Before we got to the fun stuff, I faced Jim. “Do I dare ask if you got any leads on those necklaces?”
Jim cringed and scratched the back of his slicked back hair. “Oh, right…”
“You forgot about them, didn’t you?”
“Left them downstairs… hold on, let me go grab them before some earthquake-panicking asshole breaks in and steals them.”
I looked at the squirming Bakeneko. “I’ll try not to throw a party in your absence.”
“Please don’t, I pay good money for this safe house. Unless it’s a slumber party with your new friend here, then by all means do. There are PJs in the closet to use and extra pillows for a fight.”
I flipped him the bird as he made his exit from the suite. “Get fucked.”
One good thing came of him forgetting, I had five minutes alone with her. This woman knew of my talents, had talents of her own, and was working for Lexi to steal my katana. Jim was still under the impression that I was normal and that we lived in a normal world. I wanted to keep it like that for now. Jim was still useful to me, him walking away refusing to accept jobs from me did me no good, not while I was so close to finding the truth.
My fingers tore off the duct tape around her mouth. I made sure to pull it real fast. Pain is an excellent motivator. She didn’t scream or flinch, she just looked at me with that same hateful glare from earlier.
I crossed my tattooed arms and gave her a nice introductory speech. “I’ve been having a really dreadful day, not to mention my date was utterly ruined.” Yeah that wasn’t much of a speech. Whatever.
“A date…” she grumbled. “I thought you succubus just go straight for the bedroom.”
“Right…” I rolled my eyes. “So, ground rules. No more calling me a demon. No screaming for help, or I’ll slit your fucking throat. If I think you’re lying, I’ll splay you apart and leave the mess for Jim to clean up. We clear?” She said nothing, which was a pity as I really liked her cute voice. “So, you’re Bakeneko, I figured that part out. Where did you come from?”
“Half-Bakeneko, half-Cat-sith for your information!” she corrected as I grimaced. More mythological shit to remember. “So that makes me a demon, just like you—”
“Okay did you forget what I said about the demonic shit? I don’t wanna hear any of that.” She admitted to being a demon, thinks I’m one, and we both knew Lexi is a succubus. Throw in Lucifer and the shit that went down at MSG, and I’d say we were facing a demonic invasion. “So, what’s the deal with my katana, Emily?”
“Stop calling me that!
“Well, what’s your name then?”
She spat at me. I had to resist the urge to set her ablaze. The aftermath would have resulted in the whole place burning down. Jim wouldn’t have liked that. I pushed her over onto the bed and searched through her pockets. She was no stranger to blending in the human world, and therefore must have had some sort of ID still on her.
She did, I held it up as I moved away from her body. “Brianna McKenna… if that’s your real name. I doubt it.” The picture on the ID wasn’t even her, so yeah, not her, probably stolen like everything else she had in her possession. “So, let’s take it from the top?”
“Top of what?”
“I’ll help you out. You were keeping an eye on me in your cat form before I took you in. That tells me you knew who I was and that I owned the katana. You stole and sold said katana to Lexi, who is possessed, and is, or was, affiliated with Lucifer, someone who I suspect is responsible for sending attackers after me ever since I got out of the hospital.”
“Well…”
“Well?”
“Well, I’m not allowed to talk about demons. Not much else to say with that rule.”
“Fine run your mouth off about demons, just not in front of Jimmy.”
She laughed. “Why? Keeping secrets from him?”
“For now.”
“You know, I envy you succubus sometimes, any man you want, you can have. Just try not to look into his face when you drain his soul out from his body.”
“The top…”
“Look, I work alone and have been for the last five hundred years.” Well shit, Emily looked pretty good for her age. “I acquire… previously owned things to make a living and sometimes I have clients that make special requests.”
I crossed my arms. “Like Lucifer and Lexi?”
“Just Lexi, she wanted your sword and she wanted me to keep quiet about it. Outside of that, I have no information for you.”
