Demon VII: Disciples of Darkness (Mike Rawlins and Demon the Dog Book 7)

by Bernard Lee DeLeo

  “Will Bull really be over to interrogate you tomorrow morning?”

  “He knows Ed better than to do that. I will eventually have to just tell them to mind their own business. We usually don’t act like a bunch of high school boys. The unusual circumstances of your finding us last night, and pulling me aside, kind of set them off, especially Bull.”

  “I didn’t mean to cause you so much trouble,” Jill said, leaning against Peace as they walked.

  “What trouble,” Peace replied. “I’m actually the one they’re usually ragging on, so it’s not like they needed a reason.”

  “They do? Why?”

  “Because nothing bothers me, so they know I won’t get mad, and they know I laugh the hardest when they really nail me. Besides, we don’t do practical jokes or anything. We just kid around. I give as good as I get.”

  “I bet you do,” Jill said, as they neared the coastline, where it bordered the base.

  Peace led her over to a spot fifty yards up from the Coronado coastline. They sat down in the sand, with Jill wrapping her arms around Peace’s drawn up right leg, as he put an arm around her, pulling her close.

  She laid her cheek against his leg, and looked back at Peace.

  “Are you really going to come and see me?”

  “Until you tell me to go away, I’ll be like your own personal stalker,” Peace replied, leaning in to kiss her lips gently.

  “How did you guys get off in the middle of the week?” Jill asked.

  “Bull meant we won’t be training tomorrow morning. We have other duties, but we won’t be starting until eight. I’ll be off duty by three thirty though. When do you have to go back?”

  “I’m taking the bus at six.”

  “Why not let me drive you home. I’ll have plenty of time to get back here. It’s only up to LA,” Peace offered. “I can find out how to get to your place too.”

  “I live in the dorm, and I have a roommate,” Jill told him.

  “Is it a she?”

  Jill reached up and slapped him lightly. “Of course it’s a she.”

  “Don’t pretend like you have never had boyfriends,” Peace laughed. “Say, your roommate wasn’t one of the other women down in Chili, was she?”

  “No way,” Jill said emphatically. “Cindy told me I was an idiot for going down there. As to boyfriends, he was one of the guys your team rescued. He’s tried to talk to me since then; but I don’t want anything to do with anyone from that goofy campus group. We weren’t really serious anyway. You must think I’m some kind of slut, huh?”

  “I think you’re beautiful, intelligent, and fun to be around,” Peace countered. “You must have to fight the guys off at UCLA, or they’re all deaf, dumb, and blind.”

  Jill kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck as he enfolded her in his. Peace matched her ardor. Jill lay down, pulling Peace over her. Peace kissed her for a moment longer before pulling away. He sat up again, looking around, as she turned on her side. She smiled up at him as she propped her head up with bended left arm.

  “Hey, I thought you were just warming up,” Jill said reaching around to the front of Peace’s pants. “You are warming up.”

  Peace grabbed her hand in both his, turning it to kiss her open palm. “We’re on a special forces Navy base, not a college campus.”

  “So, let’s go back to the motel,” Jill offered, pulling herself back up, and sliding closer to Peace. “I… I want you, Peace, and I know you want me.”

  “I want you so bad, it will take about ten minutes of counting backwards from a thousand before I’ll be able to walk back with you in these pants.”

  “Uh oh,” Jill whispered in his ear, as she pulled her hand free, and returned it to the front of his pants. “I think fifteen minutes might be closer.”

  “You are not helping.”

  Jill laughed, sitting up straight, and carefully moved her cast encased leg into a more comfortable position. “We’ll just talk about the weather. You’ll be fine.”

  “What did your parents really think of your Seal hunt here in San Diego? I bet they couldn’t have been real pleased with you replacing one obsession with another.”

  Jill turned quickly towards him, ready to protest his description of her actions; but his smile made her laugh instead. “You did it to me again. I’ve always been a good student, and stayed away from drugs. I never shop lifted, or hung out with gangs. My folks were so glad to see me back safe, they would tolerate just about anything.”

