by Michael Todd
Eric crept slowly down the hallway, pulling out his mirror and bending it around each of the open doors. He cleared every bedroom one at a time, but didn’t find anything.
When he reached the last door at the very end of the hall, he stopped and listened to a strange sound from inside. It was like muffled snarling, so he knew there had to be some kind of demon involved. He reached for the door handle and took a deep breath, then flung it open and raised his gun. He peered over his weapon with disgust and awe on his face. The demon was standing facing him, holding one of the victim’s heads and chewing on its cheek. The thing didn’t even stop when Eric walked in, which threw him off.
He shook his head and let out a deep breath, firing three shots into the demon through the human head. He flinched as blood sprayed all over his face. He wiped his eyes and looked down at the demon’s body on the floor, which writhed for a moment before turning to dust. Eric shook his head, not quite used to seeing crazy shit like that, and left the room, closing the door behind him. As he stepped forward, not really paying attention, a body dropped onto him from the ceiling and he crashed through one of the bedroom doors. Eric rolled across the floor, groaning, and came to a stop at the foot of the bed.
He shook his head and blinked at the demon, this one licking its lips and crawling toward him on all fours. Eric reached for his gun, but realized he had dropped it when he went flying.
The beast snarled, then a grin moving across its black scaly lips. Eric panicked as the beast moved toward him.
When the demon’s face was just inches from his, it licked his cheek. He slid his hand down to his belt, grabbing the handle of his knife.
He slowly pulled it out, waiting for the right moment. The demon didn’t notice, just leaned its head back and opened its mouth wide to reveal row upon row of sharp, jagged teeth.
“Get in there, fucker!” As it lunged Eric shoved his knife up through the beast’s chin, pushing hard until it pierced its brain.
The demon fell backward and Eric stood, moving to the side, breathing hard with fear.
The demon got to its hooves and yanked the knife from its chin, staring at Eric a moment before dropping it on the floor. He glanced at the knife, then collapsed.
Eric watched as the demon transformed back into its human form, now lifeless on the black Persian rug. He stared down at the body of a young woman not much older than eighteen. His heart swelled, and he shook his head, unable to speak. He sat down on the edge of the bed.
This wasn’t what he had expected at all.
Damian slunk through the halls in a crouch, looking for any sign of demon presence. All the doors were shut, and slowly he cleared the rooms. When he was done, he stood in the hallway looking perplexed.
He hadn’t found a single demon; not one. He figured that maybe they had all ended up in another area, or possibly even outside. He started to walk forward and stopped, hearing scraping noises above him. He slowly looked up, but there was nothing there. He stood silently, listening for the sound again. When he was about to give up he heard it, like nails, or claws dragging along the wood floors above him. He turned back toward the end of the hallway and noticed a string hanging from the ceiling. It was the entrance to the attic, and there was light shining around the edges of the door.
“Of course.” Damian groaned. “Just my luck.”
He walked over to the string and stood back, giving it a yank. The door opened, and a ladder tumbled down, forcing Damian to jump back farther, and he fell. He put his hand over his heart and breathed heavily, startled.
After he had gathered himself again, he pulled himself up and began to climb the ladder, cross in one hand and short sword in the other. He reached the opening and made the sign of the cross before entering.
Quickly he levered up, pushing half his body through the opening and looking around. He didn’t see anything unusual, just the normal dustiness of an old attic. He had just turned his head to look to the right when a demon popped out of who-knew-where to hiss in his face. Damian yelled and pushed his cross into the demon’s face, which resulted in wails and its skin sizzling.
Or was that him wailing? Nope, he was a badass demon hunter, and badass demon hunters did not wail.
The demon fell forward onto Damian, pushing them both down the ladder and to the hall floor. Damian landed with a thump, the demon still on top of him. He groaned, pushing the beast off him, wincing at the condition of its face where the cross had burned off the flesh.
When he leaned forward to see if he could tell if there was a life force still inside, the demon’s eyes blew open and he lunged toward the priest, sinking its teeth into his shoulder. Damian screamed, throwing the demon off him and slashing his sword through the air. It made contact with its neck, and the body dropped as the head rolled down the hallway, coming to a stop right at the top of the stairs. Damian leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes and breathing heavily. He looked at his shoulder, where necrosis was starting to spread from the bite.
Damian pulled a purple sash from his bag and wrapped it around the wound, shaking his head in disbelief. Slowly he climbed back up the ladder and lifted himself inside, looking around at the mess. He walked around a few boxes that had bloody footprints on them. As he looked down he groaned, pulling the handkerchief from his pocket and holding it over his nose and mouth. There were two bodies up there, and they were not in good shape. Damian mumbled a prayer and pulled the sawed-off shotgun from beneath his coat. Slowly he made his way back down the ladder and looked down at the ashes left by the demon who had bitten him.
His area was clear, but he had a serious issue with his shoulder to figure out. He had never been bitten by a demon before, just scratched by the claws or wrestled to the ground.
He groaned again, pulling himself away from the wall. He had heard gunshots in the distance, so he knew that Eric was facing his own demons. He could only hope his team came out better than he felt at that moment.
