by Michael Todd
“I am looking for anything real or even sort of real—I have a very good nose for sniffing out good versus garbage. I just want to get enough information to fully understand some of the things in my life that have to do with the occult and some practices.”
Alice nodded and smiled. “Sure. Do you live here?”
“I mostly live in Las Vegas, but I come here for business,” Katie replied.
“That’s not a problem. I can always mail them to you,” Alice assured her. “Why don’t you write your number down for me?” She fished a notepad and pen out of her pocket and passed them to Katie. “I’ll do some research and call you with what I find.”
“That sounds fantastic.” Katie smiled. “Thank you so much. And I love your store. It’s really well laid out. I could sit here all day.”
Alice nodded. “That was the point of it. I wanted anyone and everyone to feel comfortable coming into my store and staying a while.”
“Well, I think you accomplished that.”
She ordered herself an Uber, then bought a couple of small things from the store to support the girl’s business while she waited for pickup. Her mind turned over everything that she had read, and when her Uber got there she didn’t even think about who was driving the thing.
She gave the driver her address and sat back, thinking about all the things she had learned that day.
That was a good day, she told Pandora. I got a lot of questions answered.
Pandora had other considerations. I think you should stop thinking about books and look at the man driving you the hell around today in your Uber. He is so fucking hot. Like “do him right here in this car” hot.
Katie looked at the driver for a moment and had to hold back a laugh.
What? Pandora snickered. You can see him, right? Or has all that reading affected your eyesight?
Katie giggled, drawing an odd look from the driver. I don’t think he would be interested in either of us if the gay pride flags all over the front of his car are anything to go by.
Wait…what? Noooooooooooo! Pandora’s excitement melted. This is total bullshit!
Katie laughed, inwardly this time. I don’t think he would feel that way.
No! Pandora’s indignant reply rang out in Katie’s head. He’s too hot to not be mine! Fuck this, I can be a guy! No, really! I can buy a strap-on, and he won’t even notice the difference.
I’m pretty sure he would, Katie told her.
Katie listened to Pandora concoct ways to make the driver straight again all the way back to the house. The demon was relentless; she obviously did not understand what it meant to be gay. She could not successfully pose as a man.
Seriously, I could get that boy’s head back on straight, at least for a night….or ten, she finally declared.
Katie was so mortified about the whole thing that even though the driver couldn’t hear it, she tipped him double the fare, unable to meet his eyes. Pandora carried on listing the things she’d like to do to the Uber driver.
Sometimes life with a demon inside was enough to test the patience of a saint.
And if not a saint, well, then certainly Katie.
Chapter Twelve
The next day was back to business for everyone. Katie had to admit it was hard to think about working when you were in a place like San Diego, California.
It was freaking beautiful every day, the weather was amazing, and everyone had fallen in love with Katy’s Coffee, the intimate coffee shop they’d discovered on Imperial Beach. The owner was usually to be found serving everyone from behind the counter, and there was constantly sand on the floor from the beach behind them, which added to the relaxed vibe of the establishment.
But all good things come to end, and that ending started over morning coffee with Korbin, Calvin, Damian, and herself.
Korbin hadn’t been at the event and hadn’t seen the demon, so he didn’t know what to do with the teams—which made him grouchy.
They were trying to decide if everyone should stay in San Diego or if he should split them up. Katie was glad Korbin was too preoccupied to notice that her mind was lost in so many other things.
Damian had noticed Korbin’s mood too, and he was pushing to have the team stay.
Calvin played Devil’s advocate. “I don’t know,” he said, considering. “I mean, we can’t get that lucky twice with a demon like that, so it would be good to have the team here in case he comes back with a vengeance. But at the same time, the likelihood of it happening again is pretty slim. You guys have a lot to get done, and other areas to protect out there.”
I just want to point out that the demon you fought was just three levels below one of the Seventy-Two, Pandora cut in. He was extremely powerful, and that doesn’t even count the fact that there are three levels above his.
“Right,” Katie said, ignoring Pandora for the moment. “But we won’t be here that much longer, right?”
“Enough time to get some intel on what is going on,” Korbin prompted. “Enough time to make things work and make sure it is safe out here for the people.”
“Okay,” Katie said, sitting back in her chair.
“I just don’t know if I feel comfortable leaving the two of them to fend for themselves if this beast or another one comes back,” Damian said.
I’ll tell you this much, Katie, Pandora chimed in. If you are not going to divulge what I can do and how we work together, you better have at least two more as backup. You can’t keep jumping off five- or six-story buildings and expect it to go unnoticed. The priest already knows you are full of shit, Derek has seen your badassery, Korbin suspects, and Calvin… She snorted. Well, Calvin is oblivious. He probably wouldn’t notice if you sprouted batwings and horns.
Pandora’s voice became serious. But Katie, you are flirting with the truth here and if you aren’t ready to face the repercussions for coming out with that truth then I suggest that you start covering your ass better.
