by Sam Cheever
I tried to keep a poker face until he was done and then I stared at him for a couple of beats before responding.
He stared back at me, unblinking. Meaning either he was being honest and had nothing to hide or he was very good at lying.
I wanted to believe the former but was cynically inclined toward the latter.
“And exactly when did your wife disappear, Mx. Coltran?”
“The night before last. At around two a.m.”
“How do you know she disappeared at that time of morning if you weren’t with her?”
He had the good grace to look sheepish at this, dropping his dark blond head to stare at the fine-boned hands that were clasped in his lap. “I put a tracking device on her.”
I raised two finely tweezed dark red eyebrows into matching peaks. “You were tracking your wife, Mx. Coltran?”
He coughed a bit nervously. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I had reason to believe she was meeting a demon at the club every night, a superdemon, which meant he wasn’t repulsive and I…”
I inclined my head. “Yes?”
“I think she was falling for him.”
I thought about this for a moment, letting everything I knew about demons flow through my brain, snagging here and there on a jagged corner of my fertile imagination.
I knew it was possible. The superdemons were the equivalent of the royal devils in that their evil was hidden behind a fairly pleasant façade. Some of them were actually quite good looking in fact. I could see a human woman with an obsession toward the dark side finding one of them attractive.
Under the right circumstances.
I cocked my head at my new client. “How do you know about this demon?”
This time he actually flushed. “I…ah… I… You see I’d suspected for a while…” He looked up at me and his green eyes flashed with anger momentarily before they settled back into sadness. “The truth is she had been bragging to me about him. I didn’t want to know anything about it. I just wanted to make our marriage work.”
Also straight out of the book. The human mate of the obsessed person never really considered the obsession and any subsequent sexual activity to be actual straying from the marriage or relationship. It is always assumed that humans have no free will around dark world types.
On some level I could see their point. Thoughts of my recent behavior with one—okay two—royal devils made me flush and look away from my client. I suddenly became very interested in the dull, unimaginative print of a Martian sunset that hung on the wall next to my office door.
“So you tracked your wife and what? The tracking device stopped working at around two in the morning the night before last?”
He nodded, looking miserable.
“Do you think she might be dead?”
His head jerked up and his eyes seemed to swim with pain. “No!”
I stared hard at him and waited.
Finally he took a deep breath and shook his head. “She’s not dead, Mx. Phelps but I’m afraid she’s been taken against her will.”
“What if she hasn’t?”
“Huh?”
“Been taken against her will. What if she went voluntarily?”
He shook his dark blond head, dislodging a large curl onto his forehead and making him look like a very large, slightly disheveled child. “You and I both know, Mx. Phelps that humans have no free will around these creatures. I just want to get her back so I can get her some help.”
I watched him struggle with his emotions and thought about whether I wanted to take the case on with everything else I had going on. But when he looked back up at me and said, “I love her, Mx. Phelps.” I knew I was gonna take the case.
But I had to know one thing first. “Mx. Coltran, how do you know so much about demons? How did your wife get interested in them in the first place? You know it’s highly unusual for humans to even recognize a demon let alone seek them out once they have.”
He glanced up at me and the pain that had been in his green eyes just seconds earlier had been replaced by something else entirely. Something almost…calculating passed through his gaze in a heartbeat of time and was gone. Leaving me wondering what I was getting myself into.
“She…we found out one of our neighbors was frequenting these nightclubs and he told us about them. Instead of warning her against them, like I think the neighbor had intended to do, she seemed intrigued somehow by what he told us. She started going out at night soon after that and returning home very late with little or no explanation.” He sighed, staring at his hands, which were clasped tightly in his lap. “It nearly destroyed our neighbor. At least that’s what he told us at the time. But she ignored his warnings and went to that first nightclub anyway.”
Coltran coughed into a fist and looked away, his eyes unfocused and weary.
I saw too many holes in his story. I thought about demon chattel and how they can be used to draw other humans into the demons’ sphere. I couldn’t help wondering if Mx. Coltran’s neighbor wasn’t a member of that group. I thought it was highly likely and asked for his name. I decided I’d check the neighbor out and turn him into the paranormal cops if he looked suspicious.
“Mx. Coltran, why do you think the neighbor told you about the demons. What prompted him? I mean, it’s not exactly a normal conversation to have. Most people would have thought he was delusional talking about demons.”
Coltran nodded, still staring off in that unfocused way. “Margaret and I had recently joined a…group.”
Oh-oh.
“What kind of group, Mx. Coltran?”
He cleared his throat, looking slightly embarrassed. “It’s called HEAC, Humans Against Evil Creatures. We wanted to do something to stop the spread of evil through our community.”
I felt dread, cold and slimy, sliding down my spine. “What exactly does this group do, Mx. Coltran?”
His green eyes jerked to my face, locked there and filled with the passion of the righteous.
I gulped.
“We eradicate evil where it stands, Mx. Phelps. We destroy its purveyors and scour its places of business. We kill evil creatures to protect the innocent.”
Major oh-oh.
