On my way out I saw the cooler the Russians were planning to trade the flowers for. Might as well check it out before the place burns down, right? I kneeled next to the cooler resting in the middle of the gruesome carnage, my body still burning in the flames. I flipped off the lid and then flipped the contents inside the bird.
The cooler was full of blood packs, contaminated blood. It’d explain how the Russians were able to recruit so many demons into their ranks as of late. They figured out a system to extract demonic blood, and probably inject it into whoever they wanted to get possessed, so I thought at first.
A closer look revealed something far more chilling. The blood packs in the cooler looked a lot like the ones Lucifer was planning to use last year, the same ones I had Jim keep in storage for me when Lilith had me charmed. The same blood packs I asked Jim to destroy when I broke free from her charm.
And here Giovanni was, ready to receive it in exchange for the flowers with the weird energy. Come to think of it, the thorns on the vines that killed the demon and wrapped around the zombies did resemble the thorns one would find on a rose.
Gabe might have been acting like a dick lately, but I had to warn him about this. The NYPD paranormal team needed to take control of this place ASAP and figure this shit out.
More sad groans echoed from behind. Getting up and turning around, I saw the same three plant zombies back on their feet, naked since I burned their clothes off but still wrapped up in the thorny vines. They were coming back for more, so I gave it to them. I dropped the rifle and forged two fireballs, one in each hand and threw them at them.
The balls of flames arrowed to them, hit them dead center, and igniting their bodies in flames once again, and very quickly I might add. Earth was weak against fire after all. I chucked seven fireballs at them, lighting their zombie moving bodies up in flames, and sending them to the floor.
They got back to their feet as if nothing happened.
It was time to exit stage left.
I bolted for the exit, tossing random fireballs back at them, hoping it would slow them down.
When I made it outside, my phone rang. I gave it a minute before I picked it up, as I double checked the door was shut then gave the door handle a good grip. The heat from my flames melted the handle shut, keeping the zombies inside.
My phone came out, after dousing my body of the flaming coat I had on. Emily’s contact information flashed on the screen. As I went to answer the call, I heard what sounded like five or six cars come speeding to a halt near the main entrance to the docks.
“I heard shooting,” Emily said. “You still alive?”
“I am, everyone else, not so much.”
“You need to get out of here now, they got backup coming.”
“So that’s what that sound was,” I said, listening to the sound of marching footsteps near my position. “Where are you?”
“Look up.” So, I did. Emily stood up the top of the crane, waving to me with one hand, holding a sniper rifle with the other. Directly below was the dead body of the sniper that went splat on the ground with blood splattered across the cargo crates he fell next to. “I’ll cover you.”
I turned to the corner, moving through the maze of cargo containers trying to get back to my car. I didn’t make it very far, there were way too many bullets flying. Every turn I made, I encountered the mob trying to run up on me with their guns. Emily did what she could, making the odd mobster’s head explode, glazing the cargo containers around them red with chunks of pink, but it wasn’t enough. There were too many of them and not enough of us.
My magical talents weren’t cutting it. Fire didn’t offer much for reliable protection from bullets. Water did with the glacial shields but lacked the damage output I needed to drop the never-ending flow of gangsters coming after me. Seriously, they brought a lot, and the screaming sounds of tires in the back suggested more were coming.
In the end, I had to stick to my earth abilities, relying on stone skin to make me bulletproof, though I quickly discovered that came at a cost. In order to keep the talent active, I had to feed a fuckload of Umbral energy into it. Every bullet that hit me weakened my stone skin, only for it to reharden at the expense of my limited Umbral energy stores. Running to my car, while ignoring the bullets wasn’t going to happen, especially when the shotguns came out, maybe if my Umbral was topped up I could make it, but not now.
I turned and fled back to the main building, where the warehouse was as bullets bounced off my back, filling my outfit with holes. It was a miracle my phone wasn’t shot the fuck up in the process.
“Emily, come on, quickly,” I said, having remembered I left her on the line.
“Come where?”
I stopped at a clearing near the door I had melted its handle shut, waving my arms about in a circular motion. When I stopped, my return home portal appeared, it was like a magical doorway that led back to our office.
“Return home talent?” Emily asked. “What if they chase us through?”
“Then we’ll end up having a gunfight in my bedroom.”
“That’s exactly what I’d like to avoid.”
“It’s just my room.”
“I kinda left my iPad in there, I’d like it in one piece by the end of tonight, thank you very much.”
“Since when did you have fucking iPad?”
“Stole it last week, look, long story, but I really like it.”
I lowered the phone from my ear. There were footsteps moving closer to me and my opened portal. “Just hurry the fuck up—”
The warehouse door flung open by a swift kick. Out came the young stud I was about to fuck. I was surprised he had enough strength to do that, given the beating I gave him. He limped away in a daze, screaming in panic. Two seconds later I saw why, the plant zombies came running out, the controlling vines still wrapped around their smoldering bodies.
Everything went to shit from there, real quick.
