For Whom The Bell Tolls

by Michael Todd

  “But I have something even better. On break from their tour and performing tonight with our house band is The Straights’ very own…Brock Rutherford!”

  The crowd cheered as Brock walked into the spotlight with his hands in the air. Immediately the band started playing, rolling right into their first song. Brock was surprised by how easily it came, even though he was in vacation mode. Even his demon was quiet at first, which never happened these days.

  “Take it to the brink...” he sang, the crowd singing along with him. “Show ‘em who comes first. Take it to the brink...”

  Take it to my thang... the demon sang in his head. Give it to me all night long. Take it to my thang...

  Good lord, that’s terrible. Brock grumbled.

  He kept a smile on his face and his lyrics straight, determined not to show how difficult it was to perform with a demon singing different lyrics in his head. The song ended and the crowd cheered, which didn’t drown out the sound of his succubus cackling. He launched right into the next one, a slower ballad. The one all the ladies loved.

  “Beautiful girl...” he sang. “Like roses in the springtime, my love for you will never fade away.”

  Beautiful boy... the succubus repeated. Like the crevasse of your abdomen, my tongue will never fade. Beautiful boy...

  That’s really getting annoying.

  Look at all those boys! They are just dying to get a piece of me.

  I really doubt that. Most of these guys only want to get close to me to get close to the girls.

  What about that hot piece of meat right there in the front? I’d get him naked so fast he wouldn’t even know what hit him.

  Brock sang louder, scanning the front row to find the target his demon had homed in on. He grimaced, shaking his head for a moment but then stopping himself.

  He needed to figure out how to control this bitch, because shit had just gone too far.

  Oh my God, you are talking about Eric Schism! That guy barely made it out of high school.

  Like I care? His package is huge! His brain could be the size of my pinky for all I care, as long as he can get it up.

  That’s fucking disgusting.

  No, what was disgusting was that brunette you banged back in St. Louis—the one with the weird obsession with My Little Pony. This guy has all the qualifications to roll right into my panties. Perfect muscular chest, arms the size of your head, and holy shit he has the V.

  What the hell is “the V?”

  Those muscles, you know? The ones that run down his abdomen like an arrow right to the good stuff. You just put your mouth there and follow the yellow brick road.

  The song ended and he shivered, feeling almost nauseous thinking about Eric’s V—or anything else that had to do with a naked Eric.

  Are all chicks like this, or just you? Because you are like a hyper-driven sexual predator.

  Shit, get girls alone with a bottle or six of wine and you will hear things that will make you want to wash your brain. The dick might not be so pretty, but everything leading up to it is. And no one gives a shit if it’s pretty as long as it goes in and does the job.

  I thought size really didn’t matter?

  Bullshit! Girls only say that when their man has a small one so they don’t feel so bad. Given the choice, poof—nine inches of sexual prowess at your door.

  Not at my fucking door.

  You will come around. I promise.”

  Brock shook it off, finishing the song and taking a break. At the bar he ordered a shot of Jameson and a beer, throwing back the shot and taking a gulp of the beer.

  That’s right, get wasted. So much easier to control you when you’re blacked-out drunk.

  Brock turned and spat out the beer, almost spraying a group of fans behind him. They giggled as he slammed the beer on the bar and took a deep breath before he reached for their pens to sign whatever they had, including the shirts on their bodies. He tried to smile, but the irritation was building inside him.

  He couldn’t even have a drink at his own damn show without this bitch trying to ruin it for him. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he had to give her something to shut her up.

  He finished signing autographs and walked over to Eric, who was leaning against the stage and typing on his phone. Brock took a deep breath and plastered a smile on his face.

  “Eric, man, it’s good to see you. It’s been forever!”

  Eric’s eyebrows shot up. “Hey, I didn’t think you would remember me.”

  Oh shit, oh shit! Shake his hand. Let me feel it.

  Brock gritted his teeth and held out a hand for a firm shake, patting the back of Eric’s hand with the other. He had to admit, with the succubus controlling his every move and half his libido, Eric wasn’t that bad looking a guy.

  He pulled his hand back and shoved it in his pocket, immediately regretting the thought.

  Brock kept the smile going. “What have you been up to?”

  “I own a mechanic shop on the east side of town. You know, next to Greene’s Grocery?”

  “Oh, nice! I’ll have to let my ma know so when she gets work done she’ll come see you.”

  “She actually already does. She’s a real nice lady. Brings me cookies and stuff when she comes in.”

  “Ha, sounds like my mom.”

  Make plans with him, his succubus hissed. Do it. Do it and I’ll shut up for the rest of the night.

  And you won’t fuck with me when I get drunk?

  She didn’t hesitate. Deal.

  Brock took a deep breath and looked at the stage. “I gotta get back onstage, but why don’t we catch up? We could grab some wings and beers from Farley’s or something.”

  Eric grinned and nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, man! When’s good?”

  “Uh, how about Friday?”

  “Cool. Just come on over to the shop. We close at six on Fridays.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Brock nodded and headed back to the stage, where he picked up his guitar.

  Not a peep from his succubus. He had finally won one fucking moment of quiet.

