by Michael Todd
3
Don’t look so down,” Damian said, taking the empty cup and trash from Katie. “Korbin brought you here. That’s a good sign.”
“Have you been here long?” Katie asked.
“For a while, but not from the beginning,” Damian replied. “I was part of a SWAT team in my human life. I was sent in on this call with another guy on the team, Chris, and we both got infected. That was when the Killers showed up. They brought us back here and took care of us, and I found my niche.”
“Oh,” Katie said. “So, it worked out for you?”
“As much as it could, under the circumstances,” he said. “The people are cool, the job is thrilling, and the money is pretty good, so I guess I can’t complain. You know what?”
“What?” Katie said.
“I never asked you your name.” He smiled.
Katie sat there for a moment, thinking about the answer, unsure what to say. She knew her name—that wasn’t the problem. The problem was, she didn’t feel like that girl anymore. She didn’t feel like ‘Katie,’ the easygoing and motivated college girl. She had changed, mostly because she had a demon inside of her, but also because everything seemed to be moving in a completely new direction.
“Katie.” She finally decided. Fuck Pandora! She wasn’t changing her name just because she had an unwanted roomie.
The door opened. “You ready to see the grounds?” Korbin asked, walking inside the room.
“Her name is Katie,” Damian said, winking at her.
“I like it,” Korbin replied, in a bit of a lighter mood than before. “Come on, I want you to see your room.”
Katie dropped off the bed. “Am I staying here?”
“For now,” he answered. He opened the door, then stepped around her and led the way into the hall.
Korbin was an interesting guy. He was tall and strong, and had silver hair that almost looked unnatural. His face was weathered slightly from the life he had lived, but he wasn’t that old—or at least that was what his eyes told her.
They walked down the corridor, then went up several flights of stairs. The setting changed the higher they climbed. It stopped looking so much like a hospital and more like a dorm of sorts, only a bit darker than the ones she was used to.
“So, this is the fourth floor,” Korbin told her as he pointed down the hallway. “This is the main hub of the base. In here you will find the living area for the few minutes of relaxation we might have, the kitchen, and the showers—though you’ll have a private shower for now—and the library.”
“Library?” Katie responded, looking around with interest and noting the kitchen area.
“Yeah, we have compiled some useful texts on the Damned, the demons, and the different ones we have found through the years,” he said. “Kind of our own compilation of resources. Feel free to read whatever you would like.”
“Thanks,” she said quietly.
Katie followed him around the base, looking around at the nice furniture, ornate rugs, and paintings hanging on the wall.
It felt like someone’s really nice house to Katie, but she could see the undertones of business everywhere.
They walked past a small door on the right, and Katie stopped to look through the doorway. There were two benches, an altar, and a giant green neon cross hanging high on the wall at the front. Hundreds of candles filled the altar, all casting flickering shadows across the dark walls.
“That’s Damian’s,” he said. “All are welcome.”
Don’t even think about it, Katie, Pandora hissed in spite.
Katie smirked maliciously, then caught up with Korbin. He stopped at the door to another stairwell and turned back to her. He looked around and sighed, staring into the distance for a moment.
Katie glanced around before returning her focus to Korbin, “Do you live here?”
“Yeah.” He nodded, looking at Katie. “I’ve seen quite a few faces come and go. It’s the closest thing I have to a home in this life. Anyway, you are upstairs on the fifth floor. Let me show you your room. You can use the clothes in there and take a shower—get clean.”
Part of Katie felt almost sorry for Korbin. She thought there might be something deep and heavy weighing on his soul.
She hoped that this life—for however long she was in it—didn’t do the same thing to her.
They took the stairwell up to the next floor, where a number of large, heavy gray doors lined the hallway. He walked her to the fourth on the right and opened it, holding it for her as she entered.
She looked around, feeling slightly uneasy. The room was nice—even better than most hotels she had stayed in—but it wasn’t home.
She wandered over to the window and looked out over the Nevada desert. In the distance, she could see the twinkling lights of Las Vegas shining brightly on the dawning horizon. There was dew on the windows, and though it was cold out there, Katie wondered if she would ever feel the frost on her skin again.
“It’s nothing crazy,” he said. “You have to stay with us for a while, though. Until things change, there’s a view of the Strip.”
“Will I ever get to leave?” Katie asked, staring out the window.
Korbin paused. “I’m sure you can in time,” he finally answered. “Are you hot? You’re sweating. I can turn the heat down.”
“I don’t think it will change a thing,” Katie answered. “I’ve been boiling hot since the demon entered me.”
“It happens,” he told her, a bit more softly. “Your body will adjust in time.”
“This is unbelievable,” Katie said with a sigh. “I can’t believe that just last night, I was sitting across the table from someone I thought was a normal college guy. I had no idea he was a Damned, or what that meant.”
“It’s hard to grasp, I admit,” Korbin said, watching her move from the window and sit down on the edge of the bed. “We were taught to think things like this didn’t happen in the real world, but now you have to rewire everything you know.”
