Dog Days

by John Levitt

  “I have,” put in Victor, swinging open the huge safe door. “Vile creatures.”

  Eli looked surprised “When?” he asked.

  “When I was younger. Before we met.” He paused. “One almost killed me.”

  It wasn’t like Victor to be so informative. That worried me.

  “And?” I prompted.

  He shrugged. “I’m still here.”

  Eli gave him another speculative look, then continued.

  “Well. In any case, the literal translation from the Japanese is ‘hungry ghost,’ or ‘starving ghost.’ Supposedly they are spirits of the dead who return to earth, carrying with them an insatiable hunger for the living. Or indeed, for anything, although their preferred sustenance is human beings.”

  “Sorry,” I said. “I don’t believe in no ghosts.”

  “More fool you. But ‘ghost’ is only a metaphor. What they are, as far as anyone can tell, is a type of entity not fully understood. They may come from somewhere else—another dimension perhaps, or possibly they are simply avatars made corporeal by intense emotion. Who knows? The important thing here is that it’s focused on you, and it’s quite dangerous. Legend has it they not only kill people, they eat them as well. Every last morsel.”

  I recalled its hungry look and razor teeth. “I don’t think that part is legend,” I said. “But why couldn’t my talent affect it?”

  “Ah. Apparently, since they are not precisely of this world, they cannot be affected by any of our magical energy no matter how powerful.”

  “Great.”

  “Oh, it gets better. It is possible, so it’s said, to summon one from wherever it resides and compel it to do one’s bidding, as long as that bidding has to do with eating a particular person.”

  “I thought you said they were impervious to magical energy?”

  “It is a contradiction, isn’t it? Perhaps the summoning spell incorporates a compulsion, but once the Gaki appears it can no longer be affected.”

  “Whatever,” I said. “I suppose Christoph conjured up this thing and sent it after me.”

  “It does seem likely. He’s probably quite annoyed with you right now, and it would take someone with sufficient power to pull this off. I imagine that a weak practitioner who unwisely summons a Gaki tends to end up as sushi himself.”

  “This is all very interesting,” I said, “but again, how exactly do I deal with this thing?”

  Eli looked thoughtful. “It could be difficult,” he said. “In addition to being unaffected by magical energies, a Gaki is very fast and very, very, strong.”

  “I noticed.”

  “And once it locks onto its particular prey, it can always find it, anywhere on earth, and beyond for all I know. Supposedly, they never give up. Ever.”

  This was not the most encouraging information I had ever received.

  “So I can’t fight it and I can’t escape it?”

  “That does pose a problem. In medieval times Gakis were feared and hated like few other creatures. Perhaps their occasional appearances explains the ubiquity of vampire legends. They are capable of sustaining numerous wounds that would be fatal to an ordinary person without much bother. And since they are not precisely alive, they can be quite difficult to kill. One legend tells of a lone Gaki that killed nine armed mercenary knights on horseback who were foolish enough to attack it. But still, things are not hopeless. Their vulnerability is inherent in the fact that they take physical form. Despite their strength they can be hurt and they can be killed.”

  “Yeah, if you have ten knights helping out,” I said.

  Victor had been moving stuff around in the safe, and he finally located whatever he had been looking for. He turned his head and addressed me over his shoulder.

  “Don’t be so melodramatic, Mason. Come, join us in the twenty-first century.”

  As he spoke, he brought out what looked like an automatic rifle, three or four feet long, then reached back and came up with two curved magazines. He walked over and laid the rifle and the clips gently on his desk, being careful not to mar the finish.

  “AK-47,” he said, running his hand down the stock.

  “Talk about melodramatic,” I snorted. “Where did you get that? Preparing for the fall of Western civilization, are we?”

  Victor, as usual, ignored me. Eli bent over to examine the gun and whistled, obviously impressed.

  “The Gaki?” he asked.

  Victor nodded. “They’re unbelievably tough,” he said. “But nothing is invulnerable. This should do the job quite handily.”

