by Michael Todd
“Solo toma a la mujer.
“¿Donde esta el hombre?”
“Tenemos nuestros pedidos. El no es importante. Mátalo si debes.”
Fuck. Manuel’s replacement had sent three of their flunkies after Sofia. Calvin put his food down on the counter and slid in behind Sofia, then pulled her back against the wall and covered her mouth.
He looked down into her dark eyes, which were wide with fear. He kissed her soundly and whispered into her ear. “I want you to hide in the closet in your bathroom and don’t come out until I tell you it’s safe. Do you understand?”
Sofia’s expression hardened, and she nodded and slipped down the hall. When Calvin heard the bathroom door click shut he crept to the back door and peered out the side window. He could see two men on the other side of the patio wall.
He climbed up on the kitchen counter and quietly jumped out the open window, landing softly and crouching on the other side of the wall from the men, who were planning their assault.
“You go that way and look if she is in the kitchen. If not, then we move to the bedrooms. We know they’re in there, but they don’t know we’re out here. We want this to be a surprise attack. We have orders to bring her back, and that is what needs to happen.”
Calvin frowned and stood up, using the wall as cover. As soon as the guy rounded the corner, Calvin grabbed him. One arm covered the thug’s mouth, and his other snaked around his neck. Calvin locked the arm around his neck for the ten seconds it took to render him unconscious and dragged his dead weight into the shadows.
He then crept back to the edge of the wall and peered around it. He found the other guy looking out across the lawn with his gun drawn.
“What is taking you so long?” the intruder hissed. “It’s a simple look-and-go.”
After a few more moments he sighed and came around the corner. He stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Calvin, but it was too late. Calvin wasted no time. He couldn’t wait a moment, especially if anyone else was there.
He jabbed the guy in the throat with a rapid knife-hand strike and his direct score paralyzed the guy’s larynx, preventing him from making any noise. The guy grabbed his throat and peered into Calvin’s red eyes with pain and fear. Calvin jerked the guy around and put a sleeper hold on him as well. The guy struggled to get free, but not for long, since Calvin was stronger. He was soon sleeping as soundly as the first.
He dragged the bodies into the bushes, hoping they didn’t wake up before he was done. He worked his way around the side of the house until he spotted the third man on the sidewalk in front of the house with his back to Calvin.
Calvin looked around for a small rock. He picked one up and threw it at the guy, then backed quickly against the side of the house. The guy looked around for a moment and then slowly approached. He hadn’t seen Calvin.
As soon as he walked around the corner, Calvin gave him the same treatment as the other two. He dragged him around the back and threw him into the bushes on top of the others.
Immediately he went back into the house and to the bathroom door. “It’s okay, Sofia, you can come out.”
She opened the door just a crack and peered out. When she saw Calvin, she ran out of the room and hugged him tightly. “Did you get them?”
“There’s three guys taking a nap in your shrubbery right now, so yeah. I’m going to call a contact from the San Diego police department and have them come arrest the men.”
Sofia breathed a sigh of relief. “How do you have a guy in the police department?
“Long story, but one time I ended up here, and with the help of others from the team, we were able to take down a pretty big demon.”
“Got it.” She nodded. “Okay, whatever will just get rid of the situation.”
Calvin made the call to his contact and asked him to send over cars and take their statements. Sofia and Calvin didn’t mention the drug lord, or why the intruders were there. Calvin wasn’t sure if he could trust anyone anymore—not even a cop he had once fought alongside, he was sad to realize.
“What do we do now?” Sofia asked.
Calvin frowned. “Now I go and take care of this problem at the source.”
6
The door opened, and a very familiar face looked at Katie kindly. Katie smiled shyly, and her mom offered a polite smile in return, as if she were answering the door to a stranger.
However, recognition set in and she let out a gasp as the reality of who she was staring at sank in. Her eyes widened as she took in Katie’s very different body.
Katie’s mom wasn’t sure what to do or think. On the one hand, she had watched the coffin go into the cold ground when she had buried her daughter. On the other, she had never seen a body; never been given the chance to grieve properly. There had always been something inside her that told her Katie wasn’t dead, but she had just chalked that up to a mother’s inability to let her daughter go.
Katie shuffled from side to side. She felt sorry for her mother, and she was ashamed that she had stayed away that long despite her yearning to tell her the truth.
“Mom?”
“Katie,” she whispered. Her eyes welled with tears. “I... I thought you were dead. I buried you.”
Katie hung her head. “I know, and there’s an explanation for all of it. If you let me, I would like to explain.”
Katie’s mom nodded and stood aside to let her in. She closed and locked the door, then turned around slowly to stare at the ghost in her hallway. She tried to speak a couple of times before she burst into tears and laughed.
“Are you okay, Mom?”
Her mom laughed and threw her arms around Katie to hug her tightly. Katie smiled and hugged her back, her heart fluttering at the perfect embrace and the smell of her mother’s rose-scented perfume. Her mother let go and held Katie's face in her hands. She looked deep into her daughter’s eyes and let out a sigh.
Katie chuckled. “You’re looking at me like you don’t recognize me.”
