Bad Grace (Watcher Chronicles Book 1)

by N. P. Martin

  The girl looked down for a split second as confusion got the better of her, but it was enough time for Michelle to shoot forward, grab the girl's wrist to control the gun and then swiftly sweep the girl off her feet. Sandra soon found herself on the floor with Michelle standing over her, the gun aimed down at her. Her dark eyes looked up at Michelle, fear in them. “Don’t kill me,” she pleaded.

  “I’m not going to kill you,” Michelle said, taking a step back. “Get up and go tell everyone what we just told you. Tell them to get this Facility off lockdown and get out there into the city to help people.”

  Sandra nodded, then stood up slowly. “Why is this happening?” she asked.

  “We were about to go find out before you stopped us.” Michelle gestured at Sandra with the gun. “Go! Now!”

  The girl turned and ran off down the corridor.

  “Nice job,” Frank said. “You think she believed us?”

  Michelle was striding down the corridor alongside him. “I think so. Hopefully she’ll spread dissent, make our job easier.”

  “One thing I don’t get though.”

  They had reached the locked steel door of the armory. “What?” she said, punching a code into the keypad on the wall. There was a bleeping sound and then the door slid open.

  “Why aren’t the angels doing anything to stop all this? Or stop Leland at least?”

  They stepped inside the large armory room and the door closed behind them. “Angels can’t get involved directly, you know that.”

  “I know,” Frank said. “My worry is that they are involved though.”

  CHAPTER 28

  Frank always liked the armory on the training floor of the Facility. Back when he was just a trainee, he used to love going into that massive rectangular room that was filled floor to ceiling with all kinds of guns and a vast array of other weapons. The instructors rightly insisted that trainees get acquainted with as many different types of weapon as possible, not just guns and knives, but things like garrotes, maces, spears, swords, bows and crossbows, clubs and many more weapons of the magical variety like spells, incantations and the use of magical items.

  Standing in the armory now, Frank momentarily felt like a trainee again, the rush of excitement at seeing all those weapons rushing back. Especially the guns. Frank liked guns, despite the fact that they served as no more than a distraction to many of the supernatural types that he often faced. The real danger for most supernaturals was in the blades—the power infused knives and swords that Watcher’s often used to finish the monsters they faced. Technology may have evolved over the centuries, but the best weapons were still as old school as you could get. While humans killed each other with robots from thousands of miles away, Watcher’s still had to kill monsters up close and personal.

  Michelle was already taking guns from the racks, another Glock to go with the one she took off the young guard, Sandra, as well an automatic Heckler and Glock. “Nice choice,” Frank said. “Think I’ll take one of those myself.”

  Frank helped himself to a Heckler and Glock, then he found two Beretta’s, for which he still had clips for in the bag he still carried across him.

  “You know,” Michelle said. “We’re probably wasting our time in here with these guns. They won’t help us against Tolloch.”

  “Maybe not,” Frank said. “But Leland can still die from a bullet.”

  Michelle shook her head. “I can’t believe it’s come to this. Talking about killing the head of the High Council.”

  “Yeah well. It’s been a long time coming, believe that.” He put his hand lightly on Michelle’s arm. “Your father was with us on this. Don’t forget who killed him. The demon may have done it, but Leland consented.”

  Her face hardened and she took a breath. “I know. Time to end this.”

  Still touching her arm, a second later they were standing inside Leland’s suite, right in front of the big double doors like they had only just walked through them.

  Frank and Michelle raised their Heckler and Glocks. In front of them, down the steps, in the center of the suite where the huge corner couch was, stood Leland Cunningham, dressed as usual in a perfectly tailored dark blue suit. Next to him on the right, stood a very tall and stately looking gray haired man in his fifties, wearing a black pinstriped suit. Frank recognized the man immediately as Tolloch, the demon who had killed Jack Burnharte. Frank gave the rest of the room a quick scan and saw no one else.

