Bangkok Warlock: A Mark Vedis Supernatural Thriller Book 1 (Southeast Asia Paranormal Police Department)

by John P. Logsdon

  “Not great, Vedis,” he finally said, his voice calmer than I’d expected. “Not your fault, but not great. I’ve got one team member on reserve, but I’d hoped to have more time to prepare them. Twat weasel.”

  The verbal ticks were back.

  That meant he was stressed out.

  Good, that made two of us.

  “I’ll take whatever I can get,” I said. “At this point, I can’t be choosy.”

  “No, you really can’t,” he agreed. “I’ll send whatever people and resources I can before tomorrow, your time.”

  I nodded, which was stupid because I was on the telephone. Honestly, it seemed I made a habit of doing this. Truth was that I was out of practice, since I hadn’t been able to replace my telephone after my old chief had destroyed mine.

  “Thank you, sir,” I said, adding a bit of formality. “That will help a lot.”

  Finally, I heard a loud sigh from Stone, and a muttered “Fuck popsicle.”

  “I’m going to need details on this, Vedis,” he stated. “Very detailed details.”

  I winced. “I already told you that I’m not going to tell you about what happened between—”

  “I’m talking about the corruption part of your report,” he interrupted. “Get Mira and Bert on this call right now. We’re going to go over this in depth.”

  “Oh, right.”

  I called over Mira, and then the four of us went on speakerphone in the main area of my room to talk the whole thing out.

  Eventually, I was reminded of the importance of keeping a supervisor in the loop, especially when people started melting, but he couldn’t find fault with the actions I’d taken so far.

  Stone hung up, leaving Bert and Mira looking to me for guidance.

  “Well, he didn’t kill me,” I said with some relief, “so I guess that went well.”

  Then, I clapped my hands and stood up.

  “Who’s up for some food and clothes shopping?”

  Chapter 24

  Terminal 21 was pretty cool.

  Nine stories of shops blew my mind, and I was told it wasn’t even the biggest mall in Bangkok.

  It was easy to find, too.

  I asked the staff downstairs for directions, only to find out it was actually attached to our apartments, and both of those were hooked into multiple types of mass transit.

  We learned it was common in Thailand to have people renting rooms for a night, living long term, and owning rooms, all in the same building. It it was like having a combination of condos and apartments under one roof.

  Since there wasn't any big hurry, we took our time strolling through the various floors.

  They all had a travel theme, the ground floor being the Caribbean, the first floor being Paris, and so on.

  We ate as we walked.

  I’d picked up a beef chimichanga from a Mexican restaurant called Sunrise Taco, while Mira had opted for a pepperoni pizza in a cone from a place called, appropriately enough, Kono Pizza.

  Demon food must have sucked, because Bert was on a rampage, trying everything he could find. Sushi, red bean-filled donuts, ice cream, squid jerky, deep-fried baby octopus, it didn’t matter. If it was edible he was all over it.

  I’d eventually sent him ahead to shop on his own after he’d discovered a foul-smelling fruit called durian. It had the consistency of custard and tasted like an onion mixed with garbage. Bert declared it the best thing ever.

  “Do you get the feeling we aren’t exactly taking advantage of Thailand?” Mira asked, holding up her pizza cone. “I mean, we’re in a shopping mall and eating Americanized food.”

  “How do you know about Americanized food?” I asked, recalling her saying that she’d only been in the Badlands.

  She nodded, chewing. “Ah, yeah. We get a lot of restaurants in the Badlands. They’re inspired from places all over topside. Rumor has it that the Hellions are trying to work a deal with McDonald’s and Starbucks.”

  I laughed, thinking that would probably make sense.

  “Here,” she said, shoving her pizza in my face, “try this.”

  I shrugged as I took a bite. I didn’t usually like sharing food.

  “Not bad,” I replied. “There’s plenty of time for us to experience the culture, since we’re assigned to the region. We’ll probably visit on a semi-regular basis. Besides, Bert’s more than making up for it.”

