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

by John P. Logsdon

  I laughed.

  Mira was still out, so it was safe.

  I hoped.

  “You’ll clearly be fine.”

  I looked at them both and then at the door.

  “I need you to do something for me, Bert. Bubbles didn’t wait to attack. I have to get to Nana Plaza now and stop him.”

  “Do you need me to come with you?”

  He leaned to the side to push himself up, but fell over instead.

  “No,” I said, helping him onto a chair. “I need you to wait with Mira. I’ll go with Lana and hold them off while the PPD backs us up. They should be there soon.”

  He nodded, his eyes crossing as he tried to focus.

  Damn.

  Maybe I should buy Mira some gloves.

  I looked at my bracelet. There were only two runes left, including the one that allowed Bert and I to stay apart. I took that one off and put it in my pocket.

  “In case something happens here while I’m gone,” I said, handing him the bracelet, “feed some energy into this rune then get the hell away. You’ll have ten seconds.”

  “Why?” he asked, looking at it with apprehension. “What will happen?”

  “I don’t know, Bert,” I snapped at him. “Maybe the barrista comes back, maybe Jonah’s buddies show up, or maybe a roving band of drunk weresheep pour in and start dropping wool all over the damn place.”

  “They do that?”

  “If you get attacked,” I stated while giving him a look, “get away from here.”

  “Fine,” he said. “What about you, though?”

  “I have to fight—”

  “I know, dude,” he interrupted, “but if you get killed and I’m not there, that kind of leaves me in a lurch, right? Remember that whole my-mom-will-torture-me-to-death-if-I’m-not-there-to-fight-with-you shit?”

  He went to get up again.

  Again, he failed.

  “But seeing as how I can’t see straight at the moment, let me just say that I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t go and get yourself killed.”

  “Gee, thanks,” I said with a heavy dose of sarcasm. “Clear up your head as fast as you can and join me. I’d rather not die, either, and having you guys there to help me wouldn’t suck." I pointed at the bracelet. “Only activate it if you have no other choice. And, again, get far away. Got it?”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

  I would have given him more information, but I didn’t know what would happen with the rune, to be honest. Oscar had just told me the same thing about getting far away.

  I rolled up my sleeve and triggered my teleport rune, pulling the address for the Nana Plaza from the PPD database. I would have just brought Bert and Mira along, but this version of teleporting made for a rough ride, so I didn’t trust it to manage their mental or physical situations at the moment.

  As I faded out, I saw Bert give me the finger, mouthing ‘get far away,’ and then I was gone.

  Chapter 34

  The transporter dropped me right into the middle of Nana Plaza. Dozens of neon-covered bars and clubs on three floors surrounded a large courtyard. It looked like Elvis had designed a castle.

  This time there was no warning or showboating.

  Four Shaped were slaughtering everyone they could find.

  Lana appeared next to me, either through teleporting or running really fast. I wasn’t sure how her android body worked. I’d ask her sometime when Bert wasn’t around, to keep the discussion technical.

  “We have a problem, sir,” she said. “The officers who arrived from the PPD said they can’t spot an energy core using the weapons I was given.”

  I concentrated on the people attacking. I know it sounded heartless to do that instead of helping, but I’d hoped it would save more people in the long run.

  I swore as I scanned them.

  “They have cores,” I hissed. “Five smaller ones. Your equipment must not be designed to notice that.”

  Her pupils dilated, then focused. “I see them now. With permission, I’ll aid the officers in targeting, then.”

  I gave her a thumbs up. “Do whatever you think best,” I said. “I’m going to buy us some time.”

  Then, I ran into the battle

  I tried to get myself angry, which wasn’t all that difficult as I looked at the carnage. My eyes burned as I shifted into whatever it was I became when I siphoned Bert’s power. There wasn’t the surge of power that came along with merging, but I was running noticeably faster by the time I jumped on the first of the Shaped in my way.

  My first attack was a swipe of my claws at the creature. She was a djinn.

  I focused on taking out the core in her shoulder, but I only managed to gouge out a chunk of it.

  Shit.

  That meant my non-merged claws weren’t sharp or large enough to do the job.

  I formed a fireball as she lunged at me with her own claws, a set taken from a werebear by the looks of them.

  Pivoting to the right, moving just out of range, I attacked her shoulder again. I still had the fire in my hand when I did so.

  I hadn’t really tried to use magic when I’d merged before, except for the one fireball to roast Elias, so the feeling was odd.

  The rage brewing inside made me get close and personal, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was pleased to find I could make a decent-sized fireball without draining my reserves. It wasn’t anything an average mage would look twice at, but it was much bigger than I used to be able to conjure on my own.

  That was all the more reason I was shocked when my flame-covered claws made contact with the djinn’s energy core, melting it instantly, and taking her arm with it.

  Interesting.

  She shrieked.

  Another swipe took out the core in her leg. Again, with fire on my claws.

  Hypothesis confirmed.

  Time to alert the team.

  “Adding magic to your physical attacks seems to burn the cores out quicker,” I sent through my connector.

  I should have waited until I’d dealt with the djinn before talking.

