by Michael Todd
“Would you like to come along?” Damian asked.
“We going to Jessie Rae’s?” she asked energy blooming where lethargy had lurked a moment before.
The guys weren’t sure if she was talking about a restaurant or someone’s house. Derek shrugged and Damian looked at Eric for answers.
He was no more help than Derek was.
“Well, we’ve never heard of Jessie Rae’s,” Damian said. “We Googled ‘best barbeque in Vegas’ and came up with a restaurant on the main Strip. We figured we would give it a shot and see how things went. Derek here has been threatening the lives of the entire team if he didn’t get authentic barbeque soon.”
“Jesus.” She started.
“Pardon?” Damian raised an eyebrow.
“Sorry,” she said, shaking her head and walking over to Damian. “You cannot be trusted to take someone to barbeque until you have had Jessie Rae’s.”
She took the keys out of his hand, grinning at the other guys.
Katie knew they were in for a treat, and she hadn’t been out in a while. She figured she had trained hard enough that day after being up at the crack of dawn to check on Joshua, so she owed it to herself to have a little fun with the team.
With an impending incursion on the horizon, she needed to have all the fun she could while there was time to do so.
She opened the door. “All right,” she said, shooing the guys out the door. “Let’s get this show on the road!”
The four of them jumped into an SUV and headed up the 15 toward the Strip.
The guys watched out the windows as the lights of Vegas brightened the mood around them. They stared at the casinos, thinking about the unsuspecting visitors laughing, drinking, and just having fun without a worry in the world.
They all tried to think back to a time when they themselves had lived a life that carefree, but none of them could recall it.
They got off the freeway at West Russell Street and went up the overpass. A few blocks west they took a right on South Valley View Blvd, and just fifty yards down Katie had her blinker on.
It was a tiny little strip mall, with a small sign for Jessie Rae’s on the right side of the building.
“Where do they smoke their meat?” Derek asked. “In the oven?”
“Shut your mouth!” Katie quipped. “The pits are out back, actually.”
They walked in and stood in line, Katie pointing to the massive menu on the wall.
“If you don’t try the waffle fries, I’m going to have to say you’re an idiot. If you dare try to take one of mine before I’m full?” She made sure she had the attention of everyone there. “You will have to regrow a finger.”
The guys chuckled, but didn’t question her comments.
The smell of smoked meat overwhelmed their senses. Katie smiled down at the red and white checkered table cloths, remembering coming there with her friends not that long before. It felt like ages though—another life, really.
Katie pushed her point. “Okay, so whatever you do, you have to get the waffle fries. They are like the best thing ever made. And as far as the meat, it doesn’t matter which you pick—it’s all delicious. You won’t even need a knife to cut it, just your fork and about a thousand napkins. Oh, and that guy over there? That’s Mike. He’s the head guy, the chef of the joint. I’ve only had take-out on three occasions, but I saw him deliver twice.
They all placed their orders and sat around waiting, trying to feel as normal as they possibly could. Derek was so excited he could barely stay put in his chair, so Damian started a conversation with him about his old life. Katie turned to Eric, curious about him and what he wanted out of the whole situation he was in.
“So, you want a demon,” she said, looking at him. “I get it, and I’m not judging. I’m just curious as to what kind of demon you are interested in having. There are all kinds of infestations, and in the situation you are in, you just might be able to have your pick. If you are on the lookout, one of us might be able to help you pin it down.”
He looked at her strangely, then laughed. “How would you do that?”
“Oh, we have our ways.” She winked at Damian, who had caught a bit of the conversation.
“I would definitely not doubt this one.” Damian was looking at the different sauces. “If she says something can be done, I can promise you she will either have already thought of a way or she will figure one out for you.”
“I don’t know, really,” he said. “I just hope it’s not an incubus. I’m pretty sure my virile manhood would be too much for the damn thing. I would kill it before I had a chance to play around with it.”
Everyone laughed, thinking about how cocky and manly Eric really was—minus the soap opera thing.
Katie smirked, finding his personality interesting, but knowing he thought way more of himself than he should under the circumstances. When the laughter had quieted down and the musk of manhood had faded, she smiled and picked up her fork, twisting it gently into the table.
“Well, what if it were a succubus?” She had a smirk on her face. “What would you do then?”
All three guys got quieter than they ever had been. Damian raised his eyebrows and looked around the room, while Derek pretended to play on his phone. Eric laughed nervously, trying not to make eye contact. Katie pulled her eyebrows together and sat up in her chair. Eric was blushing so hard he looked almost like a tomato in the chair next to her. Then it hit her, and she couldn’t even believe that wasn’t her first realization.
“Oh my God!” she hissed, her eyes wide open. She looked around and then bent forward and whispered, “I’d have to knock before entering your rooms!”
All three guys smirked and started chuckling. Eric tried to hold it in, but he couldn’t. He let out a deep breath and laughed hard, getting the attention of a tourist couple with large New York New York casino hats atop their heads.
“To be honest,” Derek confided, “with these guys you should probably always knock before you enter their rooms anyway.”
