Pound of Flesh_An Urban Fantasy Novel

by J. A. Cipriano

“How about I shoot you in the face instead?” Renee said, her pistol still raised. “Don’t think I won’t kill you.”

  “Oh, but that’s exactly what I think,” he answered, the sneer evident in his voice. “You’re not a killer, pretty. You just don’t have it in you.”

  He was right. Renee’s voice never faltered. Her hand never shook, but it was as plain as day, written right there on her face. She couldn’t have pulled the trigger if there was a cool million riding on it.

  But maybe she didn’t have to.

  “What about me?” I asked, moving forward and settling beside Renee. “Have I got it in me?” I balled my hands into fists at my sides, but didn’t reach for my gun. It wouldn’t do much against them anyway. Demons are almost completely impervious to that kind of thing. Hard skin to go with hard heads, I guess. A more magical approach was required to get results.

  The red-head glared at me, the smile dropping from his face. “Oh, you got a lot of different stuff in you, don’t you?”

  His eyes went bright red as did all of his friends hanging back at the alley’s end.

  This was it. It was on.

  “What the hell?” Renee asked, spying the change in their appearances. Their skin was starting to get sallow. Their cheeks were hollowing out as the human guise most full-blooded demons wore in the mortal world began to peel away. “What’s happening?”

  I turned toward Renee, my eyes glowing a similar shade of scarlet. Her eyes filled with fear and that sent a pang of regret through me. I was supposed to be helping her after all.

  “What’s happening?” I repeated, pushing her back behind me with the flat palm of my hand. “Shit’s about to get real. That’s what.”

  7

  The thing about demons is, you don’t have to be one to hate them. Don’t get me wrong. It definitely helps. But I mean, every movie, every Stephen King novel, even the Bible… none of them hold back about how ridiculously awful they are. And the sad thing is? The really, truly sad thing? They’re worse.

  Trust me. As someone who deals with having roughly two and a half liters of demon blood running through his veins every day, it is my humble opinion none of them really go far enough.

  Demons are nasty things. They’re hateful, spiteful, masochistic sons of bitches. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, they have anger issues.

  Judging by the look on the redhead’s face as he approached me, all glowing eyes and clenched jaws, it didn’t seem like he was going to be the one who bucked the trend.

  Renee moved out from behind me, her gun raised at the redhead and his quickly approaching followers.

  “Put that away,” I told her, my gaze never leaving the demons.

  She didn’t comply with my demand. Instead, the pistol sat there in the air, pointed toward the group as if she might actually shoot them. That wasn’t something she wanted. Killing someone is a hell of a thing, and if I could stop anyone from going though it needlessly, I was going to try.

  “You’re not going to do that, Renee,” I said, my hands clenching into fists at my sides. “It’s not a bad thing. It doesn’t make you weak or less than capable. It’s actually the opposite. And I’d give you all the reasons why that’s true if not for the fact there’s a fucking demon horde rushing toward us at this very moment.”

  I grabbed the barrel of the pistol, still hot from the shot she took and pushed it downward.

  “So just trust me when I say get behind me and stay there until it’s not safe for you to stay anymore.” Okay. So that was a sort of self-defeating sentence. But what can I say? I’ve always been a pragmatist.

  “Did you say demon horde?” she asked, her voice low and amazed.

  Finally deciding to do as I asked, she put herself squarely behind me, and grabbed onto the back of my jacket with both hands.

  I could practically feel the fear coming off her in waves, and I didn’t blame her. I just hoped she couldn’t feel it in me too. Because, the only thing worse than getting my ass ripped in half in front of a cute Greek girl would be letting her know I was afraid about doing it.

  Besides, I didn’t need to let these metrosexual assholes know I was scared either. It wouldn’t go well for my whole “tough guy” image. I’d have to move and change my name. It’d be a whole thing. And I really hated whole things.

