Sunny with a Chance of Monsters: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (Sunny Day, Paranormal Badass)

by Marlow, Shaye

  At the same time, Sunny felt a rush down her arm as something moved through her body and out her wrist. Instantly, it was like the heat in her groin, chest, and head magnified until it was all she could feel—a fiery burning that was all-consuming, so intense she had trouble breathing.

  “Oyee teray ki …” the devaputra whispered, shuddering violently. He took another breath. Then another, faster. Sunny felt more and more of herself rushing down her arm, into her palm. Her fingers went numb, almost like they were being spun in a centrifuge. His grip got almost painful as she felt that tugging with every breath, the way her consciousness seemed to move …

  “Nahin, mujhe rukana hai. ” He shuddered and Sunny thought she saw a flicker of black skin. “Aatmaen meree madad karatee hain! Mujhe rukana hai. ” He had pulled away and was panting, eyes closed, looking like a drunkard trying to regain control. Then he met Sunny’s eyes and there was hunger there, the kind that would have taken it all .

  He quickly looked away, but he still had to visibly force himself to fold her fingers back into her fist and turn her hand over so that the knuckles were facing him. He closed his eyes and lowered his head to the back of her hand, resting his forehead on her knuckles, his whole body still trembling from the force of whatever he had just done to her. He took a tiny breath against the back of her hand, and Sunny felt that slight shift within her again. “He bhagwan mujhe is burai se bachao, ” he groaned. It had the murmured fervency of a prayer. If she’d had doubts, they were erased when he repeated it three more times. “He bhagwan mujhe is burai se bachao… ”

  “What are you saying?” Sunny interrupted.

  He froze. Very carefully, Khaz straightened and released her hand. “It was a prayer.”

  Sure enough, the moment he released her hand, the overheating sensation in her head, chest, and groin abated. Wary, Sunny yanked her hand back and checked it for damage. Finding none, Sunny squinted up at him. “So you just ate part of my soul?”

  He stiffened. Too indignant, he said, “No.”

  “But you could have?”

  He met her eyes, and suddenly it was clear to her—‘satiate’ could mean consuming things that one found pleasurable, right down to the last crumb.

  “I won’t,” he whispered.

  “Jesus Christ,” Sunny managed. “You fucked me over on the very first contract, didn’t you?”

  “No,” he insisted. “While the contract doesn’t exclude it, I won’t.”

  “Because you say so.”

  “I only want sips of excess.”

  “You looked like you wanted more than a sip,” Sunny snapped. “I felt something moving inside me. Does ‘excess’ include yanking my soul around? What if you decide to use that against me, like a threat? ‘Oh, gee, Sunny, it says right here on line 238 of page 37 of the ‘fine print’ that I’m allowed to eat you unless you make another bargain.’”

  He bared his teeth at her, and it was not a smile. “I warned you it was a slippery slope.”

  And he had, too. Damn.

  “But only the stupid eat their golden goose,” Khaz said. “And I am not stupid. I will be satisfied with the excess. Think of it more like warming someone who’s got cold hands,” he said. “Your body will always produce more heat.”

  “So you’re like a vampire.”

  “Even ridiculously gory fabrications may have once been based in truth.”

  “Like…demons?”

  He narrowed his eyes.

  Sunny grew uncomfortable in the silence that followed. “I gave you what you wanted,” she muttered. “Now take me back to the Domes and help me kill Dortez.”

  “You gave me a boon, as was agreed,” he said. He reached under his coat vest and retrieved her plain, low-end Mossberg 500 shotgun. “So here is my reciprocal gift. It’s got five shots.”

  Sunny squinted at the gun, then up at him. “You’re giving me…my own gun.”

  That sly smile was back.

  She took the gun and looked it over. It looked totally normal. “Did you do something to it?”

  “The gun now affects things in the astral as well as the physical,” Khaz said. “The rounds I gave you should sever Dortez’s connection to the other side, make him mortal. Technically, it was two boons, but I combined them into one for expediency.”

  “All it will do is make him mortal?” She didn’t like the sound of that. “Nothing else?”

