by Michael Todd
“O-oh, yes,” the underling stuttered. “Y-yes, I understand what I have to do. I just don’t understand why.”
“You don’t need to,” T’Chezz growled. “Just know that you need to follow through, and the order comes from way above even my head.”
“Yes, sir,” the underling replied meekly.
“I need you to understand something,” the demon growled. “I need Moloch’s help in this. You cannot screw up, because if you do, everything I have worked toward for the last three centuries will have been for nothing.
“Moloch was the one who took care of the demon-killing swords the last time they came around, and I need him to do it again. I know he can; it just takes a little bit of research and the perfect timing. As far as your first task… Well, that is a favor for a favor. Something I knew I would never get this deal without.”
“Yes, sir.” The underling nodded. “I won’t fail you.”
“See that you don’t,” he growled. “You may go, but stay close for when the time is right.”
“Yes, sir,” he agreed, jumping up and running out of the room.
The servant stepped to the side as the demon ran by. He shook his head, put his hands together, and looked at T’Chezz. The demon rubbed his face and groaned, hating that he had to rely on an underling like that to carry out the dirty-but-very-important work.
“Are you all right, sir?” the servant asked.
“Oh, you know… Just trying to take over an entire planet, making deals with shifty Level-One demons, and trying to keep my head on straight.” He groaned. “Why can’t you be a mercenary and not a servant?”
“I don’t know if I’d be much good at it,” he replied.
“Honesty, I like that,” T’Chezz grumbled, standing up from his chair and walking over to the window.
He crossed his arms and looked out over the hellish scenery, watching the souls floating in streams of lava. Thoughts of his sister flashed through his mind, and he clenched his fists a little tighter.
“I will make this work,” T’Chezz decreed out loud. “Even if I have to kill every last human being on Earth.”
Chapter Eight
Korbin sat at his desk, staring at the stacked boxes.
He was ready to move completely over to the new base and stop having to shuffle through everything like he had been doing. Just when he thought he was clear to pack something, he had to pull it all back out for one reason or another.
It was irritating, and the entire reason he had hated moving when he was in the military. Hurry up and wait, and while you are doing that, please unpack your bag fifty million times because you forgot and packed your toothbrush in the bottom.
At least he had a filing system this time, unlike his bags. They just held all his belongings shuffled up together. He thought about the old days; his time in the military, and the friends he had all but forgotten over the years.
The phone rang loudly, jolting him from his thoughts. He sighed and rubbed his face. He almost hated it when the phone rang nowadays. He never knew who was going to be on the other end.
The last thing he wanted was to talk to the general again.
“This is Korbin,” he answered.
“Hey, it’s Charlotte,” a happy voice chirped.
“Charlotte.” Korbin smiled, relieved. “How are you doing out there in Arizona?”
“Sweating to death.” She laughed. “But good otherwise. I got an invitation to the next suspected incursion, and it is a huge one—the one I was talking about. They are focusing their efforts on women specifically. I got us four tickets.”
“That’s good work,” Korbin replied. “I’ll send Katie, Stephanie, Ella, and probably Amy from the other team down there.”
“Well, I want to go,” she said quietly. “I mean, that’s what you pay me hazard pay for, right?”
“I don’t know.” Korbin leaned forward. “This could be really dangerous for our team members, much less a civilian with no formal training.”
“I know the demons. I know who they are, what they look like, and what their plan is,” Charlotte explained. “I am vital to this.”
“All right,” Korbin agreed reluctantly. “But you have to get out of there at the first sign of a battle.”
“I will.”
“Okay, I’ll call you with the details of the others’ arrival then. Stay safe, and good work.” Korbin hung up.
He sat there for a minute before picking the receiver back up and dialing John’s number in New York.
If Charlotte was going to put her ass on the line, he was going to send a badass team of women. He couldn’t afford a fuck-up on this one, not with so many civilian women attending on top of Charlotte, his spy.
Their lives were the most important thing. Second was finding out just what was going on with these demons.
“John,” Korbin said happily when the man picked up. “How is New York?”
“Same old, same old.” He laughed. “How about you? How’s Vegas?”
“Quiet.” Korbin pounded his fist on the desk three times. “Knock on wood. But I do have an incursion that requires a very specific team. I was hoping you would let me borrow Ella for a few days. This one is important, and I have some really good sources telling me that things are about to get really nasty out in Arizona.”
“Uh oh,” John replied. “Of course. I’ll ask, then send Ella. Do you need anyone else?”
“No, I’m pretty sure these three women will be more than enough,” Korbin said with a smirk. “I’ll have teams on backup just in case, though.”
“All right, I’ll have Ella meet the other two in Arizona. Which city?”
“Phoenix and I will take care of the transportation from there,” Korbin replied.
“Great,” John finished. “Talk to you soon.”
Korbin hung up, glad he had gotten someone Katie and Stephanie could trust to fight beside.
On top of that, he was told that Ella was a pretty damn strong Damned. They thought she might just catch up with Katie one day.
