertising the units as climate controlled and priced at twenty to forty dollars a month.

“No, but it’s a start. Who knows, we might luck out.” Jake went with her inside

After explaining the situation, the receptionist seemed sympathetic and searched their records. “We don’t seem to have anything, I am sorry.”

“It’s okay, thanks for looking. Come on, Nadia, we have another few places to check.” Jake led her outside.

They checked with every place in town with no results. Nadia sighed heavily at the last place and leaned back in Jake’s seat tiredly. She was already tired of explaining her situation to strangers who looked at her with eyes full of pity for the widowed woman whose husband was hiding a storage unit out of state.

“How many more do you think we have to check?” She asked, glancing at Jake.

“I don’t think many more. Did he ever mention anything about friends or relatives in Arizona?” Jake didn’t take his eyes off the road.

“No. I can’t recall anything.” She scribbled the names of the places they had been in a notebook.

“Ah, here we go. Good ol’ Waffle House. We should be able to work in here for a while.” He turned into the parking lot and found a space. “Don’t look so defeated, we will find this place and that damned briefcase.”

Nadia agreed. She hadn’t eaten since the day before and her stomach clenched a little at the smell of food. A good meal would restore her mood. Jake helped with the calls, hoping to get a lead before closing time. It occurred to him that the unit was probably locked, and he didn’t have bolt cutters. While he was lamenting where he was going to get said bolt cutters, Nadia took a call on her cell phone.

“You’re sure?” Nadia spoke rapidly into the phone. Jake’s interest was piqued. It sounded, dare he say, hopeful? She looked up, her eyes wider. “Yes, yes, we can do that. A few hours I guess. Thank you.”

“Find something?” Jake raised the coffee cup to his lips.

“I think so. That was the lady from the bank, she said they traced the charges to an account in Sedona. That is probably where the unit is.” Nadia tossed her phone back into her handbag, done with it for the moment.

“Sedona? You have an address?” He accepted a refill of coffee.

“She’s sending it to me now. I hope this is the right place.” Nadia felt a little nervousness in her stomach. She ordered some food, looking forward to filling up and being on their way.

They finished their meal and it was late afternoon by the time they got started again, the sun was moving behind them in the west and they headed east along the highway, giving them a break from the bright sun in their face, both of them were nicely tanned from having the top back all day.

The scenery didn’t change much, cactus and mesas along the roadways, mountains rising in the distance against cerulean blue skies. The heat of the day had subsided somewhat, much to their relief. Long shadows from the tall red mesas stretched across the road in front of them. As the sun sank further, Jake pulled over to the barren roadside.

“Why are we stopping?” Nadia looked around somewhat alarmed. Her mind racing a little, “If we’re broke down out here, it could be days before we’re found.”

“It’s fine. I’m tired.” Jake rubbed his eyes.

“We can’t stop here,” she turned in the seat to glare at him.

“Why? Are we in bat country?” He looked around above them, half smiling. He did look sleepy though, she noticed.

“Fine, I’ll drive.” She stepped out and stretched on the roadside. “It just feels different out here.”

“I’ve always said that. This place is almost spiritual.” Jake walked over to her side, pausing for a moment to drink in the sights. “I should put a trailer out here and just live, maybe no one could find me then.”

She knew he was only half joking about that. Who could blame him, though? He’d given up his career and his life much to soon. Nadia found driving the car much more fun than she had expected. The engine purred and vibrated under her, the car responded at the slightest touch, so different from her SUV. She thought with a smirk, the car was exactly like Jake.

With the top back she could see the darkness creeping from the east and covering them like a dark blanket. The moon hung in a small crescent over the mountains, surrounded by millions of tiny stars. The stars were more clear than she had ever seen, she thought.

Jake was asleep in the passenger seat, lulled by the engine and the soft desert flower scented breeze. Nadia worried that she might become lost without his direction, but there literally was no where else for her to go but straight ahead. The signs she saw said nothing about Sedona or where she was, only the speed limit-which no one was around to enforce- and signs warning about various animals crossing the road.

