Bad Company

by D V Wolfe

  “New lad or lady demon in your life?” I asked Festus.

  “What?!” Festus asked. He glanced down at himself and shook his head. “No, just came from a...staff meeting.”

  “Was it an actual staff, meeting your body?” I asked, noticing the welts on his abdomen as he jerked his shirt the rest of the way out of his pants and tried to smooth it out before tucking it back in.

  “Something like that,” Festus said. “I…”

  “Are you here about the incubus we just killed?” Noah asked. “Because that was fast!”

  Festus shook his head. “I haven’t seen the paperwork on it yet. I’m here because I saw something at the office. Something I wasn’t supposed to see.”

  “If this gets dirty, please feel free to keep it to yourself,” Nya muttered.

  Festus was working on his tie now and he ignored her. “It was a P.O. A Purge Order.”

  “And that means what?” I asked.

  “A low-ring demon is in the process of ascending. The Purge Order was to inform the departments that it was occurring and to notify them that some of their high-ring employees may be drafted.”

  “Drafted?” I asked.

  “Called on,” Festus said, “to report for Empty Houses and become a part of the low-ring demon’s protection topside until the ascension is completed. They don’t tell high-rings about it unless they’re drafted. I just happened to see it on my boss’s desk.”

  “Did it say which low-ring demon was going to be ascending?” I asked, trying to breathe and slow down my pounding heart.

  “Ornias,” Festus said. “I know he has ties to Ber-”

  “Lalalalalala!” Noah yelled. Festus paused and raised an eyebrow at him. “Don’t say his name!” Noah said through gritted teeth.

  Festus nodded. “Sorry, it doesn’t matter if you say the name in Hell.” He paused, looking a little pale at his almost slip. “Anyway, I knew...the Duke was the demon that had been in the process of ascending in St. Louis…”

  “And he’s the demon who holds my contract,” I muttered.

  “Could be,” Festus said. “Regardless, I thought you would want to know.”

  “Definitely,” I said, “but how does that help us? We already knew Ornias was coming for us.”

  Festus squeezed his eyes shut. “He’s ascending. I told you, that’s when the low-ring demons are at their most vulnerable. They’re coming out of the bowels of Hell, trying to form a vessel from the blood sacrifices and their only protection is a ceremonial guard of five high-ring demons.”

  “There were a hell of a lot more than five in St. Louis,” I said.

  “Only five of them were the guard. My guess was that the rest of them were there to...fill any gaps in case there were not enough blood sacrifices for the ascension.”

  “That’s pleasant,” I said.

  Festus paused and opened his eyes. He met my gaze. “If there ever was a time to kill a powerful demon, this is it.”

  “Ok, do we pendulum to find him?” I asked, looking around at Nya’s belongings. “We were going to try to summon him.”

  “I believe those truckstop delicacies you keep referring to as ‘food’ have finally managed to destroy your few remaining brain cells,” Festus said. “You can’t summon a low-ring demon. Not without performing your own blood rites to make them ascend.” I glanced over at Nya to see nothing but shock on her face.

  “Ok,” I said. “So we pendulum to find out where he’s performing this ‘ascension’?”

  Festus nodded. “Yes, but you only want to have to do it once. Every time that spell goes off, Ornias will feel it and know that someone is searching for him.”

  “Then what’s your brilliant plan for us to find where the ascension is taking place?” Nya asked.

  Festus held out a newspaper clipping to me. “I think this might give you a good idea of where to look.” I took the clipping from him and looked down at it. The headline read “Police Ask for Assistance in Abduction of Three Teens”. There were three pictures;. two boys and a girl. I read down the article. It was a front-page piece, above the fold.

  “They were snatched off the street last night,” I read. “Usually they wouldn’t be considered kidnapped this soon but apparently there was footage caught on camera of the three of them being kidnapped and dragged into a white panel van. The owner of the store with the camera footage immediately reported it and the police are working with the media to try to find them.” I looked up at Festus.

  “Blood offerings,” Festus said with a grim smile.

  The newspaper was The Triton Times. “So the ascension is happening in Triton, Missouri?” I asked.

  “Masterful deduction,” Festus said, turning back towards the door. “If you make good time, you might be able to hit him at his weakest point. I hope you have a lot of Solomon’s Spice.”

