I couldn’t say what that amulet did to me, and I wanted to be annoyed at it, but I was kind of liking it at the moment.
“Not so great when you can’t breathe is it?” I asked as he started to struggle. “I guess this is karma coming back to haunt you.”
I heard a dark, wheezing chuckle, which shouldn’t have been possible. A quick glance over his shoulder showed me that he’d used his claws to rip a hole in his own windpipe.
Gross.
…but effective.
The shock of seeing that caused me to loosen my grip, giving him the opportunity to launch me off of his back with enough force that I crashed onto the floor.
He jumped back to his feet.
I hopped up, too.
Playtime was over.
We ran at each other, trading punches, kicks, and all kinds of dirty tricks.
It was better than sex.
I was disturbed to find I was having a good time. I’d never been an enthusiastic fighter before. I was always worried about hurting other people, or being hurt myself. Fortunately, that ‘hurting others’ shit didn’t apply to freaky monsters.
His moves got wilder and wilder as his fury grew. He’d stopped trying to defend himself and focused on trying to kill me instead.
I stood still and let him swing at me, catching his arm as he did, and then used his momentum to toss him across the back of the bar.
I waited patiently for him to attack, but he didn’t.
Instead he dusted off his clothes and smoothed back his hair. What was left of it. The explosion had taken off a large chunk of his head and whatever power he had must not have extended to hair.
“I can see that the variables have changed,” he said, his cool demeanor returning. “Might we negotiate?
“Sure,” I said, buffing my claws on my shirt. “Surrender now and I won’t turn you inside out and sell you as a sex doll.”
“Not quite what I had in mind,” he replied. He then cleared his throat. “I would like for us to be civil about this.”
“Civil?” I laughed, a deep and disturbing laugh. “Were you civil when you murdered Linda?” I motioned at the bodies on the floor. “When you tore apart all of these people?”
A growl escaped from somewhere deep inside.
Whatever agenda the power inside me had, it seemed to share my views on assholes like Elias assaulting innocents. That was a relief.
“To be honest, I’d like to just kill you right now,” I said. “It would be fair. You killed a lot of people here today, left lots of widows and fatherless children. You also slaughtered a damn fine woman, who happens to be the mother of that little girl you’re so eager to get your hands on.”
“Oh, yes,” he said, a bit of sinisterness tainting his voice. He smiled in a fucked up way and leaned toward me. “The girl will definitely suffer. I’ll be sending her location to my masters as soon as I kill you. You can’t imagine the fun they have in store for her.
The idea of something hurting a child rekindled my temper, which had just started to die down.
I went cold, which only happened when I got so angry that I stopped caring about the consequences of my actions.
My eyes locked in on the creature, scanning the lines of energy running through it. I noticed they were beginning to meet at certain points almost as if…
Got it.
With a burst of speed I didn’t know I possessed I launched myself at him. He went to move, but I had him penned in.
“Are we going to wrestle?” he asked, eyeing me.
I glanced down, making out a large knot of energy right under his heart.
Then, I looked him in the eyes and pulled power into my clawed hand.
He slashed at my face, trying to do something, anything, to stop me. I took the hit, which healed almost instantly.
His jaw dropped.
He slashed again.
I healed again.
“Uh…” he croaked. “I surrender.”
I tilted my head, like I was thinking about it. “Probably wise, but too late.”
“No, it’s not,” he argued desperately, clearly seeing that he was no longer the alpha predator in the room. His hands went up. “My hands are up, too, see?”
“More like one hand and one claw, but—”
“You can’t kill me if I surrender. It’s the law…right?”
“It’s really not,” I answered. “It’s completely up to the arresting officer to judge each situation individually. My instincts say that arresting you at this point would be a bad idea.” This time I leaned in and gave him a dark smile. “I think I’m going to start trusting those instincts a bit more.”
“But…” he started, but merely swallowed.