Look, Katie hissed at Pandora. I know you think you’re helping here—I get it. But what you are suggesting is impossible! I can’t just request that two more people out of a seven-man total team stay here and not tell them why I need them. In order to keep our secret, we will have to take some risks. We will have to face some of these demons on our own, and hope for the best. She sighed mentally. I want to be back in Las Vegas just for the safety in numbers, but we can’t go back until we find out where this demon came from, and who summoned him and why. The only question is whether the rest of the team will be there next time I jump from a six-story building and receive nothing, not even a scratch.
All right, fine, Pandora huffed. But next time don’t take the knives out of his fucking head! With the knives in there he can’t leave this dimension, nor can he even start to try to think straight. Seriously, what the fuck possessed you to pull your knives back out?
“He was going crazy,” Katie retorted in her own defense. He was going nuts, and I was just trying to make him go away like I had done with every other demon. I did not know that he wouldn’t turn to dust. I didn’t know he would just return to Hell, either. It would have been nice if you had told me in the first damn place.”
Pandora’s silence spoke volumes.
That’s what I thought, Katie snarked, refocusing on the conversation at the table.
Korbin was waving a hand in front of her face. “Earth to Katie!”
She smiled apologetically. “Sorry, Korbin. Train of thought ran away with me still on it. What were you saying?”
Korbin gave her a disapproving shake of his head. “I was asking where you think this demon came from.”
“I think it was someone here,” Katie speculated. “Someone who has knowledge of the area and the kind of demon they were summoning.” She took a sip of her tea and made a face at the tepid brew. “They purposely trapped the demon in that circle with a fuse, which gave them five or ten minutes to load up and get the hell out of there. They knew they didn’t want to be anywhere near that demon when he got out,
therefore they knew how dangerous he was.”
Korbin considered her theory and nodded. “So, it’s an inside man, and an inside job,” he repeated. “Right, so in order to even start to understand what was going on, we need to figure out who this inside guy is and then go from there. It sounds like detective work.” He grimaced at the thought. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do: Calvin and Katie are going to stay and meet up with the reporter, and everyone else will come back to Vegas for now.” He held up a hand before Calvin could argue. “We have a jet, Calvin. It’s a short flight, and we can get back here fast if we need to. I think that you guys are going to be fine as far as demons are concerned. You just need to get to that reporter before someone else does. Every minute you’re not there protecting her could be her last.”
Katie blanched at the thought.
Korbin gave her a stoic nod. “Remember, you have to keep her safe. If that means bringing her back to the beach house, do it. This isn’t like the base with all our secret stuff. It’s just a safehouse that we can protect.”
“Yes, sir,” Katie said.
“One last thing, Katie. Keep your feet on the ground from now on.” He chuckled. “No more launching yourself from the top of six-story buildings, and that’s an order.” He turned his attention to Calvin. “And you. The next time I call, you’d better answer the first time around.”
Calvin snapped a salute. “Yes, sir!” He grinned. “I’ll put Groth the megademon on the line with you next time, sir. Maybe you guys can chat about cooking and swap some recipes.”
“Smart ass.” Korbin scowled and stood up. “All right, Damian, let’s get the team ready and packed up. We need to get back to Vegas and continue training.”
Katie remained at the table with Calvin, her mouth firmly shut. The rest of the team was bummed to leave, but they dragged themselves into the house to get ready. Katie just wanted to get the whole thing over with, in and out.
She stood up and went out on the porch to watch the ocean until it was time. There would be no reporter-flavored takeout for the demons today—not on her watch.
Calvin sat at the table for a while after the team left, allowing the stress of the last two days to evaporate with the foam on his coffee.
He tried to wrap his mind around what they were about to do.
They hadn’t had a chance to develop the non-martial skills they would need for this assignment. Usually being a Damned meant fighting demons, and that was about it. For the first time since he had been there, they had to do some investigative work. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing, or if they should be worried that it signified things were getting worse out there.
Katie went back inside after the last of the staff vehicles left in a puff of exhaust fumes. She found Calvin at the table and joined him. They sat there in silence for several minutes, thinking about the task at hand.
Finally Katie turned to Calvin. “OK, we have the reporter’s schedule, thanks to your research. So how are we going to do this?” she asked. “I’m not going in without a plan. That’s the perfect way to get us all killed.”
“No, I have a play,” Calvin assured her. “It’s something I used to do before I joined Korbin’s Killers.”
Katie felt the corner of her mouth rise of its own free will. “Lay it on me.”
Calvin grinned. “It’s like this. We are going to find Charlotte first; find out what she is doing, where she is working. When we have her location, we’ll send her a text to let her know we will be calling in three minutes. We will tell her that when we call she must step outside for privacy. She will do that, and we will grab her. We control the situation, she will be safe, and then we go get donuts somewhere without worrying that we are being followed or set up.”
Katie slapped the table. “That plan is perfect.” She laughed. “You are a genius!”
Pandora was in agreement for once. Uh, yes, because of donuts. I promise that I will be on my best behavior—as long as you promise to eat another of those cream things.
You’d better be. Katie chuckled.
“It will be perfect, if she isn’t familiar with the scheme,” Calvin commented. “I’m thinking that because she knows us, she will be okay with what we propose. I don’t think she’ll question it, basically.”
