by Eric Vall
“Fossils?” Tris asked curiously. “So like, preserved remains of living organisms from billions of years ago that were discovered and then reassembled?”
“Yes,” I mused. “That’s exactly what they were.”
“I caught a documentary on paleontology the other day while you guys were out with the cult,” the brunette admitted.
“Speaking of the cult,” Cupi chimed in, “the nerve of that asshole yesterday! Trying to discredit Ira by pulling you into the debate like that.”
I just shrugged. “I mean, he wasn’t lying,” I admitted. “Luckily for us, the general population still doesn’t believe in demons or the occult like we do.”
“Which is a damn shame.” Todd sighed. “Imagine what the world would be like if everyone could harness the powers of Heaven or Hell just like our little troupe can.”
“Mortals with Demonic and Divine Powers?” Libidine gasped. “It’d be mass chaos.”
“I know!” Todd giggled. “It’d be beautiful.”
“Where are we supposed to meet Aruna, anyway?” Cupi said as she tried to get the conversation back on track.
“The Mesoamerica Gallery,” I explained. “She said that would look the least inconspicuous.”
“It also probably makes her feel like home,” Todd added.
“Rakshasa are from Indian folklore, Todd…” I corrected.
“Well, duh,” the imp retorted. “Isn’t that where we’re going?”
I put my hand over my face in shame. “You really needed to pay more attention in school, bro.”
“Maybe if we had some of those hottie-pants teachers like I saw on the internet today, I would have paid more attention,” he admitted. “Our history teacher was, like, seventy years old. And I don’t remember any of them asking us to stay behind for any sort of ‘extra credit’ assignments.”
There was an awkward silence as we continued toward the Mesoamerica Gallery.
“You’re comparing our teachers to the ones you see in porn, aren’t you?” I finally asked.
“Whaaaaaat?” Todd’s voice said with mock innocence. “Never.”
We walked for a few minutes and then finally passed through the threshold leading to the Mesoamerican exhibit. This portion of the museum was a stark contrast to the rest of the place, and it almost looked like it was a completely different building.
The walls were painted with a bright orangish-red, similar to the color scheme of an ancient Mesoamerican temple. Likewise, they were designed to look like they were made of some sort of volcanic rock. All around us stood glass cases on pedestals that housed artifacts from thousands of years ago.
“You know,” Gula mused as we walked past a few of the exhibits, “this place makes me kinda feel like home.”
“Agreed,” Cupi added and then turned to explain. “Obviously, there’s a lot of fire and brimstone down in the underworld. Any and all structures have to be built from that super-hot rock, just as it appears your ancient ancestors had to do.”
“It’s not red, though.” Libidine sighed. “This is far too much color for our dwellings in Hell.”
There were a few empty benches near the far side of the exhibit, so the six of us ventured over and sat down. These things were creaky and old, but they still provided us with a place to relax, and that was all one could ask for.
We sat there waiting for nearly an hour. There weren’t a ton of people coming through the museum on a weekday afternoon, but none of them seemed to be Aruna.
“Do you think she set us up?” Cupi asked cautiously. “We were supposed to meet here at noon, and it’s nearly one-thirty.”
“Of course not,” I comforted the succubus. “She’ll be here.”
In the back of my mind, however, I was starting to get a little concerned.
A small group of elementary school students on tour passed by us, and one of them moved away from our group and walked over to us. The little girl smiled up at me and stuck out her hand.
“Oh, no,” I said soothingly. “You should probably get back over there with your group. You don’t wanna get lost in this big, scary place.”
“That’s the least of my worries,” the kid said slyly.
The child’s body was engulfed by a black ectoplasmic substance, and then it began to stretch and contort. After a moment, the magical substance subsided, and there stood Aruna.
“Good to see you again, Jacob.” The Rakshasi grinned.
The assassin was wearing a simple outfit, but one that was stunning none the less. She wore a skin-tight long-sleeved black shirt that hugged her curves like a second skin. The shirt was tucked into a long, colorful skirt at the Rakshasi’s waistline that cascaded down her lower body like a waterfall full of flowers. Her dark hair was pulled back into a messy bun behind her head, but it still glowed radiantly in the light of the exhibit space.
