Pound of Flesh: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Half-Demon Warlock Book 1)

by J. A. Cipriano

  “What do we do now?” Renee asked, careful not to look at me. She must have felt guilty about getting her way because all of her attention was turned to Isa.

  “We get drunk,” Isa said unsurprisingly. “I have friends out there searching for Nickolas. All we can do is sit tight until midnight rolls around. There’s obviously some sort of deadline set up with that. If we wait it out, maybe we won’t have to deal with what comes next.” She grinned widely. “And there’s no rule saying we can’t have a little of fun while we’re doing it. I’ll go get us three drinks, and we can bond. It’ll be fun.”

  “Don’t you mean three?!” Gary asked, fuming from his spot on the floor.

  “You have a bar here,” I said, pointing to the thing in the center of the room.

  “Just for show, baby doll,” Isa answered, skipping toward the door.

  “Bring my imp a drink too,” I said, looking over at the bruised and battered little guy. “He’s had a rough day.”

  “What’s an imp?” Isa laughed and headed out the door.

  “That bitch better bring me some alcohol,” Gary muttered, staring at the door with his spider eyes.

  He was still holding his arm and, given that I had been overruled into killing time in an Atlanta skyscraper, I figured now was as good a time as any to fix that up.

  “Come on, Gary. Let me heal your arm,” I said, moving toward the wet bar in the center of the room. There was a purse on it I remembered Isa having back at the bar. There were likely herbs in there, or something that I could use to kick start the healing process. So, with Renee following me, I took Gary over to the bar and started rifling through Isa’s purse.

  “That’s not very nice,” Renee said, her mouth turned downward

  “Neither is bringing me here against my will,” I barked, pulling out a bag from her purse. “I guess we’ll both have to spend the rest of the night upset.”

  Seeing that it was the Hemlock from earlier, I tossed it on the bar and kept digging.

  “What the hell?” Gary asked, climbing up onto my shoulder. “What has that batshit chick got Hemlock for?”

  “For fun,” I said disgustedly. “She uses it for fun somehow.”

  “Oh,” Gary shook his head. “I thought she might have been treating the Madness with it. Seeing as how she’s a fairy and all.”

  “What’s the madness?” Renee asked, picking up the bag.

  “Don’t touch that!” I said, realizing I shouldn’t have placed it on the bar in the first place. “It’s very dangerous, and the Madness is something fairies and other really long lived creatures go through sometimes. After so many centuries, the mind can grow weary. Sometimes, it fractures and causes them to act erratically. Hell, I even heard once that a fairy’s mind broke so hard, he created an entirely separate identit--”

  My eyes fell on my mother’s necklace, glowing red against Renee’s chest. We were in danger, but how was that…?

  Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. It all made sense. The Hemlock, Fulton being a woman, the strange way Isa had been acting, and the fact she kept ignoring Gary. Only she wasn’t ignoring Gary. She didn’t see Gary. Just like the demons in the alley, just like Charles Whitmore. She didn’t see him because she was unaware of the existence of imps. But Isa had talked to Gary before. She knew all about imps. That would only make sense if Isa wasn’t Isa… if she was a separate personality altogether.

  Slowly, I took my mother’s amulet in my hand, lifting it from Renee’s chest.

  “My God,” I said, a shiver running up my spine. “I know who Fulton is.”

  “Well, balls.” Isa’s voice echoed from the other end of the room. “I had hoped not to have to kill you. I figured that maybe, after all of this was done, I could convince you to work for me. You liked the fairy whore well enough, I figured you might dig her replacement even more.” I could see now, as clear as day, the shift in Isa’s eyes. This was a completely different personality, a new mental being that had taken her over. And it seemed like it had been going on long enough for that being to build an empire.

  An empire I was now standing in. Beads of sweat formed instantaneously at my forehead. We were screwed.

  “I’ve never seen anything like you before. You’d have been a good addition.” Isa, now Fulton, shrugged. “Oh well. You can’t win them all, I guess.”