  We’d covered most of the mall and decided to head back to the clothing area to pick up a few things, and to check on Bert.

  He noticed us from the inside of a shop and ran to the window, holding up a t-shirt. It was a pretty close representation of a demon’s face, with the word “Yaksha” written underneath.

  “Check it out,” Bert said. “That’s my uncle Rochus. He said he spent some time in Thailand a few centuries ago, but we all thought he was just full of shit.”

  He spun the shirt around and smiled widely.

  “Fucking Rochus,” he laughed, running back toward the clothes.

  “It’s nice to see him so happy,” Mira said, taking my arm, “even if he is a dick most of the time. I guess retail therapy isn’t just for women.”

  I smiled, then looked down and gently removed my arm.

  “Something wrong?” she asked, looking at me.

  I took a seat on a bench near the store and motioned for Mira to join me.

  “I won’t lie,” I admitted. “I’m really into you. You’re funny, beautiful, and smart as hell…and let’s not even get started on how scary you are in a fight. I hate that nothing can happen between us, but nothing can happen between us.”

  “Why not? HR said it was fine and the chief didn’t seem to care. So what’s the problem?”

  “It’s just that I’ve never been a boss before,” I admitted, “and I don’t want to screw it up. Plus, the way you looked at me and how your entire personality changed when you learned that I was your boss was kind of sobering.”

  “Okay,” she replied. “Won’t happen again.” Then, she peered up at me with fluttering eyes. “Unless, of course, we’re careful about it.”

  “What?”

  She grinned.

  “Mira,” I said firmly, “nothing can happen.”

  “Uh, something already happened. Several times. Once on the bar, twice on the couch, and when we got freaky with the fruit.”

  I grinned, in spite of myself.

  “Fair enough.” I looked away wistfully. “Best night of my life, to be honest, even with all the murder and stuff.”

  She pulled my face back toward hers. “So, again, what’s the problem?”

  I didn’t answer, choosing to watch the mix of foreigners and Thai supers walking by as I collected my thoughts. It was nice to be able to just sit and be comfortable around other supernatural folks.

  It can be really isolating to have to hide around the normal folks.

  After a few minutes, I turned back to Mira.

  “Did you really think it was hot when I attacked Granger?” I asked, getting into a dangerous area of conversation.

  I couldn’t help it.

  “I said it was, didn’t I?” She balled up her fist, like she was going to punch me, but was smiling when she did it. “You calling me a liar?”

  “It’s just that it was pretty presumptuous of me to try to solve your problems for you.”

  Mira looked at me from the corner of her eye, like she was sizing me up.

  “You really are a gentleman, aren’t you?” she asked. “I’d suspected that when we were fighting the monsters in the bar, but I wasn’t sure.”

  No responses came to mind that wouldn’t sound like I either was bragging or making excuses, so I kept my mouth shut.

  Mira patted my cheek.

  “That’s cute,” she said. “Ordinarily I’d agree, but we both know if I’d killed Granger, which I probably would have, I would have been in deep shit.”

  “You might have just let him off with a missing kidney or something,” I said.

  The loo
k in her eyes back at the station made it clear she wasn’t going to take any shit from a sexist pig like Granger, but I wasn’t convinced she would have killed him.

  She shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. I guess we’ll find out the next time someone thinks they can put their hands on me.” She bit her lip and lowered her head, looking up at me through her eyelashes. “Unless you’re there to hold me back and look sexy, I mean.”

  “Sexy?”

  Few women had ever used that word with me.

  ‘Cute,’ yeah.

  ‘Doable,’ sure.

  ‘It’s two a.m. and you have a pulse,’ a few times, even if that’s more than one word. When said drunkenly, it sounded like one word.

  ‘Sexy,’ though, was a new one.

  “Oh yeah,” she said, her face flushing a bit. “You standing up for me and kicking his ass was super hot, especially when your eyes started smoking.”