  Distractions during battle are never a good thing.

  She yelped repeatedly in pain as her arm and leg dissolved, but she’d managed to grab me with her remaining arm. As she gripped me the ink in her tattoos ran down toward her hand, turning it blue. They were glowing so bright that I could even see them through her fur.

  I kicked her in the stomach, knocking her back before she could pour venomous ink into my body. I wasn’t sure if she needed to touch my skin to make me see things, but I didn’t want to wait and find out.

  She toppled over and I took her out as quick as I could, like I should have done in the beginning. A series of flame-enhanced strikes from my clawed hands melted her and I looked for another target.

  There weren’t any.

  The other three Shaped had been destroyed by Lana and the PPD officers.

  “Great job, everyone,” I told them, catching my breath. “How many did we lose?”

  “Thirteen civilians, sir,” a familiar voice answered. “No officer casualties though.”

  “Officer Porn, is that you?” I asked.

  She smiled as she lifted the visor to her helmet. Almost everyone else had already done that, since Bangkok’s humidity made covering your face extremely uncomfortable.

  “In the tight and toned flesh.” Porn looked me up and down. “Speaking of flesh, Bert said you might want to party later.” She caught herself. “You and your girlfriend, I mean. I’m totally down with monogamy as long as people don’t get crazy about it.” She grinned. “I’ve got a new camera and everything.”

  My face flushed as I rubbed the back of my neck. “Uh, no thanks. I appreciate the offer though.”

  No way I was going to introduce something like that into our relationship, especially since Mira and I were finally starting to move away from drama-town.

  “Your loss,” she said, turning to the other officers. “Agent Vedis is out. Who else wants to
party?”

  All the hands went up, including Lana’s.

  “Do you even know what she means?” I asked, whispering into the android’s ear. “She’s not talking about cake and ice cream here, Lana.”

  Lana squinted at me. “Officer Porn means intercourse, correct?”

  I did not want to have this discussion, even though I’d started it.

  So, I merely nodded.

  “Oh, good,” she said, bouncing slightly in excitement. “She seems attractive and I have not had intercourse yet.” She then leaned in and spoke out of the corner of her mouth. “I think I’d like to start with women. No offense, but I studied anatomy while you were sleeping and found the male genitals to be disturbing.”

  I tried not to be offended by that.

  “Uh huh,” I said, feeling more than a little disturbed.

  It was time to move along, and seeing that things were mostly under control, I decided to make my exit.

  Bert and Mira would need to see the PPD doctor, and I couldn’t ask any of the officers here to help. They had enough going on with containing the crime scene and helping any wounded.

  I turned away from the officers to teleport back to the coffee shop. I didn’t get the chance.

  Lana shouted, “Look out!” as I felt something hit the back of my head, sending me to the ground.

  I rolled on my back and looked up, trying to focus my eyes through what was almost certainly a concussion.

  The officer standing above me pulled out a data pad and pushed a few buttons.

  Oh, shit.

  I had just enough time to cover my eyes and ears before explosions near the entrance sent all of the other officers to the ground.

  Obviously, this had been well planned, and it was also clear that I’d underestimated things. I should have known better. This was by far the simplest confrontation I’d had with the Shaped. Yes, there was a larger containment crew with me this time, but it was still relatively easy when compared to the earlier bouts.

  “Did you really think it was going to be that easy?” a man’s voice asked, breaking through the ringing in my ears.

  I looked up as the officer lifted his visor, revealing the smiling face of Ronald Granger.

  “I told you I’d be okay,” he said, hefting his baton and pulling it back for another strike. “Too bad I can’t say the same about you.”

  “Damn it,” I grunted. “Jonah was right. This fucking sucks.”

  Chapter 35

  It all added up. Everyone suspects the quiet person, but they don’t suspect the office asshole. He got under everyone’s skin, then arranged for them to get taken out by Jonah, while he sat on his ass in the office, innocent as can be.

  The baton fell.

  I braced for the hit, only to feel myself being yanked away.

  Something about that felt familiar.

  I managed to crane my head back as I was lifted off the ground, seeing Mira and Bert waiting for me halfway down the road.

  Bert grinned wickedly, flipping me off. “Payback, bitch.”

  I smiled as I watched him dissolve, causing me to fly into a cloud of demon mist as his body merged with mine.

  That clever little bastard had thrown his bracelet away, pulling me to him.

  My good humor was pushed down, though not completely replaced, by a now-familiar rage, the merging bringing out my deepest emotions.

  Mira gawked at me and then took off.

  Hurtful.

  Fortunately, she was back a minute later, holding Bert’s bracelet.

  “I wasn’t sure how far it needed to be,” she said, “so I threw it as far as I could.”

  “Thanks babe,” I growled, attempting to smile. “How did you find me?”

  “Porn called a minute ago,” Mira said, “telling everyone on the PPD channel that they’d been taken out and she couldn’t see or hear anything. That sounded bad, so Bert and I teleported here and pulled you out.”

  “Good call,” I said. “We need to go help them. If you can stand my-not-so-sexy monster form, I mean.”

  Mira looked at me, cocking her head as she studied me.

