by Michael Todd
“Something like that.” He nodded in agreement and kept looking forward as the elevator went downward.
After the doors slid open, Katie stared out at the open combat training area in awe. The walls and floors were concrete, and there were stations in the center of a circle. In the outer portion, several men were practicing combat moves.
Katie recognized Garrett from the night before. He had seemed timid and quiet when he was moving her on the gurney, but she watched him grab his sparring partner, lift him high over his head, and body-slam him on the ground.
“This is the pit,” Korbin said, stepping onto the walkway. “This is where we train, learn, and let out all our aggression. I’m sure you will get a little time in here later. We have found that when the demon enters the human body, the body is enhanced by the demon’s powers. That is what enables us to fight them and win—usually.”
“Usually?” Katie asked.
“It’s war.” Korbin turned toward her. “It’s not a movie or a video game. Real people die all over the world every day.”
Katie nodded, looking around the room. “So there are more groups like this?”
“A lot more,” he said as a tall and muscular guy with dark skin and a shaved head walked toward them.
“Hey, boss,” he said, shaking Korbin’s hand and nodding to Katie. “You scaring the girl already with your war speech?”
“Just stating the facts,” Korbin answered, and pointed to the new man. “Calvin Turnbuckle.” He pointed to her. “This is Katie, the newest member of Team Two. I expect you to get her settled in, assess her strengths and weaknesses, and get some training in before dinner.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Calvin threw Korbin a lazy salute. “Welcome to the team, Katie.”
“Thanks.” She smiled.
Ooh, he’s cute, Pandora said. Look at those abs. Damn. They definitely grow these boys correctly in this century. I expect you to get a piece of that.
Shut up, Katie replied. Go back into hiding.
Nah, she said. I’m bored. I think I’ll stick around and watch the show. Besides, you might need me later.
Katie sighed. I doubt that.
Calvin turned and started walking across the room. “So, the first thing for us to do is get you set up,” he said, smiling at Katie. “I am the Beta Team Lead, under Korbin—the man to come to first in the chain of command.”
“Mmhmm,” Katie answered, following Calvin to a room at the back.
She looked over her shoulder as they passed by the pit. Garrett and his sparring partner were now attacking each other with what looked like huge mallets. Her eyes grew wide, and she shook her head.
She was starting to wonder if she was in the right place.
“Have a seat,” Calvin told her, pulling a chair up to the metal table in the center of the room. “I am going to ask you some questions, and just know there are no right or wrong answers here.”
“Okay,” Katie said. “Pop quiz, no grades. The best kind.”
Calvin ignored her comment. “So, we obviously do a lot of fighting here. Have you taken any martial arts, combat training, or even any self-defense courses?”
Katie thought about this for a moment, scrunching her forehead. “Uh, I’ve done seven years of competitive volleyball.”
“Okay,” Calvin answered, shaking his head. “So none.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Katie put out her hands. “You’ve obviously never seen competitive volleyball.”
He shrugged his shoulders and lifted one eyebrow.
“Imagine it is you.” She put up her hands, her left in front, her right slightly behind her. “There’s a rock-hard ball coming at you from ten feet away—ten feet—hard enough to shatter your nose, and one way or another, you have to return the ball. Even more importantly, you need to set it for a return volley.” She put down her arms. “That takes some serious talent, defensive moves, and teamwork.”
Calvin chuckled and said, “All right” with a small amount of understanding in his eyes. “I see where you’re goin’ with that. So, you can stand in the middle, take charge even, but still play on a team. I like it.” He nodded. “It’s a start.”
He jotted some notes on a piece of paper. She wasn’t military, SWAT, or whatever else made up that team, but she was no wimp either. She felt the desire to prove she wasn’t a wuss to her new teammates. It was a competitive edge she’d hadn’t felt in a long time.
“Am I the only woman?” Katie asked.
