"Oh." I couldn't recall him seeing anyone. It must not have lasted long. "I see."
"Here you are." Gary pushed through the racks, a mug in either hand. "My brother-in-law is coming to fix the window."
I took one mug and nodded my thanks. "It's handy to know a guy."
Gary shrugged. "I suppose so, but he's not the kind of guy mother wanted my sister to marry." His eyes widened and he added, "He's a dingo shifter. Shiftiest character you could ever meet, so to speak."
"Ah. dingo shifter." Kannen nodded.
"Yeah, they usually frequent the outback and stick to themselves. I'll get a broom." Gary moved back through the racks toward the back room of the shop.
"Huh. Well, you learn something new every day," Kannen said.
"I've learnt a lot more than that in the last few," I replied. I picked up a shoe and started looking on the shelves for its pair. "More than I needed to know, frankly. Dingo shifters are probably the least weird of them."
"Babe, that's not even close to weird compared to some of the shit out there."
I turned sharply, but Kannen wasn't even looking at me, he was facing the other way. He probably didn't mean anything by it anyway.
"I guess so. I'm not sure I want to know. Demons are enough to deal with." But I did want to know. I had always found the paranormal fascinating. Just when I thought I had a grasp on the strangest things in the world, I learnt about a dozen more. Most of it was nothing everyday humans would ever know about, beside their preoccupation with fictional creatures.
If only they knew…
I found the shoe's mate, placed it beside the first, then picked up what looked like the pair of the boot which had been tossed outside.
"I might have to buy a pair of these," I said. "I wonder how long it will take those security guards to realise there's a hole in the windscreen."
Kannen chuckled. "I bet if they do, they'll make up a story about a bullet or someone with an icepick."
"True. No one would believe a stiletto was hanging out of the car. I'm not sure I do."
"Better that than wearing them." Kannen held up a similar shoe, but in shades of blue.
"I'll stick to boots," I agreed.
"Me too." Kannen paused, raised a hand and cocked his head. "I think someone is coming. Or several someones."
I froze.
Just outside the shattered window, they were getting closer.
14
"You don't think the looters are back?" I peered out the window. My fingers tightened around the closest thing to hand—a display hanger which usually hooked onto the wall. As long as my forearm, it was heavy enough to do damage if used right.
"I doubt it. Besides, they don't smell human. They smell like—"
"The pack." Gary spoke over my shoulder. He turned his head, smiled at me, then took the hanger from my hand. "Don't be concerned, they're harmless. Well, mostly. Lucky for you, you're not a looter." He shook the hanger at us a time or two before hooking it back on the wall.
"Lucky for them, they left," Kannen remarked. "Or you might be cleaning up more than a mess."
Gary grimaced. "Yes indeed. The pack might bite first, think about the bloodstains afterward."
"Sometimes that's all you can do," I replied. "Although usually the only clothes and shoes I have to worry about are my own." That was why I mostly wore red and black, it hid the blood better.
"It would be a bitch to get out of the floor," Kannen said with a nod.
The pack consisted of three men and two women, all perfectly ordinary-looking apart from nostrils flared wide as they sniffed the air.
"They're all wolves?" I whispered.
"Yes, but they can probably hear you." Kannen spoke at a normal volume. "Remember, they only bite if provoked."
"Or if you ask nicely," one of the shifters said, his voice smooth as honey. He stopped outside the broken window and looked up. He was handsome. Tall and muscular, his face was all angles, striking caramel eyes and a few days worth of growth on his chin.
"That's my cousin Jagger," Gary said. "Ignore him, he thinks he's irresistible to women."
Jagger smiled, showing even, white teeth. No sign of fangs.
Yet.
"Because I am," Jagger said, and gave me a wink. He put a hand on the side of the window and climbed inside.
"He's also very humble." Gary rolled his eyes.
"I can see that," I said, my eyes following the shifter.