“You know what my instincts are telling me right now, Elias?”
The shake of his head was nearly imperceptible.
With an almost orgasmic sense of glee, I shoved my hand inside of him, bursting through his ribcage.
I ripped out his life’s energy, along with a lot of bloody innards.
His face turned to one of anguish a few seconds before his eyes rolled up into his head, signaling his finality.
“My instincts say you need to die.”
Chapter 7
Elias dissolved into a puddle of rotten slime in front of my eyes, and all over my clothes. I was glad I’d saved my gym clothes. Milkshakes had to be a lot easier to clean than beast-grease.
“Well, that was disgusting,” I heard a voice say.
I looked around, but didn’t see anyone. It hit me a few seconds later. The voice was coming from inside my head.
I felt a ripping sensation, kind of like pulling apart velcro as the power inside of me forced its way out. It didn’t really hurt, but it didn’t feel good either. I saw a blue glow slowly emerge from my chest as my power and rage subsided. I didn’t know what else to do, so I sat down and watched it happen. After about a minute, I felt a bit empty inside. The power was gone, as were my claws, but somehow I knew I was forever changed by what had happened.
That ball of blue energy had taken another form. It was now a four-foot tall creature, still blue. Blue all over, since it was naked. There were long tusks protruding from his mouth and two horns sticking out of his forehead.
It was a demon.
For those who don’t know, demons are from the Netherworld. They’ve historically stuck to themselves for the most part. That was was generally good news, because they were bad news.
This particular demon, who looked like Peter Dinklage with a gargoyle head, looked at me and retched. I could almost hear the vomit come up.
“Seriously,” he said, “gross.” His accent reminded me of a New York cab driver. That or a Netherworld goblin. There was a lot of overlap there.
“Yeah,” I agreed, thinking I should have felt afraid, or at least be planning an escape route. I didn’t, though, which was not like me. “I never thought I’d be covered in melted Frankenstein guts. ”
He looked me over, then turned away, shuddering a bit.
“No, that was fine. I meant merging with you.” He shuddered. “I didn’t know it would be like that.”
“Merging?” I asked. “What are you talking about?”
“Joining with you to kick that thing’s ass,” he answered pointing at the fallen form of Elias. “It was way warmer than I’d thought. Smelly too.” He hugged himself. “I thought it’d be all spiritual you know, but it was like I was totally inside of you. I mean physically way deep in there.”
I can’t say why, but I was a little insulted by his comment. My first thought was to tell him to fuck off, but I wasn’t quite sure which part of what he’d said to be angry about. Plus, it was clear that he was the reason I’d been able to destroy Elias, meaning that I wasn’t exactly the strongest guy in this conversation at the moment. Still, I felt at ease, like I was completely safe. I was still riding a little high on endorphins too, which didn’t help.
So…I decided to have some fun with him.
> “Was I your first?” I said, batting my eyelashes at him. “I hope I made it special.”
“Huh?”
“Oh, nothing,” I said, straightening up and picking at my back-to-normal-length fingernails. “I mean, it’s okay. You shouldn’t feel ashamed or anything. I’m sure lots of demons wait until they find that special person.” I met his eyes. “I’m just happy your first time was with me.”
“What are you talking about?” I saw him catch on an instant later. His face wrinkled in a scowl. “Dude, that’s messed up. I’m talking about joining my energy with yours.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said, keeping my face neutral. “Was it good for you?”
He raised the left side of his mouth in a half-snarl.
“Don’t make this weird.”
I laughed and pointed to a pile of monster guts.
“We passed weird around the point where I fused with a monster and ripped out the guts of another monster.”
He raised his finger and opened his mouth, but then closed it. “Okay, valid. It’s weird for me, too, though. So don’t add to it, yeah?”
“Fair enough,” I said with a laugh. “Just having some fun at your expense.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
I started walking to the door. “So what now?”
