Perfect Storm (Judah Black Novels, #0)

  Perfect

  Storm

  A Judah Black Novella

  By

  E.A. Copen

  COPYRIGHT © 2017 by E.A. Copen

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Cover Art by Ravenborn

  Published in the United States of America.

  The author respects trademarks and copyrighted material mentioned in this book by introducing such registered items in italics or with proper capitalization.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, persons, places and incidents are all used factiously and are the imagination of the author. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or locales is coincidental and non-intentional, unless otherwise specifically noted.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  The Judah Black Novels | Guilty by Association

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Don’t go yet!

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  About E.A. Copen

  The Judah Black Novels

  Guilty by Association

  Perfect Storm

  Blood Debt

  Chasing Ghosts

  Other Books in the Judah Black Universe:

  The Fairchild Chronicles:

  Kiss of Vengeance

  Chapter One

  I tripped over a body on the way up the walk. I scrambled to grip the bags of groceries, but the carton of eggs smashing to the ground with a damning crack. My shoulders slumped.

  It had to be the eggs...

  With a sigh, I surveyed the yard, eying the dead guy I’d tripped on. His face was rotten, streaked with green and black. Brown teeth and dead yellow eyes stared back at me. Stiff, plastic arms reached straight up for the gray, overcast sky.

  My gaze traveled over the rest of the yard, decorated with Jack-o'-lanterns, tombstones, and plastic skulls. Cobwebs and sheet ghosts covered the outside of my run-down house. When my eyes reached the porch, I paused, settling on a pre-teen boy in a werewolf mask. Brown hair stuck up from behind it. He waved at me and righted the scarecrow he’d been busy putting up.

  I put the bags down and collected the eggs. I’d sort them out inside. “Hunter, when I said you could put up the Halloween decorations, this isn’t exactly what I meant.”

  “Sorry, mom, but I love doing this.” He stopped messing with the scarecrow to pull open the door for me.

  “What’s with the werewolf mask?” I asked with a grunt as I put down the groceries on the kitchen counter. Hunter followed me inside, so I handed him a few boxes to put away. “You don’t think it’s a little redundant for a werewolf to wear a werewolf mask?”

  “Ever hear of breaking the fourth wall? Redundant is in.”

  I rolled my eyes and opened the egg carton to see what I might salvage. Broken. Every single one.

  A loud crack of thunder shook the walls of the house and the electricity flickered before coming back on. The tap of big, fat raindrops on the roof made me glad I’d remembered to put the windows up.

  The phone in my pocket buzzed. I pulled it out and looked at the caller ID.

  The name on the display made me press my lips together with worry. I hadn’t talked much to Valentino Garcia since I helped solve the murder of his brother, Elias, three months ago. In the process, I’d also saved his son, Leo, from a cannibalistic psychopath. He was a member of the local werewolf pack, so I saw him around. His wife didn’t much care for me, however, so I kept my distance. I’d sure as hell be the last person he’d call if he needed something. Unless, of course, that something had to do with him being in trouble with the law.

  I sucked in a deep breath and pressed the button to accept the call.

  Before I got out a word, Valentino’s voice came frantically over the line. “Judah, thank God. I didn’t know who else to call. I left him for a minute. Just a minute! Oh, dios mio...”

  He said something else in Spanish, but it was rapid fire in pace and my Spanish isn’t that good. I didn’t have to speak the language to understand that something was seriously wrong. I closed the carton of eggs. “Slow down, Valentino. Tell me what’s wrong. In English, please.”

  “Leo’s in the river!”

  Hunter turned around and lifted the mask off his face, revealing wide, attentive eyes. Werewolf hearing is good enough; there was no way he wouldn’t have heard Valentino.

  Such a vague statement wouldn’t have meant anything to me, except I knew two things. First, that the Concho River was way up due to the unusual amount of rain lately. The river, which runs through the northeast part of the Paint Rock Supernatural Reservation, is usually shallow and calm, barely deep enough to go shin-high on me. A series of heavy storms had just come through, however, and the river had swelled enough the reservation council was worried about flooding.

  Second, Valentino couldn’t swim.

  I dropped the soggy egg carton and darted for the door, Hunter on my heels. “Where are you?”

  There was a momentary pause. I imagined his eyes darting around, searching for a landmark. “I don’t know. Maybe halfway? Right where the river bends in a little. Oh, fuck. Fuck, Judah, I can’t see him. I think he went under. I gotta go after him.”

  “Stay out of the water. I’ll be right there!”

  I hung up and climbed into my mis-matched 1968 Firebird, slammed the door shut and started her up. The passenger door closed as Hunter climbed in beside me and clicked his seatbelt on. If I’d had more time, I would have told him to get out. He wasn’t going to be any more help than Valentino in this situation since there was no way I was letting him dive into a raging river. But there wasn’t time.

  I put the car in gear and floored it, steering us into a hard right so I didn’t have to back out. The body I’d tripped over thumped under the car as we sped away.

