Shay smiled one last time and closed the door. She moved toward the airport’s sliding glass doors, suitcases behind her and her sword slung in a case over her back.
James put the F-350 into gear. He had a few things to take care of himself.
James didn’t know what to expect when he knocked on Zoe’s door. His last face-to-face encounter with the beautiful potions witch had been awkward even by her normal standards, but she’d still been helpful in hooking him up with a runes witch to help with Alison’s room.
The door swung open to reveal the dark-haired gray-eyed witch, and her bloodshot eyes widened in appreciation. The Professor might drink for entertainment, but Zoe drank to maintain her magical abilities. Even after all their conversations, James still had trouble wrapping his mind around the idea.
She wore a high-slit silver dress that revealed a little more of her thighs and cleavage than James was comfortable with. He averted his eyes.
“Good afternoon, James.” Zoe gestured into her plant-filled living room. More a jungle, really. However drunk she was, her words weren’t slurred.
James stepped inside. “Were you able to get them made?”
She pointed toward a large box filled with dozens of potions. “Let me be clear: these are for normal humans. They’d be dangerous if you used them. Are all your employees humans?”
“Yep, just regular Angeleno humans.” He shrugged. “For now. Just want everyone to have a healing and energy potion, just in case.”
“But they aren’t going after the kind of bounties you are, correct?”
James nodded. “Sure, but a bullet can kill a man as easily as some spell shit.”
Zoe let out a sigh. “Such a dangerous line of work.”
“It’s a dangerous world. Someone has to do something about that.”
“I suppose.” Zoe handed the box to Brownstone. “Will you ever find peace, James?”
“I don’t know about that, but if assholes would stop doing shit like blowing up my house, it’d be better.” He stared at the witch. “Am I your only customer who needs all this shit because of danger?”
Zoe shrugged. “I have more than a few who live colorful lives, but most of my customers are either other witches who need specialty potions for their own magic or bored housewives looking for the most minor magic to spice up their lives.” The witch leaned in and inhaled deeply. “Ah. You do seem calmer. Now I understand why.” She let out a quick giggle.
James frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Man is fire. Woman is ice. Or yin and yang—however you want to think of it.” Zoe lifted a slender finger. “Balance is important, especially for a fire burning as hot as you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your woman, James. You’re with someone now, aren’t you?”
James shrugged slightly. “Yeah, I’m seeing someone. No big deal.”
“No big deal? A woman who can tame the fire of James Brownstone is formidable indeed.”
“That’s one way to describe her.”
A broad smile took over Zoe’s face. “I’m glad you’ve found someone.” She suddenly furrowed her brow and pointed to the box. “The two lavender potions are for the girl—your new daughter.”
“Alison? She doesn’t need any healing or energy potions.”
“Ah, but she’s a young woman. She needs beauty. They will help her skin glow.”
James frowned. “She’s… How will they affect a magical being?”
“Ah, her skin will glow twice as much.”
He glanced down at the bottles. He’d drunk enough potions from Zoe to trust her, but he still had no intention of giving his soon-to-be adopted daughter some strange beauty potion. He’d hold on to them for now.
“How much?” James inquired. “You never quoted me a price when I asked for all the healing potions.”
“Potions for normal humans are easier to make.”
James wondered if she had some clear idea just how different he was.
No way she knows I’m an alien.
“So, they’re cheaper?”
Zoe nodded. “I don’t need any special ingredients this time. I’ll just take cash.”
He cleared his throat. “Just money? That’s unusual.”
“Money makes both the worlds go around, James. But to be clear, cheaper isn’t the same thing as cheap.”
“Saving someone’s life never is.”
A curious glint flashed in her eye. “You value these men’s lives so much?”
“I’m trying to build a company, and that means proving to my employees I give a shit.”
Zoe crossed her arms, which had the side-effect of pushing her breasts up. The annoying thing was, James was certain she wasn’t doing it on purpose.
“Interesting,” the witch offered. “You’re many things, James Brownstone, but predictable isn’t one of them.”
James shrugged. “Okay, I’ll pay as soon as you bill me. Thanks for the help. I’ll see you around.”
“Indeed you will.” She offered him a warm smile.
The bounty hunter headed for the door, box in hand. He had a specialty case for storing potions being delivered to his house later that day, but for now, all he’d have to do was avoid getting in a wreck.
That wasn’t so bad. Might as well grab some barbeque before I head home.
Bill glanced down at his daughter’s tiny hand in his. His heart pounded, and he hoped the little blonde four-year-old didn’t realize how concerned he was. Their fun family trip to Vegas was turning stressful.
“We’re almost there, Dina. Stay strong.”
He took a deep breath and stopped. The bright lights of downtown Las Vegas surrounded them, pushing back the night. A glance to his side revealed a path leading through several of the buildings. They’d be able to avoid having to walk around the entire block, and at least that would get them back in the general area of their hotel.
Or so he hoped.
Why did I have to forget my phone in the hotel room?
Bill advanced into the darkened path between the buildings, not wide enough to be called an alley, really.
