by T S Paul
Fergus was in rare form. He was holding court on the coffee table in the waiting room. To hear his version, he defeated the demon all by himself. Pretty good for a hero the size of a mouse. It was time to rain on his parade.
“Fergus!”
The Unicorn froze and looked up at me. I smiled at him. “How’s it going hero?”
“I was just telling my new friends about the battle to save the city. Fighting off hordes of demons is hard work.”
“Interesting, how much you could see from inside my body armor where you were safe. Are you ready to go? We still have lots of work to do.” I held out my hand for him.
I thanked the doctors and staff and walked out under my own power to our SUV. “I can’t take you anywhere, hero. Did you have fun in there?”
“Of course I did. You missed it, Agatha, they opened up your armor, and I started talking to them. One of the nurses fainted right there in the emergency room. It was awesome!” I had to laugh at him and his antics.
“Well, we have a lot of work left to do before we can go home.” I climbed into the car and we headed back. Nita told me on the way that reinforcements showed up about a half hour after the death of the demon. So did the press. The call on an open channel attracted them like flies to honey. The local police were all that was keeping them out of the crime scene. Pundits were already mourning the loss of Senator Emery. Details had not been released about his wife, yet.
The cosmetics plant was hard to miss. Flashing lights were everywhere. Hordes of news media and gawkers stood in groups everywhere. That didn’t even include the relatives and loved ones of those who worked at the place. Most of those would never be coming home. Demon incursions here deadly for all involved.
“You better duck down if you don’t want news exposure.”
“Thanks, Nita. I forgot.” I slid down in my seat to avoid being seen. The media knew I existed, but I didn’t want the attention right now. It was too soon.
We passed the security cordon and entered Fabulous Face’s grounds. The forensics lab and command center trucks were already set up and agents could be seen tagging and marking the dead Bunis on the ground. The ground was carpeted with them. I was almost sorry for them. Evil was very pervasive in each of those people and it allowed the demon to get to them somehow. Nita pulled the car around the front of the command truck out of sight of the majority of news media. According to what Nita said on the ride over at least one news helicopter had been confiscated for breaking the NO-Fly zone above the plant. A demon incursion was big news.
I stepped out of the car and was immediately embraced by one-hundred and fifty pounds of Cat. “You’re back!”
“Hey, Cat. Are you alright?” She pulled away from me and stared at me.
“Me? You are the one that took down the demon and passed out!” Her face was serious.
“Cat, it’s OK. I just overextended myself and passed out. Nita got me out.”
“Don’t. Ever. Do. That. Again. Understand?” Poking me each time she said a word she got closer to me and gave me another hug.
“I understand. I’ll try not to let it happen again.”
“Good.” We then both burst out laughing.
“OK ladies. Let’s get to work, shall we? Agatha you ready?” I nodded. We stepped over to the tactical unit and armored back up.
“While you took your nap, Agatha. We brought in more troops and secured the area. We have begun tagging and bagging the Bunis out here and by the AC units. No one has gone inside since I left carrying you.”
I nodded. “Let me run a diagnostic spell and see if anything trips it.” I concentrated and felt myself slip into the spell easier than before. Something to be said for practice makes perfect. There was what I associated with demonic activity around the Bunis bodies. I expected that. What I didn’t expect was the lack of anything else. They had been very careful to keep any trace from the buildings themselves. It made me wonder about the walk-in cooler. That might be why they use it.
I opened my eyes and related what I saw to Nita. She grabbed her phone and called Anastasia in the forensics truck. They talked for a moment. I could see Cat nodding too. Freaky were hearing.
“Anastasia says that might be possible. Many companies use magic to evaluate things. They were very careful. She thinks the cooler may have been taken from jobsite to jobsite rather than start over each time.”
“Then we need to go see for ourselves.”
“Let’s go,” Nita called to a tactical team standing by and an even dozen of us entered the building again.
There were a few bodies lying in the lobby. They looked to be Bunis that ran from our units and bled out where they lay. We followed the hallway toward the cafeteria. I could remember chasing after Cat through this very hall racing to save Nita and the team. This time we checked every room, closet, and crawlspace. It took time, but we had to be sure. The cafeteria doors were smoke-blackened and twisted. They looked as if they were hit by more than one fireball. Tables and chairs were tossed like playthings everywhere. Bodies and parts of bodies were burnt and shredded all over the floor. Toward the center of the room, the floor was melted and piled with rubble.
I had to be sure and stepped closer to the demon’s death ground. Crimson streaks covered the pinnacle of the mound. A blood trail of drops led off toward the door.
“I cut off the head with a butcher knife. Anastasia has it for study. It was still screaming when I cut it off.” Nita was behind me staring at the mound. I patted her arm.
