by Derek Adam
“Kinky fetish demon is definitely a first.” Luca pulled his gun and squeezed off two rounds, slapping his palm across the lever of the revolver.
The shots echoed in the room and the figure staggered and paused, turning a bit as the rounds disappeared in its chest. It slowly recovered and seemed to stretch and adjust its shoulders before walking forward again.
Luca lowered the gun slightly. “…that usually works.”
I raised my pistols and squeezed the triggers repeatedly. The noise inside the enclosed cabin was thunderous with each shot.
Light flashed from the end of the barrel with each round fired, bursting into an explosion of sparks and embers as they connected.
The demon flailed with each hit, falling back in a stagger. I had fired countless shots before finally stopping. I was gritting my teeth and an unfamiliar feeling began to creep over me.
Like the fear I felt in the dream.
It had fallen to the floor but immediately began to rise again. The shots had penetrated whatever outer flesh or shell it had above the waist. That black suit was missing, or shredded, exposing normal flesh and its face.
Mostly normal flesh.
There were large fissures across its chest, shoulder, arms, and face that looked like reflective, mosaic tiles beneath.
“Ouch,” the demon sneered at me, running a hand through dark hair slicked to its head. Its coal-black eyes stared me down.
That was a first. Especially for that many shots.
It leaned its head to the side, smiling at me. “Don’t be upset. I didn’t expect that either. But you don’t have to be sca-”
The demon walked toward me, and I blinked as I heard Luca’s gun fire several more times before the click of the action rang that the revolver was empty.
Each round hit square, creating holes in the flesh of the demon that revealed more of the reflective tiles beneath the skin. It barely flinched, other than showing some annoyance in its face.
It rolled its eyes and put a hand up to Luca, pointing at him. “Stop that.”
Luca’s feet went out from under him and he was tossed to his back with a heavy thud that vibrated the wooden floorboards, his head snapping back and bouncing. He let out a groan and curled sideways.
I slid the guns away and stepped toward it, swinging and connecting my fist to connect hard with its face. I let the momentum of the swing carry me around and I spun to strike it in the same spot with the back of my left fist.
Both hits sent it staggering and it recovered again, gritting its teeth at me. Before it could fully recover, I extended a kick straight to its chest, sparks and light exploding from it as I connected.
I swung, hitting it twice again in the face, each hit channeling a furious energy in me, causing embers to explode again where hands connected.
Each hit stunned it, but with the third swing, it caught my hand.
We stood there in a stalemate, straining against one another. Its hand began to glow, the exposed mosaic tiles beneath the flesh of its arm taking on a fiery hue.
I could feel the pulse of energy growing warm in my own body, especially where it held my hand in place. It was a deadlock and I struggled to keep it from gaining leverage. I wanted to look to see if Luca was alright, but if I distracted myself in any way from this thing, it would have the upper hand.
We stared at one another and it slid closer to me, sneering again and showing its teeth. It looked like a man, but was anything but.
I reached and snatched it by the neck, its other hand closing around my wrist. We stood, locked on one another, and it took everything I had to hang on.
It was stronger than anything I’d fought before.
“You can’t hurt me,” it hissed through clenched teeth.
“No?” I strained, squeezing its neck tighter. “You don’t seem like much of a threat. Should I bother trying?”
“You don’t even know what you’re fighting for,” the demon grunted, as it pushed against my fist, trying to press the weight of its body toward me. “You need to understand.”
No matter how hard I squeezed, it didn’t seem affected. Everything seemed to do little more than hold it at bay, and its effort matched my own.
“I understand you don’t belong here.” I strained again to gain leverage, but it matched me. “Tell me your name.”
A vain grin crept onto its face and it started to speak when I heard Luca shift. My attention turned and that was all the opportunity it needed.
It released my hands and gripped my face; an intense searing heat burst in my face.
“E-ecklemore…” Luca tried to speak, groaning as he was attempting to crawl to his feet.
The demon groaned, almost choking, as if it were fighting to breathe. It was looking to Luca now, scowling and trembling. I pried and pulled at its wrists as the burning sensation from its hands grew more intense.
“Ecklemore!” Luca shouted again, more clearly this time, and the demon disappeared in a loud snap.
I dropped to my knees, panting, touching my cheek and wincing as the pain lingered. Luca appeared at my side, pulling me up to my feet.
There were no words when I looked at him. I was lost between what had just happened and remembering the Luca from my dream.
Luca wasn’t entirely steady on his feet, but he managed to keep us both up as his eyes came level with mine.
“Are you alright?” His hand touched my cheek where the skin still stung, making the pain rise a bit, but his touch was reassuring and it pulled my senses into focus.
I tried to respond but could only return a mixed signal, shaking my head a bit and then nodding.
“Are you sure?”
“What did you do?” I grabbed his wrist and turned my attention to his hands before looking into his eyes, searching for an answer while I waited impatiently for him to respond.