  I live in the northwest corner of the reservation, meaning I’m not that far from the river myself. No roads follow the river and housing on the rez hasn’t expanded out that far yet, so to get to where Valentino was, I’d have to go off-road. My car wasn’t exactly built for speeding through the desert over tiny cacti and small bushes. She spun and slid when I steered her off toward the river, forcing me to fight for control.

  The sky darkened and opened to send torrential sheets of rain down on us. Lightning flashed with every swipe of the windshield wipers. Rain obscured my vision in big, loud drops almost as soon as the wipers cleared it away.

  I squinted and leaned over the steering wheel for a better look. As I did, a wall of water rose in front of me.

  Hunter braced against his seat. “Mom?”

  “I see it!”

  I spun the wheel. The back end slid, and we shifted into a right turn, racing alongside the river. The wall of water crashed to the ground with enough force that I had to tighten my grip on the steering wheel to keep control of the car. Water slid under our tires, separating them from the road. I eased off the accelerator, but at the speed we were going, it would be awhile before it slowed.

  A dark figure sprang up in the distance, waving. I hit the brakes and hoped for
the best. The car slid sideways. I cringed as it tipped slightly to the right, but it didn’t roll.

  We came to a safe stop just short of where Valentino stood. He was soaked from head to toe, an old blue t-shirt clinging tight to his muscular body. His jeans were torn, and he was bleeding from the leg, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Valentino held the still body of his two-year-old son in his arms.

  I threw open the car door and stepped out into ankle-deep water.

  “He’s not breathing!” Valentino shouted as he laid Leo over the hood of my car.

  A crack of thunder rolled through the sky and angry lightning flashed.

  “Step back!” I shouted over the sound of increasing rain. “And somebody call an ambulance!”

  I moved my fingers over Leo’s neck, looking for a pulse. Nothing. Not even a flutter. My hands shook as I moved them down to his chest to count ribs, looking for the right spot.

  “Help him!” Valentino screamed.

  “I am!”

  A painful amount of time passed before I was sure I had the right place to begin chest compressions. One, two, three. Thirty compressions. When done right, it only takes about fifteen to twenty seconds. In reality, it feels like a lifetime. Tilt the head. Two breaths. Check for life signs. Repeat.

  As a federal agent, I had to take a first aid course every year and keep my certifications current. Before that day by the river, I’d never had to use my training. Usually, I don’t arrive until it’s too late and the victims are dead. I can’t help. I was going to be damned if I let that happen this time.

  Leo’s body jerked and he sputtered. Water flew out of his mouth. I rolled him on his side as he coughed up more.

  Valentino pushed me out of the way and picked Leo up, cradling his head and kissing him on the forehead. “Daddy’s got you. I got you, bebé.”

  I fell against the hood of my car with a deep breath out, my pounding head in my hands.

  Hunter squeezed my shoulder and I looked up to see him giving me a small smile. “That was awesome.”

  I smiled back.

  The water spread as the river flowed over its banks, and the storm was only intensifying. Leo needed to get to a hospital, but it was going to be awhile before EMS arrived. In the meantime, we’d be stranded out in the flood. If another one of those monster waves came by, we’d be screwed.

  “Monster wave...” I frowned. Maybe if we lived close to the ocean, but Paint Rock was near the center of the state in the middle of the desert. There were no tides. Nothing I knew of could have forced that amount of water out of the river to make a wave like that. That had to be a problem for another time.

  I nodded to Valentino. “Come on. Get in the car and I’ll drive you two to Doc’s. We can get there faster than the squad can get here.”

  Valentino nodded and slid into the front seat with Leo in his arms. I pulled my seat forward and Hunter hopped into the back.

  Once we were all safely inside the car, heading back toward town at the fastest safe speed, I glanced over at Valentino. “What the hell were you two doing out here in the storm, anyway?”

  “I wasn’t.” Valentino shifted Leo in his arms. “I mean, I was, but Leo was first. I was in the garage, working and he was supposed to be playing right there in his playpen. I was under there ten minutes, maybe twelve. When I looked up, he was gone.”

  “He was gone? And you didn’t call anyone?”

  “Who was I gonna call, gringa? The pack? Nina would be pissed. Besides, I had a scent. I tracked him out to the river and we was on our way back when that storm came up outta nowhere. After that first crack of thunder, the water just came up and grabbed him.” Valentino fixed his stare forward. “It was like it was alive.”

  I shuddered, and not entirely because of the rain.

  “It dragged him into the river,” Valentino continued, holding Leo closer. “And then the craziest thing happened. There was this huge bolt of lightning that struck the river and then there was that second wave. That’s what washed him out of the river, that second wave. I don’t know how he’s alive, but I got the strangest feeling someone helped him.”

  “Yeah, me,” I quipped.

  “I mean besides you.” Valentino sighed and closed his eyes. “But yeah, thanks, gringa. You saved my boy. Again.”

  I eased the car back onto the road. At least, I think I did. The water had risen quickly, filling the streets and flowing over lawns in a makeshift river. If the storm didn’t let up soon, all of Paint Rock might be underwater.

  “Hunter, you’d better use my phone to call Chanter. Tell him to mobilize the pack. Get them out of this rising water before the flood gets worse.” I turned my head to check on Valentino and Leo. “How’s he doing?”