“Not even about their plans to take over? I heard you and her talk about it.”
“She’s an Umbral demon like you, your kind always got evil shit planned. That’s why I was upset. She promised no bloodshed when I took the job and lied about it. That’s the last time I do work for them.” I stood staring into space thanks to her words, struggling to come to terms with the fact that the world I knew and lived in was a lie. Demons, possessions, magical talents… that shit was real, and I was a part of it. “What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?”
Funny. “I’m still trying to figure out why I have these powers.” I put her wallet and ID down and conjured a burning orb of fire that hovered above my hand. “I was born a normal girl and was mostly raised right here in the Big Apple. I never had these talents until I was released from the hospital almost a month ago.”
Emily shook her head. “Impossible, demonic possession overwrites the earliest memories of the host. Childhood memories.”
“I’m not possessed, I can remember everything. Yes, that includes my childhood.”
“Then you were taken as a kid or were born a demon. But there hasn’t been a demon born on Earth in centuries, trust me, I would have known.”
“Then why didn’t my powers surface back then?”
“I couldn’t tell ya. If a demon here on Earth today has childhood memories, then they were taken as a wee one.” Emily licked her lips. “But… it does sound like a fun mystery to solve. Say, why don’t you cut me loose and—”
“Get fucked.”
I heard the clicking sound of Jim’s keys unlocking the front door, effectively ending our talk. The direction of Emily’s eyesight shifted out into the hallway where the main entrance was. I had a sinking feeling she was going to spill the beans about me the second Jim entered. I put out the flaming orb and quickly slapped the duct tape we gagged her with back across her lips.
Jim entered the room with the two necklaces I gave him to analyze and gather information about. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
I took the two necklaces back. “So, what did you find?”
“Err, nothing.”
“You left them in your van the whole time, didn’t you?”
“No! Well, yes. I tried to send the pictures off to a friend that might know better. But for some reason, every picture I took came out blank.”
“Blank? What the fuck?”
“That’s what I said.” He showed me the pictures he tried to take with his phone, they were literally black images with nothing on them. “I thought my phone was fucked.” He flipped to a selfie he recently took. “But as you can see, that’s not exactly the case, those necklaces are some weird shit.” Jim slowly began to backtrack into the living room as I stood glaring at the necklaces. “Anything else? ‘Cause I really, really need to watch the basketball game.”
I grinned, looking down at the fistful of necklaces in my hands. “Go watch your fucking game.”
“Sweet.” He pointed both his index fingers at me. “And yeah, if you are planning on staying the night, don’t forget what I said about slumber parties with your friend.”
“I’m not sure you should be admitting that a fixer like you keeps PJs and such stocked in a safe house…”
“Customer satisfaction. I do have a reputation to live up to in this line of work. Whatever you might need I keep stocked.”
I grimaced and looked back at the closet door behind. “I’m kinda afraid to look in that closet now…”
&
nbsp; Jim strode into the living room. I heard the TV turn on and the announcer mention something about the New York Knicks and the Toronto Raptors. Luckily for Jim this was an away game, had the Knicks been in here, that game would have been long cancelled due to recent events. It didn’t take him long to get drawn and mesmerized by the game. If he was like most men, his hearing would become selective when women spoke. Good. It meant Emily and I could continue our girl talk without him listening.
I shut the door for good measure and faced her with the necklaces still in my hand. Emily looked spooked, her face turned pale, her legs and arms trembled, and her gaze was locked onto the necklaces. It was a weird sight.
I peeled off the tape, this time slowly, I really needed her to keep it down. “Rules from before still apply,” I said as I dangled the necklaces in front of her face. “These disturb you. Why?”
“That one on the left is the talisman of Lilith.” Emily gestured to the necklace Lexi gave me. “That one’s for Lucifer.” She pointed at the one I found on my attacker weeks ago.
