by CT Knight
“So, it wasn’t that long ago. Why were you at that club tonight?”
She took her time answering the question. That was three suspicious reactions. “We both liked to go there. I had been looking all over for her and thought she might have gotten away from whoever took her. That she might go there to hide amongst all the people.”
“I guess that makes sense.” I didn’t really mean it. Things weren’t quite lining up but one thing was for sure, the Acolytes of Chaos were involved which meant the threat of the Chaos Bringer was very real.
I downed another drink. “I’ll need to go to her house. Start from there.”
“This means you’ll take the case?” It was the most hopeful she’d been since I first saw her.
“Two-hundred-fifty an hour and the clock started the minute you showed me this.” I held up the pendant.
“Thank you, Mr. Pendragon.”
“Please, call me Arthur. It’s just faster.”
She nodded her head and the tears started up again. This time they were more joy than sorrow but they still made me weak in the knees.
“Enough of that,” I told her.
She wiped the tears away and smiled.
I grabbed my jacket from the back of the chair. It was a plain leather jacket. More Indiana Jones than Bogart. But it had the war wounds to prove its efficacy in just about any dangerous situation. And this seemed like it could be that very kind of situation. Beautiful women and danger at every turn. It really was one of the reasons I opened this gig up. Though I’d be a liar to say I didn’t sometimes regret it. Life or death is like that.
“It’s probably best if you went home, Sasha. I’ll keep you in the loop if any new developments arise.”
Another blur appeared at my door. My eyes glanced at the doorknob. It didn’t turn. My inner instincts cranked up. There was something off about whoever was on the other side. My hand instinctually went to Sasha’s waist and pushed her behind me. As a shifter, I had no doubts she could handle herself if she needed to. But mine was a full-service detective agency. And while I wasn’t a bodyguard, that still sometimes that meant being protective.
The glass shattered and a glowing blade burst into the room. We both dodged to the side, out of its path. The knife fell to the floor, clinking onto the scuffed wood. It didn’t stay there long before it was jerked back out by an attached chain. I watched it fly back into the hands of its owner, a short figure in a hood. There were yellow circles on either side of the hood and I got the impression they weren’t a manufacturer’s design. The hooded figure kicked the door open. It definitely wasn’t wearing the latest in hoodie fashions. Whoever was under the hood, they’d gone full medieval in the robe department: head to toe, tattered black robe.
As far as robbers were concerned, this one had been oddly aggressive and very strange. Most people wouldn’t want any cloth to drag but this one didn’t have that same hang up. The dark robe slid across the floor as the knife holder dashed into the room. I barely had time to pull my gun. My eyes were too shocked by the glowing blade. That a robber was using a knife wasn’t all that strange. That a robber was using a Soul Ripper was.
CAHPTER 5
I had seen enough Soul Rippers to know I didn’t want to be cut by one. Frankly, I didn’t know which was worse, the idea of having my soul permanently removed from my body or the fact that there were enough of those things in the world for me to claim I’d seen enough of them. I never knew who made them or where they came from but I did know it wasn’t the kind of thing your run of the mill robber typically carried.
The attacker dropped the knife, letting it hover just above the floor before he spun it around on the chain in a wide circle. Only he knew when he would loose it.
“Sasha, stay—” She beat me to it. All I saw was the quick darting movements of a four-legged feline as it dashed for the attacker. She leaped at the man’s face but he used his free arm to swat her aside. The cat hissed and slammed into the wall. Shifter or not, I’ve always had a sore spot for men who hit women. Especially when that woman was my client.
And since he was obviously out for blood, I saw no reason not to return the favor. I fired one shot but the attacker was fast. He dodged the bullet and hurled the knife at me. I stepped out of its path and watched the highly dangerous weapon sail past me. The blue glow trailed behind it like the tail of a comet. This was my chance to go back on the offensive. There was just one problem. He could jerk the knife back and it could get me on the return.
His next move took me by surprise as he whipped the chain toward me. The metal links collided with my neck where the weight of the blade carried it around my throat, quickly cutting off my oxygen. This guy was going through an awful lot of trouble to just rob a place. The joke would be on him when he found out there was nothing worth stealing.
“He’s an Acolyte!” Sasha shouted.
The attacker lifted his head just enough for me to make out a smile under the hood. I felt the knife fall flat against my back. It took my mind off being strangled for a moment. Until the Acolyte tugged on the chain, pulling me forward and further tightening the metal noose.
I stomped one leg forward to prevent a fall then grabbed the chain and jerked the Acolyte toward me. Our game of tug-o-war was really only good to keep the pressure off my own neck. I fired two more shots at the man. He dodged those, jerking me to the side and leaving me with a need to explain to my landlord as to why there were bullet holes in the walls.
I wasn’t going to last much longer. And shooting the guy hadn’t gone as planned. It was time for something unexpected.
I released the chain and dashed for the Acolyte. The move took him by surprise, giving me just the opening I needed.
