by D.L. Cox
Shots rang out above and Nat dropped the box. There was the sound of footsteps rushing in and out the dining room. Nat quickly grabbed the sword, unsheathed it, and headed for the door, but stopped. He remembered Angela’s order for him to stay in the room. He stood there waiting. Three hours passed before he slowly pushed the secret door open and peeked out. The table and chairs blocked his view. He slowly squeezed out the room without completely opening the door and then crawled out from under the table. There were no signs of a struggle in the dining room. He walked into the living room and stopped in his tracks at the sight of Todd’s lifeless body lying on the floor.
“Angela,” he yelled out.
There was no answer.
“Angela,” he yelled out again and again, running through the house.
He searched every room and found no sign of Angela. He then grabbed a duffle bag from a closet and headed back into the secret room. He struggled to fight back tears as he filled the bag with the crystals, grabbed the sword, and tossed the box in the bag. Tears flooded his face as he lugged the bag and sword out the secret room. He walked through the living room without looking at Todd’s body and swiped a set of car keys from a table near the front door.
“This is my destiny,” he muttered and then walked out.
He sighed when he saw the Lincoln parked out front. He was now certain that Angela hadn’t left on her own. He tossed the duffle bag and the sword in the back seat and then climbed behind the wheel. He pulled off determined not to let Todd and Angela down. He vowed to present the sword to the Host and to protect the Host during the Calm of Transformation. He would wait for the Host to find him, but in the mean time he would gather as much intelligence on Simon’s organization as possible, and that’s what he had done for the next six years. Mostly to assist the Host, but also because he knew Simon had something to do with Todd’s murder and Angela’s disappearance. A part of him hoped investigating Simon would lead him to Angela.
Chapter Seven
After leaving Angela, Simon went down to his office on the third floor, where Stacy and Tracy awaited him. It was more like a war room than an office. The wall to the left was covered with a high-powered computer server. A huge desk sat in the center of the room flanked by two smaller desks, each of which had a multi-line phone and a computer keyboard that was connected to the server. The desks faced the wall to the right of the entrance, which was covered with four wall-mounted plasma screens that functioned as TV and computer screens. The twins met Simon at the door as soon as he entered.
“If Tess is free,” Simon said. “She’ll need to quench her thirst. You know Tess; sex, food, and shopping. Let’s get some eyes on her old stomping grounds.”
Stacy giggled. “If we’re lucky, she’ll sex, eat, and spend Saleena back to hell.”
***
Saleena, Izzy, and Tess sat in their living room mapping out a strategy for going at Simon. Tess listened attentively as Izzy and Saleena detailed an outline for their plan, and then frowned and stood.
“You have no idea what you’re dealing with,” Tess sighed.
Izzy said, “We have over a million dollars and enough weapons to take out a small army. We start from the bottom and knock them off one by one. We can start with his drug operations. Kill his distributors, steal his product, and take his customers.”
Tess giggled condescendingly. “So you’re going to steal all of Simon’s customers and take over his drug business?”
“Right,” Saleena nodded.
Tess slapped her thigh. “You can’t be serious.”
Izzy frowned. “What’s wrong with our plan?”
Tess inhaled and shook her head. “Simon distributes hundreds of thousands of kilos of all kinds of drugs all over the world each year. But drugs are only a fifth of his business. He controls a large part of the black market for everything from guns to knock-off clothes. His customers are distributors and they would never deal with you.”
“Why not?” Saleena asked defensively.
“Because the major movers and shakers who deal with Simon’s organization are humans who fear Simon like he’s God,” Tess explained. “Simon has about a hundred demons in his organization, and they’re all enforcers. They deal with the humans who get out of line. Even if we killed all of Simon’s demon minions, his human network would keep his business running. As long as there are corrupt humans, Simon’s organization will thrive.”
Saleena exhaled in frustration. “There has to be a way to attack his organization.”
Tess nodded. “There is.”
Izzy said, “But you said—”
Tess cut in, “—your plan won’t work. Mine will.”
“And what’s your plan?” Saleena asked eagerly.
Tess slowly sat. “All the humans working for Simon have damned souls, which means they’re on Izzy’ s list, which means they’re vulnerable to demon possession when they die.”
Izzy frowned. “And?”
“You know the difference between a rogue demon and us?” Tess quizzed.
Saleena answered, “We cross over and appear in the flesh. A rogue demon needs to possess the body of a human to cross over.”
“Exactly,” Tess nodded. “We kill a human on Izzy’s list who works for Simon, and a rogue demon will possess that human’s body.”
“How does that help us?” Izzy asked, lost.
Tess looked annoyed. “When a rogue possesses a human’s body, he knows everything that human knows. The connection between demon and human occurs in the brain. We kill all the high-ranking humans in Simon’s organization and turn them into rogue demons who answer to us.”
Izzy thought about it for a minute and then reminded, “Yeah, but rogue demons are rogue demons. How are we going to get them to work for us?”
