by Kat Cotton
Yeah, I was going to stay in the van like a kid, or one of the dogs. I’d agree then sneak in once it was clear. That’s what anyone would do.
Nuno drove like a maniac, skidding around corners. One of the dogs clamored up on my knee and I had to hold it tight to stop it flying all over the van. It wanted to stand up and look out the window but its pointy little feet dug into my thighs. Trying to move it proved impossible so I just tried to support its weight.
The other dog curled up on the floor, obviously the smarter of the two.
“Where are we going?” I asked, but Earnest didn’t answer and Nuno couldn’t.
Nuno pulled up the van near a boarded-up warehouse and got out. I knew this place. I knew this place way too well, since it’d been the site where that demon attacked me. That demon had been terrifying and he obviously had friends or Earnest wouldn’t be here.
Earnest got the dogs out of the back. I leaned back in my seat, trying to portray the image of someone perfectly happy to stay in the van while dodgy business went on.
“Are they going to be safe in there?” I asked Earnest as he picked up Snowy.
“They can look after themselves,” he said.
If he thought that then I wasn’t going to argue.
“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to sound bored and just making conversation.
“Nothing. Stay in the van.”
“Right. It’s safe for the dogs and not for me?”
“Who said it wasn’t safe?” Earnest asked.
Oops. I’d overplayed my hand.
“Fine, I don’t want to go into some smelly old derelict building anyway.”
When the two of them had gone inside with the dogs, I messaged Akira.
“At the same warehouse,” I typed, in case he hadn’t gotten my location from the GPS. “Shit is going down. Do not make yourself known around here.”
Music played at the school. It floated faintly through the streets. Some pop song over the school PA. Then an announcement. Some kid had to go to the office.
I tried opening the van door but that bastard had locked it. From the outside. As if that would hold me. I slid open the window and climbed out. Piece of cake.
Then I heard it. A scratching sound. More demons?
Of course it was more demons.
I crept in the door to the warehouse, not sure what I’d find.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust so I stayed stock still. Something moved in the shadows. I guess we wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t something to fight. One of the dogs gave a low growl. I knew it’d been a mistake to bring them. The other one kept low to the ground. The things around us started shuffling. I got into fighting stance, wondering why the others just stood here.
Then Nuno screamed. I wished he’d warned me this might be a screaming situation so I could’ve brought ear plugs. His scream cut through me. I blocked my ears and squatted to the ground. Even then it penetrated my brain. The dogs barked, adding to the cacophony. And around me, the air swirled, stirring up the dust. As it swirled, the warehouse became brighter as though someone had turned on the lights.
I could see the things around us. These were different demons to the ones I’d fought before. There were horrible creatures, like gargoyles but covered in scales. Their hands, or paws or whatever you’d call them, ended in razor-like claws. Why did every creature we encountered have those claws?
I could count three of them, hopefully there weren’t more hidden away. A three-on-three fight might be win-able although I had no way of knowing if Earnest could fight or not.
The dogs growled some more. I thought they might fly at the demons but they just scratched at the ground. I turned to see if Earnest was holding them back. He wasn’t but the white dog had changed. He’d grown bigger. The structure of his body had elongated. I turned to the black one. The same. The two of them both growing and changing. I wanted to watch but that meant having my back to the demons. Never a good idea.
“I told you to stay in the van,” Earnest hissed.
“Oops.”
I thought he might attack me but he kept his focus on the demons as they inched closer. They reeked of death and nastiness, so strongly I could smell them over the other stinks in the warehouse. I hoped those dogs could fight. I turned back to see what those dogs were doing.
Holy shit. Those dogs were men. Big men with bulging muscles. They still had a doginess about them so that you knew they weren’t human but they were definitely were not cute little fluffy dogs any longer. Patches of fur covered their bodies but, where the flesh could be seen, it was bulging muscular flesh. Their faces still had snouts and they had dog ears but their eyes and stance were more human than dog.
The teeth, definitely dog. But not cute puppy teeth. Huge, snarling teeth. The kind that could rip you to shreds.
Those dogs had sat on my lap? They’d watched me on the toilet?
Damn.
The demons flew at us. One dog man rushed at him, snarling and teeth bared. The demon reared back. Nuno’s screams intensified.
I could draw on my powers and destroy those demons but everything happened around me in a rush. The dogs snarling, the screaming, the dust and the light. I hardly had time to think let alone react.
Earnest made a clicking sound. Commands to the dogs? It seemed like it.
The dog took one of the demons down, a black substance oozing from its neck. The other two demons rushed him and the second dog joined in the fight.
A demon ripped the first dog across the belly. He howled in pain. A sound almost worse than Nuno’s screams.
What was Earnest doing? How could he just stand there and let his dog suffer?
The other dog howled. Were they both injured?
I wanted to rush in and save them but I could do better than that.
Finally, I felt my power rising within me. I’d rid the world of those demons forever.
I tightened my fists, praying this would work, that Earnest hadn’t used that potion again without me knowing.