  “Uh, smoking?”

  “Yeah, you didn’t know?”

  I shook my head.

  “When you get really mad your eyes turn grey and some kind of smoke or steam or something comes off them.”

  I held up my phone, checking my eyes in the reflection. No, still the normal blue-green. Weird.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “The full look when you pull a meat Voltron with Bert is bad-ass and kind of scary, but not that attractive.”

  Meat Voltron? That was a weird way to describe merging, but it was as good a term as any other.

  She turned toward me, leaning forward. “The demon look is okay, but the eye thing, that’s fucking hot.”

  Was it getting hot in here?

  “Too bad we can’t do anything about it,” I said, crossing my legs in frustration, as something else on my anatomy threatened to rise again.

  I wasn’t used to urges and feelings like this, and having the one who was stirring both of those right next to me was uncomfortable, but nice at the same time.

  “Again, why can’t it?” Mira asked, taking my hand. “I had fun.”

  I didn’t take it away.

  “Don’t you think you already made it clear at the station when you said ‘it didn’t mean anything, just getting my rocks off’.”

  “I may have exaggerated when I thought I was going to get in trouble,” she pouted. “And even if it was a fling, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to be flung again.”

  This time I moved my hand away.

  “I’m your boss,” I said. “What about the power dynamic? I mean, I’m responsible for your life.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not like I couldn’t leave you to die if I wanted to,” she said. “I don’t know if you noticed, but watching each other’s asses is part of the job. We have to trust each other.”

  She took my hand again. I could have moved away, but now I was thinking about her ass.

  “Besides,” she said, “did you even listen to what human resources said? They never said we can’t hook up, just that there was a power disparity and we’d have to agree not to hold them responsible in case things didn’t work out.”

  That was true.

  They’d stressed how bad an idea it was, but apparently it wasn’t forbidden, even for normal officers. The IDU seemed even more relaxed. There technically wasn’t anything stopping us… except for me.

  “You have no idea how much I want it,” I said, “but I just wouldn’t feel right.” I stood up. “I don’t want to have even the appearance of favoritism or seem like I’m taking advantage of you.”

  Mira started laughing as we walked into the store.

  “Favoritism?” she said, still laughing. “Your life is literally tied to Bert’s, and you’re worried people will think you’re protecting me? You have some weird ideas, Mark.”

  Good point.

  We headed into the men’s section, where I pretended to look at clothes.

  Mira pulled out another demon shirt from the stacks.

  “Here, you and Bert can match. I noticed a lot of the couples here like to wear the same clothes.”

  “Funny.”

  She put the shirt back, but picked out a few others and handed them to me.

  “Buy these,” she insisted. “I have to insist on a minimal level of fashion if we’re going to be seen in public together.”

  “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” I asked. I had on a Gun’s ‘N Roses t-shirt. Kind of trashy, in the USA anyway, but I’d seen lots of people here wearing shirts with American band logos.

  She rolled her eyes. “I refuse to believe the guy I’m crushing on wants to dress like a homeless skateboarder.”

  “Fine, I’ll try them on,” I said, giving up and taking the shirts.

  As long as I objected once I could keep my pride at having my clothes picked out for me.

  She nodded, then smiled.

  “Good, you know when you’ve lost. That’s rare in a man.”

  I tried not to grumble as I made my way to the dressing room.

  I’d just pulled my old shirt over my head when I felt two things, a hidden zone manifesting, hiding me from the world, and a hand on my back.

  Mira took her hand from her tattoo, spun me around and pressed me against the wall of the dressing room.

  That explained who’d summoned the hidden zone.

  “Look,” she whispered, “I struggled with this too, but life is just too short to have regrets.”

  She kissed me, hard.

  “You’re a good guy,” she added, when we came up for air. “I respect that. I really do.”

  I started to object when I felt her hand move toward my belt.

  “Too bad I’m a naughty girl.”

