Chapter 10

Two months had passed without incident since the painful reunion between Nix and Sabaste. Billy had effectively kept the small fiery spirit at bay so Nix’s wounds could heal, and to Nix’s delight, had even stayed out of mischief. For the most part. Nix had been grateful for that bit of compassion, however, when he caught sight of the tall blond standing in the open garage door bay that morning; he knew his luck would have to end eventually.

“If you… ever follow me to work again, I will suck you up in a shopvac,” Nix snarled quietly as he leaned against his toolbox. Billy had spent the better part of the morning pawing through things like a curious child. While Nix busied himself with work, Billy would play hide and seek with the coworkers tools, or lock the vehicles with the keys inside, or repeatedly turn the lights off in the office. Nix glanced over to his right, making sure that his coworker wasn’t close enough to hear his threat. When he saw that the young man was busy shining a light into the undercarriage of the car on the first lift, he snatched up a tool and walked to the motorcycle he was currently tuning up. After he squatted down, he got busy.

“I’m not here to be a pain, I’m here to ask a favor,” Billy said as he swung a long leg over the seat and eased down. Nix knew he let the bike dip with his weight with nothing more than the purpose of being a nuisance.

“Off.”

“Favor.”

“Anything, just… go home.”

“Wow, you are really easy,” Billy said as he gripped the handlebars and revved the accelerator. “Hey, can I start this thing? Maybe take a little ride around the block? Where’s the key?”

“Shopvac,” Nix warned in a hissing breath. “And FYI, you’ve been a pain all morning. Why don’t you go play in heavy traffic?” He felt the blood rush out of his face as the boar bristle brush slipped down into his line of view. “I don’t know where you’re keeping that thing, but do me a favor, the next time you two want to teach me a lesson, use sandpaper instead. Just to keep things a little less gross.”

“Fine, fine,” Billy said in a dismissive tone. He put his feet up upon the pegs and tossed his hair back. “How do I look? You think I could pull off the biker look?”

“Well, you need a bike,” Nix said quietly.

“Plenty of us on our side have bikes,” Billy answered as he worked the accelerator again.

“I did not know that,” Nix said. “And cut that out, you’ll flood it.”

“Gregg’s got his horse, but I don’t have anything to ride.” Billy dropped his leg, putting it between Nix and the bike just for an added amount of aggravation.

“You know, for someone who’s constantly complaining about people invading his space and squatting in his home and stealing his peace, you sure are being needy today,” Nix pointed out as he reached through the leg to remove the plugs from the V twin. “I just find that so… hypocritical.”

Billy leaned down and spoke quietly to Nix. “Be careful. The last person to call me a hypocrite got the brunt of one of my tantrums. And that was while I was still alive. Wonder what I could do now that I’m dead?”

“I’m still morbidly curious about where you keep that bristle brush,” Nix murmured, dropping his voice as his boss walked past them.

“Want me to show you?” Billy’s voice held a mischievous tone as he pulled his leg up to rest his foot on the peg again.

“Not until you’ve paid for dinner, first.”

“Are you going to do me that favor or not?”

“Depends on what it is,” Nix said as he rose and walked to his workbench. He hooked his foot into the metal rung on his stool and pulled it to him before sitting down. “Besides, I thought you said you weren’t here to be a pain? Even though, as I remind you yet again, that’s all you’ve been today”

“I wasn’t until you had to threaten me with a shopvac, besides, that doesn’t really work as well as you’d think.”

“What do you want, Holmes.” Nix’s shoulders had risen considerably when Billy had spoken directly into his right ear. “Also, just putting this out there, I’m going to bell you like a cat one day. You’re going to give me a heart attack sneaking— what are you doing? Billy, leave it alone!” Nix hissed through a clenched jaw. He just knew that he’d end up losing his patience and wind up screeching at the restless spirit like an overworked parent.

Billy slowly removed his hand from the pneumatic torque wrench, a guilty look written across his angelic face. “What?”

“Get out of mischief!” Nix hissed once again. “Go home!”

“You haven’t promised me my favor yet!”

“What is it?!” he growled, and then felt that old familiar feeling of awkwardness as the sounds of ratcheting in the bay next to him went quiet. Nix cleared his throat and went back to cleaning the sparkplug.

“Temper, temper,” Billy smirked.

“What do you want, Billy? I’m trying to get in an honest day’s work.”

“All right, all right. Can you get your hands on some books? Fantasy, mainly. Gregg’s birthday is coming up—“

“Wait, you still celebrate those?”

“We’re still human,” Billy frowned. “Anyway, I haven’t gotten him any in years and I think if he’s not bored, he’ll stop pestering me and stop fawning over Jade.”

“Wait, what?” Nix lifted his head quickly and pinned Billy with an incredulous look. “He’s got a crush on Jade?”