  It was going to be a long existence if he had to keep bribing her like that, but all he cared about was getting through the night.

  The chopper landed just outside the cordoned-off building in a cement courtyard of sorts. The place looked rundown, but it still had electricity so it wasn’t abandoned. Katie, Calvin, Eric, and Stephanie waited for the helicopter blades to slow, then piled out and headed over to the group of cops gathered behind two large barriers.

  The captain looked up, elbowing his sergeant as the four approached.

  “Looks like the D squad is here.”

  The sergeant sighed. “Finally! I was starting to think blowing the place was an option.”

  Katie walked up first, hand out. “Captain, we are here from—”

  “We know, the D squad,” he replied, shaking her hand.

  Katie chuckled and introduced the others. “Yeah, the D squad. I’m Katie, this is Calvin, Eric, and Stephanie. How many men have you got inside the building?”

  “Inside?” He shook his head. “None. We can’t even get a foot through the door without some crazed red-eyed freak running us off.”

  “All right, that’s probably for the best.” Katie looked down at the map in front of the captain. “What do we know?”

  “Well, here on the first floor we got about ten terrorists holding upward of fifteen hostages, and then up here on the eighth floor, ten more terrorists with about the same number of hostages. We tried to talk to them, but there is nothing but growling and some language I don’t understand.”

  Calvin shook his head. “Demons. Can’t communicate worth shit.”

  The captain raised an eyebrow, but he had heard the stories. He knew the precinct hadn’t been told the whole truth about some of the crazy crime going on in Vegas, but he hadn’t thought he would ever be called to a scene where there were actual demons.

  He was getting too old for this shit,
and had seen too much to start adding creatures from another plane to his list.

  “We will back you,” the captain told Katie. “Just tell us how many men to send in with you.”

  “None.” Katie looked down to make sure her pistols were loaded.

  “None? There are twenty or more terrorists in there with gleaming red eyes.”

  “I know. And four badass Damned right here, ready to rip their throats out.” Katie smiled and patted the captain on the shoulder. “Is this your first demon experience?”

  He pursed his lips. “If we don’t count my two ex-wives, yes.”

  Katie provided the appropriate laugh to release his anxiety. “It’s all right. Just keep your men surrounding the building. Anyone who’s not a hostage or anyone with red eyes who isn’t one of us gets a bullet straight to the head. No playing around. You don’t want any of these bastards ending up out in the streets. They may look kind of like people, but I promise you they aren’t. Not anymore. The person they were is gone. It’s just a demon wearing their skin. There are two types of infected: those who control their demon and those who are controlled and used for their bodies. These are the controlled.”

  Katie went to leave but stopped and looked at the captain.

  “And don’t be surprised if you kill one and they turn to dust.”

  “Dust?” The captain sighed and nodded, getting on his walkie-talkie. “All forces, stand down. Do not fire unless told to. Surround the building. We have a specialty force of...four going in to handle this. Over.”

  “I’m sorry, Captain, it sounded like you said four? Over.”

  “I did. They’re from the D squad.”

  Katie pulled Calvin, Eric, and Stephanie into a huddle. Calvin rubbed his hands together and looked up at the building, obviously ready for some action. The whole crew had just stood by while Katie and Damian had taken on the demons in the hotel, but this time they got to stretch their legs a bit. Katie was always on the line those days, and she could only imagine the frustration of sitting on the sidelines waiting for her turn to kick some ass.

  After all, it was their entire purpose in life. It wasn’t like there was much else to do.

  “What we got?”

  Katie nodded. “We got twenty demons split between the first and eighth floor. We got twenty or more hostages as well. We don’t know if anyone is injured or dead at this point. Calvin, you, Eric, and Stephanie take the first floor, and I’ll take the eighth.”

  “By yourself?”

  Katie just gave him a look and smirked. “You guys got the right ammo?”

  Stephanie and Eric nodded and Calvin double-checked his weapons. Katie looked up at the building, scanning from the first floor up to the eighth. She wondered what she would be facing up there. Lower-level? Huge? T’Chezz, even? After the last few days, she was ready for just about anything.

  Katie put her hand to her mouth and coughed to clear her throat, then rubbed her hand across her chest. She felt a burning sensation like acid reflux, but she’d never had that issue before and she hadn’t eaten anything for hours. Calvin eyed her suspiciously as he holstered his weapons, then put his hand on her shoulder.

  “You all right?”

  Katie waved him off. “Yeah, it’s just... You know what? It’s nothing. Let’s kick some ass.”

  “You need some back… No, wait—I know the answer to this one. You carry your backup.”

  Pandora’s voice echoed from Katie’s throat. “Damn right she does.”

  The captain jumped slightly, eyeing Katie fearfully. Calvin laughed and shrugged.

  Katie headed toward the building with the strange feeling in her chest at the front of her mind. What the hell was that?

  You felt the demons, Pandora answered.

  What?

  That burning—that was you feeling out the demons. It was light, like heartburn, meaning there’s nothing too daunting up there. Figured I would let you feel it before you asked about what you were facing.

  Well, isn’t that nifty? You ready to kick some ass?

  Always.