The young stud that managed to get loose didn’t last long. The plant zombies demonstrated what happens when you get too close, spewing out horrifying vines from their mouths and arms. The massive thorny vines picked up the young stud like tentacles and held him high in the air. The vines pulled at his arms and legs until I heard the bones inside pop and snap. The grisly sounds of him screaming came next amidst the sound of his flesh tearing away when he got pulled apart limb, making it rain red directly below him.
Then the Russians came around the corner and started shooting. My return home portal wasn’t an option. I flicked my wrist making the doorway fade into a plume of Umbral energy. And if it wasn’t for that one zombie that caught wind of me doing that, I would have been able to slip out and escape. Instead, vines came at me, ready to pull me apart, so I jumped into the river seeking a new escape from the horror.
I heard the zombies splashing in the water behind me, their tentacle-like vines were quick to swim and catch up with me. I didn’t even get the chance to use any talents to counter them, it happened so fast. And you know what the weirdest part was? Even though I was still attuned to earth, those vines hurt like a motherfucker. And the strange energy within them was draining what little Umbral energy I had left.
I became powerless, sapped of my strength and magic. For a brief moment, I felt like a normal woman again, someone that couldn’t use magic. It felt … great.
Too bad I was drowning.
Chapter Thirteen
I woke up cold, damp, and distorted, in a dark and drafty place. I was on a bed, that much I could feel when I made the first turns of my body. I saw what looked like old rusted pipes on the ceiling, some kind of darkened cellar. Someone recovered me, for what purpose I couldn’t exactly say.
I sat up and was surprised to see my arms and legs weren’t tied up. That was a good sign, it meant whoever brought me here wanted me to be free. I also still wore the coveralls from my previous disguise, meaning I wasn’t violated when I was out, though, I couldn’t find my phone anywhere.
As
much as I wanted to lie back down and rest, I needed to get going, I needed to let Emily know I was alive. Somehow, I doubt this was her work.
I searched the room I awoke in for my phone, finding nothing but a second bed and storage cabinets. None of the drawers contained anything of value, just a bunch of old clothes likely found in some used clothing donation bin. Holy crosses were on the wall, with a crucified figure of Jesus looking right at me, and on top of the cabinets was none other than the holy bible. This was a church cellar.
So, it was no surprise to me when I saw Father Henry Scott himself walk in through the haggard wooden door, wearing that same black suit and clerical collar, preachers like him wear. He wiped his hands clean with a towel and looked at me, surprised to see me up already.
“Oh fuck,” I said to him, turning away from the cabinets.
Henry shook his head disappointedly. “I see you haven’t changed, Reika.”
Henry was the priest that enchanted my weapons in secret for a price. I still wasn’t sure exactly what he did to make it happen, but most the time he got the job done. Except for my mysterious katana. Henry, for the life him, couldn’t get the enchantment process to even start on that.
Why Henry took the time to save my life? I don’t know, but it raised an excellent question.
“You know you could go to hell for this, right?” I said.
Henry shot me one of those ‘whatever’ smug grins. “For saving the life of a demon?”
“And because I’m a slut.”
“Don’t speak about yourself like that,” he said, grimacing.
“It’s what I am, according to my friend.” I shrugged. Honestly, these days I don’t know what to call myself other than a fucking depressing disappointment. “I’m still surprised I don’t burst into flames for entering this place.” Henry chuckled at that comment. Shit, I made a preacher laugh. Wasn’t sure how I felt about that. “I haven’t told you this, preacher, but turns out I’m part succubus now.”
He went for a photo stashed inside of one of the cabinets, handing it off to me when it came into his hands. “That was me, years ago,” he said.
I looked down at the photo and saw three men wearing US Marine uniforms striking a pose in a far-off land that I could only imagine being Iraq, back when the troops deployed out there had it rough.
“Wouldn’t take you for a fighter,” I said, handing the photo back.
“Combat medic,” he corrected me. “Was deployed in Iraq. One fateful day we came under fire. We hid inside a ruined house, trying to hold out while I treated people’s wounds, well, and the ones that were still breathing.”
“That must have sucked.”
“Wasn’t too bad, until an IED hidden in the house went off. Everyone died except me,” he said, moving back, and stowing the photo back into his home. “The insurgent fighters left my body, thinking I was dead. Then later a lone passerby noticed I was alive, crawling away, looking for help. He took me, but not as a POW. I had medical training, and he knew it based on my gear. He brought me to his family, who were badly injured. After patching myself up I went to mend their injuries, I was set free after that.”
“Cool story, bro.” It was a dickish thing to say, but I failed to see what that had to do with him saving me.
“God wanted me to live that day,” Henry continued his story. “He wanted me to help those in need, and then wanted me to stumble back to the disaster that claimed the lives of my team. Just so that I could discover one of them was still alive.”
Out from the cabinet drawer came a second photo. Henry waved me over to glance at it because taking a trip down memory lane was more important than the fucked-up stuff I found in that warehouse, I guess.
The second photo made me grimace hard and do a double take. It was a photo of Gabe; he too was a Marine, standing with Henry while deployed in Iraq. Henry’s finger pointed at Gabe’s smiling face.
“Gabe was that lost man that should have been dead, but wasn’t,” he said. “He was injured, yes, but nothing life-threatening. I saw him get shot to death before the IED went off.”