“What’s going to happen to me?” she asked.
“Well, as a Damned, you have only three real options,” he said, and put up a finger. “Death is one, but that one we try to stay away from for obvious reasons.” He put up a second finger. “There’s also conscription into the teams, and,” a third finger went up, “research.” He chewed his lip for a moment in thought before he continued, “There is exorcism, too, but I don’t want to talk about that unless it’s a viable option. Right now we just don’t know enough.”
Katie perked up. “Research? I would love to do research. That was my minor in college…medical research.”
Korbin didn’t smile. “I don’t think you quite understand. You wouldn’t be doing the research. The research would be performed on you.”
“Oh,” Katie said.
Fuck, no, Pandora shouted in her head. I didn’t come all the way up to this shit of a world to have them poke me with needles!
“Yeah,” Korbin answered. “Anyway, I’m gonna leave you to it. Get cleaned up, and enjoy some rest. We will come get you later in the day to figure the everything else out. Just keep one thing in mind: that demon is on your turf. You can fight back. Don’t let it take you over. You have control. It’s inside you, and in your heart.”
Katie nodded as Korbin closed the door behind him, then stared blankly at the window. Everything was unreal to her, even the soft cotton blanket beneath her on the bed. She got up to take a shower.
Whether she liked it or not she was stuck there, and it was a hell of a lot better than being dead or a lab rat. Still, she already missed her old life, her family, and her friends.
I’ll be your friend. Pandora chuckled. We can make girl-talk and eat bon bons.
Katie scoffed. Right. I’d rather have no friends at all.
You’re going to need me one day, and hurting my feelings is not the way to ensure my help, Pandora responded.
You don’t have feelings, Katie told her.
Maybe you’re right, Pandora re
plied, as if she were thinking. I believe I lost them a long time ago. Wait, I don’t think I ever had feelings other than being pissed-off, which makes me spicy. All the men love it.
Well, I don’t, Katie snapped. Leave me alone. I need quiet.
One thing you will learn is, I have patience. You will see it my way in the future,” Pandora answered, then went silent.
As Katie took off the bloody and grimy dress, she thought about how the Killers had fought earlier that day.
They had been like an army, jumping higher than she had seen anyone jump, and wielding weapons that she had never even held in her hands. She wondered what would happen if she couldn’t keep up; couldn’t make it as part of the team.
Death might be the only choice, because there was no fucking way she was going to become a human guinea pig.
And, she wondered as she turned on the hot water, what could she do for her mom?
KORBIN SHUT the door to Katie’s room and leaned against it for a moment. He let out a sigh, saddened to see such a young girl yanked from her life and thrown into the hell that was being one of the Damned.
He had never gotten used to watching people being robbed of their lives.
It was an impossible world that they lived in, and it was worse when all your options were snatched from you in the blink of an eye. Korbin could feel the weight of responsibility pressing down on his shoulders, as if the world were waiting for him to make a move.
“Hey,” Damian called, nodding from his place down the hall. “You all right?”
“Been better.” Korbin groaned, then pulled away from the door and headed toward him. “This was one hell of a night.”
“Didn’t expect to see that young girl on that altar, did you?”
“No, I had hoped not.” Korbin responded. “But it never gets easier when you are two seconds too late to save someone.”
“She’s strong,” Damian said. “She will pull through. I can feel it.”
Korbin nodded his acceptance. “How are the others?”
“Fine,” Damian replied. “A couple scratches here and there, but Garrett stitched them right up. They are down in the meeting room, just talking and decompressing. I was about to go grab a drink. You want to join us?”
“No.” Korbin chuckled. “I’m going to grab a shower and some food, then start planning things out for Katie. I can tell the demon is in her head, and I want to get her stronger so it just stays a voice and doesn’t go any further than that. We need a girl on the team again. It feels right to have her on board.”
Damian raised an eyebrow. “She’s young. You think she will make it?”
Korbin nodded. “I think so. She’s got a fire behind those eyes I haven’t seen in a female before. Unless that fire is coming from the demon, she might just kick some major ass with this team.”
“Here’s hoping,” Damian agreed. “I’ll catch up with you later. Gotta go save some drinking souls.” He laughed and slapped Korbin on the shoulder before walking down the hall to the staircase.
Korbin chuckled and shook his head, then looked back at Katie’s closed door. His mood darkened again and he sighed, and walked down the hall to his room. When he got inside, he peeled off the sweaty clothes covered in human and demon blood and tossed them into the fireplace.
He’d never felt comfortable wearing clothes with the blood of the Damned on them. He’d burned about twenty outfits in just the last couple months. It was worth the extra money to him to just buy new stuff every so often.
He leaned his battered and bruised body against the shower wall, letting the hot water flow over him. He watched, entranced, as dirt and dried blood swirled around the drain.
He closed his eyes for a moment, seeing visions of his past life.
He saw the war: the faces he had lost, the limbs torn from bodies, and the massacre that had ensued on that fateful night—the mission that would change him forever. He had been the only one left standing, but he was no longer alone.