  Leland and Tolloch turned their heads to look at Frank and Michelle, not looking surprised at all to see either of them. Neither did they seem particularly alarmed by the guns being pointed at them. “Goddamn it, Frank,” Leland said. “You’re like a bad smell, you know that? You just won’t go away, will you?” He shifted his focus to Michelle. “And Michelle. I knew you would be back.”

  “Screw you, Leland,” Michelle snarled, walking forward and down the steps, her gun aimed mainly at Leland. Frank followed suit, his gun also on Leland.

  “Please,” Leland said dismissively. “Spare us the ridiculousness of having guns in a situation like this. Drop them or someone here will make you.”

  Frank stopped along with Michelle about six feet away from Leland, his gun still raised. “Well, that someone certainly won’t be you, Leland, will it?”

  “Perhaps me instead,” said Tolloch and with a wave of his hand, caused Michelle’s gun to go flying out of her hands across the room. Then he shifted his hand up for the demon death grip many of his kind were so fond of. The Vader move, Frank called it. Especially handy for dramatic effect in situations like the one they were in now. The demon caused Michelle to choke and put her hands to her throat as if trying to remove some invisible hand.

  “Alright!” Frank shouted and threw away his gun. “You’ve made your point. Let her go, Tolloch.”

  The demon dropped his hand and Michelle started breathing again, giving Tolloch a snarling look like she wanted to go over and cut his head off. Tolloch merely stared back with dead gray eyes.

  “Violence will not get either of you anywhere here,” Leland said. “I insist you both take a seat instead. I’d be happy to fill you both in on what’s happening here. It’s too late for you to stop things anyway. You might as well relax and enjoy the show.” He gestured towards the bank of screens on the back wall. Four large screens in four rows, making sixteen screens in all. Every single one of them was showing images of the city in glorious Technicolor.

  Frank and Michelle both looked at the screens and then at each other. The look they gave said they should stand down for now, but stay on guard and be ready for any opportunity to strike at Leland or Tolloch. Though Frank knew there wouldn’t many such opportunities, if any, not with the demon in the room.

  “I’m helping myself to your whiskey,” Frank said, crossing to the drinks table and pouring himself a large glass of Leland’s uber expensive whiskey. He was aware of everyone’s eyes on him as he poured the drink and then downed it in one. Somehow the inappropriateness of what he was doing made the drink taste all the better. When he refilled the glass, he went and sat down on the couch like he was just hanging with friends. Michelle hung back for a moment, her face slightly aghast at Frank’s nonchalance. She also looked like she was having trouble accepting things as they were. Frank knew she wanted to kill Leland. It was written all over her face. She was probably getting flashbacks to when her father was murdered by Tolloch in this very suite only the night before. If Frank were her, he would find it difficult accepting things too. When she finally moved, she did so stiffly, like she was resisting every step.

  “Have a drink,” Frank said, offering her his glass. She gave him a dark look and he shrugged, turned his attention to Leland. “What’s going on, Leland? Why are you standing there with a demon like this guy, looking like you’re in business together now?”

  Leland smiled, pleased with himself for some reason. “We’re waiting, Frank.”

  Tolloch smiled also, a smile that chilled Frank’s blood.


  “For what?” Michelle asked.

  “For my son to rise,” Tolloch answered in his strangely accent less voice. He reminded Frank of some demonic butler.

  Tolloch’s answer silenced Frank and Michelle both. After a moment, Frank went to say something when the bank of TV screens on the wall suddenly changed and distracted his attention. Every screen was now part of the same image, like a big cinema screen. The screens showed Main Street, right in the center of the city. The steps to the court building could be seen on one side. Most of the rest of the screens were taken up by showing what appeared to be a giant maelstrom forming in the center of Main Street. The ground was cracking open like there was some kind of earthquake happening, above which black clouds laced with orange lightening spun around like a slow hurricane. Occasionally, a person could be seen running across one of the screens, a look of terror on their faces as they ran away from what was happening in the middle of the street.