“I get out of here,” he replied. He turned around and waved his arms in a circle few times. “Nice working with you pal. Call again any time.”
Nothing happened.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
Then a third time.
Nope.
“Come on,” he said desperately to the empty air, “I’ve got to be doing this mostly right. Cut me a break, will ya?”
“Problem there, buddy?” I called over.
“I can’t open a portal,” he said, more to himself than to me. “I killed the thing and the day is saved. I did my part for demon/human relations and now I’m ready go home.” His voice lowered further. “Why can’t I?”
An instant later, he spun toward me. His face was dark…kind of purply.
He pointed at me and advanced.
“Did you summon or request me?” he asked. “I was told this was a request, not a fucking summons. I ain’t here to be a goddamn servant.”
“Easy, friend,” I said with my hands up. “I wasn’t trying to summon anything. I’m a weak mage. I wouldn’t even know how to summon a kitten, much less a freaking demon.”
“Friend? Friend!” His voice squeaked. “We’re not friends, dick bag.” He poked my chest with his finger. It hurt. “My friends don’t kidnap me.” He stopped poking. “I mean, if I had friends I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t.” He lowered his hand a moment later, looking visibly deflated. “Actually, maybe they would. Demons are dicks.”
I rubbed my chest. The little dude was a lot stronger than he looked.
“I’m as confused as you are,” I said, explaining the fullness of the vision I’d seen as I was dying. “…and that’s when a scary-sounding dude started talking about blood oaths and warlocks and stuff. I was dying at the time so I didn’t pay much attention to it.”
“Scary-sounding dude?”
“Yeah, the one who sent you, I’m guessing.”
“No, my mom was the one who sent me.” His face flushed again. “Wait…are you insulting my mother by calling her a scary-sounding dude?” He shook his head at me. “That’s messed up, man. I’ll admit that she’s kind of evil and not much to look at…and she smells bad…and probably wants to kill me, but she’s still my mom!”
Yeah, I know I hadn’t been making fun of his mother. At least I didn’t know that I had been. As far as I recalled, it was a dude’s voice I’d heard. Still, there was nothing lost by apologizing.
“Hey, I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t know. Seriously, she sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger…” I trailed off. “Uh, I mean, I guess I’m just kind of new to the whole demon thing.”
He crossed his arms in a pout.
“Yeah, well, I’m new to the entire human thing, too, and I didn’t say anything about your mom.”
“Right.”
“Let’s start over, okay?” I tried, offering my hand. “My name’s Mark Vedis and it looks like I owe my life to you and your wonderful mother.”
He looked at my hand for a second before shaking it, smiling.
“Name’s Volkbert, but you can call me Bert.” He then chuckled. “And while I love my mom, mostly, ‘wonderful’ is hardly the right term to use when describing her.”
I merely grinned in response.
He let go of my hand and walked behind the bar.
“Might take a bit to figure this out,” he said. “Want to have a drink while we do it?”
“Uh, sure,” I replied.
I wasn’t much of a drinker, but this was clearly a male bonding moment, so I’d play.
He grabbed a few bottles of beer and threw me one before coming back around to the front of the bar and having a seat on a mostly-unbroken stool.
I stood next to him and looked down at what he’d picked. It was a Boulevard Wheat, a local favorite. That was fine. I was mostly a girly drink guy, when I drank at all, but there was something about a working class beer that seemed appropriate when you were covered in monster guts.
I’d just taken a sip when I felt a pulse of energy expand and quickly contract.
A voice behind me said, “Grab me one of those beers, too. To go.”
Chapter 8
I turned just in time to see a portal closing.
A stern-faced woman with soccer mom hair stood in front of me with her gun raised. “Mark Vedis?” she asked.
Without a thought, I stuck the beer on the bar and dropped to the floor, putting my hands over my head.
“Okay then,” I heard her say, a hint of amusement in her voice. “I kind of don’t remember how this goes since everyone usually runs away. I’m usually shooting by now.” She grunted. “Stay on the ground, I guess, and I’ll read the statement.”