Tess looked at Saleena. “Technically rogue demons still exist in the realm of hell. They’re just peeking at this realm through the vessel of a human’s body. And if they still belong to hell, they’re still bound to the authorities of hell, which means—”
Izzy blurted out, “They have to obey Saleena.”
Tess smiled. “We don’t need to destroy Simon’s organization. We can steal his organization out from under him.”
Saleena added, “And transform his human network into our own personal army of rogue demons in the process.”
Izzy cracked his knuckles. “Where do we start?”
A sly grin cut across Tess’s face. “We need to go shopping.”
“Shopping?” Izzy asked.
Tess said, “Yeah, Simon knows me well, he’ll have some low level humans looking out for me based on my habits. So, we’ll draw one of those humans out, capture him, and work our way up the chain of command.”
Saleena pointed out, “We still need to get IDs.”
“We can do that after we go shopping,” Tess suggested. “It’s time to go to New York and spend some money.”
***
Lamont woke up in his bed the same way he woke up every day, with a beautiful woman lying on his chest. His latest conquest had been somewhat of a disappointment. She stood five- foot-ten with a body to die for, but she was a bore in bed. Lamont couldn’t wait to get her out of his place. He contemplated waiting for her to wake up, but then he roughly rolled her off of him.
“What time is it?” she asked, stirring awake.
“Almost two in the afternoon,” he said and climbed out of bed.
She wiped cold from her eyes and sat up. “You want to take a shower?”
Lamont collected her dress and high heels off the floor and tossed them to her. “No, I want you to leave.”
She sucked her teeth, stood, and slipped into her dress. “Somebody’s not a morning person.”
“And somebody’s whack in bed,” he snapped.
She giggled and slipped on her heels. “You weren’t too good yourself.”
She walked out the bedroom
and headed to the front door with Lamont behind her. “You don’t need to see me out,” she told him.
Lamont chuckled. “I’m not. I’m making sure you don’t steal anything.”
Lamont opened the door and led her out into the hallway.
She rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to be a prick about it.”
Just then Nat stepped off the elevator carrying the sword. The woman shoved her way past Nat and got onto the elevator. Nat watched the elevator doors close and turned his attention to Lamont. “That didn’t look like it went well,” Nat joked.
Lamont laughed. “Same crap, different day.”
Nat headed to the apartment door directly across from Lamont’s apartment.
“Hey,” Lamont said. “I’m having this party at a club this weekend. You have to come.”
Nat hesitated to respond, and Lamont said, “Come on man. You’ve been living across from me for more than a year.” He eyed the sword. “Give the weekend fantasy role play a rest and come play with me.”
“We’ll see,” Nat said and turned to go into his apartment.
“Look, take a few days. Don’t think about it, just let fate drive you to my party.”
Nat turned back to Lamont. “What did you say?”
“I said don’t think about it, just do it,” Lamont said.
Nat shook his head. “No, that other thing you said.”
Lamont shrugged. “I said let fate drive you to my party.”
Nat nodded. “I’ll be there.”
“And so will the lovely ladies,” Lamont promised before stepping back into his apartment and closing the door.
Nat entered his apartment, tossed the sword on the sofa, and headed in his bedroom and pulled the duffle bag full of baseball-size crystals from under his bed. He took the bag into the kitchen, moved the kitchen table, and then arranged the crystals in a circle on the floor in the middle of the room.
“Here we go,” he said and pulled the crystal from his pocket.
He put the crystal in the middle of the circle and said, “Come forth from the—”
He stopped, hurried into the living room and grabbed the sword, and then went back into the kitchen. He unsheathed the sword and said, “Come forth from the light, demon.”
A red smoke oozed from his crystal and swirled around like a tornado within the circle. Nat watched as the smoke cleared, revealing a healthy looking Charles standing in the circle.
Charles held his hands out and admired his newly restored skin. “As much as I hated being trapped in that crystal, I should be thanking you for restoring my skin.”
“Who are you?” Nat asked.
Charles snickered. “That’s not what you need to know.”
Nat’s eyes acknowledged Charles’ point. “Who did that to you? Simon?”
“No.” Charles muttered. “His sister, Saleena.”
“Sister?” Nat repeated with a raised brow.
Charles sighed. “Unfortunately yes. She and some reaper plan on taking over Simon’s spot as the head demon in charge here on earth.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Nat spat.
“What doesn’t make sense is you having me trapped in this kitchen,” Charles complained. “Why don’t you do me a favor and put a bullet in my head so I can go back to hell.”
Nat eyed Charles suspiciously. “You want to go back to hell?”
Charles shrugged. “My work here is finished, so yeah.”
Nat scratched his chin. “Your work here. What work?”
Charles shook his head and exhaled. “All right with the million questions.”
Nat raised his sword. “What work?”
Charles raised his hand in surrender. “Every night, I tortured a demon named Tess for Simon.”
“You killed her?” Nat asked.
“No,” Charles said with disappointment. “Saleena and her reaper attacked me and freed Tess. So are you going to send me back to hell or what?”
