Paranormal After Dark

by Rebecca Hamilton

  Tres turned his glare from his brother onto me as I stepped inside. “Did you think I’d just let you lock my girlfriend up like a lab rat?”

  Tres threw his hand out in the direction of the three occupied cells against the wall. Delilah sat on the cot of hers with her knees pulled up to her chest and tears running down her cheeks. They were probably fake. Her gaze fell on me, and she made a small squeak, pressing herself against the wall and making herself as small as possible. Adrian had spent hours turning several old offices into a secured guest facility. Each cell was blocked off from the center of the room by a large pane of shatterproof glass.

  I raised an eyebrow at Tres. “You know she used you to spy on us for a demon right?”

  Tres’s jaw worked, like he was grinding his teeth together. “That means she deserves to get locked up?”

  “It would be stupidity to let her go. Who knows what she’s told Cambione already,” Adrian said. “Did the two of you have a lot of pillow talk?”

  Tres stiffened as redness crept up his face. “Fuck you, Adrian.”

  “I’m more interested in what she knows of Cambione,” I said. “Besides, she’s dealing and using Blasphemy. Jonah needs to study someone.”

  “Why not the other two?”

  Jonah cleared his throat. “More individuals would produce better results. I need to know how long brimstone stays in their system and how much damage has been done to them.”

  “I’m a doctor. I can do that,” Tres said. “Without locking them up.”

  “You were more interested in sleeping with her,” Adrian said.

  “Besides, we’re looking for a more mystical effect,” I said.

  Tres clenched his fists. “If Esais was here, he wouldn’t stand for this.”

  I glanced at the door. “Where is Esais?”

  “Not here,” Adrian said. “He’s once again slipped off the radar. All of them.”

  Jonah walked to stand in front of Adrian and inspected him with pursed lips. “I don’t remember you being this tall.”

  “Well, I’m not Esais,” Adrian said. “But I may have gained a few inches since you last saw me.”

  “Yes, your time in America at school.” Jonah sniffed. “Among other things.”

  “You can say prison,” Adrian said.

  Jonah stiffened, and I cleared my throat. He glanced in my direction, but Adrian kept his gaze on the older man. This was the consequences Jonah had to pay for keeping his distance with the brothers. His decision wasn’t unwarranted with the secrets he wanted kept. However, nothing was staying hidden with this family. Adrian may not be as forgiving of Jonah.

  Lucy pushed past me and put her hand on Tres’s shoulder. “I know you’re upset, Dearie, but I think you’re pushing your anger in the wrong direction.”

  She turned her gaze to Delilah in her cell.

  Delilah glared back and yelled, her voice muffled by her glass prison. “These bitches are lying and crazy. I don’t deserve to be here.”

  “Who do you believe?” Lucy said. “Your family or—”

  “Forget it,” Marge called from the doorway. “He’s gonna believe the piece of ass.”

  She leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed. She was dressed in a one piece black vinyl bodysuit with a black corset over top. She tapped the heel of her high heeled boot and smirked at me. Oh, hell. Tres’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. Adrian blinked and shook his head.

  Lucy gave a low whistle. “Trying a new look, dearie?”

  Marge tilted her head to the side and smiled at Lucy. “I think it suits me. Wanna give it a try?”

  “Excuse us.” I grabbed Marge’s arm, not unlike the previous night, and yanked her out into the hall, shutting the door behind us. “What the hell happened to the girl with the ‘fuck all’ attitude?”

  Marge shrugged. “Wasn’t working out.”

  “You need to fight him and the dreams. I thought you wanted to stay out of hell.”

  “What’s the point? I’m damned anyway. We don’t even know who has my contract.”

  “Cambione is still alive. We still have a chance.”

  She crossed her arms and snorted. “Yeah, how well has that worked out for you? I don’t have centuries.”

  “So, you’re just going to give in and become . . .” I waved my hand up and down. “This.”