It was late, and she had no idea how long she’d been driving, but Nadia was growing tired. She was unused to driving such distances and the total darkness of the desert was putting her to sleep behind the wheel. She noticed after a while that Jake wasn’t asleep, rather he was watching the darkness slide by.

“Mind taking over? I’m getting tired.” Nadia mumbled.

“Sure thing, pull into that rest area.” He pointed at a sign that advised of a rest area a mile ahead.

As they took the time to stretch and Jake looked at a map inside a glass case on the side of the restroom building. The glass was scarred from years of blowing sand and the light inside seemed to vibrate unsteadily. He squinted to make out the lines and highways.

“Looks like Sedona isn’t far,” he said as Nadia walked out of the women’s restroom. The light overhead flickered like a strobe, drawing both of them to look up at it.

“Let’s get out of here. This looks like one of those places where you go missing and are never found.” Nadia shuddered and headed to the car. From the corner of her eye she saw a shadow moving near the trees that surrounded the place and her hair prickled along her neck.

Jake was behind her, he had noticed her head movement and he’d seen it too. “I saw that. We should get going. Now.”

“What do you think it was?” She slid into the passenger seat with a glance in the rear-view mirror.

“Can’t say but it wasn’t good.” Jake fired up the engine, and drove out onto the main road. They didn’t speak as they put distance between them and the rest stop. Nadia watched it in the side mirror until it faded into the darkness behind them.

It was four in the morning when they arrived in Sedona. The sky was turning steel gray as the dawn came. As they made their way down the deserted main street, they heard the birds beginning to wake and chirp. The air was heavy and humid, but with a distinct chill exclusive to the few hours before dawn. Nadia shuddered a little.

“Hey that’s the place!” Nadia pointed at the worn down sign ahead. It looked at least fifty years old, yellowed and faded. The words were barely legible.

“You’re sure?” Jake raised an eyebrow at the shady looking place. He had so many questions about why Dan had chosen this specific one. Jake thought it looked like the kind of place you saw on the news where they found kidnapping victims and meth labs.

“Yep,” Nadia checked the text and nodded. “Is it open?”

“Affirmative. This place is scary, I am coming in with you.” He told her as he parked.

An old man watching television occupied the front desk. But theirs was the only car in the parking lot. The small bell rang when they shoved open the door. It stuck at the bottom. The old man turned from the ancient television and observed them with bespectacled light blue eyes that seemed faded with age.

“How can I help you nice folks?” The old man asked, hoping he wasn’t about to be robbed.

Nadia gave him a tired smile, “We just drove in from Vegas. My husband supposedly had a storage unit here. He passed a while ago and I just found out about it. Can you check?”

“What’s his name?” The old man adjusted his glasses and clicked the mouse beside the monitor on the desk. The desktop didn’t look much newer than the TV and it growled and grumbled as if it were annoyed at the intrusion on its sleep mode.

“Dan Sena,” Nadia said, “I don’t have any other information except the payments were being auto drafted from this business.”

“Ahh yes, Dan.” The old man stopped typing. His eyes softened but his brow wrinkled. “He is dead?”

“You knew him?” Jake leaned on the dusty desk.

“Ah yes, I do. I am sorry to hear of his passing. Was it related to his business?”

“I think so,” Nadia averted her eyes for a moment. It was still very hard for her to talk about. His funeral had been a brief service, and they had not allowed her to see his body before or after. The police said it was in such bad shape. The possible images still haunted her.

“The police ruled it an accident, but you know how that goes.” Jake touched Nadia’s shoulder to comfort her. “So do you know what’s in the unit?”

The elder man shook his head. “I only saw a trunk. It’s locked, I do not know what was inside. Do you have a key?”

“No, sir. I suppose we should get-”

He silenced Jake with a wave of his hand, then produced a hammer from under the desk. “No need for that. I have a hammer we can use. Follow me.”

Jake had some reservations about following a man that he didn’t know into a dark back lot, especially when said man was carrying a hammer. But there really was no choice. As they followed him through the rows of units, he introduced himself as Baxter, and explained that Dan and he had become friends over the years.

“No offense,” Jake drawled, looking around at the big sliding doors, stained with paint, dinged and faded. “But why would Dan come all the way here from Vegas?”