I’d built up a pretty healthy callous on my knuckles over the years. I was what you might call rowdy, not only in my youth but also in my job. I’d been in lots of trouble for getting into fist fights. Back then it was school punishments. Later I’d gotten to know prison guards fairly well. Normally a fight like that is avoidable. After all, who needs fists when you’ve got bullets. But sometimes a simple fight is just that. It isn’t always a life or death matter. This fight was not a simple one. At least, it hadn’t started that way.
One punch dropped the Acolyte to the floor. Honestly, I thought after all that bullet dodging, the guy would have put up more of a contest. Not that I was complaining. I was just glad that knife wasn’t flying around the room any more.
Freeing myself from the chain was more of an ordeal than it should have been. But there was little choice in the matter. Caution around a Soul Ripper was the order of the day. One little knick was enough to do the job.
“Is he dead?” Sasha asked, her allure returned. As a cat, she had lost all appeal. It was strange how it all came back once she was human again. Shifters in human form took on certain animal traits. I’d never been attracted to a cat before so I started wondering what my attraction to a werecat really said about me.
“Are you OK?” I asked. “You took a nasty couple of hits.”
“I’m OK.” She motioned toward the Acolyte. “What about…that?”
“Not dead. I’m in the wrong business if I can kill a man with one punch.”
“I thought you might have used a spell.”
“That’s unlikely.” For a moment, I thought about telling her why. But I quickly figured possession by an ancient warlord would sound crazy or scare her off. We were already under one world-ending threat. We didn’t need two of them.
I lifted the Acolyte’s cowl. The man underneath was unremarkable. Somehow, I was expecting tattoos or scars, maybe a missing eye. But he looked like anyone in Central Park. He might have been a lawyer or an investment banker. For all I knew, the guy was an off—Broadway play actor. Any of those possibilities made the Acolytes more frightening.
“Who is he?” Sasha asked.
“Could be anyone. And that’s bad news. Because that means they’re just regular people outside of that get up.” I pointed
at the hood. The Acolytes of Chaos were like one of those secret fraternities that you hear about in whispers. The kind of people you sit next to at a bar without even knowing it.
“What are you going to do with him?”
I clenched the handle of the Soul Ripper. Calling the cops was on option but if this guy had money or connections, he’d just be out by morning if not in a few hours. Was one less follower of destruction just as good as one less demon on the streets? I shook off the thought. I had questions and this guy had answers. Answers that might save me a trip to the first scene of the crime.
I held the knife just over the man’s stomach and gave him a few firm slaps in the face.
His first reaction was to launch up from the floor but he caught himself just before the knife tip could pierce him.
“Welcome back,” I said as friendly as possible. “You slipped and ran into my fist. The floors in this place are pretty uneven. But now that you’re awake, I was hoping you might answer some questions.”
“Your questions come too late,” the Acolyte said. “The Chaos Bringer will be among us, soon. You and this world shall perish under his rule.”
“I got all that. What are you doing here?”
The Acolyte said nothing but only smiled as he turned to look at Sasha.
“Eyes front, pal. She can’t do anything for you.”
“She can do everything. Everything we need,” the Acolyte said.
“Where is my sister?” Sasha asked.
“Sister?” The Acolyte actually looked confused. It was as though the question made no sense to him.
“I’m tired of this,” Sasha said, rushing up behind me.
My first thoughts were that she was going to start smacking the guy around to get him to talk. I usually liked warming up to that part but I wasn’t going to get in her way if she wanted to jump right to it. I certainly wasn’t expecting her to do what came next.
Her hands clasped around my wrist and pushed down, plunging the Soul Ripper into the Acolyte.
“Sasha, no!” I yelled. But it was well past too late. I didn’t know if she realized the effect her action would have but I instinctively tackled her to the floor. “Close your eyes!” I yelled, covering her entire head with my arms.
The light show that took place after that was both brilliant and terrifying. The glow from the blade coursed over the Acolyte and his mouth flew open. The scream from his lungs was like nothing heard on Earth. It wasn’t just his vocal cords making the sound. It was his very essence crying out as it was ripped from the Acolyte’s body.
I’d seen it play out a couple of times. It wasn’t something I would ever get used to. The white light appeared first, followed by the sound of thunder as the soul was pulled toward it. Another boom broke through the air. This time the white light vanished and an orange light burst through the floor, enveloping the Acolyte’s dead body. Black and sooty hands reached up for the soul and grabbed it, pulling down the screaming essence into a pit I knew very little about.
The blue light of the Acolyte’s soul stretched as it tried to free itself from the pointy grasps. But it was futile. I’ve seen many things that would make my skin crawl but what was happening in front of me was something that sent chills straight to my bone and into the next person.
The Acolyte’s soul was gone, pulled into the fiery abyss. As were the arms that had pulled it down. But the red light remained. This was the worst part of the whole ordeal. My guess was it had something to do with the warlord stirring inside me because every time it happened, I got that buzzing feeling. Unfortunately, it was my eyes that had to live with the sight.
The red light shrank as a smaller form came up as if through the floor. The back of the thing’s head was crusty with thin, sparse strands of hair. It wasn’t facing me. Not at first. Suddenly it snapped its head around and I could hear the sound of its neck crack. It had no eyelids to cover the black and red eyes that stared at me. Few teeth were in its mouth. And its nose looked like it was in a constant state of melting.
