by Weston Ochse
He shook himself, the pieces of skin moving like fringe. Clouds of dust billowed outward, revealing the unhealthy colors of purple, black, and green skin.
“Hold it right there,” Laws commanded.
The man’s face turned toward them. His head was bald and misshapen. His eyes, which at first appeared almond-shaped, were like that because of the rotten skin sloughing from his face. He simply pointed at Laws and in that motion, caused the SEAL to fall to the floor writhing.
Walker felt it like a lightning bolt. Power. Sickening, terrible power.
Laws dropped his weapon and ripped his face mask free. Black and green lines were invading the purity of his skin as if it were rotting it from the inside out.
“Make it stop,” Holmes commanded, raising his HK.
The man gestured at Holmes. The SEAL team leader fired simultaneous to the man’s unleashing of power. Holmes fell to his hands and knees and retched violently. But the man remained unharmed. The bullets simply pierced the skin like they would a hillside of mud. Gouts of vomit seeped from the sides of Holmes’s mask. He barely managed to rip it free before he fell onto his back, gasping.
“Why have you desecrated my temple?” the man asked, his voice equally tinged with a Spanish accent and another element that made his voice echo.
Walker ignored his question.
Hoover was dancing along on the fringe of the room, not knowing what to do.
Yank began to fire and was the man’s next target as the SEAL’s rounds entered the man’s skin with nothing to show for their firepower. Yank joined Holmes on his knees, retching and pushing his insides out.
Walker had an idea and let his rifle dangle from its sling. He snatched the long knife from his thigh sheath, leaped forward and brought it down on the creature’s outstretched arm. It sliced neatly through, sending the man’s hand and half of his forearm falling to the basement floor.
The result was instantaneous as the man reared his head back and roared in equal parts agony and disbelief before turning to his attacker. Walker felt slammed by a sickening power. He fought bile down in his throat as he tried to launch himself for another attack. But he was tossed aside by an even greater force coming from behind him. As he fell, he saw Ramon, still in werewolf form, grab the leprosotic creature’s head and rip it from its torso. Pressing his claws together until his muscles bulged, he smashed the sides of the head, the remains splattering like a gigantic egg. The body fell lifeless to the floor, but that didn’t stop Ramon. He followed it, tearing into the pieces with his claws until there was no piece larger than a man’s hand.
Then he stood again, turning to survey the SEALs around him. He reared back as if he were about to attack, then chuckled, dropped to all fours, and ran back up the stairs.
Walker heard shots from above, probably J.J. trying to hit a moving target. Then nothing. Nothing except for his own heartbeat and Laws cursing on his hands and knees.
“Tastes like when my prom date threw up in my mouth,” Laws said.
32
KNIGHTS’ CASTLE. NIGHT.
It took a while for Triple Six to make it back to the castle. The streets were jammed with worshippers following the statue of the Virgin. J.J. had given the team robes, which covered their armor and weapons. But Holmes was limping badly. Not only had he taken impact on the armor on his thighs, causing deep bone bruises, but one of the rounds had penetrated his leg. How bad they didn’t know, but they needed to get him back to the castle right away.
Whatever the sorcerer had done was temporary. The rotting skin had gone with his death.
Jen met them at the front door, along with a pair of Knights dressed in scrubs. She insisted that all of them get checked out and hovered over them.
After a cursory triage, Walker and Yank were released. Walker had Yank secure the weapons and prepare them for mission. If Yank could find J.J., he would get his help as well. Laws was declared fit for duty, but he looked the worst for wear of them all. It turned out that Holmes had a through and through wound. It needed treatment and might hurt like hell, but it would let him RTD (return to duty).
Walker readied to leave. He wanted to check and see how YaYa was doing. He gestured at Hoover and the dog slunk behind him, as if she knew she was going to see the crazed man who was once her number one pal. They were almost at the door to the medical suite when Jen approached.
“We’ve barely had a chance to say hi.” She smiled, her face less than a foot from his own. “Hi.”
In another time, another place, Walker might have acted like John Wayne and snatched her around the waist, kissing her deeply. But this wasn’t that time, nor was it that place. So he smiled and squeezed her hand. That would have to be it for now. He needed to keep the act of killing and the act of loving separate. For how long, he didn’t know.
“Hi back,” he said. He saw hurt in her eyes, but didn’t know what to do about it. He went to a corner sink, stripped down to bare skin, and began washing away the stink of the kill.
She came up behind him and watched, her arms crossed in front of her in such a way that she gripped both elbows. “You didn’t find her,” she said rather than asked.
Walker shook his head. “She wasn’t there. As far as we can tell, there was no sign of her ever being there to begin with. When it was all done, we sent Hoover through the rooms but there was nothing.”
“So we don’t have any leads?”
“It’s as if she evaporated.”
“No one evaporates. Everyone leaves a trail.”
He grinned. “Tell that to the evaporated.”
“Seriously.” She stepped forward and pointed to a spot on the side of his head. “Missed a spot. What is that?”
“Probably skin. Not mine, from those lepers.” He hesitated as he considered. “Or it could be a piece of one of the men we blew up.”