Korbin doubted that, but he wouldn’t mind having two Katies—not with the way everything was going. So it would be Charlotte, Katie, Stephanie, and Ella taking on God-knew-what, with an unknown number of demons and a bunch of innocents.
The whole thing made him more than a little nervous, but he would have to trust the girls’ ability to handle any situation.
Ella was new, but not that new anymore. She would have to get to the point where she could jump on a plane at a moment’s notice and head out to wherever she was needed.
Sink or swim.
She would be with friends, though, and Katie and Stephanie could protect her if need be. Charlotte was his real worry; an innocent among the others, wanting to help and being strong-minded. Those things could get you killed when you were completely inexperienced.
“Phoenix?” Ella laughed and looked in the mirror at her hair, which no longer showed any crazy colors. It was just long and black.
She was still her though: dressed in black, ripped jeans, nose ring, and worn out, scuffed boots. Training and the life of a killer had mellowed her a bit, but she channeled all that energy into being as badass as possible.
She took the black leather cuff off her wrist and threw it on the dresser as she turned to John, who was standing in the doorway.
“With who?” Ella asked.
“Katie, Stephanie, and some reporter who is a spy for them,” John answered. “It’s a special assignment; an event that’s going to get crashed. A spa retreat for a ton of innocent women they are planning to infect. They need you, and wanted you to be the fourth.”
“I don’t know how well I’ll fit in undercover, but if there’s a chance for demon-slinging I am sure as hell ready for it.” Ella pursed her lips. “Besides, the girls haven’t seen what I can do now. I kind of want to show off my new mad skills.”
“Right.” John smirked. “Well, I’m sure they will be impressed, and you might even learn something new from t
hem.”
“Yeah.” Ella smirked back. “Or maybe I’ll teach them a few things.”
“Umm, yeah, sure.” He chuckled. “Just pack your things. You are meeting them in Phoenix.”
“Sand and sun, oh yeah.” Ella smiled. “I hope there’s a pool at this joint so I can work on my tan.”
“Mmmhmm,” John said, walking away. “Said no goth chick ever.”
She yelled, “I’m not goth! I am just expressive of my inner soul, which is dark and gloomy.” Ella looked at herself in the mirror. “He’ll see; they will be super impressed by my skills. I’m stronger than they give me credit for. Bring on the big boy; I got this.”
Ella packed her bag, hiding in the back of her mind the fact that she would be happy to see Stephanie and Katie again.
Perhaps more Katie than Stephanie.
She had settled down there in New York, but Katie and Stephanie were the ones who had trained her and really shown her what it meant to be a demon hunter.
Every time there was a bulletin with news of tributes, she checked to make sure the girls were okay. She just hid the emotion underneath, trying to keep her wall up with the teams. She couldn’t help but feel that those girls were her sisters, and she was stoked to fight alongside them.
Are you ready for this? Melneck asked.
Fuck yeah. She scoffed.
You know you aren’t those girls. You aren’t even close yet, Melneck reminded her. So don’t go marching in there, guns blazing and doing something fucking stupid. I don’t need a one-way ticket back to hell, and I am pretty sure you aren’t ready to keel over and die.
Ella shook her head. I’m not gonna die. But I’ll tell you this right now: your cousins, the ones trying to fuck things up—they are going to meet their ends at the tip of my sword.
The sun was shining brightly over Wickenburg, Arizona, a town just sixty miles from Phoenix.
It was dry and desert-y and had about six thousand citizens, mostly ranchers and those who ran the local Western Museum and the plethora of touristy shops centered around gunslingers and cattle drives.
Up in the rocky cliffs behind town, a gate creaked open and Moloch stepped out. He looked relatively human; shrouded to keep the humans from running off.
The sky crackled above him as his foot touched the sand, and dark ominous clouds rolled right in. He had come on a mission, but he was gonna make a statement while he was there.
Those who knew and worshipped him would see the signs, and the rest had better just keep out of his way. He walked down the dusty path toward the town, his boots crushing the sand.
He was in a human form as a disguise, but it was one huge man who covered the monstrosity that was Moloch.
As he moved the storm followed him, bright bolts of lightning crashing across the sky. He slammed his fist against a green sign on the side of the road marking sixty miles to Phoenix.
Moloch knew what was going down there in just a few days, but right then all he was worried about was creating his weapon; the weapon that would gain T’Chezz recognition and him a pat on the back. He’d be one step closer to Lucifer’s left hand.
As he passed the Western Museum he growled and sent waves of energy at the front, which slammed the doors shut. People scurried about expecting it to start pouring any minute, but this wasn’t a rainstorm.
It was a storm of enormous evil. He would deal with his project here, then move to the Northwest.
That was the more interesting project, and the one that would cause these humans fits.
Back at Demon Central, the staff were busy conducting research, directing teams to calls, and, most importantly, monitoring the energy of different areas to make sure no spikes in activity occurred.
The monitoring room was dark. The techs sat at their computers staring at their screens and listening to signals on different frequencies. The day had been quiet. In fact, the entire week leading up to that day had been slow.
