Agent Dark- Vegas

by Lane Mason

  “Oh shit,” Vesper said as they watched more bodies pile out of the vans and the car across the street.

  Kat agreed with Vesper’s succinct description of the situation. Oh shit indeed. “Stick to the plan. Don’t let anything get behind Dante and I. Our job is to protect Chuck.” Kat then stepped out of the room and headed towards the vans. She counted three ogres carrying an assortment of oversized weapons, at least three mages or sorcerers, and the air was now thick with the smell of demons, not to mention the handful of gun-carrying humans.

  One of the mages stepped towards Kat. “Hand over the traitor and no one needs to get hurt.”

  Kat eyed the mage. “If you all put your weapons down and walk away, we won’t arrest you. Best offer you’re going to get.” While they talked, the rest of the attackers spread out. The ogres were in the middle with the other mages behind them, and the humans were slightly farther behind them on the sides to provide cover fire. Kat still hadn’t seen the demons, but she knew the smell well enough to know they were there. It was a smell she hadn’t encountered yet, so whatever was out there wasn’t one of the type of demons that she’d already encountered. Kat wasn’t positive, but she suspected that wasn’t a good thing.

  The mage smirked. “I’ve always wanted to kill a draia. Imagine my surprise when the rumors started that the MBI had recruited one. I’m going to savor killing you. And I have friends who’re going to love experimenting with your blood.”

  One of the doors behind her opened. “If you want to kill the mouthy mage, I’ll take care of the other two,” Daemon said.

  From the roof of the hotel came another voice. “I’ll take anything in the air.”

  Kat wondered where Dante had gone, and now she had her answer. The only question remaining was what was he expecting to attack from the air? She didn’t have to wait long as a pack of winged creatures flew into sight. The demons had arrived. She then watched Dante in his gargoyle form fly overhead to meet them.

  “Kill her,” the mouthy mage said.

  The ogres started rushing towards her.

  “Don’t you know not to bring swords to a gun fight?” Kat pulled her guns and started firing at the ogres. They were huge targets and impossible to miss, but her bullets bounced off the ogres the same way bullets bounced off her. Realizing her weapons were going to be useless against the ogres, Kat immediately regretted her taunt. It seemed it was going to be a sword fight and bringing guns was the mistake. Her wards would protect her from the bullets of the humans in the background, but would do nothing against physical weapons like the big-ass swords and mauls the ogres were carrying.

  From behind her came flashes of magic, and balls of purple magic zinged over her head towards the mages. But one of the mages put up shields while the other fired his own. The mouthy mage, as Daemon had labelled him, was focused on Kat, and he fired blasts of magic at her between the ogres rushing at her.

  The sounds of gunfire filled the air as the human attackers targeted the hotel. Behind her came the sounds of more gunfire as Jeffery and Terra entered the fray.

  The first ogre rushed at Kat, sword raised above his head. As he got within striking distance, the ogre brought his sword down, intending to split Kat in half. Wanting to avoid that outcome, Kat skipped sideways, twisting as she went. The sword sliced down inches from her body. Kat delivered a hard punch to the side of the ogre’s head as its forward momentum carried it past her. The solid punch sent the ogre sprawling to the ground. Kat had little time to regroup, as the next two ogres were right behind the first. Kat hopped back as a female ogre with a mace took a swipe at her midsection.

  Taking another step back, Kat used her web magic, spraying both of the standing ogres. The ogres struggled against the webbing and were moving far more than any of the other supernaturals she’d hit with the webbing. It wasn’t going to hold long.

  Turning back to see if the first ogre was up, Kat was surprised to feel a shoulder slamming into her stomach. The ogre hadn’t bothered to try standing, instead he’d just launched himself at her.