“For now, yeah,” he said. “Our last team member, Cassandra… She chose to be exorcised and it was successful, so we had to say goodbye.”
Katie cocked her head, “You can’t stay on the team if you lose your demon?”
“No.” Calvin shook his head. “And you wouldn’t want to, either. When they exorcise you, they essentially cleanse your whole body, mind, and soul. Then, because you don’t have that extra fighting edge you had when you were Damned, they wipe your memory and send you back out into society to whatever life you had before the incident. See, almost all the people up there—just like you three days ago—have no idea these demons are out there, and we like to keep it that way. There would be mass panic, unnecessary killings, and pretty much every other kind of chaos you could imagine in an ‘end of days’ kind of biblical event.”
It took a moment before Katie started nodding her head slowly, then a bit more vigorously. “Oh, right. I see how that could happen.”
Calvin bitched for a moment and tossed his pen into the trash, then opened a drawer and grabbed another. “Cassandra was our one female, so we were pretty happy to find that you were a girl,” he told her. “We like for all our teams to have at least one female member. We don’t understand why, but having at least one female in the group grounds everyone and is a protective force of sorts.”
No shit, Sherlock, Pandora grumbled. It means there is at least one complete male-female bond, even if it is with a team member. There are serious protective forces in that.
Katie ignored her demon’s banter and continued to answer questions. She was struggling to concentrate on two people at once, and Calvin could see that on her face. He paused and let her settle herself.
“You’ll learn to tune the demon out,” he said. “They won’t always have such a loud voice in your head.”
Men, Pandora huffed. The single most powerfully ignorant sex.
Katie put her fingers up to her temple and rubbed. “I sure hope it’s soon.”
Pandora chuckled mischievously. But then I never cared if they could add two and two together, so long as they had eight inches or more.
God, Katie groaned in her head. You are so damn disgusting all the time.
The jokes she could ignore, the snide comments about humans she could ignore, but she was losing her mind dealing with Pandora’s sexual proclivities. She was disgusting, and the idea of sharing her body with someone like that made the revulsion that much worse.
She wanted to just shut her out of her brain.
Come on, Pandora said. I’m thousands of years old. What do you think you would be willing to try if your other choice was abject boredom?
Stop talking, Katie ordered.
Uh huh, Pandora replied. That was exactly what I thought. Even horses start to look enticing. Don’t judge me, my prudish Princess.
I’m not a prude, Katie replied in frustration. Except for the horse comment. That is just fucking disgusting. Seriously.
Oh, for fuck’s sake! I’m pulling your two-inch chain here, and boy is it easy. Well, mostly. I mean, the time between three hundred to two hundred BC is all kind of a big black blur of memories. Anything could have happened, really.
La la la la… I’m shutting you out, Katie said, concentrating hard.
Finally her mind went quiet and she sighed, smiling to herself. Calvin waved her to the pit, and she stood up and walked over with her hands on her hips. Without Pandora’s incessant whining and bullshit in her ears, she felt like maybe she could get something
done.
You didn’t block me, Pandora said. I just went silent because you’re no fun.
God damn it, Katie bitched in annoyance. She picked up a mallet and swung it over her head, then slammed it down on the floor in frustration.
Everyone turned and stared at her as the mallet’s head hit the concrete, cracking it. Katie stopped and looked around in amazement, having no idea that she could be that strong. Calvin gave her a look of approval and nodded.
“We can definitely work with that.” He smiled. “Team Two, meet your newest teammate, Katie.” He waved around the small group. “Katie, meet your new family.”
Katie wiped the sweat from her forehead and handed the mallet to Garrett with a shy smile on her face. She nodded at the others and turned back to Calvin, ready to get this training going.
“Do we get a lot of calls?” she asked.
“Yes and no,” he replied. “But it could be at any moment, so let’s get going. We’ll start with some combat moves, and fall into defense.”
Katie got right into training, working herself to complete exhaustion.
