Back From Hell (Revenant Files Book 1)

by D'Artagnan Rey

  Johnny strode through the tall grass to the car and checked it for marks or signs of entry before he unlocked it and slid inside. He checked his phone and frowned. “Oh, I got a text from Val.”

  Vic appeared in the passenger’s seat. “What does it say?”

  He took a moment to read it. “Something happened last night. She’s asking us to meet her at the hotel where Annie and Marco are and sent the address.”

  “It works for me. We need to compare notes anyway.” The ghost opened the glove compartment and retrieved an empty sack. “It’s always good to have a spare,” he said as he began to dump the stolen coins inside. “How much did you manage to take while I distracted him?”

  His partner took out a few bundles of cash. “It looks like enough to keep us going as long as we don’t make too many big purchases.” He flipped through one of the bundles. “I can never get the conversion right.”

  “Why? It’s all colors.” Vic held up one with a red jewel in the middle. “The lowest amount starts at white, then yellow, and orange. Green and blue are worth a decent amount, then you got red and purple which is worth a lot. Black jewels are worth the most.”

  Johnny stretched into the back seat, undid a section in the middle, and took a case out. “I’m aware of that. I mean the conversion when I bring it into the living side and it changes to cash.” He opened the case, which contained a few thousand dollars, and packed the extra within. “I mean what it changes to when we cross always seems a little different.”

  “Eh, sometimes you get lucky and at other times, not so much. I’m not exactly sure how that changes either. Usually, bounty hunters have to exchange doubloons at a topside gig dealer if they get their job in Limbo.”

  “The perks of being a revenant, I guess.” He closed the case and sealed it in its hiding place. “All right, let’s head out.” He turned the car on and let the engine roar for a moment. “You know, I missed this sound yesterday.”

  Vic chuckled and cut the end off another cigar as they left the forest and returned to New Orleans.

  When they knocked at the door, Valerie checked the peephole before she opened it.

  “Finally, It’s almost evening,” she stated as she let them enter and closed the door behind them. “Where have you been?”

  Johnny tossed his go-bag on the bed, fell on it, and waved at Marco and Annie who were seated on the other bed. “We had to deal with some ghost stuff.” He pushed his eyepatch up and rubbed his eyes. “Which I suppose applies to almost every day of my life for the last seven or eight years.”

  “And we had to drive back after going out some ways,” Vic continued and pointed at his partner. “Plus the kid needed a shower. I know it sounds frivolous but be glad he took one.”

  The young officer sat on top of the desk in the room. “Speaking of ghost stuff, I obliterated one last night.”

  The young detective turned and looked at her. “Wait, what?”

  “Yeah, man. It was wild by the sound of it,” Marco said as he stretched his arm. “But from what you were saying, you don’t think it was our guy?”

  Valerie shook her head and took her phone out. “No, but he seems to be working for whoever is.” She tossed the device to Johnny and Vic floated closer to see. “The guy I eliminated was Tommy Lynn Sells, a serial killer born in California but who was a drifter. He had victims in Illinois, Texas, Kentucky, and others and was put to death in twenty-fourteen.”

  “Only seven years ago?” The young detective looked concerned as he handed the phone to his partner and looked at her. “The report said he had some mental illnesses in life that might stop him from being sent straight to Hell but he would be under watch in Limbo. There’s no way he could be out of Purgatory by now and he sure as hell wouldn’t get a pass to come here.”

  “Ciro found a way over,” Vic reminded him and gave Valerie her phone. “It wouldn’t be a shock if other degenerates could do the same. But I have to agree with Johnny when it comes to him. He should still be in Purgatory.”

  She looked at the murderer’s picture again. “I assume that whoever got him out and brought him over is the same guy he seemed to hold in such high regard.” She flipped through the pictures. “I followed a trail of phantasma—weird stuff like black goo with a white wispy substance running through it.”

  “It sounds like what we heard about at the bar,” Johnny commented.