A burst of energy showed up on the map and a soldier quickly lifted his hand.
“We got movement here,” he called. “Audio and visual!”
The colonel looked over and frowned, then stood and made his way to the man’s desk. They didn’t usually get readings that strong. When they did, it often turned into a historical event. The teams were spread so thin, though, that this incursion may not have ended up on their priority list.
“What do you have, soldier?” his superior asked when he got to the desk.
“It looks like an incursion, probably upper northwest corner of Utah,” the soldier pointed out. “There is a ton of activity over there. I’m not sure I’ve seen that many demons in one place on our map before.”
“We need to put out an APD,” the colonel directed. “Whitestaff?”
“Yes, sir?” The soldier stood up and saluted.
“I want you to put out an All Points Demon alert to the entire western area and the main command,” the colonel instructed. “We need our teams and the private teams to know about this one. I know the military teams would struggle to get all those suckers.”
“Yes, sir,” Whitestaff replied, sitting back down.
He started to type frantically, sending the alert to each corner of the map. Details were scarce, but they couldn’t just let this one go by. The colonel opened the small black box on his desk and put the key in, turning on the switch. It was a signal to all commands to let them know a call was coming in. The mercenary teams didn’t have that technology, but the colonel knew they monitored the military feeds for action. It was always in the back of their minds that their troops just weren’t equipped well enough for the massive increase in demon incursions.
It wasn’t long before the colonel’s phone rang, and the general was on the other end. He sounded put out but concerned, and the colonel hated giving him bad news. It was unavoidable though, and he had known that from the moment the soldier caught the surge. Another call and another round of dead or infected soldiers, and that was just during simple calls.
“What’s going on?” the general asked. “What is this APD about this time?”
“General, sir, there has been a massive surge detected in Utah, sir,” the colonel explained.
“What is the target?”
“We don’t know the exact target, sir,” the colonel replied. “The specs have been sent to your laptop. Unfortunately the energy transfer was heavy but short, so we were unable to get a direct fix.”
“All right.” The general sounded annoyed. “Then how big is the area?”
“We have narrowed it to a ten mile by ten-mile area, sir.” The colonel flinched, staring up at the large screen in the front of the room that displayed the map.
“That’s a hundred fucking square miles,” the general replied angrily. “We’d be better equipped to try and hit a fly’s dick with a dart while it was in flight than to find the demons in an area of that size.”
“Yes, sir,” the colonel responded. “We are working on narrowing it down.”
“Do it, and call me when you have a better idea,” he directed. “We don’t need our troops just wandering the fuck around out there. That’s how mistakes are made and soldiers get killed.”
“Yes, sir.” The colonel winced as the general hung the phone up angrily.
He stood there looking around the building. Everyone was working as fast as they could. The general just didn’t understand that their equipment wasn’t nearly as capable as it needed to be. They had only militarized demon hunting in the last decade, and tracking them was a lot different than tracking human enemies. There was no heat-seeker to find the bastards, and there was no way they could move as fast as the larger demons.
The battle already felt lost, but he hoped somewhere out there the mercenaries were tracking closer.
Chapter Nine
“I thought Vegas was hot,” Stephanie said fanning herself. “Arizona is like Nevada on steroids.”
“I like it.” Katie smiled, looking up at the sun and taking in her Vitamin D. “
I hate being cold. I feel like Korbin keeps the base at twelve below zero, so anytime I can heat up these bones I’m going to take it.”
“You think Ella will be different?” Stephanie asked, watching the planes landing and taking off. “I mean, obviously she’ll be different, but I am hoping that whole bratty bitch phase has ended.”
“I think she will be Ella,” Katie mused. “And if that includes bratty bitch, we will just have to take it in stride.”
“Then expect me to try and knock it out of her,” Stephanie commented.
Just then the door to the hangar opened and Charlotte walked in, looking rested, trendy, and way different from the underground rat Katie had originally met when she was first infected. She waved and walked over, giving Katie a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. She nodded at Stephanie.
“We are still waiting for one more, right?” Charlotte asked.
“Yeah. Her name is Ella. She’s pretty green but she works in New York, so she should have some good skills,” Katie explained.
“She was kind of a pet to us.” Stephanie sighed. “She came in wild and wooly, I can tell you that much.”
“So did I.” Katie laughed. “So did you, actually. It’s not about the way we came into this world. It’s about what we will do to avoid being taken out of it, and Ella has that on lockdown.”
With those words the front of the hanger slowly slid open, revealing a slick jet on the other side.
The jet came to a stop, and the crew prepared the stairs for deplaning. Katie watched with bated breath as Ella appeared, long black hair cascading down her back, a tight black tank top, and those ripped black jeans with worn-out boots. She was exactly as Katie remembered her.
“Hey, bitches.” She smiled and put her arms up as she descended the stairs. “I’m baaaack.”
“And a sight for sore eyes,” Stephanie said, hugging her tightly as soon as she reached the bottom.
“So what’s up?” Ella smiled, looking at Charlotte. “You must be the spy.”
Charlotte laughed. “More like an investigator than a spy.”