Personal Demons: A Supernatural Action Adventure Opera (War Of The Angels Book 4)

by Michael Todd

  She cleared her throat once, and again louder, waking them up. Travers looked at the time. “That was fucking fast.”

  Katie shrugged. “Yeah, you know me. Always in a hurry. So tell me exactly what happened.”

  Travers sat up and rolled his shoulders, glancing at Schultz. “Well, Amir was pretty bad when they brought him in, but he got out most of the story. Basically, he was in the back when a demon came in. He thought it was one of those punk-ass kids, and then the demon beat the hell out of him and left him there for dead. It happened just like that robbery gang bullshit happened, only this time Amir almost died. He was barely able to press the emergency button.”

  Katie clicked her tongue and bounced her leg up and down. “Is his family still here?”

  Travers nodded, pointing down the hall. “There is a small waiting room right past the nurse’s station. His wife and kids are in there waiting for him to wake up. He was awake when he came in and tried to wait for us, but the pain was too much. The doctor gave him some strong painkillers and pretty much knocked him the hell out. He’s been sleeping for quite a while.”

  Katie stood up and took a deep breath. “Thanks, guys. I’m glad you called me. This shit has got to stop, and I need to figure out what the hell this demon wants from Amir and his family. I’ll take care of it, and I’ll let you know when it’s done. Until then, you should keep an eye on him. You don’t want anyone coming in here to finish him off.”

  The detectives nodded, and the nurses watched her walk by but didn’t say a word. She turned the corner into the waiting room, and his wife stood up quickly.

  “Oh, thank you for coming.”

  Amir’s children stood up too, holding onto their mother’s leg. The little boy looked up at Katie, wiping his eyes. “Did you find who did this to my daddy?”

  Katie glanced at the mother and then bent down, taking a knee with the kids. “Not yet, but I promise you that I will. I am really good at finding people, and this is really important to me.”

  The nurse poked her head around the corner and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but your husband is stirring.”

  Amir’s wife gasped and hurried out of the room and across the hall. Katie walked his children over to the seats and sat them down. “Your daddy is going to be okay. This isn’t the same as before, and I’m sure I will find this thing fast so you won’t have to ever worry about it again. Okay?”

  Both of the kids nodded. The little girl tapped Katie on the shoulder. “Is it true you have wings and you’re an angel?”

  Katie smiled, flashing the blue through her eyes. The kids gasped in excitement. Just then, Amir’s wife stuck her head around the corner. “If you would like to talk to him, now would be the time. They are going to give him more meds soon, but he is relatively lucid. I told him you were here and he asked me to send you in.”

  Katie nodded and winked at the kids, getting up and heading across the hall to Amir’s room. As she entered, she winced, watching the nurse pull the gauze back over one of his stitched gashes. His wife moved to his other side, but Katie waited until the nurse had left to move up by the bed. He slowly reached up and Katie took his hand, feeling him squeezing it tightly.

  Katie shook her head. “I’m so sorry this happened to you, Amir, and I’m sorry I wasn’t here. I was in France helping with the military. I came as soon as I got the call. Can you tell me who did this?”

  Amir swallowed and nodded. He started at a whisper and stopped, clearing his throat. “It was the demons again.”

  He grimaced and dropped Katie’s hand, and she patted his arm, nodding. “Rest now, Amir. I’m on it. I am going out right now to track this thing down. All you need to worry about is getting better.”

  She smiled kindly at Amir’s wife and left the room, walking slowly down the hall. Rage filled her, more rage than she had felt in a while. What in the hell was going on with the demons? She had to find that motherfucker, and when she did, she was going to tear him from limb to limb.

  Katie pushed open the front doors of the hospital and, without pause, took off. The cold didn’t bother her; she was too angry to notice. She flapped her wings with fervor, heading over to Amir’s section of town. She looked down at the city below as she flew, keeping her eyes peeled for every dark alley and every shady corner. There weren’t many people around in that neighborhood since it was so late at night. There were a few non-Damned chilling on one of the corners, but as soon as they caught sight of Katie flying by, they dispersed.

