Bad Company

by D V Wolfe

  Nya shook her head. “If you’ll shut your lips, I’ll explain. So I have a bunch of sources, mostly…”

  “Snitches,” I said. “Scared that you’ll take an interest in ganking them if they don’t deliver.”

  “I was going to say ‘informants’,” Nya said. “But yes. And I’d heard about this Ukkin sword from a piece of lore another hunter told me about, years ago.”

  “It wasn’t Slosh, was it?” I almost dreaded her answer. I was still pretty skeptical that the thing existed, and it sounded like something Slosh would believe and pass on.

  “God, no,” Nya said. “I can’t even remember who it was at this point but definitely not someone like Slosh. Anyway, so I put it out there to my informants that I was looking for this sword. About a week ago, I got a phone call from one of my informants that the sword was in Las Vegas. I headed out there and I found this super running a pawn shop in the crappier part of Vegas. I leaned on him and he admitted that he sold the damn thing. I had to lean on him a little harder, but he finally gave me the buyer’s info. It was of course, another super, but, the pawnbroker didn’t know what flavor. He described the guy and I knew it had to be an incubus, especially when the pawnbroker talked about how the guy made him feel when he talked. So I had the pawnbroker pull the paperwork the guy had filled out. The copy of his driver’s license said his name was Kosmas Ward. It was a Colorado license with a Denver address. The broker said that he remembered the guy asking him if he knew where Station, Wyoming was because he was coming up for a party or something. I had the picture from his driver’s license but as an incubus, he can change his appearance. Apparently, he’s young and he might just be awakening to what he is. That’s a benefit to us. Unfortunately, he’s young and probably in good shape and might overreact if we announce to him that we’re here to end him.”

  “Both good points,” I said, watching a couple of younger guys come in the front door and head to the bar. Nya and I both looked back down at the crystal. Nothing. “So that explains Station and Denver,” I said, “But why K.C.?”

  “I looked up Kosmas Ward in the DMV records. He used to live in Kansas City before moving to Denver. I just wanted us to cover all our bases. It was on your way to the other two places anyway so I thought it wouldn’t be hard to check out.”

  I took another pull on my beer. “Do you think the demon messed with the records or something so you’d say K.C. and I’d go and get my ass handed to me? Do you think he knows about the sword?” I asked.

  Nya leaned forward and dropped her voice. “I sure as hell hope not. As far as I can tell, this sword is the only way we can take down a demon as strong as this one. At least, according to the lore. Let’s just hope it’s correct.”

  “From your lips to god’s ass,” I said on a burp.

  Noah had remembered to stop eating before he hit the table, and the trays around him were empty. He was picking at a few fried crumbs.

  “Man this is boring,” Nya muttered, staring back down at the crystal.

  “I can think of something to liven the night up,” a voice said behind me. We both turned in our chairs to see a couple of bros standing behind us looking like Cabela’s models.

  “What did you have in mind?” Nya asked.

  “A game of pool to start out with?” The guy in front was shorter with dark hair and his gaze was glued to Nya. His shaggy blonde friend behind him was giving me the once over. I tried not to upchuck the three pieces of blooming onion I’d stolen off of Noah’s plate. I wasn’t sure why, but I’d never been attracted to guys who looked like they spent roughly fifty percent of their time in front of a mirror.

  But we were bored. I glanced back at the crystal on the table. No blood, no change in color. Nothing.

  “Sure,” Nya said. “We’ll meet you over at the table.” The two guys left and I raised an eyebrow at her. “What?” She asked. “The pool table is closer to the bar and the door. We’ll have a better view.”

  “And?” I asked.

  “And I’m bored. Besides, dark and short is pretty cute,” Nya admitted. I rolled my eyes. “Hey,” Nya said. “Some of us have libidos that aren’t stamped and branded for one person.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, sitting up straighter.

  Nya sighed. “Nothing, forget I said anything. Just come play and help me keep watch.”

  “What about me?” Noah asked.

  “Watch the crystal,” Nya said. “And hold our table.”

