by Michael Todd
That sonofabitch. He’s over there boning away, getting himself all kinds of relaxed, and I’m stuck visiting your mommy. What kind of special hell did I end up in?
Relax. It’s just a quick visit, then we head back to New York.
Like that means anything. It’s not like you will find a guy or two to have a little fun with while we have some free time. You’re too damn picky. “Oh, no that one is too short. That one has a wedding ring.” Pathetic excuse for a single woman. You shame me, Katie. Really.
Katie rolled her eyes. Not the wedding ring thing again. Just come to the realization that if there is a ring, it will not be a thing.
Oh, aren’t you clever!
I’d like to think so. Come on, let the man have at least a couple weeks of a normal life. He’s been doing this forever.
Pandora snorted. I’m gonna fuck his love life up so bad that it will take a metric shit-ton of little blue pills before he can even get a twitch out of it. He is gonna wish he had just laid down his guns at the border and let it happen. This little Miss Thang he’s with had better enjoy the black-man dick while she can, because when he gets back? Whammy! Poof! No more. Goodbye, Big Daddio. Oh, oh—I just gave myself an even better idea.
Oh, God. I almost don’t want to ask, but what’s that?
Two words: “Invisible. Penis.” Oh, that would be delicious. I can hear him now. “I do have a dick! It’s right there, really!” Pandora completely cracked up. “Just” Oh, I can’t, it’s too much. “Just…touch it!” Can you imagine the look on a woman’s face? Revenge will be mine!
That is just cruel and unusual, even for a demon. Do you know what I think the funniest part of all this is?
By all means, tell me.
That Calvin could be lying to a demon. A demon! The all-knowing, all-seeing Lilith, Queen of the Damned.
I’m a demon, not a clairvoyant. You can go on thinking that he isn’t packing a meat log in there. All it would take is you walking around the corner too fast one day while he’s thinking about tits and BAM! Dead from a dick to the gut. It would be an honorable death, though. I think I might actually jump bodies just so I could insist that went on your headstone. “Here lies Katie, badass bitch. Taken from us too soon by her partner’s wang.
Katie almost choked on her sub. You are way too much.
Chapter Four
Brock knelt next to the wounded soldier and gently wrested his hand away from his belly. One of the demons had clawed a hole into the muscle right below his belly button. Brock pulled a wad of gauze out of his field rig and pressed it to the wound to slow down the bleeding.
“It’s deep and you’ve lost a lot of blood, but I think you’ll be okay.”
Two medics ran up with a stretcher and knelt by Brock. “What are we looking at here?”
“Deep lacerations to the stomach, and a puncture wound in the upper abdomen. He’s lost quite a bit of blood, but—” Brock looked up when a demon groaned just a few feet away.
He held up his finger to the medic, pulled out his pistol, and walked over to stand next to its twitching body. He glanced down at its hand and noticed that one of the talons had broken off. The soldier whose ass it had kicked had given as good as he’d gotten, and left it lying in a pool of its own blood. Brock wasted no time. He pulled the trigger twice and watched the demon twitch a couple more times before it turned to dust.
Brock made his way back to the medics. “He might have a talon lodged in the wound, not sure if it will turn to dust. Make sure you look for that.”
“Got it.” The medics carried the soldier away on the bloodstained gurney.
Brock worked his way slowly through the dirt and grass, his feet crunching on piles of grit. They were all looking for survivors, both demon and any brothers they could save. The medics were getting to them as fast as they could, but there were still minor demons on the ground twitching and writhing from the smoke. The cloud of poisonous gas had been blown away by the wind, so the Damned didn’t have to wear their gas masks. However, the effects were still lingering upon any unmasked demon in the affected area.
Brock held his canteen to his parched mouth to shake the last few drops out.
“Hey, dude.” One of the soldiers about ten feet away nodded and tossed a bottle of water at him.
