The Hag

by Erik Henry Vick

  Toby’s only reply was a grunt.

  After a short walk, he brought them to a flight of steps that led to the mechanical room of the College of Engineering. “I’ve been here twice in the entire time I’ve taught at this school, so no one would expect us to come out here.”

  “You hope,” said Mike.

  “Yes, I hope.”

  “Should we take a moment and discuss why and how these demons found us?” asked Shannon.

  “I’d rather do that when we’re safe.”

  Benny crossed his arms. “Nowhere is safe in a world populated with demons who can hide behind a human mask.”

  “Relatively safe.” Toby led them up the steps, and before opening the emergency door that led outside from the mechanical room, he disabled the alarm.

  They stepped out into the noon-time sun, squinting as their eyes adjusted to the light. Toby looked in all directions before nodding. “Looks like we’re clear,” he said.

  “Where can we go? Your apartment?” asked Scott. “If they found us here…”

  “It’s the safest place,” said Toby with a shrug. “Plus, we can walk there. And we won’t know if they are watching the place without taking a look.”

  “Why not take the cars?” asked Shannon.

  “We just ran into a demon guarding my building. I think it will be best to leave the cars for a while since they can trace them back to us.”

  Feigning nonchalance they didn’t feel, the five walked across the parking lot that separated the campus from the woods that enclosed it. Toby kept his head on a swivel but saw no other demons.

  They took the path students had made between the apartment complex and the campus. It exited the woods in the back of the apartment complex, and there, Toby called a halt. With a low whistle, he began pointing out demons that lounged at the pool, bent over a car with its hood up, sweeping the stairs, even one running a lawnmower.

  Scott stepped up beside him. “And now, we can’t even use the tranquilizer rifle.”

  Toby’s frown was a grim one. “It seems not. A demon followed one of you.” Toby bit off the next sentence instead of saying it. He’d been living in that apartment for years, killing demons at will, and none of them had sussed him out.

  “We killed more than a common demon in their ranks when we burned Herlequin,” said Benny in a soft voice. “We killed their king; we’ve got to expect them to‍—‍”

  Toby chopped his hand through the air, not wanting to discuss it. “We need to find somewhere else.”

  “Find somewhere else? We need to hide. We have no weapons, no way to fight these things.” Mike ran his hands through his hair, then let them drop. “Toby, what are we going to do?”

  It was a good question. Unfortunately, Toby was out of ideas.

  4

  “And your name, sir?”

  Mason flashed his best smile at the effeminate little man. “Don Daba. I made a reservation earlier this morning on your website.”

  “I see. One moment, please.” The man behind the counter typed his name into the reservation computer. “Ah, here it is. One adult, staying for five days?” He lifted his gaze from the computer and arched one eyebrow at Mason.

  “Yeah, about that. I might have to stay longer, or something might come up that calls me away.”

  The little man frowned and returned his gaze to the computer. He tapped a few more keys and smiled. “That shouldn’t be a problem—at least, as of now. We are nowhere near capacity for next weekend, but you may want to check back during the week. Better yet, once you know for certain, let us know if you wish to extend your reservation. If you want to leave early, it may necessitate a penalty.”

  Mason nodded, curling one hand into a tight fist. He very much wanted to punch the hotel clerk right in the face. There was no reason, not really. He sometimes took an instant dislike to a person. “Excuse me for asking, but have you ever modeled?”

  The clerk jerked his head back, frowning. “Modeled? For a magazine?”

  Mason chuckled and rested one forearm on the marble countertop. “Well, I meant for an artist. I think you’d make a great subject.”

  “Artist?” The clerk looked him up and down in a frank, appraising way. “Do you mean for a painter?”

  “Something like that.” Mason fought to keep his smile pleasant.

  The clerk gazed into his eyes for a moment. “Why no,” he murmured. “I’ve never done that.”

  “You should think about it. Your face has such fine lines.” Mason allowed his gaze to crawl down the man’s form. “Your body, too. It would be exciting to work on you.”

  “Work on me?”

