by Michael Todd
“Now, who is willing to go with us into the brush?” Katie asked.
Korbin looked around as all but three hands went down. Katie nodded and waved those people over. She glanced at the others, who looked almost ashamed for not volunteering.
“Hey, don’t give me those looks,” she told them. “Every single one of you is vital and important to the protection of this city. You will get to go home to your families tonight, and that is okay with me. I need all of you to stay low and stay prepared for anything, though. Most of you know that these things can spiral out of hand in a heartbeat. I don’t want a bunch of cop deaths on this mission. Spread out, and keep your eyes peeled.”
Katie went over to the three volunteers and grabbed her bag, pulling out a box. She could tell they were nervous, but she was proud of them for stepping up.
“What are your names?” Katie asked.
“I’m Adam,” a dark-haired obvious rookie told her.
“I’m Pescoville,” a thirty-something red-headed cop replied.
“I’m Jamie,” the third police officer informed Katie. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun at the base of her neck. “We all work out of the same precinct.”
“Thank you, folks. You are seriously appreciated,” Katie assured them, handing them each enough bullets for two loads of their pistols. “I want you to get rid of your normal bullets and use these in their place. These are special and rare, so use them sparingly. That being said, do whatever you need to do to get these bastards locked down. I don’t want to see any casualties. I want you guys to suit up. You are going to be our second string. If any of these demons get past us, you stop them from going any farther.”
“How do we know these bullets will kill the demons?” Jamie asked.
Damian chuckled, walking forward. “We just spent one hell of a day with the military testing these babies out. Trust me, they kill very well.”
“You remember what happens when a demon dies?” Katie asked.
They all shook their heads. “They either turn to dust or they shrivel back up into their human skin, but either way they are dead. Now, does anybody out here have a machete?”
“A machete?” Adam exclaimed, surprised. “We are Los Angeles cops. We don’t really run around with machetes, though it might help keep the peace if we did.”
“What do you need a machete for?” Jamie asked.
“You might need it to decapitate a demon if the bullet doesn’t kill them right away,” Katie said, closing her bag and tightening her vest.
“Oh, God.” Jamie grimaced. “I think I just threw up in my mouth.”
“I used to do that all the time.” Katie chuckled as she tightened her bootlaces. “You get used to it after a while. If you don’t have anything like that, make sure you pop them right in between the eyes.”
Pescoville nodded. “That I can handle.”
“Yeah,” Jamie agreed. “If it means I don’t have to cut anyone’s head off, I’ll become the best shot you ever saw.”
Chapter 24
The team started toward the hills, knowing the demons were just on the other side.
They made their way to the top and looked down, watching hordes of demon gangbangers running wildly around, ripping the limbs from the bodies of the members of the search party. The gang members had been duped. They had come for a fight, but their bodies had been taken over before they could even fire their weapons.
Since their souls were already dark the demons had completely taken them over, and only hours after the whole thing had started their faces were barely recognizable. Katie shook her head, pulling out her two short swords and holding them in front of her. She looked down the line and nodded, winking at Derek, who had his knives out and ready.
“All right, team,” Korbin yelled. “Let’s kick some motherfucking demon ass.”
With that the team raced down the hill into the center of the action, splitting apart and taking different areas. Stephanie jumped over a demon’s head and turned quickly, stabbing it in the back of the neck. She turned back just in time to dodge the slashing claws of another demon. Derek and Eric battled through the mass of infected, slicing with their knives and taking as many heads as they could. Katie smiled at Calvin as he pulled a demon’s head straight off its body and tossed it over his shoulder. She leaped and spun in the air, kicking three different demons in the back of the head. Their skulls clanked together like wooden stress balls and they dropped to their knees. She severed all three of their heads from their bodies with a few slashes of her sword.
The sounds of pistols firing suddenly caught their attention, but Katie punched another demon in the face and sliced his neck open before pausing to listen. One of the demons must have gotten past them, and the secondary team was on the job. After a few moments, the pistol fire stopped and a roar came from the other side of the hill.