“You can hardly blame me, sweetheart.” She held Katie at arm’s length and turned her from side to side. “There’s just so much more of you! Although there’s not an ounce of fat; you’ll need feeding while you’re here. Come on, I was just about to brew some tea to go with the cake I made this morning.”
Pandora chuckled but kept her mouth closed. She was touched by the love between a mother and a daughter. She knew Katie needed that bonding time, and so did her mom, so she took a back seat and left the two of them to their moment.
Twenty minutes later the two of them sat in the living room, holding hands and just looking at each other. It was as eerie for Katie as it was for her mom. She felt like she was seeing a ghost. She had accepted long before that she was never going to see her mother again, and she needed to come to terms with that not being the case anymore.
Her mom broke the silence eventually. “So, tell me what happened to you? Where have you been? Why all the secrecy?”
Katie sighed. “Well, it’s kind of complicated, but I’ll give you the main points.”
Her mom squeezed her hand. “Please do. This is a little overwhelming, but I’ll try and keep up. Katie, you’re really here. This is the best news I could get.”
Katie smiled, then her face grew serious. “Brace yourself, mom. Remember I did some tutoring when I was in college? I agreed to help a fellow student. We arranged to meet at a restaurant, and he drugged me.”
Her mom jerked her hands out of Katie’s and brought them up to her mouth. “Oh, God.”
Katie pressed on. “The next thing I knew, I was chained up in some old parking garage, while hooded figures chanted all around me. They finished their ritual and pulled a demon from the ground. Then I heard it—the voice in my head. Red rings shone in my eyes, and I was Damned. There were only three choices you got when you were infected back then: death, research, or joining a mercenary team. Obviously, I joined the team.”
Her mother began to cry again. “Oh, Katie, I had no idea. It didn’t e
ven cross my mind. I mean, I saw the footage from New York and thought, that girl looks like Katie, but... Wait, that was you?”
Katie nodded. “It was.”
“Well, I never! A mother who loses a child often feels like they see her in every face, and I thought that was what happened.” She smiled. “So you joined a mercenary team, and then what happened?”
“They took me back to their base and gave me some time to settle in. When I’d gotten over the shock of being Damned, they explained that to the rest of the world, I had to be dead. It was a centuries-old secret, and it had to stay that way.”
Her mother looked at her quizzically. “So how can you be here now?”
Katie smiled sadly. “Things changed. The number of demon attacks exploded, and the world found out. It’s open knowledge now. I felt I needed to come see you and explain before you figured it out on your own.”
“I see.” She sat back in her chair and stared at Katie. “Incursion Day was months ago. Why has it taken you so long to come and see me?”
“I was scared, I suppose.” She studied her feet. “What if you rejected me? It was hard losing my entire life in the blink of an eye the first time. I was scared to go through it all over again.”
Her mom shook her head. “I have to admit I am not the least bit thrilled to know that there is a demon inside my baby girl, but I would never turn you away. You are my Katie.”
Katie smiled and moved over next to her mom so she could snuggle under her outstretched arm. She’d missed this so much. “I love you, Mom.”
Her mom kissed the top of her head. “I love you too, sweet girl. I always have and always will, no matter what you are going through. I can’t believe you are sitting in front of me. This is the best gift I could have been given.”
Katie smiled and allowed her mother to pull her into another tight hug. It had gone so much better than she thought it would.
Although she knew there wouldn’t be any scenes, Katie had been more worried about being rejected than she’d admitted to Pandora. She was overjoyed that the way her mom looked at her hadn’t changed.
She pulled back, still holding her mom’s hands, and bit her lip as she deliberated whether or not to show her. She realized that she owed it to her mom to tell her.
She grinned at her mom. “Can you keep a secret?”
Confused, her mom nodded. Katie stood up and led her out into the backyard, where she stood hesitantly in the doorway with her arms crossed, looking down at her feet while Katie did a quick check to make sure no one was looking.
There was a whoosh. “Mom, look!”
She looked up to see her daughter suspended in the air above her head, slowly beating her…wings? “Oh, my!”
Angie stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows in the new condo, staring out over Central Park. The designer, who had been chosen for style and swiftness, walked around taking final notes on everything. Angie turned and stared at her, looking down at her watch. Katie was going to be back sooner rather than later, and she needed to get a move on.
“I need this to start coming together. My boss needs to have a home to come back to. Even if it’s not finished, it needs to at least be comfortable. I mean, my boss saved this city—” Angie’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh shit, don’t tell anyone! That is supposed to be unknown.”
The designer picked her jaw up from the floor and stared at Angie bug-eyed. “Wait, are you serious? Is Katie the Katie? From Katie’s Killers?”
Angie hid her face in her hands. “Oh God! I’ve said too much, I am such a dimwit. Look, I can’t force you to be quiet about this, but I have to tell you that Katie won’t be happy if it gets out that this is her place.”
The designer waved her off. “I’d never break client confidentiality like that. My lips are sealed, but if Katie loves the designs and she’s super happy, will you ask her to allow me to namedrop her as a client to boost my company? To be the designer for the world’s superhero would land me clients everywhere.”