  “I might as well stop denying what I want,” she said.

  I eyed her outfit again. “I’m not even sure what that is.”

  She seemed to have accessorized with her usual hunters gear along with—was that a whip?

  The door swung open, and Adrian looked out at us. “I hate to bust this little chat up, but I need to speak with the two of you.” He turned his gaze to Marge. “That is, if you haven’t traded hunting for a one eight hundred number.”

  She smiled at him. “I’m still down for hurting things.”

  He stepped out, followed by Lucy and Tres. Tres had his shoulders hunched, and he wouldn’t meet any of our eyes.

  “Jonah needs time to examine our guest.” Adrian’s gaze scanned all of us. “I have the location and blueprints of the Acesco factory. I figured we can get out of his way and put an end to one of the drugs.”

  “How are we going to do that?” Lucy asked.

  I’m in,” I said.

  Marge snorted and crossed her arms. “You sure your old bones can handle it?”

  “Better than you in those boots,” I said.

  She scowled.

  “I’m staying here,” Tres said. “You have them, you don’t need me.”

  “No,” Adrian said. “I’m not leaving you here to bother Jonah with your whining.”

  “Besides, how long has it been since you hurt something?” I asked.

  Tres muttered and leaned against the wall, looking at the floor.

  Lucy turned to Adrian. “So what is the plan?”

  Chapter 29

  THE ACESCO FACTORY occupied an entire side of the street. It was a three story L-shaped monstrosity surrounded by a fifteen foot, white brick wall. A small guard shack with a window stood outside the only gate and it was occupied. As I lay flat on the roof of another building across the street, I scanned the walk through the binoculars.

  “One guard on the outside,” I said. “The fence is lined with metal poles and it looks like cameras. We can probably get the gate open if we take the guard out.”

  Adrian sat hunched over a black rifle. His head was down, and he fiddled with something closed to where his eye should have been. He turned to the rest of us with his eye patch in his hand. What looked like a small camera lens protruded from his eye socket. It was attached to a metal casing that was flush with his skin around his eye. Tres snorted.

  “Are you bionic now?” he asked.

  “Something like that,” Adrian said.

  “What the hell is that?” Marge asked.

  “Something I came up with to allow me to quantify patterns.”

  “That’s a bit vague, Dearie,” Lucy said. “What sort of patterns?”

  “Energy, life. If it works correctly, I should be able to differentiate between a vampire, a demon, and a normal human,” Adrian said.

  A remnant our conversation about magic drifted through my mind. “Does this allow you to see spirits?”

  “Perhaps.” Adrian turned back to the case, pulled out several pieces of a rifle, and began to put them together. “I will handle the guard. Gabby, handle the gate and security system.”

  I blinked at him. “Aren’t you the technological genius here?”

  He took a small black cylinder out of the case and held it out to me. “Even you should be able to do this. Just place it on the computer. The nanites and I will handle the rest.”

  I glanced around at the others. “I guess they just get to sit around.”

  “For now,” Adrian said. “They would wreck something.”

  “Hey,” Lucy said. “I rarely wreck anything.”

  I slipped on a black sk
i mask, climbed onto the fire escape, and took a series of ladders down to an alley. I pressed my back against the wall and stared across the street. The figure inside didn’t move as a car sputtered down the street with is motor echoing in the air. After the taillights vanished down the hill, I traversed to the shack in a crouching walk. The guard sat slumped in his chair with his chin resting on his chest. I squeezed in the security station behind him and leaned over to reach the computer built into the desk. A loud amalgam of a snort and snore emerged from him. I paused with the small black cylinder in my hand, but he continued to sleep.

  I pressed the cylinder to the front of the computer and backed up to the wall. The three monitors that hung from the ceiling blinked through the two floors of the underground parking lot and on several angles of the three story building.

  I touched the communication bud in my ear and spoke. “It’s on the computer. How long will this take?”