  Then, she grabbed my face and kissed me deeply.

  “I think the monster look is fucking hot,” she said, before she started to slowly unbutton her blouse. “Love those eyes, remember?”

  “Oh, right,” I replied, batting my eyelashes so the smoke would flutter.

  “Nice,” she purred. “Want to see my monster look?”

  She stripped down to her underwear.

  The reason for this became apparent as her eyes flashed, first to yellow, and then to blood red.

  With a shriek of pleasure, pain, or both, she shifted to her naga form.

  I’d seen her shift part way before, but that was nothing compared to this.

  No, this was the real thing.

  Her fangs and claws emerged, larger and sharper than before. She used them to shred her remaining clothes as her body grew, getting thicker and several feet taller. Her legs blurred together as they merged, lengthening into a golden tail.

  In a matter of seconds, a full naga, half woman and half snake faced me.

  She was the scariest…and sexiest thing I’d ever seen.

  “Whoa,” the voice inside of me said speaking for both of us. “Nice snake tits.”

  “Thank you,” she hissed in response.

  “Can you move like that?”

  She laughed, launching herself down the street at least as fast as I’d been in my half monster form. I ran and caught up to her, taking her hand as we went.

  “What’s the plan?” she asked, using the connector to keep things private.

  “You know Granger, the fucker who attacked you?” I asked. “I need you to kill him.”

  To her credit, she didn’t flinch.

  “You are so sweet,” she said, turning the corner to enter Nana Plaza.

  We both hit the entrance at the same time, diving in opposite directions, in case there was an ambush.

  I saw Granger running in the distance.

  “Have fun,” I said, pointing.

  Mira pulled her body back toward her tail and sped off after the prick. She caught him within seconds, burying her fangs in his neck and dragging him back to us.

  The bastard was twitching as Mira flung him to the ground at my feet.

  His skin turned black, falling off as he gurgle-screamed. The poison was spreading like a spider-web through his veins, faster than I would have thought possible. It covered his entire body within a matter of moments, causing him to convulse as he rotted from the inside out.

  Finally, foam poured from his mouth.

  With one last twitch, he was dead.

  “Well,” I said. “That was easy.”

  Mira wiped her mouth. “He tasted disgusting,”

  “Listen,” I said with some trepidation, “and don’t be offended…but how would you feel about gloves and maybe a mouth-guard?” I glanced back down at the grossness that was once Granger. “After tonight, I don’t think condoms are going to cut it.”

  She scowled. “Pussy.” She wiped her mouth again, then spat on the ground. “Seriously though, he tasted wrong. Not human.”

  I didn’t want to know how she knew what humans tasted like. Besides, I didn’t have time to ask.

  I turned to look at Granger’s body, just in time for him to sit up, wink, and smile.

  I knew that smile.

  “Bubbles?”

  “I did tell you I was coming in person,” he bragged, “didn’t I?”

  Chapter 36

  The blackness faded away as his body rippled and reshaped itself. The poison was flooding out of his system. Patches and parts from all kinds of creatures emerged as his body warped.

  “It takes so much energy to project myself into my little servants,” he said. “I feel as though it’s given you a poor impression of me.”

  I charged him, only to run into a wall of energy so strong that I bounced back away. Dammit, he’d su
mmoned a shield and a strong one at that.

  “No,” he objected, his smile warping as the skin and muscles of his head reshaped into a twisted clown smile. “I think it’s better we meet face to face.”

  I scanned his body, looking for an opening. I hadn’t noticed an energy core before, but I hadn’t been looking for one either.

  Not that it would have helped.

  Shit.

  I couldn’t see a core anywhere.

  No, that wasn’t right.

  Double shit.

  I gasped as his body lit up to my senses. I couldn’t find a core, because his entire body was made of them.

  There were dozens, maybe hundreds.

  Shit was no longer strong enough of a word.

  Fuck. Possibly double-fuck.

  He looked at me, turning in a circle to show off the horror-show that was his body. There were patches of almost every kind of were and super I could think of, all glowing with their own type of energy signature.

  “Do you like this upgrade?” He asked. “It was ridiculously painful, but you and your team got so good at taking out my people that I felt it was time to try something different.”

  “How is this possible?” Mira asked.

  She couldn’t see the energy, but she was smart enough to know something was majorly fucked up.

  “Quite simple,” Bubbles answered. “The magic of the Shapers is about adaption…of absorption. I devoured the bodies and respective energies from all the supernatural creatures I could find.”

  “Except a weretiger,” I reminded him, feeling a small sense of satisfaction.

  “Fine, except for that.” He said. Then, he nodded at me. “And you, of course.”

  “Me?”

  “Oh yes, my dear Mr. Vedis.” His voice had turned pedantic. “I’ve just about exhausted every supernatural type out there, but I do seem to be missing the weretiger and the warlock.”

  He frowned, in a pseudo-pout.

  “Not to worry,” he added. “As soon as I devour you and absorb your essence, I’ll have all the power I need for phase two of my plan.”

  Him “devouring my essence” sounded really wrong, but even Bert’s piece of my current psyche thought it best not to make note of it to Bubbles.