  “Even me?”

  “You’re a college graduate, and you have a steady job.”

  Peace laughed. “While I believe your parents to be grateful to the Seals and the United States military for bringing their daughter back safely, I doubt they want you to adopt one as a boyfriend.”

  “They’ll love you, just as I’m beginning to,” Jill said softly.

  Peace stroked the side of her face gently. “You shouldn’t talk like that, you really don’t know me well enough.”

  “The more I know you, the more I want to know you.”

  “I guess I just don’t understand your picking me out. Heck, I wasn’t even one of the guys who busted in to save you,” Peace pointed out.

  “I heard about you though,” Jill replied. “When your team herded us out of our makeshift prison, Bull looked around, and then cursed, saying, ‘Damn, Peace got three more, that sniping prick.’ Everyone else laughed, and when Dan called you over to carry me, by name, I knew you were the one Bull had been talking about.”

  “Bull must have been fired up,” Peace mused. “He jokes around, but he very seldom says a word during a mission. I bet he was as happy to see all of you alive as the rest of us. Bull tries to keep detached, expecting the worst. Dan’s just the opposite. He expects a mission to work perfectly. I try to think like Dan, but I’m a lot closer to Bull with the pessimism part.”

  “When… when you held my hand… I…” Jill paused, not knowing quite how to go on.

  “I know you believe it to be more than relief and gratitude, but I just don’t want you to be hurt. Promise me when you suddenly come to your senses, you’ll come right out and tell me.”

  Jill softly brushed Peace’s lips with hers. “I will. I promise.”

  “We can always stay friends, no matter what happens. You are one special lady, someone I’d like to be close to all my life. I don’t believe too many women could know what I do, and still want to be around me.”

  “I found out the world is not the LaLa land I had been told it was,” Jill whispered. “It’s a wild, dangerous place; and without men like your Seal Team, we Useful Idiots would not be able to prance around, pretending we live in a separate reality.”

  Peace nodded knowingly. “Maybe we are connected by our similar experiences.”

  “I didn’t feel bad when I saw our captors all lying dead around us,” Jill stated fiercely, “that I can tell you for sure.”

  “You haven’t talked much about the time they held you.”

  A dark cloud passed over Jill’s face again at the mention of her Chili experience. “It was the most humiliating, frightening thing I could ever even have dreamed of. I probably feel like you, I just want to go on. I don’t want to be psycho analyzed, or go through traumatic stress syndrome treatment. I just want to put it behind me.”

  “Yep, we definitely share some deep rooted feelings,” Peace agreed.

  “Would your parents like me?”

  “Maybe, if they were talking to me,” Peace laughed.

  “You don’t see your parents,” Jill asked, surprised. “They must have been going insane when you were imprisoned in Iraq.”

  “You don’t know my folks,” Peace sighed. “When I went home after my release from the Naval hospital, they treated me like a hero, because of the Human Shield thing. They had gathered all of their left wing friends together for a hero’s welcome. I took the opportunity to tell them the truth. I told them America was the greatest place on the face of the Earth, and I would
never, ever, bad mouth my country again. There was dead silence. It was a most embarrassing time for them.”

  “But they had you back, safe and sound,” Jill said, incredulously. “Didn’t that mean anything to them?”

  “Maybe,” Peace replied, “but I got the distinct impression they would have been happier if I had been killed being a Human Shield.”

  “Wow, I… I don’t know what to say, Peace. That’s…”

  “Hey,” Peace interrupted, running his hand over her face, “you should have been there when I told them I intended to become a Navy Seal. You’d have thought I had told them I wanted to become a serial killer. That was when my Mom confirmed my feeling they would have been happier if I had died as a left wing martyr to the cause.”

  “But… but didn’t anyone change their minds after all the good our winning in Iraq accomplished?”

  “I don’t know. They kicked me out when I gave an interview to our local paper, and reiterated my position. I did get over to spend time with Dan’s parents. They lived right next door to us. They were worried as hell about Dan, because he was still overseas. Dan’s wife Becky, and his oldest son, Danny, who was just a newborn, lived with Dan’s parents. I told them all about their son, from what he had done for me all my life, right up to when he pulled my stupid ass out of that Iraqi prison. They never knew about all the times he looked out for me.”

