The City of Monsters

by Matthew McCollum

  He had enlarged canines and jaw muscles that reminded Kelly uncomfortably of the biters they had just cleared out. But his were less noticeable, and probably more useful in the long run. The screamers had massive horse-teeth that crowded their mouths and looked useless for anything but biting.

  It was the claws that made her sweat, though. Six inches long and the highest quality steel, bonded straight to his enhanced finger bones. Kelly had seen claws like those disembowel friends of hers without much difficulty, and she had no doubt this man had done so more than once.

  Her boss wasn't just any lupe, he was an ex-Rahu, a warrior wolf. His kind had hunted vampires like Kelly for a long, long time, tracking them by the smell of blood and cold flesh.

  Kelly was hardly innocent either, of course. She was an ex-Belian and had killed her fair share of lupes and canes and whatnot. She even managed to take out an angel by herself once. A full-born daybreaker, not some crazy kid who took the glow on a whim. And that wasn't even getting into what she had done at Shendilavri.

  They all had sins. But they were with Necessarius now. Nothing they did before they joined mattered, and nothing anyone else did before they joined mattered either. Set aside your differences and fight for the common good. Because it was necessary.

  “You worked with the girl, the black-haired one?”

  “There were two black-haired ones, sir,” Kelly said. “The girl with the sword went inside with the blonde and the man.”

  “But the one who stayed outside, you followed her orders?”

  Kelly shrugged. “She gave good orders. And she sure as blood was doing a better job of it than I was.”

  “Hm.” He didn't say anything else, just tapped through his pad. It was made specifically to withstand his claws.

  “It says here they caught one alive. That correct?”

  “Yes, a small female. The little blonde trapped her in some sort of rock handcuffs.”

  “Interesting. You actually saw her use this power?”

  “Yes, sir. She did it right in front of me, pulled up big chunks of asphalt like it was clay.”

  He finally put the tablet down. “Describe her to me.”

  “Uh... short, blonde hair cosmo... Asian... looked pretty athletic.”

  “Full description, please. Spare nothing.”

  Kelly sighed. “Fine. Just an inch over five feet. Well-toned, definitely plays sports. Probably soccer, judging by her kicks. She was wearing a good, strong deodorant, but she was sweating less than you'd expect in that situation.” Kelly's nose was enhanced just as much as any kemo's, so the scent was an important part of any person's description. “She wasn't as anxious or worried as I would have thought. She has problems with authority. She didn't like us, and she questioned her boss's orders every which way.”

  He nodded for her to continue.

  “The boss was blond—natural, I think—and blue eyes. Strong jaw, wiry muscles. Looks like a monster slayer, but moves like a soldier. He has the voice of command; he gave me an order and I obeyed. He's protective, especially of the girls he came with, but of everyone else too. He smelled afraid, but he didn't hesitate. He trusts himself, and he trusts his girls. At least the one with the sword and the one he left with us.”

  “Start with the girl with the sword,” her captain said.

  “About average height. Maybe a little shorter, but she looked taller compared to soccer-girl. She had a katana, and she knew how to use it. Black hair is decorated with beads and a few other things I didn't understand, and she had it in a ponytail to keep it out of her face. Despite that, she's a soldier. She smelled like death, and she followed orders without question.

  “The other one is a strategist. Face like a knife. Heart like a knife, too. She was ready to make hard decisions, though she didn't really need to since the mission stayed simple. She coordinated us well and anticipated the enemy easily. Maybe that doesn't sound impressive when you're dealing with zombies, but they were unpredictable. And she... predicted them.”

  Kelly paused for a moment.

  “What did she smell like?” her captain said.

  She shrugged. “Lilacs. Real ones, I think. Or a really good perfume. She wasn't really sweating. I feel like it wasn't her first command. She probably just plays too many video games.”

  “Excellent work, corporal. There may be a promotion in this for you.”

  She frowned. “Sir?”

  “The Big Boss wanted to field test his new toy,” he said. “And you were quite helpful.”