  I opened my mouth to object to leaving Noah by himself, but Nya grabbed my hand, and with that surprising ‘dynamite-comes-in-small-packages’ strength she possessed, she jerked me up and out of my seat.

  The bros were bad at pool. During the first game, Nya pretended she was too. I didn’t, because I didn’t care. I wasn’t interested in the inane conversation between dark and shorty and Nya. Shaggy didn’t seem to care if I talked to him or not. He would move around to be directly behind me when I shot. The first time he joked that he was trying to rattle me, but after that, I knew it was just to get a look at my ass. Oh so charming. Nya and I took turns, facing the bar and facing the door, hoping that if one of us spotted someone who could be Kosmas, no matter what face he was wearing now, we’d be ready. The second pool game, Nya pulled out all the stops and she was her regular pool shark self. The bros were losing their good humor and started joking that they were glad there wasn’t money riding on the game. Then joking that we were cheating, then accusing us of cheating, then being sullen man-children. There were six balls left on the table; five stripes belonging to the bros, and the eightball. It was dark and shorty’s turn and I was watching the bar while Nya faced me, watching the door. I heard it open near me and I didn’t think anything of it until Nya’s expression froze. She followed him into the room with her eyes and then her gaze darted to me to make sure I saw him. I gave her an almost imperceptible nod and moved over to the edge of the bar to take a drink of the ‘Lite’ beer the bros had been oh-so-considerate to order us, without asking what we wanted. The man who had come in was young. Still bro-ish, but he gave off a supernatural vibe like a gust of wind that had men and women turning in his direction as he crossed to the bar. He flashed a blinding smile to a girl sitting alone at the bar before taking the stool next to her.

  “Damn it,” I heard Shaggy groan behind me. “Brandon, he’s back.”

  “I saw him, Jeff,” Dark and shorty muttered. I heard him coming to stand with Shaggy just behind me and to the side. I pretended to be savoring the disgusting beer, my eyes glued to the guy and the girl, but listening to what the bros were saying behind me.

  “Man, last night, I had a sure thing, and then in comes Von Douche over there,” Shaggy said.

  “Dude, I was here. I remember. Just, forget about him. We’ve both got sure things tonight. I mean,” he dropped his voice but I could still hear him. “If they put out as good as they play pool... I still think they’re cheating though. They keep circling the table.” I rolled my eyes and put my beer down but I didn’t move. In a surprisingly short time, Kosmas got up from the stool and offered the girl next to him his hand. She smiled and took it and they headed for the door.

  “Eightball, corner pocket,” I heard Nya say behind me. I followed the guy and girl with my eyes towards the door. Then I saw out of the corner of my eye, a bush of orange frizz approaching.

  “The pyramid thing,” Noah muttered to me. “It’s bleeding.”

  I made eye contact with Nya and jerked my head at the table.

  “Sorry boys,” Nya said to Shaggy and Dark and Shorty. “Gotta go. Thanks for the games.”

  I heard them both throw snide comments, but I could only laugh.

  “What a couple of douche nozzles,” Noah said when we were outside on the sidewalk. “Did you hear what they were calling you two as we were leaving.”

  “No,” I said.

  “Don’t care,” said Nya. “Do you see him?”

  The street was almost deserted. A flash of movement
a block down from us caught my eye. I heard a car door shut and the guy walked under a streetlight as he moved around to the driver’s side of a white sportscar.

  “There!” I said, pointing. I took off running for Lucy with the other two huffing behind me to keep up. We threw ourselves in the truck, Nya in the middle because she had outrun Noah. I turned the engine over and rolled back onto the main street. The sportscar passed us and I turned to follow.

  “Do you want your pyramid or whatever?” Noah asked Nya.

  “Oh my god, thank you,” Nya said. “Did you happen to grab…”

  Noah sighed. “I just grabbed everything at the table. Here’s your bag.”

  I kept the sportscar a block ahead of me but there weren’t many other cars on the road so if he was looking for a tail, he was definitely going to spot me.