Angie lifted an eyebrow. “I will do my best, I promise. I just need you to do the same.”
“Girl, I’ve got this! I will move heaven and Earth to get this place in the best shape before Katie gets back. I just have to make a few phone calls and get things moving with my connections. They all love me, and there’s no reason I can’t tempt them with a sweetener to get this moving a little faster.”
Angie took a seat as the designer pulled out her phone. Angie was sure that telling her who Katie was had been a mistake, but at least it was motivating her to move faster.
The designer flipped through the file in her hand and started dialing.
“Bradley, I’m so glad you answered your phone.”
Bradley’s reply was loud enough for Angie to hear even before the designer put him on speaker. “Girl, I saw your name on the screen and knew if I didn’t you would come here and give me hell. Plus, you’re my favorite designer, so how could I shaft you?”
“Ha! Very true, and with the design of your new home coming up, you don’t want to upset me too badly.”
“True, very true. What can I do for you today?”
The designer took a deep breath and let it out. “Look, I know you’re gay, but if you can get me this bedroom suite by tomorrow morning at eleven I’ll blow you so hard it will change your sexual preference.”
Bradley laughed. “I’m not sure how crazy Phillip would be about that.”
“He’s a businessman. He would get it.”
“How about we do this? I will get you your fabulous bedroom suite bright and early tomorrow morning. Just bring me a bottle of good red wine and we’ll call it even.”
The designer laughed. “This is why I love you—always looking out for my well-being. So chivalrous.”
“Girl, I’m looking out for my own wellbeing, but hell, I can’t have a designer cloaked in shame on my list. It’s a win-win. They will be there in the morning…and the wine had better be good.”
“It will be. Love you bunches!” She blew a few kisses into the phone, then ended the call. She looked at Angie, who was decently impressed, before she moved down to the next number and dialed.
Angie relaxed a little. She was more than glad the designer had the reputation with the artisans in the city that would enable her to get the condo in shape before Katie returned from Vegas. She sat back and listened in on the next call.
“Alicia, my beautiful ray of sunshine, what are you doing right now?”
“I was putting the finishing touches on your living room coffee table. What can I do for you, my dear?”
“Well, I need favors.”
Alicia’s tone held a little bite behind the sweetness. “Don’t we all?”
She laughed. “Totally. But I need this living room set by tomorrow morning.”
“That is a huge favor. May I ask what the rush is?”
“I have a very important client, the kind who could make or break a company.”
“Uh, yeah? Moving on up in the world, I see.” Alicia sighed. “I can have the couch and loveseat sent over to you, but the end tables and the coffee table both need another day to dry before I can release them to the client in good conscience.”
“You know what? That will be more than enough. They want it rushed, but they know I’m not magic.”
“Ooh! Understanding and important! Is he single?”
The designer laughed. “He is a she, and yes, but I don’t think she goes that way.”
“They all go that way but I prefer the Big D, so I will pass on the love connection.”
“Probably a good idea. Thank you so much for rushing this order. You will not regret it.”
“I never do, but then again, when you’re perfect, regret doesn’t really come into play.”
The designer chuckled and shook her head. “Of course, though I seem to remember a not-so-perfect moment about two years ago that involved a Santa hat, some fishing line, and a giant dil—”
Alicia cut her off. “Okay, okay,
I get the point! Friends blackmailing friends. I love this city.”
The designer laughed. “You love me.”
“That is questionable.” Alicia giggled. “Now shoo…I have art to create. See you in the morning.”
The designer hung up the phone and winked before calling the next person.
Angie just smiled and left to check out the painting that had been finished that morning. The designer was down a bottle of wine, but she didn’t seem to mind at all, which Angie found helpful. She was determined to show Katie she could do whatever job she entrusted to her.
Timothy tapped the stacks of tax paperwork into a neat pile on his desk and reached over to grab a bunch of paperclips to fix them together. He had discovered a few interesting facts since Short, Bald, and Disappointing had handed the tax information to him.
The entirety of the IRS was founded on a framework of rules, yet none of them were being applied to Katie. She was being screwed into the ground financially, and he knew exactly what the reason was, even if he didn’t know who was behind it just yet.
He knew that the world had been taken over by the demons and that they’d infiltrated some of the highest positions of government, so it was logical to assume there was there was some sort of traitor in the ranks at the IRS.
The first lead he had was the less-than-exciting delivery boy. It was obvious George wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box, and Timothy hoped that his inability to be even slightly covert would lead him back to the source of the investigation.
There was no way that he was going to allow Katie to go down for this. It was the IRS, not some bloodthirsty demon—although the two were equally hated.
“All right, buddy, what are you hiding?” Timothy tapped feverishly on his keyboard. “Cross-dressing, maybe? A bondage fetish? You might be a closet Democrat, you never know.”
He pulled up the agent’s Facebook page. George’s profile picture was of him in his younger years, when he had a little more hair and carried a little less weight. The leather jacket and penny loafers he wore in the picture made Timothy cringe.