“Right,” Katie agreed. “Well, let’s get rock-n-rollin’.”
Katie and Calvin went to their rooms and got dressed for their day. They first went to where Charlotte lived, but she wasn’t there so they talked to a couple of people who seemed to know what she did on a regular basis.
She was a reporter for the crazy side, yet she didn’t change up her schedule. Katie figured she would have a talk with her later about safety, but for their purposes it worked out. They wouldn’t have to chase her all over creation.
Charlotte looked down at her laptop and sighed. Another shitty article, another shitty week, and no break in any of the real cases. She had just gotten back from following the teams around on the East Coast, and figured a little time back in San Diego was best for her right now.
Still, she was getting really tired of dealing with stupid-ass people who saw Jesus in the water spot on their ceiling. At least she was working from Starbucks today. The coffee wasn’t good, but it was strong and plentiful.
She pressed Enter, which sent her latest fluff piece to the editor. Just as she picked up her coffee, her phone buzzed. It was a text message from a number she didn’t recognize.
Charlotte. It’s Calvin from the Las Vegas team. I’m in the area and you’ve been asking for an interview, so here I am. I am going to call you in one minute. I need you to take your things and go outside to accept the call. It will keep us both safe.
She pulled her brows together and shook her head, dismissing the gut feeling she had. She was really surprised to be getting a call from one of the Damned. They never talked to anyone, and she had been trying unsuccessfully to sit down with them for a long-assed while now.
Something felt off about the whole thing, but at the same time she couldn’t let her suspicious nature get in the way of an interview with one of them. She grabbed her stuff, shoved it in her bag, and headed out of the coffee shop. She walked away from the store and in front of the alley way. The phone rang, and she hit Answer.
“Hello?”
A deep, calm voice spoke. “Charlotte, this is Calvin. Don’t be scared.”
She stiffened. “What?”
It was too late.
A hand cupped her mouth and her assailant pulled her into the alley, where she was thrust into an SUV. The man in the driver’s seat, who she assumed was Calvin, looked back and nodded as they took off.
Charlotte sat up straight in the seat and looked at the woman who had taken her, and at Calvin. She flushed with simultaneous fear and anger.
“Who are you, and what are you doing with me?” she snapped, glaring at the woman.
The woman held out a hand. “I’m Katie. Look, I’m sorry we had to do it that way, Charlotte. We know who you are, and what you are trying to do. We need to talk, but we need to do it on our terms. You are in danger. It wouldn’t be the first time someone from your profession dug too deeply into a story and found themselves standing in their own grave. We know you have been looking into us for a long time—and we don’t blame you for that—but we hide information to protect you from harm.”
“I wasn’t going to call for help, or whatever,” Charlotte snapped.
Katie raised an eyebrow at her.
“Okay, fine, that was exactly what I would have tried to do,” she admitted. “But do you blame me? You dragged me into an alley, threw me into a blacked-out SUV, and took off for God-knows-where. Where are we going, by the way?”
Katie narrowed her eyes at the reporter and dropped her voice. “Somewhere dastardly. Scary. Evil, even.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened, but she managed to squeak, “Where?”
Katie lifted a single eyebrow. “We’re going…to get some donuts.”
&nbs
p; “Oh!” Charlotte tittered in relief. “Okay, I get it. You wanted to make sure you were safe, I was safe, and that I couldn’t screw you over.”
“Yep,” Katie said.
Charlotte took a closer look at Katie. “Hey, aren’t you the girl who was rescued from the parking garage incident back in Las Vegas?”
“In the flesh,” Katie replied, raising her chin toward the reporter.
“Well, you look better in person,” she told her. “Way more badass.”
Katie snickered, shaking her head. She supposed that maybe she had become a bit of a badass. It was out of necessity, though, and she still felt bad for kidnapping this girl, even if she was trying to spill the beans on their clandestine organization.
“Do you like donuts?” Katie asked.
“Umm, who doesn’t like donuts?” Charlotte countered.
I like this girl already, Pandora purred. Maybe I should switch bodies.
Okay, but she will write an expose on your life, Katie warned her. You will forever be the reporter’s demon, recounting stories for the next piece she needs to write. Each story will get you a donut.
Oh, hell no, Pandora spat. Let’s just stick with donuts and demon killings.
Good choice. Katie laughed. Good choice.
Chapter Thirteen
Korbin sat at his desk, rubbing his chin as he tried to figure out what was going on.
Things had changed, and it wasn’t for the better. What had happened with Katie and Calvin in San Diego was alarming, to say the least.
The demons they had been facing to that point had all been controllable from inside a human. They couldn’t survive outside. This demon, though, didn’t need a human body for anything other than food, and from what it sounded like, the demon grew stronger with every human it swallowed. This was not something he could keep to himself, and it was obvious that things were getting darker by the second.
When Korbin had gotten back from San Diego, he had scheduled a conference call with the heads of the other teams on his side of the states: Brian Hudson, William Hunt, and Amy Brown.