  “Is it bad that I’m doubting he has the sword?” I asked as we wound through a residential area. “I mean, he didn’t seem to have it on him.”

  “Bane,” Nya groaned. “A sword is hardly evening wear. He probably left it at home.”

  “I’m just saying,” I said. “If I had a badass sword that could slay demons, I’d wear that thing to the can. I’d never take it off.”

  “We know,” Noah and Nya said together. I turned to look at them and saw them doing a high-five.

  “We’ve been waiting all night to do that,” Noah said, grinning at Nya.

  “You two are jerks,” I said.

  The sportscar pulled to the curb in front of a dark green townhouse with a manicured lawn and an HOA sign in the front yard.

  “A yuppy Incubus,” I said. “Huh.”

  I went around the block and parked at the curb next to the townhouse, but around the corner.

  “How much do you think we’ll decrease the property values around here when we burn an incubus on the lawn in the morning?” Nya asked.

  I cut the engine. “It might make the property values go up. Innocents love the idea of paranormal crap.”

  19

  We climbed out of Lucy and geared up. I clipped the carabiner and duct tape holsters to my belt loops and shoved my machete and the sawed-off into them and then I filled my pockets with rock salt shells.

  Nya pulled out a pair of Glocks from her bag along with a nylon web chest holster. Noah had the ten-gauge and his pockets stuffed full of shells again. He looped the chain over his shoulder and stuck the padlock in his pants.

  “Once we’ve got him on lockdown, I’ll come and get the salt,” I said. “I’ve got salt tape until then.”

  The salt tape was good for speed but there was nothing that would make you sleep like a baby, like knowing an inch and a half tall line of salt was completely surrounding you.

  Nya nodded and pulled some kind of battery-powered light out of her bag. She must have seen me looking at her because she waved it at me. “Battery-powered grow light. It has luminosity similar to sunlight. I thought if we needed to do a little light torturing to get the sword, we’d be prepared.”

  “I always learn new shit when I’m with you,” I said to Nya. I headed around the truck and drew the sawed-off, in case the incubus came right at us. Salt was a deterrent for incubi because they were somewhere along the line of demon cousins, but it wasn’t nearly as potent as sunlight to them.

  We headed up the walk to the porch. It was just after two, giving us about four hours before the sun would be up. I just hoped we could detain him and hold him undetected until then.

  We crept up the steps and we could hear shouts and crying coming from inside the house.

  “Oh, this shit ends now,” Nya growled. She tried the knob. The door gave but caught on a security chain. I was about to yell to Noah to go get the bolt cutters out of the truck when Nya put her boot on the door next to the chain and it popped free.

  “Like I said,” I muttered to Nya. “Always learning new shit.”

  The screams inside the house had stopped and we rushed inside. The living room was empty. Noah fanned out to check the kitchen and I did a sweep of the nearest bathroom and bedroom.

  “In here!” Nya yelled from the other side of the living room. Noah and I bolted down the hallway to find her holding the guy at gunpoint. He had a knife to the girl’s throat and she was crying.

  “Let her go,” I said to the guy, lowering my sawed-off and putting it back in my holster.

  “What the hell are you doing in my house?” The guy screamed. I saw the edge of the blade knick the girl’s neck and a fine trickle of blood ran down the blade while she squeezed her eyes shut in pain.

  “Let her go,” I said, raising a hand to try to calm him. “And we’ll talk about it.”

  “Screw that,” he said, getting to his feet and pulling the girl up with him, the blade of his knife digging a little deeper into her. I grabbed Nya by the back of her jacket and tugged her back with me.

  “Hey,” I said to him. “Be careful with that knife. Look, we’re backing off, ok? Just let her go.”

  “Get out of my way,” he seethed.

  “Kosmas,” Nya said. “There’s no way in hell we’re doing that.”

  “How do you know my…” Kosmas said, but he trailed off and when he blinked, his eyes flashed a glowing blue for a moment before returning to their human-looking dark brown.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Nya said. “Let the girl go and I won’t immediately blow your head off.”

  Kosmas chuckled. “Like that would kill me.”