“Yeah, big time. He doesn’t know I know, which, he should be aware that I know everything going on in my valley, so he should know that I know. Know what I mean?”

Nix grunted and went back to work. “Nobody knows what you mean,” he said. “Sure, I’ll pick up a few books. Recent titles, I’m assuming?”

“Yeah, that’d great.”

“Alright, there’s a bookstore just down the street, why don’t you go walk down there, have a look, tell me what you’d like and when I get off work, I’ll go and buy them. Jade likes books, too, so I’ll just kill two birds with one stone,” Nix said as he rose and walked back to the motorcycle. “No stealing, no alarm tripping.” Nix pinned Billy with a sharp look. “Yeah, Gregg told me about your little habit.” Billy’s smirk only made him shake his head. “Just head down there, I’ll go when I get off this afternoon and we’ll all be happy.”

“Why do you still sound mad at me?” Billy asked, though the fact of the matter didn’t really concern him.

“Because if I keep ‘talking to myself’,” he lifted his fingers and made the quotes, “then I’ll probably get fired.”

“Got it,” Billy said, and then slipped out of the garage. Moments later, he appeared in the open bay door. “Which way?” he called. Nix’s shoulders came up. His back was to Billy, so he couldn’t glare at him, so instead, he pretended to stretch and pointed to Billy’s left.

“Okay, thanks!”

“Yeah, yeah, you knew which direction it was in,” Nix muttered. As Billy disappeared down the walk, Nix squatted down next to the bike, getting back to work.

The garage was a small, three bay operation with an office that had a wide window gazing in so the owner could keep an eye on his two employees. The two nearest bays had cars up on lifts, with Nix in the furthest corner working on the motorcycle. The day was warm with thunderheads building, promising a good storm within the next hour or so. A breeze was blowing into the garage and offering fresh air in the work area. It was the reason Nix didn’t smell the gasoline as the fuel lines from both vehicles suddenly ruptured, sending gossamer streams of the fuel to patter down to the concrete floor. It wasn’t until the fuel was starting to make noticeable pools beneath the vehicles that Nix noticed something was wrong. At first, he thought that it had started to sprinkle, so he glanced over his shoulder, but the clouds hadn’t let go yet. Then he saw the source of the noise.

“Oh shi…” As he rose, the door to the office slammed shut, trapping his boss and fellow mechanic inside. They moved to the window as Nix began to walk towards them with a frown on his face, and then the metallic sound of a fuel can falling on its side drew his attention. The heavy odor of gas fumes were thick as Nix walked to the can to set it back up, before more of the fuel poured out, but before he could reach it, a familiar laugh reached his ears and his heart went cold. Sabaste.

“Hey, sucker, miss me?”

“You gotta be kidding me,” Nix said slowly. He was frozen in place, watching in helpless shock as Sabaste gave him a cold smile, and then dropped a lit match into one of the thin streams of gas trailing by his boot in front of the open garage bay door. Greedy flames erupted immediately as they raced towards the fuel pouring out of the can, sending the fire shooting along the only exits. They rose high and hard as they lapped at the oil staining the concrete floor and Nix staggered back as the men in the office began to pound frantically at the jammed office door. They were fortunate because they had a secondary escape, however Nix was trapped. He cut his eyes over to the vehicles, the fuel still leaking from the tampered lines.

“We’re gonna have a hot time in the old town tonight!” Sabaste cried out through his maniacal laughter. “Just like the old times, huh Nikki?”

Nix ran to his toolbox and grabbed a clean shop rag, pressing it over his nose and mouth as the first garage bay door came clattering down. He turned, his eyes scanning the small area, trying to figure a way out as thick black smoke began to slowly billow out of the two remaining doors. Fire climbed along the ceiling in hellish waves. He could risk injury and jump through the wall of flames, or maybe he could crank the bike up and drive out. All he knew was that he had to survive as Jayce’s face flooded his mind’s eye.

“Sabaste,” he warned, speaking as loud as he could around the crackle of flames. “You don’t want me dead, because if you kill me, it’s on.”

Back in the joint, Nix had witnessed a man who had been burned to death during a riot. What had struck him the hardest was the man hadn’t died right away. It had taken agonizing hours for his life to end, and sometimes, the man’s moans of anguish still came to him in his dreams. Sabaste knew that. Nix pressed his back against his toolbox, coughing through his rag as the second door came clattering down. His boss and co-worker had gone out through the side door, both carrying extinguishers in their valiant effort to put out the fire to rescue him, but the flames were well fed. He could already see the fire as it danced up the ropes of the slow trickling gas from the severed fuel lines and knew that his time was almost done.

“Get out of here!” he yelled to them. “The cars are going to blow!”

“Nix!” his boss called out. “Just run! We’ll hose you down!”

