Witch Hunt

by L R Deney

  Then her blood ran cold and the realization came to her. He disappeared into the crowd! Did that mean that the sanctum she was looking for was in Club Sepulcher the entire time? That the Nazis were hiding under the cover of a Gothic nightclub? Then that would explain why… he had looked her up and down and said it. He meant her rather Gothic fashion sense. What the fuck?

  Did the owner of the club know? It was hard to tell anymore, far right ideologies have infested alternative music cultures for decades. Some bands were known to use Nazi memorabilia as a way of being edgy and the ideology would just poison their minds. Thinking about that, it actually made some sense that the sanctum would be anchored there.

  But how to find out for sure? She knew there was a means of detecting where a sanctum was if you had an idea of where to look for it. But she didn’t remember what it was exactly. If she only had her extensive library, she’d be able to look it up, but unfortunately her sanctum’s anchor was under guard by the Azramoas City Watch.

  If she was able to regain her sanctum, she’d be able to look it up. But that would require taking back her sanctum. There was only one ability that she had which would be equalize the confrontation in her favor and it was one that she hated to use. Every use of it caused her dread as it corrupted her and drew her closer to Kadmon. Still, it was the only option for an assault like this one.

  She clambered out of her bed, careful not to disturb Melanie, and hurried out into the living room. There she found Aku no Shi doing an inventory and check on her weapons. The witch was loaded with weaponry such as her tiger claws, a war fan, and numerous shuriken. Then of course there was the katana, the weapon that she was presently checking over. She looked up when Staci approached her.

  “Sleep well, Staci?” the woman asked.

  “Not really, I’ve spent too much time pondering the Nazis’ sanctum,” Staci replied. “And I think I’ve finally figured it out. The sanctum is anchored to a Gothic nightclub called Club Sepulcher. It’s been under my nose the entire time.”

  “Then shall we head out and meet to enemy head on?”

  “Well, yeah, but not quite yet, we still have to find out a way to discover the sanctum itself.”

  “Not an easy feat.”

  “Indeed… which is why I need to research it. I remember there is a way, and even the cowboy knew how to break into one. Might be related.”

  “Russell knows how to break into sanctums? Interesting… I will never underestimate him again….”

  “Yes, he surprised me with that as well. In any case the only library I have access to right now is my private collection. However, my sanctum is currently under guard by a bunch of Azramoan pigs.”

  “Yes, I know, I stopped by there before hunting you. I suspect the other bounty hunters did as well.”

  “Yeah, which poses a problem I have to solve.”

  Aku no Shi stroked her chin. “I can potentially help, but that still does not bring the odds in our favor. There are a lot of Watchmen there, your reputation precedes you.”

  “I know that most of it does. But I still have some tricks up my sleeve that they don’t know about. You may find some even… questionable, but it’s necessary in this situation.”

  “Oh? Please tell….”

  “I can summon demons.”

  ◆◆◆

  It was early evening and the small group hid behind the bushes down the road, observing the house that Staci’s sanctum was anchored to. Staci, Aku no Shi, Theo, and Melanie had hammered out the plan of attack to retake the sanctum throughout the day. It had proven to be a cunning plan and calling up the “backup” would be a major part of it. Aku no Shi did not fully approve, but she was willing to accept the practicality of it.

  The City Watch was patrolling the area in most subtle ways possible, a neighbor repeatedly walking their dog, a van that sat parked for hours, pedestrians constantly strolling by, and of course the officers hiding in the trees themselves. There were around twenty in all, more than enough to put down a single witch if they needed to. Staci grimaced at the sight.

  “Damn, I hate seeing my home held captive like this,” she said.

  “A home is the only place one can feel truly safe,” Aku no Shi replied.

  “No kidding. Oh well, let’s get this over with. I want to be resting on my couch enjoying a cup of coffee before the night’s end.”