“Thanks, man.” He caught it and twisted off the lid, drinking the whole thing in a series of deep gulps. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and tossed the bottle on the ground, then walked over to a couple of his brothers and squatted beside them to watch the rest of the cleanup crew moving through the battlefield.
His teammate groaned. “That was one hell of a fight.”
“It didn’t help that the portal to hell was pouring out heat like we were standing on the rim of a fucking volcano.”
“I know, right? When the fucking thing closed, I could see the heat waves just blowing out of it. I swear the temperature here went up a good thirty degrees.”
Brock nodded. “They are usually hot, but this one was a doozie. It was so hot…” A grin creased his face, and he held up his hand. “Wait for it. It was hotter than two furries fucking in August.”
His teammate smirked. “Hope those assholes never think to put a gate at the South Pole. It’ll melt the ice and drown California.”
“We are already headed in that direction, with this global warming crap. Having all these portals open might just speed up the process.”
“Yeah.” His teammate scoffed. “I bet there’s a team of scientists out there right now trying to figure out the environmental effects of demon portals on the planet.”
“Won’t make much difference if we can’t get these bastards under control. It’ll be hell on Earth, and both of us will be long gone.”
The soldier nodded. “True.” He stood up and cracked his neck.
They looked at the remaining bodies. Brock tilted his head, hearing a low groan behind them, and both drew their weapons as they spun to face the threat.
A demon staggered toward them, dragging its feet. It was dazed and injured from the smoke, but still snarled at the two soldiers. Brock’s teammate chuckled and holstered his weapon.
“This one is all yours, chief. Finish it so we can get the hell out of here and back to the base. I need a fucking shower. I smell like Satan’s asshole.”
Brock’s laughter was cut short when the demon got a little closer and he spotted a scrap of material hanging from its teeth. A Marine insignia.
Brock’s lip twitched. He holstered his gun and pulled out his field knife.
His team cheered. “Uh-oh, Brock’s got something special for this asshole.”
“Give it hell for everyone it killed today!”
Brock’s eyes flashed red as he circled the demon. He realized that it barely knew what was going on when it slashed wildly at him. He ducked and assessed his next move.
The demon staggered as it attempted to regain its senses. Brock darted in with his knife, slashing the demon’s cheek, then its belly, then its arm. He snatched the insignia from its teeth and sent it reeling with a devastating blow to the jaw with the hand gripping his knife.
The cheers of the men around him faded away as he held the insignia aloft. As one they held their hands to their chests, and Brock’s Justice was served in silence.
Brock moved quickly in and out, his knife finding its mark each time he lunged. The beast screeched and slashed the air whenever Brock opened a new wound on its body. Brock sidestepped and stamped hard on its knee, then slid in behind the demon as it fell. He placed an unceremonious knee in the demon’s back and grabbed a handful of its hair to use as an anchor while he hacked its head off with the serrated blade.
“Kill Marines, fucker? Now you’re dead.” He raised the head in one hand and the Marine insignia in the other for all his brothers to see as he screamed, “Ooohrah!”
“Ooohrah!” they roared in return.
The demon’s head crumbled in Brock’s hand and the dust blew away across the fields.
>
Calvin leaned back on the couch on the restaurant patio and looked up at the stars. Sofia un-tucked her head from the hollow of his shoulder and made to get up, but her hair caught in his sunglasses. Calvin chuckled and carefully untangled it, being sure to keep the glasses firmly on his face.
Sofia laughed and smoothed down her hair. “Who knew Ray Bans would be my nemesis?”
Calvin caught a stray strand and tucked it behind her ear. “Of all the enemies I have in this world, I’ll take a pair of sunglasses any day.”
Sofia leaned over and kissed Calvin on the cheek. “I know. And you would kick the shit out of them, too.”
“Damn right.”
She looked at him for a moment, then reached up and took his glasses off. She folded them and tucked them into his shirt pocket, and he looked down quickly to hide the red glow of his eyes. Sofia shook her head and picked up his chin, turning it toward her.