Needless to say, Aruna looked sexy as ever.
“I’m sorry I took so long to get here,” she apologized. “I was trying to blend in with that group of kids, and the chaperone kept chasing after me every time I tried to sneak away. On the plus side, I have learned much about the wonders of the natural world.”
“I like talking to you when you’re not trying to kill us,” I joked. “You’re a lot more lighthearted.”
The assassin shrugged and then took a seat beside me with a smile. “What can I say? When you work in a profession such as mine, always surrounded by death, you need to lighten the mood a little bit every now and again, or else you’ll go crazy. Now, shall we discuss payment?”
“Ah, yes,” I said as I reached into my pocket and pulled out my wallet. “Where are my manners?”
I handed the Rakshasi a handful of twenties.
“Three hundred should be enough for a simple Q&A, right?” I asked hopefully.
Aruna flipped through the bills to make sure they were all there, slid them into her dress, and then nodded. “You’re lucky I offer a discount for those who I respect,” she purred. “My normal rate is one-thousand per hour, but you defeated me in battle. That alone earns you at least a fifty percent rate.”
“So if I defeat you again, the rate will go even lower?” I flirted back at the assassin.
Aruna’s eyes narrowed, and a devilish grin spread up her face. “Don’t push your luck, handsome,” she warned. “I’m still a Rakshasi with a strict code of rules to which I must abide.”
“Yeesh,” Todd’s voice interrupted. “Enough with the lovey-dovey crap. Get to the point, Jakey!”
Aruna jumped to her feet and whipped out the katar that was hidden on her person. She pointed the tip of the weapon directly in the direction of the invisible imp, and he let out a small shriek of terror.
“Easy.” I put my hands up into the air to calm Aruna down. “It’s just Todd.”
Aruna’s body relaxed, and then she slipped the katar back into her belt. “You should know better than to try to surprise a Rakshasi,” she warned. “I could have easily taken your brain out of your skull.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Todd’s voice noted through shaky vocal cords. “It won’t happen again.”
“Todd is right, though,” Cupi spoke up. “We didn’t hire you just so that you could flirt with Jacob.”
“Well, damn,” Aruna mused. “You could have fooled me.”
“I know this is going to be hard to believe,” I started, “but somebody wants us dead.”
Aruna put her hand against her chest and then opened her mouth sarcastically. “No,” she mocked. “Do elaborate.”
“There were these two twins that showed up at my cult’s headquarters, dressed like Mormons,” I explained. “Only once they were inside, they fused together to create this freaky spider-demon thing.”
“Ah!” Aruna nodded. “You met Ai Apaec. Or Aiep, as we assassins like to call him.”
“So you are familiar with this assassin?” Libidine asked hopefully.
“Of course I am,” the Rakshasi shot back. “I know all the assassins of the parano
rmal world. Mostly because I’m better than all of them, and they know it. Aiep was one of the… more worthy assassins for hire and one of the most brutal. You must have really pissed off whoever hired him if they wanted you that dead.”
“That’s what I’m hoping you can help us with,” I explained. “We have no idea who hired this guy, but before he died, he told us that it was somebody ‘near and dear to our hearts.’”
“The plot thickens,” Aruna purred.
“Do you have any idea if what he said is trustworthy?” I asked. “Or was he just trying to fuck with us? And if not, can you help us figure out who’s behind all of this?”
Aruna frowned. “Of course I can,” she explained, “but unfortunately, even with your loyalty discount, a detective mission is going to cost an awful lot more than three hundred dollars.”
“How much are we talking?” I sighed. “A thousand? Two thousand?”
Aruna scoffed, turned away, and began to head toward the door. A few feet away, she spun around and pointed a finger at me accusingly.
“Two thousand?” The Rakshasi laughed sarcastically. “Please don’t insult me. My going rate is at least ten thousand for simple missions, and this will certainly not be a simple mission.”