  I glanced over at the bed and saw that the sword was gone. I looked at Nya and she shook her head, darting her eyes towards Festus. She’d hidden the sword so Festus wouldn’t see it. I internally rolled my eyes. Would she and Rosetta ever see Festus as more than just a demon?

  “Thanks, Festus,” I said quickly. “How long will the ascension rite take? How much time do we have?”

  Festus shrugged. “Well, it takes some time to convert blood offerings to a vessel, but I wouldn’t waste any of it dicking around here.”

  “And the guard,” I said. “Five high-ring demons will be with him?”

  Festus nodded. “It’s symbolic. Five points of protection.”

  “A pentagram,” I said.

  Festus nodded. He turned to look at me. “There’s a reason the Duke hasn’t tried to rise again. Someone his size requires a lot of blood sacrifices, like an entire building full of insurance agents.” He gave me a small smile. “Something that big would alert the Harbinger, just like it did last time. But something small? Three deaths, five small demons, the ascension of a deadly, but lesser-known demon? That might slip by. Especially if there are other decoy operations in place to draw the Harbinger’s attention away from it.” Festus gave me a meaningful look. “Don’t get distracted. If he fully-ascends…”

  “Hell on earth,” I said, nodding. “I remember.”

  Festus turned the door handle. “I’d say ‘good luck’ but I think it would just come out as a taunt for someone like you.”

  “Hey,” I said. “This is a huge help. Why are you doing it, Festus? They’ll torture...probably kill you if they find out you told us this.”

  Festus paused, his back to us and I saw his head drop a few inches. “Because I already get enough Hell downstairs. I don’t want it invading my time topside as well.”

  “Really?” I asked. “That’s the only reason?”

  Festus turned to look at me and he wore the same snide smile as usual, but there was fear in his red eyes. “There is only one thing that low-ring demons hate more than mortals.”

  “And that is?”

  “Other demons,” Festus said. “Get to Triton or we’ll all be in Hell.”

  Festus closed the door behind him. I moved the curtain over the window next to the door to look out, but he was gone. A red glow caught my eye and on the sidewalk in front of the room door, I saw the glowing butt of a lit cigarette sputter before fading to nothing.

  I turned to face the room again. Nya had the sword back on the bed and she was standing still, looking at the place where Festus had just been.

  “Let’s hit the road,” I said.

  Nya looked torn. “What if Festus is lying? What if it’s a trap?”

  I held in my annoyance. “Look, I know you and Rosetta will never trust Festus. You’ll always see him as a demon first and never as an ally, but he has taken some serious beatings for me in Hell, just for doing his job. And Festus is...my friend.” Nya opened her mouth as if she was going to argue. I reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. “Just trust me, ok? He says this a-hole is in Triton, Missouri, he brought us intel to go on. Let’s just go. Let’s go kill t
his s.o.b.”

  I held Nya’s gaze until she nodded. I looked over at Noah to see him already on his feet and gathering bags together.

  “So we get to Triton,” Nya said, “and then we’ll pendulum for his exact location. We go in and take out his guard and then get the bastard himself.” I nodded. “That is if this whole thing wasn’t just a lie cooked up by a demon.” Nya shook her head and closed her eyes. “I can’t believe we’re hinging everything on intel from a demon.”

  I gave her a funny look. “Don’t you have demon contacts? Isn’t that where a lot of your intel comes from?”

  Nya sighed. “Well, some of it, but this is still the first time I’ve hung our entire safety and survival on the say-so of a demon.”

  “If it makes you feel better,” I grinned. “I have a good feeling about this.”

  Nya gave me a withering glare. “It doesn’t. You’ve hung your safety before on Sister Smile’s intel.”

  “And I’m still standing,” I said. “Let’s load up.” Noah and I helped Nya get her S10 packed

  “Triton is about an eleven-hour drive from here,” I said.

  Nya nodded. “I’ll bet we can make it in nine. Stick to the backroads and no stopping except for fuel.”

  “Don’t worry,” Noah said. “I’ve been training for this moment.” I rolled my eyes at him and Nya laughed.