“No, don’t you be ashamed. You have beautiful eyes, and it’s nighttime. Besides, I don’t give a damn who sees them. You are one of the most honorable men I have ever met, and if someone has a problem, they can take it up with me.”
Calvin squeezed her hand and smiled. “You are quite the feisty one tonight.”
Sofia chuckled. “Tonight? Try every night.”
Calvin kissed her forehead and stared out over the ocean.
Sofia’s easy acceptance of his dual nature touched his soul. He was no stranger to prejudice. His world had always been one of racism, whether casual or overt, so the discrimination he faced as a Damned was almost familiar in the way it made his skin crawl even as he shrugged it off as a part of life.
It was fucked up how much the world had changed in such a short time, and Calvin thought it was even more fucked up that the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. The only difference was that many of the bigots and xenophobes who had vilified him for the color of his skin now focused solely on the color of his eyes. Of course, there were always the traditionalists who found both equally offensive.
He looked at Sofia, whose eyes held a longing that caused his stomach to tighten. It was like the universe had kicked him twice and then decided to reward him double for his pain.
The patio door opened and the waiter stepped out and looked around. “Calvin, party of two.”
“That’s us,” Calvin told him. He got up and helped Sofia to her feet. She kissed him sweetly and led him by the hand into the restaurant for dinner.
The night passed in a blur of conversation. They shared stories about life, about the past and the future, her interests, his interests, and everything in between. He loved that he felt so normal around her, and that she was absolutely stunning on top of that.
Sofia felt the same way. She didn’t have a demon inside, but her life had been anything but normal recently. Between the drug lord and the demon slayers, she would say she had enough excitement for the rest of her life. She craved nothing more than to hear the quiet sound of the ocean lapping on the sand as she walked hand in hand with this amazing guy.
The waitress took their dessert plates away, and Sofia gazed out the window as she finished her glass of wine. The rolling waves caught the lights along the beach and threw them off as diamonds in the darkness. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, so glad to be back in San Diego.
Calvin took her hand. “How about I pay the bill and you head down to the beach? I’ll meet you out there.”
Sofia smiled and met his gaze. She’d almost forgotten what it was to be free. She would have to get used to the idea that she didn’t need to live in fear. “That sounds like a perfect idea.”
She stood up and pushed in her chair, then leaned down to press her lips against Calvin’s temple before weaving her way through the restaurant. She took off her sandals as soon as she reached the beach. She savored the feeling of the sand between her toes as she buried her feet in the cool sand. She wriggled her toes as she walked, finding everything a blessing at that point. She hadn’t thought that she would ever be able to enjoy the beach again, not with the life she had been drawn into. But there she was, free as a bird, with the cool breeze of the ocean against her skin and not an armed guard in sight.
Her reverie was interrupted by a man’s voice.
“Well, hello there, pretty lady.”
Sofia glanced at the sound and saw three guys smoking cigarettes and drinking at a nearby table.
The man who’d spoken leered and patted the bench next to him. “You aren’t at all what I expected to walk over the dunes. Why don’t you come over here and have a seat with us?”
Sofia turned her head back to the water and continued walking without as so much as a hello, go to hell, or go fuck yourself. She didn’t feel like dealing with assholes that night; it was too perfect out to worry about it. Of course, nobody had told the three drunk dudes that.
One of the guy’s friends laughed. “Aw, man, you got played!”
The smile faded from the guy’s face, and he got up and kicked sand in Sofia’s direction. “Hey, Mamacita, I’m fucking talking to you. Who do you think you are, just fucking walking away from me?”
She turned back and treated them to an icy stare. “I really suggest that you boys head back up to the bar before my boyfriend gets out here.”
The guy snorted and looked at his friends, who were all laughing. “Why? Is he big? Is the big, bad guy going to kick our asses if we don’t leave?”