  She circled around and landed again on the building across the street from the bodega. Just like the last time she had been there, there was tape across the doors. This time, though, at least the door was in one piece, and there were no dead bodies. The cops had all gone for the night, and the front doors were chained. She took off again, flying around to land at the back door.

  Katie sighed, her mind quiet as she jimmied the lock on the door and opened the door. The lights were all off inside, and the security system hadn’t been reset. Amir hadn’t been in the best shape to do so when they took him this time around. She pushed through the boxes in the back and came out into the bodega. Her eyes shifted back and forth, making sure there was no sign of movement in the place.

  She headed back behind the counter where he had been attacked, looking at the bloodstains on the floor and counter. From what she could see, it was all his blood. Suddenly she grabbed her chest, standing up and summoning her sword. Her angel senses were tingling loudly, but they didn’t seem to be telling her there was any danger. She wasn’t sure what they were telling her, but she wasn’t going to take any chances.

  Katie eyed the doors, but they were still locked. She gripped her sword tightly in her hands and stepped back toward the kitchen, then paused, listening for any sign of movement. From the corner of her eye, she saw a wisp of light flit around. She turned her body toward it, holding her sword in front of her.

  She moved forward another step. “I know you’re here. Stop playing.”

  A figure stepped into the doorway of the kitchen and Katie let out a deep breath, putting her sword in its sheath. “I could have stabbed you, Gabriel.”

  He smiled. “It wouldn’t have hurt me.” Tilting his head to the side, he narrowed his eyes. “You are alone. Pandora isn’t inside you.”

  Katie rolled her shoulders and rubbed her neck. “No, she’s not. And I have to admit, it’s kind of satisfying seeing a look of surprise on your face. I thought you knew everything that went on.”

  Gabriel stepped toward her, his face going serious. “There was something else occupying my mind.”

  Katie blinked, waiting for him to speak. After several moments had passed and he said nothing, she shook her head and walked back over to where the blood was. She bent down, picking a small piece of demon scale out of the sticky mess.

  Glancing back over her shoulder, she groaned, dropping her shoulders. “Look, Gabriel. I appreciate what you’ve done in the past, really. But right now, I don’t have time for your riddles or your nonsense. I have enough on my plate right this minute that I will not be able to decipher your code. If you have something to say, please say it. Otherwise, the whole staring thing is getting creepy.”

  Gabriel smirked. “You don’t seem to be in the best of moods right now. I am used to you being the nice one.”

  Katie chuckled. “Maybe you just thought so because anyone would seem that way in contrast to Pandora. In all honesty, though, things are pretty crappy for the owner of this bodega. I am trying to help him and the cops by tracking down whatever sick demon did this to him.”

  Gabriel clasped his hands in front of him. “Amir will be all right. He has many years in front of him.”

  Katie snapped, “That is not the point. There is a demon out there that nearly killed him, and I have a feeling it did it on purpose.”

  Gabriel nodded. “I know that your anguish and anger are ripe, but you will figure it out. For now, though, I will cut to the point of why I am he
re. No new demons have come to Earth. At all. Not a single portal, not a single incursion, not a single movement from that dimension to our own.”

  Katie glanced at him. “That’s strange, but isn’t that a good thing? Maybe they are drawing back. Maybe we are winning the war.”

  Gabriel didn’t change his expression. “If I were you, I would not get too comfortable with them staying away from Earth. In any case, that is the current situation.”

  Katie nodded. “Well, I appreciate you keeping me in the loop. I’m sure that I would have figured that out eventually, but I guess it takes a momentary stress off of all of our backs. Though you are right, we should not become comfortable with the situation. Usually when they go quiet, they are planning something big.”

  Gabriel shook his head and followed her as she walked back into the store to look for clues. “Will you be okay without Pandora? I know that she is not only your partner but your healer.”

  Katie didn’t look up. “I’m fine.”

  Gabriel stopped. “And Pandora? How is she?”