“TAKE THAT, YOU MOTHERFUCKING DEMON FROM HELL!” Katie recognized the voice as Jamie’s; she was pretty surprised the tight-ass quiet one had gotten so into it.
Whatever. Pandora scoffed. Watch your left side.
Katie thrust her sword into a demon’s chest and it turned to dust.
That would be like stepping on a roach and claiming a medal for your “intense actions on the field of battle,” Pandora growled. They are posers; nothing but damn pos— Watch your right side.
Katie sighed and turned again, this time kicking high in the air. She hit the demon in the neck, and his bones cracked. His head went all the way to the side, and he flashed into ash as he dropped to the ground.
Ouch. Pandora giggled. That one would have hurt.
Seriously, you need to let that shit go, Katie told her, fighting a demon hand to hand. They are happy to have a chance in this war. There is no place for so many of them in this battle. They are born and bred cops, and nothing else. It’s like when we helped out on that bank robbery; it was in my blood to help those people, demons or not. I am just lucky to be strong enough to face both kinds.
Fine. I’ll take it easy on them, but you need to be careful who you bring in, Pandora warned. They will lose their lives so easily against my brother.
Aw, look at you! Katie laughed. Caring about the lives of humans like that.
Don’t start, Pandora snarled. I don’t give a shit about them. I just know that it kills you when there are civilian casualties, and I don’t feel like going through another sad sappy emotional rollercoaster with you.
Mmmhmm. Katie pulled out a knife and threw it as hard as she could into the back of a demon’s head. I won’t tell your secret.
I hate you, Pandora growled.
Katie laughed and ran forward to catch the knife in midair as the demon dissolved around it. Stephanie looked over and nodded at Katie before turning back and ripping a demon’s throat out with her bare hands.
Katie was pretty impressed by that and wondered if she could do the same. She shrugged continued battling through the plethora of demons, trying to make a dent in the chaos. She didn’t know where they had all come from, but then she didn’t care. She just needed to make sure they stayed there until they died. She cut the head off another demon and briefly watched Derek as he battled two smaller ones.
He laughed as he threw kicks and punches, almost toying with the damn things. Katie smirked, knowing it must have felt good for Derek to get out of the computer room and get back into the fight. He was out of practice, but he seemed to have no problem holding his own.
She liked having him there. He was family; family from way back.
Katie turned and leaped into the air, letting a charging demon go right under her. When she landed she tapped the demon on his shoulder. He turned around growling, the teardrop tattoo from the human he had taken over still visible on his scaly black cheek.
She took a step forward and pulled out her pistols, feeling like an Old West gunslinger. She pulled both triggers at the same time, blowing holes in the demon’s stomach.
She laughed as he turned to dust, then tur
ned around to see what Derek was doing. As she turned he looked at her and smiled. Katie smiled back, but her eyes shifted past him to the two large demons stomping forward with their guns pointed at Derek and the demons he was fighting.
As if in slow motion, Katie screamed and pointed. Derek turned back around as the demons opened fire. Derek took bullet after bullet, his arms flying into the air and his weapons falling from his hands to hit the ground behind him.
Katie screamed again, unable to get through the pile of demons in her way fast enough.
The large beasts in front of Derek just kept shooting until there were no more bullets left in their weapons. They pressed the triggers over and over, and the clicks echoed in Katie’s brain.
Derek was on the ground, and the two he had been fighting were nothing but dust.
Derek clenched his fingers on the grass beneath him and groaned loudly as the large demons came forward, stopping at his feet. He lifted his hand to shoot, but his weapon was gone. He dropped his hand and looked up at the sky; the pain was almost unbearable.
Katie ran across the field toward Derek, slicing with her swords and screaming in anger. Her eyes flashed bright red and her fists were clenched around her weapons’ hilts.
When she had cleared the masses a bit she shoved her swords back into their sheaths. The two large demons had left Derek alone and moved into the crowd to fight with the others, but at that moment Katie was only concerned with getting to Derek’s side.
She slid to her knees next to him and looked his body over. There were multiple bullets embedded in his vest, but on his side, where the armor didn’t cover, were multiple bullet holes.