  “I don’t know how to use one of those,” I said.

  Victor smiled complacently. “No, but I do. You don’t really think I’d let you handle an automatic rifle anyway, do you? The civilian casualties alone could be horrendous.”

  “I appreciate the vote of confidence,” I said. “So what now? You going to follow me around twenty-four seven as my bodyguard?”

  He glanced at his watch. “No need. You’ve been here what, half an hour? It ought to be waiting outside for you by now.”

  I looked at the study door in sudden apprehension. I knew I looked foolish, but they hadn’t seen it. I had. Victor took some rounds of ammunition from a box and started loading the clips.

  “Each magazine holds thirty rounds,” he explained. “Hopefully, that will be enough.”

  “Hopefully?” I said. Actually I think I sort of squeaked, something I’m not proud of.

  “Gakis are pretty smart, at least for demons,” he said, tactfully ignoring my squeak. Or at least I think he was being tactful. Since he pretty much makes it a rule to ignore all my comments anyway, it was hard to tell.

  “That’s why it’s not rushing up here to get you,” he continued. “It doesn’t know who or what might be inside, so it’s being cautious. It obviously does understand that it’s lost the element of surprise, at the least.” He finished up the first clip and started on the second. “This time it will probably try to keep concealed and then close with you before you even know it’s there.”

  “It’s fast,” I said. “You have no idea.”

  “Oh, but I do. That’s why you need to do exactly what I tell you. When you leave the house, stroll casually over toward that van of yours and then stop right by the driver’s door. It will see you. Then, when you see it coming, don’t run, or fight, or anything. Just drop to the ground and curl up in a little ball. That way you’ll be out of the line of fire, and if it does reach you it won’t be able to remove anything vital before I can kill it.”

  “So I’m bait,” I said. “How encouraging. And where exactly are you planning to be?”

  “In the doorway. As soon as it attacks, I’ll step out with the rifle and poof—good-bye Mr. Gaki.”

  Eli had a dubious look on his face. “I don’t know, Victor,” he said. “This sounds dangerous.”

  Victor continued loading the clip. “Of course it is. Gakis are dangerous creatures. But this is as good an opportunity as we’re going to get. They learn fast.”

  I didn’t like the sound of any of this, but I liked the thought of meeting up with the thing on my own even less. And if there was one thing I had learned about Victor over the years, it was that he did know what he was doing. He would have made a great mercenary.

  I shrugged. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s do it.”

  Victor inserted one of the magazines into the rifle, where it slid in with a reassuring thunk. He placed the other in a loose canvas bag with a strap and threw it over his shoulder.

  “After you,” he said, motioning toward the door

  Louie jumped up, but I waved him back. “Stay with Eli,” I warned him. The last thing we needed was for Lou to throw himself at the creature and end up riddled with bullets. He hopped up onto a chair where he could see out the window and a second later Maggie, tail twitching, joined him. Things were serious enough for a truce between them, although they were still careful not to touch each other.

  I walked down the stairs slowly, V
ictor at my back. My feet seemed reluctant to carry me. There was something so repellent about the Gaki that it went beyond fear—I wasn’t afraid so much that it would kill me as I was that it would touch me again. Still, I affected what I hoped was a nonchalant air. If I didn’t, and I survived, Victor would mock me for the next year at least. Pride is a wonderful thing. Here I was, walking toward possible death and certain horror, and the main thing on my mind was to not let Victor get one up on me. I would have whistled cheerily if my mouth hadn’t dried up into a wad of cotton.

  I paused in the doorway leading outside and looked back at Victor. He nodded and took a firmer grip on the AK-47. If he was nervous, it didn’t show. Maybe he was doing the same thing I was, not wanting me to get one up on him. We were like two kids bluffing each other until we both ended up jumping off the high diving board. Of course there was a difference; the kids can turn back and go home. We didn’t have that option.