  Chapter 25

  We eventually made it back to Mira’s apartment. I’d given in, several times. Even a day ago I would have felt guilty about it, but not now. Not much anyway.

  I’d already found this job required a lot of moral flexibility and that Stone prized results over anything else. As long as I did my job, it wasn’t anyone’s business who I spent my time with.

  Stone had basically said the same thing during our conference call.

  I think his exact words were something like “I give less than a ferret shit who you screw. Go find out who the fuck killed your team before you end up like they did.”

  A few hours later I heard a call come in on my connector from Gai, the Bangkok AI.

  “Agent Vedis, I’m so sorry to bother you, but can I ask you to do a favor for me? If you aren’t busy, I mean.”

  Gai, like all the AI’s I’d met had a personality, making him easier to relate to.

  In Gai’s case, he was passive-aggressive, like a grandmother on steroids.

  I looked over at Mira, who was still sound asleep. “Hey, Gay, what is it?”

  “It’s pronounced ‘Guy,’ sir.”

  “Ah. My bad. What’s up?”

  “It’s no big deal, probably,” he said, “but there’s been a call from Soi Cowboy, a street of clubs about a block away from you. Would you mind checking it out?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Gai,” I replied, making sure to keep my voice level so I wouldn’t upset him. “I’m not an officer here in Bangkok. Could you call someone else?”

  “Yes, I know, and I’m so sorry for bothering you,” he said. “It’s just that a bunch of those Shaped monsters are there and they’re killing everyone they can find.”

  I swore as I pulled myself out of bed. “I’m on it.”

  “Are you sure?” Gai asked, “I don’t want to inconvenience you. Some of those people probably don’t have children who will starve to death if you let them die.”

  Fucking Harsh, Gai.

  I shook Mira, who shifted to half snake as she sprung at me, fangs extended.

  I jumped back “Hey, It’s me. Chill. No bitey!”

  She blinked and shifted back.

  “Oh shit, did I hurt you?” she asked, rushing over to hug me. “I’m so sorry, it’s instinct when I’m startled.”

  She'd done that when we
slept together at the club too, but I was the big spoon, so she missed me then also.

  “Well, I know who isn’t getting a fucking surprise party any time soon,” I muttered.

  “What?”

  “Uh, we have to go,” I said. “Shaped are in the area. Get dressed while I get Bert.”

  She looked at me, clearly not buying my attempt to cover my tracks. But she let it go and started pulling a uniform out of her closet.

  “On it.”

  As I left, still in my underwear, I swore I heard her say “Bitch, you better throw me a surprise party.”

  The lock to my apartment worked on a thumbprint which was cool, since my keys and wallet were still in Mira’s room.

  “Bert,” I said, opening his door, “we have to go.”

  I don’t know what I expected when I walked in, but seeing him making the human centaur with Officer Porn wasn’t it.

  I also didn’t expect her to be holding a video camera.

  She waved at me, almost losing her balance in the process.

  “Dammit,” Bert groaned. “Give me two minutes.” He made an uncomfortable level of eye contact as he spoke. “One minute, if someone sticks a finger in my ass.”

  “Is he joining?” Porn asked, nodding at me.

  “Maybe next time,” Bert answered. “He’s got a cool dick. You should see it.”

  I ran out of the room.

  Two minutes later I was dressed and Bert was showing his guest to the door.

  “Thanks, babe,” he said. “Send me a link, okay?”

  We met Mira in the hall. Porn winked at her as she passed.

  “Oh, I definitely want you next time,” she announced. “Naga fetish videos are hot right now.”

  We hurried in the other direction toward the elevator.

  “What was that?” Mira asked.

  “Porn found out where we lived and tried to surprise Mark on her lunch break,” Bert stated. “I guess they take long lunches here.”

  Mira’s eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”

  “It’s cool,” Bert said, “I explained that he has a girl while I was helping her wash her hair.”

  “Bert,” I said in a warning tone of voice while shaking my head at him. Yeah, he was in so much danger even I noticed it.