by Michael Todd
Katie turned back toward the beast and took off, gaining speed as she dodged the rocks and ruts in the ground.
Fuck, Katie, Pandora screamed. You are insane! You are going to get us both killed. Go back and get your fucking knives!
Katie jumped from stone to stone and launched herself at the demon, hands outstretched.
She landed on his chest and held on tightly as he tried to look at her. The heat from his skin surged through her body.
Her destiny was at her fingertips. At that moment she looked up with a glint in her eyes. She tuned out the screams around her, the growls of the demon she was perched on, and the voice of the demon bitching endlessly inside her. As she reached back, the tired muscles in her arms shook wildly.
She thrust her arm forward, fingers transforming into a demon’s claws.
She jammed her long talons into the beast’s chest, feeling the hot blood pour over her skin as she pulled them back out. He screamed and writhed, pulling at his chest. He dropped to his knees for a moment and Katie slid down, then kicked off the ground and his leg to propel her body up and over his shoulder. She pushed her claws into his back and let go.
When he arched his back high into the air she slid to the ground, not waiting for his next move. Katie moved in front of the demon, kicking off his calf and up to his head to slash him hard across the face. The layers of black skin peeled back, and dark black blood dripped onto the grass and sizzled below the beast.
Katie jumped off him again and somersaulted to stand back up, watching him writhing in agony while holding the wounds she had just inflicted.
Pandora was silent, and so was the air around her. Her talons were even stronger and more powerful than her special blades, or any other weapon she had ever used on a demon.
Previously, demons had only reacted this way to pain not caused by her knives when Pandora pulled them from their human capsules and sent them straight back to hell.
Pandora must have worked through Katie to make her aware of the possibility and give her the use of her claws to defeat this disgusting beast once and for all.
The demon made its way back to its feet, where it wobbled back and forth. Katie breathed heavily, opening and closed her claws and staring up at the creature. It stumbled backward but caught its balance, now holding the wound in its chest.
“You still haven’t had enough?” Katie ground out. “We are the inhabitants of this beautiful planet, not you. You are just a filthy fucking demon that is unknown to us, and when something unknown and dangerous attacks this planet we make sure it dies here.” She spat on the ground. “You are no exception.”
The demon laughed loudly, then wheezed for air.
“You stupid little bitch! You can kill me as many times as you want,” he taunted, his voice patchy, “but in the end T’Chezz will come for you.” He waved his hand toward the cops. “For all of you, and you will watch every single one of your friends die an agonizing death. Mark my words: this will never be over.” He hissed, “Never!”
“You want to bet?” Katie growled, moving forward.
She slashed her claws across his calves and he fell to the ground, his head bobbing back and forth. She jumped on top of him and climbed onto his chest, from which perch she stared into his red eyes and smiled.
“Your kind will never win,” she whispered as she glared down at him. She could tell he was out of gas.
“Katie,” Damian yelled, throwing her his cross.
She reached toward the priest, her arm changing back to normal as she caught his cross and gripped it tightly in her palm. She slammed the golden object onto the beast’s chest.
He screamed in pain and his flesh sizzled and melted as she pushed it harder into his skin. She had to hold on and dodge his arms and fists as he thrashed around.
She gritted her teeth and shoved, visions of Calvin, the dead gangsters, the dead cops, and so many others flashing through her head. She screamed, matching his shrieks as she dug the cross into his chest cavity.
“What is T’Chezz’s plan? Tell me!” Pandora/Katie screamed. “It is not too late. You are going to be gone for a long-assed time. Tell me where his plans lead!”
The beast screeched louder, fire bursting from his fingertips. Katie could barely hear Pandora screaming for answers; trying to get something—anything—out of the beast’s thoughts.
Her rage had taken over, and she was out of control. She gripped the cross firmly in her hand, staring at the demon’s face as he groaned and growled his pain.
“Tell her,” Katie screamed.
“Who brought you back?” Pandora asked. “Who is here, and where is he? Is he here? In LA? Goddamn it, Barro, tell me something!”
Katie could tell the beast could barely think, much less answer questions. She pulled the cross halfway out and held it next to his barely beating black heart. She breathed deeply in anger, wanting answers but wanting revenge so much more.
“You are going to die,” Katie growled. “Tell her what she wants to know and I will end your agony.”
“You…” the demon spluttered, “are all going to die.”
Katie snarled as the beast ran his eyes over her and opened them in surprise, then fear.
“Wh-wh-what are you?” the demon choked out.
“Your worst nightmare,” Katie growled, shoving the cross back into his chest.
The beast’s head flew back, and his arms fell to his sides. Fire shot from his eyes and mouth, shooting straight up toward the sky. Katie pulled her hand from his chest and stood over him, watching the life leave his ugly and battered body. Without warning he burst into flames, engulfing both him and Katie.
Everyone in cemetery went silent and Damian’s eyes grew wide, watching the ball of flame in front of him. There was no sign of Katie.
