by Michael Todd
There’s a little bit of the devil in everyone, and besides, their own people did some of that too. Pandora snickered. But that sucks, Calvin seems like an okay human—one I wouldn’t make suffer before twisting his neck and popping off his head.
Katie paused for a moment. I think I should take that as a compliment?
For him, yes, Pandora agreed. I’d torture the fuck out of you, though. Hand you over to an incubus to loosen you the hell up.
“She said he’s powerful, three levels below the Seventy-Two,” Katie said. “That because I took the knives from his skull he went back to hell, and can come back any time that he wants to. We have to trap and kill him here, or he will retreat next time as well.”
“And the special metal we have helps with that,” Calvin said, shaking his head. “It’s all kind of working out perfectly, don’t you think?”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Katie looked around them. “Where do you think the person that did this is from?”
Calvin pursed his lips. “Personally I think he or she is from Los Angeles, and came down here so this wouldn’t happen in their backyard. Makes it harder to get caught in a different zip code.”
“Why not Orange County?” Katie said. “There is plenty of rich, bored people there, and not a lot of suspicion.”
“Because Los Angeles folks tend to hate the shit out of San Diego.” Calvin chuckled. “It’s the place with all the richies. It’s where the celebs go to vacation while they complain about their own city. Los Angeles has worse crime and gets less funding per capita, and they loathe the people of San Diego for it. It’s always been a feud. Besides, most of the places outside of a few rebuilt areas were constructed in the old days. There is an up-and-coming group of people there, but a lot of the older generation still lingers.”
“This is insane.” Katie laughed. “Even in the demon war they pick and choose what city they want to destroy first. Even demons have human tendencies.”
“Or the human had demon tendencies.” Calvin raised an eyebrow.
“My demon did say there was a little demon in every human,” Katie admitted.
“I don’t doubt that at all.” Calvin watched her reach for another donut. “Some more than others, but I definitely have seen my fair share of assholes.”
“Amen.” Katie picked up another donut, licking the frosting off her lips.
“You need to get a handle on that,” Calvin told her
“Mmmhmm,” Katie moaned. “I will, just as soon as I’m done with this jelly one.”
Calvin just smirked and shook his head.
When Korbin’s meeting was over and he had exhausted pretty much his last lie to the people on the phone, he hung up and leaned back in his chair, groaning loudly.
He didn’t need this kind of bullshit in his life at this moment. What he needed was for everyone to understand he was chasing demons, not playing politics.
He needed a damn breather, was what he needed.
He got up and went outside, taking a deep breath of the warm desert air. He looked at the other building and walked over, shoving his hands in his pockets. He went inside and through the outer area to the working level.
Korbin winced; the noise level was almost unbearable in here. Joshua was on the other side, working diligently with headphones on his ears. There was a shitload of big-ass machinery, and loud noises coming from the forge. The forge itself was fairly large. You definitely couldn’t miss it, given the flames constantly shooting from it.
He shook his head and walked around some more to check out the space. When he heard heels tapping on the concrete behind him, he turned to see Mamacita walking toward him. He was surprised by just how attractive she was in her business suit, hair perfectly styled and heels that looked more business, less stripper-pole.
He swallowed hard and remembered that he was the boss, not some young kid coming to call. He nodded professionally at her and turned back around, clasping his hands awkwardly in front of him. He realized then that she had been the woman walking into the building earlier, so different in appearance he hadn’t recognized her.
“To what do we owe the pleasure today?” Mamacita smiled. “I saw you outside earlier, but you looked preoccupied.”
“Yeah.” He pursed his lips. “I have a lot going on, and a lot of pressure mounting on my shoulders. Right now? Well, right now I am trying to figure out how to either make this place look like something it isn’t, or move all this equipment again. The last thing I want to do is have another moving day, so let’s just say that is Plan B—about a mile and a half below Plan A.”
“Yes, personally I am not too fond of moving everything either, and Joshua would be upset to have to uproot right in the middle of his research and projects.” Mamacita glanced at him. “He is a strange boy, but we love him.”
“This is such a simple space, but loud. I would have to keep people from even coming through those doors,” Korbin said, shaking his head.
“Well, that is easy,” Mamacita said. “In order to do that, you must make it look like something everyone expects and understands. You don’t want them to question, or even want to question, what is going on in here for two seconds. You want them to know deep down that it is exactly what they think it is.”
“Like what?” Korbin wondered, furrowing his brow.
“What do you see here?” Mamacita asked, looking around the space. “What do you physically see in here?”
“I see concrete walls and a forge and lots of machines.”
“Ayi,” Mamacita exclaimed, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. “You are a practical and highly unimaginative man. Look beyond what you know you see. Tell me about the people.”
“Well there is Joshua, who is young, several twenty-something women, and a couple who look like teenagers,” Korbin said. “They are all modestly dressed for a working atmosphere, and they all look happy; at ease in their jobs. They look like they belong here in some way or another. I don’t know what you want me to see. I mean, there is so much here that is just normal everyday stuff. Nothing looks odd or strange to me, but to a government official? Well, it would seem more than strange.”