By the time dinner hit, though, she finally felt a small bit of courage and confidence in her abilities. As she walked to the dining area with her food in her hand, she thought that maybe this wouldn’t all be so bad.
Things could definitely be worse.
Pandora chuckled. And you have me to share it all with.
Katie rolled her eyes. Wonderful. just fucking wonderful.
Chapter Five
Katie trained for days, from sunup to sundown.
It was strenuous and challenging, and pushed her to the edge every single time. Her team was supportive, though, rooting for her every step of the way.
When she was in the thick of it the training seemed almost unbearable, but when she laid down at night and stared out at the Las Vegas lights in the distance she felt good about herself—stronger, leaner, and ready to kick some serious ass.
Her mind was right, like Calvin had told her it needed to be. Still, at eleven o’clock on that Thursday night, nerves filled her chest when a call came through to the team.
She jumped up off her bed and pulled on her clothes, lacing her boots tightly and pausing for just a moment to look at herself in the mirror. She no longer looked like that dark-haired volleyball player, but instead like a lean badass. It made her chuckle to herself as she strapped her belt around her waist and pushed two large knives into their sheaths.
Well, if it isn’t the fucking female Rambo, Pandora said.
Katie smiled. Don’t be jealous, Pandy. I’ll let your friends know you said hello.
Don’t get too much of a big head, her demon said. I’d like to keep this body a little bit longer.
Katie ran out of her room, down the hall, and into the elevator. She put the key in, nodding at Damian as he jogged into the lift with her. When they reached the training floor, everyone had come in and were gathering around Korbin.
“All right, guys.” Korbin looked around. “I knew it had been a little too quiet lately, so listen up. There’s a small outbreak and roundup at the junkyard on Forty-seventh and Prim. We’re going to break into two teams.” He nodded. “Katie and Garrett, you’re with Calvin. The rest of you are with me. I want this clean and quick, and no casualties. We work together, so put in your earpieces and listen to each other. There is no room for showboating out there. This is Katie’s first ride, so everyone keep an eye out for her…even though we all know she’s gonna kick some serious ass.”
“Yeah, she is,” Calvin yelled, clapping.
“Good luck out there,” Korbin said, jumping down from the small stage.
“Back together,” Garrett quipped, slapping Katie’s arm.
“Only this time I won’t be leaving on a stretcher.” She laughed.
“Damn right.” He winked.
The three of them jogged to the blacked-out SUVs parked in the adjacent garage. Calvin got into the driver’s seat, and Garrett opened the back, then reached for Katie and pulled her into the rear with him. He shut the back doors and tapped on the front seat, letting Calvin know they were a go.
Garrett turned to her. “You nervous?”
“A little,” Katie admitted.
“That’s good,” he said. “You never want to be too confident. That’s when you make a mistake…unless you’re Calvin. He’s a cocky motherfucker.”
“Damn right!” Calvin agreed, laughing from the front.
They rode up to the Fifteen. “So what’s your story, Garrett?” Katie asked.
He shrugged, “Oh, your typical Damned story, I suppose.” He chuckled, looking down at his hands. “Unlucky, just like the rest of us. I was a firefighter and an EMT in my human life.” He looked at her, but his eyes were a bit distant. “My life was perfect, you know? I mean, it seemed perfect to me. I wasn’t a loner or a badass like the rest of these guys. I was born in Arizona. I went to school and college there, met my wife there, and had settled down there to raise our two beautiful children, Aiden and Sebastian. I had the job I had always dreamed of. I was that hero who swooped in and saved the day.” He shook his head. “I always thought the flames would take me from my family. I never saw this coming, not even in my wildest dreams.”
“Who does?” Calvin asked from the front.
