#jordanparrishound

With the power back on, it was imperative that Jordan make sure the library was okay. He’d left it in such a state of disarray that it wouldn’t sit right with him until he checked up on it and the man at the helm. He opened the front doors, glad to see that the barricade had been taken care of for the most part, but as soon as he stepped into the main part of the building, he was shocked to see some of the shelves out of place. Upon inspection he found that someone had painted some complicated symbols he didn’t understand. He didn’t know what they meant, but when Jordan went to touch one, he found the closer he got, the more his hand felt like it was in a vice grip, stinging like a thousand needles came at him from every direction. He pulled his hand back, confused, but he stayed away from all the bookshelves after that.

 “Alistair?” he called out, looking out over toward the balcony. Perhaps his fiancé was putting away and reshelving books? He heard footsteps echoing across the library, but they were too light and close together to belong to Alistair and it wasn’t until the bright blonde mop of hair rounded the corner that he realized Alistair might not be in the library at all. He struggled to remember the girl’s name. She was Derek’s something-or-other. Erica! That was it.

 She had a smile on her face until she recognized Jordan and then it fell. “Nope. Just me. Your boyfriend’s off somewhere having an adventure without you. It’s just me.”

 “Don’t sound so happy to see me,” Jordan retorted, going to cross the room to meet her. Suddenly her hands went up and her eyes widened in panic.

 “Stop!” she called out. “Go around the rug.”

 Confused, Jordan stopped and nudged at the corner with his foot. The same paint he saw on the bookshelves was on the floor and he stepped away from the rug quickly. “What are these symbols?” he asked.

 Erica shrugged. “Something Alistair said might work against the Horsement. There’s Devil’s traps under the rugs. Anything Celestial would get trapped there. Or anything evil? I don’t know. I forgot. But I don’t want you ruining it.”

 Remembering how much it hurt to get close to the symbol on the bookshelf, Jordan decided it was a good thing to avoid anything that looked like it had paint on it. The hound recoiled just as Jordan had and he got the same feeling he did whenever he wore the graveyard roots on his wrists and he got the feeling that maybe some of the symbols would work on him. The last thing he wanted to do was get himself stuck in a trap and having to shamefully wait until someone rescued him. “Thanks for the heads up,” he said, instead.

 With a nod, Erica hopped up on a table and crossed her legs. “You gonna stick around or…? Because I’ve been shelving stuff and if you’re not going to make yourself useful, you can go away.”

 Jordan shook his head. “I don’t know the first thing about shelving books and I get the feeling that maybe some of these symbols aren’t very friendly to hellhounds.”

“Yeah, what’s the deal with that anyway? Like, what’s a hellhound?”

 Jordan was used to this question by now and answered easily. “Hellhounds are fiery dogs that guard both the supernatural world and the gates to the underworld. Their powers center around fire and they’re harbingers of death.”

 “Uh… so has anyone told you fire and wood and books don’t mix?” she asked, raising her eyebrows slightly in a way that insinuated she knew exactly how it made her look and she did it often for attention.

 “I won’t hurt the library,” he said immediately. It was the first time he was so openly sure of his abilities. For so long he worried about burning everyone and everything around him, but as he learned more about how his powers worked, those worries dissipated.

 He didn’t know what else to say and contemplated just leaving anyway and try to find Alistair elsewhere.  The library looked like it was in good hands, although Jordan hadn’t been aware that Erica had so much responsibility there. She looked so young, but if Alistair trusted her, Jordan would too. He was just about to say his goodbyes and leave when Erica suddenly spoke up.

 “So did you really give Derek a hand job?” she asked coyly, clucking her tongue on the roof of her mouth.

 Jordan groaned. He really didn’t want to have to deal with that again and he rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Why would I lie about something like that, and in front of my fiancé no less?”

 She shrugged. “No reason. I was just wondering because I mean… it took me like forever to get him to do me and you just waltzed up and gave him a handjob like it was nothing.”

 “We were friends for a while,” Jordan said carefully. “He was in pain and I thought… you know what, I don’t have to justify myself to you.”

 “Aw, come onnnn,” she whined, sticking her bottom lip out like that would work on him.

 “I’m not here to talk about my private life with you.”

 “Stop being so uptight, Officer Parrish,” she said his last name with force, mocking him more than anything. “I like Derek and I want to make sure you weren’t one of the people that scarred him, that’s all. Besides, I’m also invested in Alistair’s happiness so if you screwed over Derek, chances are, you’ll screw over Alistair and I am not about that life. You make that man cry and I will end you.”

 Jordan didn’t want to laugh at her when she was being so serious but he couldn’t help it. She looked younger than Talia and certainly wasn’t as strong. He didn’t have anything to fear from Erica. How was she going to take him? He wasn’t one to brag, though, so he kept quiet on that matter and instead focused on her beef with him. “I haven’t done anything to you, Erica. By all accounts, we should be friends, not picking on each other. I love Alistair, more than I’ve loved anyone or anything. I had no idea I could feel this strongly about someone, but it’s there and it’s real. I’m not going to hurt him. Not intentionally, at least.” He’d seen Alistair when he cried and although both times had been because of his past, Jordan didn’t like seeing him upset and would do anything in his power to keep that smile on his face.