  Staci focused heavily on the dark powers that Kadmon had granted her, eyes glowing an eerie, demonic green. She centered her mind on the calling, beckoning Kadmon’s followers from the realm of Hell. Mind met mind after mind, informing each one that she needed their service and the excitement of those demons reached back to her. They began clawing their way through reality toward her position on Earth.

  These portals, forming as pentagrams on the ground, took shape and the demonic army emerged to challenge the City Watch. Howling, screeching, there were fifteen in total, more than enough to deal with the pigs. The watchmen quickly organized a defense, responding to the attack with their staves and spells. But the demons were not without their own power, hurling back fireballs and blasts of flames.

  While the watchmen were fighting as well as their skills allowed them, they were still not soldiers trained for war like the demons Staci summoned were. They were overwhelmed by the demons and were forced to call in for reinforcements via a sending once it became apparent that the invading fiends were winning and already launching themselves on the officers and tearing them to shreds.

  A portal ripped open near the house almost immediately and ten more watch members leapt from it, immediately joining in on the frenzy. This had been anticipated by the plans made throughout the day and the three spellcasters jumped out from behind the bushes. Staci cracked her whip and Aku no Shi let her hair grow wild, show casting its abilities in an intimidating way.

  “Fight, my dark minions!” Staci shouted in a gleeful cry, cracking her whip again. “Fight. “It’s only twenty-six; you’re more than a match for them! Ahahahahaha!”

  Aku no Shi gave her a sharp, puzzled look.

  Staci looked back to her and smirked. “Too much?”

  “A bit,” the other witch replied.

  Once the three were spotted by the watch, one of them pointed toward them. “There’s the twisted mastermind behind all of this! Stop her! Once we deal with her, the rest of this madness ends.”

  Several of the officers agreeing with his sentiment detached from the battle—which was still going poorly for the City Watch—and hurried toward the three spellcasters. That was when Theo waved their hands and focused their own power, their arm now mostly healed, and a twisted electric snap was heard. Seemingly on their own, the powerlines above broke from each other and began attacking the officers like an army of electrified tentacles.

  Half of that detachment was electrified to death before they reached the three. Staci, Aku no Shi, and Theo split up in response, with Staci heading in a beeline for the house while Theo and Aku no Shi remained to face the pigs. The tendrils of the powerlines maintained their assault against the two officers who ducked and weaved between them while Staci’s demonic assault continued at the house.

  “Seize that woman!” cried one of the officers, pointing at Staci.

  As some of the watchmen broke off from the direct struggle against the demons, the fiends closed in to cover her. Forming a protective wall around her, the demons focused blasts of fire from their fingertips, causing more of the officers to fall. The entire street had become magical pandemonium and already neighbors were taking notice and calling the cops. As if the police could do anything about a battle between wizards and demons….

  A single man strolled up the road clapping his hands as he approached the scene. His black suit, red shirt, and goatee readily gave him away. Mr. DeVos smiled wide and then laughed as he admired the pure chaos being wrought. It had been a long time since he’d seen such a fight out in the open on Earth and in a suburban neighborhood no less.

  “Bravo, Staci!”
he shouted. “Bravo. This is a splendid display; I eagerly await to see the consequences.”

  Staci only remained silent, firing off spells with her demons to repel the City Watch. But Mr. DeVos wasn’t the only one who the battle attracted as new contenders were quick to arrive. From a portal, Staci and her friends expected to see more watchmen arrive, but instead a dozen of the black suited Black Sun members poured through, and from a rooftop, Russell fired into the crowd. Then two massive, hairy beasts loped into view, howling with glee.

  Mr. DeVos had to laugh, extremely amused now. “Looks like everyone’s here. What do you know?”

  “What is all of this about, I wonder?” Russell said, hopping down from the roof. “If you’re trying to hide, Staci, this is a poor way to do it; any mage worth their salt can detect this commotion from miles away.”

  “You’ll have to get in line then, Russell,” Staci retorted from behind her demons, the rest of them tearing through the remaining watchmen and making a counter assault against the newly arrived Nazis.