“Sorry, I passed out.”
“Don’t be sorry. Without you, I would be dead over in that hell-hole of a cooler with what was left of the team. Let’s check it out.” She led us past more dead Bunis and into the kitchen. I never came this far.
The area around the cooler was a charnel house of death. Nita and her team had literally piled them up outside the cooler. The smell of death was strongest near the open door. Readying a spell I stepped inside followed by Cat.
I could sense the evil inside. My bracelet gave off a shiver that I was beginning to associate with demonic activity. The altar loomed across the back of the cooler. I could see all that Nita had described except for two things. The painting and the statue were gone. “Nita?”
Nita and two of her team stepped into the cooler. “I don’t see the statue you mentioned. Is anything else missing?”
The painting, the statue, and all of the other demon statues were gone. The jars containing the hearts were all broken and scattered on the floor. I wanted to destroy the whole place but procedure must be followed. We needed to search the rest of the building.
The upper floors yielded nothing. Offices and shipping rooms were empty of life. It was if the people just walked off the job and either disappeared or attacked us.
“Nita, there were hundreds of people at work in this place. Where did they all go? Does this place have a basement?”
According to plans submitted to the city, it was supposed to. Access was supposed to be available via the freight elevator at the rear. None of the elevators even showed a lower floor. The emergency stairwell was finally found hidden inside a janitor's closet.
“Guns up, there could be anything down there!” Cat volunteered to go first but Nita held her back. She had specialists for that. The tactical team went in first. They threw flash-bang grenades in to clear the room and then charged in. It was several moments before we heard garbled cries of “clear” come from the team.
Our first clue something bad was in the basement was when we passed one of the younger agents puking in a corner. I could smell decomposition as we opened the first door. We had found the missing workers. It was here that those non-Bunis ended up. Imagine the worse thing you can imagine that humans could do to one another and that is what was in that room.
Each body would need to be cataloged but our job here was done. Cat and I had seen too much and been a part of too much over the last few days. It was time to go back to Quantico.
~~~~~
The ride back to school was anticlimactic, no helicopter this time. We were almost scarred by some of the things that we witnessed inside that cosmetics company. I would never look at cold creme again the same way. Both Nita and Anastasia swore that many more lives would have been lost if we had not joined the investigation. I kept running every decision I made through my head trying to see ways I messed up or could have done differently. It hurt that so many of the people I had come to know had died or been disfigured. Agent Smith was a huge loss for Cat. She had bonded with the older man. Cat told me she intended to look up his former partner’s family and describe the man's death. It was a were thing.
Fergus was in a good mood unlike the both of us. He was loose inside the car and was starting to get on my nerves. “Fergus calm the hell down!”
“Hay! Hay! I’m getting Hay!” He was doing a little dance across the seats.
“Dude, take a chill pill. We need to get settled and I will get out the good stuff for you. OK?”
“Hay is good!” I looked over at Cat and she just laughed.
“Did someone give him some wacky weed or something?”
“I think he’s just happy to be home.”
“I guess. Are you OK? You have been a bit quiet.”
“Just thinking. I need to work on my fighting skills when in warrior mode. I can see times when I should have changed. Agatha, I know you are second guessing yourself. Stop it. You did way better than they expected you to. Next time they will respect you more.”
“I hope so. I really do.” I rested my head on my hands as we drove onto the Marine base that was our temporary home.
Director Mills was waiting for us in front of the administration building. We got out of the car and thanked the driver who brought us here. He tried to lift the bags out of the back but Cat had to help him.
“Welcome back ladies. I’m not going to ask if you had a good time. Nita called me the moment you left her. Are you OK? Still want to be FBI Agents? I will understand if you have changed your minds.”
Cat glanced at me. “No, Ma’am. We haven’t changed our minds. Evil like that has to be fought.”
“Good. I thought you might like to take a couple of days off and then on Monday resume classes. The instructors have been holding off on tests until you could return. Remember operational security when discussing the assignment you just completed. The news media has published a great deal of information, but so far Washington hasn’t confirmed or denied any of it. Do not be the one to do it first. Allow them to make that decision. Witch or not, they would never trust you again. Keep that in mind.” She started to step away and stopped. “One more thing. I took the liberty of informing a friend of yours that you were back.” The Director pointed to her left and climbed the stairs into the building.
We both looked to our right and yelled. Chuck was standing there with a huge smile on his face. He ran over and gave both of us a huge hug.
“Hi, Chuck how’s class?”
“Crappy without you two! It’s all over the news. Was it really a demon incursion? Are we safe?”
I looked at him and nodded. Reaching over I placed a finger against his lips and shook my head, no talking.