“It smells bad,” Dina observed, wrinkling her nose.
The girl was right. The stench of urine filled the alley, and Bill assumed homeless men slept between the buildings at night.
Got to sleep somewhere I guess. Just don’t want to have to deal with them.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. We’ll get back to the hotel soon. I promise. Then we can order some nice ice cream as a special treat.”
“Yay! I want chocolate.”
Bill offered her a smile. “I’m sure they have some chocolate.”
A minute later, he realized the path wasn’t taking them the direction they needed. Bill looked around with a fake smile plastered on his face. A wider alley led to some bright neon-covered buildings on the far end. That would at least get him near someone he could ask for directions.
“We’re just going down there for now, sweetheart. I have to ask people some questions.”
Dina looked up at him. “I want ice cream?”
“We’ll get some.”
Footfalls sounded behind Bill.
Okay, we should just keep…walking.
A dark miasma spread in front of them, choking the rest of the alley in shadow.
What the hell is that? Some weird exhaust?
It’s just some stupid bum following us. It has to be. Maybe if I just give him a few dollars, he’ll go away and I can get out of this weird-ass alley.
Bill looked behind him, expecting a vagrant. His heart kicked up, and bile rose in a throat.
A figure cloaked in shadows stood in the alley. Glowing red eyes pierced the darkness.
“We’re going to play a little game, sweetie,” Bill whispered.
“A game?”
Bill grabbed Dina and lifted her toward an air conditioning unit sticking out of the side of the building. “Be Daddy’s little angel and climb up that and
then into that vent.”
“That’s not a game, Daddy.”
“Just be safe.” He had no idea what the hell was going on, but it didn’t matter as long as he could keep his daughter safe.
He finished lifting her, and she scampered on top of the unit before crawling into the vent.
Bill advanced toward the figure. “Uh, do you need some money or something?”
The red eyes grew closer. “I need something, yes.” The voice came out hollow and ragged.
“Do I need to—”
Pain exploded through Bill’s chest, and he screamed. He fell to his knees and looked down. A barbed tentacle had impaled him. Every beat of his heart sent another jolt of agony through his body and his lifeblood spilling to the ground.
“I need something,” the voice repeated. “I need your life.”
Bill barely registered the movement in the shadows before the killer separated his head from his body.
Dina’s eyes widened, and tears burst from her eyes. In the shadows of the alley, she couldn’t clearly make out what had happened, but she’d seen her father drop his knees and heard him scream. Blood splattered in the darkness, and her father’s head fell into the darkness.
Red Eyes advanced toward her.
“You leave my daddy alone!” Dina sobbed.
“Leave him alone? Oh, don’t worry. I’m not a monster. I’m not going to eat him. I only needed to kill him.”
“You killed my daddy? I’m gonna get you for killing my daddy!” She continued sobbing.
“Yes.” Red Eyes inhaled deeply. “Oh, why don’t you come down there and play with me, little girl?”
Dina found a small rock in the vent and threw at Red Eyes. He didn’t react.
“Don’t you want to join your father, little angel?” A taunting chuckle followed. “That’s what he called you, didn’t he?”
The girl continued sobbing. “I’m gonna go get someone, and they’ll punish you. They’ll make you go to jail.”
The chuckle became a bellowing laugh. “Who in the world is going to come after me? I am Death, and I can kill whatever pathetic person comes for me. Las Vegas is now my territory, and all who oppose me will witness my skill in killing.”
His red eyes receded into the darkness along with his laughter. “And, little one, no one is going to come get you! I win either way.”
Light returned from the other end of the alley, but Dina was too far to make out anyone or anything. She closed her eyes so she didn’t have to see the disgusting scene. Climbing down was suicide with a monster still around.
She took the only option left her. The girl sobbed at the top of her lungs until exhaustion finally took her.
Something rattled in the darkness.
Dina blinked her eyes open. The tall buildings kept the alley covered in the shadow, but the sun had risen, pushing away the deeper darkness.
The rattle sounded again. The girl crawled from the vent and poked her head into the alley. A dark-skinned middle-aged homeless woman was digging in a trash can on the other end of the alley, pulling out cans and shoving them in a trash bag.
“Help!” Dina shouted. “Help!” She waved.
The woman’s head shot up, and she ran toward the girl.
“Little girl, how did you get up here?”
Dina sniffled and crawled onto the air conditioning. “My daddy put me up here to keep me safe from Red Eyes.”
“Red Eyes?” The woman’s face scrunched in confusion. “And where’s your daddy?”
The girl couldn’t bear to glance farther down the alley. She closed her eyes and pointed. In the daylight, the splatter of darkened blood was obvious even at a distance. Flies already buzzed above the body and the head.
“Get thee behind me, Devil,” the other woman exclaimed. She took several deep breaths and turned away from the carnage.
The homeless woman reached up. “We need to get you out of here.”
Dina reached down and took the offered arms. The woman lowered her to the ground and took her hand. She led the girl away from the body toward the front of the alley. After a good thirty seconds of walking, they arrived at a side street.