 “Wow. So cheesy,” Erica snickered. “I don’t know, you’re just so… so boring.” She flipped her hand about in the air to exaggerate her statement and then stuck her finger in her open mouth, pretending to gag. “I bet whenever you’re with Alistair everything around you dies out of boredom. Do you talk like this to each other? Thank god Derek doesn’t talk much at all. I couldn’t handle him saying that shit to me.” She puffed out her chest. “He’s all ‘You were beautiful before the bite’ and ‘Don’t leave me’ and ‘My name is Derek.’” When she quoted him, she dropped her voice an octave and stuck her lips out to make herself look more masculine.

 She looked and sounded so ridiculous Jordan couldn’t help but smile to herself. At least she was animated, which he couldn’t say for many of the people in the town. “There’s a certain quality to quietness that I admire. Alistair is the same at times.”

 “Yeah… he is,” Erica surprisingly agreed. “He worries me sometimes because he looks like he’s thinking so hard or that he’s putting too much on his shoulders. I kinda want to get him high so he’ll let go for two seconds and oops—am I supposed to be talking about that to a cop? It’s medicinal. I swear.”

 “Probably not,” Jordan said, raising an eyebrow. “But I know about Talia and it’s California so I can let it slide.

 “Oh yeah, speaking of Talia, have you seen her lately? She like, up and disappeared on me. We were hanging out and just kinda shooting the shit you know, and then bam, haven’t heard from her.”

 “She’s probably in mourning. She was looking out for Lydia’s mother and… you know.” It was easier not to say it and it wasn’t like Jordan was trying to state the details of a case so he could be a little more discreet.

 “Oh,” Erica said thoughtfully. It was her turn to fall silent and Jordan could see the cogs turning in her head. He didn’t know how much Erica knew about Talia and Lydia but everyone seemed to be connected here, so he could only assume she knew a fair amount. When she spoke again, her voice was really quiet. “I’ve been thinking about seeing my own parents again.”

 Jordan gave her a double-take. He hadn’t been expecting that. He knew she’d died and came back. It was obvious, especially the way the hound uncurled around her. After the fiasco with Lydia, though, the hound didn’t rear his head at the walking dead anymore. “Were you estranged from them?”

 “I kind of ran away and died, Parrish, it’s not like it’s a secret or anything anymore. Enough people know. It’s why I work here, because it’s hard to explain I’m not going to abandon a job to anyone who knows me from the missing posters,” she sighed and uncrossed her legs, letting them swing under the table. “I don’t know if my parents know I’m back. I don’t know if they think I’m dead or not. I was buried on the Hale property and not in some cemetery or cremated or anything. I don’t even know if I had a real funeral other than maybe Derek crying at my grave or something.” She’d never seen Derek cry before and it wasn’t fair to say that of him, but the damage had been done. “But after Lydia lost her mom, I’ve been thinking about going back to mine and making up with them. They probably miss me.”

 “I know what you mean,” Jordan said carefully. “I lost my father while I was fighting overseas and when I came back, I came straight here instead of going home to my mother. She doesn’t know if I’m dead or alive, either.”

 “Huh,” Erica clicked her tongue again. “Who knew we were so similar. How about this: if I go see my parents, you have to go see your mom. Deal?”

 Jordan thought about it a moment. He was afraid of what his mother would say if she found out he’d spent several years purposely not saying anything to her, but he was more worried about what his mother would say when he brought home a man. He’d never mentioned to her that he was into men at all, and the few girlfriends he had growing up had only been temporary. Jordan knew Alistair would be calm and not overly affectionate when around her. After all, they were both on the same page when they first met, making the unanimous decision to keep their relationship a secret for a while for fear of backlash. Jordan wasn’t ready to go through that again, but he knew it was for the best.

 “Deal.”

 “Good!” Erica held her hand out with her pink pointed upwards. “We have to swear it or it doesn’t count.”

 Jordan rolled his eyes. It was such a childish thing to do, but she insisted and so he found himself wrapping his pinky with hers and shaking on it. Erica seemed satisfied with the development and began swinging her legs under the table again. After their pink promise, Jordan pointed toward the door. “I should probably get going. If Alistair comes back, let him know I was looking for him, okay?”

 “I’m not your messenger,” Erica said, blowing some air out of her mouth and hopping down from the table. “But yeah, sure, whatever. Thanks for the break, but I’ve got to get back to sorting. You can go back to arresting people for sneezing too loudly or whatever it is you do.”

 “Hah,” Jordan deadpanned and finally turned to leave, giving her a short wave of his hand on his way out. “Be good to Derek, Erica. He’s been through a lot.”