Gabe was a Marine, who died before Henry’s eyes, and then came back from the dead. Something I did not too long ago, minus the Marine part.
“’Point of the story?’ You’re probably asking yourself,” Henry said.
My head shook no. “Not really.” The question I was asking myself was, how the fuck did Gabe live through all that.
“Just because someone is fighting for the other side, doesn’t mean they have no good in them.”
“And that’s why you pulled me out of the water,” I said, an enlightened grin grew across my face. “So that … ‘Marine’ what became of him?”
As if I didn’t know what the fuck Gabe did after he left the Marines. But hell, might as well play it dumb, and get his side of the story, Gabe sure as fuck wasn’t going to tell me.
“We both left the Marines and came here to the city. I went to carry out God’s work and prepare this city for an ultimate test. Wilson? Well, he went to do something else.”
“Is that why you were open to the idea of enchanting my weapons?”
“It’s true,” he said, nodding, moving away from the cabinets. “When you saved me from those demons, I knew you showed up for a reason, and it was more than to have your weapons enchanted. Our meeting was destined. I needed to keep you safe so that you can keep the people in this city safe.”
“That’s a good one,” I said with a sassy snicker.
“There’s a reckoning coming, Reika, and you’re going to play a role in it.”
Doomsday prophecies got old as fuck after Y2K. The only thing I was planning to play a role in was getting back to my case, and the really bad discovery of plant zombies. I doubted Emily was able to contain that situation alone after I got taken out. The Russians too, meaning the zombies was still at large in the city. And here I was, sleeping in the basement of a church, cut off from the rest of the city.
I found my phone resting in a bin full of dried uncooked rice. There was no sign of life in it when I pulled it out to dial Emily’s number. Great, even when I leave, I’ll still be cut off for a bit.
“Planning on leaving I take it?” Henry asked me.
“Got stuff to do, and people to kill.”
And by people to kill, I meant souls to feed upon, now more than ever. Only a small fraction of my Umbral energy came back after that shit show. I needed to find some really bad people in the city and offer them the best sex in their life, for a price, their soul.
I was expecting Henry to start going off about some thou shall not kill stuff, but he nodded instead and stepped aside, I was free to leave. As I went for the door, he called out to me, offering me a soaking wet envelope, slightly charred at the ends.
I took it, looking at him with a puzzled look. “What’s this?”
Henry shrugged sharing with me the same puzzled look on his face. “It was floating with you, so I thought it was yours.”
I gave the wet orange envelope a second look, definitely not my shit. Everything I brought to the docks, other than my phone, was left in my car or with Emily when I put this outfit on. The contents of the envelope contained wet documents that needed to be handled with care, or risk them ripping apart thanks to the water.
I saw pictures of me, pictures of Jim, printed documents written In Russian. Must have been the APB the Russians had put out for us. One of the zombies that jumped into the river after me must have had it on them. Zombies walking around with a package like this? Yeah, it seems odd, until I factored in that the zombies were dressed like dock workers before I burned their clothes off. They must have been human at the start of the day, probably part of the Russian mob, before someone … or something wrapped those thorny vines around their bodies and turned them into that shit.
Henry was giving me an odd glare the longer I stared at the package, showing all the visual signs that it wasn’t mine. I could tell he was about to walk over, take it back, and go sea
rching for the original owner of it, being the nice preacher that he was. Fuck that, this was a clue for my case. I needed it.
“Oh, right forgot about this,” I lied, and then gave the side of my head a slap. “Yeah, it’s mine. Thanks for finding it.”
“Feel free to stay longer if you’re in a lot of trouble,” he offered.
“I’ll be fine, preacher,” I said, making my exit. “And, thanks.”
Yeah, thanks for letting me know why Gabe was resisting my succubus lure. Detective Gabe Wilson, former US Marine died in Iraq, then came back to life before anyone confirmed it. Why? Because his ass got possessed, and quite possibly too, Alice. Why the two lacked any signs of Umbral was another question, maybe they got good at hiding it. Maybe they were something else the world didn’t know.
Alice and Gabe’s secrets were going to be uncovered by the time I finished this job, and there wasn’t a damn thing that was going to stop me. Well, maybe a bullet to the head.
Chapter Fourteen
I must be the only person in the city that owns a car but still ends up taking the bus.
The sun had given out for the day by the time I paid my fare. Remind me to pay Henry back for the change he lent me, otherwise I’d be walking back home. Using my return portal wasn’t an option, as my Umbral energy levels were still too low. It only made my succubus half hungry and the bus ride back extremely stressful.
It was like I had beer goggles on, as I entered a bus that felt like it was jam-packed with male and female supermodels. Lucky for these folks my lure and charm also required the usage of Umbral energy. Had I flicked it on, given the close proximity we were in, and I would have turned the bus into a succubus smorgasbord.
I had to give my head a shake about those thoughts that went through my head, it wasn’t cool at all. These people on the bus were innocent, yet there I was, so desperate for my fix, that I had considered feeding on them, throwing away my rule of only consuming the souls of bad humans.
Deception of the Demon Girl Page 7