“Just sent him on a road trip, but it won’t last.” I felt frustration wrap around my confusion like a twisted cable. I wanted to interject but Luca started to pull at my arm. I think the confusion and fear in his face matched my own. “He’ll be back. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
*****
The truck rocked violently as Luca sped down the two-track, bouncing across potholes and ruts in the trail.
I had a foot on the dash, a hand wrapped tightly to a handle above the window and the other resting firmly on Bella to help steady her.
I was watching Luca closely, unsure of how to feel at the moment.
The only time I had ever seen anything like that done, it was under the influence of demons.
And every time I saw that kind of arcane ability, it was usually someone – or something – that I was in the process of ending permanently.
“Luca, what the hell was that?” I found myself continually trying to read him.
To smell him.
There was no Sulfur. If he were what I’d seen in the past, then I would know. Wouldn’t I?
He wasn’t responding to me, though he did glance my way before adjusting himself in his seat. The truck accelerated, bouncing over a large rut and rocking us hard in the cab.
“Luca!”
“It’s just something I can do, alright?” He put a hand up dismissively toward me, then slapped the steering wheel. “I don’t know how to explain it.”
“What do you mean, you can’t explain it?”
“I don’t know, Emma.”
He was quiet again, shaking his head as he took a hard curve.
“Luca…”
“Emma, I don’t know. I learned how, with Virgil. Alright?” He glanced at me again, doing a double take. “Stop looking at me like that, you’re freaking me out.”
I made no effort to hide the thoughts. There was a tumultuous sea of emotion showing in my face, I was certain of it.
Fear, doubt, disbelief, confusion, anger… and more.
“You don’t just learn how, Luca. Do you understand that? Do you know where that comes from?”
“Does it come fr
om the same place you learned to ninja kick with lightning? Is that where you got that pea shooter?” Luca slowed and jerked the wheel around the intersection that led to the other cabins, heading back to the main road. The truck tipped hard, tossing me against the door and Bella into my lap. “I should be asking you the same types of questions.”
He was right; I was just as much an anomaly to him as he was to me, yet we were strikingly similar. It was drawing me to him.
I think that’s what unsettled me more than anything.
It was terrifying.
“Oh, now you don’t have anything to say?” Luca scoffed. “I just saved our asses and you’re questioning me. That’s just great. Why don’t you start talking, Emma? I got a feeling you don’t really know how to put things into words, either.”
Bella grumbled between us, her head turning back and forth as we argued.
I wanted to tell him.
It was more than that. I felt compelled to tell him. But it was just like he said.
There weren’t really words, and I had no idea where to start.
I struggled to come up with even the most basic of explanations. Everything not only sounded foolish, but inadequate.
“Are you… magic?”
I laughed a bit in response, which had him looking at me hard again. He was scowling. It was a juvenile question, but what had amused me was just how adequate such a simple thing was to explain it all.
“In a way. Luca…” I sighed and dug deep, wanting him to understand that I truly didn’t even understand. “What I do is complicated. Who I am, and what I can do, is even more complicated.”
“Are you a demon?”
The straightforwardness of his question startled me. It was exactly what I wanted to ask him, but I was afraid of knowing the answer.
He seemed less worrisome about questioning me and that stung me somewhere.
He had begun to slow down, letting the truck crawl to a stop when we came to the T junction of the main highway. He continued to look both directions while frantically checking the mirrors behind the truck.
“Well?”
“No. I’m not. To be honest with you, Luca, I don’t know. I just… am. And I have been for a long time.”
“Have been what?”
“Alive. For nearly a century, that I recall. My first memories are from Berlin, during the war.”
“War… What war? With Germany?!”
He had stopped checking the mirrors and was staring at me with an incredulous look on his face. I suddenly wanted to take it all back, seeing him look at me like that.
But I nodded.
He settled back in the seat as the truck idled at the edge of the highway.
“What are you? Are you even human, Emma?”
“For the most part.”
“For the most part?! What kind of answer is that?” He put his hands to his head, running them through his hair while looking at me like I was crazy.
That sting was returning when he looked at me like that. If anyone could understand, it should be him.
“I suppose I could be asking you the same question.” I shot that back at him with some indignance, and saw it hit home. His head rolled back and he closed his eyes, laying into the headrest. “Do you know where your ability comes from?”
“…no.”
“Then don’t treat me like that.”
Luca pulled in a deep breath and sat up, exhaling loudly. He checked the road in both directions again and scowled.
“There should be a lot more traffic during the day. There hasn’t been a single car.” He pulled forward and made the turn back toward town, shaking his head. “You’re right, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’ve never met anyone like me, so I’ve never really questioned anything. It all seemed so normal.”
“You think I’m like you?”
“I just meant… different. I’ve never met anyone like you that wasn’t…”
“An evil, body-snatching creature of the night?”