  “I’m going to give you one shot,” I said, moving forward. “One shot to walk out of here with all your appendages intact. After that, I can’t promise anything.”

  Energy wafted around me in bright blue sparks as I called upon my power.

  Renee pulled back, letting go of my back and inching toward the brick wall that marked the end of the alley. See, I always knew she was smart.

  She was almost certainly scared out of her mind. Maybe I should have warned her about the whole “magic exists, warlocks exist, demons exist” thing, but that conversation was big and complicated. Besides, scared was fine. So long as it coincided with staying alive.

  Not that I was sure I could promise that either. Still, I had to try. You’ve always got to try, right?

  The red-haired demon jerked to a stop, confusion muddying his demonic features. His T-Birds did the same thing, stopping right alongside him with that same dopey expression on his face.

  They were definitely confused by my presence. Red eyes meant demon. Flowing energy meant warlock. I was pretty sure a bunch of backwoods bastards who were so sheltered they didn’t even know about imps (given the fact that they couldn’t see Gary) never considered a demon and a warlock could come together in one ruggedly handsome and ultra-masculine package.

  To be fair, most people didn’t.

  The redhead made a few sharp clicking noises, speaking to the others in a demonic tongue most supernatural creatures wouldn’t understand.

  Like I said though, I had to study twice as hard to be half as good, and that meant there wasn’t a single guttural hell language I didn’t know at least partially.

  These jackoffs were speaking Indris, a distinctly second circle demon language, and it wasn’t their native language either. The way the redhead clicked out the term for “aberration” was sluggish and wrong.

  He was a convert and, from the sound of it, a recent one too.

  Another of the demon T-Birds clicked back.

  A couple words I didn’t understand (Hey, I said partially). Then I caught the words “the boss” lilting up as if it was a question.

  The second one wanted to inform somebody about me, about my presence in town, maybe.

  That was definitely a fire I have to put out later. Provided there was a later. Right now, I needed to focus on getting myself and Renee out of here in one piece.

  Because that wasn’t going to be easy.

  “Aldice!” the second demon said when the redhead didn’t answer. “We have to do something!”

  Aldice the redhead glanced at the demon and it was immediately obvious he was annoyed with his subordinate. His lips curled back as he turned his gaze back toward me and sneered.

  “Let’s just bring him his head.”

  Okay. So that didn’t go well. I could have turned to run, but these bastards were starting to piss me off, and besides, running probably wouldn’t have worked anyway.

  I threw my hands out in front of me, letting the energy I had been building while the demons had been gabbing like a bunch of schoolgirls flow out of me. It hit the group in a rush of crackling blue lightning.

  A clap of thunder shattered my hearing into a dull whine as the demons were flung backward like smoking toothpicks. Unfortunately, as they hit the ground, I knew it wouldn’t be enough.

  For the most part, warlocks are long-range fighters. We produce energy and channel it, which lends itself to a lot of attacks you don’t have to be really close to handle. Hence the lightning.

  Since demons are usually more than happy to get all up in your grill, hit and run tended to keep me from getting eaten more often than not.

  But there was nowhere to run. Aldice and the T-Bird
s were blocking the only exit. I was going to have to settle on the hit option, and that came with its own set of problems.

  “What did you just do?” Renee asked, half breathless, fear evident in her eyes.

  “Not enough,” I answered as Aldice and his cohorts began to recover from the electricity. In a moment, they’d be back up. Damn, that was quicker than I’d expected.

  “Was that lightning?” she asked from behind me, still futilely clutching at her gun like Linus with his cartoon blanket.

  “More or less,” I answered, taking stock of things. “Sometimes I go with wind or fire, but lightning has the added benefit of zipping through their bodies and melting things like chains and rings to their flesh.”

  Taking a deep breath, I focused on the energy bubbling up inside of me. Only half of my blood was of the warlock variety. And on a good day, the energy created by that blood was always wasting itself in an effort to rid my body of the demonic presence within me.