  “Breathing. Maybe coming around.” Valentino cradled Leo’s head to his chest. “Thank you again.”

  “Don’t thank me until Doc clears him.”

  The red neon cross above the clinic lit up the dark ahead. I pulled the car up onto the sidewalk next to the door. It was still early enough, Doc should be in. A dark shape loomed over me as I went around to open Velentino’s door. I turned, shielding my eyes to look up at the neon cross.

  Perched atop the roof of the clinic behind the cross was the biggest, blackest bird I had ever seen. A necklace of white feathers circled its neck. I might have dismissed it as a freak vulture with gigantism if not for the eyes. The creature’s eyes glowed a piercing shade of blue, every bit as bright as the sign near where it was perched, and they were looking straight at me.

  The bird bobbed its head once, then spread its wings wide. From tip to tip, his wingspan must’ve been twenty-five feet. It was wider than the whole front of the building. When he flapped his wings, it shifted the wind and cleared the rain from the air for a split second. I have no idea how something that large got off such a low roof, but it did, lifting into the air and letting out a screeching call that was neither vulture nor eagle in origin. It hung in the air a moment before turning and flying away.

  The car door opened and Valentino shoved Leo at me. “What the hell was that?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, taking the child, “but let’s get in out of the rain.”

  Valentino stood, took one step and then stopped, looking down at his leg. I followed his glance. Blood coated the whole lower half of the limb and pooled on the ground. “I think...” He swayed. “I think I’m gonna pass out.”

  Valentino crumpled. If Hunter hadn’t jumped out of the back of the car, he would have smacked his head on the sidewalk. Hunter wasn’t strong enough to hold him though. All he could do is make Valentino’s fall a little slower. He lowered Valentino’s head to the sidewalk and then looked up at me. “You’d better go get the doctor.”

  Chapter Two

  The clinic used to be an old movie theater, but like the rest of the buildings on the reservation, it had been repurposed. The ticket booth had been turned into a receptionist stand after the glass was removed. It sat empty. Not that I’d ever seen Doc employ a receptionist. He probably couldn’t afford it, not with what he charged. The inside was dark. I hoped we hadn’t missed him.

  I hauled Leo inside and shouted, “Doc! Doc Ramis!”

  Footfalls on a padded rug echoed down the hall. A skinny white guy with an afro and thick glasses darted into the reception area, skidding to a stop. He took one look at us and stepped aside, gesturing back the way he’d come. “Room two. Where’s Valentino?”

  Paint Rock is a small town of three hundred people, each one a supernatural of some kind or someone who works with supernaturals. Everybody knows everybody. Since Doc was the only person on the reservation with anything close to a medical degree, he knew everyone better than most.

  “Outside on the sidewalk,” I shouted, bringing Leo back. He was starting to wake up, and I couldn’t tell if it was the lighting or not, but he looked gray to me. “He passed out.”

  I pushed open the door to the first room I found with my hip and stopped cold when six sets of dead eyes s
ettled on me. An otherworldly moan drifted out from the crowd of bodies gathered and one of them lumbered forward, arms outstretched.

  Doc grabbed me by the collar and gave a hard yank. He wasn’t strong enough to move me, but the momentum tugged me back enough to get me out of the way of the door so he could slam it shut. He pressed his back to it and let out a huff. “I said room two.”

  Something pounded on the door and another moan followed.

  Doc rolled his eyes. “One sec.” He jerked the door open, stuck his head inside and shouted, “No, Stefan! We do not eat patients!”

  The moan that answered sounded almost apologetic.

  Doc closed the door and locked it with a key. “Sorry about that. This storm’s got my zombies all worked up.”

  He ushered us into the next room and prepped oxygen while I laid Leo out on the bed.

  “He got pulled into the river,” I reported, trying to keep my voice level. Enough adrenaline was still pumping through me that I still had to fight the urge to punch something. “I think Valentino might have gone in after him, but there were these strange, giant waves that pushed them both out. Valentino’s bleeding on his leg. Maybe something bit him?”

  “We'll need to check for venom.” Doc positioned the oxygen mask over Leo’s face and worked at a fever pace to get his vitals. “No offense to Valentino, but I can’t get to him until I’ve stabilized Leo.”

  I nodded, understanding what he’d inferred. “I’ll get him.”

  Outside, the rain had eased up a little, but the streets were still rivers. Given that we were in the desert, it would all disappear quickly once the storm passed and the sun came out, but until then, Paint Rock would be flooded.

  Hunter had managed to drag Valentino a few feet closer to the door. I squatted and pulled one of Valentino’s arms over my head to rest on my shoulder. Hunter did the same and, together, we stood, straining against Valentino’s weight.

  Werewolf muscle is supernaturally dense. Valentino had to be at least two hundred and thirty pounds. Lucky for me, I had a little magick up my sleeve. I concentrated my will and pumped magick into my muscles, making it easier to lift him. The effect would only be temporary and I couldn’t maintain it more than a few hours before I crashed completely. Even magick has its limits.