by Michael Todd
“The heart of this demon is said to be on the second floor, third bedroom. That is where we will perform the ceremony. You want to be at the heart of it so you can fully drive it back down to hell.”
“All right, noted,” Patrick whispered, his voice shaking. “Remind me why I signed up for this shit.”
“To help the innocent and save the world.” Damon shook his head and started his ascent slowly up the creaking stairs to the second floor before moving down the hall. Several pictures still hung on the walls, paintings of old tenants, their eyes moving and watching as the two walked. Patrick stopped and looked at one of them, tilting his head and leaning forward. Damian grabbed his shoulder and pulled back just as the person in the painting moved, snapping his pointy-toothed jaw at him.
“Don’t get too close to anything. It’s always a fun time at exorcisms until someone loses an eye.”
Patrick nodded wildly and walked with Damian to the door, watching as he tapped the handle again. “Why do you do that?”
Damian flipped over his hand, showing Patrick a gnarly scar. “Bad run in with a fire demon. Always check your handles.”
“Got it. Teachable moment. Wish I had my iPad on me. I could take note or call a friend or write out my last will and testament.”
“Are you done?” Damian glanced over his shoulder at the kid. “Did you piss yourself?”
Parker glanced down and back up. “Nope, and if you smell shit, it wasn’t me.”
Damian smiled and pushed open the door, putting his hand in front of Patrick. Inside, the room was lit red, and wind whipped around like a cyclone inside. Pieces of furniture flew through the air, slamming into walls, and blood ran down the windows. That same menacing laugh echoed through the room, and the sheets covering the old furniture were stained red.
“That isn’t a good sign,” Parker mumbled, moving close to Damian’s back.
“We found the heart of the beast. I’d say that’s an excellent sign.”
Patrick looked slowly over at Damian as he stared straight into the room, his eyes glowing bright red. “We really need to talk about what you consider a good time, Father. I’m starting to think you’ve been at this too long.”
Yay, retirement, more sleep and booze! Vista replied in a sing-song voice.
Damian ignored them all and walked toward the demon, ready to do what he did every night of the week—kicked ass and took names.
Slave to Many Stories,
Laurie Starkey
No Quarter
War of the Damned Book Two
Chapter One
The ocean breeze cut through the sultry night air in the city of Los Angeles. It was Friday, the night for parties and, of course, an excuse for demons to come out in search of their seven deadly sins in the city’s bars and clubs.
Just a mile or so outside of the center of the city lay the popular nightclub, Pecher. As might be expected, the demons could not resist a place with a name that meant “to sin” in French. They were out in full force, threading through the club with their human shells dressed to the hilt, doing whatever it was they did best.
Katie stood in the shadows of the narrow alley beside the club with a group of cops, all of whom were trying to be as inconspicuous as they possibly could. They didn’t want to give themselves away, nor did they want to scare off the crowd of infected inside. Katie scanned the building, her senses confirming there were demons spread throughout the club.
“All right, boys, I want you to surround the building. Try to look as nonchalant out front as possible. Calvin is going to be at the back door. His job is to rack up anyone who may try to escape that way.”
“Okay, we got it. Where are you going to be?”
Katie smirked, looking up at the top floors. “I’m going in. I’ll scare out the roaches, so save whoever you can first and do whatever with the rest. Once I’m done clearing them out, I’ll take out the rats on the upper floors. Don’t be surprised if some of them jump out the windows into your very capable hands. They don’t like it when I come around.”
“How come we don’t do this during the day?”
Katie pursed her lips. “The rats only seem to come out of the sewers at night.” She shrugged and cracked her knuckles. “Do it right, and we won’t have any problems with the dancers. I doubt they’ll hear anything over the music, anyway. Still, we don’t want to create a panic. If we have people running all over the place we’ll miss a bunch of them, and I don’t want to have to put on my running shoes tonight, gentlemen.”
The cops nodded and headed for their positions. Katie turned to Calvin and stuck out her fist for a bump. “You ready?”
He tapped her fist with his, then lifted a shoulder and pulled his short sword from his back sheath. “I’m always ready. But it still feels weird doing this without the rest of the crew.”
Katie nodded and smiled in understanding. “We are the crew. Give it some time. We will get in the groove. It’s the same every time we lose someone—it takes a bit to get back in the swing of things. But we’re still badass demon killers. Nothing has changed there.”
“Damned right.” Calvin chuckled. “All right, I’m gonna take my position. You and Pandora—you both be safe, okay?”
You too, big guy, Pandora cooed.
“She said, ‘you too,’” Katie told him.
Calvin smiled as he headed towards the back of the building.
Katie watched him go until he rounded the corner, then made her way back to the street. She paused to unzip the front of her tight black top just enough to frame her cleavage perfectly. She swung her dark hair over her shoulders and sashayed down the block toward the door.
A couple of the cops stationed by the curb to look for trouble slipped lustful glances at Katie’s ass as she passed. They were quick ones, though, since they didn’t want to be busted by the female cops in charge of keeping their eyes on her.
Pandora didn’t miss it for a second, though. The Shield seems to like these tight-ass pants. Pandora chuckled.