  She felt her heart drop out of her chest. “Sir, if he released those screamers—”

  Her captain chuckled. It sounded like gargling gravel. “Not the screamers, girl. The Paladins.” He gave her a toothy grin. “He wanted to test the Paladins against the screamers, and to see how they'd work with Necessarians in the field.” He nodded sagely. “I'd say you did a great job.”

  Kelly swallowed. “Thank... you, sir. I think.”

  “Of course,” he said, idly scratching his chin, “the fact that most of your direct superiors were killed doesn't hurt your chances either.”

  She immediately felt better. These were circumstances she understood. “They did their best, sir, but we were all caught by surprise.”

  “Of course, of course.” He made a note on his pad. “Well, promotion or not, you'll need to pick your team.”

  Kelly blinked. “Sir?”

  “You're going to be attached to the Paladins,” he said in the most infuriatingly off-hand way possible. “If nothing else, provide transportation.”

  She nearly jumped out of her seat. “But, sir, I—”

  He waved his hand. “You're dismissed. I want those squad assignments before you leave today. Five slots, including you.”

  She recognized she wouldn't make any more headway, so she nodded and left his office without a word.

  Alex Gabriel stood leaning against the wall. He smiled at her. “Problems with the old wolf?”

  “He can hear you,” she grumbled. She stomped off, and Alex followed.

  He was definitely going to be on this team she had to assemble, no question. In addition to being a close friend, his talents were invaluable.

  Of course, she used the male pronoun for the sake of convenience. As a full-born daybreaker, Alex was completely asexual. He was tall, thin, and completely hairless, covered in dimly glowing tattoos in strange, circular patterns, largely revealed by the white t-shirt he wore. Most of them terminated on his hands, where he had leather gloves with small, high-quality magnifying glasses in the palms. When he concentrated, he could focus the glow from the sunspots on his palms to devastating effect—especially against vampires. At his sides were matching long knives made out of mirrored steel.

  “I need a team,” Kelly said bluntly once they were out of earshot.

  “On the books?”

  “I have no idea,” she said. “But it's sanctioned. We're the Paladins' retinue.”

  “Cool,” he said happily. Even his voice was asexual, being both husky and soft at the same time. “Want me to assemble the old team?”

  “No. We need ranged attackers. We're going to go against those screaming zombies, and I don't want to get within reach.”

  He nodded in agreement. “I'll start with Nevin.”

  “Nevin died a couple days ago. Sliced to ribbons by something with claws.” Kelly shrugged. “Probably a monster, but maybe a kemo.”

  Alex winced. “Ooh. He was the best. Well, there are some alternatives. How many we need?”

  “Five total. Think you can make that happen?”

  He paused, thinking. “Yeah, I can. When do we need to be ready?”

  “The old wolf wants the list by noon. I want to be ready for a quick training run in an hour. Need to know we can work together.”

  He grinned, revealing perfect teeth. “Consider it done, boss.”

  Kelly sighed. It was necessary.

  Chapter 15: SICARIOS

  SIMON

  Simon L
ancaster was a sibriex, a type of demon. Well, technically, anyway. The fact that his skills with the toy maker were essentially nonexistent made it difficult to advance in the flesh-warpers. He got some nice horns and a decent job for his membership, but very little else.

  His twin sister, Seena, sat next to him, fidgeting in her seat. She had a black skin cosmo—completely black, like a pool of ink. Combined with her naturally black hair, she would have been nearly invisible in the dark. Thankfully the auditorium where they were having class was well-lit, at least for the moment.

  By comparison, Simon was... gaudy. Yes, that was a neutral term. He had mottled purple skin and green hair. Both very strange colors for most demons, but as a sibriex, it was downright bland. Nine Hells, his horns weren't even a weird shape, just sharp little nubs sprouting out of his forehead.

  Seena kept adjusting the daygoggles covering her eyes nervously, so Simon elbowed her gently in the gut. “Stop fidgeting,” he whispered.