“Not me,” Damian answered, smirking. “I’m a priest.”
He jerked a thumb toward Damian. “Especially him,” Derek said, laughing.
Katie looked around the table and smiled, feeling like, at least for a moment, everything was as it should be.
Later that night back at the base, Katie sat on the edge of her bed staring down at the cross Joshua had given her. She hadn’t thought about Damian dying, not until Joshua had given her that cross.
For some reason she’d had the idea that the priest was immortal, like in a movie, but she knew that beneath the robes and cross he was just a man like any other, susceptible to the inevitable. She knew it was time to give it to him, so she wrapped it up in a satin cloth and tied a piece of ribbon around it.
“Knock, knock,” she said, standing in his doorway.
“You are learning.” His eyes glinted with amusement.
“Yeah.” She shook her head, a small blush creeping up her cheeks. “I have something for you.”
Katie walked into his room and held out the gift. He looked up at her and then down at the gift, unsure what to do.
He hadn’t expected her to give him anything.
“This is a surprise,” he admitted, looking up at her. “What is it?”
“Well, you have to open it to find out,” she told him. “But you can consider it a weapon fit for a priest. I am assuming from your reaction that you don’t get gifts very often.”
“The guys around here aren’t much into gift-giving,” he explained, shaking the package slightly. “We aren’t a very romantic bunch.”
“I got that vibe.” She nodded, still watching him in expectation.
Damian took the gift and held it in his lap, eyeing Katie dubiously.
He ran his hand over the smoothness of the satin and up to the edge of the ribbon. Before he pulled it, he looked back up at her again and shook his head. She smiled and sat down on the edge of his bed next to him.
“Come o
n, it won’t bite,” she teased him.
He pulled the ribbon and carefully unwrapped the box and pulled out the cross, then held it up in front of him. It shimmered in the light of the candles he had lit on his mantle. He looked at the cross and then back at Katie, still unable to find words.
Katie grinned. “Do you like it?”
“It’s absolutely beautiful,” he said. “Really, it’s stunning.”
“Push that onto demon flesh, and I promise you will get their attention.” Katie smiled. “They won’t even know what hit them. It will be like that time my demon ate another demon.” She slammed her right fist into her left hand. “Bam!”
“That sounds interesting.” He laughed. “But I really don’t understand why this cross would do any more damage than the one I have been using from the beginning. It’s so beautiful I want to set it up in the chapel and use it during service.” He looked at her. “It seems a waste to sully something so beautiful with demon flesh.”
“It’s not made for display.” Katie nudged him. “It’s made for the job, though it’s yours now so you can do whatever you want. It was from Joshua. He told me that he made it, but that Jules at the brothel—she wanted to make sure you got it. She was worried that what happened to Armani would happen with you. She didn’t know what that was, but she knew that you guys worked together.”
“Ohh,” he said, grasping the cross tighter in his fist. “That makes perfect sense now.”
Katie watched Damian’s kind expression fade and a more malicious one appear.
He was thinking about all the damage he could do to the demons in the future. Not only did he now have a beautiful cross, but it had been supercharged by their new Weapons Master.
His current cross was something he’d had for a very long time, and since he rarely carried many weapons, just a gun or two and his cross, his new one would up his game tenfold.
His job was to rid the Earth of the demons and send them back to the depths of hell to which God had banished them. His job had come from God, and this weapon renewed his faith in the possibility that he would do it well.
“Thank you, Katie.” He nodded. “This is perfect. Please give Joshua my thanks if I don’t get to, and tell him that this will definitely be put to good use taking care of those demons he hates.”
“We protect the ones we love,” Katie told him, standing up and patting his shoulder. “And you were the first person we all thought of.”
21
The morning had started off like any other. Everyone had gotten themselves out of bed, grabbed a morning coffee or tea or Coke and a bagel, and sat around half awake until the caffeine started to kick in.
The only one missing from the table that morning was Korbin, but it wasn’t unusual considering he often was up earlier than everyone else, usually caught up in conference calls from the higher ups.
Typically the calls were nothing important—at least not as important as training—but it was part of his job, to deal with the politics of it all.
There wasn’t much to their morning talks: just rehashing events of the night before, discussing who would be training where, and generally trying to wake up before they stepped into the pit.
Katie couldn’t help but notice how quiet Pandora had been. She figured she was just still sour about the new business and the weapons they were creating.
When she had finished her coffee she headed back to her room and pulled on her boots, lacing them up her calf. She looked out through her window at the other building, smiling as Joshua pulled up in his van and scurried inside wearing those same brown pants and perfectly tucked-in button-up shirt. She knew he had several outfits, and she wondered if they were all the same.
The thought made her giggle, but that giggle was short-lived. The red light started flashing above her door and the siren blared in her ears.
She didn’t even wait for an announcement, just grabbed her knives off her dresser, put them in her sheaths, and headed down to the training area.
The alarm had jump-started everyone’s adrenaline, and they were wide awake by the time Korbin got down there for the briefing.
He whispered something in Damian’s ear, and Damian frowned. He glanced up at Katie and grabbed the top of his new cross, which was firmly strapped into a holster on his hip like a gun.