  “You say that like it’s nothing!” he laughed.

  “But I mean, no fancy lights, no fire from the heavens, no rending open the gates of Hell? Just a bang and then voila! He’s mortal?”

  Khaz shrugged. “You could fire it and see, but it would probably be best served saving those rounds for Dortez.”

  Sunny squinted at him, then down at her shotgun, then out over the lake. She turned, brought the shotgun up, and put her finger on the trigger.

  The devaputra’s eyes widened. “I wouldn’t—”

  “Yeah, whatever.” She pulled the trigger, determined to see just what a deal with the devil had gotten her.

  The gun let loose a sizzling, crackling crash of pure lightning that knocked both her and Khaz off their feet. The bolt arced out in a retina-burning purple, branching out across the water in a desperate dance. It hit the other bank a quarter mile away and exploded the trees there, sending chips of wood and forest mosses debris a thousand feet into the air. Remnants of electricity continued to crackle across the surface of the lake away from her, rushing outward over the tiny crests in a sizzling purple wave, the smallest branches tinged with hints of green. Thunder rolled out across the water from all sides, echoing back and forth against the surrounding mountains.

  Sunny, whose hair was now standing on end, her clothes singed from somehow having channeled that energy through her, sat dumbly in the icy water where she had fallen, staring dumbfoundedly at her very own boomstick. Beside her, Khaz was staring wide-eyed out at the waves, likewise scorched.

  For a long time, neither of them said anything.

  Then Sunny started to laugh. First just a tiny giggle, but it rapidly devolved into a full-throated, head-thrown-back, evil cackle that echoed out across the water after her gunshot.

  The devaputra turned to her, blinking. He looked like he’d gotten into a fight with a hair dryer.

  “Well, it works,” Sunny said, grinning. She popped the cartridge out and bent to inspect it. It appeared to be one she had taken from the sporting goods store, no frills or glowing electric warning signs. Getting to her feet, Sunny said, “Now to go kill me some Dortez.”

  Khaz remained in the water, silent and looking shell-shocked. Sunny offered her hand to help him up, grinning. “The two of us are gonna kick his tentacled ass.”

  That seemed to shake Khaz out of it. With a wary look at the gun, he stood. “The contract was for a gift, not assistance.”

  Sunny’s jaw dropped open when she realized what he was saying. “You mean you’re not even gonna help me find him again?”

  “That wasn’t part of our contract,” he said again. He cocked his head at her with cunning innocence. “Why…do you want me to help you?”

  She could just hear him add, “We could bargain for it…” Sunny narrowed her eyes and held up her gun so he could see it. “So I’ve only got four shots?”

  He made a fake gesture of dismay. “It’s the most I could legally grant you for the middling terms you offered me in exchange.”

  More angling for another bargain.

  “Take me back to civilization,” Sunny said. “You’re not getting anything else out of me until Dortez is dead.” She started sloshing back to land.

  Khaz must have seen she was serious, because he followed her back to the floater without another word.

  As he flew them back down out of the mountains, he casually said, “I’ve been thinking about your financial situation…”

  “Not interested,” Sunny said, clutching her shotgun in her lap with both hands.

  “And it occurred to me that if
you survive this, I might be able to get you a job with the DPS.”

  Sunny opened her mouth to tell him to screw off, then she frowned and glanced at him. “No strings attached?”

  “The only string attached is that it would mean you’d be closer to me on a daily basis, and I won’t have to go hunt you down in order to extract your end of the bargain.”

  Meaning he wanted her ‘satiating’ skills on tap. She grimaced and fought off goosebumps. “I don’t think so.”

  “The BPI pays well,” he offered.

  She opened her mouth to tell him to screw off, but self-preservation kicked in. “What kind of pay?” she asked.

  “Sixty-two, starting salary.”

  “Ha! ” she cried, out of sheer stunned reflex, the sound coming out like a cross between a snort and a laugh. Sunny had to fight the urge to throw back her head and cackle crazily. With as much dignity as she could muster, she said, “That’s only slightly more than I was making as a blockker.”