Everyone that tried to off me thus far had the necklace that Emily had identified as a talisman for Lucifer. Emily had no such necklace on her, in fact she didn’t have any, never mind the fact that the mere sight of them put the fear of God in her. Conclusion? Emily was telling the truth, she wasn’t affiliated with anyone.
Unless, of course, this was all a lie, Emily was still the enemy as far as I was concerned, and oddly enough, was very helpful in spitting out details without any need for torture. Torture I was really looking forward to performing with my talents. Oh, well. C'est la vie.
The duct tape was placed back on as I got ready to take my leave. I took her wallet and ID with me, might come in handy, not like she was going to have any use for it. Emily being tied up and gagged was exactly where I wanted her to remain until I was done with her. She stole from me, then tried to attack me, kill me, and steal it back after I got it. I had every reason to kill her right back!
“Jim,” I called out to him as I stood next to the suite’s main entrance.
“Yo.”
“I’m going to bounce. Keep an eye on her for me, will you? I’ll pay you extra and more.”
Surprisingly, he turned away from the game and gave me a fascinated stare up and down at my figure. I was still wearing the cocktail dress and heels, I’ll have to break it to him soon that I’m kind of involved with someone else. “I like that idea—No, goddamn it!”
“What?”
His attention returned to the TV screen. “Fucking Raptors scored again. Knicks are down by nine.”
I smiled and shook my head while reaching for the door handle. “See ya later, Jim.”
“Reika.” My hand pulled away from the handle. “You should change; your face is all over the news remember?”
He was right, plus running in heels was a pain in the ass. I don’t know how girls in action movies do it. “Guess I’m looking inside that closet after all.”
“I keep the dominatrix stuff in the other safe house, don’t worry.” I stopped in my tracks instantly as he said that. “I’m joking, of course; I don’t actually have any of that stuff.”
I grabbed a hoodie, shades, sweat pants, and running shoes from the closet, glad that Jim was telling the truth about the contents. The PJs inside did raise an eyebrow however. I stripped out of my attire inside the bathroom paying no mind to the containers of sulfuric acid in the corner and the dank smell coming from the bath tub, the aftermath of Jim making someone disappear I suspected.
“What happened to customer satisfaction?” I called out my follow-up question to him. “What if you had a client that needed to stay and had a kink that needed to be taken care of during their stay?”
“Eh? That shit they need to bring on their own if they’re going to stay here.”
I glanced at myself in the mirror, low key as fuck. The pockets were nice too and allowed me to keep my recently acquired items with me. I returned to my earlier task, leaving this place for a bit to return home. I marched discreetly toward the bus stop, feeling like a superheroine that needed to keep their true identity a secret.
Chapter Ten
The bus ride back home was nerve-wracking at first. There were a lot more people onboard than I had expected. The aftermath of the quake must have displaced a lot of folks that were out and about on this fine Saturday night. I pushed my way to the back of the bus, keeping my face away from the cameras. I overheard people talking about where they were when the quake hit, others spoke of Lexi and that they were glad she wasn’t one of the people killed at Madison Square Gardens. Apparently, she was found safe and returned to her place. Oh, how little they knew. Hell, how little I knew as well.
Like me, she had to have had someone working for her, pick her up and take her back to her condo when the terrified people of the city weren’t looking. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was the same people responsible for covering things up like the mutilated bodies I found. None of the passengers on the bus talked about that nor did any of the newsfeeds that I looked up on my phone. Every report insisted that the people killed died due to the quake and not foul demonic play.
I really wished these cover-up people hurried the fuck up and made my story vanish. My katana wielding sexiness in the subway was plastered all over every news channel and website. Emily’s antics made it to the news as well, I saw images of her storm into the subway platform moments after I did. We were both wanted for questioning, thankfully none of our names were dropped, though it would only be a matter of time before people that knew me started running their fucking mouths off. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mario was doing that right now.