Jagger chuckled. He held out his hand to me. I shook it. He grasped it for a while longer than was strictly necessary, but I didn't pull away from him either. We locked gazes for a moment before our hands slipped apart and I went back to folding clothes.
"Ol' Gary said you two helped fend off a bunch of would-be thieves," Jagger drawled.
"Watch who you're calling old." Gary brandished a running shoe in Jagger's direction.
"If the hat fits." Jagger shrugged and surveyed the broken window. "Dave will be along soon to fix this."
The rest of the pack must have come in through the door to the back of the premises. One, an older woman, clicked her tongue and shook her head.
"I smell Demon Hunter," she declared, her expression sour. Her face was layered with wrinkles, deepened by a scowl.
"Mother," Gary warned.
She ignored him and turned hostile eyes to me. "We don't want any trouble."
I raised both hands, palms forward. "You won't get any from me. I'm just here trying to work out what's causing people to behave like this." I nodded toward the pile of glass Gary swept.
"Humans," the wolf shifter spat. "Because they are trouble. Especially when they move about in groups." Evidently the irony was lost on her.
"We should go." I lowered my hands and glanced toward Kannen. "I really should get back to work."
"So soon?" Jagger asked, pouting playfully. "But we just met."
"It would be for the best," Gary's mother said. She glared at Jagger until his expression turned sombre and he moved away.
"Yes, we really do have places to be," Kannen agreed. "Later." He cast a raised eyebrow at me.
I resisted the urge to do more than give a slight grimace.
Mother Wolf bared her teeth as I walked past. Kannen, she ignored altogether.
"Thank you," Gary called out after us.
I looked back and nodded to him before offering his mother a smile. She responded by looking down her nose at me.
"What a bitch," Kannen muttered, once they were more or less out of earshot.
I snorted. "In more ways than one."
Kannen grinned. "At least she didn't eat us."
"Yeah, that's a bonus," I said dryly. "I always go home in the morning and thank the gods I survived the night without becoming a snack." I might have been joking, but it had almost happened once or twice.
Or several times.
"There are better ways to be eaten," Kannen agreed.
My mouth went dry. Luckily, it was dark enough to hide it. "I guess so." I looked back over my shoulder, to make sure Mother Wolf wasn't stalking along behind us. "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?"
"Anyone with any sense," Kannen replied.
"I thought you said they were harmless."
"They are, but she has a toxic personality, from what I saw."
I shook my head and chuckled. "It's cold out here," I said after a few moments of silence.
Kannen stopped dead. "You're right. We're not alone."
The blade whispered against leather as I drew my knife at my hip. I turned in a slow circle and scanned the area around them. "What is it?"
"I don't know, but it feels like—"
In the darkness, the shade was a patch of midnight. Where street lights illuminated brick and concrete, light couldn't penetrate the shade. Only the hint of red eyes suggested life of any kind.
"Demon Hunter," the shade crooned.
"What do you want?" I hesitated before putting the knife away.
"Hey, I'm here too," Kannen said.
His eyes glowed, giving his face a bluish tinge.
The shade blinked. "You are of no consequence."
"Fuck you," Kannen retorted.
"I think the shade is just trying to threaten me," I said. I shrugged with one shoulder. "Would that be accurate?"
"I don't threaten," the shade replied. "I warn."
"Okay, what are you warning me about this time?" I couldn't tell if this was the same shade as the other night. The voice sounded the same; or at least similar, but something about it felt different. Colder. More powerful, perhaps.
I suppressed a shudder.
"I see you're starting to understand the full extent of what has been unleashed," the shade said. It began to slide around us, almost imperceptibly at first.
I turned with it, my eyes focused. "People are bigger assholes than usual. Big deal. Are we supposed to be scared?"
A gust of hot, stale air burst from the shade. Was that a sigh?
"Fear is irrelevant," the shade said. "An irrational response to the world around us."
"That would be a yes then," I replied. "Since rational thought is in shorter supply than usual."
"You sound quite rational right now," Kannen said.