“Let me tell you a little secret,” Mamacita said. “Those teens—they are Katherine’s kids. They were born into the system, because we were not working as we should. They have to work, go to school, or do chores, or they don’t get to play Xbox later. They know the rules.”
“Katherine’s kids,” Korbin said, scrunching his forehead together again. “Holy shit, you are telling me I’m looking at a bunch of prostitutes?”
“Yep.” Mamacita chuckled.
“And you think that the best way to cover this place is by making it look like a whorehouse?” Korbin said, looking at her in shock.
“Not just make it look like one, actually make it one.” She laughed. “Though I do have to say you get points for not thinking of that first. You are more of a man than most. I will also throw in some points for you being so dense you didn’t get it at first, but I can’t decide if that is endearing or not. I know that with the job you hold, you don’t look around you very often. If it is not trying to eat you or kill someone else you pay it no attention whatsoever, but the world—the rest of us—we are still out here, watching and doing our thing.”
“Your thing isn’t right,” he snapped in frustration. “These are young girls.”
“Who have the choice to leave whenever they like,” Mamacita retorted. “Who are encouraged to build themselves above the system. You know what’s not right, Korbin?”
Korbin looked down at the fiery woman, knowing he had said the wrong thing. He had pushed her buttons, and part of him felt bad about it.
He was judging something he didn’t understand.
“What’s not right is a bunch of people taking on the challenge of fighting for the ignorant, who don’t have a clue they are in danger,” she told him.
“You know too much,” Korbin growled, bothered by that fact. “Katie has told
you too much.”
“Katie hasn’t told us anything.” Mamacita sighed. “Look, the bugs know when to get out of the way, cause that’s the only way we will live. Armani…he treated us like people, so we had to figure out who you were. Now, though, we know Damian and Katie, and eventually we’ll know you. Joshua is just as innocent as the rest of us. We are not stupid, Korbin. Well, not all of us, anyway. Some of us know what is going on, but we can’t fight others, except those who have been human all their lives. But we can move our house over here, and build a house around the forge. We can do our part to help.”
Korbin shook his head. “I don’t know…”
“It will take money, sure, but do you know any government official who will come into a whorehouse with so many eyes watching or videotaping them?” Mamacita smiled.
“Maybe you are right,” Korbin allowed, “but Lord help me, I have no idea how I am going to explain this to Katie if I decide to make this happen.”
“You explain it as you doing what is best for your team, and for humanity,” Mamacita told him with a nod.
Chapter Fifteen
Katie stared out the window at the cars passing them on the 405. They were on their way to Los Angeles, and had almost reached LAX. This area was a lot different than San Diego. Everyone was in a hurry and looked angry, and the level of smog in the air was almost unbelievable. She was starting to see why the people in Los Angeles would hate the laid-back hippie atmosphere of San Diego so much. She could also see why you would choose to live in San Diego over LA in a heartbeat. Still, it was a beautiful city with skyscrapers looming in the distance and angel wings painted on so many different surfaces.
Oh my God! Pandora squealed.
What? Katie said, jumping slightly, her hand lingering on the butt of the gun. What do you see?
Sweet Satan, my dreams have come true, Pandora replied. The sign has shown itself.
What? What sign?
Katie looked out the window, ready to see a demon standing in the middle of the city. From Pandora’s reaction, she assumed the thing would be larger than King Kong. However, as she looked toward the airport she relaxed into her seat, shaking her head. She saw a sign all right, but it was a donut the size of a house in the distance next to a sign for Randy’s Donuts.
You are going to get someone shot, Katie told her. And I’m telling you right now, I will not allow any more weight to work its way onto these hips.
I promise there will be none on your hips, Pandora said.
I don’t want fat! Katie growled.
Fine, Pandora huffed. But you need more curves.
No fucking way, Katie said angrily. Muscle! I need muscle!
Fine…muscle, then, Pandora grumped. Just get me more fucking donuts!
I’ll see what I can do, Katie said with a smile, thinking she had finally gotten the upper hand.
“I don’t understand,” T’Chezz growled, swiping his arms across the table and knocking everything onto the floor. “This was foolproof! You are not as much of an idiot as the others. You were supposed to secure this thing for us!”
“It wasn’t that simple,” the demon said, rubbing his head. “The bitch stabbed me in the fucking head from six stories up!”
“So?” T’Chezz growled. “You are a demon. That shit is not supposed to injure you.”
“These were different,” the demon admitted. “These blades, they were made of something I’ve never felt before. It’s like they have holy weapons or something. It damages us. If she hadn’t pulled those blades out, I would have died right there in that dimension. I wouldn’t have returned, and you would have been out another goddamned demon.”
“These weapons…” T’Chezz began, crumbling a stone in his hand. He didn’t care in the least whether the other demon died. “They were made by the priest?”
“I don’t know,” the demon replied. “There was no priest there. Just a girl, and a mouthy black man.”