  She waved her hand, and I felt a rush of energy pushing me backward. Gary’s clawed feet dug deep and painfully into my shoulder and I felt the necklace break against Renee’s neck as I pulled it away.

  I watched as I flew backward, away from Renee. Her face was a mixture of horror and confusion, and I wondered if I would ever see her again.

  I slammed against the window with enough force to shatter it.

  With an imp on my shoulder and a necklace in my hand, I plummeted toward the streets of downtown Atlanta.

  From seventy stories up.

  24

  I hurtled toward the ground like a rocket. The cool wind cut through my hair and made my eyes bleary. My heart pounded against my chest, beating with the intensity of helicopter blades. Gary held onto me, his clawed hands wrapped around my neck while he screamed at the top of his tiny lungs.

  As the pavement rushed toward me, I began to think about my life and how it had come to this. Sure, maybe I hadn’t always done the right thing. Maybe I had screwed one too many women without calling them the next day. Maybe I had taken friends for granted in my youth or spent too much time feeling sorry for myself and my particular and very peculiar situation. But I didn’t deserve to go out like this.

  After all, I had rid the world of some pretty awful people. Murderers, child molesters, straight up serial rapists. I had ended all of them. I made sure they’d never hurt anyone else ever again. By turning my demonic lemons into vigilante lemonade, I made a better place. So why was I about to die while awful people still roamed free? Didn’t seem very fair if you ask me.

  “Think of something!” Gary screamed into my left ear. We were moving so fast that while I could hear what him, the rancid stink of his breath was carried away before it reached me. Thank heaven for small favors, I guess.

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of anything. Teleporting took more energy than I was able to create on my own. The only reason I was able to do it back in the alley, was because all those T-Bird demons were around, affording me an all-you-can-eat buffet of demonic energy to suck off of.

  I had no such luxury right now. It was just me and a tiny little imp who held enough energy to maybe light a birthday candle if I really focused it.

  Levitating was out of the question. It took almost as much energy as teleporting and Lord knows I had always sucked at it, anyway.

  No. Just as quickly as the options flickered into my mind, so did the reasons they wouldn’t work. My body tensed as I realized nothing was going to save me. Gary and I were on our own and, like much uglier versions of Thelma and Louise, we were about to make our big fade into white exit.

  “Crawl down to the center of my back, right behind my ribcage,” I said to Gary as we plummeted. I kept my eyes open the whole way down. If this was the last sight I was going to see in this world, then I was going to damned well see it.

  “Is that part of a spell or something?” Gary asked, still clutching onto my neck.

  “It’s the thickest part of my body,” I answered, taking what I was sure would be my last deep breath. “It’ll give you the most cushion from the impact.”

  I felt a sharp intake of breath from Gary as he realized what I was suggesting. This wasn’t some plan to save us. It was last ditch effort to save him. It sucked, but it was all I could give him. Hopefully, he’d appreciate that.

  “Fuck you,” he said angrily.

  Or maybe he wouldn’t.

  “Did you hear me, you sanctimonious meat bag?” Gary asked, slapping up against the side of the head. “Ride or die,” he said, his sharp fangs grinding together. “I did the ride. If this is the die part, I’m doing that too
. You and me, Bud.” He tightened his grip on my neck. “Let’s go bang some angels.”

  If my eyes weren’t already watering from the air rushing into them, I might have cried. Gary had been a nuisance to me at first, an unfortunate byproduct of a good deed I’d done by saving him. There was no denying he was my best friend now though, the best I’d ever had. If I was going to have to meet my maker tonight, I could think of worse people to do it with than him.

  “Let’s do it,” I agreed, and could practically smell the asphalt as we neared it. Another second or two. That was all it would take. And then it would be over.

  Only it wasn’t.

  We jerked to a stop inches from the ground, my neck snapping up the way Gwen Stacey’s did in that comic book where the Green Goblin threw her off a bridge and Spiderman accidentally killed her when he’d tried to save her. Unlike her, I didn’t die though. I ended up staring at the earth with whiplash like a motherfucker. My nose could almost touch the ground. My face was near pressed against it. And in my hand, burning bright red, was the amulet that housed my mother.