  “It should only be a minute for the nanites to do their trick.” Adrian’s cool voice echoed in my ear.

  I backed to the doorway as I continued to watch the monitors. The screens flickered with tiny white lines and froze. I pulled off the black ski mask covering my face and sucked in a long breath.

  “It’s frozen,” I said.

  “We’re on our way,” Adrian said.

  I pressed the green button on the wall near the door and the front gate slid open with a metal squeak. Lucy crossed the street first, followed by Adrian and Tres. Marge stalked up last with her hands jammed in the pockets of her windbreaker and her hip swaying as she walked in those heeled boots. A scowl marred the delicate features of her face. I slipped through the gate as it began to close. Adrian headed down the road to the underground parking garage.

  “Why can’t we just bust down the front doors again?” Marge nodded to the right where the visitor parking spots sat before the double glass doors.

  “Stealth, guile, the police,” I said. “We’ve talked about this before.”

  “I stop paying attention to your little meetings once you say whose ass we are kicking.”

  I snorted and kept walking down the ramp. Yellow lights flickered over the empty concrete as we paused at the single metal door that led into the building. Adrian pulled out a card with a dark strip on the back and ran it through an electronic reader connected to the handle. A beep and a click echoed through the garage, and he pulled the door open. I inhaled and counted to ten, letting the others travel up the spiraling concrete stairs first. My hand hovered over the sheath of my sword. Marge hissed behind me.

  She waved her hand at me in an impatient manner. She always acted like she had somewhere better to be, though the only place she had to go home to was a shabby hotel with bad television. She should be enjoying this place. The possibility of a fight was high. Then again, that was probably why she was waving me on. Adrian waited for us at the top and closed the door behind us.

  “Second floor,” Tres said. “Shoes, formal, lingerie.”

  Lucy sniggered.

  “The servers should be down that hall.” Adrian pointed to the left. “We need to wipe them of the information.”

  “Lead the way,” I said.

  We followed him around the corner. Two figures dressed in blue guard uniforms appeared at the end of the hall. They stopped at the sight of us, one of them reaching for the gun on his belt. I pushed Adrian behind me, drew my sword, and crouched in a sprinters run.

  “Vampires.” Adrian drew two stakes and tossed one to Tres.

  Marge ripped off a metal canister from her belt, pulled a ring pin, and rolled it down the hall. A pale mist, blue in the light, rose from the opening and around their feet. A mix between a roar and a scream burst from the guard on the right. I charged in, keeping low to the ground, and swung my blade at his leg. Black smoke erupted from the deep gash on his calf, and he toppled over. He clutched his leg and let out a monstrous cry again. Adrian didn’t give him a chance to continue. He pushed the creature to the floor and jammed the stake into his chest. The vampire convulsed. His skin blackened, and he shrank until nothing remained but wisps of shadow in a security uniform.

  Tres rushed forward, his hand extended to touch the second guard’s shoulder. The guard grabbed him, spun, and pressed Tres against the wall. Black claws extended from the fingers that wrapped around Tres’s neck. Lucy uttered an expletive and grabbed the guard’s arm. The guard caught Lucy in the chin with his elbow and sent her flying into the opposite wall.

  I brought my sword high and swung it at his neck. The blade passed through as he shifted into a shadow, and Tres slid through his immaterial fingers and to the ground, choking and coughing. The shadow floated in an amorphous mass between us. I gripped my sword tighter. It would do nothing to the monster now, but I needed to get to Tres.

  A holy water grenade passed through the shadow, spraying mist as it went, hit the wall, and landed in Tres’s lap. Smoke rose from the shadows, and it undulated in a frantic rapid pattern before it disintegrated. I straightened up and held my hand out to Tres.

  “Are you all right?” I asked.

  He stood with a hoarse groan. “Wonderful. Can we get this over with?”

  “Don’t worry,” Adrian said. “Your girlfriend will still be in her cage when we return.”