“I hear you.” Garrett laughed, pushing his hands together. “I think about my wife and boys every single day. Every damn day.” He looked at Katie. “I thought about exorcism, you know? To get back to them. But my demon, he’s pretty gnarly when he wants to be. He’s comfortable where he is, I suppose. Anyway, long story short, I had the life I always dreamed of. It was a Saturday night when the station got the call. There was a fire at a hotel just four blocks from my house. I knew they needed help, so even though I was off duty I geared up and headed over there. My wife asked me not to go, but I blew her off and told her I’d be back in time for dinner.”
He went quiet for a moment before finishing, “I never did make it back for that pot roast.”
Katie closed her eyes. Fucking curiosity! Now she felt like shit for asking. She forgot that not everyone was her.
Not everyone had just jumped from college into this life. These people’d had families, kids—a whole entire world built around them. She could see the pain in Garrett’s eyes as he gushed about his boys, how strong and smart they were.
She could see that every day in this life was a killer for him. Not new or exciting, just something painful to get through.
Is he going to start crying? If Pandora could have sneered, she would have. I hate it when men cry. There was a moment’s hesitation. Unless I’m causing it.
Shut it, Katie replied. Maybe you should listen, so you know what your kind do to people up here.
Honey, I’m sure I lost my conscience before I was even born. She chuckled.
Then go away, Katie ordered, hoping Pandora would just leave her the hell alone.
“Some of those spiritualists were fucking around out there,” Garrett continued. “A spiritualist is what people like the ones who tied you up call themselves now—like there is anything spiritual about robbing people of their lives. Anyway, one of them was fooling around with enchantments. They were just fucking around because they were rookies. They had no coven; probably just thought it sounded cool or something. Well, the one accidentally pulled in a demon that had an affinity for fire. The demon inside the kid was young, too. Had no idea what it was doing, and got him and his human body charred to a crisp. I remember getting there and seeing this burst of light come from one end of the hotel. It wasn’t like anything I had ever seen before, but I figured maybe it was just an electrical box going or a flash from one of the small explosions in the fire. One thing was for damn sure—I never thought a demon was in there wreaking havoc.”
“How did you end up inside?” Katie asked.
“Well, the rookies were all nervous and I could hear screaming, so I volunteered to go in first,” he said. “I fought my way t
hrough to the room where the spiritualist was, but all I found was a charred body. After that, it was kind of a blur for about ten minutes. That demon burned the hotel to the ground and latched on to the closest living body it could, which was me. I didn’t even realize what was going on. When I came to I was standing outside the hotel, just staring back at the burnt rubble. There was something in me, though. I could feel it, like I was on fire from the inside out.”
“Did you hear your demon?”
“Not at first, no,” he said. “I’m assuming he was just as perplexed, finding himself trapped inside of me. He didn’t say a word for about two weeks after the event, and when he finally did I just blocked it out. It made me feel crazy, and he had nothing interesting to say.”
“So how did you end up here with Korbin and the team?”
“’Cause we’re always watching.” Calvin smiled from the front. “Looking out for people, and saving people.”
“They do,” Garrett said. “I didn’t even see them pull up at that fire. I was too engrossed in watching the flames in front of me. Korbin ran up to me and just looked me straight in the eyes. Didn’t say a word.”
“He saw the red ring in his eyes,” Calvin said. “He knew immediately that Garrett had been Damned.”
“Yeah,” Garrett answered. “He pulled my helmet down and grabbed me by the arm, got me back through the hotel and out the other side. These SUVs were sitting there, and Damian was waiting in the back of one for me. They laid me right down like they did you, but Damian could sense my demon right away. He didn’t try to hide, and didn’t give a shit, either. He just made himself comfortable and latched right onto me. I remember those few days after the event. I really thought about giving up and just letting him take me over, but my wife and my kids…they kept flashing through my mind. These guys were there, though, every step of the way. They had my back when nobody else did. When the darkness was trying to take me over, they pulled me back out again.” He looked at Katie. “It’s not what I want in life, but it’s definitely better than I could have imagined in the scenario.”
“What about your family?” Katie asked.