I swallowed hard and looked for a way to say what I needed to say next. I finally settled on blunt honesty.
“Mx. Coltran, you have no right taking the law into your own hands. If I believed that you were killing and destroying anything I would be forced to turn you into the paranormal cops. It’s the PC’s job to protect the human population against the dark world, Mx. Coltran. Not yours or this group’s.”
The fanatical glint bled away from his green gaze and the light in his eyes turned calculating. “Of course I was just using a figure of speech, Mx. Phelps. My group would never harm another creature. We work very closely with the PC on these matters.”
I stared at him for a long moment and then nodded. I didn’t believe him for a moment but hopefully I’d given him something to think about. I made a mental note to check the group out with the paranormal cops. If they hadn’t yet heard of it they needed to.
“Mx. Coltran, if you don’t mind my asking, whatever possessed you and your wife to join this group?”
He gave me a sad smile. “Murder, Mx. Phelps. My wife’s nephew was murdered a few months ago. He’d been out club-hopping with friends and just disappeared. His body was located several days later and it was horribly mutilated. The PC tried to tell us he’d been killed by Satanists but we didn’t believe them.”
His icy green gaze locked on mine and I fought the urge to shiver under the hatred showcased there. “He looked like he’d been chewed on, Mx. Phelps and the autopsy showed that his brain was missing, though his body was intact.”
Supra demons, I thought. Small, wormlike demons that live on larger demons as their hosts. They enter the body through open orifices and eat the internal organs. Nasty business. This time I did shiver, remembering my own close encounter with a supra demon n
ot all that long ago.
I nodded, not missing the fact that Mx. Coltran and his wife knew a lot more about demons than seemed normal if they’d made the connection between the state of her nephew’s body and the demons.
I was not at all comfortable with the whole thing. Mx. Coltran, his wife’s apparent disappearance and the stated reason for it, especially given her nephew’s murder. Then it suddenly occurred to me, the real reason the little wife had been cavorting with evil.
I turned my horrified gaze on him. “Mx. Coltran, you sent your wife into the demon clubs as bait didn’t you?”
He turned bright red and stood up. “Will you take the case or not, Mx. Phelps?”
I stood too. “I hope you understand what you’ve done, Mx. Coltran. The demon race has very few scruples and less sense where it comes to humans. They are a race that is highly attuned to their bodily needs and almost completely without morals.”
I mentally added, “Without the royals to hold them back in consideration of the fragile peace between the humans and the dark worlders who shared their living space, the demons would have eradicated the human race decades ago.”
I glared at him. “Your wife is in great danger, Mx. Coltran. I hope you understand that.”
His eyes filled with tears and his body seemed to deflate as the anger of my accusation left him and his own shame and worry took over. “Please, Mx. Phelps. Just get her back for me. I don’t know how I let them talk me into it but all I care about now is getting her back.”
The first call I would make when Coltran left my office was to my contact at the PC telling them to pick up the Coltrans’ neighbor. The possibility of his being chattel was looking stronger by the moment.
“I’ll find your wife, Mx. Coltran but when I do, I’ll expect you to stop working with this HEAC group. Let the police handle these things.”
He nodded, swiping a tear off his cheek. “I promise, Mx. Phelps. Just get her back for me.”
After I’d walked Mx. Coltran out of my office I stood in front of the large window behind my desk, my mind racing. I watched the few cars on the street below, which belonged to people and groups who had permission to use the streets during work hours. With stricter environmental laws every year, it was getting harder and harder to get a free movement permit for daylight hours.
The sidewalks, though, were filled with people, walking here and there to do business and complete errands. I thought of about a thousand errands I needed to run and wished, for about the millionth time, that Emo were there to help.
I missed him.
I wondered if he missed me too.
Shaking my head in disgust at myself, I stepped away from the window and went to the televisual.
PC Cheets swam into view after two connection bleeps. She smiled at me, looking eminently weary. “Hey, Astra. How’s things?”
PC Cheets had been DD Raoul’s second-in-command when I’d first met her. She had since moved up a rank and switched over to the paranormal cops from the death detective squad. It had been considered by her fellow cops to be a great move for her career. It was considered by me to be a wonderful thing. Now I had a strong ally in the PC, something that had proven invaluable more than once.
“Hey Cheets! You look like a summer vacation in Hades. Rough week?”
She laughed. At five feet four inches tall with a sturdy, muscular build, PC Cheets was way under the height requirement for the force. But equal rights laws had enabled her to bully her way not only onto the force but up the ladder as well and, at least in her case, that was a good thing.
She was a good cop and a strong proponent for those she had pledged to protect. She packed a lot of heart and good old-fashioned belligerence into that small, sturdy package.
And, of course, she had that little woman thing going on too. Anger can be a powerful weapon when all else fails you.
As a fellow little woman, I should know.
Cheets pushed a stray lock of frizzy brown hair out of her pale, tired-looking face and blew air through heavy, sensual lips. “I’ve been pulling double shifts trying to figure out where those damned hostages disappeared to and keep it off the front page of the cyber news.”