  Tres glared at him. “Fuck off, Adrian. I don’t need this right now.”

  “Is it possible you could save your bitching until we are not in a factory full of monsters?” I asked.

  Tres turned his glare at me, and I stared him down. His shoulders slumped, and he looked away, pressing his lips in a thin line. I’d stared down much worse than a child in the middle of a temper tantrum. Marge gave a soft snort of amusement and walked down the hall. She stopped at the door at the end.

  “Is this what you’re looking for?” she asked.

  Adrian joined her. “This is it. I should only be a few minutes.”

  Adrian swiped his card again and entered the room. I remained at the end of the hall, watchful for any more guards. Tres leaned against the wall and kept his arms crossed. He wouldn’t meet anyone’s gaze and stared off down the hall. Lucy chewed on her lip and looked between him and me. I shook my head. He could pout for all I cared, as long as it didn’t get one of us killed. It wasn’t my fault he’d chosen the wrong woman to sleep with. He was learning that the hard way now.

  “This is boring.” Marge picked up one of the grenade canisters she’d thrown.

  “Sorry to disappoint you,” I said. “Not everything in life can be high action.”

  Adrian came back out. “Done. Third floor has the labs.”

  We headed up the stairs. I busted out of the tiny death trap with my hand gripped around my sword. A white, empty hallway greeted us.

  “Were there only two guards for this entire place?” I asked.

  “Most likely not,” Adrian said. “Keep an eye out.”

  The hallway split to a turn to the left and continued straight. I paused at the hall and peered around the corner. Two doors stood across from each other, both with electronic key cards. Windows lined the walls, revealing the inside of the rooms. The room on the left was filled with rows of white pod-like machines that were attached to a metal tube hanging from the ceiling. The room on the right held a table with computers built into it. Another glass window covered most of the far wall and overlooked a dark room.

  “What are those pods?” I asked Adrian.

  “They produce the actual pills.” Adrian pulled out several small cylinders and turned to the rest of the group. “Take these and place them inside the machines. Once they are set, I will command the nanites to travel through the tubes to destroy the formula.”

  “If you could do that, why did you have us burn the warehouses?” Marge asked.

  Adrian stared at her as if she was stupid. “I could not be at all three at once, and I don’t have the range to control them from such distances.”

  “You need to figure a way around that.” I grabbed three of the cylind
ers.

  “I could set up a relay system, but thatwould be difficult, time consuming, and irrelevant.”

  “Do we need some sort of suits when going in here?” Lucy asked.

  “That’s more to keep the drug sanitary,” Tres said. “Since we’re trying to mess them up, no point.”

  Lucy shrugged and took a handful. Adrian split the other between Marge, Tres, and himself. He ran his card through the slot and held the door open. We slipped inside. I took the second row, opened the porthole like door, and attached the device to the inner side.

  “I thought we’d be killing more things,” Marge said. “This is janitors’ work.”

  “I’m sure they are saving something special for you,” Tres said.

  We finished and exited to the room. Adrian stared at the pods for several moments and nodded. He turned to the other door and we gathered in the small room. He typed a few strokes on a keyboard and the monitors lit up as well as a row of buttons. The room past the window held ten tall, cylindrical pods along the walls of the room. Humanoid figures floated in clear liquid with tubes attached to their arms and masks over their heads.

  “What the hell?” Marge said.

  She leaned forward to peer through the glass, her hand landed on one of the backlit buttons. A screen at the top of the pod closest to us lit up with a list of numbers. Blood flowed through one of the tubes and was deposited in a glass jar attached to the side of the pod.

  “I think we found our source,” Adrian said in a grim voice.

  “Open the door,” I said.

  I moved to the first pod and studied the gray furred female with my aura sight. The bajang possessing the body glared at me with its liquid silver face twisted in rage. The human’s aura was in shreds, and the demon had started to consume the human soul. Every pod was filled with an angry hellspawn.