She made a face.
Walker wondered what she was thinking. “Sorry, Jen. I’m still in the mode. Takes a while to turn it off.”
She was silent as he finished washing. He was about to apologize when Ramon burst into the room. Gone was his fur and back was the man in the white linen suit, clean as the day it came off the rack. He was making a beeline for Holmes, whom they were finishing up with on the table. Walker leaped in front of Ramon and grabbed him by his shoulders.
Hoover crouched by the door, growling.
“What the hell did you kill him for?”
“Get out of my way, kid,” Ramon said.
He tried to shove Walker, but Walker stood his ground. Then Ramon jerked backwards. Walker let himself go toward Ramon, allowing for the weight to create the momentum which took them both to the ground. Walker ended up on top and straddling Ramon, his left hand gripping the man’s collar, his right hand reared back for a punch.
Ramon growled, “Get off me, boy, or I’ll turn.”
Suddenly Jen was there, leaning down, pressing a shiny, thin blade against Ramon’s temple. Where it touched, Ramon’s skin sizzled. “This is silver, Mr. Ramon. You so much as harm that SEAL and I’ll plow it into your head.”
Ramon stared wild-eyed at the knife.
“Understand?” Jen asked.
Ramon nodded.
Walker lowered his fist and grabbed Ramon’s collar with two hands. “Why’d you kill him? He was our only lead.”
“He’s not our only lead.”
“Then what?”
“The other skinwalkers. They were in league with them.”
“But you killed them.”
“One got away. If we can find him, then we know where the girl is.”
“You know what I think? I think that you’re—”
“Walker,” came Holmes’s voice. “Enough.”
Walker turned and as he did, he released Ramon.
Holmes had a fresh bandage on his thigh. He stood in nothing but UDT shorts. Scars and muscles rippled across his body. “Let the man up.”
Walker allowed Ramon to push him off. He stood and reluctantly h
elped Ramon to his feet. The other man swiped at the wrinkles in his suit.
“Are you going to apologize?”
“No. Are you?”
“Walker?” came Holmes’s stern voice.
“What?” Walker gritted his teeth and turned toward his boss.
“Enough.”
Jen still held the knife in front of her, ready to use it if needed.
Ramon regarded it with a baleful eye, but turned nonchalantly to Holmes. “I guess you are glad I was there, no?”
“You’re right. I was glad you were there no.”
Ramon’s eyes narrowed as he made out the gibe. “You didn’t need my help?”
Holmes leaned back on the bed. “You have this way of killing people we want to talk to.”
“That thing never would have spoken. He had the spirit of Xipe Totec in him.”
“Nevertheless, we’re the sort of people who like to try. You’d be amazed at how many people and things we can make talk.”
Walker watched with increasing appreciation as Holmes began to effortlessly dominate the other man.
Ramon seemed about to remark, then held his words. He spread his hands. “Now I know. I thought I was helping.”
“I’m sure you did.” Holmes stood straight and for the first time gave Ramon a look much like he’d given Walker the first time they’d met. “But this is a military unit and to function as such we need order and command. I command. Everyone else works to execute my orders.”
“Orders?” Ramon wasn’t quite sure what Holmes meant. Either that or he was being intentionally obtuse.
“Yeah. Orders. As in if you ever kill a prisoner again you’ll have to answer directly to me.”
Ramon stood taller as well. “And you think you can take me?”
Walker watched Holmes with concentration. He knew his boss well enough to gauge the look, which said to all the world get the fuck out of here, but he also watched as it softened. Then Holmes did something uncharacteristic. He chuckled. He stared at his open hands. “I have a feeling we’re going to find out sooner or later, Ramon. Until then I am in charge. Understood?”
“Oh, yeah. Understood loud and clear.” Ramon turned to go, then paused. “Can I go?”
“Not yet. Tell me about the skinwalkers.”
Ramon paused uncomfortably, a far cry from the king of cool he’d been back in Cabo. He glanced at Walker, then moved to recover some of his lost attitude.
“They’re Zeta hit men like I used to be.”
“What were they doing with the lepers?”
“Protecting them. They were assigned to bring in the girl.”
“Wait.” Holmes eyes had narrowed to slits. “Do you mean the Zetas are directly involved?”
Ramon nodded.
“So then we do have a lead. You point out the local Zeta headquarters and we go there. If the girl isn’t there, we take the leader hostage until they deliver the girl.”
“Won’t work that way. This feels different. It could be a power grab. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Zeta leadership wasn’t even aware of it.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Usually the Zetas take care of their own problems.”
“Can you be sure?”
“Not yet. If I can get my hands on the other skinwalker, I can get the information.”
Holmes nodded. “What about the girl?”
“I’m betting Mexico City.”
“Just like that,” Walker said, surprising himself. “Mexico City.”
“Yes. It’s the only other place I know where the leprosos are.”
“So it’s a WAG?’
Ramon frowned. “I don’t know this. What is this WAG?”
“Stands for Wild Ass Guess,” Jen said. “We’ve been tracking communications from the asylum for the last twenty hours and have had limited success. Most of our resources are on the other side of the world. But we did track a communication between someone in the building and someone due south by fifty kilometers.”