Katie crept through the house, checking the rooms one at a time.
There was no sign of demons in the living room or the large formal dining room, so she made her way to the kitchen. As she opened the door she gasped, finding the ravaged bodies of the staff who had been working the party.
There was something smoking in the oven, so she ran over and turned it off. She pulled open the door and waving her hand through the smoke to clear it. She put her hands on the center island and dropped her head, sad at the loss of so many souls. However, as she stood there, she sensed a demon coming up behind her. Slowly she bent her knees and then leapt into the air, twisting her body and landing on top of the counter facing the demon.
“It’s not nice to sneak up on people,” Katie said, pulling out her sword. “You don’t want to lose your head, now do you?”
Can we exorcise? Katie asked Pandora.
No, they are all too far gone, Pandora told her. Chop their fucking heads off.
You got it, Katie replied.
As soon as Katie turned back, she noticed this demon wasn’t alone. Four more demons gathered around slowly, circling the island. Katie tapped her sword on the marble top and stood up tall.
“Oh, so you brought your friends too.” Katie smirked. “The more the merrier, I suppose.”
The demons stopped in their tracks, growling and snarling at her. Pandora boosted Katie to give her strength and agility beyond what she normally possessed.
As the demons lunged toward her she jumped into the air, swiping her sword downward and catching one of them in the back. It screamed in agony and fell backward into the dishes. Katie landed to the side of the island on the floor, and as she balanced her body to stay upright from the drop she pulled out her second sword, slashing both outward from her body and chopping the heads off two of the other demons.
Katie sheathed one sword and pulled her pistol out, aiming at the one she had initially injured and pulling the trigger. The beast went down hard, turning to ash before it hit the floor. She blew on the end o
f her pistol and turned back around, staring at the last two demons. They watched her with wide eyes.
“Hey, boys,” she called as they turned and started to run. “Aw, where ya goin’? The fun was just getting started!”
Katie hopped the counter and sprinted after the demons, running her ass off.
When she caught up with them they stared at her, shocked at how fast she could move. She smiled, pulling her sword back out and swiping it at their legs. One demon fell, tripping the other and sending him flying into the wall. Katie came to a screeching halt and laughed, then walked over to the one on the floor. She raised her sword high into the air and pushed it quickly through its neck. When that one had turned to dust she looked over at the other, who was bloodied and battered from the fall.
“Man, that looks like it hurts,” She tsked. “Here, let me make it better.”
She pulled out her pistol and fired straight into his head, watching his body shudder before evaporating before her. She smiled as she wiped her swords off and sheathed them.
At least this time they hadn’t all run from her.
Korbin went over to the DEA agent as the rest of his team piled into the cars. He needed to make sure that they were on the same page with everything.
The agent smiled at Korbin. “Good to see you again,” she said, shaking his hand.
“You too,” he replied. “I just wanted to make sure we saw eye to eye. We can’t let anyone know we were here, since it would compromise a covert action we have undertaken in search of whoever is behind this recent rash of attacks.”
“Yep, we’re on it,” she said. “I swear, the fucking rich…all they do is take up space and make my life more of a problem than it has to be. And heaven forbid a rich one dies, much less over a hundred. There is going to be some serious political ass-kicking. That never happens when it’s a normal Joe Shmoe.”
“I don’t envy you,” Korbin said, shaking her hand again.
“Yeah, yeah,” She sighed and shooed him away. “Go on get out of here. We’ll handle it all.”
She watched as Korbin nodded and climbed into the SUV. She didn’t know what was going on, but she knew that if the Killers had been there it was serious.
Things were getting worse in Vegas, and she had a feeling it wouldn’t let up anytime soon.
15
The teams headed home, grateful that the incursion was over and no one really sustained much of an injury except Damian. He, however, was obviously playing off the pain he was in.
As Eric saw to his wounds, Korbin explained exactly what he needed to do to neutralize the poison from the demon’s bite. Damian had been lucky, but Katie couldn’t help but feel like there was something else going on in his head, besides relief.
He looked disconcerted; shaken even, and so did Eric. While Katie had been out there cutting off heads and laughing, her teammates had suffered through what had just happened—and it took her until they were on the way back for her to notice. She felt horrible for it, like she needed to say something to them.
“You guys did an amazing job today,” Katie said, watching Eric as he tended to Damian. “Really, you went above and beyond.”
“Yeah.” Damian scoffed. “One little demon got the best of me.”
“I’m right there with you, man,” Eric admitted. “Only I had two. When the second demon changed back into its human form, I realized it was just a girl. Just a teenage girl. When I took this position, telling myself day and night that I wanted to be on these teams, I didn’t prepare myself for something like that.”
“Could you ever really prepare for that?” Damian asked. “Seeing someone who was still a child, really…their whole life gone in the blink of a demon eye. It never gets easier when they are so young. I’m sorry that you had to see that. But you can talk to me about it when we get back, or our team therapist, who takes appointments at any time and knows exactly what we do.”
“It was bound to happen eventually,” Eric replied. “I was just lucky enough to see it at the end, not in the middle of a battle. It could have gotten really hairy if I had gotten distracted like that when I was fighting a demon. It was a close enough call for me tonight.”