I cocked my head at her in question. “You got newsies sniffing around this already?”
She nodded. “Unfortunately the guy knows way too much. I’m starting to think he works for either the royals or the demons. I’ve only just been able to hold him back by threatening to incarcerate him for impeding my investigation if he spills. But he’s like a hungry gargoyle in a room full of placid cattle. He’s a heartbeat away from spilling his guts and nothing I say is gonna stop him once he starts rolling. I suspect he’s being threatened by somebody. Or…” she smiled at me, “should I say something?”
I nodded, scrunching up my face in thought. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Alcott has a reporter on the payroll. King Dialle would have nothing at all to gain from this leaking out.”
Cheets nodded, agreeing with my assessment.
“Have you read Raoul’s report on the victim at Saint Edwards?”
She sighed, “It wasn’t up to his usual standards. He seems, I don’t know, off somehow.”
I knew exactly what she meant but couldn’t really let on that I did without giving away Raoul’s extracurricular activities. So I said, “Really? What do you mean?”
She shrugged, scrubbing at beautiful, golden-brown eyes with long, thick lashes. “He seems to be coming to all the wrong conclusions on the murder. I mean, we all know what’s going on right? But he documented his findings implicating the royals.”
I nodded, deciding to meet her halfway. “Did he mention that he’d consulted with me at the site?”
She narrowed her eyes. “He didn’t mention that in his report.”
I sighed. Figures. “Well, he did and I told him the same thing you’re saying.”
“What did he say?”
“He blew off my theory and accused me of being too close to the royals for objectivity.”
Cheets frowned. “Why would he say that?”
I so did not want to get into the whole Dialle thing with PC Cheets, so I did the only thing I could, I ratted out my partner.
I shrugged. “It’s Emo. Turns out he’s been under a curse from King Nerul and when Nerul was extinguished from this world Emo returned to his previous form.”
Cheets raised slightly bushy eyebrows in surprise. “Are you telling me Emo is a royal?”
I shook my head. “No, not a royal. He’s still a Tweener but he looks…well…amazing actually. He is half royal and he definitely looks like one.”
Cheets leered at me. “You lucky stiff!”
I couldn’t help grinning back. “You know he’s like a brother to me right?”
Her grin went lopsided. “Uh-huh.”
I laughed. “Get your mind out of the gutter Cheets. Anyway, not to change the subject but…”
“Uh-huh.”
I stuck my tongue out at her and she laughed. “Okay, what horrific, career-ending favor can I do for you, my friend?”
“Actually I called to do you a favor. I just interviewed a new client and I think he might be living down the street from demon chattel.”
Her lovely brown eyes lost their weariness just like that and gained a spark of interest. “Really?” She leaned sideways away from the televisual as if she were reaching for something and then straightened back up, all business. “Give me the name and location.”
I filled her in as best I could with my client’s story. She was as appalled as I had been by the man’s stupidity in sending his wife in as demon bait.
“Astra, I know I’m a member of the human race but sometimes I wonder if we have a subspecies we haven’t isolated yet. Some people are so stupid.”
Not being human myself I didn’t say anything. It’s one thing to criticize your own race but quite another to criticize someone else’s.
“You say you think it’s a superdemon?”
I nodd
ed. “That’s what the man said.”
She frowned slightly and chewed on the end of her laser pen. “Don’t hear about those very often. I’d like to see him myself.”
I grinned. “Good, ’cause that’s the other reason I called. I need to go try and get the woman back and vanquish this demon. I want you along so my actions aren’t misconstrued by the PC.”
I’d been vanquishing demons for years and rarely had trouble with the PC or the DD but there’s a difference between killing a demon that looks like a demon and killing something that looks human. It shouldn’t matter right? Evil is evil. But human nature is also human nature. If the press catches sight of a good-looking victim it generally sides with the victim. Despite the facts.
I wanted Cheets along to make sure my vanquish was legit.
She grinned. “You got it. When do you want to go?”
I knew my day was only going to get longer and more regret-filled if I stayed in my office so I made a quick decision. “How about right now?”
She grinned right back at me, all signs of weariness gone.
“I’ll pick you up in seven minutes,” I said.
* * * * *
I dropped the Viper into hover in front of one of the largest demon clubs in the city. The club stood six stories high and was built to look like an ancient castle, with turrets and everything. The door into the club was big enough for a horse and carriage to go through without scrunching and was fronted by a moat and drawbridge.
The area of town it occupied was desolate in the extreme. The crumbled shells of countless buildings lay across the land like the husks of brick and stone volcanoes that had spewed their innards into the street and been left as reminders of the destruction the human race had brought upon itself. It was an area that had been devastated in the great war and had never been rebuilt.
Nothing but chemical addicts and derelicts inhabited the place now. The pretty people only came out of curiosity and a desire to create drama in their safe, boring lives. They came to touch the skirts of evil and dance away. Leaving a permanent stain on their lives that they misconstrued as excitement.
The demon club had risen from the waste of the area like a phoenix from the ashes.