  It effectively wanted to exorcise me from myself. Which, in addition to being a real bitch most of the time, meant I didn’t have much energy to spare, and that one display of power had cleaned me out by more than half. It would take an hour at least before my warlock half was rested long enough to reproduce it.

  I was going to have to start thinking creatively.

  Aldice and his peeps scrambled to their feet, and judging from the look on their faces, they were really pissed. Smoke curled off of them, but if it bothered them, I couldn’t tell because the moment they were standing, they rushed us.

  ”Stay here,” I said told Renee even though there was nowhere for her to go. “Don’t be a hero.”

  “Not a problem,” she answered in the most honest voice I could imagine.

  Then, because I was incredibly intelligent, I charged Aldice and his men. I slammed my good shoulder into the flame-haired piece of shit, barreling into him with all the force I could muster. Aldice fell ass first to the pavement, grunting as I knocked the air out of him.

  He might have had the numbers, but I was a cop. And I knew a thing or two about apprehending a suspect.

  His men were on me in an instant, and they weren’t happy. Demons are strong as shit, and when they turn that strength on you, well, let’s just say it isn’t all reindeer games and sleigh rides.

  I felt teeth, actual teeth, tear deep into my still recovering shoulder. A mix of pain and disgust shot through me as the bullet wound I’d suffered flared to life with more agony than I’d expected.

  Still, I managed to keep myself standing, which may or may not have been a good thing. A flurry of bone crunching hits slammed into my ribs with all the demon-enhanced strength the gang could bring to bear.

  It hurt like hell, but luckily, that was part of the plan.

  Every time they touched me, every time their bodies came into contact with mine, I siphoned off a bit of their energy.

  It was sort of like the way I fed, except a lot less obvious. Most never realized what I was doing until it was too late.

  One T-Bird kicked my legs out from under me, and I fell, slamming hard into the cracked asphalt of the alley.

  In return, I sucked a little of his life force away.

  Another punched me in the jaw on my way to the pavement.

  I got even more energy from that.

  A flurry of kicks, punches, and bites tore into me as I lay on the ground. I could have fought back, taken that energy and redirected it. But I had bigger goals, I needed all the power I could get so letting them continue was my only option. Just as I was starting to think letting them kick the shit out of me was probably a poor plan, they suddenly stopped.

  The crowd parted, to allow Aldice access to my prone body. They were going to give him the kill shot, and something told me he was going to enjoy taking it.

  “This was too easy,” he said, his voice slithering across my eardrums.

  I bit my lip. I just needed him to get a little bit closer, just a bit.

  “Back off!” Renee’s voice cut through the crowd.

  Oh no.

  My eyes flitted back at her. She moved toward us, her gun raised.

  “That’s not going to be enough, Renee,” I said weakly, though I was sure she wouldn’t listen even if she could have heard me.

  I told her not to be a hero for a reason. For one, I knew her type. She was a warrior for justice, one of those people who thought maybe the world could be something other than a giant fucking cesspool. People like Renee spent their lives working their asses off trying to prove themselves right.

  And the crappy thing was they usually got themselves killed in the process. It would have been beautiful if it wasn’t so goddamned tragic.

  “Kill her,” Aldice said, turning back to me. Evidently, watching his gang kill the ADA wasn’t as interesting as killing me himself. Well, he was about to get all the me he could handle.

  Digging my fingers into the pavement, I let loose all the energy I’d stolen from the T-birds in one crackling torrent that electrified the ground.

  Two of them dropped. Their hearts seized in their chests. It’s always a strange thing to feel someone die when I connected to them via magic, even if they were demons. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to think it over because while the rest of the T-Birds fell to the ground and convulsed, by the time my magic worked its way to Aldice, it was little more than an echo.

  Aldice shrugged it off as I gritted my teeth in an effort to fight off the agony of my own battered body and scrambled to my feet.

  “You’re going to regret that,” he said, his red eyes pulsating with raw fury.