Katie sat back and listened to them talk. She had started the conversation, but Damian had done a good job taking over, making Eric understand that this kind of thing was pretty normal for their lives—which was really sad.
When they got back to the base, they unloaded their gear and headed to their rooms to get cleaned up. Everyone had blood on them, so the hot showers were a welcome relief.
When they had all cleaned up, they met back in the main room.
Jeremy expressed his need to crash, as did Calvin, and Korbin had wandered back to his office, as always. Damian looked at Katie, Derek, and Eric, rubbing his hands together and smirking. Katie furrowed her brow and chuckled, knowing he was up to something. She just wasn’t sure what that something was yet.
“So, are you guys hungry?” he asked.
Yes. Pandora scoffed. As if the question was necessary!
Katie just nodded her head while the guys answered fervently. Apparently everyone, including Pandora, had worked up an appetite.
“All right, cool,” Damian said. “Come on, let’s jump in the SUV. I know the perfect spot.”
Katie shrugged and followed the guys out to the truck. She sat quietly as Derek and Eric talked about food, thinking about everything that had gone on that day. She knew Pandora was picky about food, but at that moment she really didn’t care. She just wanted to get something into her stomach.
Damian pulled up in front of Herbs & Rye, a very popular joint off Sahara. Inside, the restaurant and bar looked like some sort of twenties pub. The walls were red-striped and something like velvet, and the place was quite narrow. They walked past the bearded bartender, who was wearing a vest and dress shirt, looking like someone from a hundred years ago.
“This place has awesome steaks,” Damian said. “And even better than that, it’s their Happy Hour, which means their steaks are half-off right now.”
Katie looked at the different options on the menu. Not only did they have normal-sized steaks, but they also had party steaks—slabs of meat that a normal person couldn’t possibly finish on their own, unless they were Katie with a demon metabolizing her food. She smiled, trying to block the information from Pandora, but it was impossible.
Now that is what I’m talking about, Pandora declared. Eat like a man. Those huge steaks are right up my alley. We need to show these boys the ropes.
I think that’s a bad idea, Katie said. A really horrible idea.
Nonsense! They want to eat big? Well, so do we, Pandora replied.
“Who wants to challenge me to a steak-eating contest?” Eric asked. “I am telling you right now, you don’t stand a chance against the meat-eating maestro.”
Katie smirked, knowing he would fold in a second next to her. She could eat this place out of stock, so she knew there was no way he could keep up. She didn’t want to embarrass him.
But damn…how could she turn down a challenge like that?
“I’m ready to go,” She closed her menu with a laugh. “Let’s do this.”
That’s my girl! Pandora said. Let’s show ‘em who’s boss.
Everyone ordered the biggest steaks, and when they got there they started to chow down.
Katie took her time, savoring every bite as she went through the motions without even breaking a sweat.
Eric was all about it at first, laughing and smiling as he plowed through his meat. Then it hit him, and with every bite Katie could see his resolve fading.
After Eric took his last bite he was clearly in pain from all that meat; it showed on his face. She smiled as his mouth slid around that last piece of beef, and she waited until they were dead tied before taking just one more bite than him.
Sure, she was full, actually fuller than she normally was when she left Bootlegger, but she couldn’t have let him win.
Every
one at the table oohed and aahed as Katie put her arms up in the air for a moment before dropping them in her lap and leaning back. She groaned and rubbed her stomach, then looked at Damian with a smile on her face.
Damian laughed. He’d known that she was going to win, but he also knew just how far she would go to get there. She couldn’t tell if he had thought it was a good idea just to punish her, or if he wanted to see Eric miserable as well. Either way it was funny, and everyone was laughing and smiling for the first time since the earlier call.
That was worth every single bite of steak to her.
“God.” Eric groaned, leaning his head back. “I am going to have to take a chihuahua-shaped ten-pound shit in the morning to relieve this one.”
“Oh, my God.” Katie winced. “That is so gross. Come on, I just ate that steak. The last thing I want to do is picture you shitting.”
“Yeah, that isn’t pleasant.” Derek laughed. “Not pleasant at all.”
“At least I can relax tomorrow and not move,” Eric replied.
“And we can watch our show,” Katie added.
“What show?” Damian asked.
“Oh, God,” Derek said, rolling his eyes. “You had to ask, didn’t you?”
“What?” Damian looked around, waiting for an answer.
“It’s our soap. There is riveting story lines, love, romance, action, and murder,” Katie told him enthusiastically.
Damian laughed. “Why do I doubt that?”
“It’s pretty good,” Eric admitted. “It’s a thing for me, and it was a thing when my crew was overseas. It kind of helped us.”
“Really?” Damian said, shaking his head. “Derek?”
“Hey, don’t look at me! I don’t have anything to do with this.” He laughed.
Katie and Eric started talking about the show, filling Damian and Derek in on all the little backstories and what the main characters were facing. By the time they were ready to go they were all engrossed in it, and Katie found that amusing. She hoped that next time the show came on the base audience would be bigger, but probably not. It had still been worth the discussion.
