Midnight Squad: The Ties That Bind

by J. L. M. Visada

  We went over there, and Penny was making idle chit-chat with the skunk. “This is Jes Jones.” Penny said.

  The skunk turned to us and gave a very friendly, but feminine hello. We were all a little dumbstruck. “You’re a woman?” Grim sputtered.

  “No fooling you.” Jes laughed.

  Grim tried to apologize, but the skunk waved him off. “Seriously, don’t sweat it. The foam and batting hide my chesticles pretty well, and the tail kind of distracts everyone from my hips and tushy.”

  “Chesticles?” Janine sounded mildly confused.

  “Yeah chesticles, boobies, funbags, bazoombas, sweater-kittens. You know…the things that make all girls cool, and all boys drool.” Jes certainly wasn’t shy, but she was just so darn friendly that you couldn’t help but instantly like her. She talked with all the enthusiasm of someone about to ride a rollercoaster for the first time. She had this nervous excitement that was infectious, and I kept expecting her to vibrate across the floor.

  She chatted with us a few more minutes, before finally popping her skunk head off. She had light brown hair, and soft, friendly eyes. She was a bigger girl like me. Well maybe a little thinner than me, but not too much. Besides, she may have a slimmer waist, but my “chesticles” beat hers any day of the week. Not that it was a competition or anything, but if she had sweater kittens…then I was sporting jacket Rottweilers, or at least bigger sweater kittens…I think. It’s kind of hard to tell with all the padding that covered her chest. Of course I was only guessing because the fur suit made it pretty difficult to get an accurate idea of her appearance.

  “Say, don’t I know you?” She stared at us for a moment, and then her eyes widened in surprise. “I know you! You’re the…OHMYGODCANIHAVEYOUR...mrmph!” Penny slapped a hand over Jes’s mouth before she could finish the sentence. Her squeal got some attention, but luckily nobody really stared too hard. Katy’s glamour must have been on the fritz. Emilia recognizing us was a given because she already knew Katy. The glamour only worked on people that didn’t know us personally. It was actually a pretty ingenious spell. If the glamour worked on everyone then we wouldn’t have been able to recognize one another, and our family wouldn’t have been able to pick us out of a lineup. So she made it where it only worked on strangers. Up until now it had always worked perfectly, and we only had to remove the glamour when we were doing business.

  “Hush! The last thing we need is for a bunch of people to start pestering us. So I’m going to remove my hand, and you’re going to stay calm. Deal?” Penny took her hand off the girl’s mouth, and Jes actually squeaked. The funny thing is that through the whole thing Penny kept petting the fur on the skunk suit.

  “I’m never washing my face again.” Jes squealed, and it drew the attention of several people in line, but I suppose they just chalked it up to some generic geeking out. Apparently the glamour was working fine, but then why could she recognize us?

  I wasn’t the only one wondering about that little detail. Penny gripped our new super fan by the arm. It looked friendly, but I could see she was positioning herself to dispense some real “rough justice” if she didn’t like Jes’s answer, and that will just go over so well in a hotel full of people. I started looking for security cameras and cellphones that might possibly be able to record this. The last thing we needed was footage of Penny beating up some poor girl. There’s the expression fight like a girl. Nobody ever made that accusation about Penny. Our resident neck biter fights like something out of an old slasher movie. She takes her time hurting you, and then when she’s ready she kills with brutal efficiency. You wouldn’t know it from looking at her, but she really enjoys hurting and terrorizing people. It’s a vampire thing…I think.

  Back when we worked in the base we had synthetic combatants, or clones for Penny and the others to fight, and often eat in Penny’s case. I wanted to call them Fett’s, but our boss thought it sounded too “unprofessional” to nickname them after the clones in Star Wars. I tried convincing the other girls, but nobody showed any love for the idea at all. They are all just Jedi haters.