  I lowered slowly, gently pressing against the ground like I was being gently laid to bed. I guess, after all these years, my mother finally got the chance to tuck me in.

  “Are we dead?” Gary asked, his spider eyes closed tightly. “Cause I still have to pee, and if we’re dead, I’m just going to let it roll.”

  “We’re not dead,” I answered, pushing myself off the ground while hoping I didn’t feel the warm sensation of imp urine running down my back. “My-my mom saved us.” I stared at the amulet. It was still glowing.

  “Yes!” he screamed, hopping off my shoulder and landing on the ground below. “I think she might have fixed my arm too,” he said, shaking the formally broken thing around. “Thank God for Delores.”

  “Her name wasn’t Delores,” I answered, relieved to see he had made it out of this too.

  “You sure about that?” he asked, his many eyes narrowing.

  “Pretty sure,” I answered, thrilled that the ugly bastard wasn’t a green splat somewhere.

  “If you’re mother had this power, why didn’t she use it before?” Gary asked, looking up at me. “Why only alert you to danger instead of fixing it herself?”

  “I’m not sure,” I replied, watching how the people walked past us as though we hadn’t just fallen from the top floor of a skyscraper. This entire place must have been cloaked with magic. So much so that no one could see the craziness that spouted from it. That had to come in handy for a supernatural favor trade empire.

  I could feel it now, the energy buzzing off the amulet. It was witchcraft, and not the faint excuse for witchcraft my half demon body was able to produce. This was real, true power. For whatever reason, something had changed and allowed my mother to use that power.

  I knew just what form it was going to take. A tight smile spread across my face, betraying the relief welling up inside of me.

  I took the necklace and clasped it around my neck. With my mother’s amulet hanging close to me, I could feel her power surge through me. For the first time in my life, I had enough energy to keep the demon side of me at bay. I didn’t have to think about it. I didn’t have to contend with it. All there was in me was magic, peace, and a fierce new sense of purpose.

  Looking up at the building, I knew what I had to do.

  “What time is it?” I asked, my voice steeling over and my jaw setting.

  Gary looked around and found a clock at the nearby BB&T bank building.

  “11:53,” he answered, then turned back to me. “We got seven minutes until midnight. Whatever Isa’s got planned--”

  “That’s not Isa,” I answered, raising my hand to stop him. “Not really. That’s a symptom of her sickness that’s taken root.”

  “Well, that sickness is going to do something to Renee in a little under ten minutes, and I doubt it’ll be to give her fashion advice,” Gary answered, hopping up on my shoulder again. “We’ve gotta go up there, don’t we?”

  “We do,” I answered, looking at the building and using my mother’s borrowed energy to feel the sheer amount of demonic energy spewing from it. This place was a fortress, heavily guarded by the worst creatures imaginable, but that wasn’t going to stop me. Not tonight. I gritted my teeth, set my jaw, and allowed my mother’s magic to flow through me even stronger. “We sure the hell do.”

  25

  With enough of my mother’s energy running through my veins to crush a truck against my forehead like a redneck with a beer can and my “ride or die” little buddy all fixed up, I decided it would be best to teleport back up to the top, grab Renee, and teleport back out. Even with all this witchy power floating around inside of me, taking out a crazy ass fairy chick would be a mountain of a mission to take on.

  Better to get Renee to safety and let the midnight deadline pass. Then, all I would have to do is wait for a moment of lucidity from Isa. At which time, we could either come up with a plan to fix things or I could convince her to do what needed to be done and end the effects of the Madness once and for all.

  But when I tried to teleport to the top floor, I found myself kept out by some uber powerful shielding. Turned out mother’s magic wasn’t the strongest thing at play here after all. That didn’t mean I could just give up or even slow down. On the contrary. The BB&T building clock had already counted down to 11:54. That meant Gary, and I had just six minutes to get Renee to safety. It also meant we were going to have to get there on foot.