  “Run,” I said to Renee.

  Maybe she could get away while this pile of waste was killing me. At least that would be something.

  “Run!” I repeated, but she didn’t move.

  “Don’t bother. I know you’re planning to buy her time,” Aldice said and the gleam in his eye twisted my gut. He had some plans for Renee, and I somehow doubted they’d end well for her. “She won’t get far. That I can promise you.”

  I lunged forward, but I was beaten to hell and the demon in front of me knew it. I was no match for him in this condition. Luckily, I wouldn’t have to be.

  “Pikachu, attack!”

  Gary’s yell startled me but not as much as it startled Aldice when he lunged onto his shoulder and sunk his sharp little imp teeth into the demon’s neck.

  Aldice yelled, still unable to see Gary, which I found particularly amusing. The demon spun, swatting at his neck in an effort to dislodge the unseen predator.

  Well, I wasn’t going to give him the chance. I stepped forward and shoved my right palm into his chest and pulled at his energy. Aldice screamed as his power flowed into me until I was ready to burst like an overfilled water balloon.

  It still wouldn’t be enough to kill the others, but it would be enough for the second best thing, and hey, sometimes the second best things were still pretty good.

  “Gary!” I yelled. “We’re getting the hell out of here!”

  He jumped onto my shoulder as I released Aldice, letting him fall to the ground as I turned toward Renee and held out my hand.

  ”Let go!” I yelled.

  “Um, what?” she said, glancing from my hand to my face and back again. “I can run without holding your hand.”

  “Yeah, well,” I grunted as a smirk I couldn’t help played across my lips. “We’re not running.”

  She opened her mouth to say something, but as she did, she shook her head and grabbed my hand. The touch of her hand on mine sent little totally non-magical chills scampering up my arm. Man, touching her felt good. Too good.

  Still, we had to get out of here and fast. I shut my eyes in concentration and focused on directing the energy I’d stolen from Aldice. Then I cast a different sort of spell entirely.

  Teleporting is a bitch. It almost never works the way you want it to work, and when it does, it leaves you drained and defenseless for hours afterward.

  But ru
nning wouldn’t work. I hadn’t killed Aldice, and both he and the surviving T-Birds would be on us in seconds.

  This was the only way.

  Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Roy, why didn’t you just absorb them all and turn them into a giant bonfire? Well, here’s the thing. Absorbing so many people at once would have thrown my demon half into overdrive. It would have been full-tilt Exorcist shit out there. And I wasn’t sure I’d be able to reign it back in after that.

  So yeah, teleportation.

  Thinking of my ratty apartment on the East end, I took a deep breath and directed us there. The next thing I knew I slammed onto my bed with enough force to make the headboard smash into the wall. Still, I guess it was better than the roof or the dumpster in the alley. Let’s just say, landing in a dumpster is never fun.

  Renee landed square on top of me, her body landing against mine and pressing hard in all the right (and wrong) places.

  “You okay?” I breathed, still aching, still bleeding. Even through that, there was a part of me that didn’t mind her weight against mine.

  “I’m fine,” she said. I felt the heat of her pistol fall against my temple. “Whether or not you’re okay depends on what comes out of your mouth next. Now tell me what’s going on here.”

  8

  As my blood thumped in my head like a runaway locomotive, it was quickly dawning on me I had inadvertently jumped from a massive demonic beat down in a filthy alley into what could conservatively be described as the worst impromptu sex scene in history. Only, you know, without all the good parts, like being naked.

  Renee pressed the barrel of her gun against my temple. Her eyes were filled with a confused sort of determination and her hands were scarily steady.

  “I’m not going to ask you again, Roy. What the fuck is going on?” The stoic firmness in her voice told me she wasn’t fucking around. While before I’d been fairly certain she wouldn’t pull the trigger, the emotion in her voice was something I knew all too well.

  She’d been through too much. She’d reached her breaking point and then been given another hard shove for good measure.