“Because this is Sedona,” Baxter said as he lead them around yet another corner. The lot sprawled much further than it appeared to from the road.

“And?” Nadia asked.

“The demons can’t come here. This place is sacred and the portals will not allow it.” Baxter hit the lock on the unit door with such a clang that both Nadia and Jake jumped a little.

“Demons can’t come to Sedona?” Jake added, suddenly annoyed that Dan had not shared this information, it would have been helpful.

“You didn’t know?” Baxter looked at the pair, rubbing the top of his bald head.

“I did not know that,” Nadia followed Baxter into a unit that was barely big enough for the three. It was hot, stuffy from months of trapped heat and humidity.

“Yes ma’am,” Baxter said, nodding to the large chest in the middle of the unit; a ring of what looked like table salt surrounded it. “Want me to knock it off?”

Nadia nodded a little, stepping away to avoid any flying debris. Baxter hit the lock twice before it clattered to the floor. Then, with the two men watching her, Nadia knelt in front of it, her red painted nail traced over the top first. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to see what was in here. But sucking in her breath she flipped open the heavy top.

Inside was a briefcase. It was the only thing in the trunk. With some measure of relief, Nadia lifted it out. It felt too light to be full of money, she thought. The combination lock wasn’t set, so she could open it easily. Inside there were file folders, some with staples holding them together.

“Paperwork?” She looked up and Jake, confused.

Jake leaned down to scoop up one folder, also confused. “What in the world are you hiding in here, Dan?”

Nadia and Baxter watched Jake’s face, trying to read the expression. It was something between confusion and realization. “This is definitely what he was hiding. Come on, we gotta get this back to Vegas.”

“Are you sure?” Baxter nodded towards a distant mountain, the peak of a distant mountain. In the strange purple haze of morning, they could see a dark cloud slipping down it. The cloud seemed to emanate from the peak itself. “Once you leave town, they can find you.”

Jake pursed his lips. “Yet we can’t stay here forever. We have to get back, we have a meeting.”

“Just be careful,” Baxter said as he turned to leave them. They watched him wander back around the endless rows of storage units, the hammer dangling from his left hand.

“Careful is what we can’t be. We have to get back.” Jake watched the dark cloud oozing its way down the mountainside.

Jake tossed the file back in the case and snapped it shut. With purposeful strides he made his way back across the lot. Without a word, he tossed the case in the trunk and slammed it. Alarmed by his body language, Nadia followed without a word. She got into the passenger seat and left him no choice but to drive. She wanted no part of trying to get them out of town with possible demons on their trail. Jake pulled his keys from his pocket and with one last look at the rising sun he got into the car.

“We leaving the top back?” Nadia looked up into the dawning sky.

“Why not?” Jake hit the gas. With a vibrating purr the Mustang surged forward, the gear change making it lurch slightly when they sped up on the main road. “Better to see them coming, eh?”

Nadia clutched the door handle as they sped back into the desert. At the city limit sign, Jake stopped and turned into a fast food chain that was just opening.

“What the--”

“I need coffee before I run from the devil.” Jake pulled around the drive thru. Nadia agreed to a cup of coffee herself, she wasn’t hungry. Her bright blue eyes scanned the mountains and the thickening clouds that were gathering at the foot of the mountains and rolling towards them. Already light fog began to settle in the town blurring the buildings as if in a dream.

Jake drank his coffee in the car, pondering his next move. The only way he could see out of this was to floor it and just try to outrun them. He tossed his empty cup in the backseat and dropped the car in gear before he lost his nerve. “Hold on, honey. We’re about to fly.”

Nadia braced her feet on the floor, a surge of excitement traveling up her legs as the engine sprang to life. The pavement wasn’t smooth, and the car rattled and bumped along it, hitting a pothole that shook the coffee in her hand, spilling some onto her lap.

“Dammit,” she muttered. She dabbed at the warm spot with a napkin, but when she turned to put the used napkin on the floor in the backseat, she noticed the dark clouds were now right behind them. There were rolling after them almost as fast as Jake could drive. “Jake!”