  “I can't help it,” she whispered back. “They itch.”

  Simon sighed and gave up. She was always like this. When they were younger, she had been forced to get a pretty pricey buff to remove her acne, since she would not stop scratching, to the point that her face had been covered in scars.

  It was nine in the morning, the first Monday of the school year. Normally, it would be a fun environment, as people were still enjoying meeting new people and seeing old friends.

  But instead, the mood was tense and hushed. The lecture hall was divided into clumps of students, seated as close to their friends and as far from strangers as possible. Even the maintenance man installing speakers in the corner seemed subdued. Everyone was whispering, glancing around as if there was a bomb threat hanging over their heads.

  There had been a screamer attack on Saturday.

  Details were sparse, but there were nearly two hundred causalities. Worse yet, it had happened just outside the Springfield Wall. If the Paladins hadn't gotten there in time, everyone in the school could have been killed.

  But then, the Paladins had come. A small group had managed to annihilate an entire horde.

  There were worse things coming, everyone knew that. But at least they had some sort of defense. Simon didn't know about everyone else, but it definitely made him feel better.

  “This seat taken?”

  Simon glanced up to see Derek grinning at him, hand on the seat next to him.

  He blinked. “Derek?” Simon grinned. “You're still alive? I thought some gargant would have eaten you by now.” He waved his hand at the seat. “It's free, go right ahead.”

  Derek put his bag under the seat and sat down, Akane sliding into place next to him. “Where's David?”

  “Dead,” Simon said, glancing at Seena. She was wide-eyed and a little pale in the face, but that wasn't surprising when Derek was around. “Shootout with some vampires. Not sure what he did to piss them off.”

  Derek winced. “Ooh. Tough luck.”

  “Don't you guys have a job or something at night?” Simon asked.

  Simon saw something in his eyes, a brief look of worry and guilt. It surprised him, but before he could figure out what it was, it had disappeared again. “Oh, right, the monster slaying. Thought you meant something else.” Derek shrugged. “We decided to try and get some sane hours. Wake up at normal times, do work between classes.”

  Simon grinned. “No more midnight strolls through Dying Jade territory, huh, Akane?” He patted her on the knee.

  Suddenly she had his hand in an iron grip, with a knife poised to strike. He hadn't even seen her move.

  “Sorry,” she whispered after a moment. She let him go, blushing.

  Simon frowned as he rubbed his hand. Was she still like that around him? He thought she had gotten over that when she rescued him from the Queen of Dying Jade's hounds.

  It was probably the touch that did it. It probably reminded her of their disastrous date. Simon could understand why that, at least, would make her... twitchy around him.

  Derek coughed lightly. “So, ah, Seena... when did you get the nighteyes?”

  She blushed, but when she spoke her voice was strong. “A few days ago. I joined the Mals. Was recruited by Abigor himself, actually.”

  Akane frowned. “Baal's general?”

  Seena shook her head. “Not anymore. A Night-caste angel assassinated Baal about a week ago. Now Abigor, Bileth, and Zepar are in charge.”

  “I'm going to be honest, those names mean little to me,” Derek said. “But I met Baal once. He was...” He searched for the right words. “Not charismatic. Present.”

  Simon nodded. That was a good way to describe the Duke of Maladomini. Simon had met him three years ago, but he still remembered the crushing weight of his presence. It had been like an ant before an elephant. Simon had assumed he hadn't noticed him, but apparently, he had made an impression, since one of the first things his generals did once he died was send an invitation to both himself and his sister to join. Obviously, Simon had declined.

  “It's always been a relatively small subculture,” Derek said. “You think it can survive without him?”

  Seena shrugged. “That's why they recruited people like me. They need fresh blood. Anyone, young, strong, and willing to learn will do.”

  “First assignment?” Akane asked, just above a whisper.

  “It's not like that,” Seena said. “I'm teaching the kids, not running around killing people.” She rolled her eyes—Simon could tell even with the goggles. “I've done plenty of missions over the years, but none of them count as far as they're concerned.”