Focus. I need to act like a spoiled bitch.
That’s a problem?
No, I’ll just channel you.
Katie walked straight past all the people in line and stood in front of the doorman. She tilted her head and gave him a pout, affecting pure boredom. He looked her up and down, raising his eyebrow at the dark glasses covering her eyes.
A smirk moved across his lips and he stepped to the side, opening up the VIP rope to let her through. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself when he saw the long demon finger and sharp nail pointing at him.
Katie flashed red eyes at him over the rim of her glasses. “Things were going so perfectly. Don’t ruin it by saying something that would make me have to hurt you.”
He swallowed hard and looked at the demon digit again, then nodded respectfully and turned back to the line. No one else had seen the exchange, which was good, because she wasn’t trying to start a fight just yet.
However, Katie knew from his reaction that he was very aware of the demons upstairs and had assumed she was one of them.
Pandora whistled. Whoever those bad boys upstairs are, they must have some mighty fine taste in women if he thinks we’re part of that crew.
Or he’s just shit-scared of them and doesn’t want to give them cause to rip out his spleen and eat it for dinner.
Spleens aren’t really the tastiest part, just so you know.
Katie grimaced. Okay, Pandorabal Lecter. I don’t plan on ever finding out what the tastiest part of a human is. In fact, the thought makes me want to give up meat.
Bullshit.
Yeah, well, I definitely don’t want to go chow down on a cow right now, that’s for damn sure.
Which is probably a good thing, seeing as we have a party to disrupt.
Katie neared the end of the long dark hall, which opened up into a wide room filled with people and music. Lights shimmered over the crowd, changing from red to blue to green. People dressed in their best occup
ied the VIP booths, sipping overpriced bottles of champagne and bobbing their heads to the deep bass beat reverberating from the speakers. Katie smiled and peeked over the edge of her glasses. She felt the presence of more than just a few demons in the place.
Looks like our playground tonight has a really good beat to it.
Katie swayed seductively as she crossed the dance floor. Her body writhed in time with the others surrounding her, her progress marked by the rhythm. She put her hands over her head and swished her hips back and forth, smiling at a couple of guys she spotted watching her lecherously.
The taller one stepped forward, his eyes glinting red as he reached out to put his hand on her waist. “Hey, there, sexy.”
Katie pulled her glasses down enough for him to see her eyes flash bright red. “Hey, there.”
His hand went stiff, and he backed up into the people behind him before taking off toward the door. Katie pushed her glasses back up and laughed.
She turned her attention toward a group of three guys wearing black suits in the middle of the dance floor. She put her eyebrow up and approached them, moving her body slowly to the tempo of the music. The main guy handed one of the others his drink and smirked, then strode over to Katie and made to pull her into him.
Pandora began to chuckle when Katie pulled her glasses down again. Silly boys! This is too easy.
When he saw her red eyes he stepped back, dropping the idea quickly. He grabbed his friends and took off, bolting through the crowd toward the back door. As they opened it, Katie could imagine the glow of Calvin’s red eyes in the shadow right outside. She smirked when she heard his one-liner.
“You should watch where you’re going. You might trip and fall right into the wrong hands.”
Calvin stepped out of the shadows with a cop at his shoulder, and the three guys stumbled to a stop in front of him. The cop grabbed one of the guys by his collar while Calvin growled and grabbed the other two. They hauled the infected guys off to the capacious truck they were using to round the infected up.
Calvin opened the back door, revealing several infected already inside.
The apparent leader of the three rolled his eyes and hung his head. “I told you assholes we should have stayed home.”
Calvin chuckled. “Shouldn’t have let the demon drive, boys.”
He picked up both of his at the same time and threw them into the back of the truck, then glanced at the cop, who was obviously trying to figure out how to do the same. Calvin reached over and tossed the last guy in, shutting the doors with a loud bang. He winked at the cop. “Don’t sweat it. I was this strong before the demon.”
“Riiight.” The cop watched him step back into the shadows and flexed his bicep, talking to himself as he walked back toward the front of the building. “Maybe that extra ravioli last night was a bad idea.”
Katie looked around the dance floor, trying to figure out if she had gotten them all. Pandora sniffed the air for trails.
Looks like you got all the ones down here.
Good.
Katie zipped her blouse back up and stepped off the dance floor. Several of the guys called after her, sad to see the sexy-ass woman leave. She could almost feel the pride Pandora exuded.
You’re hot as shit, girl. I’m telling you, men are falling all over themselves.
It was the dancing…and the alcohol.
They’re intoxicated all right, by you. You did shake your groove thing, that’s for damn sure, and they liked it. We should go dancing to troll men all the time.
Katie walked around the nightclub, scanning for a way to get upstairs. The first thing she noticed when she got to the back of the club was the black-painted door—and the very large guard standing in front of it. He was alert, his shoulders were back, and she spotted an earpiece in his ear. Katie smiled; she’d found exactly where the little bastards were hiding. She sauntered up to the guard and reached for the door.
He blocked her way. “I’m sorry, miss, this area is restricted. Go back into the club.”