“I know. I see it. All we can do is hope we can beat it to Vegas.” Jake looked in the mirror without moving his head.

“What the Hell is in that briefcase?” Nadia asked, twisting in the seat at an angle she could see Jake and the cloud.

“Contracts. Contracts made with the devil. Like I made.”

“How in the world did he get them? What was he going to do with them, and more to the point is this why he was killed?” Her body went cold despite the warmth of the desert morning.

Jake nodded without looking at her, his grip on the wheel tightened slightly. “I don’t know how he got those, but he was probably trying to blackmail someone or some thing to break the contract. That old man said that Sedona was sacred, demons can’t get in. So he hid it there until he figured out how to get what he wanted. They killed him because they knew you had no idea what he was doing and would probably be so scared that you’d hand over the case without question.”

“Boy, were they wrong.” She glanced over her shoulder at the black cloud, it was still rolling forward. “Why isn’t Jake panicking, how was he so focused?”

Nadia was looking up at the cloud as it overtook them, so when Jake suddenly hit the brakes and skidded sideways in the road, she was violently flung forward and against the dash, then against the door. She had not bothered with a seat belt in her haste to be on their way. Her upper arm took the full force, though it would be a few hours before the full extent of the bruise showed.

Holding her injured arm, Nadia saw what had caused this sudden change in direction. There was a man standing in the road, though she could not see his face, it was shielded under a wide brimmed black hat. Jake’s eyes were drawn to the gauges behind the wheel. The gas needle was on E, which didn’t always mean they were out of gas, the thing hadn’t worked right in years. It did mean they were probably running low. He was suddenly angry at himself, he had forgotten to fill up with gas before leaving in his excitement to get back.

Nadia was unaware of the fact they were nearly out of gas, her focus was on the man who had appeared from nowhere. When she looked back, the man in the street was gone.

“Where did he go?” She yelled over the roar of the engine and the wind, looking back over her shoulder and then back out the windshield.

“How the Hell would I know? These are demons.” Jake replied, he had so many unanswered questions. “If he’s ‘magical’ and can make himself vanish and appear, then why was is he chasing us?”

No sooner than the question crossed his mind, the man was beside the passenger side of the car. Jake swerved towards the demon hoping to hit him, though he doubted that would do anything. The man threw his foot out and kicked the passenger side door, pushing the car towards the left side of the road.

“I know you didn’t just kick my car, asshole.” Jake ground his teeth together, rage taking over now. “Nadia, get that bottle from the glove box.”

She rocked back and forth as the car swerved, much to her horror the man was already on the hood. She opened the glove box and found the small spray bottle of water from the shop. It slipped from her grasp into the floor. The car swerved again, slamming her head into the dash. With a curse she recovered the bottle. She pulled herself upwards on the edge of the windshield to spray the man on the hood.

“Dammit, Nadia, he’s not a cat. Take off the cap and toss it at him.” Jake forced the wheel steady and slowed enough to come alongside the bike again.

Nadia raised herself in the seat and braced herself on the rim above the windshield, tossing the contents of the bottle into the mans face. With a shriek, the strange man flew off the hood. He skidded along the road and over the shoulder, into the sandy desert soil. With a last shriek that echoed around them, he vanished in a wave of energy. The clouds suddenly cleared. Jake stopped, jumping out of the car.

“Where are you going?” Nadia turned on her knees, leaning over the seat to watch him open the trunk.

“Hopefully we have enough gas in this can to get us to Vegas,” he explained as he rapidly shoved the gas can nozzle into the tank.

“You mean we’re out of gas?” Nadia screamed, not even trying to hide her panic now.

Jake looked up at her, her hair was a tangled mess, her eyes wide and glowing. The area below her shoulder was turning purple and so was her forehead. “I don’t know, the gas gauge hasn’t worked right in five years.”

“Damn you, Jake!” She pounded the seat with her small fist before turning around to sit, trying to regain control of her emotions.

When Jake got back in he handed her another small bottle from his pocket. “This is the last, hold on to it. We may just make it to Vegas before he regenerates.”

Nadia didn’t speak, and she had her seat belt on when the car launched forward, tires screaming as he turned around at full speed in the road.