  The ghost nodded and his eyes narrowed. “And it sounds like the same color as the spirit maniac we’ve run into who keeps leaving the ax. Did this guy have the same color?”

  Valerie shook her head and passed him the phone, which showed a picture of a vial of the substance. “No, he was a normal green color. But he had the stuff running through him somehow. I would say his veins if he had any, but he was mostly skeletal with a light amount of flesh. That wasn’t the most terrifying part, though. I think I know what attacked us.” She bunched her fists in anger. “He had a hostage in a shack. I tried to cut him loose but he attacked me and then dove into him.”

  “Possession?” Johnny asked. “Vile guys like that can overwhelm the host. They start to feel their feelings and memories and that can—”

  “Worse than that,” she interjected. “When he entered him, he…uh, changed—began to transform. His body became bigger, had the eyes of a ghost, and his skin color changed. He probably looked like the being who attacked Marco and Annie would have looked if we could have taken that cloak and hood off before he turned to dust.”

  “Were you able to save him?” Vic asked and looked up from the phone to see her shake her head again. “That’s a damn shame. I know you tried your best.”

  “I had ether bullets with me and shot him directly in the head with one. It knocked the ghost from him but…well, the body began to wither.”

  “Were there any remains or did it turn to dust like the last one?”

  She relaxed her fists and looked at them for a moment before she clasped her hands together. “It turned to mush. We recovered most of it and the people in the labs have found traces to confirm that it’s human— blood and bone fragments and the like—but no one has ever seen anything like it.”

  The ghost detective removed his hat and scratched his skull. “From what we’ve heard, the mafia and some Limbo organizations have tried to deal with this on the quiet. It partially explains why bigger organizations haven’t come in, but from the hints we’ve received, it seems some players involved in this mess are bigger than we have imagined.”

  “He’s also feeding,” Johnny told them. “He was killing ghosts before he targeted humans and sucked them dry to empower himself. That’s another reason why they are trying to keep this contained. They don’t want a horde of powerful bounty hunters both living and dead trying to claim the bounty and fueling this asshole through their efforts.”

  “At this point, I think I’d prefer it if we did have an army at our back.” Valerie groaned. “But I get it and as much as it annoys me, it probably is for the best right now. But the evidence indicates that this is a team or maybe a cult. Some in the precinct want to say this is the end of it, but because I’ve told them it isn’t, they aren’t making it public, at least for now.”

  “When will they give you your hero’s medal?” Johnny quipped.

  She rolled her eyes and folded her arms. “Honestly, they are pissed about me going in there without backup, along with the fact that I’ve shown up twice to these incidents and my little adventure at the market got back to them. They want me to lay low for now.”

  “Typical,” Vic muttered, put his hat on again, and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Ah, well. They’ll play ball once the shit truly hits the fan. My current guess is whoever is doing this is a demon—or at least trying to be one. If he achieves it, you can bet your ass that every big agency will flock here to take care of it. And while they might, both the Wild Hunt and the Supernatural Exorcism Agency have a habit of sticking around in places they are called to, and that will spook the ghosts who
live here and cause some issues for both living and dead.”

  Marco bit his lip before he looked at the ghost detective. “You said the mafia was looking into this right? Or running the whole thing?”

  “More like trying to take care of it and failing, but yeah. Did something spring to mind?”

  The young man sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Man, our family can be such a stereotype at times.” He looked at the two partners. “Do you wanna meet a capo?”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Capo?” Johnny asked. “What’s a capo?”

  “A caporegime,” Vic elaborated, his attention fully on Marco. “A captain in the mafia and probably the highest rank a man can get without being an underboss or boss.”

  “If we’re lucky, an underboss might be there too,” Marco added and looked at Annie when she pulled his sleeve.

  “What are you doing, you idiot?” she asked and glared at him. “You know Uncle Gabriele doesn’t want us to go anywhere near there.”