“I really wish Sister Superbia was here.” Tris sighed. “She’d know how to negotiate the price down, and then maybe I could be laying at home on the couch right now.”
“Quiet, Tristitia,” Gula hissed. “Let Jacob work his magic.”
“Look, Aruna, we’re not exactly what you’d call wealthy,” I fibbed. “Is there any way we could negotiate the price?”
“That’s rich,” Aruna sneered. “You own your own strip club, and rumor has it you’ve just come into a bunch of money via the death of Shax.”
“Well, that’s where you’re wrong,” I continued. “Sure, we have a little bit of a nest egg from that fucker in Canada, but with all the expenses we’ve taken on in the last year, we’ll be lucky to turn in much of a profit, if anything at all. The cult, the remodel of our home, the renovations to the Velvet Lips, and that New Age shop we just inherited are all draining us dry.”
“That’s tough,” Aruna shrugged, “but I’m not going to be working for free.”
“And I would never ask you to,” I huffed back at the Rakshasi. “I’m just telling you that we don’t have a ton of money to offer at the moment. We could do a ‘half now, half later’ sort of thing.”
“I wasn’t born yesterday,” the assassin scoffed. “I’m… Well, a lady never reveals her age, but I certainly have been around long enough to understand what that means.”
“What does it mean?” I asked coyly. “We pay you the first half now, and then once we figure out who is trying to kill us, we give you the rest. Think about it, Aruna. Every time one of these assholes comes after us, what happens? They destroy our home, they break shit at our cult’s headquarters, they create PR nightmares for my friends and me… That’s a lot of money that we have to funnel into cleaning up the mess.”
The Rakshasi shrugged. “I don’t see how that’s my problem,” she argued. “You either have the money to hire me, or you don’t.”
“We can do five thousand,” I offered. “That’s about the best we can do. I can’t promise that there won’t be any action involved, but it should be as simple a task as shaking down your contacts for info.”
Aruna folded her arms over her chest and frowned. “Ten,” she demanded.
“Six,” I shot back.
“Nine,” she wavered but didn’t break. “Even though you claim it’s a simple espionage mission, I know better. Heads will have to roll at some point in the equation. If I’m putting my life in danger, I’m not doing it for peanuts.”
“Nice story,” I whistled. “I’d almost believe it if you were a regular ol’ assassin… but you’re a Rakshasi. You’ve told me yourself that you’ve never been beaten before and that you love the thrill of the chase.”
The corner of Aruna’s mouth twitched up into a small smile. “You’re very observant, Jacob,” she purred. “I’ll do it for seven. That’s my final offer.”
I stood up and outstretched my hand to the Rakshasi. “Deal,” I said as we shook on it. “All upfront, or is half and half okay?”
“That’s not even a question.” She chuckled. “I want it as soon as possible, but if you’re really struggling so hard, then I’ll give you a little bit more time to figure it out.”
“You know,” Libidine cooed, “if you really wanted Jacob’s wealth and power, you’d join up with our group. He is a kind and generous soul, and he always makes sure we have everything we could ever want. Not to mention, he’s a very, very generous lover.”
Aruna raised an eyebrow at the succubus. “Join your Jacob Ralston fan club?” she snorted. “Don’t you already have enough members of that?”
“There’s always room for one more,” Liby flirted with the Rakshasi.
The assassin rolled her eyes, but I could tell she was holding back a smile. “As tempting as that sounds, I’m gonna pass,” she explained. “Even though it would be nice to be with a man who satisfies all of my needs, both monetary and… otherwise.”
“She take my money, when I’m in need…” Todd’s voice began to sing in the background.
“So I’ll take that as a ‘maybe,’ then.” I grinned at the Rakshasi.
I knew I was brazenly flirting with Aruna, but I couldn’t help it. She was dark, mysterious, bold, and badass. Just my type of woman.
“We’ll see, Jacob,” she nodded, “but for now, let’s just strictly keep this relationship as a professional one.”