  Katie let out a deep breath of frustration and turned to the angel. “She’s great, thanks. Any more questions?”

  The sun had lit the sky, but it had not yet come up over the trees. The grass was full of frost, and the air was thick and cold. Pandora stood there kicking the ice off the blades of grass, trying to get herself together. In reality, she was not fine, no matter what Katie assumed.

  She tilted her head back and took a deep breath, then let it out. She watched her breath float toward the sky and dissipate. The base was loud that day, too many people already at work. Pandora looked at Notre Dame and around her at the park to the right of it. There were trees lining the edges, and a lawn full of fresh green grass. In front of her were four Damned dressed in French military gear, standing at attention as they waited for instruction.

  Pandora’s eyes shifted over each one, none of them making eye contact with her. Not only were they too scared to, but so were their demons, having immediately sensed her presence. She might not be the Queen of the Damned anymore, or even a demon at all, but she was still feared by most. She liked that. It was something that normally got her going and lifted her spirits, but that morning, all she wanted to do was crawl back into bed.

  It had been a very long time since Pandora had been on her own, and it was the first time since she’d fallen from heaven that she stood in her own body by herself, without Katie anywhere nearby. She was used to her structure, to her voice, and to her direction. She was struggling to find herself with Katie all the way across the ocean.

  Juntto put his hands behind his back, marching back and forth in front of the soldiers. He was in full frost giant form and shook the ground with every step he took. He stopped in front of the line and put up his hand. “At ease. Stand silently and wait for instruction.”

  Everyone went at ease and Juntto turned, walking over to Pandora. He shrunk his legs and nudged her side. “They are waiting for you.”

  Pandora sneered. “Let them wait. I am thinking.”

  Juntto pursed his lips and grew taller again, and he resumed pacing in front of the troops. It only took a couple of steps in each direction, but in order to keep his patience, he took his time. Pandora cleared her throat and turned around, looking at them. “As Damned, you don’t stop until you are either dead or finished. That means that your stamina needs to be at its peak, both humanly and through what your demons will give you during battle. So, uh, let’s practice that with your demons right now. Everyone do six laps around the entire perimeter of the park. Go.”

  Pandora stood back and watched as each of the soldiers headed to the edge of the park. Juntto raised an eyebrow and meandered over to her, crossing his arms. She glanced up at him with a scowl. “What? What are you fucking staring at?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “First of all, calm down with the bitch mode. I am not one of your trainees. Secondly, you are supposed to be training them in fighting, not building enough stamina for them to be able to run the next marathon. In the field, their demons will give them stamina. They don’t need to run fourteen thousand miles a day. This isn’t the Marines, hiking all over the damn place.”

  Pandora let her shoulders drop, then turned to Juntto and groaned. “I know, I know. I freaked out, sorry. I just didn’t know what to say, so I sent them off. I couldn’t take them standing there and breathing on me anymore.”

  Juntto took a knee to get closer to her level. “What’s wrong with you?”

  Pandora put her hands up. “Fuck, I don’t know. I’m alone in my head. Always. It’s super-fucking-weird. I’m out here all wild like I’m floating in the wind.”

  Behind them, someone cleared their throat. Juntto stood up and Pandora turned around, finding the guy from the day before standing there in running shoes and shorts. “Hello. I am Javier. I came for training.”

  Pandora nodded. “Oh, yeah. Juntto, this is the kid we saved from being beaten up by a trio of complete idiots. Katie told him we would teach him how to fight.”

  The guy eyed Juntto, slightly afraid. “I would like to learn to fight.”

  Pandora glanced up at Juntto. “His English is pretty shaky.”

  Pandora turned back to the guy and took a deep breath. “You want to learn to fight? All right, fight the blue monster.”

  The guy dropped his bag and put up his hands, shaking his head. “S’il vous plait, je ne peux pas me batter. Il va me tuer d’un coup.”

  Juntto lifted an eyebrow. “What did he say?”