  “Dan’s Mom, Carrie, and Becky, cried a little in relief. No one had heard any real news about the Special Forces. Dan’s Father, Dan senior, was so proud, he couldn’t say anything. He shook my hand, and just thanked me, as if I had done something. They made me stay with them until I caught a flight back out to San Diego.”

  “Haven’t your parents tried to get in touch with you at all since then?”

  “I sent them Ed’s address after I managed to convince him and Dan to help me become a Seal. They wrote a couple of times, trying to convince me to take a job with the numerous companies interested in me. They kept sending me the inquiries I received at my home address from some of the big outfits, who recruited from the Cal Berkeley graduate list. When I wrote back, explaining what I was doing, they demanded payment for all they sacrificed to put me through school.”

  “Jesus,” Jill whispered. “That’s cold.”

  “Hey, I was spitting on everything they believed in. Anyway, I had obtained most of the money in scholarships. I sent the last check two months ago. I sent them everything I received for salary in the Navy, and everything Ed paid me. They cashed the checks. I sent them an invitation to the ceremony when I became a Seal, to let them know I had made it. They wrote back and told me never to contact them again; but they still cashed the checks I sent them.”

  “So the Navy really is your family now.”

  “Dan’s parents flew out for the ceremony, and Ed and Nancy both came. I have a lot of people who care about me. We don’t always please everyone in life. Ed and Nancy never had kids, and they treat me like a son. Dan and Becky are like my brother and sister-in-law. Little Danny, and their two year old daughter, Allie, call me Uncle Pauley, so I do have family.”

  Jill put her arms around Peace’s neck, and drew him into an easy embrace. She rested her head on his shoulder. “I guess you do at that.”

  Chapter Eight

  Dan and Becky

  “We better head back. I’ll get a quick shower, and then we’ll go over to Dan’s. I can’t wait to introduce you to Becky. She graduated with Dan and I. Becky couldn’t stand to be around Dan, or me, for that matter. She was a majorette in the band. They marched at the high school football games, and I would go see Dan play every chance I could. Whenever we walked by her at school, she would watch Dan until he looked over at her, and then she pretended she wasn’t looking. Dan would smile at her anyway, and say hi, but she’d just ignore him.”

  “Dan was popular,” Peace continued. “He earned respect, and there wasn’t a guy in school who would mess with him. Dan could have dated anyone in school, and did go out with a few, but as is usually the case, he…”

  “Wanted Becky,” Jill finished for him. “So, how did it happen?”

  “Well, he dated Cassie, the lead Cheerleader during the first part of our senior year. I lived sort of through Dan, because of my weenie status,” Peace chuckled. “I paid attention to everything he did. I could never understand why he stayed best friends with me. Anyhow, if I used to see, or even be walking with Dan and Cassie in the hallway at school, and they would walk by Becky. She…”

  “Didn’t like it one bit,” Jill finished, really getting into the high school drama as Peace related it.

  “Do you want to tell this story?” Peace laughed, pulling Jill to her feet, and handing her the cane lying nearby.

  “I’m sorry,” Jill said, taking Peace’s arm as they walked back toward the base buildings. “I love this kind of story. It always amazes me how little human interaction between the sexes never changes. One day, a girl will be saying, I hate that guy. The next, she’s dating him. Go on with your story. I promise not to interrupt.”

  “Cassie hated the sight of me, and wanted Dan to shun me, because it was bad for their popularity quotient,” Peace smiled over at Jill. “I could tell she didn’t like me around, so I began staying away from Dan. He was my hero, and Cassie was a knockout. I just liked seeing them together. I stopped going over to his house, and following him around like a lost dog at school.”