  “Do you think this place is guarded?” Gary asked from my shoulder. His body was tense, but I didn’t sense much fear from him. Instead, it seemed like the imp had waiting for this, like it was a chance to repay the favor I had done for him back in Morocco. Not that I had ever asked for that.

  “Yeah,” I answered simply, looking up at the building. It was tall as fuck and, from the outside, all the windows that made up the walls were given a mirrored finish. I was staring at them, wondering what sort of hell resided behind each one, but all I could see was myself staring back.

  I could feel the monsters looming just past the doors. I could sense their resolve and the sheer power that rested in their fingertips. They’d all kill me for her… for Fulton. I was just going to have to make sure I killed them first.

  “You don’t have to come,” I said without looking over at Gary. “There’s an ice cream shop on the corner that serves amazing malts.”

  “I don’t have to kick your ass either,” he replied, hitting me in the back of the head again. “But I will if you don’t cut out that pansy ass garbage. I’m not leaving your ugly ass to die in there. The fairy bitch’s other personality doesn’t know about imps, which means not only can she not see me, but maybe some of her more ardent followers can’t see me either. Maybe they learned at the feet of their whacked out master.” He rested for a beat before continuing. “I wouldn’t say ‘no’ to ice cream afterward though.” His clawed feet dug painfully into my shoulder. “Let’s go!”

  I took a deep breath, letting my mother’s power flare up in me. It was red, like what filled the amulet, tinted with curls of green as it manifested around my arms and began to spin tightly around the rest of my body.

  “You look like a fucking Christmas special,” Gary said, eyeing me from his perch on my shoulder. “Like one of those pimply elves from the mall. The kind that you just know aren’t going to get laid.”

  “Right,” I answered. He wasn’t wrong. I did look ridiculous, but it didn’t matter how I looked. I felt strong. I felt close to my mother. I felt close to my heritage. What’s more, it felt like I could do this.

  I ran into the building, blowing open the front doors with a burst of unnecessary Christmas colored magic. I could have just opened the door but, of course, that wouldn’t have conveyed just how badass I was. And that was important to me right now. It isn’t every day you get to live out Warlock Die Hard.

  “Yippee ki yay, motherfucker!” I roared as I pushed through the broken doors, br
imming with energy and ready to take on who or whatever I found on the other side.

  Except what I found was nothing.

  The entire floor was empty. It looked like it was still under construction, with bare floors and unpainted walls. Aside from a long line of stone columns that ran up to the ceiling in twin lines leading to a set of stalwart elevators, the floor looked completely vacant and unlived in.

  “Well, that was anticlimactic,” Gary said, still tense on my shoulder.

  “No,” I answered, feeling a rush of foreign energy butt up against me. It almost knocked me down as I took it in, smelling of grass, mint, and blood. “There’s something here.”

  I flared up my mother’s power again, hoping I had enough of an education to be able to take on whatever was about to come rushing out at me. Before I could even think of what that might be, the earth underfoot started to crumble.

  I stumbled forward, watching as a sinkhole formed exactly where I was standing. It led down into darkness, and from it, came a cold howling wind.

  An unseen force knocked me down. I landed hard on my ass, but the force pushed me flat against the uncovered floor and started to pull me toward the ever widening sinkhole.

  “Jesus!” Gary said, jumping off my shoulder. He grabbed my arms and tried to pull me away. Unfortunately, he was about the size of a Cabbage Patch Kid, and obviously no match for whatever was doing this.

  But what was that? If I could pinpoint what was trying to kill me, maybe I could fight it off with some efficiency. My mind began to race as my body neared the howling mouth. An unseen entity, which alluded to a spirit or ghost. But ghosts had no power over the earth and certainly couldn’t open a fucking sinkhole.

  Besides, this thing smelled like earth and blood. The earth is life. The earth gives life. So it couldn’t be a ghost…