  “And here he comes,” Tolloch said, an unmistakable note of pride in his voice.

  Frank and Michelle kept staring at the screens as they showed the road fall in on itself, orange light beaming out of the massive hole in the ground. The black winds above it picked up pace and the orange lightening began to fork out in all directions.

  And then it appeared.

  A giant black claw that gripped the side of the cracked open road.

  Quickly followed by another claw.

  And then a head.

  A pitch black head, with long curved horns coming around the top. Dark red eyes glowing. Snarling mouth showing black pointed teeth. It was like a gigantic shadow coming up out of the earth. Flaps of skin went from the demon’s powerful arms to its muscular lower back, giving it wings of a sort, making it look like a demonic mantra ray.

  It climbed out of the hole and stood on two legs that were as thick as old oaks, pushed its chest out and roared like a giant gorilla announcing its presences in a new jungle, in this case a concrete jungle filled with vulnerable, terrified people. There was no sound through the monitors, but Frank didn’t need to hear the Hell creature’s roar to know that it was blood curdling. Every human in the city would hear that and freeze in terror, which of course was exactly the point. “Good looking boy you have there,” Frank said to Tolloch.

  Tolloch paid Frank little attention. The demon was transfixed by his progeny on the screens. “He will serve his purpose well,” he said. “That’s all that matters.”

  “And what purpose would that be?” Frank asked. “Death and destruction, I’m guessing.”

  “Indeed, Watcher,” said Tolloch, his gray eyes now on Frank. “And there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

  Frank looked at Leland. “This is your grand plan. To ruin the city? To kill everyone in it?”

  “Not everyone, Frank,” Leland said, looking smugger by the minute. “Just enough so we can establish a new order in the city. And then of course, the world.” He paused for a second. “That included killing the rest of the Council unfortunately. They refused to get on board with the plan, I’m afraid.”

  Frank shook his head in disgust. “You are a lot worse than I ever gave you credit for, Leland.”

  “You can see why resistance would be futile,” Leland said, ignoring Frank’s last comment. “This is happening, Frank. Maybe if you had stayed with the program here—towed the line a bit—you wouldn’t be facing your inevitable death right now.”

  “I’d rather die than stand with you, Leland,” Frank said. “That’s the truth.”

  Leland squinted angrily at him. “That’s always been your problem, Frank,” he said. “You’re so self-righteous, you don’t even see the real truth when it’s right in front of you.”

  “Really, Leland? And what truth is that?”

  “That the world has to change, that a new kind of order has to be established.”

  “The world was just fine the last time I checked. Apart from scumbags like you two being in it, that is.”

  “Whatever, Frank,” said Leland. “You sit there, still thinking there are sides in this war we’ve been fighting since time immemorial. There are no sides anymore. There hasn’t been for a long time. We’re just making that fact official now.”

  “So this is just about power?” Michelle said. “I thought you still cared about our duty as Watcher’s, Leland.”

  “That’s where you are wrong, Michelle,” Leland said. “I got tired of protecting humans a long time ago. They don’t deserve to be protected. They only deserve to be ruled. They are the lower species after all. It’s us—the ones with power—that matter. It’s not right that we should have to operate from the shadows all the time. Nephilim, angels, demons—it doesn’t matter what we are anymore. We all want the same thing. We want what we deserve, what we’re entitled to.”

  “We’ve stayed in the darkness long enough,” Tolloch said. “It may have taken a while, but we have finally come to realize that it is best to work together. That way, we all get what we want.”

  “And what do you want?” Frank asked the demon.

  Tolloch smiled, his gray eyes flashing yellow for a second. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “This is fucking sick,” Michelle said. “My father was murdered for this?” She was on her feet now, glowering at Tolloch.

  “Sit down, girl,” Tolloch said and made a small downward movement with his finger, sending Michelle slamming back down on the couch where she stayed this time.