  “One day, he was walking with Cassie, and he spotted me by my locker. He came over to say hi, and ask me what the problem was. Cassie went ballistic right in the hallway. She told him to quit slumming with the retard, and come along, or something pretty close to it. Dan’s whole body tensed, as kids within hearing had started laughing. He turned towards her, and all he said was, ‘Cassie, I think you had better go’. That was it for them. Man, I felt like dirt. I wanted Dan to go out with Cassie.”

  “Anyway, Becky saw the whole thing. She knew me from orchestra, at least my name. Becky walked right over after Cassie huffed off down the hall, while Dan was talking to me, and said ‘Hi Pauley’. That was the first time she’d ever spoken to me in greeting. I stuttered out a hello, and Becky looked right up at Dan, and says ‘Hi Dan’. You did not want to be in the way of the power surge, which erupted between those two. The invisible arc, snapping back and forth from Dan and Becky, would have fried any human being unfortunate enough to stumble between them.”

  “Oh Peace,” Jill sighed, hugging his arm. “That’s a great story.”

  “It was tough on them when Dan went off to the Naval Academy. I was at Cal Berkeley, learning how to be a good communist, so I only heard about their trials and tribulations when we all caught up on things after I became part of the family.”

  “It must still be pure torture for her when you guys have to deploy somewhere,” Jill said, shaking her head.

  “She’s learned a lot from Ed’s wife, Nancy. Becky’s tough, and she knows she has two kids who depend on her for stability when Dan’s away. Well, wait for me here, Jill, I’ll be right back,” Peace said, patting her hand, and heading inside the building, housing the locker room. “Better hurry,” Jill called out after him. “I may get picked up by one of these unattached sailors.”

  Peace glanced back, laughing. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  __

  Dan opened the door before Peace and Jill had even reached the steps of his front porch. A little boy, who looked like he had been stamped out of the same mold as Dan, scurried around Dan’s legs, clutching a baseball mitt in both hands.

  “Uncle Pauley,” the boy screamed happily, running at Peace, who caught him as the boy leaped right off the porch into his arms. Peace laughed in delight, flinging the boy into the air.

  “Danny boy,” Peace said, catching him and putting him on his feet again. “I want you to meet my friend, Jill. Jill, this young man is Danny.”

  “Pleased to meet you, Danny,” Jill said, holding her hand out, which Danny shook strongly.


  “Wow, she’s a babe, Uncle Pauley,” Danny said seriously, looking up at Peace.

  “Danny!” His Father exclaimed, as Jill and Peace laughed appreciatively.

  Danny looked up at his Father’s frowning face, and clapped a hand comically over his mouth, which caused Jill and Peace to laugh even harder. “Sorry, Dad, I…”

  “Never mind,” Dan sighed, as a beautiful auburn haired woman walked out on the porch next to him with a little girl in her arms.

  The woman wore blue shorts, and a white top, which highlighted her hair and figure. She wore tennis shoes, and her head came up to just above Dan’s shoulder. She was already laughing, having heard what her son had said; and the little girl, whose lighter toned hair was tied back in a ponytail, giggled because her Mom was laughing. Dan took the little girl, dressed in an aqua sun suit and sandals, from his wife. Peace guided Jill up the steps with Danny following, looking uneasily at his Father.

  “Jill, this is my wife, Becky,” Dan said, shaking her hand when the trio were standing on the porch. “Becky, I’d like you to meet Pauley’s friend, Jill.”

  Becky shook hands with Jill enthusiastically, as the little girl held her hands out to Peace, wanting to go into his arms. “I’m so happy to meet you, Jill.”

  Peace took the little girl from Dan, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him. “How’s my girl? Jill, this little beauty is Allie. Say hi to Jill, Allie.”

  The little girl turned toward Jill with a big smile on her face, and waved. “Hi.”

  “Hi Allie,” Jill replied, stroking a hand through the little girl’s hair.

  “Glad to meet you.”

  The little girl pointed at Jill’s cast. “Hurt?”

  “No, Allie,” Jill answered with a grin. “Almost all better now.”

  “Can I sign it?” Danny asked, putting a hand on Jill’s cast, which caused another bout of laughter.

  “Sure, Danny, I’d be honored if you and your sister want to sign my cast,” Jill agreed.