The homeless woman pulled out a phone. “You just wait here a second, honey. I don’t want to be involved in whatever this was, but I’ll get the police here for you.”
Dina looked the woman up and down. Her ratty jeans and T-shirt, along with her smell and torn jacket, left little doubt about her homelessness in the girl’s mind.
“Do you live in a garbage can like Oscar the Grouch?”
The woman chuckled. “No, sweetie. I just live on the street.”
“Why do you have a phone then?”
“Because I understand priorities, sweetie.” The woman dialed a number and waited. “Yeah, I need to report a murder, and there’s a little girl here, too. She was hiding. Yeah, yeah. I don’t know. I think it’s her dad. Where are we? In an alley.” She rattled off an address. “Okay, I’ll stay here until you arrive.” She slipped the phone into her pocket.
“Who was that?”
“The police. They’re on their way, but I’ve got to get out of sight. I’ll be nearby, but I can’t get involved with the cops.”
Dina bit her lip. “What if Red Eyes comes back?”
“No demon is coming back in daylight. The monsters come out at night. Everybody knows that. Now you just stay right here until the police come, okay?”
The girl nodded. She kept her eyes forward, desperate not to look at her father’s body.
The woman rushed down the alley across the street. She stopped at the next street and waved before turning the corner.
Dina stood there for a moment, shaking and not sure what to do. Sirens screamed in the distance, growing closer with each second. The girl sat against the wall and waited for the police to arrive.
A couple of minutes later, two police cars screeched to a halt in front of the alley. Police hurried out of each car and toward the girl.
She burst into tears again at the sight of the police, the shock of the whole experience blasting into her again.
I’m gonna get someone, Red Eyes. Just you wait. I’m gonna get someone to get you for my dad.
4
James pushed the vacuum through his living room. Keeping his new place clean was easy. Hardly a chore, really, if only because it was so empty.
He’d replaced a lot of his furniture, but the real heart of his home, treasures such as his signed recipe books, had gone up in the fire the rocket launcher had caused. A few books formed the start of his new collection, but it’d take years to gather the rest—and some of his books had been irreplaceable.
The bounty hunter grunted as he pushed and pulled the vacuum over the carpet. He needed something to do. Without a decent bounty or Shay to occupy his attention, his mind was adrift in an ocean of endless reflection.
The Brownstone Agency was young. Functional bounty hunting was still limited to Trey at this point, but all the low-level bounties the police might be interested in shoving his way were being handled by the junior bounty hunter with ease.
Even if James wanted to go smack around some level-one or two bounties, he couldn’t do much without disrupting Trey’s momentum.
James turned off the machine and frowned down at the couch. A thin strip of fabric peeked out from underneath the piece of furniture, and he leaned over and tugged out the discovery.
The bounty hunter frowned and lifted his treasure: a pair of Shay’s panties. “Huh. Why are these here?”
They’d had more than a little fun but it had been confined to the bedroom, making the couch panties a genuine mystery. He tossed around a few possibilities in his mind.
The simplest explanation was that Shay had gotten undressed in his living room when he wasn’t paying attention, but more exotic explanations, such as magical teleporting panties, couldn’t be completely dismissed.
James shrugged and marched into his bedroom with the underwear and then over to his dre
sser. He opened his special “Shay Drawer” to lay the panties out.
With that taken care of, he headed into his bathroom to pre-inspect the cleanliness level before he gathered supplies. Once he finished in the living room, it was his next mission. No man should ever attack something without having a little pre-mission intelligence. That always made the actual battle simpler.
He paused at the door, taking in the sink. One side was free of anything, but the other was almost a supermarket aisle, given the razor, shampoo, conditioner, makeup, and Shay’s overly-elaborate crystal skull toothbrush holder.
“Probably some magical shit,” James mumbled. “Ancient Atlantean anti-cavity magic or some shit.”
The contrast on the sink was striking. All his toiletries had been put away in designated spots. Shay’s side of the sink was a chaotic mess.
Not all that long ago there’d been no one in his space, but now he was domesticated, with a girlfriend and a daughter.
“Domestication isn’t simple.” He chuckled. “But it feels good.”
James’ phone rang from the living room, and he hurried there. Maybe some level five was tearing up the city and the police needed him to teach the man a lesson.
As he snatched the phone from the table, he smiled. It wasn’t the police or Trey, but it was someone he wanted to talk to.
“Hey, Alison,” James answered.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Everything okay? No crazy Oriceran creatures messing with you? Or some big spell disaster?”
Alison laughed. “Everything’s okay. No problems at all. Classes are going well, and things aren’t all that different from last time. My energy sight is getting a lot better. I’m able to see stuff a lot more clearly now—not to mention the lie detection.”
“That’s handy,” James rumbled. “You’ll be able to see a lot more important stuff than most people.”
“You know, I’ve been here a while now, but it’s still kind of weird to think about how all my friends can do magic.”
“Yeah, the only magic the average person has in LA is the ability to be rude in every situation.” James frowned. “If everything is the same, why did you call?”
When Angels Cry_An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure Page 3