The fire burned brightly for several minutes, visible from the sky as another police helicopter circled around, lighting up the morning dew on the cemetery below.
The pilot and copilot searched the ground, looking for any sign of the girl who had finished the beast, but the fire was too high and too hot for him to get a good look.
“The beast is on fire,” the pilot reported into his headset. “I’m swinging around to take another look for the girl.”
He turned the chopper in circles to get a better look at what was going on. Other police helicopters kept news choppers away from the conflagration.
There was an explosion where the demon had been, and a huge ball of fire and debris blew past the chopper.
He steadied the bird, breathing heavily and blinking wildly to adjust his eyesight.
“Explosion! There has been an explosion,” the pilot shouted. “Repeat, there has been an explosion. Waiting for the smoke to clear.”
The pilot hovered over the spot where the demon had been, continuing to shine his spotlight downward. He looked down, swiveling his head back and forth to see if the demon was still there.
As the smoke began to clear, he pulled the mic to his lips.
“The area is clear.” He sighed. “The demon is gone.”
“Good work,” the recipient replied. “Go ahead and get out of there.”
“Hold on.” The pilot leaned forward and moved the chopper to the side. “There is a body down there.”
He shined his spotlight onto the ground where the demon had been, and gaped as he stared.
Katie was looking around in confusion, her face dark with soot. She breathed deeply and looked up, red-eyed, at the helicopter. He moved his light over her.
“The woman—the D Squad woman? She’s alive,” he said in wonder.
Katie put her arm up to block the searchlight and slowly reached up to flip him off.
“What’s she doing?” the dispatcher asked.
“Well, she’s flipping me the bird.” He chuckled. “Let me pull back a little.”
“There’s something on the ground,” the copilot said, pointing down. “Pull up more…I can’t make out what it is.”
The ch
opper moved higher, the beam of light widening to cover the entire space where the demon had died.
“What the fuck?” the copilot murmured.
There was a pentagram encased in a circle on the ground around Katie, burned deep into the grass and soil. Small fires still blazed along the circle’s edges. Katie was standing right in the center of it.
“It’s a… We have a pentagram,” the pilot reported. “On the ground where the demon died, surrounding the woman.”
As if Katie could hear them her head shot up and she stared into the light with her bright-red eyes. The pilot grasped the stick tighter, feeling the entire helicopter shimmy and shake around him.
The copilot looked at the readings and then back at the pilot. “What’s going on?” he yelled. “The readings are fine.”
The pilot looked at him with wide eyes and then peered at Katie, who stood, fists balled and eyes red, staring angrily up at the helicopter. The spotlight burst and everything went black, sparks falling into the smoke-shrouded cemetery.
The pilot put the bird into a hover and looked at the copilot.
“I…uh… I think that is good enough for this morning,” he said with a nod of his head.
“Yeah,” the copilot said, staring down at Katie’s shadow. “I don’t think she liked the light whatsoever.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The scene was damned hard to believe.
Smoke billowed over the last remnants of the Inglewood Park Cemetery. Crushed stone was strewn all around the grounds, and police officers covered the remains of their fallen comrades as well as the other victims of the scene.
They couldn’t confirm due to the smoke, but word was that the demon was gone.
Still the cops waited, their guns ready as they eyed the smoke.
While they had no idea what might come through that cloud—nor could their shocked minds take in everything that they just had witnessed—they weren’t backing down.
Never in the history of humanity had a scene like that been witnessed by so many uninfected by the curse of the Damned.
“Someone’s coming through,” one of the officers shouted, and over a dozen nearby officers’ heads swiveled toward the voice.
Through the smoke and debris three figures slowly appeared. Eric and Damian supported Calvin as he limped past the smoldering embers, coughing and wincing at the pain.
A moment behind them strode the woman, her skin darkened from the ash and the red dissipating from her eyes.
The three men stopped and looked around at the ravaged landscape. The chopper in the background was unusable, and, not happy with taking it out of the sky, at some point the demon had chucked another rock at it.
That machine would never fly again.
Calvin looked over his shoulder at Katie’s expressionless face and the smoke still coming off her skin. He didn’t know how she had survived, but he knew where his faith would be placed from this moment on. He turned his head back around and eyed the cops, who slowly lowered their weapons as the Damned moved forward.
Damian looked at his male teammates and back at Katie before stopping once more.
Calvin recognized the three cops in front of them from the gun store. Their arms were crossed over their chests, and there were smiles on their faces.
“Friends of yours?” Damian asked, looking at Calvin.
“Something like that.” Calvin chuckled, limping forward with Eric under his arm helping him remain upright.
“That was quite a show,” one of the cops exclaimed.
“Fireworks and everything,” the second added.
“It’s good to see you still standing,” the third told them, reaching out to shake Calvin’s free hand.
“Kind of standing.” He winced and pulled his hand across his ribs. “We might need a ride.”
“We kept her safe.” The first cop winked and the three parted to allow the men to view what was behind them.
It was their SUV—a little dusty, but not a scratch on her.