My body shook. The words began to flow from me as I closed my eyes. Strange words with no meaning I could discover. No language I’d heard either.
I tried to breathe slowly, to control the power rather than letting it control me. I couldn’t risk being physically wracked by it. Every time I’d done this before, I’d been totally drained afterward. I needed to defeat those demons but I needed to hold on to myself too.
The words came out slowly. Like every time before, I had no understanding of what I said, just that something else used me as a mouthpiece. I let the words flow but focused on my body, trying to hold back as much as possible.
At first that caused a welling sensation, like the power had nowhere to go so it swelled up inside me. Then, as the demons weakened, I became stronger. I could do this. I could defeat them without being overwhelmed.
My legs swayed but I stood steady. Waves of power surged through me but I would work with them. I wouldn’t shatter. Not now.
For the first time, I wasn’t just a conduit for a stronger but could work and meld the power I possessed. I couldn’t get carried away with thinking about that now, though.
One of the demons fell away. The dog men growled but kept fighting, swiping at the demons with their paws.
I didn’t want to look. I couldn’t bear to see those dog men get injured.
The words became a rumble from deep inside me but I controlled them still.
The second demon slumped, no longer fighting. The two dog men fell on the final demon. They intended ripping that demon apart. I didn’t want that to happen. I kept chanting until the final demon had been destroyed.
One of the dog men looked up, alarmed that they didn’t get the kill.
Before they could attack the dead bodies, the demons disappeared. Gone from this and anyone plain.
The dog men started turning back into dogs. Nuno rushed to heal the wounds on their bodies.
“Why did you do that?” Earnest screamed. “Y
ou ruined everything.”
His face reddened and a vein in his neck throbbed. He looked like he wanted to kill me.
Chapter 23
“YOU WEREN’T SUPPOSED to make the kill.” The way that vein pulsated in Earnest’s neck scared the heck out of me.
“What difference does it make? The demons are dead. Gone. Forever. That’s what we wanted, isn’t it?”
Earnest rolled his eyes as though I was just too stupid to handle.
“You aren’t one of us and you should not be part of this troupe. You should stay out of things you don’t understand,” he said. “Bringing you along was a mistake. When we get back to the town house, pack your stuff.”
He glared at me, that vein still pulsing. It took me a minute for what he’d said to sink in.
“Wait? No. Do you even have the power to sack me?”
None of this made sense. Those demons had evil intentions and I’d killed them. How did that get to be a problem?
As we walked back to the van, Earnest muttered something to Nuno about quotas. I had no idea what that hell that was about. I got in the van and sat with my arms folded, staring out the window. The white dog wanted to climb onto my lap but I pushed him aside. What if he shifted into a freaky dog man while he was on my knee?
The silence hung heavy in the van. Nuno could’ve at least turned on the radio to cut through the ominousness. I grabbed out my phone and texted Akira to bring him up to speed.
We headed back to the town house, not the appointment with the festival director. I didn’t ask why since that would mean speaking to Earnest. I jumped out of the van as soon as we pulled into the garage and stormed instead. Duke sat at the kitchen table.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“I killed the demons and now Earnest is kicking me out of the troupe.”
Earnest and Nuno followed me in.
“She’s out. Effective immediately.”
I sat on a chair opposite Duke and hugged my knee to my chest.
“You can’t do that,” Duke said. “I need her as my target girl.”
He could’ve said that they needed me as part of the act or that he didn’t want to see me go, but nope. I was nothing more to Duke than something to throw knives at.
“We need to talk,” Earnest said. He meant Duke not me.
“It’s better if you weren’t around for this,” Duke said. He spoke to me, not Earnest.
“No, I think it’s better if I am. This concerns me so I need to know what’s going on.” I was sick of not being part of things.
Lilly wandered into the kitchen wearing a lacy nightgown and rubbing her eyes.
“What’s all the noise about? A girl needs her sleep.”
“Earnest wants to kick Jayne out of the troupe,” Duke said.
“I don’t want to. I already have.” Then he turned to me. “Why are you even still sitting here and not packing your bags?
Lilly grabbed a tub of yogurt out of the fridge and sat down with us. “I want to be here for this. Earnest might be in charge at the moment but he can’t kick you out.”
At least Lilly was on my side. And Duke. Earnest’s gaze swept around the room.
“I guess it’s better if everyone hears this at once,” he said. “Since it will affect the whole troupe.”
Then he started telling them what had happened at the warehouse.
“I thought I was helping,” I said. “I destroyed the demons. Why is that a problem?”
“You should’ve left it to Earnest,” Duke said.
“Well I didn’t know that. I thought I was doing the right thing. When I kill demons, they stay dead. They aren’t just vanquished, they are dead forever.”
Earnest glared at me. “Don’t be silly. No one can do that.”
I folded my arms, willing myself not to get huffy but I couldn’t let that go.
“Are you calling me a liar?” I glared at him.
“No one can destroy demons. Do you have any proof?”