“Morning, everyone,” Korbin said to the group. “Here is the deal. We got the call that something is going down in Los Angeles.” He looked around. “There are reports that a bus full of children is missing.”
“Those fucking bastards,” Derek said through gritted teeth.
“We knew they would strike where it hurt us the most,” Korbin reminded the team. “That being said, it could be terrorists. We haven’t ruled that out yet.”
“Or it could be the beginning of a major incursion,” Calvin said.
“Exactly.” Korbin sighed. “So, we are going to lay out the tactical situation for everyone when we get there. There will be two red shirts—guys who are there to help and make the team stronger. They are our responsibility, so try to protect them as much as possible. What I need you to do now is suit up and grab every weapon you think you might use while we are there, including ammo and backup ammo. Pack a bag if you need to—just don’t walk into this shorthanded. Best case scenario, it’s a terrorist act and the police take over. I don’t think I need to go over what the worst-case scenario is. So, heads strong, eyes on the prize, and let’s move out.”
Immediately the team fell into their rhythm, moving seamlessly around the base, suiting up in their armor, gathering their gear, and picking out weapons.
Eric concentrated on gathering his medic gear first, and Katie grabbed him two guns, the ones he preferred to use ammo. She walked over and set them down next to his bags.
Eric looked at the guns, then at Katie. “Thanks.” He grabbed the weapons and checked their safeties before placing them in his bag. “I hadn’t had a chance.”
“You are our medic,” she said. “I’d rather get your guns to give you time to make sure you have everything you need than lose one of our men because we let you come unprepared. Besides, if you’re gonna catch you a demon, you need to stay alive while you are out there.”
Katie smiled and patted him on the shoulder, then walked off toward the garage.
The team rode in silence, everyone lost in their own thoughts. They motivated themselves with all the reasons these demon scum needed to go down, and go down hard.
When they arrived at the jet they loaded it up and climbed aboard, sitting as comfortably as they could while decked out in their gear.
The flight didn’t take very long, and by the time they were landing at Bob Hope Airport, they were anxiously awaiting their next orders. The airport was quiet, and they were able to come right in and taxi over to a covered area where three SUVs waited for them.
Everyone hopped out of the jet and unloaded the gear into the vehicles before lining up to hear what direction they would be heading in.
The mood was solemn but focused, and Katie could feel Pandora stirring inside her. She seemed to be even more focused than Katie but she remained quiet, waiting to find out more details.
“All right, people,” he said. “Still no word yet or any extra details on whether we are looking at demons or straight-up psychos, but at this point we are here and I want every one of you to be in the mindset that we are walking into multiple incursions. This is not a drill, and your lives, as well as those of countless innocents, are on the line here. There is no time for showboating or selfish thoughts. You are on duty, so you need to be ready. Calvin will tell you about our tactical approach plan.”
“Okay, men and lady.” Calvin nodded to Katie, “here is what we are doing. Korbin has split us into three teams. The first team will be Korbin, Derek, and on loan, Sebastian Alexander. The second group will be me, Jeremy, and on loan, Rob Taylor. The third team will be Katie, Damian, and Eric. Now, on Team One, Sebastian will be designated medic if needed, since he has
the most experience in that team. On Team Two Rob is the medic, and on Team Three it’s Eric. If anyone is injured on the team, get to your medic. In the meantime, protect the medic. They will be helping anyone in need as well as fighting their asses off.”
“Team leads are as follows,” Korbin said, stepping up. “Team One is me, Team Two is Calvin, and Team Three is Katie. Leads have the hardest job. We are responsible for keeping our teams together, as well as orchestrating whatever attack is called in to us in our location. Keep your earpieces tuned in. Damian,” Korbin glanced at his priest, “that means you, too.”
Katie looked at Damian and smirked, knowing he had a horrible habit of forgetting to turn on his earpiece.
He nodded and reached up, pressing the button on his earpiece.
Katie could feel the adrenaline pumping through her. She was ready to take on the scumbags who had done one of the worst things imaginable: abducted children.
There was no telling what the teams would find when they got their calls. Demons had no moral code or fear of breaking human laws in order to get under their skin and into their minds.
There was a sickness spreading through the streets of Los Angeles; Katie could feel it radiating through her.
It was a new sensation, and not one she was enjoying.
“Gather around,” Korbin said, spreading a map on the table. “We have decided on three main locations we want you in or around.” He looked up at Calvin. “Team Two, you will be in or near Hollywood.” He glanced at Katie. “Team Three, you will be as close to Disneyland as you can get. My team will be near downtown LA.
“Now, your team will be called to the nearest incursion spot when things start to pop off, and you will be responsible for getting there as soon as possible. Designate a driver before you are called, and it shouldn’t be your team lead. They need to be assessing and creating a battle plan for your arrival and operational success. The tablets are charged, and you should be able to access all reports so you can access whatever information you need on the spots you will heading to. Remember, these could be schools, churches, hospitals, or elderly homes. They could be packed or vacant; you don’t know what to expect when you walk into the doors.”