  I took a deep breath, stepped out the door, and walked briskly toward my van. My heart was pounding away at about two hundred beats a minute and I expected to feel the Gaki’s sharp teeth tearing at my neck at any moment. I paused by the driver’s side door of the van and reached in my pocket as if fishing for my car keys. I didn’t know how smart the Gaki really was, but I didn’t want to give it any indication that a trap was being set. I stood there thrusting my hands into one pocket after another, trying to appear innocent and vulnerable. It was just starting to grow dark, the perfect time for an unseen monster to spring out of nowhere and attach razor-sharp fangs to your throat.

  Nothing moved. I realized I had simply taken Victor’s word for it that the Gaki would be waiting outside for me. Now that I looked around, it was clear there wasn’t enough cover anywhere nearby for a hiding place. Maybe it wasn’t that smart after all and was simply hanging around my place waiting for me to return. I started feeling foolish searching one pocket after another, putting on a show for a nonexistent assailant. I had just given up and was turning to walk back to where Victor was waiting when I heard a loud thump on the top of the van. I barely had time to look up as the Gaki bounded over the top of the van, trenchcoat flapping around it like some giant mutant bat. It had concealed itself on the opposite side of the vehicle, then jumped to the top of the van and then straight down toward me. Throwing myself to the ground would have been a great idea if it had been running across the driveway toward me. Now that it was dropping directly on top of me from above—not so great.

  Not that I had time to make any decisions. It was on top of me before I could react, driving me flat to the ground with enough force to knock the wind out of me. It flipped me over on my back and pinned both my hands with its own claw-like ones, stretching my arms out to the side and covering my body with the length of its own, forcing my legs wide apart so I couldn’t kick at it. It was an obscene parody of the missionary position. I could feel its long, ropy muscles writhing like maggots under its skin and it was grinning its ghastly smile, clearly enjoying not only the imminent meal, but my position as well. Not only was I about to be slaughtered by a ravening ghoul, but apparently by a gay one.

  It lowered its head toward mine until its mouth was inches away, and I could smell the fetid odor of its breath. It would have made me sick if my stomach hadn’t already tied itself into a tight knot. I wanted to struggle, but the chill seeping out of it was sapping my will as well as my strength. And it was strong, strong. I prayed Victor would open fire. Of course, that would surely kill me as well as killing the Gaki, but anything was preferable to this.

  I expected at any moment to feel its teeth sinking into my throat, tearing through soft tissue and releasing the warm salty blood just below the surface. Only a few centimeters of skin and flesh stand between life and death for all of us, and there’s nothing like having razor-sharp teeth brushing your neck to really bring that fact home.

  For a moment, nothing happened. It pulled back its head a little and stared down at me, relishing the moment, stretching it out in order to appreciate my fear and pain. Whether it was feeding off of psychic pain in some way or whether it was just in its nature to be as cruel as possible wasn’t relevant. The net effect was that it waited just a little too long.

  I heard heavy footsteps coming up fast, saw two massive black arms grab the thing by its shoulders, and then it was lifted off me and thrown sideways. The Gaki might well possess supernatural strength, but its wiry frame didn’t weigh any more than I did, if that. Eli had no miraculous strength himself, but tossing opponents aside came naturally to a two-hundred-sixty-pound lineman, even if he had been off the football field for twenty-five years. I caught a glimpse of Eli’s scraggly beard as he flashed by me, and as I started to scramble to my feet, I heard Victor shout, “Stay down!”

  The Gaki had grabbed hold of Eli’s arm as he threw it aside, and it screeched as it held on. It tightened its grip, and I heard a grunt of pain from Eli, then the dull crunch of bone collapsing. Eli’s left arm lost its grip and dangled uselessly in the thing’s grasp. With a supreme effort, Eli ignored the obvious pain and used his bulk to momentarily tear the arm loose, stumbling with the effort. He immediately threw himself facedown on the ground, and for just a second the Gaki was standing upright between our two figures groveling on the asphalt of the driveway.