“Sure, no problem,” I told her. “Take your time.”
“What’s the problem, sugar?” I heard Bert ask, signaling that the Retriever standing with us had dropped her eyes on him. “I’m here legally, as far as I know anyway.”
“Shit,” she breathed. “This just got complicated.”
I felt my hands pulled back and cuffed. She wasn’t especially gentle, but she also didn’t act like a jerk about it. Finally, she helped me to my feet then pushed me against the bar.
“Can you control your pet,” she asked, “or do I have to put him down?”
“Hey,” Bert croaked as beer ran down his chin. He acted like he was going to get up, but clearly the gun she was holding had changed his mind. Instead, he weakly replied with, “Insensitive peasant.”
The woman took out another pair of handcuffs and chained me and Bert together. Then she put the gun away and pulled her sleeve up, exposing some cool tattoos.
“Don’t move or I’ll kill you both,” she instructed.
She wasn’t angry when she said it, which was creepy enough to make me believe she was dead serious.
“Psst,” Bert said, in a crude approximation of a whisper. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” I said, and then looked around while searching my thoughts. “At least I don’t think so. Maybe this has something to do with the whole merging thing?”
He looked at me like I was an idiot. Hell, if there had been a mirror present I probably would have looked at me like I was an idiot, too.
“So that’s what’s going on,” the woman said as she tapped away on a data pad she’d pulled out. She glanced up at me with a tsk-tsk look on her face. “Summoning demons is a no-no, ya know?”
“I knew you summoned me,” Bert scowled.
“I did not!”
“You must have read about that Reese guy in Vegas a few weeks back, right?” the woman asked. “He had a number of people merged with those little fu…” She paused a
nd looked at Bert. “Uh…demons.”
Bert frowned at her. “Nice.”
“Anyway,” she continued, “ever since then, demon-merging has been a hot topic. You picked the wrong time to play with fire, pal.”
I’d forgotten about Vegas.
There had been a PPD wide briefing about the appearance of several demons possessing people on the Vegas strip a few weeks back, which had lead to mandatory in-depth training on handling demons. In theory anyway. It consisted of ten true/false questions on an online test that we got the answers to ahead of time. Not exactly rigorous.
“Still, there’s nothing in the books about retrieving both the perp and the demon, but just in case I’m taking you both with me.”
“But this is ridiculous,” I complained. “I’m a PPD officer here. I was just doing my job.”
“Your job is to summon demons and merge with them?” she asked, looking incredulous.
“Well, no…”
She gave me a look and then held up her finger at me before clearing her throat.
“Mark Vedis,” she said boldly, “and…uh…Blue demon guy, by order of the Netherworld Retrievers, I, Piper Shaw, hereby place you under arrest, and shall transport you back to the Netherworld and present you before the Tribunal for trial and sentencing.”
Damn. It looked like I was getting deported.
All supernaturals knew our presence in the Overworld was entirely at the whim of the Netherworld authorities, and while I’d just put down a monster and saved a few lives, I’d apparently broken the rules doing that.
Part of me understood that, if I was being honest; but another part wanted to gripe and moan against the unfairness of it all.
Keeping one eye on us, she touched the tattoos on her forearm. I had a few myself, PPD standard issue, but nothing cool like hers.
I didn’t have much time to study them, though, because Officer Shaw, as she’d identified herself, grabbed Bert and me by the cuffs and pulled us through a portal to the Netherworld.
We appeared in the Netherworld PPD office.
I knew it pretty well.
All PPD officers had to start here, after all. I’d been fast-tracked topside, which had felt like a boon to my career at the time. It wasn’t. It was just another case of me getting moved around because nobody knew what to do with me.
Bangkok Warlock: A Mark Vedis Supernatural Thriller Book 1 (Southeast Asia Paranormal Police Department) Page 4