  He shrugged and jerked his shirt out of her grasp. “Hey, if the mafia is trying to take care of this, we need to at least consider talking to him.” He pointed at her. “Besides, do you think he doesn’t want to know that the same thing he’s probably helping to deal with targeted you?”

  She frowned, folded her arms, and looked out the window. “What if he isn’t there? You can’t simply walk in there and not expect them to take issue with that.”

  “It’s better than sending Johnny and Vic in there alone,” he reasoned and glanced at them. “But I’m probably getting ahead of myself. The short version is that we’ve had family members in the mob—yeah, shocker—but not our parents or anything. A couple of uncles, great uncles, and a grandfather as far as I know. Most of them are dead but the New Orleans mob is mostly dead guys right now anyway. I can get you in to talk to them directly, assuming you don’t have any connections of your own.”

  Vic shook his head and glanced at Valerie, who shrugged. “We had a few informants over the years but most disappeared, oddly enough.”

  The young man chuckled, hopped off the bed, and knelt to retrieve something from under it. “I hear that’s a bad habit most informants have. Anyway, my Uncle Gabe got whacked about fifteen years ago—he was double-crossed or something but Dad never elaborated. He came back about five years ago and reclaimed his position. One of their joints is a restaurant in Avondale. It serves good food for what merely started as a front.”

  He took a slim case out and opened it to reveal his bat. “I’m not sure if they’ll help you, but telling them what has been happening ought to light a fire under their ass, at least.” He looked at Valerie. “Since you are trying to lay low, do you mind keeping an eye on my sister while I escort them?”

  “I’m coming too!” Annie declared and stood quickly. “I don’t want you to face them alone.”

  Marco frowned and shook his head. “Come on, Ann. Think about it. If we tell them the guy is after you, they will keep you there for protection, and you or we are roped into their BS while we wait for this thing to be dealt with. I don’t want one of the corpses trying to set you up with their still-living nephew or something either.” He looked at Vic. “No offense.” This merely got a casual shrug and knowing nod from the detective.

  “You are still under police protection,” Valerie pointed out and looked at the door where a couple of other cops were stationed. “As the non-primary target, Marco might be able to walk around a little more freely but there would be issues with you heading out.”

  Annie frowned for a moment before she exhaled a long sigh and fell on the bed. “Do we even know why this guy wants me yet?”

  Johnny shook his head. “Sorry. Our best guess is that he has identified you as a possible host like the guy Valerie saw.”

  The young officer hung her head. “That might be the best-case scenario.”

  Marco swung his bat a couple of times before he rested it over his shoulders. “Well, it was nice to have this reunion for a few minutes but what do you say? Should we get going?”

  Vic nodded and looked at Valerie. “Are you all right staying behind?”

  She nodded, moved to the chair at the window, and sat. “Yeah. Like I said, I gotta stay for a little while anyway, but make sure to fill me in when you get back.”

  “Roger,” Johnny promised as he stood and retrieved his bag. “Thanks for the toys by the way.”

  “Be sure to make good use of them,” she replied and looked around the room. “Do you see the remote Annie?”

  The trio pulled up at an Italian restaurant after a long drive. The sky was bright orange but the blues of evening swept in rapidly. They got out and Marco positioned the bat over his right shoulder. “All right, follow me.”

  “Do you plan to walk in there with a bat?” Johnny asked as he made sure his gun was out of view. “Won’t that raise suspicion?”

  “We’re going directly to the back,” the young man explained as they approached the entrance. “That will probably annoy them more than the bat.” He opened one of the doors and stepped inside.

  The interior was white with pictures of family and what the young detective assumed were landscapes of Italy or similar settings. The restaurant was packed with tables full of family-style meals, and loud boisterous laughter echoed.

  “Hey, what are you doing in here with that?” a hostess asked. Marco ignored her, looked at a set of stairs, and motioned for his companions to follow. He ascended quickly while the hostess called after them to come back and a couple of waiters and some of the diners looked on in confusion or amusement.