  “See you in Missouri,” Nya called. She closed her door and I heard her engine catch. I reached under the seat and shifted the sword to make sure it was secure. I didn’t know why, but I still didn’t feel right. Noah and I climbed into Lucy and waved to Nya who took off in front of us.

  “Do you still feel like crap?” I asked Noah.

  Noah shrugged. “Hard to say anymore. Has there been more than a day in the last month that we weren’t nursing wounds and feeling like crap?”

  “Fair enough,” I said. I followed Nya back to the highway, wondering if I’d swallowed some of Kosmas ashes. If so, I wondered if TUMS would help.

  21

  It was mid-afternoon when we rolled into Triton. It was a suburb of Kansas City on the northern side and I hadn’t spent much time in this part of the state. Triton had a junior college, a mall, and at least two neighborhoods with million-dollar or more housing. Triton was upscale for us.

  “We’re going to have a hard time blending in here,” Noah muttered.

  “Nah,” I said. “Lucy’s a classic. She’s vintage. She’s…”

  “A rust bucket,” Noah muttered.

  I was in the process of downshifting and her gear stuck, revving her engine. I looked at Noah. “See, now you pissed her off.”

  Noah rolled his eyes. “The demons could find us in this thing with both eyes gouged out.”

  Nya turned off the four-lane freeway and we followed her through a shabbier part of town to a motel with twelve units. I got out of Lucy first and held up a hand before Nya could say anything.

  “I’ve got this one. Start gathering your bags, I’m sure I’ll be back before you’re done,” I said, trying not to grin too widely.

  “Go spit, Bane,” Nya said. “Those bags have saved your ass.”

  I exchanged a few bills for a room key and hustled back out to Nya and Noah. We carted Nya’s bags inside along with my black duffle and Noah’s backpack. Noah and I reloaded and checked weapons while Nya set up her pendulum.

  Nya had me go back to the motel's main office to get a map of the town. The office didn’t have one. What they did have was a map of the greater Kansas City metro area which included Triton. I’d remembered to get two this time. One for burning and one for using to find the place the burning led to. I set Noah to work, finding our present location on one map and handed the other to Nya. I helped her situate everything and then I stepped back.

  “Did you bring the sword in?” She asked me, smoothing a wrinkle in the map under the pendulum.

  “No, do I need to?” I asked.

  Nya looked at me, a pained expression on her face. “Bane, we just went through a metric ton of bullshit to get that sword. Go get it before some asshole pulling door handles takes off with it.”

  I went out to the truck and got the sword and by the time I got back, Nya was done with the ritual. She was reading off an address to Noah when I opened the room door and was hit in the face with a cloud of smoke.

  “Got it,” Noah said, tracing his pen across the map. “And I’ve got directions.”

  “Let’s go,” Nya said. “I’ll ride with you two. Let’s narrow the margins for possible error as much as we can.”

  Noah and I loaded the sawed-off and the ten-gauge with Stacks’ Demon Doom shells and filled our pockets with spares. By the time we were all loaded into Lucy with our weapons, we were packed to the gills. It was a good thing that the pendulum’s address for Ornias was a warehouse behind an industrial complex that wasn’t too far away. The sun was beginning to set as we wound through the streets. I slowed down and flipped a u-turn after we drove past it.

  “Seriously,” Noah muttered beside me as we sat at the curb across the street, looking over at the warehouse. ‘Kind of a boring spot. You’d think evil would find fancier places to hang out. Why not The Louvre? Or the Bellagio Casino in Vegas? Why the hell would this demon pick a warehouse in podunk Missouri?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “You should ask him that. Why don’t you do the talking on this one?”

  I could feel Noah’s glare as I studied what I could see of the warehouse from where we sat. The daylight was beginning to dim around us but I could see figures in black suits, patrolling the perimeter.

  “How many is that?” I asked Nya who was leaning over Noah, staring through a pair of binoculars.

  “I’ve seen four so far. You think this ‘guard’ is just stationed outside while Ornias...does his thing inside?” Nya asked.

  “Hey, this is my first time too,” I said. “Maybe Ornias is only inside because he can’t decide what to wear.”

  We got out of the truck and loaded up our weapons. Noah had the ten-gauge, Nya had her Glocks and I had my machete, my sawed-off, and the sword.