  When we first designed the clones they were simple. Basically they were just a walking mannequin, but as we began to make the clones more realistic Penny started taking much more pleasure in the training exercises. At first, she just destroyed them and moved on, but as they began to act and react in a more realistic way, Penny started taking much more time with them. I don’t know if the others noticed it, but it caught my attention early. Once we had them looking and acting just like any human being, she became pretty sadistic. She actually started wounding them first. Penny got an almost sexual thrill out of making them scream.

  I had a theory that it was actually something instinctual in her. So at the first opportunity to test my theory I took it. Elizabeth and Dr. Gina Nowitsky, the doctor that created the clones, were both sick with the flu. I sent out a few extra clones than normal, and cranked up their fight or flight responses so that they would be complete chickens and run away. Then I watched as the girls split up and destroyed them all. It was before Grimmy joined us, and they hadn’t learned teamwork yet. The few I selected to run away gave interesting results. I figured Danika would also react instinctively, and she chased a few of the clones with pure glee. The chase was as much fun as the catch for Danika, but with Penny it was something altogether different.

  To say she chased one didn’t do it justice. She stalked; she hunted, and even terrorized one clone. Normally, Penny would kill a third to even half of the clones in the training, but now she only went after one. In fact she had given chase to the first one that screamed. She began circling the clone, darting in to give it little injuries, but nothing that kept it from running away. I won’t ever forget the look on her face. It was almost pure erotic joy. Penny was actually turned on by what she was doing. She darted past one more time, and when the clone wasn’t able to turn quickly enough to defend himself, she pounced onto him. At first it had all the power and ferocity of a lioness taking down a zebra, but once she had him down she started grinding herself against the clone. I watched as the clone screamed in terror while she kept pumping herself back and forth across his growing erection. Even as she ground herself against his manhood, she kept snapping at him and clawing across his body to make him more afraid.

  This wasn’t the Penny that sat with us during movie night. It wasn’t the young woman that joked with me and helped me eat the care packages my mom sent before she got really sick. This was something dark and hungry. I kept monitoring the clone’s condition. All of the wounds she inflicted were superficial. The entire attack was designed to make the clone go insane with terror, and the more afraid he became, the more aroused Penny got. Finally, the monitor showed that the clone had given an “emission”. Which was a really boring way to say that he’d just came in his pants. It was right after then that Penny latched on to the clone, and curiously rolled him on top of her.

  I monitored the clone the entire time as his condition deteriorated. Penny twined her legs and arms around him like a snake curls around a mouse. The sensors inside the clone showed she was actually squeezing in time with his heartbeat to get as much of his blood inside her as possible. I watched as his heart finally didn’t have enough blood to pump and gave out. Penny’s hands went up to his head, and she gave one quick jerk and tore it completely off. She then proceeded to continue squeezing out what little blood was left in the clone. Finally, after there was nothing left, she rolled the clone off of her, and she just lay there on the ground in what could only be called a post orgasm glow.

  She came to visit me later. I was pretty scared of her after what I’d just seen, but we were in an underground base, and it wasn’t like I could have escaped. So I sat on my bed, and she carefully sat in a chair across from me. We stared at one another for a while, but finally she spoke. “I know you saw what happened.”

  I could only nod.

  “I know that you made those clones act like that. I don’t know what you were think
ing, but please don’t do that again. I have a hard enough time fitting in with all of you, and if the others had seen that. I probably wouldn’t ever be welcome around any of you.” Penny actually started crying.

  I came clean about everything right then, and apologized. Penny cried, and looked a little angry about it, but she just said, “I thought we were friends.” She looked heartbroken. Knowing that I might have really hurt her feelings just tore me up inside. I hopped off the bed and kept apologizing. I even hugged her. I felt her stiffen a little, but then she relaxed and let me hold her. I promised that I’d never put her in that situation again, but to this day I still don’t know if she ever forgave me. She just let me hold her while she cried, but that was long, long ago.