How the hell could I prove it? I only had Buzz’s word for it and that wasn’t proof. It wasn’t like I could follow up on what happened to those demons once they were gone.
“You still haven’t explained to me, what does it matter anyway? A dead demon is a dead demon.”
Earnest just shook his head but his face reddened and that vein kept throbbing in his neck.
What I care if he got angry. Since I was kicked off the team anyway, I might as well keep pushing for as much information as possible. At least then I’d have something to show for my efforts.
“Don’t just shake your head. How the hell am I supposed to know the right thing to do when no one tells me anything? This is not just about protecting people from those demons, is it? There’s more to it.”
“We were protecting people,” Earnest said. “There was a whole school full of innocent children nearby. Those demons had them targeted.”
I huffed. “That much is true so does it matter who did the kill?”
I’d figured this much out — I’d gotten things wrong. So wrong. Earnest and Nuno hadn’t been the ones who murdered that kid. The troupe weren’t evil. They fought and killed demons. So far, so good. A vigilante demon killing carnival troupe, that made some kind of sense. It was this quota thing that I couldn’t get my head around.
Even in the middle of all this shit, it was a relief to know that Nuno wasn’t one of the bad guys. I wanted to ask his forgiveness for thinking bad of him but I could never tell him my suspicions.
He leaned against the kitchen counter, keeping well out of things but when he noticed me looking at him, he gave me a soft smile. That smile shot straight to my heart. It was almost like he’d known what I’d been thinking and wanted to let me know it was okay.
“Do you get a bounty from someone?” I asked. “Is that the drill? You guys are supernatural bounty hunters?” I wanted to add “supernatural zombie bounty hunters” but figured this was no time for levity.
Duke smirked, which made me think I was kind of off base here but Earnest screwed up his mouth then smiled.
“You’re right. That’s pretty much it.”
“So, you collect the bounty for my kill. That’s fine. I’m totally okay with that since I wasn’t doing it for the money anyway.”
“It’s not so simple,” Earnest said. “You can transfer the kill over like that.”
“She got all three of them?” Duke asked.
Earnest nodded. These answers just raised more questions.
“Who pays the bounty?” That was the main thing I needed to do know. “If there’s money to be made here, I want in on it.”
I didn’t give a damn about the money but I wanted them to think I did. It made asking questions easier.
“You can’t get in on it,” Lilly said. “You’re not one of us.”
I had more questions but Duke cleared his throat.
“That’s not the issue,” he said. “The issue is, Jayne stays. She’s doing the finale with me.”
Earnest turned in his seat, locking eyes with Duke. Whoa, it was on. He squared his shoulders and puffed out his chest. Duke wasn’t nearly so primal but the fire in his eyes said he wouldn’t back down either.
“I said she leaves.”
Duke didn’t flinch. “We can’t do the tour without her. The society don’t have a replacement. That’s why we had to audition. And three of us can’t do the shows alone.”
I jolted. When they’d mentioned the society before, I’d assumed it was something to do with the performance side of things but there might be more to it than that. If someone was paying bounties, this society had to be it.
“Your math might be a bit fuzzy after your incident but there are four of us,” Earnest said.
“There’s no fuzziness. Also, we need an aerial act. I can’t do it and I doubt you have the skills. Lilly? Nuno? Either of you up for it? How are your acrobatic skills?”
Earnest leaned forward. “I’m in charge here and my word goes.”
Du
ke smoothed his mustache. “I’m aware of that but maybe those words were said in a moment of haste. There’s no shame in reconsidering, for the greater good.”
Earnest glared at Duke and Duke glared back. We might be stuck here in an eternal glaring contest, which was okay for them but I had a regular, mortal life span and I had things to do. Important things.
Lilly yawned, stretching her arms over her head.
“This pissing contest is starting to bore me, guys,” she said. “We all know there’s only one way to resolve this. We take it to the society to judge.”
Chapter 24
“OBVIOUSLY HER MEMORY will be wiped after this,” Earnest said as we walked to the garage.
“No can do,” Duke replied. “It doesn’t work on her.”
“Well she can’t just walk around knowing our secrets. That will endanger us all.”
“You should’ve thought of that before you threw your hissy fit,” Duke said. “If you’d let her kill those demons and kept your mouth shut, she’d have never known a thing.”
I kept my head down, not wanting to interrupt this conversation.
“Three.” Earnest’s voice rose to a mild shriek. “I just needed three. That’s how close I was.”
“How do you know the next world is any better than this one?” Duke asked.
“It is. I just know it. It might be alright for you and the others being stuck in this existence. I have children to think of.”
As he said that, Earnest glanced at the two dogs. I wasn’t sure if he meant children as in actual offspring or in the way that people call their pets their children.
“Is the quota just for you or do the dogs have their own?” I asked.
Earnest scowled at me as though I shouldn’t even be talking.
“Come on,” I said. “I know too much now. It’s not going to hurt any more to tell me.”
“Just me. I hit the quota and we all move on. No more purgatory. No more living as a quasi-human. And no more of this weird dog form for the boys.”