  Mason chuckled and thumped the counter with his knuckles. “Figure of speech.”

  The clerk tilted his head to the side. “You paint?”

  “Something like that.” Mason glanced out the twin glass doors of the hotel. Outside, the sun shone brightly on the downtown street. “I’m here in Rochester for work, but if I have time, and you are available…”

  The clerk smiled and nodded once.

  Mason allowed his smile to show his genuine pleasure—though the enjoyment came from something other than what the clerk suspected.

  5

  With a guttural roar, LaBouche sprang to his feet, muscles rippling. He backhanded Dan Delo with all his strength, breaking a spine off his head, and the purple demon reeled away, arms and wings flapping to regain his balance. “What do you mean you didn’t find them?” screamed LaBouche. “How could you miss them? And why are you here? Why aren’t you still on the campus looking for them, you pompous idiot?”

  With one hand caressing the broken spine, Delo glared at him with burning hatred. “You said I’d find them in the restaurant! There were four restaurants!”

  LaBouche scoffed and took a menacing step forward.

  “And they weren’t in any of them!” Dan Delo stepped forward, spreading his wings wide behind him. “It’s not my fault‍—‍”

  “Not your fault? Not your fault! Well, whose fault is it?”

  “LaBouche, you’re not being fair! You put such constraints on me‍—‍”

  Growling, LaBouche advanced on the younger demon, his chartreuse alligator eyes glinting with fury. He smiled his best smile—the one that showed every one of his teeth in his full, V-shaped mouth. “Yes. You’re right, of course. I put unfair constraints on you. Constraints such as: don’t let anyone know your true nature, catch the people I sent you to catch, keep your temper, and do what I ask. How silly of me.” LaBouche stopped his advance when he was almost nose to nose with the other demon. “This will not make Brigitta happy. More to your sadness, it does not make me happy.” He snapped his teeth in Dan Delo’s face, then grinned his most sinister smile—again showing the multitude of his teeth.

  To his credit, Dan Delo didn’t flinch—if he had LaBouche would not have stayed his hand. The purple demon stood statue-still, however, his gaze resting on LaBouche’s face.

  Behind LaBouche, the door opened.

  “Ah, there you are, LaBouche,” said Brigitta. She took a few steps into the room before slowing to a halt. “And who is this?”

  “He is beneath you, Excellency. We were…discussing his recent failures.” LaBouche stepped to the side and slapped Dan Delo on the back of the head, and the purple demon fell to his knees.

  “I see,” said Brigitta. “Shall I leave you to it?”

  “No, Your Majesty. Your needs are far more important.” He glared down at Dan Delo. “Leave us, swine. I’ll deal with you later.”

  Brigitta watched the winged demon leave the room, his gaze averted, his shoulders slumped. When the door closed, she turned to LaBouche and grinned. “It always strikes me funny when one of the winged ones slumps. They look so silly.”

  “That they do, Your Highness.”

  She tilted her head to the side and blinked at him. “That doesn’t suit you, you know. That false deference. I’d rather you be yourself.”

  LaBouche nodded once. �
��As you wish. I merely wanted to express my respect for you.”

  Brigitta laughed and slapped his shoulder without any force. “You mean you merely wished to avoid being turned into a magpie again.”

  LaBouche deployed the smile he had worked very hard to cultivate. He hoped she didn’t see through it. “You’re right, of course.”

  Brigitta tsked. “It’s too bad you didn’t enjoy it. You made such a cute bird.”

  LaBouche somehow held onto the smile, keeping it plastered on his face until the urge to scream became an almost physical necessity. He nodded, using it as an excuse to avert his gaze from hers.

  “And how goes the hunt? The hunt for the so-called hunters?”

  LaBouche let the smile fade, a grimace taking its place. “That was the matter I was discussing with Dan Delo. He failed his assignment.”

  “And the others?”

  LaBouche crossed his arms and pursed his lips. “The campus team thought they saw him inside his building—where he keeps an office. Where Scott and I interviewed him for the first time. But if it was them, they didn’t emerge. And since that time, no one has seen them on campus. The team at his apartment complex…” He put his hands behind his back.