  Pandora smiled. “He said, ‘Please, I cannot fight. He will kill me in one punch.’”

  Juntto glanced at the guy, who was shaking. He took a knee and reached out, patting him on the shoulder. The guy flinched and then opened one eye, looking at the big frost giant. Juntto shook his head and talked slowly. “I would not harm you. You are not a warrior, not yet. We will fight when you get better.”

  The guy eyed him for a moment and then relaxed, looking at Pandora for guidance. Pandora sighed loudly and waved her hand at the group. “Go, catch up with them. Six laps around the park. You’re already behind, so you better move your ass and lap them at least once.”

  The guy nodded wildly and sprinted off. Juntto shook his head and stared at Pandora. “Get yourself together, woman.”

  Pandora scoffed. “You get yourself together, you Papa Smurf-looking motherfucker!”

  21

  Korbin pulled up in front of the building where his office was located and leaned back in the seat, letting out a deep breath. It had been a long day, but it still wasn’t over. He took off his sunglasses and tossed them onto the dash. Opening the car door, he glanced at a Jeep parked in the small lot. Strange, considering he was the only one with an office in the building.

  He shrugged and headed in, figuring it was maintenance or something. He flung open the doors and went down the hall, pausing to listen for a moment, swearing he had heard a voice. When no other sounds came, he continued down to his office door. He whistled, opening his office and walking in. As he looked up, his eyes narrowed and he stopped in his tracks.

  In front of him, half on his desk, were Pandora and the guy Katie had saved the other night. Their lips were locked, and his hand was groping her boob. Korbin cleared his throat loudly, and Pandora opened one eye, smiling. The guy tilted his head curiously at her and slowly turned, his hand still firmly on her breast. His eyes went wide and he immediately let go, putting his hands up like he was being arrested.

  Panic surged through the guy, his eyes flashing red. He grabbed his jacket, mumbling loudly, “Je suis vraiment desole. S’il vous plait, je partirai tout de suite.”

  Korbin put his hand up angrily before the guy could leave. He looked him straight in the eyes. “Can you understand English?”

  The guy nodded. Korbin sniffed. “Good. No fun sexy time with the instructors, especially not that one. Got it?”

  The guy nodded. Korbin waved his hand. “Get out of here. You have training early in
the morning.”

  The Damned let out a sigh of relief, pulling on his uniform jacket. “Merci beaucoup. Oui, monsieur. Je serai la.”

  He ran out of the room, closing the door behind him. Slowly Korbin turned back to Pandora, putting his hands on his hips. Pandora cleared her throat and popped her jacket back on her shoulders. “What? Oh. Did you think he and I were… Oh, ho, ho. No. He has a medical background. I felt something weird, and he was just checking it out.”

  Korbin pursed his lips. “That’s strange. I’ve been to quite a few doctors in my life, and never has one used his tongue to inspect my throat.”

  Pandora laughed nervously and shrugged. “Okay, you caught me. Sheesh. What is the big deal, anyway? We just wanted some privacy.”

  Korbin pointed toward the apartment complex out the window. “You have a room, and from what I remember it’s a pretty good one, and it is currently empty.”

  Pandora sighed. “Okay, but we wanted some public privacy. Don’t blame me. He’s French.”

  Korbin shook his head, tossing his jacket on the chair. “Look, I know you are going through something right now. I know you are missing Katie big time, but you need to be careful.”

  Pandora chuckled. “I appreciate the concern, but beings like me, the ones who live forever, don’t really have to worry about STDs.”

  Korbin rolled his eyes. “That is not what I am referring to. You can’t start fooling around with these trainees. You have to work them. They need to be concentrating on kicking demon ass, not getting demon ass. You are going to screw yourself, and you are going to get one of them killed because they aren’t going to be prepared. Haven’t you ever heard the saying, ‘Don’t shit where you eat?’”

  Pandora wrinkled her nose. “Uh… One, that’s fucking gross, dude. Two, you do know that Katie’s banging Brock, right? Everyone knows about that at this point.”