  8

  The team entered into the side stairwell and faced the first-floor doors. Katie paused on the first step and looked back at them, feeling that burning sensation again.

  “They’re low-level, but there are a lot of them. Keep your eyes open and don’t walk into anything blindly.”

  All three nodded and pulled their weapons. Stephanie stepped to the door and took the handle, looking up at Katie. Katie made her way up the stairs two at a time, getting to the eighth floor a lot faster than she had expected.

  She paused to listen to the gunfire below, hoping they all left in one piece, then put her hand on the door and closed her eyes to sense the energy in the hallway. She flung the door open and pulled both pistols, keeping her right one raised as she cleared each room.

  She knew they were in there somewhere, but she could only assume they had sensed Pandora and moved back for a major attack.

  At the end of the hall were two double doors with an old sign posted above that read, The Hancock Ballroom. The room would be large, but in an old building like this there wouldn’t be many hiding places.

  Carefully she grabbed the handle, twisting it until it clicked, and kicked the door open, holding both pistols in the air.

  There were ten hostages bound together in the center of the room. They made noises through their gags and their eyes darted all over the place. A balding man in the front stared at her with sweat running down his forehead. Suddenly his eyes flashed behind her. She turned as a demon jumped from its perch above the doorway and pulled the trigger on her Glock, hammering four rounds straight into his chest.

  The demon screamed in a high pitch as the special metal of her bullets incapacitated him. She walked up and pointed the gun at his head; his eyes were glowing red and there was blood trickling from his mouth. She smiled and pulled the trigger again, and the demon was dust before the blood splatter from the shot hit the old wooden doors behind him.

  Immediately other demons began to attack from all sides. Katie spun, unloading the last ten bullets in her gun as she turned. She holstered her empty weapon and tossed the one in her left hand to her right. She counted the piles of dust; she’d only killed three so far.

  That meant there were still seven lurking in the shadows.

  She carefully stepped forward and her boot crunched on a broken shard of glass. Behind her, she could hear the rapid breathing of another demon.

  She spun around with a twist of her hips to shove the demon back, then shot him three times in the chest. The fourth bullet shattered his skull. The burning sensation in her chest raged as the fifth and sixth demons ran toward her slashing their claws. She unloaded the rest of the clip in their direction, mostly hitting the demons’ legs and arms. She holstered her gun and cracked her knuckles as they writhed in pain on the floor, the metal poisoning their senses.

  “I gotta work on my aim,” she joked, pulling her staff from her back.

  She twisted it apart and lowered the two halves to her sides, snapping the blades out. She smiled and walked slowly toward the injured demons, who were snapping their sharp teeth and scoring the floor with their claws. She whirled, raised both halves of her staff into the air, and slammed them into the demon’s skulls. A loud hiss echoed through the room as they turned to dust.

  She straightened up when she heard the tapping of claws behind her. The last four demons snarled at her as they came forward together, watching her closely as she turned with both staffs gripped firmly in her hands.

  “There you are. I wondered when you were going to show up.”

  The largest of the demons, who was small compared to others she had faced, stepped forward. He barely had any recognizable human attributes. His black body was covered in scales, and his eyes shone brightly in the dim room.

  Katie yawned and looked at the hostages. Several of them had passed out from sheer terror.

  Use the kata I showed you.

/>   “My demon—you know, the one you can sense?—has given me a heads-up. You don’t know karate, but guess what?” Katie tapped the blade of her staff on the floor. “I do!”

  She put herself in a defensive stance, raising both halves of her staff to her sides. She stepped forward and screamed as she sliced the poles through the air. She moved back and forth, putting on a show, swinging a staff and stopping an inch from the demon’s head. She smirked at him for a moment.

  The demon’s red eyes glowed fearlessly back at her and he growled, swiping out at her as she did a backflip and landed solidly on her feet. She positioned one staff in front and one in back, then crouched.

  The demon hissed and the others came running. They surrounded her, taking their moment in the sun to attack. She kicked forward, sending one tripping into another before jumping up and landing on its chest. She raised her poles and struck downward, finding his skull. He screamed his agony and turned to dust beneath her feet.

  Another demon had run up from behind and now jumped Katie as she was finishing the other two, sinking his claw into her shoulder.

  Katie straightened and flung her arms back, yelling her pain. The demon fell to the floor, but was only down for a second before he scrambled back to his feet and lunged for her chest with his sharp fangs.

  Katie growled and her eyes glowed brightly as she swung her staff to connect with his head in mid-air. He fell to the ground, taking the staff with him, and writhed for a moment before turning to dust. Before Katie could retrieve her staff the next demon was on her, trying for the same shoulder.

  She whirled and brought her leg into the air to kick the demon in the neck. She threw down her other staff and jumped onto the demon’s shoulders, then pushed her fingers into his red eyes. He screamed and thrashed wildly as the blood squirted from his eye sockets and she took her hands away, then grabbed his head and twisted to break his neck. The resulting dust fell almost unnoticed to the floor as she turned her attention to the last of the demons.

  The largest one was sprinting for the window. She shook her head as she walked toward him, pausing only to pick up one of her half-staffs “Hey!”