All the drunks laughed as he slurred his words. He stumbled slightly, and his drink sloshed onto the sand.
Sofia folded her arms and smirked. “I don’t know why you want to know, but yeah, he’s got a big dick. Why do you ask? Maybe I’m not the one you’re interested in after all?”
His friends busted into uncontrollable laughter, listening to their friend get burned by a woman. He narrowed his eyes and grimaced. “I didn’t mean the size of his fucking dick. Damn, girl, that is cold!”
Sofia shrugged. “I’m just going to say that I like it when his eyes glow red.”
She looked up at the restaurant and spotted Calvin walking down the steps of the deck and onto the sand. The guys followed her stare and started to back up on seeing his huge muscles and glowing red eyes.
They quickly scattered, giving Calvin a wide berth as they made their escape. He looked at them strangely and then back at Sofia, who had a mischievous smile painted across her face and her hand on her chest.
He slipped his shades back on and put his arm around her. “Should I run after them?”
“Nah, I was having some fun. It’s too easy to scare dumbasses like them off with the mention of red eyes.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Her lips lingered “Why don’t we go home so I can gaze into them for a while?”
Calvin tightened his arms around her waist and leaned in to kiss Sofia again. “I like the sound of that.”
Brock grabbed the towel hanging from his locker door and wiped the sweat off the back of his neck. The guys were back from the battle and had already stopped by the hospital to check on their two teammates who had been gassed. Both were okay, and already laughing about it despite being stuck in bed hooked up to IVs. Both had bitched thoroughly about being flat on their asses watching cable on the hospital television instead of getting back out to where they were needed.
Brock was just glad that they had made it out in time. He hated to see any of the military hurt or killed, but the hit to his team had especially shaken him. Their trials had made them tight; made them brothers in spirit as well as arms.
By the time they’d gotten back to the barracks and cleaned their gear they were all tired, beaten up both physically and emotionally from another day of battle and another field of fallen soldiers. By the time they had their weapons put up and the barracks squared away, they were ready to sleep the sleep of the exhausted.
However, their commander had other plans for them. A fresh-faced corporal walked into the barracks. “You are requested in the captain’s office
—the whole team.”
Brock chuckled and grabbed his gear. “Come on, boys. No rest for the weary.”
“Yeah, yeah,” his teammate replied. “We can sleep when we’re dead.”
Brock grinned and did a gruff imitation of the captain’s voice. “Which is not today.”
They filed into their commander’s office and stood at attention in a line in front of his desk when he called them in.
The captain nodded and waved his hand. “At ease, boys. I want to start out by congratulating you. That was some fine work you did out there today. They told me that even after two of your brothers went down, you continued to fight. I’m proud of you all.”
“Thank you, sir,” they replied in unison.
“That is part of the reason why you are standing here in front of me now.” The captain stood up and walked over to his window, where he faced out with his hands laced behind his back. “Orders for a special operation were just handed down to me; orders regarding an international effort with European forces. Boys, you’re going to go show France how we do things over here.”
Brock kept his face straight, but his heart soared. This was the big leagues he’d been thinking of. He would get to stick it to the demons, no matter where in the world the bastards sprang up.
The captain turned along the line and looked each man in the eyes before he continued speaking. “You have the training and the skills, and we have a new battle on our hands. Our old buddy Moloch has invaded France, and the United States is sending a large contingent over there to help out.”
One of the men queried, “Sir, if I may ask, why are we saving the French? They didn’t appreciate us too much for World War II.”
The captain looked up at the ceiling, his lips moving silently in a prayer for patience. “They did at the time, soldier. Younger generations may forget, but those who were there, men like my father, did not. They were brave men, and heroes all. Men who saw the truth under the fear, and didn’t let nationality keep them from saving lives.” The chastised soldier nodded and looked down. The captain raised a finger. “But, beyond all that, it isn’t for you to question who and why, but to do and...”