“Did you even fight?” T’Chezz growled. “And the girl…could you sense her demon? Obviously she has one. No human has those powers.” He pulled a piece of meat out of his mouth, looked at it, and tossed it to the side.
Lunch.
He pondered for a moment. “Maybe it was my sister, that annoying bitch.”
“I don’t know.” The demon sighed. “I was fighting the black guy pretty much the whole time. I was so close to killing him, the fight started to leave his eyes in his exhaustion. Then, out of nowhere this bitch lands on my shoulders and plunges her fucking knives into my damned skull. The pain was unreal, unlike anything I have felt before. My eyes blurred and my head was throbbing. There was no time to sense what demon she had in her.”
“You still owe me,” T’Chezz growled, turning around and staring at the demon. “I got you to Earth, but you failed to deliver the results I contracted for.”
“Your human vessels are weak,” the demon argued, annoyed. “I was set up to fail from the beginning, and you didn’t mention any hellrats coming after me. I was prepared for those measly police, but got Robobitch and Eddie Murphy telling dick jokes while trying to kill me in the streets.”
“Our contract is still in force,” T’Chezz growled.
“I know,” he groaned. “I fucking know. Obviously I will go back, but I want to wait. I want to catch them when they are not expecting it. They will be on high alert now, just waiting for me.”
“No,” T’Chezz yelled. “You will go back now; as soon as it can be arranged. There is no more time for tiptoeing around these humans. We are stronger and smarter than them. We can’t allow these types of challenges to stand in our way while they celebrate their victories and pound each other on their backs.”
T’Chezz slammed his fist on the table and walked out of the room, leaving the demon on his own.
He turned and looked out the window at the flowing lava in the distance, his lip curling into a snarl. He didn’t like being pushed around, but he had signed a contract in blood. “Maybe T’Chezz should go to Earth and get stabbed,” he grumbled. “Then we’ll see how enthusiastic he is to go back.”
The reporter was on her sixth house. “Did you see anything strange the other night?” Charlotte asked as a woman as she stood on her front porch.
“No,” she said angrily. “I done told the cops to leave me at peace. I don’t know nothing.”
With that the woman slammed the door in Charlotte’s face.
Charlotte took a deep breath and turned around, walking down the steps and back out to the curb. She put her pen back into the spine of her notebook and looked at the drug house on the corner. She knew someone had to have seen something. The place was right out there for everyone to see.
“I saw a car arrive,” a voice said from beside her.
“You did?” she asked, pulling out the notebook again and smiling at an old man. The man had torn clothes and bad teeth, and the smell of whiskey emanated from his pores. He had stopped on the sidewalk with his cart in front of him.
“Oh yeah, fancy thing.” He nodded. “Blacked-out Mercedes, I believe. It had some sort of special tag, but I couldn’t see what it was. There was a driver in the front, and he let the person in the back out. I turned away at that point. I didn’t want to be part of nothing like that. I knew something bad was going to happen.”
“Right.” Charlotte smiled, pulling a five from her pocket and handing it to the man. “Thanks a lot.”
“Sure, sure,” he said, turning back to his cart and moving down the street.
Charlotte was trying to remember that car. She knew she had seen it somewhere before. There had to be some sort of record of it coming to the neighborhood.
She headed toward the small businesses on the streets. She figured maybe someone in those shops had cameras that pointed in the direction of the house. She was hoping to get a good picture of the person who got out of that car. With money like that in an area like she was in, they would have been someone important.
She stood in front of the house a
nd looked up and down the street. The house cattycorner to the drug house had a camera mounted at the front door, pointed outward. She shook her head and walked over, knocking on the door.
“Yes?” The woman answered the door in a housecoat and slippers.
She looked up. “Hi, I’m Charlotte. I’m a reporter, and I was wondering… This camera up here, does it work?”
“Oh, yes,” the woman told her. “I order a lot of packages from Amazon, and those little sonsabitches around here like to come by and snag my packages right off my front porch. Now if they do I can see exactly who did it, and either call their mama, ‘cause usually they punk-ass little kids, or call the cops if I need to. I’s recovered four different packages because of it, and now they don’t come up on my porch so much.”
Charlotte smiled. “That’s a very smart idea.”
“The only thing that’s annoyin’ is that it turns on any time it catches movement.” She shook her head. “A car, a cat, a squirrel—anything sets it off.”
“That stinks for you, but that’s actually perfect for what I am looking for.” Charlotte took a deep breath. “Is there any way you would let me see the footage from the other night, when the deaths occurred at the house across from you?”
“Oh, I didn’t even think of that.” She slowly nodded to herself. “Sure, sure, come on in.”
“Awesome,” she exclaimed, looking behind her as she entered the house and shut the door.
About twenty minutes later Charlotte emerged from the house once again, her disappointment reinforced. She couldn’t seem to catch a break. It was almost as if the person had scouted the street beforehand. The camera had gotten a shot of the car, and a clear one at that, but the windows were blacked out and it was from the side. She couldn’t see the tag, and the footage stopped at the hood of the car, so she wasn’t able to see any faces either. The driver had a dark shadow over him as he got out and went around.