  “That’s interesting; I don’t think I actually recall introducing myself to you.”

  “Well, I guess I slipped up then.”

  “What?”

  “Hey guys!” another Staci cried out, standing over two electrocuted watchmen, Theo and Melanie both smiling at her side.

  “What the—?” exclaimed a startled officer. “Then who’s that?” He pointed at the Staci near the demons.

  “Like I said, I slipped up,” she responded, shimmering as the illusion faded to reveal Aku no Shi.

  “Oh, brilliant!” cried Mr. DeVos.

  “Disgusting,” spat Russell. “You’re actually siding with this witch now? So much for your integrity as a bounty hunter.”

  “You talk too much,” Aku no Shi replied, slamming a lock of her hair into him, knocking him back.

  Staci winked at the onrushing surviving watchmen, the Nazis, and her demons. The werewolf twins were loping behind it all. Then she opened a portal and led Theo and Melanie through it as the onrushing horde pursued her, the demons trying to prune it as much as possible. Staci’s portal had closed shut behind her and her friends, but it was not hard for the pursuing parties to pursue her with their own travel spells.

  Once most of everyone was gone, Aku no Shi hurried to the house and pulled out Staci’s key. She quickly unlocked the anchor and stepped through, only to have Russell leap onto her from behind. They both tumbled into the foyer, trading blows, hair versus knives. Furniture broke and shattered in their struggle, although while it looked fancy enough, was likely not worth anything, forged from astral stuff.

  “So much for all of that rambling about honor,” taunted Russell, tossing one of his knives at Aku no Shi’s head.

  She easily dodged it, the knife embedding itself into the wall behind. “It is because of my honor that I help Staci.” Then she retaliated by sending numerous locks of her hair toward him.

  “That’s some twisted honor,” Russell said, narrowly dodging each of the attacks.

  “Unlike you,” she retorted, drawing her katana, “I have actually investigated the circumstances behind the bounty.”

  “Yeah, and what are those?” Russell replied, redrawing his guns and firing off a few explosive, arcane shots at her which the witch swiftly dodged and parried with the katana.

  Aku no Shi laughed at him as her hair carried her up the stairs, dodging each of his shots, only a few of her hair tendrils being hit. She retreated through a door on the balcony above, narrowly missing a floating book moving to another shelf. Russell growled in frustration and hurried to follow her.

  He found himself in a dark room filled with books, rows and rows of books. He smirked at it, finding it amusing that so many were gathered in one place. Staci apparently really loved her reading; it would be so unfortunate if something should happen to them. He was about to ready a shot, prepared to fire anywhere in a blind attempt to hit Aku no Shi when a tendril of black hair grasped his wrist and disarmed him.

  “Shit!” he cursed.

  “Do not think about ruining her library,” the Japanese witch’s voice said from seemingly every direction.

  “I’ll do what I want,” he said, readying his other gun.

  Another tendril came from the dark and seized that arm as well. He growled and strained against her, trying to break free of her grasp but to no avail. She raised him from the floor and emerged from the dark, smiling that he was now her prisoner. He spat on her, the spittle landing on her face, but she was unfazed, simply wiping it away.

  “How uncouth from the fly caught in my web,” Aku no Shi said with a cruel, mocking tone.

  “If you’re going to kill me, just kill me,” he said, grinding his teeth at her.

  “Now where would the fun in that be?”

  She began slamming him repeatedly into the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. Each of his grunts and cries of pain were like music to her ears. He was now a toy to her, one that she could be rough with as much as she wanted. She was careful to avoid Staci’s bookcases in her relentless beating of the man, making him suffer every inch of the way. Eventually she tossed him against a wall when he became limp with unconsciousness.

  She walked up to his prone form and retrieved a set of bindings from her sash. She used these to tie him up firmly and then looked around for a place to dispose of him. She finally spotted a closet on the far end of the room and dragged him there. After clearing a few things from the closet, she gently stuffed him inside and closed the door.