  The ogre was heavy and powerful. Caught off guard, Kat was taken down to the ground. But while the ogre successfully took her down, it quickly became apparent that his entire offense was built around brute strength. Kat was able to get out of the bottom position with relative ease as the ogre tried to awkwardly stab her with his sword while maintaining top control. Kat grabbed his sword hand and positioned her legs so that she had the ogre in an arm-bar. She yanked back, but unlike her old MMA fights, she had no intention of letting the ogre tap out. The ogre’s arm made a loud cracking sound that was almost drowned out by the chaotic sounds of battle around her. With his arm broken, the ogre dropped his sword. Kat then delivered two short kicks to the ogre’s face. After the second one, Kat saw his eyes roll up into the top of his head. He was out of the fight.

  Grabbing the sword, Kat rose in time to see the mouthy mage using his magic to free the remaining two ogres. Her webbing wasn’t going to be an effective weapon in this fight. Glancing up into the sky, Kat saw that Dante was having trouble with the flying demons. They weren’t hurting him, but they were like a pack of wild hyenas attacking a larger animal. One demon would dart in to attack him and then the next would attack from behind. The flying demons might not be as powerful as Dante, but they were quick and worked as a cohesive group to annoy and distract Dante from the battle below. “Bring them down here,” Kat yelled, hoping Dante would hear her.

  The two ogres, now free of their web bonds, rushed towards Kat. But now she had a weapon. Kat didn’t consider herself an expert with weapons, but she’d done enough martial arts training to have used most traditional weapons, and that included a fair amount of time using a sword, although she’d trained more with oriental weapons like a Chinese Dao or the Japanese Katan. The ogre’s sword was a simple double-edged blade that felt like it had been homemade. It wasn’t perfectly balanced and was longer than she’d like, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

  Kat blocked the female ogre’s mace and then pivoted out of the way of the third ogre, who was wielding another sword similar to the one in her hand.

  Glancing over her shoulder, Kat was happy to see that the mouthy mage was busy protecting himself from what looked like a magical flock of birds. Kat suspected that this was Vesper’s doing.

  An explosion behind the mouthy mage indicated that Daemon was more than holding his own against the two mages he was facing off against. And then a shadow fell over Kat as a winged form landed right on top of the female ogre. The third ogre slashed Dante with his sword, but the sword did no damage against the stone body of Dante’s gargoyle form.

  Kat glanced up at the sky to see the flock of flying demons darting down towards Dante. Her magic might not have worked against the ogres, especially with the mage helping them, but she’d hit demons before and even with the effect dampened by the use of her ring, it had worked well.

  Kat fired the biggest web she’d ever made in front of the diving demons. The first demon struck the webbing and instantly was tangled in it. Kat kept launching more and more webbing. The demons tried to turn and flee, but they were too close, and as soon as the webbing hit their wings, it tangled them up and they crashed into the ground.

  Dropping the sword, Kat pulled her gun and ejected the clip, and with practiced ease switched to a clip of holy water rounds. The gun had proven ineffective earlier against the ogres due to the protection of the mages’ wards, but she was willing to bet the mages hadn’t warded the demons. Her suspicion was proven correct when her first round pierced the chest of the closest demon. Kat fired at the demons until her clip was empty, and then she loaded another and repeated. Around her, the sounds of battle were dying off. She could see that Dante had dispatched both ogres and that Daemon had done the same to the two mages he’d been fighting with.

  Kat, satisfied that all the demons had been taken care of, turned her attention to the mouthy mage. She had expected that he was the most powerful of the thre
e and would be the most difficult to kill, but she was surprised to see the mage on the ground with Erica standing over him. It seemed that she’d waited until an opportune time to join the battle without jeopardizing the safety of Chuck. Across the parking lot, one of the gunmen had managed to get into his car and was driving away, although by the way the car weaved down the road, it seemed likely that he’d been winged at best and more than likely had sustained a far greater wound.

  Dante started to take after the car when Erica stopped him. “Leave him. He’s hurt bad. The local cops can deal with him.”

  The demons stated to burst into flames, and Kat was pleased that things had gone so well. “Anyone hurt?” She looked around at the group, who were all shaking their heads except for Terra, who was checking a cut on her face.

  “Couple of cuts from broken glass,” Terra said.

  “I might’ve shit my pants. Does that count?” Chuck said as he popped his head out the door. “That was intense.”