We had only been gone three days, but it seemed a lifetime. They were some of the longest working days in my entire life. I knew that in the future I would look back and laugh at having to work this hard. Our return was not a secret, and many asked the very questions the Director said they would. We stated OPSEC rules and denied everything like we were told to do.
In Washington, the existence of a demon cult was not a new thing. Hundreds of those existed. What sent a shockwave through the establishment was the fact that many of their wives and mothers might be members. One of the biggest cover-ups in history began that night. Records were sealed and documents were signed.
The National organization of Alpha Nu Omega put out a statement condemning it’s former Board member Catherine Emery, and those radicals associated with her. How dare anyone accuse a young women's Sorority of demon worship? Lawsuits were prepared and lawyers hired. Any news agency that broached the subject was hit with legal action immediately.
None of that mattered to Cat and I. We had school to finish and another year to plan for. I was hip deep in school work trying to get caught up. We were only gone for three days, but I had what felt like three weeks worth of work to study for. I blame Nita and the Director. They ratted me out to the police procedures instructor, and he piled on the work. Never again would I just go back to sleep after catching the bad guy. I looked up when Cat came in and tossed her books on her bed.
“Hey, Cat. How did the study session go?”
“I think that instructor is an idiot. Since when do we try to capture cultists? Hasn’t he ever had hordes of crazies trying to kill him before?” I laughed at her. Our perceptions of things had changed a lot.
“You just like him because he’s cute. But I understand. Remember most of them only hunt mundane criminals. We are the demon hunters now.”
“Bite your tongue right now Aggy. You and I both know we don’t want to do that our entire time in the FBI. I’m starving, want to go to Fergus’s favorite place for dinner?”
“That sounds like fun. You have Chuck’s Riviera keys again?” Cat nodded and held them up.
“He won’t miss them. Hey did Fergus like the gift I gave him?”
“You gave Fergus something? What is it?” I took a couple of steps toward his barn.
“I found one of those ponies he likes so much. I stuck it in his barn.”
As I neared the barn I could hear faint music playing it was Barry White. Then I heard what would scar me for life. “Hey baby, come here often?”
Cat and I laughed as we grabbed our purses and ran from the room. No way were we staying for that! Anchors a Weigh here we come.
~~~~~
In a dark basement of a clothing manufacturer, shadow covered figures gathered around a makeshift altar. A gruesome blood splattered painting hung on the wall in a place of honor. The worshipers were few in number but they would grow. There were many that sought power in the misnamed City of Angels. Hell was home to stay.
~~~~~~~~~
Author Notes
I had the idea to do this series a few months ago. I bounced the idea off my wife. She doesn’t read my other stuff because she isn’t a fan of Science Fiction. Paranormal however is in her wheelhouse. I contracted for the covers with fellow Author and designer Heather Hamilton-Senter. I realized after I sent off the information I didn’t even have titles for the books. I brainstormed up a few and fine tuned them with my wife.
My schedule said that I was supposed to be writing and finishing the New Athena Lee Book 10 - War to the Knife at this time. I have half the book done at this writing. Boredom has set in and I’m burning out on the SF stuff. It happens. I needed something else to work on. I was on my way to pick my wife up from work and had a wild hair. What if I wrote a prequel to the Paranormal Series? More of a way to relieve the boredom I wrote 10,000 words in 24 hours. Each time I finished a chapter I dropped it to my editors. When I was done so were they. I bought a pre-done cover and threw it up on Amazon.
I sell fairly well in the SF market. But this little 55 page book blew all of that away. In two weeks Born a Witch sold over 1200 copies worldwide. Readers using Kindle Unlimited read over 72,000 pages on their Kindle readers. It was a double number one book in two categories for a week! It passed some traditional mainstream authors such as Grisham and even George RR. Totally blew me away. So I dropped everything I was working on including the New Athena Book and started this one up. I really hope you enjoyed it.
My plan is to finish up the Athena Book next. I have a great many people waiting for it. I will then dive into book 2 of the Federal Witch series.
Later? I have another Athena Universe book due. Tisiphone and her friends have a trip to make.
Next year will be very busy with Athena, Agatha, and the CATTs. Expect to see more
of both series along with a few new things. Lots of new ideas came about this Fall. I have a new non-Athena Lee SF series planned. It will be lots of fun and I hope you stick around to experience it with me.
I have tons of ways for you to follow me. My Blog is the biggest one. https://tspaul.blogspot.com/ I post tons of fun stuff there every few days.
Next we have BookBub and Goodreads both of these sites have my books and will notify you if I put up new stuff. There is of course always FaceBook. I post fun things there too. If you are lucky I can be found there for chat sometimes.
Finally, I have a shout out to the 20bks to 50k Facebook group. It was created as a place for Authors to share information with other Authors without the BS that other forums have. They have been very supportive.