  “So how did you recognize us?” Penny’s voice was a little too friendly. The sneaky predator in her was still circling like a shark just under the surface. I could see it, and Grimmy could as well. I saw him move a little. It looked like he was just stretching at first, but then I realized he was trying to shield Penny and the girl from the security camera. The big guy was already planning ahead. He wanted to make sure there was no footage if his girlfriend went all red eyed and toothy on Jes. Sometimes Grim and I are just on the same page, but I suspect we had different reasons. I was thinking about the footage getting on the news and the public relations nightmare that would follow. I think he was just thinking of evidence and the possibility he might have to bail Penny out later, if they even allowed bail for what she might do to the girl.

  “What do you mean?” Jes answered. She was still beaming with joy just to be near us.

  Penny pulled the woman in closer, “We’re using a glamour. The only people that should recognize us are friends and family. How is it that you know us?”

  “A glamour…oh that is so-o-o-o-o-o cool!” Jes’s eyes were wide with joy, and adulation.

  Penny pulled her in even closer, and gave her a squeeze that cut off the little happy sounds that Jes made. “Focus! Why do you recognize us, and if you don’t tell me this time, I’m going to start picking things to break.” Penny’s voice was just barely above a whisper. It was enough that Jes could hear, but still too quiet for prying ears.

  “I’m a cambion. Illusions don’t work very well on me. I’m sorry; I didn’t know you were all trying to be sneaky. Please don’t be mad.” Jes’s eyes started to get shiny. She was about to start crying.

  “A cambion, what’s that?” Katy asked.

  “Sex on a stick.” Penny huffed, and let the woman go.

  “What?” I said. We were all confused except for Danika. She just laughed and nodded.

  Jes blushed and said, “Can we talk about this after I get registered? I’ve been waiting for this convention for three months, and frankly this whole discussion isn’t something I’d want to talk about in public.”

  Chapter 8

  After we all registered for the convention, we took Jes up to our floor. “Oh my God, this whole place is amazing! You guys rented the whole thing? You’re just partying like rock stars up in here.”

  Penny made it pretty clear that this wasn’t time for friendly chatter. “Talk.”

  “I…am?” Jes stared in confusion.

  Penny glared at her, “What are you doing here?”

  “I told you already, I’m here for the convention.” Then she turned towards me and whispered, “Is she okay? I mean is she always this forgetful?” She was just clueless about what Penny wanted, and it was really starting to make Penny angry.

  I tried to calm the situation, “Penny means that she would like to know why you are here at the convention? In other words, why is a cambion hanging around a bunch of humans dressed up like giant walking talking stuffed animals?”

  I watched as the light flickered on, “Oh! Well I like the furries. As far as why I’m hanging around with humans, I was raised by humans. It’s all I know.”

  Penny stalked in closer, “Cambion’s don’t hang out with humans. Cambion’s lure humans off to get eaten by other more powerful creatures.”

  “Well yeah, they probably do, but like I said…I was raised by humans. My mom and dad are human. I grew up playing softball and soccer for my school in Miami Beach. So how much of a monster could I be?” Jes stared out at us innocently.

  Katy took up her defense, “Chill out Penny. In all the weird and strange things that have happened throughout history, are you really going to say a cam…cambi…whatever she is, couldn’t have been raised by humans? Don’t be silly.”

  Penny glared at Katy, but finally relented, “Fine! Jes, I want to know everything, and if I don’t like the answers I get…” Penny opened her mouth, and both of her fangs snapped out. They gave an audible click, and I saw Penny wince a little in pain. Perhaps she’d been a little too forceful with extending her fangs, and the extension was painful. Maybe it was because she was so hungry. Still, the sudden introduction of those two little daggers hanging out of her mouth really rattled our newfound friend.

  She immediately began rattling off every detail she could think of, “I was born twenty eight years ago in one of the apartments my adoptive father was renting out. I don’t really know who my biological cubus was, but I know that my biological mother was a dancer…ballet, not pole. My dad found me on the floor next to my mother’s body. I’ve been raised as the apple of his eye ever since. My mother, the one that raised me, not my bio-mom, couldn’t have children, and so they leapt at the chance to adopt me. They didn’t know what I was. They didn’t care that I was the creepy girl with no pulse and no body heat. They always treated me like I was their own. They love me.” A tear ran down her face, but she wiped it away and continued, “I grew up as you can see. I’m currently working in sales. I’m just a proud Jewish girl trying to live a normal life.”