There was a sudden chattering of high-pitched voices as a group of children entered the room. The adult at the front of the group looked like he was about as unenthusiastic as one could be as he directed the children toward the artifacts in the room.
“... Let me hear that back,” Todd’s voice finally finished. “Ohhh, is this the part where Aruna goes all superspy badass, shapeshifts, and then melds back into the crowd unnoticed?”
“Actually,” the Rakshasi said as her eyes narrowed, “that’s not my group, and I swear I’ve seen that man before.” Aruna’s face went cold, and she quickly reached down into her belt.
Instantly, I grabbed her wrist. “Easy there, Aruna,” I warned. “There’s no need to splatter some dude’s blood all over the museum just because you think he looks familiar.”
“You don’t understand,” the Rakshasi hissed. “If that’s who I think it is, we have to strike now!”
“Who do think it is?” I implored. “Another demon--”
Before I could finish my sentence, there was a loud pop, and then a flash of blue Hellfire. I turned my head around slowly to see a bullet directly beside my face, suspended in the air by Cupi’s freezing spell.
Aruna broke out of my grip, spun her body around, and then launched her chakram at the man at the head of the group. Our assailant reached out with his hand and caught the projectile. Instead of losing his hand in a spray of blood, he halted the chakram’s momentum instantly without taking any damage.
“Good to see you, Aruna,” he mused with his buttery-smooth voice as he motioned to the gun in his other hand. “I see you’re still sticking with the tired and true methods of your Rakshasi species. Personally, I’ve moved on to modern weapons. They get things done a lot quicker and usually with a lot less of a mess.”
“Who the fuck are you?” I demanded as I summoned red Hellfire into my hand. “Another fuckwit of an assassin?”
“Oh, where are my manners?” the man mocked. “You’ll have to forgive me. Normally my targets don’t live long enough to talk back. My name is Azar.”
As the man spoke, his skin began to bubble. His body then began to contort into a much younger, athletic frame. The assassin was now wearing a tight maroon shirt with a mid-sized leather jacket over that, and his outfit was completed by a pair of slim-fit black jeans. His hair was jet-black, and the features on his face we
re almost elvish in nature. Most jarring, however, was his black skin with bright red tattoos.
“I’m not just ‘a demonic assassin,’” Azar explained. “I’m the demonic assassin. And these guys…”
Azar motioned to the children, and their bodies began to contort and twist in ungodly ways. A second later, the assassin was standing in front of a small army of tiny black demons with bright red eyes and tattoos that matched the leather-bound bastard.
“... are my assistants,” he finished. “You’ll find they are much, much deadlier than they look.”
Chapter 8
“Deadlier than they look?” I scoffed. “They don’t look any different from any other demonic minions we’ve ever killed.”
“Wooooow, bro,” Todd gasped. “Not cool.”
“You know what I mean,” I reassured the imp.
“Look, Jacob.” Azar sighed. “As Aruna here can probably confirm, I’m a huge talker, but for right now, I’m just gonna get right down to business, okay? The sooner I get you in a body bag, the sooner I can bag that three million.”
Azar raised his pistol up to his eye and fired off another volley.
This time, I was prepared and caught the bullets with my green Hellfire. Unfortunately, I was pretty sure this is what he wanted because the next thing I knew our assailant’s minions had closed the gap on us.
Without a care, Aruna roundhouse-kicked the little fuckers out of the way and then began to rush Azar.
At the same time, flashes of red and yellow Hellfire blasted out from my friends into the small crowd of demons. There were a few screams of pain as the spells hit their mark, and a bunch of the tiny bastards tumbled to the ground like rolling balls of flaming toilet paper.
A few more gunshots rang out, but Aruna gracefully dodged the enchanted bullets and then somersaulted into the air. She came down feet first and drove her heels directly into the assassin’s face. Azar let out a grunt and tumbled backward, but then he got up no worse for wear.
I began to blast at the little black and red demons with my own crimson Hellfire and slowly made my way back to where my friends were standing.