I smiled softly and nodded, which brought a smile to his face as well. Finally. I realized I hadn’t seen him smile much today.
It was strangely reassuring and I wanted to keep him that way, but I felt like I owed him more.
Despite that fact that it was forbidden, I felt like he deserved to know and to understand.
“I work for a council of elders.” I sighed again at trying to put it to words. “Druids, basically. Originally, guardians of life. They’re more organized now than back then.”
“And there aren’t others like you?”
“No, not that I know of.”
“So, you’re like a James Bond meets Dungeons and Dragons.”
I laughed again at the reference and shook my head. “You would be surprised just how much Dungeons and Dragons gets right when it comes to creatures, demons, and whatnot.”
“But why, I don’t understand. And don’t tell me it’s complicated. I get that. Why you, why here, why does an organization like that need you – or need to exist?”
He shook his head. “Never mind, that’s a stupid question after what just happened.” He smirked and looked toward me. “And you called me a ghostbuster.”
Despite the chaos, it was nice to feel some comfort returning between us. However brief it was, it was unsettling to have him judging me, or fearing me.
I didn’t like the way he had looked at me and it was reassuring to feel that he was more accepting – even if just a little.
It also had me far more comfortable about his own abilities, whatever they were.
I didn’t sense he was lying. And there were no feelings of malicious intent or off odor about him.
Luca wasn’t a demon.
He was something else, like me.
“Does this council know you’re here? What’s going on?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but I smelled it, suddenly growing in intensity. I could feel it, and so could Bella.
She started to growl and bare her teeth as she repositioned herself to sit up, her eyes scanning through the windshield.
“What’s the matter with her?”
“I don’t know-”
They came bounding from the trees ahead of us in a flurry of motion. I couldn’t tell what they were at first, until they smashed into the front of the truck.
Several of the bodekin went flying, ricocheting off as they careened into us.
“Jesus Christ!” Luca mashed the gas, weaving wildly into the road as one of the little demons bounced off the windshield, causing a massive spiderweb crack to form on my side.
Two bodekin were able to hang on and were clinging to the front of the truck. Bella tried to keep her footing as she stood on the seat, hackles up and barking at the windshield.
Their heads were just visible above the hood of the truck, the featureless faces and mottled skin shining bright in the daylight. Their mouths hung open, baring wicked rows of sharp teeth.
“Hang on.” Luca gave a warning but didn’t need to. I knew what he was planning before he even jerked the wheel.
The truck rocked hard to the side as he careened into the oncoming lane, then back over again as Luca spun the wheel.
One of the bodekin slid out of sight followed by the sound of something tumbling beneath the truck.
“Well that’s one do-son of a bitch!” Luca swerved again as the second bodekin launched itself at the windshield, its talons piercing the glass where it was already cracked.
I drew my pistol as it bashed its head repeatedly into the glass.
“No, Emma d-” I squeezed a single shot off, leaving a gaping hole in the glass as Luca started to reach for my gun. The thunderclap of the gun’s report filled the cab with a deafening eruption – at least for Luca.
It was little louder than a slamming door for Bella and me.
“At least I know it still works.”
Luca was wincing and cupping his ear with one hand as he drove, looking to me then to the open space where the bodekin
once clung to the glass.
The cab was filled with wind rushing through the shattered windshield, along with the sickening scent of garbage.
We were on the edge of town, the trees starting to give way to businesses.
“I need to see Hitch.” Luca dug a finger in his ear as he winced, then brushed at his chest, plucking some broken glass from the folds of the tactical vest he was wearing.
Bella sat between us, mouth hanging open, panting with a grin on her face, and her eyes squinting as the wind blew through her fur.
Blissfully ignorant.
Stupid husky. I loved her for that.
“Take me to the room first. I have to make a call.”
Chapter 12 – Luca
I had tried three times to reach Hitch’s cell and it just continued to ring.
Where the hell was he?
He’s a cop. Obviously, he’s out doing cop shit. Couldn’t be too much cop shit, with how little traffic there was in town today. The truck stop was damn near empty when we rode by it.
Hell, the place seemed like small town living on a Sunday morning with everyone tucked into church.
Save for the ring that continued in my ear, it was eerily quiet.
If it weren’t for a few cars chilling in the motel parking lot, the two kids chasing each other with nerf guns between the parked cars, and my clear view through the office window of Oliver picking his nose at the front desk, I’d think the place were a ghost town.
I was still uneasy.
It wasn’t Sunday.
Most of the people in this town weren’t exactly church-going people anyway.
And that truck stop was never empty.
I paced in front of the truck, where I’d backed it up to the door of Emma’s hotel room. She was inside making her call, and insisted on using the landline in her room.
Pressing the end call button, I shook my head and stared at my phone.
Sutter was sitting up on the hood of the truck, whistling quietly, watching me swipe through the phone and redial Hitch’s number.
“You look nervous, Rooster. Ya alright?”