Katie tilted her glasses down and flashed her red eyes. “You might want to rethink that.”
It didn’t faze him a bit, which proved beyond a doubt that she was right where she needed to be. “I said go,” he repeated, a little less politely this time.
Katie looked around and shrugged. “Oh well, you can’t say I didn’t give you a chance. I told you to rethink it, so this is on you. You should apologize to yourself after I’m done.”
Katie grew a handful of long and super-sharp nails. Before the guard could react she thrust her hand forward and grabbed him by the balls, giving them a thorough squeeze. He crumpled instantly and Katie caught him by the chin, holding him so his ear was next to her lips.
Pandora took her voice over. “If you don’t step aside and let me in, I’m going to squeeze just a touch tighter. You don’t want that, do you? Now, open the fucking door.”
He drew a labored breath when she twitched her claws, and sweat peppered his forehead. “You don’t understand! I’ll be killed if I let you up there without at least trying to take you out.”
Katie grimaced at the sweat glistening on the top of his big bald head, and after releasing his balls, pulled her arm back and hit him hard under the chin. He whimpered and fell forward onto Katie, who caught his weight with a slight groan.
Katie propped the guard on the seat by the door. “God, you’re fucking heavy!” She positioned his elbow on the table and let his head loll. “I wouldn’t want you to get killed on my account.”
She pulled open the door, letting it shut quietly behind her. She was at the foot of a tall staircase leading up to an archway. Slowly, she began to inch her way up the stairs, working to not make a noise.
Inside the room at the top, two men sat on a black leather sofa, cocaine spread out on small mirrors on the table in front of them. A tall woman in a tight black pencil skirt and a red chiffon blouse stood facing a third man who was looking through a window at the dance floor.
The man took a sip of his whiskey and slammed the tumbler down. “I don’t see her anymore,” he grumbled.
The woman sighed and rolled her eyes. “Who?”
“The hot-as-fuck bitch I saw on the dance floor. She was wearing this tight black shirt and had tits to die for. Those red pouty lips… I want her. I want her up here right now. I could bend her right over that desk and make her forget everything she ever thought she knew about how to be handled by a man.”
“You’re kind of a pig.” The woman chuckled and finished her martini.
He ignored her comment. “Maybe I’ll get George to go down there and pull her aside. I could really make her walk wrong tomorrow!”
Katie sat just outside the archway with her back pressed against the wall. She was pissed as hell that he was talking about her like her only purpose in life was to gratify him.
Looks like you have an admirer. Pandora snickered.
Yeah, one I’ve just decided to “make walk really wrong tonight!”
Pandora laughed. I think we can make that happen.
What are we looking at here? Three mid-level demons and one getting up there?
I’d say the other three are low-to-mid-level, and that jackass is teetering somewhere in the center. He’s pretending he’s more powerful than he really is. The others are too stupid to know.
“I’m still waiting for the cops to get off our asses. I saw four of them posted outside earlier,” one of the guys complained. “I thought we blackmailed the police chief.”
The woman groaned, turning around to glare at him. “That definitely failed, but no worries. I just happen to have a little birdie who’s passed along some really nice racy pictures of the good ol’ chief with three prostitutes at the Wayward Motel from last Tuesday night. I’m sure his wife and the press would love to get ahold of those.”
The main guy chuckled and looked at the woman. “Nice job, but let’s wait until next week to pull that one out. Make him feel secure.”
&nbs
p; “But Bailor,” she moaned. “I really want to stick it to him.”
“And you will get your chance.” He smirked. “For now, go get Georgie. I want a piece of that woman’s ass if she’s still here.”
The woman rolled her eyes and set her empty glass down, then walked over to the door and grabbed the handle in a huff.
Katie stepped to the other side and waited for the woman to come through the door. She was looking down at her nails when her eyes hit Katie’s shoes and moved up her body to her face, which froze her in place.
Katie smiled and grabbed the woman’s throat, silencing her before she could say a word.
She leaned forward and sniffed the woman’s skin, catching a strong whiff of the demon inside her. The woman’s hands flew up to scratch at Katie’s, desperate to get free from her grasp.
Katie lifted her bodily off the ground, her feet dangling just above the floor while Pandora did a thorough assessment. The guys inside had no idea what was going on, but it should have only taken the woman a few seconds to grab the guard from the bottom of the steps.
“What the hell is taking you so long?” one of them yelled toward the door.
The woman’s eyes shifted down to the bottom of the stairs, but Katie shook her head. “Georgie’s taking a nap,” she whispered.
This bitch is toast. The demon has her completely under his control. There’s no saving her.
Aw, what a shame.
All emotion left Katie’s face. There was just enough time for the woman’s eyes to open wide with fear before Katie brought her other hand up and twisted hard and fast. There was a loud crunch, and the woman’s body went limp. She hoisted the body into her arms, kicked open the door, and stepped inside. The three men turned around in surprise just as the body turned to dust.
Katie clapped her hands together and dusted herself off. “I swear, you demons can’t even fucking die normally. You have to cover everything in dust. I have thrown away four pairs of pants because this shit sticks to the fabric like, well…shit.”
