by Jack Porter
It was a good point, but not one I cared to entertain. “Azrael!” I said.
“We have points to spare. What attributes would you like to adjust?”
“Durability. Healing. Resistance to shock. Anything that can help him. Can you give him a boost just like we did for Piper when she was wounded? Can you give him what he needs to survive?”
I could sense Azrael’s affirmation begin before he said a word, but then he paused.
I heard nothing but silence from the demonic symbiont.
“Azrael?” I asked.
Nothing.
“Azrael, what’s happening?”
The demon had no choice but to answer. “Dario Gambetti is no longer alive. The incubus within him is no more. I cannot transfer anything to him. He is gone.”
Gone?
I didn’t want to believe it. “Is there anything you can do?” I asked, aware of the desperation in my voice.
“There is not,” Azria replied.
Gone.
Dario Gambetti was dead.
“Fuck!” I said aloud.
I should have given Dario all the points he needed at the start of the call. Should have made him stronger even before that. Hell, I should have made everyone in my extended coven strong enough to survive whatever came their way.
Except that I couldn’t. Not really. The way Azrael’s power worked, it was the ultimate pyramid scheme. Those at the lower levels provided the power to enhance those at the higher ones.
If I simply gave them all the strength I could as soon as I turned them, the difference it would make would be minimal.
My free hand had turned into a fist, and I was in danger of crushing my phone. I didn’t know what to think.
It was my fault Dario was dead.
Sure, I had worked as a hitman. I’d killed hundreds in self-defense. But this was something new.
Dario was, at the very least, an ally.
I’d kinda liked the old guy.
“Simon?” someone said.
I ignored them, and kept cursing, kept staring into space in front of me.
“Simon? We have to go.”
It was Rachel. She was fully dressed and looking at me with concern.
She was right, of course. We had to go.
I nodded. “Grab just what you need. For all I know, those BDA bastards could be here any moment.”
12
We headed to the Inner Sanctum, in part because I was familiar with it and in part because it was the type of place where a person could effectively disappear. There was no need to use our real names, and I was pretty sure we would be able to get a suite at short notice. So we all piled into our respective vehicles and made the journey in the dead of the night, with each of us keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.
We could have used the valet service. Just parked in front of the Inner Sanctum hotel and waited for the valet drivers to do their job. Even though it was four in the morning, the valets would have been there, ready and able.
But I was starting to think in terms of security. What would happen if I needed to get to my car quickly? What if waiting for a valet was just would take more time than I was willing to spend?
Instead, I led the others to the underground parking garage directly, and pulled my black beast of a car into a space.
As I got out, I watched with a certain degree of satisfaction as Rachel pulled her VW beetle–fully repaired now, as my Mustang was–in beside me, to be followed by Sandy’s cherry red convertible, Julie’s nondescript sedan, and finally Piper’s Kawasaki.
It was a brisk morning, a little usual for El Diablo, but useful in its own way. Any last hint of sleep-induced bog in my mind had long since disappeared, and the mood of the girls was surprisingly light.
I was still pissed about what had happened to Dario, but had put it aside until we were better placed to do something about it.
Sandy and Rachel both seemed almost excited. And in a flash of inspiration, I understood why.
Since this of adventure had begun, both Sandy and Rachel had spent much of their time at the mansion, venturing out only every now and again, to collect what they needed from their old apartments, get groceries, and not much else.
Rachel had worked for the Syndicate. She didn’t have her old job to give her a reason to get out of the house, and Sandy hadn’t gone back to hers since Megadeath had taken out a hit on her–even though that hit had long since disappeared. And it wasn’t like she had much in the way of free time. She was probably the busiest of them all, splitting her time between organizing girls for me to convert, and managing our network of hidden demons.
For both of them, this was a chance to get out of the house and see something different for a moment.
Piper and Julie, however, had a different reaction. One was an assassin, and the other a cop. They understood the threat in Dario’s words perhaps better than anyone.
As we gathered in the surprisingly well-lit parking garage, those two kept a wary eye out for hidden dangers.
But Rachel asked the most important question. “Do you think that’s enough?” she said. “Do you think the BDA will be able to follow us here?”
“I don’t know what divine abilities they might have,” I said. “In that world, I guess anything is possible. As for anything else, I doubt they would have been able to track us from the mansion. Not unless they were looking. And nobody knows we are here except us. If we don’t use our names, and keep our heads down, we should be fine.”
Piper nodded.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Sandy asked. “Let’s go and check in. Only, let’s make it a suite. As much as I quite like all you guys, there are a lot of us now. I need some space!”
At this, Rachel and Julie both laughed, and even Piper cracked a grin.
“Preferably with more than two bathrooms, if that’s possible,” Sandy added.
I was thinking about the lower penthouse where I’d met Julie before, but at Sandy’s words, changed my mind. Why should we accept the second-best suite in the place, given that the entire hotel belonged to me?