I gave him a nod. "Thank you, I try."
"You're welcome."
I looked back toward the shade. "You know what I think? I don't think you're behind this. I suspect you know who is, but they're just using you as a mouthpiece. A lackey. Aren't shades supposed to be powerful? Why are you doing the bidding of some other demon?"
The shade stopped moving. "My reasons are my own."
"Of course they are," Kannen said. "Maybe you need to get a bit more sun, or a bit less." He stepped toward the shade. The air turned colder, but he seemed undeterred. His eyes glowed more intensely.
"Who are you working for?" Kannen demanded.
When the shade didn't respond, I asked, "Can you tell them to stop?"
"Why would I do that?" the shade replied. "We have just begun."
"I think that's a no," Kannen said. "You don't want to stop it, sure, but whoever is behind this wouldn't listen to you anyway." He paused and clicked his fingers. "Maybe you don't even know who it is. You're just taking the credit for it. That's low, even for a shade."
"You are a fool," the shade replied.
Kannen snorted. "What a comeback. If I'm wrong, then why don't you prove it? Tell us who is behind it. I dare you." He crossed his arms over his chest.
I watched those red eyes. They narrowed slightly, but otherwise gave nothing away. If they were windows to the soul, then the shade didn't have one. Was it even alive, in a way that I would recognise a creature as being alive? They didn't breathe, had no physical body. They were little more than a shadow.
"I accept no dares from lesser beings," the shade said at last.
"Lesser—" Kannen snorted. He dropped his hands to his sides. "Now that's just rude."
I held up a hand to quiet him. "What did you want to warn us about?" I asked. "We're listening."
Another huff of hot air came from the shade. "You listen, but you fail to understand. This is just the beginning of the end. The end of the beginning."
I frowned. "Which is it?"
"Both," the shade replied.
"And you wonder why we don't understand," Kannen muttered.
I ignored him. "You told me this already. Demons will rise up and take over the world. It's the end for humanity, etc., etc. The end is nigh, and whatnot. What more is there to say?"
"Everything is progressing as it should," the shade said, as if addressing itself. "Better than predicted. The volatility of humankind is far more than we imagined."
"Who is we?" I pressed. "The shades? The demons? Witches maybe? All of the above?" If we could just get a clue, we might know where to start.
The shade said a single word, "Haigwood." A blast of warm air filled the night and the creature was gone.
"Hey g-wood?" I asked the empty space in front of her.
"H. A. I. G. W. O. O. D." Kannen spelt out slowly. "Shit, I had my suspicions, but I couldn't be certain. From what I gather, he's a rat too. As in, an asshole, not the vermin. He's a higher level demon, but nothing special. Plenty of demons are more powerful than he is. He was a henchman for another demon for years. Then he disappeared for a while, and now this."
"That doesn't sound like a coincidence."
"I agree. We could go and find out. From what I've heard, he has quite the following, including some human followers. They might not notice another one, and a demon."
I chewed my lip. "I'd have to run it past Malachai first."
"Would he object to us infiltrating a demon's lair?" Kannen asked.
"Probably not, no," I replied. I wasn't sure I was happy about that or not. I could get answers.
I could also get killed.
15
I had seen a demon's lair before, but never one like this. Usually they ranged from dark, dank, hole-in-the-wall places, to ordinary houses. Some even looked like the "after" version of a home renovation show. More than one demon owned a Harbourside mansion, although those were demons who kept out of trouble and invested their time and money wisely.
This was a whole different barrel of monkeys. The demons on the door bore more than a passing resemblance to primates with faces shaved to almost pass as human. Hairy hands hung by their sides, never far from knives they made no effort to conceal. They eyed Kannen and me as we approached the oversized front door.
"Are you sure we shouldn't try the back door instead?" I said from the side of my mouth.
On the wall someone had hastily painted the same symbol as the one Damien and I found on the wall while searching for spiders. Coincidence? I doubted it.