Fear gripped him. It was bad enough to be in a burning building, but the thought of running through those flames paralyzed him. He could remember what the inmate had looked like after being burned alive, how his skin had sloughed off his upper arms and chest. In the end, there wasn’t much of the man’s face to be recognized. The memory gave Nix the courage to push himself to his feet. “Okay!” he called. “I’m coming!” He broke into a trot, ducking down as if it were rain falling around him instead of bits of charred ceiling and flames dripping down around him. Before he could reach the smaller bay door, it rattled in its tracks, and then slammed down, effectively locking Nix inside the burning building.

It was the sudden brash call of the fire alarm and then people rushing past the store front that caught Billy’s attention. He floated to the front door with a frown, and then saw what had gotten everyone so excited. Smoke was now billowing thickly from the seams in the garage bay doors. It rolled lazily along the sideway towards people who were milling close to the building where they sated their morbid curiosity while talking amongst themselves excitedly.

“There’s a man in there!” someone exclaimed as Billy floated past them.

“Nix!” Billy was close enough to run, and his long legs ate up the distance quickly. He passed through a few of the bystanders, and then shoved one large man who was pointing at the roof, where flames could now be seen easily through the heavy smoke. When he arrived at the garage, he saw Nix’s boss, and the young man who worked with him, but Nix was nowhere in sight and he knew the answer to that instantly when he spotted Sabaste with his face pressed against one of the windows, laughing. Billy’s rage grew.

Sabaste didn’t realize that doom was looming up behind him; the only thing he was aware of was the relief that washed over his victim’s face. Billy was standing behind him and Nix knew that he finally had at least a fair chance to escape this inferno. He lifted his hand and pointed to the two cars and Billy could see that they were leaking gas as flames danced around them. Moments were fleeting now.

“I’ve had just about enough of you, you little banty rooster,” Billy grunted as he grasped Sabaste by the shoulder and turned, flinging him towards the crowd of people. He watched for a brief moment as the young spirit bounced off the pavement, and then turned to the building. He lifted both hands and placed them against the small bay door. “Nix, get behind something!”

Nix moved quickly, ducking under a work bench before tossing it forward. Seconds later, the door imploded inward, letting oxygen into the building, which fed the flames. Billy came in and moved the bench. “Move, now! Go! You have no time!”

Nix scrambled to his hands and feet. When the door was blown away, the flames were scattered and he could see the people outside, some screaming for him to get out, some growing brave and coming close. He felt his friends arm around his waist, helping him to stay down and crawl quickly towards the exit. When he was close enough, two brave men reached in and grasped him, pulling him out to safety and fresh air as his boss hosed him down with the fire extinguisher.

As Billy stood inside the fiery bay door, the car on the middle lift exploded, sending spectators scrambling for their lives. As he stood amongst the wreckage, his eyes searching for Sabaste. The first time, he had only injured Nix, this time, he almost killed him. It was time to have a little talk with the young man.

*****

“Is this my fault?” Billy asked softly. They were sitting on the sidewalk, an EMT had just tended Nix’s wounds and they were waiting for the police to come and talk to him to get his statement. Nix had declined going to the E.R. He didn’t feel like he was seriously injured, just some minor burns to the palms of his hands and knees, a few cuts and bruises and a raspy cough. If something serious decided to come up, then he’d think about going.

“No,” Nix sighed. “This wasn’t your fault. You didn’t lead him here… did you?”

“No. I’d never purposely do that.” Billy pulled his knees to his body and draped his arms around them. “He got away before I could reach him, though. There’s too many energy signatures in this crowded area to follow his trail.” He looked over at Nix, guilt etched on his face. “Is this my fault?” he asked again.

“No, Billy. He would have found me eventually. You just put a wrench in his plan.”

Billy nodded and rested his chin on his knee. He felt so conflicted. When he died, he went back to his old home, inhabiting it quietly until the rest of his family passed on. They had begged him to go on with them when they passed over onto his side, but he just wasn’t ready, and they didn’t wait for him, seeding his resentment of close ties and abandonment issues. There were too many loose ends on this earth that he had to see through, or at least try to understand, why the unfinished business in his short life was to be left unfinished. After his death, he stopped trying to associate with others, until Gregg came along. Just he and his friend, that’s all he needed in his new path. He didn’t want to admit that he just didn’t know how to make friends anymore, and that caring about others hurt.

“You saved my life,” Nix said softly when he was answered with only brooding silence. He looked over at the young apparition and for the first time, he saw Billy as he must have been in life. Quiet, gentle, a little insecure. The mask of anger he often wore was just that; a mask. He realized Billy must have been truly frightened to let such a vulnerable nature show. “Thank you.”

Emotions flooded Billy’s face. Fear, confusion, anxiety, anger. He tossed his head with an arrogant huff and slipped back into the comfortable mask, the one he felt the safest wearing now. “Oh… go play in traffic or something. I didn’t save your life to be nice; you just owed me a favor.”

“You’re welcome would have sufficed,” Nix sighed.