Protected by the Damned Boxed Set 1: A Supernatural Action Adventure Opera

by Michael Todd

  “We could go be cops in Mayberry,” Holden suggested with a twinkle in his eye.

  That cracked Stone up completely. “Yeah, right. I would go nuts.” He shook his head, “No fucking way.”

  “What the hell?” Holden exclaimed, squinting into the gloom.

  “What?” Stone asked quickly, following his partner’s line of sight until he found what Holden was watching.

  They watched the druggie run down the street, his hands covered in something red and his face pale as a ghost. It looked like he might just have shit his pants.

  The druggie spotted the car and the cops both got out, figuring he was headed in that direction anyway. As he got closer, the officers put their hands on their guns.

  “That’s far enough,” Holden commanded, raising his hand.

  “What’s all over you?” Stone challenged.

  The guy was completely incoherent, talking so fast and shaking so badly that they couldn’t understand a word he was saying.

  Holden attempted to calm the distraught man. “Take a deep breath. Speak slowly and clearly so we can understand you.”

  The man’s eyes bulged, and his words continued to be lost in frightened sobs and gulps for air.

  “Breathe, man,” the officer repeated, his patience wearing thin.

  The man continued to gibber, waving his arms in the direction he’d run from. He was clearly high, and both officers could see the blood coating him.

  “STOP!” Holden finally called, raising his sidearm but not pointing it directly at the man…

  Yet.

  “Now take a motherfucking deep breath or I am going to drop you right here on this street!”

  “Okay, okay.” The junkie cringed, raising one hand and putting the other on his knee. “Just give me one second. Look, I know you think I’m a junkie, right? Well, I don’t want the motherfucking drugs anymore.” He pointed back the way he had come. “I just found a bunch of dead bodies and what looks like some serious fucking voodoo devil shit in that house down there at the end of the block.”

  Stone sneered. “Are you sure you’re not high as a kite?”

  “No,” he denied angrily. “How else would I have all this blood on me?”

  “All right,” Holden allowed, with a doubtful glance at Stone. “Take us to the house so we can see this for ourselves.”

  “Okay, follow me.” The druggie turned back toward the house, and hurried up the sidewalk with the officers following closely behind him.

  “You know shit’s bad when a junkie is leading the police to the house he buys his shit from,” Stone remarked dryly. “Like, this might be one of the first signs of the apocalypse.”

  “Right,” Holden agreed with a low chuckle. “What’s next? Bank robbers returning the cash?”

  The guys kept up the snarky banter all the way to the house.

  Holden looked left and right before shining the flashlight into the open doorway. Something sparkled in the dark and Holden stepped closer, pulling his brows together.

  “What the hell is that?” he wondered aloud, stepping toward the house.

  The two officers shone their flashlights through the door from the porch, and the beams showed them several different body parts.

  “That’s… That’s a head!” Stone put his hand to his face and groaned, wanting to puke right then and there.

  Immediately Holden reached for his gun and spun around to point it at the junkie. “Put your hands up,” he bellowed. “Put them up over your head.”

  “Officer, I didn’t do nothing,” the druggie begged. “I swear I found them like this.”

  “Then who did this?” Holden demanded, pushing the man down on all fours.

  The druggie began to weep. “As far as I know, the only one that can be at fault is the devil himself,” he cried, trembling in fear.

  Back in Vegas, things were a lot more relaxed and quiet. Mamacita had gone back to her home with the girls for the evening. She sat down at her computer and thought for a moment, trying to decide the best search terms for what she was interested in buying.

  It had been many years since she had needed appropriate clothing for work. So long, in fact, that she didn’t exactly know what size she was in the brands she found.

  Still, she needed something professional to wear into the office now that she was going to be doing the ordering and pretty much all the administrative work.

  “What clothes are you ordering?” Lily, one of the girls from the brothel, asked. “Are you getting back into the business with us?”

  “No.” Mamacita chuckled and gave her a coy smile and a wink. “I’m buying business clothes.”

  “What’s the difference?” Lily asked innocently. “We work for a business, right?”

  “Yes, but these clothes are for working while you are vertical,” Mamacita explained. “It’s another type of game men and women play—one where we let the men believe they are in the driver’s seat, when really we tell them where to go.”

  “Oh?” Lily inquired, with a look that said she didn’t really understand.

  “Don’t worry about it, sweetie. You just keep doing what you know.” Mamacita smiled. “I’ve got a new challenge.”

  The girl walked away nodding happily and Mamacita leaned forward, staring at the black dress suit on the Versace website.

  It was nice, but not at all what she was looking for. She was intending to buy herself horizontal outfits, and she was pretty sure she had a crush on one specific man.

  She knew it was her turn to have a good time, to show how intelligent she was, and to be the star of her own life for once. She just wished she knew exactly what they did for a living. Running a business where she didn’t know what the product was might be a bit of a challenge, but she liked those, and she certainly wasn’t going to pass the opportunity by.

  Maybe she would find out something she didn’t want to know, or maybe she would find out something that she had known all along. Either way she was going shopping, and she was going to make sure she looked damn good at work.