  He glanced over at her, a grin twitching his lip. “I hear blockkers are lucky to make twenty thousand a year.”

  “I’m really good at it.”

  “Ah.” He was grinning outright, now. The bastard. “Oh well. I was already making some preliminary preparations around BPI, convincing that asshole Erik you had a useful skillset, but you’re probably not interested, seeing how it’s always such a hassle to change jobs…”

  “Fuck you, I’ll take it.”

  “You gotta kill Dortez first,” Khaz said. “Oh, and for Erik’s sake, make it as visible as possible. I want that arrogant prick to squirm once he realizes I’m no longer on his hook.”

  Sunny turned to look at him. “If I do, I want the bounty.”

  “Darren’s pretty attached to that particular bounty,” Khaz warned. “He lost all of his team the first time they went after that bounty. Several of his war buddies. He barely survived.”

  “Screw the washed-up old jarhead,” she growled. “I kill the beast, I get the bounty.”

  “You make it visible and I’ll pay you myself.”

  “Deal.”

  Khaz raised an eyebrow. “Is it…a bargain ?”

  Sunny narrowed her eyes. “Just drive the goddamn floater or I test this out on your face.”

  “You wouldn’t kill your only source of ammo…” he said playfully.

  There was an idea… She gave him a long look. “Does that mean I could?”

  “Guess you could use another shot and find out.” He winked at her, but there was enough anxiety in the lines of his face that she guessed whatever happened, it would be highly unpleasant for him.

  “I think I’ll save a round after Dortez is dead,” Sunny said. She smiled at him. “You know, for later.”

  His smile was pained. “No need to use it all in one place.”

  Chapter 16: Confrontation

  “Not a lot of vehicles on the streets today,” Khaz commented, as they pulled onto 6th Avenue. They’d heard sirens somewhere nearby, but saw no people. He slowed the floater at the North Anchorage Rail Station, peering up at the buildings. “Pretty quiet.”

  Sunny, who had spent the last two hours making it exceedingly clear that she wouldn’t negotiate for his additional help to kill the beast, hopped out of the floater before he could try to find another reason to offer a bargain.

  “They’re not going to allow you to carry that on the rail,” Khaz said, nodding to her shotgun. “And if they confiscate it, I can’t give you any more shots unless we make another—”

  “Yep, heard it, not interested,” Sunny said, slamming the door on the rest. “Thank you very much, run along now.” She patted the front windshield and pointedly waved goodbye to him until he eventually drove off.

  It was after Khaz was gone—and she was standing alone in the middle of 6th Avenue with a shotgun and a sack of medical supplies—that Sunny realized that it really was quiet. Too quiet. She didn’t see a single person anywhere.

  Which, considering she was in one of the most densely-populated parts of North Anchorage, was unnerving.

  “Okay,” she said, looking around. The streets were empty, totally devoid of life. “That’s not normal.” Not even the rail station appeared to be in operation, the sidewalk outside Station North completely vacant.

  Sunny was walking past a streetside electronics store when she saw a huge group of people inside, facing away from her.

  They’re watching the television, she thought. Curious, she stepped inside. A Chinese teenager saw her as she joined them, and instead of the usual disdain that her appearance brought from Domers, the kid just made room for her beside him.

  On the row of TVs was an aerial view of the Megarail somewhere out over the wilderness, probably on the way to Fairbanks. There was a giant octopus wrapped around the nine-story lead car, its tentacles breaking windows and dragging people out and throwing them.

  “North Dome is fucked,” the Chinese kid breathed.

  “They’re gonna have a hard time explaining this one away,” the woman in the store uniform agreed.

  Sunny frowned. “Where is that?”

  “Where have you been?” a guy in a tailored suit snorted. “Blockker.”

  The Chinese teen took pity on her and whispered, “There was some sort of fight in the South Dome, then somehow this thing ended up on the Megarail on the three-thirty straight shot to Fairbanks. Stopped the rail halfway and actually had the conductor put it in reverse right before he threw him off the train.

  Sunny felt every part of her grow cold. She glanced over her shoulder to the North Anchorage Rail Station, then at the crisscrossing of massive railways ten stories above them. “It’s coming here ?”