  “A normal life where you dress up as a skunk?” Janine laughed.

  “Hey, we all have different opinions on normal.” Jes smirked as she said it. I couldn’t help but like her. That being said, I still made it a point to avoid being between her and Penny. Just in case Penny didn’t share my high opinion of our new friend.

  “Cambion’s do not live with humans. They lure humans.” Penny just couldn’t seem to get that thought out of her head.

  “Can you please just let it go? Shit! You’re like a dog with a bone. She says she’s not evil and sneaky. She doesn’t look evil and sneaky. She certainly doesn’t act evil and sneaky. So if it doesn’t look like a duck, doesn’t walk like a duck, and doesn’t quack like a duck, then it’s probably not a fucking duck.” Katy was defending the cambion pretty heavily.

  “That’s what makes cambions so dangerous. They are the ultimate sneaks. They instinctively know every angle. They know how to lie better than you know how to breathe. For all we know, she could be trying to lure people off to their deaths.” Penny was adamant, but she was losing this argument with every word. There was just a desperate paranoia in the way Penny talked that made her seem a little crazy to us all.

  Even Grim clearly thought she was going off the deep end. He put his arm around Penny and said, “Come on, she hasn’t done anything. Besides, it’s not like she was trying to catch anyone. You went up to her, and not the other way around.” Penny was about to pitch a fit, but as she looked around at us all I think she realized that she’d lost this argument. Her shoulders slumped and she found a chair to flop down into. The look of severe irritation never left her face.

  Danika laughed, “Jes don’t sweat it over Penny. She’s always a little paranoid with new people, but then again you know how vampires are.”

  “What…is…that…supposed…to…mean!” Penny’s eyes turned completely red.

  Danika smiled nervously, and luckily Grim was there to salvage the situation. I really believe Penny was considering in what order she was going to take our werewolf apart. Grim knelt beside his girlfriend and gave her a tender kiss on the cheek before saying, “What she means is that we love you, but sometimes you are a little neurotic and sometimes ju
st plain paranoid, and that’s okay. We all still love you.”

  Penny’s face was stone. She just stood up and walked out, “I’ll be back later. Enjoy your…friend.”

  Jes looked upset, “Is she okay?”

  Katy laughed, “Yeah, she’s just a little spoiled. You know how vampires are. Always plotting to control everything, and if they don’t get things their way they throw temper tantrums.”

  Grim’s eyes narrowed, “This isn’t the time to gang up on her. She’s starving, and you haven’t exactly been helping me keep her fed.”

  “I said I was okay with her going out to eat. Just because she expects me to open up a vein so that her tummy will quit rumbling…that’s not my problem. She’ll find someone else, and then you and her can go off and have the three way sex romp you both want so desperately, but I’m done. D-O-N-E! I’m done catering to her crazy! I love her. You know I love her, but I can’t keep just coddling her. You can’t either. If we keep supporting her when she’s acting all paranoid, then eventually we’ll be just as nuts as she is, and frankly you’re halfway there already.” Katy was staring Grim down.

  “I thought you all worked this out earlier?” Janine said.

  “Yeah, welcome to a real quick preview of what our relationship is like.” Grim growled, and then did an almost spot on impersonation of Katy, “I just want us to work things out. You can go find someone else. How dare you try and cheat on me! This is over, and I hate you both! Oh can’t we just make it work out. We need to communicate more. Would you please shut the hell up? Oh why can’t we just be like this forever, but I need to change…everything!” Grim glared down at her, and then said, “I know I’m a little off sometimes, and Penny is…well Penny, but trust me shortcake, you’re nuttier than squirrel shit. You are just like the rest of us in this weird relationship.”