  Frank wanted to pull out the two Berettas beneath his jacket and empty them into Tolloch’s face, but he knew he would never get the chance. So he was forced to sit there while everyone carried on looking at the screen, like they were all there to watch the big game or something.

  Michelle was right. The whole thing was sick. Frank just didn’t know what he or Michelle was going to do about it, save teleporting back out of the suite again. If he was honest, he didn’t know what he hoped to achieve by landing blind in the vipers nest the way they did, with no plan and no real weapons to speak of. He just didn’t know what else to do at the time. If Rachel had been here she would have insisted that some kind of plan be in order before they made any kind of move, no matter how pressing the situation was. She always had a cool head when things were going to shit. Her calm under pressure in the past had been the only thing standing in the way of Frank’s sometimes rash behavior when under the same pressure.

  Generally, when the shit hit the fan, Frank ran blindly towards it. It was an instinct he had. Sometimes it worked, other times it nearly got him killed.

  As he saw things now, he didn’t have any other choice, which is why he didn’t fight the rising instinct to go on the attack.

  While Leland and Tolloch where half turned towards the bank of screens, smiling at the destruction being played out there by the giant winged demon with the long arrowhead tail, Frank slowly reached down and began pulling up the leg of his jeans, underneath which was the knife strapped to his ankle. Michelle noticed him doing it and after a second, she began to reach around behind her, to the knife strapped to her belt.

  “Magnificent,” Leland was saying as he studied the screens. “How did you create such a creature of pure destruction, Tolloch?”

  Frank rolled his eyes at Leland’s obvious sycophancy, his hand on the knife now as he slowly began to pull it out of the sheath.

  “No one here could fathom what went into creating such an exquisite beast,” Tolloch said.

  “Yes,” Leland said with a chuckle. “I’m not sure I would want to either.”

  Frank’s knife was free from the sheath on his leg. Michelle had her knife held concealed against her thigh.

  See you soon, Frank...

  Michelle shot forward from the couch first, slammed her fist into the back of Leland’s head. Leland never saw it coming and he pitched forward and fell to the carpet with a loud thud.

  By the time Frank made his move to get up, Tolloch had already backed off a few feet. The demon went for his Vader grip. Fran
k waited for the pressure around his neck, but it didn’t come.

  A look of consternation came over Tolloch’s face as he intensified his efforts, his hand tensing up even more.

  Behind him, Frank was aware of Michelle and Leland going at it, but he didn’t turn around. His focus was on the demon.

  Tolloch’s bewilderment at his powers not working deepened. “What..?” he said, unable to understand why Frank’s neck wasn’t already crushed and broken.

  Then Frank remembered what was inside his jacket. It was the only possible explanation as to why a demon as powerful as Tolloch had no influence over him. Frank opened his jacket to show Tolloch what was sticking out of the inside pocket.

  Tolloch shook his head and dropped his arm, as if knowing the game was up. “Crafty,” he said, seemingly resigned to the fact that he had no power over Frank.

  “It would have been if I had of knew it could do that,” Frank said. “But I didn’t. Either way, it’s unlucky for you, Tolloch.”

  He charged towards the demon, intending to ram the knife straight into the demon’s chest, but just as he was only inches away from doing that, Tolloch suddenly disappeared and Frank ran on into the wall. “Fucker!” he said. He shook his head and looked over towards the steps near the double doors, where Michelle was on top of Leland, raining punches down on the man, screaming as she did so.

  Frank ran over and pulled her off Leland and this time she screamed at Frank. “What are you doing?” she yelled as Frank held her arms. “Let me go!”

  “No!” Frank shouted. “We need him to tell us how to stop that thing out there.”

  Michelle screamed again, but stopped struggling. “He fucking killed my father!”

  “I know,” Frank said, still holding her, but not as tight. “I know. And he’ll get what’s coming to him, believe me. But we have to stop that monster up there before a lot more people get killed.”

  After a few seconds, she relaxed in his grip. “Okay, you’re right. I’m fine.”