“What’d they say?”
“Didn’t say anything. It was a beeper.”
“So someone in the asylum called to alert someone south of here,” Holmes said, working it out out loud.
She nodded.
Laws interrupted. “Let’s get someone to go back to the scene and see if they can find the phone that made the call. Is there any way to track it?”
“Only if we call it.”
“Then call it.”
“Now?”
“No time like the present.”
Ramon started to leave.
“Where are you going?” Holmes asked.
“To track down the other skinwalker. Timing is critical. It’s already been too long.”
Holmes nodded, letting the man leave. Once Ramon was gone, he turned to Walker. “What do you think?”
“I think he’s hiding something.”
“Me, too. The question is, is it a big something or a small something?”
“My guess is it’s something big.”
“Me, too.”
Laws suddenly burst into the room. “You’re not going to believe this.”
“What?” Holmes, Jen, and Walker said simultaneously.
“YaYa—they did it! While we were gone they performed an exorcism.”
“They what?” Holmes’s face turned red and creased with anger. “Is YaYa all right?”
“He’s good. He’s great. He’s back to normal.”
33
EXORCISM CHAMBER. NIGHT.
Walker, Laws, Holmes, and Jen crowded through the doorway of the monk’s cell in the basement of the castle. The walls were off-white plaster, bare except for a simple wooden cross centered above the twin bed. YaYa sat with his back against the headboard, Hoover in his lap, upside down and enjoying a belly rub. Vega and another priest stood at the head of the bed.
Holmes strode into the room. He’d put on one of the Knights’ robes and had a look of a beardless Gandalf about him.
“You okay, son?” He put his hand on YaYa’s shoulder.
“Never felt better. It’s like I’ve been sleeping for a long time.” He looked around. “If I did anything stupid, please forgive me.”
“If you mean barking and licking yourself, then we already have that up on Facebook. Don’t worry,” Laws said.
YaYa’s face paled. “Seriously? I did that?”
“What do you think?” Holmes said. Then he turned to Vega. “Why didn’t you wait?”
“It was a simple thing.” He shrugged. “No reason to wait.”
“But it was my man.”
“If it was one of my men, I’d have wanted you to do the same in my position. No reason to make someone suffer out of convenience, no?”
Holmes seemed to think about this for a moment. “I suppose not,” he said. “Still, I’d have liked to be consulted.”
“If you’d been here, I’d have consulted you.”
Laws stepped into the conversation. “You said it was a little thing. What do you mean?”
“It was a small demon that had entered his soul. It was no match for the power of the Lord,” the priest said.
“But YaYa is Muslim,” Walker pointed out.
Everyone in the room seemed to pause as they looked first at the cross on the wall and then at YaYa. Finally it was Vega who spoke.
“His belief is not what’s important. It is the belief of the demon. The demon recognized the strength of Christ and was compelled to leave.”
Holmes scratched his head. “So the demon was Christian?”
Both the priest and Vega crossed themselves.
“No, never. It was an abomination. It was a piece of something greater once, but by itself it was nothing.”
“Where’d it go?” Jen asked.
“Wherever such things go.” The priest shrugged. “All I can say now is that it is gone.”
Walker felt awkward listening to the priest’s response. He could hardly believe that YaYa’s personal beliefs matte
red so little. And the idea that a random demon would automatically recognize the power of a religious symbol just seemed so … far-fetched.
Laws saw the look of mental distress on Walker’s face. “It’s a conundrum. Have you ever heard of the Jewish vampire?”
Walker shook his head. Was this a joke?
“So a vampire walks into a room and a man pulls out a cross. The vampire says that he’s Jewish. The man doesn’t care and pulls the cross on the vampire anyway. The vampire can’t get near the man because of the power of the cross. Do you know why?”
Walker shook his head again.
“It’s not what the vampire believes, it’s what the wielder of the icon believes. In this case the man believed in the cross, carrying with him the beliefs of millions that added to his own powerful belief. It’s as the priest said. He needs to believe, not the victim.”
Walker shook his head. He understood conceptually, but something didn’t sit well with him. He turned toward YaYa and walked over to him. He shook the other’s hand. “How do you really feel?”
“I feel good. Seriously, I do. I want to get out of here. I want to contribute.”
“Can he work?” Holmes asked.
“He has a clean bill of health,” Vega replied.
Holmes pointed to a new bandage that had been wrapped around the young man’s left forearm. “What about that?”
“We changed the bandage and applied our magical elixir.”
All eyes went to him.
“An-ti-bi-otic,” he said, sounding the syllables out as if they were the words to a spell.
Laws and Jen chuckled.
Holmes squeezed YaYa’s shoulder. “Get off your ass and get in gear. We have work to do.”
“Aye, aye.” YaYa started to get up, then realized he had nothing on under the thin cover. He yanked it back over him and glanced at Jen.
“I’ll be leaving now,” she said, turning.
“We’ll all leave,” Holmes said. “Let’s go to the command center. I need to speak with Billings and we have some searches we need to commence.”
Everyone left except for Walker, who lingered.