The demon had buried itself in his gut.
Korbin wouldn’t be commanded though, and he had left without a word, determined to help others. It bore on his soul every time he was too late, every time a human died, every time a demon won a battle.
The worst part of it for him wasn’t the actual demon inside him. It was his own personal demons, those being the faces of every single soldier he had lost along the way.
Korbin opened his eyes and straightened as the water started to cool. He knew he couldn’t afford to just stand there, reminiscing about the times that had gone bad.
He was on a mission, one that demanded every bit of his strength and concentration.
Otherwise they would all be lost to the silent killers that lurked in the shadows, watching the innocent, plotting, scheming, and bringing hell right to their doorsteps. He hadn’t asked for this job.
But he sure as hell wouldn’t turn away from it.
As the sun peeked over the horizon, Korbin stood in front of the window looking out over the desert. The frost shimmered on the sand like diamonds. His bones ached and his muscles spasmed, but there would be no rest today.
He had a Damned to save, and she wasn’t just any ordinary one, either. The weight of the world seemed to bear down on him, but he was strong enough to withstand it.
There were demons out there preying on the weak, and his war, chosen or not, was to rid the world of those vile creatures, sending them back to the depths of hell where they came from.
Would he be successful?
He had no clue, but he would sure as hell do the best damn job he could.
He had made it his goal in life to not lose any more of his men to the Damned, or to the demons that resided in them.
To the best of his abilities, so help him God.
From the base, which was centered in the blowing sands of the Nevada desert, two faces peered, strong and firm, at the world outside.
One was the young and lost Katie, clinging tightly to her thoughts of her past life, unsure of the future.
The other was a muscled man with focused eyes. He was ready to take on another day, ready to take on yet another demon. Would either survive to the end? That was in Fate’s hands, but one thing was for sure.
Neither would go down without a fight.
4
There were clothes hanging in the closet of her new room, so she walked over after her shower and ran her hand across slick black material—some sort of suit—wondering who it had belonged to before.
She pulled out a pair of black spandex pants and a black tank top, held them up, and shrugged her shoulders.
Anything would be better than what she had been wearing.
She took the clothes into the bathroom and changed, then looked at her new persona in the mirror. The black material hugged every part of her, but she didn’t feel self-conscious. Her eyes were the strangest; she didn’t really think red rings were a good look on her.
But taking on a new life meant leaving the past behind her, and Katie was determined to do exactly that.
She pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail and washed her face, rinsing away the tears for her previous life.
Well, don’t you look dangerous and mysterious, Pandora said. At least I’m not stuck in some fat, lazy human who would have subjected me to cheese puff after cheese puff.
Careful, Katie replied. I’ll go right out and get a big bag of them just to piss you off.
You do, and you’ll regret it, Pandora warned her.
I don’t think you even know how to make me regret it. Katie laughed.
Her legs wobbled and she fell to her knees, clasping her hands in front of her. She had no control over what she was doing.
“Knock it off,” Katie ground out, her teeth clenched. “Now!”
Pandora laughed. Fine. Just showing you I have a bit more control than you think.
Whatever, Katie growled. She was pulling herself back up when she heard a knock on the door. We’ll finish this conversation late
r.
Oh, sure. Pandora laughed.
Katie walked over to the door and cracked it slightly, peeking out cautiously. Korbin nodded to her, and she opened the door and moved to the side. He walked in, looking around the room, and turned back to her.
“Did you sleep well?” he asked.
“Not really,” she answered. “But I relaxed a bit, if that counts.”
“That will have to do.” he looked down at her clothes and raised an eyebrow.
“I hope you don’t mind,” she said. “I needed to change but I didn’t have anything, so I took things out of the closet like you told me to.”
“That’s perfectly fine. They fit you well, and we weren’t expecting a new recruit quite so soon.”
“Yeah,” Katie muttered, smoothing down her top.
“Are you ready?” he asked her.
“Why, what are we doing?”
“You are going to sit down with the leader of your new team and go through some preliminary questions and such,” he said. “They want to get a handle on who you are, what you are capable of, and where you need the most training.” He looked at her. “Unless you chose one of the other options?”
Katie chuckled, shaking her head. “No, I’m good with being on a team.”
“All right, good.” He waved a hand and stepped out of her room. “Follow me.”
Katie nodded and followed him down the hall.
There was no one on the main level. She could only assume they were in training, or doing whatever it was Korbin’s Killers did all day. When they reached an elevator at the end of the hall, Korbin pressed the button and led her inside, staring forward as the doors closed. He pulled a key out of his pocket and put it in a panel on the wall, then turned it and pressed a small red button.
“This goes down to our training area,” he said. “We’ll make sure you get a key when you’re ready.”
“You mean, when you’ve decided I’m not going to go crazy and murder everyone,” Katie replied with faint smile.
“Something like that.” He nodded in agreement and kept looking forward as the elevator went downward.