  At the top of the stairs, they walked down a hall with red walls and more pictures, although these were in nicer frames. At the end of the hall, Marco waltzed up to the double doors, turned the doorknob on one, and threw it open.

  “Hey! Is Gabriele Romano here?” he asked a room full of suited ghosts and a few living men as well. Some drew guns but hesitated when a voice responded.

  “Who wants to— Hey, wait a minute!” From behind a curtained-off section of the room, a ghost emerged with almost translucent blue skin and slicked-back black hair with white tips. He was dressed in a black suit and leather shoes and studied the young visitor as a couple more men stepped out behind him with revolvers. He smiled broadly and held his arms open. “Marco! Well, I’ll be damned. How are you doing, nephew?”

  Marco relaxed a little and gave his uncle a one-handed hug. “I’ve been all right, Uncle Gabe. How have you been since I last saw you?”

  The capo rolled his eyes. “If you had come by a few months back, I would have said things were just peachy. But we’ve been dealing with a hell’uva headache for a while now.”

  He nodded and gestured behind him with his thumb. “Trust me, I’m well aware. I brought some friends who are looking into it.”

  “Friends?” Gabriele asked quizzically and leaned around him to look at the partners. He threw an arm around his nephew and moved him away a few paces. “What the hell are you doing, kid? You know you can’t bring strangers into one of our places of business, not unless they are paying customers.”

  “It’s weird hearing someone else being called kid,” Johnny commented and glanced at Vic. “Particularly when it isn’t coming from you.”

  “You do know how old most of these guys are, right?” his partner asked with a smirk as he took another cigar out.

  “We’ll buy some oysters or something on the way out,” Marco offered. “Look. We know about the killer and the fact that the mob is trying to take care of him.”

  Gabriele peered at Johnny and Vic before he huddled closer to his nephew. “We’re only trying to do right by the community, kid. It’s nice of you to think about helping your uncle, but we have this under control.”

  The young man snorted. “Is that right? So you know he came after Annie?”

  “What?” the blue ghost roared, released his nephew, and looked around the room. “Annie was attacked? Why the fuck haven’t I been to
ld?!” He pointed to one of the living mafiosos. “Tony, where the fuck are the guys who are supposed to keep an ear open in the streets?”

  The guard shrugged and remained silent. His boss’ rage began to build and his skin darkened and fists trembled to the point where the young detective decided he’d need another hit of stygia soon.

  “Look, Uncle Gabe,” Marco began and placed a hand on the ghost’s shoulder that made him look at him. He pointed to the partners with his bat. “Those guys over there? They protected us when the killer attacked. Hell, they were there because they came to warn us. They are all right and they are trying to find this guy like you and the rest of the family.”

  Gabriele continued to shake but he studied them for a moment. “Is that right?” He straightened and waved them forward. His fists were still clenched but he put them in his pockets. “So who the hell are you?” He scowled at them. “Are you with the Agency?”

  “Not quite.” Vic held his hand with the cigar up. “I realize that revelation must be a shock. Do you care for a cigar?”

  The capo took one, ran it under his nose, and nodded. “The good stuff. It’s hard to get on this side of things.” One of his underlings approached with a cutter and lighter, which he took. He snipped the front. “So what are you? How do you two play into this?”

  “We’re bounty hunters,” Johnny explained and decided it was probably best to leave Vic’s former occupation out to be safe. “We came here looking for a gig that would pay well and ended up with something far bigger than that.”

  “Really?” Gabriele lit the cigar. “I have heard that a couple of bounty hunters might be snooping around. Not like that is any big surprise around here.” He took a few puffs off the cigar. “Not bad. So you saw this creep and didn’t run as far away from this place as quickly as you could? I guess you have some guts and I can respect that, at least.” He pointed to Marco. “Thanks for looking after the kids too.”