Sure, the Syndicate might well dispute that ownership, but I didn’t much care. Short of one of them turning up with a legal title–which would show my name as the owner anyway–what could they do?
With the start of a grin on my lips, I turned to go, with every intention of commandeering that penthouse regardless of who might have been using it, when all of a sudden, we were no longer alone in the parking garage.
Four people, two men and two women, all of them wearing dark, well-tailored suits, appeared as if out of nowhere in front of us.
“Simon Kingman, are to come with us,” said the leader of the quartet, a tall man with blond hair and blue eyes, and a thick scar along his jaw. He glanced at the girls and added, “Given your association with this man, you are to come with us as well.”
“Fuck,” I said. I didn’t need to ask who these people were. The dark suits and their sudden appearance would have been enough to tell me.
Every one of them wore several relics in the form of amulets, occult items, and numerous rings on their hands. I knew without asking that these were items of power, relics handed to these people by Angels and Demons, to let them do their jobs. I didn’t even need to sense Azrael recoil to understand the danger.
There were glyphs engraved into the rings, into the different relics they wore, and quite likely carved into the skin of these men and woman as well.
Just like those carved into me for summoning Azrael at the start.
My first instinct was to go hard. To convert into my demonic form and tear this threat into pieces. I was fast and strong, faster and stronger than any one human had a right to be. And I had Piper as backup, Julie as well, and perhaps even Rachel. As for Sandy, I doubted she would ever be up for combat, but I’d finally remembered to give her Dario’s amulet before we left the mansion. She could activate that and remain free from harm.
But Dario’s final words wer
e echoing in my mind. These people, these Agents of the BDA, were not to be trifled with. They were dangerous. Armed with divine power beyond my imagination.
There was no way in Hell I was going to submit to their demands, but instead of going all out on attack, I snarled in anger.
“Run!” I bellowed, and that was enough. The girls all reacted instinctively, immediately obeying my order.
Within less than a heartbeat, all five of us went from a standing start to a sprint no human could match.
But it wasn’t fast enough. I felt something the like of which I’d never experienced before. And instead of being behind us, the four Agents now stood in front of us, as calm and unruffled as they’d done before, but with one of them, the woman with the dark hair, clutching one of her rings as if it had been the cause of their sudden teleportation.
As well it could have been. I mean, the ring was glowing with green power.
“Resistance is futile,” said the man with the scar on his jaw, and I couldn’t help but think that his next word would be, “exterminate.”
But it wasn’t. “You will submit yourself to us–” he began, but I’d had enough.
“Azrael!” I shouted inside my head, and the demon inside me responded. All at once, I was a powerful demon, my clothes once again shredding themselves, unable to survive my transformation.
I unfurled massive wings and shouted pure rage, then hurled my monstrous form directly at the man with the scar.
I was moving so fast that he shouldn’t have had time to breathe. But he did more than that.
He focused on me charging toward him and actually had the gall to smile.
13
Anyone else would have pissed themselves out of sheer terror upon seeing a massive demon like me charging at them. But not this guy. This blond, scarred man with the impudent grin didn’t even flinch. In fact, he didn’t do anything.
The man at his side did, though, holding up a hand and gripping the pendant at his chest. I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye but didn’t think anything of it–until I crashed into an almost invisible barrier that stood between me and my target.
I let out a bellow of rage and hammered at the barrier with all my strength, trying to break through.
But I got nowhere.
“Azrael!” I demanded.
“It is a barrier of divine protection,” he said.
“I fucking know that!” I yelled at him. “Can we get through it?”
As I pounded at the nearly-invisible barrier, I was distinctly aware that the other woman, a tough-looking matron of perhaps sixty, had also started to move. And suddenly, instead of a flat, invisible wall, I found myself fighting against an invisible corner instead.
I kept hammering away, wondering what to do next, and glanced over my shoulder to the girls.
“Get away from here!” I yelled, but this time they paid no attention. Instead of turning to flee, Piper had pulled a gun and was drawing a bead of one of the men, with Julie right there beside her, while Rachel and Sandy ducked behind one of the columns supporting the parking garage.
The woman with the dark curly hair blinked out of existence to reappear behind me, and I knew what she was going to do. I spun at her and snarled, aiming to rip her apart, but she activated a third nearly invisible shield before I could do anything to her.
They had, in just a few seconds, trapped me within a three-sided triangle, made of a nearly invisible shield I couldn’t break through.
I tried anyway, hurling my weight against each side, searching for a weakness. But there was none. I rebounded from each side as if I had tried to punch my way through a wall of solid diamond.
As for Piper and Julie, they had squeezed off half a dozen shots, but the blond man and his companions simply ignored them. I imagined they had some sort of personal shielding similar to the amulet I’d given to Sandy.
Still, it seemed that I was their primary target. The blond man and his companions ignored the girls as if they weren’t there.