  “No,” Nya said. “It won’t kill you, but it’ll hurt like hell.”

  I wanted to stop Nya from antagonizing him. He was clutching the girl to him and the knife was being pressed harder and harder into her throat.

  “Come on, Kosmas,” I said. “How about, we back out of the room and you take the knife away from her throat, ok?”

  Nya fired off a shot. The knife flew out of Kosmas’ hand along with a finger or two. Kosmas started screaming in pain and the girl slid to the floor in shock. I lunged for her and pulled her to her feet. Nya still had her gun on Kosmas, so I helped the girl out of the room and into the living room where Noah was standing.

  “I thought he would freak out less if I stayed out here, rather than having three armed people staring at him,” Noah mumbled.

  I gave him an impressed look. “Good instincts.” I turned to look at the girl who had started to shake. “Noah, can you take her to the kitchen and get her some water? There’s a bathroom right next to the kitchen. See if you can find a band-aid for that cut and then just sit her down in the living room and stay with her until the shock wears off. Then we can take her home.”

  Noah nodded and handed me the ten-gauge. I gently nudged the girl towards him and Noah took her down the hall. I turned and headed back into the room. Kosmas was lying on the floor, unconscious and Nya was looking in the bedroom’s closet.

  “What happened?” I asked her.

  She turned to look at Kosmas. The hand he’d been holding the knife with was bloody and doing a pretty impressive job of ruining the white carpet.

  “I think the shock got him,” Nya said. “You went into the hallway, his eyes rolled up in his head and he passed out.”

  “We should chain him up in here,” I said. “His hostage is recovering in the living room and I don’t think it would be a good idea to walk him by her.”

  “Good call,” Nya said. “And after he’s chained up, you can help me search.”

  I ended up chaining Kosmas to the heavy metal bed frame in the room. He was still unconscious. I tucked his hand into the top of his pants so the blood would go on his pants instead of the carpet. I wasn’t sure why. I guess I just felt sorry for the townhome. It was shiny and new and it wasn’t its fault that the douchebag living in it was an incubus.

  Nya had finished tearing the room apart looking for the sword by the time I was done. She and I moved down the hallway and started looking in the next bedroom for the sword.

  “A three-bedroom, two-bathroom for an incubus,” I said, shaking my hea
d. “Nice work if you can get it.”

  “Yeah,” Nya grunted, moving a set of hand weights so she could open a closet door. “But the cost isn’t worth it.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, dropping to the ground to look under the bed.

  “Well Incubi have to consume to live, just like vamps,” Nya said. “And after consuming, they have to get rid of the...remains.”

  I looked at Nya. “I don’t like where this is headed.”

  “Oh you’re going to hate it,” Nya said. She gave up on the closet and moved to the dresser, looking at its size in doubtful annoyance. “So they have to partner with other supers- ghouls, wendigos, rakshasas, rougarous, etc. So, there’s that.”

  We moved down the hall to a door that led to the garage. We searched everything, starting with anywhere that seemed big enough to hide a sword and working our way to less probable and finally ridiculous hiding places that there would be no way of hiding a sword in. Nya was getting more annoyed as the searching continued.

  “Where the fuck does he keep it? Up his ass?” Nya asked, throwing a garbage bag of what felt like camping gear across the garage.

  “Well it’s one place we haven’t checked,” I said. There was a long, thin wooden box on a high shelf. I looked around. No ladder. “How did he get it up there?” I asked looking around.

  “Oh, I imagine he just sat on it…” Nya started.

  “Not talking about his ass. Talking about that,” I said, pointing at the box.

  “Oh, that would hold a sword,” Nya said. She did the same look around I did. “There’s no ladder.”

  I stuck my head back inside and yelled down the hall. “Noah, come give us a hand.”

  With Noah standing in a cradle I made with my hand, he was able to reach the shelf and pry open the lid on the box.

  “Oh my god, I’m going to puke,” Noah gasped. And I knew why. The smell of decomposing flesh had whooshed out of the box like an air freshener from hell.