Calvin chuckled and nodded at the cops in thanks. Eric helped Calvin climb over the smashed cop car.
Damian turned and stuck his hand out to help Katie over. She grinned slightly, breaking the gravity of the scene—at least on her part.
She nodded at the three cops, who took a step back but politely returned her smile.
Everyone had seen what had happened, but none of them could explain why she was still alive, or what she was, exactly. They had seen the claws, the red eyes, the healing—everything—but nothing topped the ball of fire she walked out of unscathed.
At that moment she didn’t understand it either, so she couldn’t provide any guidance to the those staring at her.
Katie climbed into the car and reached back to squeeze Calvin’s hand as Eric helped buckle him in. He looked at her with respect laced with something else; something she hadn’t felt before.
She turned back to the front and pulled her brows together. Something vibrated in her back pocket, and she pulled out her phone to find a text from an unknown number.
It’s me, where are you guys? Oh—this is Charlotte
Meet us in Las Vegas if you can, Katie texted back.
CU THERE, she replied, which made Katie chuckle.
Yeah, see you there, she thought to herself.
They left the cemetery after Damian confirmed he was the point of contact for the police until Calvin was capable of answering questions. Otherwise, the officers could and should talk to Korbin.
They went back to the hotel to shower and collect Calvin and Katie’s things.
The guys led her in through the back, as to not draw any more attention than they already had.
She wasn’t in any shape to go walking through the hotel. Neither was Calvin, for that matter. Damian stood guard outside her room, nodding as she went inside. She had to admit that a hot shower had rarely felt this good before. Her major wounds had healed, though her back was still sore.
She was just tired now, and given the complete lack of any comments Katie thought Pandora was as well.
After the showers and collection of their luggage the four Damned made their way back to the SUV and headed toward the airport, where the plane was ready to take them home.
Damian had already updated Korbin on almost everything, or at least what he needed to know at that moment.
On the way to LAX they stopped back at Randy’s Donuts for some more sugary goodness. This time, though, Katie and Pandora were quiet.
Everyone grabbed some donuts, Katie deciding on half a dozen of her own.
They all sat around the table eating; not really talking, simply being there with each other.
The exhaustion was mental as well as physical. Calvin, they suspected, would need further medical treatment as soon as he got back.
When Katie was done, she wiped her hands and put her napkin on the table. Damian sat back and watched her, wondering what was going on in her head.
She seemed different, but he couldn’t put his finger on what exactly it was.
Slowly she got up from the table and slinked backward, almost as if she were trying to leave unseen.
He watched carefully as Katie walked outside and to the left, where a homeless man was sitting with his back pressed against the window.
Damian observed as she talked to him with a smile on her face like he hadn’t seen at all during that trip.
She bent down next to him and continued to chat, putting her hand on his shoulder and running it across his back. He couldn’t tell what they were talking about, but the man seemed completely at ease. There was no fear at all in his face.
Damian tilted his head and sipped his coffee, just watching her kindness toward a perfect stranger—something he didn’t see often from her. She was usually shy and standoffish if something wasn’t part of the norm, like she had been when she had first met Mamacita’s girls.
Damian looked back at Eric and Calvin, who were talking about the demon attack and laughing at the com
ments Calvin had spat at the demon about his dick.
Damian shook his head, having missed that part since he had protected the pilot of their helicopter during the siege.
Calvin, Damian admitted, had been a real hero. He hadn’t given up or backed away from the fight. He’d just kept going back in. Damian couldn’t help but wonder if he too had gotten a little help from his demon, especially since the red ring in his eyes was just a bit brighter than normal.
He shook his head and looked back at Katie, who was now standing up straight as she listened intently to the homeless man speak.
She looked content, but at the same time there was something about the way she was standing that made him slightly suspicious. Her legs were shoulder width apart, and her hand rested on the butt of her weapon. Then it happened—something he wasn’t expecting to see. Katie bent forward, still talking to the man, and pulled a demon right out of his back. The demon wriggled and squirmed, hissing and spitting in Katie’s direction. It was still only an apparition, which made it look more like a ghost than a demon, but nonetheless she had seen it when no one else had.
Damian turned toward her slightly in his chair as she continued to talk, holding the demon higher and away from the man as he sipped his coffee. He seemed to come alive: his shoulders relaxed, his demeanor changed, and his back straightened.
He shook his head, not even believing what he was watching. He glanced at the others, but they weren’t paying any attention. Still holding the screaming entity in her right hand, Katie pulled some cash from her pocket with her left hand and handed it to the homeless man. He looked up at Katie with tears in his eyes, and stood up quicker than Damian thought an old man like him could have managed. He hugged Katie tightly, and a smile moved across her face as the demon in her hand squirmed, hissed, and growled behind the man’s back.
There had been so many battles, and so much grief and anguish since the team had met Katie.
When she had first joined them she hadn’t known how to fight, much less walk up to someone and pull a demon from his body. Now she did it with such finesse that unless you knew what to look for, you wouldn’t have noticed at all.