  No matter what he was into.

  Mamacita sat back in the chair, thinking about the weapons, their obvious fitness, and the grit in their eyes. It took her back.

  Back to a time before she had become what she was today.

  Was it time to accept her past? Her lips pressed together as she continued to review the clothes and make notes of where she might want to shop in town.

  The past was perhaps better left there.

  Chapter Seven

  There were at least three squad cars parked on the San Ysidro street. Everyone was talking—or in some cases yelling—trying to figure out what the hell happened in that drug house and where the remainder of the bodies had gone.

  The parts they had found told them nothing.

  No way the evidence was eaten. Nothing just ate body parts.

  A black SUV pulled up in front of the house and parked, and after a moment an attractive woman and a very handsome man climbed out and looked around like there was nothing surprising happening.

  “Stop right there,” one of the cops ordered, putting up his hand. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but this is a crime scene. I don’t care how much money you have—you can’t just come in here when something like this is going on.”

  “We are your backup,” Calvin replied with a smirk. “Actually, you and your partner are now our backup.”

  The cop did a double-take. “What?”

  “Let me guess,” Katie cut in with a wave toward the house. “Dead bodies or parts of dead bodies all over the house, a circle on the ground, possibly a small fire? Am I getting warm?”

  “Oh, shiiit…” The cop’s eyes widened and he took a half-step back. “I thought it was just a rumor. One of those stupid things that gets blown out of proportion.”

  “What?” Katie asked.

  “You’re the D squad,” he replied, glancing back and forth between Calvin and Katie.

  “The what?” Cal
vin asked

  “The D squad,” the cop repeated, pointing to the two of them. “The demon squad. We thought it was an old wives’ tale or just something our boss told us to scare the hell out of us, but when we got here today it was obvious.” He jerked a thumb toward the house. “I’m guessing this was no human killer. And now that you guys are here, I’m willing to bet that guess is almost a definite.”

  “I wouldn’t say it was definite just yet.” Katie walked toward the house.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” a second cop interrupted in disbelief. “You are going to believe little Miss Priss in her six-inch heels and the guy in the designer suit who come waltzing up here like they are in a movie of some sort? You are the most gullible asshole I have ever met.”

  Katie made a moue and walked toward the second cop. “You are so cynical,” she told him. “I know it’s really hard to believe that there is someone even more badass than you.”

  Katie put her finger on his cheek and trailed it down his face, and he stared at her for a moment, unable to say a word. Calvin looked at him and shook his head, somewhat surprised by how entranced these guys were by Katie.

  “The big bad demon guy came in and ruined your evening?” Katie pouted. She tapped the cop’s face, snapping him out of his daze. “Well, just a note for you and your friends…we like to be called The Damned.”

  Katie’s eyes flashed bright red and she let out a gleeful cackle, then walked into the house.

  Calvin snorted, thoroughly entertained by just how fast the guy’s face changed given one little sneak peek at the demon inside her.

  Nothing beat showing the truth to a non-believer, then sitting back and watching the chaos that ensued.

  Calvin patted the cop on the back and walked past him into the house, and he was still smiling when he entered. He was amused—royally amused—and he wanted to see the mischief on Katie’s face as well. However, when he reached her he saw no mischief or humor in her expression, only sadness and anger.

  Calvin stopped and took stock of the room around him. He had been so ready to see carnage that when he did, his mind had passed right over it.

  “Holy shit,” Calvin breathed, looking around at the scene.

  “I know,” Katie agreed wholeheartedly.

  “Hey, how did you do that thing?” Calvin waggled a finger in front of his eyes to demonstrate. “You know, the thing where your eyes flashed red? We have the ring around them, but I never thought we could actually make them red like that.”

  Katie shrugged. “I don’t know. I saw Korbin do it. It’s more of a control thing; like a party trick in some ways, I suppose.”

  “Well, I need to work on that. It’s nuts, and it freaks the hell out of people.” There was a hint of admiration in Calvin’s voice as he spoke the words.

  Katie grimaced. “I’d really rather not freak people out. If we do, they might think we do stuff like,” she swept an upturned palm around to indicate the gore coating the room, “this disgusting carnage for no good reason besides boredom.”

  Calvin clenched his right hand. “What freaks me out about all of it is the fact that those demons, or some like them, are inside of us,” he growled. “That means that every one of us has it in them to do this. Every damn one of us has a brutal and disgusting killer inside.”

  He scuffed his boot miserably on the one clean patch of floor. “You would think that because of that, we wouldn’t be trusted no matter who we work for,” he finished quietly.

  “I don’t think we are trusted,” Katie said, patting Calvin’s shoulder in sympathy as she looked him in the eyes. “I think that, no matter what happens in this world, we will always be feared. No one will ever fully trust us.” She shrugged. “But in the end, is that such a terrible thing? Is it wrong for them to fear people with demons so strong it affects the way they fight? Is it wrong to be scared that something will go wrong with our demons? That we too will end up creating a horror like this?”