  “Well,” Simon said. “You have to admit they're pretty different skillsets...”

  “Find the target, remove it. What's the difference?”

  “There's are a number of important difference between slaying a dangerous monster and assassinating an individual,” Derek said. There was a fire in his eyes Simon didn't want to test. “I hope you understand that.”

  Seena looked like she had been slapped. “I... yes. Of course.”

  Derek pulled his laptop out from his bag, still beneath his feet. “And I hope you understand the implications of a subculture founded by the Lord of Murder.”

  Seena swallowed. “Ah... I know what Mals do...”

  “Then hopefully Baal's generals will be as wise in choosing their targets as he was,” Derek said in a tone of finality. He turned his attention to the laptop. The conversation was clearly over.

  However, Seena looked like she wanted to cry. Simon had never been good at consoling her, but luckily Akane's antipathy to him didn't extend to his sister. She jumped over the seats to the row behind them, walked over to Seena, slipped into the seat next to her, and started whispering something Simon couldn't hear.

  He turned to ask what Derek thought about all this—he wasn't the type to intentionally hurt anyone's feelings—but was shocked to silence.

  Derek was on Fundie, browsing the internet. Nothing strange about that. However, of the dozen or so windows and tabs he had open, every single one of them related directly to the three Mal generals. For a normal person, there wouldn't be anything odd about that, either. You hear your friend has joined a culture, you want to learn more about it.

  But Simon knew for a fact that this was how Derek researched his targets when he got a new monster job.

  Simon found himself desperately hoping that the warlords of Maladomini knew what they were doing.

  Chapter 16: PERICLUM

  ADAM

  It was Monday night, Adam's last class of the day. By a bit of luck, he had one with Derek. And Akane, as he had half expected. Adam had chosen a seat next to Derek, while Akane sat directly behind. He had a feeling they always sat like that.

  The last few days had been a blur for Adam. No new screamers, but MC had contacted him and sent him to a Necessarian shooting range. He spent pretty much every spare minute there. Natural talent or not, he didn't have enough experience with guns. He hadn't had a chance to exchange
more than a few words with Lily, but when he had seen her briefly, she seemed to understand. Derek had also promised to try to teach him real combat techniques, but he was a bit skeptical about that. Somehow he doubted that hunting rats would have any relevance to fighting zombies.

  As expected, classes were mind-numbingly boring. They probably wouldn't have been interesting in the first place, but compared to guns and zombies, Adam was fighting to keep his eyes open. Although too much time at the shooting range probably didn't help.

  All day, people were discussing the screamers. Everyone had seen Butler's announcement, and Adam was surprised how many people believed it. Nearly everyone, really. Those who disagreed were treated with the same amount of scorn as conspiracy theorists.

  The general mood seemed to be apprehensive, but patient. In every class, the students agreed that they'd get more information in time. It was interesting to watch. Adam had never really seen a population react to a crisis first-hand. His parents had always been quick to whisk him away when things went south. Half-remembered lectures from his high school sociology class came floating back to him, making it more interesting than he would have thought.

  But the current class, a history GE, didn't even offer that reprieve. The teacher, a surly old dog—what were they called? Canes?—had made it clear from the beginning that he wouldn't allow off-topic discussion.

  On the other, hand, Adam finally got to meet Lizzy, Laura's roommate.

  She was tall and easy to approach. She had a guileless smile that invited friendship, as well as bewitching golden eyes and long brown hair that framed her face. It was easy to tell why Derek was smitten.

  And he was smitten. That much was obvious. He couldn't seem to take his eyes off her for more than ten seconds. For her part, Elizabeth answered his questions warmly, but she didn't seem as interested in him. Akane pointedly ignored their interactions.

  Adam was just giving up on taking notes and about to start browsing the internet when all three of them—Derek, Akane, and Lizzy—sat up in their seats and started looking around. Adam didn't hear anything, and it didn't look like anyone else in the class did either. The professor was still droning on without a care in the world.