  “Why don’t you leave your machete here and put your sword in the machete’s holster?” Noah asked.

  “It’s too long,” I said. “It’ll drag on the ground. I need one of those holsters that go on your back for the sword.”

  “Oh my god,” Nya said. “Are you two done accessorizing? It’s better if you have the sword in your hand. Quicker to run the bastard through.” I looked at Nya and I could see ‘teeth-bared, mother tiger’ mode kick into full drive with her. We hugged the shadows cast by the trees planted around the edge of the industrial complex and the paved driveway leading back to the warehouse. Of course, none of us had silencers. As soon as we shot one of the high-ring demons, the others would probably come running right at us. I looked over at Nya.

  “Shit, you’re not going to be able to kill them,” I whispered. “You don’t have any Solomon’s Spice shots.”

  “I’ve got exploding wrought iron rounds,” she hissed. “I’ll be able to knock them down until you or Noah can finish them off.”

  She was trying to walk slightly in front of me as we drew closer to the warehouse and I had to keep sidestepping her so I could be beside her.

  “Why don’t you and Noah stay here,” I said to Nya, “and I’ll start moving around to the other end of the warehouse, just in case there are more than five of these jerks and Ornias decides to come outside to enjoy the festivities. When I get to the back door, I’ll put down a line of salt tape to keep him from making an early exit and then come back around this way.”

  “No,” Nya hissed. “I don’t want you going by yourself.”

  “Well, I’m not sending Noah to do it.”

  “I’ll go,” Nya said.

  “No…” I started.

  She turned and glared at me. “Just give me the damn tape, Bane. And shoot everything that comes your way.”

  Like Noah, when Nya got the ‘not budging
’ set to her mouth, I knew I wasn’t going to win the argument. I handed her the roll of salt tape and she took off around the building. A minute after she disappeared around one side of the warehouse, two men in suits came around the other side. One of them was reading a newspaper while he walked and the other was filing his nails.

  I held the sword between my knees and unholstered my sawed-off. Beside me, Noah pulled the hammer back on the ten-gauge, wincing as it creaked. The man reading the newspaper paused. He jerked his head up and threw an arm out to stop the man beside him. Both of them swiveled their heads in our direction.

  “Let’s hope that Stacks didn’t fuck up,” I muttered. The two men started running at us, drawing guns as they came. Noah and I squeezed off a shot each. One of our blast radius’ hit them both in the chest and the other winged one and pelted the side of the metal warehouse behind them. They started screaming and went down. Even from our distance, I could recognize the smell that accompanied the demons liquifying. A few seconds later, two more of the demons in black suits came sprinting around the same side the first two had come from. This time, Noah got the kill shot on one of them, taking the guy’s head off at the neck. I hit his partner in the chest and he went down screaming. Five quick shots echoed across the empty parking lot next to the warehouse. They sounded like they’d come from the back of the warehouse. I closed my eyes for a second and hoped that it had been Nya, killing the fifth guard.

  We waited. Silence.

  Noah and I moved forward and peeked through the window next to the warehouse door, trying to see what was going on inside. It was quiet and there was only a low, flickering light coming from behind the windows. I tested the door handle and it turned silently. I held my breath and eased it open a couple of inches. It didn’t squeak, so I tugged it open wide enough for me to go in. I took a few steps inside. There were candles lit and sitting on the floor in the middle of the otherwise empty warehouse. Seeing nothing immediately threatening, I motioned Noah inside too and we eased the door closed behind us. Noah stretched a line of salt tape across the threshold. Compared to St. Louis, there seemed to be a lot less ‘pomp and circumstance’ for this ascension. The sound of the tape coming off the roll echoed around us and I grimaced at Noah. He held up his hands in annoyance as if he was asking me what I wanted him to do about it. While he was finishing the salt tape line, I ventured further into the room, peering into the dark, searching for Ornias. I held the sword at the ready. Well, as ready as I could be considering I’d never held a sword before. I made a slow circle around the candles. When I got back to where I’d started. I lowered the sword. He wasn’t here. I turned to study the candles. They were at five points. A pentagram. If it was directional and facing the doors Noah and I had come in, it was inverted. The candles flickered, all at once, momentarily blacking out the warehouse around me. Then just as quickly, they returned to tall flames.