The bus neared my stop and I took a glance around to ensure there weren’t any shady people onboard, I really couldn’t afford a repeat of last time under these conditions. I got off and breathed a sigh of relief, I was the only person that exited the bus. I approached my shanty Hell’s Kitchen apartment which was getting painted with blue and red lights from the drove of parked police cars. Of course they’d be here, landlord must have dropped the dime that I was a resident.
I remained in the shadows keeping a low profile as I neared my apartment. I saw uniformed officers stand around at the main entrances talking to residents that wanted to exit or enter. Two others walked around with flashlights in their hands, looking for me probably. My phone beeped, an incoming text message came in. My cracked screen showed I had two messages waiting, one of them was from Ryan. It was sent awhile ago when I was on the bus; I must have missed it after I stopped reading the news.
I felt bad, like really shitty bad. I left him during the attack and then never checked in to see if he was still alive. I was just so focused on Lexi and Emily… damn tunnel vision. I looked at the second message, the one I just heard come in. The sender was unexpected; it was from Detective Gabe Wilson. His message issued a stern warning for me not to go home if I wasn’t there already, and to leave if I was.
I looked at the apartment and the cops scouring through it. “Yeah, no shit,” I mumbled to myself.
And then the apartment exploded.
The blast sent a shock wave that triggered every car alarm in the area. The cops in front were launched twenty feet through the air. The flames that roared out from my room made me glad I wasn’t home. True the flames that I used thanks to my talents didn’t bring any harm to me, but fires and explosions from an external source? I had no idea what that could do to me and didn’t want to find out. Then there was the shrapnel, the crumbling floor and ceiling. That for sure would have done me in, even if the flames didn’t.
I moved away from the remains of my home… fast. If there were cops and people still inside they were on their own, I’m not that kind of a heroine. Someone wanted to fricassee my ass and sent the cops there in the hope that I wouldn’t be able to escape before the blast went off. They’ll have to try harder to take me out. Sadly, they probably will once they discover my body isn’t in the wreckage.
/> I typed a reply to Gabe’s message, asking him if he knew what was going on, and that my place went up in smoke. I waited for the reply as I continued to walk down the sidewalk, past the bus stop. I couldn’t risk taking it. What if they knew I didn’t die in the blast? What was stopping them from blowing up a bus I got on? Too many innocent lives were lost tonight because I continue to draw breath on this world turned upside down we call Earth.
A new message arrived. I pulled my phone out from the front pocket of my hoodie. Gabe wanted me to destroy my phone, arguing that someone might be using it to track me. Yay more shit to be paranoid about. I noted his phone number and tossed my phone high into the sky, then tossed a small fireball up into it. The melted and smoldering device came crashing down behind me.
Trace that, motherfuckers.
No phone, no car, no home, no bus. I was at a loss as to what my next move should be. Heading back to Jim’s safe house came to mind, only it was way the fuck on the other side of the city. It took me hours just to get back to Hell’s Kitchen via the bus which was no longer an option, made me miss the day when I was a kid, and payphones were commonplace, I would have called Jim to pick me up. There was only one other place I could think of to go that was nearby. And without a phone, getting access to it was going to be tough.
I arrived at Ryan’s apartment. He was my only hope for shelter and asking for it made me feel like shit. He’d had no recent contact with me, even after I discovered I missed his message and I destroyed my phone before replying to it to let him know I was safe. Now? I’m about to break into his place, ask him if I could stay there, beg him not to tell the cops I’m there, oh and tell him how sorry I was for leaving him behind in all the chaos.
Not exactly prime girlfriend material.
I looked up at the balconies and identified the one that led into his unit on the fourth floor. The lights were still on, a good sign. I couldn’t risk entering via the main lobby, not while the security cameras were still rolling. I picked up a rock and channeled my talents into it, then looked back and to the sides to ensure nobody was going to witness me make four blink-jumps up onto his balcony.
Kiss of the Demon Girl Page 8