  Katie stepped delicately over the fast-congealing puddle of blood, shaking her head as she answered her own question. “Nope, it’s not wrong at all.”

  “How does it look?” Korbin asked, pacing back and forth behind Derek.

  “It’s getting there,” Derek grumped, typing something into the computer.

  “How did you get into this stuff?” Korbin asked, pausing to squint at the screen over Derek’s shoulder.

  Derek kept typing as he glanced up. “Honestly, I took some courses in college and then taught myself more,” he explained with a small, satisfied smile. “It fascinated me, and I’ve always related to numbers. They just come to me, like another language I understand it without really learning it. I don’t know…I guess maybe this was my true calling.”

  Korbin clapped him on the shoulder. “Well, you are using it in this world, and that is incredibly important.”

  “Okay,” Derek said, turning around to face him. “Tell me again exactly what you are looking for.”

  Korbin straightened and became serious again. “I am looking for a program of spiders; ones that can crawl over the internet, pulling data about paranormal comments from social media,” he told Derek. “I need to open up new avenues for tips; ways we can find these demons before they massacre hundreds of people again. I know it’s really ‘Big Brother’ of me, but I only want the paranormal activity. Is that even possible?”

  “Anything is possible,” Derek assured him. “So basically, you want to be able to scan the system to find every conversation that seems demonic in nature and send it to us so we can decide if we need to act on it?”

  “Yep, exactly,” Korbin confirmed. “But it is really important that the people who can use it are very restricted. I mean very restricted. The fewer people who have the ability to use this, the less likely it is to be abused.”

  “Right.” Derek nodded. “Well, I would restrict access to just me and you at first.”

  Korbin grinned. “That’s smart. So, you can do it?”

  “Yeah, no problem.” Derek resumed typing as he spoke. “You have to use some sort of social database service. It allows for faster development, but it will increase the monthly bills.”

  Korbin raised an eyebrow. “How much higher?”

  “Noticeably higher,” Derek replied hesitantly.

  Korbin sighed. “Okay, if you do it, can you set it up to be billed directly to me?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Derek confirmed. “That’s no problem.”

  Korbin beamed and patted him on the back. “All right, do it, then.”

  Korbin left the room and walked down the hallway toward the main area. He was getting everything into place—everything he would need to be more up to speed on the whereabouts of these demons, what they were planning, and possibly how to stop an attack before it took place. He had never thought of using technology as an ally in the fight against this terrorist, but it was turning out to be one of his greatest resources.

  The only problem with all of it was the fact that he had no idea how to use it, couldn’t read it, didn’t want to learn about it, and didn’t know if he could rely on it. It was something that the others were not aware of, though, and he liked it like that.

  There were aspects of the job he had that meant he had to keep secrets even from the people who were closest to him. He wanted badly to be a part of the team like everyone else, but there was a level of secrecy that he had to keep that the others didn’t.

  He felt like he could never fully be part of the team. He always had to conceal the truth of himself and hold the curtain closed to hide the lies that were going on behind the scenes.

  It was exhausting, but it was necessary.

  Katie and Calvin combed through the tattered limbs strewn around the room, unable to miss that they had been torn from the bodies rather than removed with any kind of weapon. It was obvious that the killer had utilized these people for lunch and nothing more.

  Calvin walked into the back room and stared at the desk in the corner where the drug dea
ler would have sat. That was where the demon would have made a deal with him to be released from his chains and join them on Earth.

  Katie walked into the back room, wrinkling her nose as she spoke. “This demon is strong. I’m just confused about what happened here.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Calvin concurred. “There is that circle with the rope on it, but what about the human to be used as a capsule? Who did the ceremony? Who brought the demon up from hell?”

  “I don’t know,” Katie mused. “But whoever it was, they had to have a pretty powerful demon themselves. They didn’t stay long if they did it. They knew what they were bringing back. I can smell mojan dust. It was used to enclose the circle and keep the beast inside, but why use it if your whole purpose is to let it loose on the public?”

  “Fear,” Calvin stated flatly. “Whoever it was knew what this guy or demon could do, and he feared that.”

  Katie chewed her lip. “Yes. He made a failsafe, something that would give him time to get out before the demon did.”

  “That means the beast started out in the circle and knew already what to do to get out and to go out into society.” Calvin looked around nervously. “That means he is an old demon, someone who knows our kind very well. Someone who didn’t need a guide, just someone to push the buttons on this end to get him in.”

  “Someone with a very big shoe,” Katie replied, looking down in front of her.

  “That’s a damn big footprint for a human.” Calvin’s eyes widened as he examined the print.

  “That is not a human print,” Katie pointed out, “unless our human is bigger than Shaq.”

  Calvin narrowed his eyes. “I don’t get it. We thought that demons could only be in their hosts. I’ve never seen a host taken over that fast. Fast, but not that fast.”

  “Maybe we were wrong,” Katie admitted. “Maybe the demons, or at least the stronger ones, don’t need human bodies to survive.”

  “But yours is strong,” Calvin argued.