The thing pointed at me and smiled then snarled, pointing behind me, as though it saw something I couldn’t. Its expression quickly changed to fright, which believe it or not was the most unnerving aspect of the whole ordeal. Because as terrifying as the creature was, whatever it saw must have been even worse.
The light vanished as soon as the thing fell back into wherever it came from, and I rolled off Sasha, both of us gasping for air. It was a common effect when ways to Heaven and Hell open up on Earth.
“What was that? What happened?” Sasha asked before sitting up and coughing.
“Gateways to the afterlife.”
“That sound, it was…”
“Bad, I know.”
“Why couldn’t I see anything?”
The explanation was tricky. Mostly because I could watch and she couldn’t. Like I said, just because they’re from the veil doesn’t make them much different than humans.
“Assuming you didn’t die from shock at seeing all of that, you’d go completely crazy. Catatonically crazy. No one is supposed to see what happens after death unless they actually die.”
“But you could?”
I tapped my chest where my heart was. “Let’s just say, I’m not alone in here.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“And hopefully you won’t find out.” I only knew three things about the warlord. And the first two were about me using magic. The third thing was that somehow, I was able to watch certain scenes play out that no one else could. The warlord was powerful. Enough to—I’d guessed— stare down the denizens of Hell. Which meant I could, too. But the reasons for why still eluded me.
I finally sat up. “What I want to know is what he meant by you can do everything they need. And how you knew he was an Acolyte in the first place.”
She shifted her weight again. I was getting taken for a ride. I just didn’t know how. The Acolytes were clearly real, so at least she wasn’t lying about everything.
“I get the feeling you know more than you’re letting on.”
“I’m sorry, Arthur,” she said. This time she was turning on the charm. “Since this all happened, it’s been hard to know who to trust.”
“You’re paying me two-hundred-fifty an hour and I haven’t attacked you, so I think it’s time to start trusting me.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. When I first arrived at my sister’s, I saw someone leap from the window. They were wearing the same kind of robe as him, with the yellow circles on the hood.” She pointed at the dead body. “I just made the connection after you told me about the Acolytes.”
I didn’t know if it was her allure or the truth but either way, I was convinced…well, semi-convinced. Enough to not dwell on it.
“I guess this makes back-tracking unnecessary. No need to go to your sister’s. Not now. Let’s get rid of this body and pay an old friend a visit.”
“Who?”
“Just a warlock,”
“A warlock?” she said it with some panic. Can’t say I didn’t blame her. They’re powerful magic users who tend to slant toward the dark side of magic.
“I know. I know. But trust me. This guy has his ear to the ground. If we need to find your sister, he’ll know where she is.” I didn’t tell her the rest. No reason to cause further alarm by letting her know this particular warlock also wanted me dead.
CHAPTER 6
Her car looked and sounded expensive. Not unlike herself. I could feel the power of the engine through the seat. Though in all honesty, the seat could have had a massage function judging by what the price tag for the vehicle must have been. It was a convertible hard top, with the top up, of course. Any other night, I imagined she had it down and let the wind whip at her hair. Tonight, though, with the threat of the Chaos Bringer and her sister being abducted, this was a time for as many walls between herself and those meaning to do harm as she could get.
“Where is this warlock?” she asked, some fear in her voice ag
ain. When it came to wizards, mages, witches and warlocks, they were all magic users. Some of them might have been more powerful or knowledgeable than others but the foundations were the same. Except for my little problem, technically I was a wizard. I studied the stuff and used it right up until my possession. Warlocks, though…those guys usually came by their abilities through some sort of ritual or blood pact with an upper tier demon. Though there were a few who were really just low-level magicians who liked the title. It did make them sound more powerful.
Of course, when it came time to walk the walk, I can’t tell you how many excuses I’d heard. The most common was how low they were on mana. Magic wasn’t a thing you ran out of. Potions, you could run out of. A number of spells you could run out of. But the magic itself? That was called from somewhere else. It wasn’t a resource from inside the user. It was that sort of thinking that let me know when I was dealing with low level magicians. Where we were going was not the home of a low level magician. How he came by his skill was questionable. A question I didn’t ask while doing everything in my ability to avoid the guy.
“China Town.”
“Are you sure he’s there?” Sasha asked, sounding as if she hoped the answer was no.
“He’s there. The guy hardly ever leaves. Can’t say I blame him. With all of his power, he can bring anything he needs straight to him. No need to ever leave the house.”
I glanced at her. She kept her eyes on the road but it was clear she was nervous.
“You and warlocks don’t see eye to eye?” I asked.
“It just feels strange to walk into a dangerous situation after getting out of another one.”
“Welcome to my life. This sort of thing is every other day for me. That little case at the club, earlier? That was an easy night. Sure could use more of those.” I trailed off. It was true. As much as I hated to run after that familiar for nothing, I’d take five more of those for every world-ending case that came up. I supposed I should be grateful the end times ones do come to me. Better to know about them than not. Because who knew how many were going on that I’d never hear about. There were plenty of people all over the world fighting against those who wanted to harm the world and those in it. They were the kinds of stories that never made headlines and were only spoken of in dark corners.