  The Chinese kid glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah, they say it hits the E. Edwards Bridge in an hour if it keeps its current pace. They think it’s headed to a stop in South Dome, but people are saying it’s gonna keep going all the way to Homer.”

  “Why are you guys still here?” Sunny demanded. “You should get out of here!”

  “Most everyone did,” the kid said. He held up a camera, beaming. “But I gotta get some video. My cousin back in Hong Kong isn’t going to believe me otherwise.”

  Where was Khaz’s compulsion when she needed it? Then again, she thought with a wince, he’d probably ask for another bargain before he ever used it in her favor again.

  What the hell had she been thinking?

  She glanced at her shotgun, which, only two hours ago had exploded a stand of alder trees. Maybe the bargain hadn’t been that bad…

  The Chinese teen gave the gun a wary look. “BPI told everyone not to approach it. They were gonna start a quarantine last I heard.”

  “Believe me,” Sunny said, holding up her gun, “you want me to approach it.”

  “Sweet!” he cried. “You’re gonna try to kill it?”

  Sunny leveled her stare on him. “There is no try.” She knew who was in that rail car, and she knew what Dortez planned to do with them. “You want an adventure to hold over your cousin forever?” She pumped her shotgun. “Come with me.”

  The Chinese kid acted as if she had just offered him a free handjob. “Sweet! ” He jogged out after her.

  “All right,” Sunny said, as they walked, “first things first. I need someplace that will sell a two-foot calamari.”

  The kid wrinkled his nose. “I’m Chinese, not Japanese—sushi’s really not my thing.”

  “It’s a distraction,” Sunny said, eying the enormous TV broadcasting an ad for a football game over the Megarail juncture and the station below. “I killed his baby, and we need something that looks similar so I can eat it in front of him.”

  The Chinese kid’s mouth fell open. “You’re the reason that thing’s pissed off?”

  “What’s your name, kid?”

  “Sheng,” the Chinese kid said. “After Fu Sheng, the Confucian scholar.” He winced a little. “My grandmother insisted. She always wanted a grandkid to graduate college.”

  Sunny
raised a brow. “Did you?”

  The Chinese kid made a guilty wince. “Not really—I was really good with inertia and balance as a kid, so I became one of the top stoneriders of North Dome instead. Got sponsorships and everything. Lao Lao’s rolling in her grave.”

  “I’ll bet,” Sunny grunted. Stoneriders weren’t known for living very long. “All right, Sheng, you got a phone?”

  The teenager gave her an apologetic look as he handed it to her. “You’ll probably have a hard time getting out—switchboards are backed up.”

  Sunny immediately searched for a seafood shop. Three streets away. She could make that in an hour… “Come on,” she said, falling into a jog. As she ran, Sunny dialed Daphne. Sunny had to hold it to her ear using her left hand, because her injured right elbow had swollen to a pounding angry crimson under the bandages. It was actually making holding the shotgun difficult.

  The phone rang five times before she answered.

  “The BPI was right!” Daphne babbled immediately in a panic. “We should’ve left Dortez alone!” In the background, Sunny heard wind whistling and people screaming.

  “Has he found you yet?” Sunny asked.

  “No,” Daphne managed. “Gary and the kids are all safe. Dortez knows we’re on board, though. He saw the manifests and he’s been screaming at us to show ourselves or he’s going to kill everyone…”

  “What’s Gary doing?” Sunny said, knowing that, as a high-ranking Dome Police officer, the fat old romantic fuck would have a misguided sense of duty, considering the number of people involved. Sacrifice a handful to save the whole…

  Daphne hesitated. “He’s suggesting maybe he can go up there and talk sense into him, tell Dortez who he is, maybe buy the rest of us some time…”

  As much as Sunny would have liked to see Dortez rip Gary limb-from-limb and give her sister a shot at not being pregnant for once in her life, she knew it wouldn’t end well for the people she actually cared about. “Don’t let him do it. Tell him we’ve got a plan, but we need him to get people into the back cars. Tell him to use his badge.”