  Erica rolled her eyes. “How would you know? You were hiding under the bed.”

  “It sounded intense,” Chuck said defensively. “And you were the one who put me under the bed.”

  “Because you were about to launch a spell in a warded room. The only ones it would’ve hurt were me and you.”

  “How was I supposed—” Chuck started before stopping due to the intense glare Erica was giving him.

  “What do we do now? That wasn’t a quiet battle. The local cops will be on their way soon.”

  “Throw the bodies in one of the vans, and get back on the road. Local cops would just be a pain in the ass,” Daemon said. “We’ll get someone from the MBI to call the state governor. Local cops listen when the governor calls.”

  “Good idea,” Erica said.

  As they cleaned up the parking lot, Kat looked at the weapons the ogres had been carrying. She was tempted to take one with her. Not having a traditional weapon had almost cost her dearly.

  Daemon seemed to know what was on her mind. “We’ll get you a proper weapon when we get to Vegas. Guns are great, but not against all paranormals.”

  Kat nodded. “Ain’t that the truth. If those ogres had actually been any good with those weapons, I would’ve taken a shit kicking. Luckily, Dante heard my yelling at him and we switched it up.”

  Dante grinned. “We all have our specialties. It seemed foolish for me to be fighting demons when you’re around. And weapons don’t bother me, so it was a logical choice. I would’ve gotten there eventually, but your yell certainly speeded up the decision. Demons are annoying as hell, and one of those ugly bastards might’ve been a long-lost cousin of mine, so you killing them gets me off the hook.”

  Kat chuckled. Dante was joking about the long-lost cousins, but there was some truth to it. He was part demon, and the flying demons did have a resemblance to his gargoyle form, just smaller and uglier with less human features and more demonic ones.

  Erica slammed the van door closed. “That’s the last of the cleanup, and I can hear sirens coming. We need to get gone.”

  Kat couldn’t hear anything, but she didn’t have vampire hearing, so she didn’t argue. She just grabbed her bag from the hotel and jumped into the SUV. It was time to get to Vegas.

  14

  Kat

  The rest of the trip was completed without incident. When they pulled into the MBI detention center in Vegas, Dexter was there waiting for them.

  “Good job, folks,” Dexter said as they watched Chuck be taken inside the building. “A lot of people have been sweating about this trial. I’m not surprised you ran into so much trouble along the way.”

  “You think that is the end of it?” Erica asked.

  Dexter shook his head. “No. From what we know, the attacks you faced were all from this side of the equation. None of the paranormals involved on the Unreha side of things have tried to kill Mr. Ringle yet. Some of us suspect they were waiting until he arrived here.”

  “That’s comforting,” Kat said, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

  Dexter chuckled. “Chuck is no longer your issue. The MBI has plenty of agents on site to deal with whatever comes along. That said, I would like you all to stick around town for a few days. Call it a paid vacation, but if something comes along that we can’t handle, I’ll be calling you.”

  “Love the new hair, April,” Erica said to the attractive pink- and purple-haired woman standing beside Dexter.

  April grinned. “You like it? I was getting tired of blue.”

  Kat smiled. So this was April, Dexter’s girlfriend, that he never talked about. Kat stepped forward and offered April a handshake. “I’m Kat.”

  “Kat, so nice to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.” April turned to Vesper. “And you must be Vesper. Dexter has told me so much about the both of you.”

  Vesper raised an eyebrow. “Really? Dexter hasn’t told us anything about you.”

  “Why would he do that?” Kat said. “She’s obviously too good for him. He doesn’t want anyone stealing her.”

  Dexter shook his head. “Kat, Vesper, this is my girlfriend and business partner, April.”

  April punched Dexter in the arm. “Lamest introduction ever.

  “Girls, I’m old friends with Erica and Dante, and Daemon is my next boyfriend when I finally get tired of this lout.”

  Kat glanced over at Daemon, who shrugged. “It’s true. I’m just waiting for Dexter to die of old age before making my move.”