  “Buck up, LaBouche. Often, these things take more time than we expect. Your efforts will yield fruit.”

  He raised a hand, holding it out toward the door that Dan Delo had used. “That idiot may have tipped our hand.”

  Brigitta laughed her bell-like laugh and patted him on the shoulder. “It’s no matter, LaBouche. I have every confidence that you will catch up to them. My only concern is that your soldiers may not understand how disappointed I will be if they kill any one of the five hunters. Have you explained it to them?” Her expression had turned dire as she spoke.

  LaBouche nodded, his expression grave. “I explained that if they killed any of the humans, the demon responsible should prepare for the short trip home. Which would happen after you had punished them.”

  Her menacing expression faded, and she treated him to one of her friendliest smiles.

  It made LaBouche uneasy. He wasn’t used to Brigitta treating him with such…warmth, such friendliness. It’s not as if she wants something from me, he thought. She already has everything I can offer her. And more…unless… But no. That couldn’t be. He was too far beneath her, and no matter how she acted, he didn’t believe she actually enjoyed his company.

  “Well, it seems that you have everything in hand. I only wanted to drop by and see if you needed anything.”

  “Uh, no…I think I…have everything I need.” He tried to keep his speculations off his face.

  She nodded and hit him with a thousand-watt smile. “Good, good. If you discover you need something that is not available, send one of the winged ones. You know where I’ll be.”

  “Uh, yes, I will. Thank you.”

  She patted him on the shoulder, then, much to his discomfort, stood there, staring at him as if he were a strange bug.

  “And Chaz? Are things progressing in Oneka Falls?”

  Brigitta inclined her head, and her smile lost a degree of warmth. “Things are in hand, LaBouche. Recall your promise to me—recall that you said you could work with him without rancor.”

  LaBouche nodded. “Of course. I’ve never excelled at small talk.”

  She grinned at him crookedly and arched one eyebrow. “No, you haven’t.”

  6

  They rented cabins at a place called the Agincourt Resort. The resort lay far to the south, almost to the Pennsylvania border, in the town of Granite. The Allegheny State Park encapsulated the village on three sides—the town’s main claim to fame.

  The cabins weren’t much—little two-bedroom affairs, with a small kitchenette and a single standard living room between the two bedrooms—but they were clean, and they allowed Scott to book rooms under aliases once he showed them his NYSP badge. A round table had been crammed into the kitchenette of the cabin Toby shared with Benny and Shannon, but it only had four chairs, so Mike had brought a spare chair from the cabin he and Scott shared, and the five of them sat around it.

  “We need to get moving, to do something productive,” said Scott. “We should at least try making a few dozen paintballs—then we’ll know if that idea will work or not.”

  “You don’t say? I couldn’t tell you thought so; you’ve only repeated it forty or fifty times,” said Shannon, smiling to take any sting out of her words.

  “He makes a good point, though,” said Toby. “I’m not used to sitting around doing nothing. What are we going to do? While away the time reading magazines and playing checkers?”

  Mike yawned and stretched, his back crackling. “I don’t know, it’s relaxing not having to be anywhere or do anything.”

  “We can’t afford to just sit around doing nothing,” said Benny. We can’t just sit here hiding. Every day we do this, the demons get to dig themselves in, to lay traps. Plus, who knows how many they are killing?”

  Mike grimaced, and Scott blew out his cheeks.

  “Gosh, Benny, don’t sugar-coat it.” Toby shifted in his seat, draping one arm over the ladder-backed chair. He grinned at his childhood friend and then glanced at Scott and raised his eyebrows. “Are you still against loading the paintballs with chlorine gas?”

  Compressing his lips into a thin line, Scott raised one shoulder and let it fall. “It’s too much of a risk. What do we do when it’s windy? What about collateral casualties when we miss?”