  With that diversion put out of the way, she could now focus on the original plan, to break the anchor. There was a very specific place that she needed to re-anchor it, but it would prove to be a complex challenge. It was not very often that someone would anchor a sanctum to another sanctum, but with the entire situation as it was, it was really the only prudent solution to the dilemma.

  ◆◆◆

  The portal emerged in the middle of a moonlit historical district. Lining the road in which the three emerged, on the sidewalks, were oddly… palm trees. Melanie looked around in confusion while Staci let out a bored sigh. Theo was flexing their wrist a little, too focused on it to take note of where they were, which was Melanie’s very specific question.

  “Um… where are we?” she asked, reaching over to poke one of the trees.

  “Tampa, Florida,” Staci replied, pacing a bit as she waited for their inevitable pursuers. “Specifically Ybor City.”

  “Florida? Why the fuck are we in Florida?”

  “Wait, Florida?” Theo asked, looking around dumbfounded. “Don’t suppose we’ll run into Florida Man, do you?”

  Staci cracked a smile. “I wouldn’t bet on it. Ybor’s pretty dead at night.”

  As those last words were spoken, the horde emerged from multiple portals to liven the historical district up. Four surviving watchmen, fourteen demons (one had apparently met its end), and ten Nazis… oh, and two werewolves. Almost immediately the demons turned to attack the watchmen, werewolves and Nazis. Staci cackled at the sight, tossing her own shadowy blasts into the fray.

  The chaos made as much noise as it had back on the formerly quiet street in Kent. The howling demons and werewolves, the cries of the Nazis and watchmen trying to survive the chaos, spells being tossed around and back and forth, sometimes causing damage to the area around them. Even a palm tree promptly fell over after its trunk had been devastated by a stray magical attack.

  It was the second display of chaos to expose the arcane world to the mundane that night, but it wasn’t exactly something Staci was concerned about. She never particularly cared about the “masquerade” that the Council of Magic imposed on everyone. It was a different world, a different time….

  A bolt of bright, white light shot down from the sky and slammed into the balcony nearby, causing the area to rumble. The fighting momentarily stopped, everyone’s attention diverted to the sight of the almost blinding radiance. When the light dissipated, five men clad in black clergy robe
s emerged, each of their faces grim and determined. A sudden sinking feeling went through Staci as she realized who they were.

  The last surviving watchman glared and pointed at Staci. “See what you brought upon us? It’s the Vatican’s witch hunters!”

  “Fuck, I didn’t expect an inquisition,” muttered a Nazi.

  “Nobody expects us,” spoke a man with long silver hair, his eyes cold and emotionless.

  Theo fought a chuckle.

  “We have detected a massive use of magic here,” the cleric continued, “and thousands of miles away previously. It seems we have found the source. We had long thought our order’s destruction of the sorcerous plague effective and efficient, but it appears we were mistaken in that assumption. And here we see the results of your unholy methods.” The man gestured toward the demons who were down to thirteen now. “Behold, demons, proof of the infernal dealings of sorcerers, witches, and warlocks.

  “By the power invested in me by the Tenebrus Inquisitio, I hereby declare under the authority of God and the Vatican that you are all under arrest for the high crime of witchcraft.”

  “Well, thank goodness there’s no children around,” grumbled Staci.

  “Joke all you like. Your nefarious infestation of this world is now at an end. Seize them!”

  Four of the men leapt from the balcony, wielding staves not too dissimilar to the ones that were often carried by the Azramoas City Watch. In fact, that last remaining member of the watch charged at the men, engaging one in combat, only to find his own staff quickly sundered by the cleric’s. The inquisitor then slammed the tip of his staff into the watchman, then the broad side cracking against his skull, dispatching him almost immediately.

  “Fuck, who are these guys?” Melanie asked Staci.

  “Tenebrus Inquisitio, the Dark Inquisition. They’re the Vatican’s dedicated witch hunters.”