  A second was all it took. I heard a quick burst of automatic rifle fire and the Gaki jerked and staggered. There was a longer burst, apparently aimed lower, and its legs went out from under it. It fell to the ground and immediately tried to regain its feet but its legs wouldn’t hold it. I rolled over and scurried away out of reach of its grasping arms. Victor was moving toward us, rapidly but not hurriedly, detaching one clip from the rifle and replacing it with the extra clip from his shoulder bag. He walked up to the Gaki, which was still trying to get to its feet, pointed the muzzle of the gun just below its jaw, and let out a sustained burst. It seemed to go on forever, although in reality it couldn’t have been more than two or three seconds. The lower part of the Gaki’s head flew apart in an explosion of flesh and shards of bone, then the rest of it finally separated from the neck and toppled onto the pavement. The eyes looked up at me, and unbelievably, it was still alive. Then the spark in the eyes dimmed until there was nothing left but a shapeless mass covered with gouts of blood. I shakily climbed to my feet.

  “Gosh,” I said. “That went well.”

  I walked over to Eli, who was sitting up holding his left arm. “Thanks,” I said, rather inadequately. “You okay?”

  “Do I look okay?”

  He hoisted his bulk up heavily and stood there swaying for a minute, then walked gingerly over to where the remains of the Gaki lay. Louie had slipped out of the house and was sniffing delicately at a piece of arm that had come detached from the rest of the body. I pushed him away with my foot.

  “What are we going to do with this mess?” I asked as Victor joined us. “With all that firepower somebody is bound to have called the police, and unless you’ve got about twenty spells in reserve they’re going to want explanations.”

  “Not to worry,” he said. “Remember, this isn’t my first encounter with the dark powers.”

  Now I knew he’d been shaken. Victor only attempted lame humor when he was totally freaked out. I started to say something further but he held up his hand.

  “Wait,” he said.

  We all stood there silently for a couple of minutes. I was about to ask him exactly what we were waiting for when I was distracted by a growing sound somewhere between a radiator leak and a teakettle. What was left of the Gaki began to hiss and curl like bacon in a frying pan, sending tendrils of foul-smelling smoke into the air. The whole process accelerated until it sounded like a miniature forest fire. Two minutes later, the only sign there had ever been a creature from hell lying there was a slight discoloration on the asphalt driveway. It was just as well, since I could hear the sound of an approaching siren.

  “Pick up the brass,” Victor ordered, and walked over to my car where
he started muttering under his breath and making hand gestures. I picked up all the shell casings I could find, and Louie brought back a few I had missed, spitting them out with obvious distaste. I glanced over at my van and saw that Victor had smoothed over the few wayward bullet holes which had punched through the van door. He’d actually fixed them, bless his heart, not just layered them over with illusion.

  Victor walked back from the van, glancing up at the study window. Danny’s shocked face peered down at us. He had seen it all, and I wondered how Victor was going to explain this one. I didn’t think he could. From the look on Danny’s face I was guessing we wouldn’t be seeing him around much longer. I felt some guilt; if I hadn’t come running to Victor for help, he’d still have a boyfriend. Still, something like this was bound to have happened sooner or later. Whenever you get involved with a nonpractitioner, there always comes a day of reckoning. It really narrows down the dating pool.

  By this time, Eli was not looking well. His normal skin tone had taken on a dusky grayish hue, and he answered questions with brief monosyllables. Victor employed a deadening spell for the pain and fussed over him for a while until he looked a little better, but it was obvious Eli needed more professional care.

  “I’m not good enough for an injury of this extent, and a hospital’s no good,” said Victor. “His arm’s not just broken; the bones are crushed. It would take him months to recover. Besides, the arm would never be the same.”

  “A specialist, then?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Campbell?”-

  “She is the best.” He looked suspiciously at me. “You didn’t screw things up with her, did you?”

  “Quite the opposite,” I assured him. “I’ll call her.”

  “I’ll do it,” he said. He clearly didn’t put much stock in my assurances. He pulled out his cell phone and walked away so that I couldn’t hear the conversation. After about five minutes, he put the phone away and walked back to where I was standing.