  “Which will be in a thousand years or so,” Dante said.

  “So is it settled? Us girls hang out tonight while the triple Ds do guy things?” April asked.

  “The triple Ds?” Kat asked.

  “Dexter, Dante and Daemon. I keep telling Dexter they need to start a boy band.”

  “And I keep telling her Daemon sings off-key,” Dexter said.

  Daemon raised his arms. “Hey. I thought we agreed not to talk about that.”

  “Quit threatening to take my girlfriend and I’ll stop talking about your karaoke skills.”

  Daemon looked over at April. “Sorry, love. I can no longer commit to being your backup plan.”

  April sighed. “Then I guess I’ll just have to keep the lug forever.”

  Erica laughed. “Where did you have in mind for drinks?”

  “Before you girls get too far ahead in making your dinner plans, I do have to throw a wrench in things. Kat has a meeting.”

  April furrowed her brow. “I think he’s trying to keep us ladies apart. Doesn’t want us sharing our secrets.”

  “How about tomorrow?” Kat asked. “We can go for lunch, wander the Strip and then go for dinner and drinks.”

  “Even better,” April said. “Erica, Vesper, how does that sound to you two?”

  “I’m in,” Erica said. “I haven’t had a proper girls’ night in forever.”

  Vesper laughed. “Hell yes, I’m in. And tomorrow works better anyway. I am exhausted and wouldn’t be much fun if we did it tonight. But give me one night’s good sleep and I’ll be ready to party!”

  “It’s settled,” April said.

  Dexter groaned. “Just don’t get arrested. The four of you troublemakers together makes me nervous.”

  Kat looked at Dexter. “You mentioned a meeting?”

  “Yes, with Bern Mevdi.”

  Bern Mevdi was a representative from the Unreha Council. It had been Bern Mevdi that had given her her training ring and tablet filled with magical lessons. He was her only connection to the world of Unreha, her birth home. “I see. When am I meeting him?”

  “Why don’t you go with the others to the hotel? Get cleaned up, have a shower and I’ll meet you there in an hour.”

  Kat wasn’t sure what the Council wanted with her this time, but Dexter didn’t make it sound like the meeting was optional, so she just nodded in agreement. “OK, see you in an hour or so.”

  ...

  “Wow. The MBI didn’t cheap out on rooms,” Vesper said as they entered their suite at
the Cosmopolitan.

  “It is nice, but right now all I care about is a hot shower,” Kat said.

  Vesper jumped on one of the couches. “I’m going to order some room service and then go to bed. The last couple days have been exhausting. Who knew being the navigator was such hard work?”

  Kat smiled. She knew what Vesper was saying. It wasn’t being a navigator that had her exhausted, it was the constantly being aware and on edge, watching passing traffic to see if someone was aiming a gun at you, and then there were the two fights. A lot had happened during the last twenty-four hours, and sleep hadn’t been high on the priority list. Tonight, they’d both get a full night’s sleep. Probably the last one they’d get while in Vegas, but at least the future nights of late nights would be by choice and not necessity.

  Jumping in the shower, Kat let out a sigh. If there was one thing that she absolutely loved about hotels, it was the showers. Lots of water pressure and an endless supply of hot water. Kat cleaned herself with the complimentary body wash and shampoo and then just stayed in longer to enjoy the pelting water slamming into her.

  Reluctantly, Kat got out of the shower and dried off. Dexter had said an hour from when they’d left the MBI detention center, and it had taken fifteen minutes to get to the hotel and another ten to check in. She’d spent at least twenty minutes in the shower and would’ve liked another thirty, but there was no time for that.

  Unsure what type of meeting this was going to be, Kat wore one of her darker pair of jeans along with her red tank top. It wasn’t formal, but she wasn’t dressing to impress. There was a high chance she’d wear a dress tomorrow night at Vesper’s request, but there was no way she was dressing up for the meeting with Bern Mevdi.

  Coming out of the bathroom, Kat got a whiff of Vesper’s supper and it made her stomach growl.

  “What you get?” Kat asked.