“I was going to annihilate you,” Nat admitted. “But you tell me everything you know about Simon’s organization and I’ll send you back to hell.”
“Sorry,” Charles exhaled. “You’re barking up the wrong tree. Simon lets us demons live like kings, but we’re really just enforcers. The humans are the key to his organization.”
“Fine,” Nat said. “Tell me everything you know about the top-ranking humans in the organization.”
Charles shrugged submissively. “I can give you several names and addresses.”
“Good,” Nat nodded.
Nat got a pen and pad from a kitchen drawer and wrote down the names and addresses as Charles dictated. There were ten names in all.
Okay,” Charles said after providing the information. “Now how about that bullet to the head?”
Nat pointed to the tear-drop shaped crystal sitting on the floor inside the circle. “Pass me that.”
Charles picked it up and tossed it to Nat.
“I’m going to put a bullet in your head,” Nat promised. “But not yet. I need to keep you around for a while.”
“We had a deal,” Charles reminded. “I thought you Order of Light humans were supposed to be trustworthy.”
“We are,” Nat assured. “I’m going to send you back to hell, just not right now.”
Nat held the crystal above his head and summoned Charles back into the crystal. Then he put the crystal in his pocket and eyed the list of names. “Who should I visit first?” he said to himself.
Chapter Eight
It was almost sunset on a Monday evening when Izzy, Tess, and Saleena checked into a suite at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. They walked into the one-bedroom suite with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a backpack with a half million dollars in it. Izzy tossed the backpack on the floor and Tess grabbed it and filled her coat pockets with fifty grand.
“All right,” Tess instructed like a school teacher. “Stay in the room. I’ll be back in the morning.”
“What?” Saleena asked.
“I have some people I need to see, we’ll go shopping in the morning,” Tess insisted.
“Why can’t we go with you,” Izzy questioned.
Tess rolled her eyes annoyed. “If we’re going to draw out Simon’s people, I have to revisit my old routines. That includes meeting with some of my old contacts. Those contacts won’t play if I’m not alone.”
Saleena and Izzy looked at each other and shrugged while Tess grabbed the phone and ordered a limousine. After hanging up, Tess told them, “Order room service. Eat, make love, have a good time. Enjoy each other.” Tess turned and walked out before they could respond, and neither Saleena nor Izzy caught the contempt hidden away in her tone.
Saleena threw her arms around Izzy’s neck and kissed him on the lips. “I think we should follow her advice.”
***
Tess had the driver take her to several shops and boutiques until she found one she liked. It was a small up-close and cozy spot where the owner catered to her personally. She dropped three grand on two pieces of Victoria Secret lingerie, eight grand on a black waist-length mink coat, four grand on a black Gucci dress with spaghetti straps, two grand on a pair of black four- inch heeled Gucci shoes, and two grand on a Gucci handbag. Tess was happy to learn the owner was also a personal stylist. She changed into her nineteen thousand dollar ensemble in the dressing room and made an appointment with the owner to return the next day with Izzy and Saleena.
Tess walked out the boutique looking like a movie star. She hopped in the back of the limo and told the driver, “Take me to Atlantic City.”
“Anywhere in particular?” the driver asked.
“The Taj Mahal,” she announced and leaned her head back.
She thought about Izzy and Saleena and frowned. It wasn’t that she didn’t like them, because she did—in her own way. She just hated the idea of what they shared. They had fal
len in love and had the courage to do what it took to be together—and for that she envied them, and a demon’s envy always bordered on a destructive hatred. Still, she kind of liked being around them, and she hoped the trip to Atlantic City would get a monkey off her back so she could enjoy their company as long as it took to knock Simon off his high horse.
***
The lobby of Trump’s Taj Mahal Hotel and Casino was fairly empty. There wasn’t much going on a Monday night in the dead of winter. Tess walked through the revolving door and strutted over to the receptionist desk like she owned the place.
“Can I help you?” the lady behind the desk asked.
“I need the Hostess,” Tess said dismissively.
“And who shall I say is requesting her?” the receptionist asked, grabbing the phone. “Tess Moss,” Tess announced.
Tess watched as the receptionist called the hostess and relayed the request. A smile cut across the receptionist’s face before she hung up, and she happily told Tess, “Ms. Smith will be with you shortly.”
Less than a minute passed before Tarsha Smith stepped off an elevator. Her high-heels clicked against the floor as she hurried to the reception desk to greet Tess. She wore a black evening dress that accented her long legs. She stood a statuesque five-foot-eleven with high cheek bones, full lips, and pearly white teeth. Her eyes bounced with youthfulness, but the wrinkles forming around her eyes and her heavy-handed makeup broadcasted that she was ten years past her prime.
“My Tess!” Tarsha squealed like she’d seen a childhood friend for the first time in ten years.
“Hey Tarsha,” Tess said and embraced her.
Tarsha held onto Tess’ hands and stepped back to get a good look at her. “Look at you, you haven’t aged a single day in over ten years.”