"We have nothing to hide," Kannen replied, loud enough for the guards to hear. "We're just here for a good time." He made his eyes glow, and smiled pleasantly at the guards.
One grunted.
I half expected him to scratch at his armpit, or pick bugs off his companion's head.
Instead, he said, "All right, daaah-lin'. If you ain't lookin' for trouble, then you're welcome here. Do try the mimosas. They're divine."
I blinked and managed to contain a laugh. Appearances could be deceiving. Sometimes more than others.
The other guard snorted. "Can't go past the beer."
"No class." The first guard rolled his eyes and gave an exasperated sigh. "Honestly, I've tried to teach him, but some just don't want to listen. Am I right?"
"Uh, sure." I glanced at Kannen, who shrugged.
"I like beer," Kannen said. He grinned as the first guard clicked his tongue.
"At long as they're spending money, ain't no one gonna care what they drink," the second guard said, giving the first a sidelong look. "Go on inside."
"Thank you." I stepped past them and into the lair. The two guards argued quietly behind us until the pulse of music drowned them out.
The lair was less a lair and more a nightclub. A bar took up the entire wall on one side of the room, stools lined up in front of it. Tables and chairs, many occupied, filled the section between the bar and what looked like a fighting ring. Speakers must have been in the ceiling; they weren't visible, but the music pounding from them was loud.
"The soundproofing on this place is incredible," Kannen said, his voice raised. "Shame about their taste in music."
I grinned and nodded. "So which one is he?" I scanned the room. The lair's clientele was a mix of some who were clearly demons, and those who looked human. Some slouched in chairs, others perched on the stools at the bar. A handful of others stood. None looked twice at us.
"If he's here, he must be in another room." Kannen replied. "Something to drink?"
"I better not, I'm on duty."
Kannen nodded, stepped up to the bar and ordered two glasses of cola.
"You here for the entertainment?" the bar attendant shouted over the latest pop song as it blared out overhead.
"I beg your pardon?" Kannen call
ed back.
The bar attendant repeated herself, then pointed toward the fighting ring. "Should be starting soon." She gave him a nod and moved to serve another customer.
I leaned my back against the bar and sipped. "Please tell me this isn't one of those places." When Kannen looked confused, I added, "If we want to see this Haigwood, we have to fight someone to the death. You know, to prove ourselves."
Kannen looked as though he might say it wasn't, but then shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."
The music stopped as if on some indiscernible cue. The silence left in its wake was profound, but lasted less than a minute.
The patrons burst into a cheer as two burly demons stepped under the perimeter ropes and into the ring, accompanied by a woman with bright blue hair and a whistle around her neck.
The woman put the whistle to her lips and blew.
"Ladies, gentlemen, denizens of the lair, gather around. It's duelling time!" Her singsong voice carried around the length of the bar area.
"Whatever could go wrong?" I muttered.
"You know the rules," the blue-haired woman added. "Let's begin!" She blew her whistle again and stepped back to the side of the ring.
The two combatants, each armed with a long-bladed knife in each hand, began to circle each other slowly. As far as I could tell, they were evenly matched. One was taller than the other by a few centimetres, but they were equally as wide. The taller man had large eyes, and his opponent had a wide mouth. The gods only knew if those characteristics included some kind of inbuilt weapon.
All the better to see you and eat you with, I thought.
"What are the rules?" I asked.
"I think we're about to find out."
The shorter demon slashed at his opponent, who brought his own knife up to block it. The blades clicked together. The sound was surprisingly benign.
Tall-demon pushed his opponent back a few steps. Shorty growled and twisted out of his reach. He turned and aimed a blow at the back of tall-demon's head. He must have sensed it coming, because he ducked just in time. The shorter demon swung his arm across his head and lost his balance.
Shorty staggered forward a few steps. He windmilled his arms to keep from falling. His blades flashed in the light just above the ring.
Hunting Darkness (City of Darkness Book 1) Page 9