But that didn’t make me feel a whole lot better. I didn’t enjoy being caught in a trap. I hurled myself this way and that, working myself into a frenzy, trying to bludgeon my way through, swearing and cursing all the while. But it was as if I didn’t exist. The force of my blows made no difference to the BDA Agents who stood around me. They were expressionless, just people doing their job, not at all moved by my efforts.
There was no fear on their faces. No hint of uncertainty. They knew I couldn’t get through the shields they had set up.
The blond man, still ignoring Piper and Julie as if they were inconsequential, stepped close to me and looked me up and down.
“Interesting,” he said. “Have you actually bonded with this demon? How unusual. It has been a long time since the agency has had to deal with someone like you.”
I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about his musings, and instead of hurling myself to the sides, I chose a different direction, and launched myself at the parking garage’s ceiling instead. But whatever divine trap I was in had been designed with that in mind as well. I could have torn my way through concrete and steel without any problems, and could have bashed my way through to freedom within moments if that’s all I faced.
But the invisible barrier enclosed me completely.
I was trapped. Stuck in a nearly-invisible bubble. Unable to so much as make a dent in it.
Piper had yet to give up. True to her nature, she had packed not just handguns, but hand grenades as well. Without a word of warning, she flipped not one, but a pair of them toward us, and for a brief moment, the whole world erupted into an explosion that shook the parking garage and set off car alarms over half the building.
It should have been enough to cut the Agents down. To turn them into puddles of pink mush. Piper knew I would be able to survive such a blast, even if I wasn’t caught.
But I barely felt it at all, and from their expressions, neither did the Agents.
The blond Agent with the scar on his jaw turned to look at Piper for just a moment. Until then, none of the Agents had shown the barest whisper of emotion. But now, he wore an expression of scorn on his face.
“We will transport this one first,” he said, just in general, as if it was already a done deal. “Then we will come back for these others,” he looked toward the woman with the dark curly hair. “He is bigger than we expected. Can you transport him?”
The woman looked at him. “Not at the same time as holding one side of the barrier. His strength is formidable.”
“I’m right fucking here!” I yelled. “Don’t fucking talk about me as if I don’t exist!”
The blond man and the curly haired woman ignored me. Instead, the blond man held his hand out as if to accept something from the woman, and she handed over the ring that controlled the teleportation, and I knew I was in trouble. If I didn’t do something soon, I would likely vanish from the car park, to reappear who knew where, still inside the impenetrable bubble.
After that, I couldn’t begin to guess what might happen.
Nor did I particularly want to find out. “Azrael! Give me something!” I said to my demon companion.
“We are caught in a divine field. If I was at my full strength, it would be easy–”
“I don’t give a flying fuck what you could do at your full strength! What can we do now?!”
Azrael was strangely silent. The girls were still there, with Piper still doing her best, firing away with no impact. But she wasn’t the only one who was prepared to act. And then, I had an idea.
These people, these Agents, were prepared to deal with me, that much was clear. They had the divine items they needed to nullify my strength, to make it so I might as well have been no more than human.
In a way, it was impressive. I’d fought against an entire army and come out with barely a scratch to show for it. And these people had bested me within a matter of moments.
But they seemed to be writing off the girls a little too casually for my ta
stes.
Especially as they all had succubi within them, just as I had an incubus within me.
And Rachel’s had been with her almost as long as I’d had Azrael.
“How far is Rachel from being able to go full demon?” I thought at my internal companion, not wanting to give the Agents any hint at what I was doing. The blond man and the curly haired woman were trying to get themselves organized without inadvertently releasing me, and it was taking a couple of seconds longer than they wanted.
And that might be all that I needed.
“She is very close,” Azrael said.
“How close? How does it work? How can we give her what she needs?”
“She needs to level up the same way I did,” Azrael said.
“Give her whatever points she needs! Do it!”
“It isn’t about points. Think of it as gaining XP–”
“At this moment, I don’t give a fuck! Can you give Rachel what she needs to transform or not?” I asked.
“I can.”
“Then do it!”
The blond man with the scar on his jaw had the ring in his hand. He was looking about as if he needed to make sure of the area he wanted to transport, and I knew I had moments to act.
Fortunately, moments were more than enough.
“Rachel!” I yelled. “Let your demon out! Transform! NOW!”
I didn’t see the transformation take place. Rachel and Sandy were both still behind the column. But I knew it had happened, at least in part because of the shout of pure triumph that came from that direction.
Then I saw the most amazing thing in the world.
Rachel stepped out from behind the column, and she was transformed as I had transformed–but different.
She had the horns, the wings, everything. And she was taller than she had been, by a good couple of feet. But still well short of my size and my powerful, physical presence.
Instead, she was the living incarnation of lust.
Her clothes hadn’t been able to contain her either. She strode toward me in glorious nakedness, an eight-foot demoness with dark purple skin, perfect, pendulous, magnificent breasts, hips fine enough to make any priest give up his vows on the spot, and a set of fangs to make any vampire jealous.