  “Listen, guys, I’ve been thinking,” said Benny. “And Scott’s right about the poison gas angle, Toby. You settled on using M99 because it has the required effect: unconsciousness of the demon. Somehow, we’ve gone from incapacitating the demons for…processing back at the university to trying to kill them with a single paintball. But that won’t work anyway. Didn’t you say that the only way to kill them and make them stay dead is to separate their blood from their body and dispose of both?”

  Toby nodded. “True.”

  Benny leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Then why try to kill them with poison gas? All we need to do is replace the darts and the tranquilizer gun. What could we load into the paintballs to knock a demon out?”

  “The darts were just convenience. M99 worked because I could get it from veterinary supply houses.” Toby turned his head to the side and gazed up at the ceiling. “The Russians used Kolokol-1 as an incapacitating agent in 2002, and it’s also a derivative of fentanyl, same as carfentanil. I suppose if they can aerosolize Kolokol-1, we could do the same with carfentanil, though it might be a bit harder to get our hands on enough.”

  “You can’t aerosolize M99?” asked Benny.

  Shannon giggled and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Why do men always make everything complicated?”

  “What do you mean?” asked Benny and crossed his arms.

  “It’s our nature,” said Toby. “I guess you have a simpler solution?”

  Shannon bumped Benny with her elbow and winked at him. “Haven’t you ever read product warnings? We don’t need fancy opiates or tranquilizers, or anything as complicated as that. All we need is bleach and acetone—mixing them produces chloroform.”

  “She’s right,” said Mike. “Why didn’t either of you two geniuses come up with that?”

  “We were busy coming up with everything else. Now, all we need are paintball guns and a recipe for paintballs. I bet we can get both at a store that sells paintball gear.” Toby stretched and scooted his chair back from the table. “Let’s go.”

  “Do you think we’re far enough away from Oneka Falls that going out will be safe?” asked Mike.

  “Yes, I do, but I also thought my apartment was safe. From now on, Shannon will have to mask us.”

  Shannon’s expression grew solemn. “There’s only one of me.”

  Toby extended his hand toward Benny. “Loverboy can help you.”

  “I suppose so, but I’m not sure… I mean, it requires a lot of concentration.”


  “You can handle it, Shan,” said Mike.

  “I hope you’re right. I’m not so sure.”

  “To make it easier, in the beginning, just three of us will go. You and Benny, and whoever else needs to be out there. For the paintball guns, maybe Scott should go.”

  Scott held up his hands. “I’d be happy to get out of this place, but you have more experience with things driven by carbon dioxide. All of my experience relates to lead propelled by gunpowder.”

  “The principles are the same,” said Toby. “And your cabin fever is a little more pronounced than mine.”

  “You don’t have to twist my arm,” said Scott with a small grin.

  7

  “It’s the lighting,” said Mason as he led the hotel clerk down an alley behind the hotel.

  “The lighting? These alleys will be full of shadows.”

  “Exactly. It’s the play between light and dark that I want to capture.” He flashed a reassuring smile at the small man.

  “I thought…” The clerk shook his head and looked at his feet. “It was silly.”

  Mason chuckled and rested his hand on the small man’s shoulder. “No, it wasn’t silly,” he whispered. “But after we finish here…”

  The clerk looked up, and a smile stretched from ear to ear. He never saw the scalpel in Mason’s hand.

  Not until it was too late.

  8

  “How could you let it come to this, Fuck-it-up? How could you let him manipulate me into this corner?” A backhanded blow punctuated each question, each blow staggering her in a different direction.

  Her ears rang from the assault, and she blinked in silence, trying to clear her mind. She sank to one knee and bowed her head, hoping that, at least, her posture would make her more difficult to bat around like a rag doll. “But I told you his plans, my lord.”

  “Did you? Did you really, Fuck-it-up?”

  He didn’t hit her again, but he loomed over her like a cat playing with prey trapped between its front paws. She tried to block her fear—or at least block radiating her terror to him—but she knew such an act wouldn’t fool an alpha such as Chaz for long. She nodded but didn’t lift her gaze from the floor.