She pushed her palm over the wounds and closed her eyes for a moment, not wanting to go through what she knew she was about to. Tears streamed down her face and she pulled him into her lap, holding him in her arms.
He spoke, softly, with a slight whistle in his voice. “Tell Korbin the password for the servers is ‘KatieIsHott.’” He looked up to her eyes and smiled. “’Hott’ with two Ts.”
Katie sobbed a laugh and he chuckled, then curled into a tight fetal position. Blood spewed from his mouth and ran down his chin, but he didn’t panic. He just stared into Katie’s eyes, feeling like he was exactly where he needed to be. The battle raged around them but Katie tuned it out, not wanting to be bothered. She trusted Pandora to warn her.
“You’re gonna be okay,” she told him through tears. “Just hold on and let your demon heal you.”
“No.” He shook his head and whispered, “He’s already gone; done what he could. That was a big bullet, dude.”
Katie laughed through her tears and shook her head. She wouldn’t let him go. She couldn’t let him go. She rubbed her hand over his cheek and leaned forward to kiss him on the forehead.
“We have so much to do,” Katie told him. “There’s so much exploring that we still haven’t done. You have to pull through this. It’s not your time yet.”
“It is.” He reached up and moved a piece of hair from her cheek. “And it’s okay, because I am ready for it. I’ll finally get to read a fucking book.”
“I’ll read you a book,” she cried, feeling his breathing getting shallower by the second. “I’ll read you every goddamn book we have, and I’ll buy more. You just have to stay with me. We can help you.”
“It’s okay.” He smiled and touched her wet cheek. “I want you to do something for me. I want you to bury my ashes…in the dirt up….on the mountain where we saw…the sunset. Will you do that?”
She nodded, unable to speak or move from that spot. She held him in her arms as he turned his eyes up to the clouds. The light from the sun flooded down over them—just them—at that moment.
“Please,” she sobbed, putting her head next to his. “Please don’t do this, Derek. Please don’t go.”
When she raised her head he was gone; the last of the air had left his lungs. She screamed and threw her head back, wiping her face on her sleeve.
She closed his eyes and kissed him one last time on the forehead.
She carefully laid his body on the ground and got herself to her feet. Her hands squeezed tightly around the grips of her guns, and as she lifted her head her eyes shone painfully bright.
She screamed again, but her voice was deep and menacing; there was pain in the tone. She ran toward the large demon who had killed Derek and jumped onto its back, pressing the barrel of her gun against its head.
“Fuck you,” she whispered as she pulled the trigger.
She jumped off as the beast went down. He instantly turned to dust, but it wasn’t good enough for Katie; she wanted it to suffer. She found the other one and slowly walked toward it, firing into its arms and chest. The beast fell to the ground wailing but she continued to shoot, emptying her clip and slamming in the next one while screaming at the top of her lungs.
“GET UP! RESURRECT YOURSELF, MOTHERFUCKER, SO I CAN KILL YOU AGAIN!”
“Hey,” Korbin ran up behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. “Shhh… Let it go.”
“Oh God,” she sobbed, dropping her pistols to the ground and falling to her knees.
Korbin went with her, glancing at Derek’s body. He understood now what had happened. He buried his face in her hair and just held her, letting her cry in his arms.
He could feel her pain, and it took everything he had not to lose it himself.
Chapter 25
The base was silent, even the wind had died down to a gentle breeze. The house was quiet; everyone had found a place to deal with their grief.
When they got back Katie couldn’t sleep, so she roamed the tunnels until the sun finally came up and found herself sitting on a rock outside of the perimeter fence. She pulled her legs up to her chin and stared out over the horizon, her thoughts jumbled with the sadness that sat like a boulder in her chest.
“Hey, kid,” Damian called as he walked up. He sat down next to her.
She didn’t say anything at first, just kept her gaze staring on the hills in the distance. Damian leaned back on the rock and looked at the sky, trying to find the right words.
He had seen her lose it—everyone had—but they understood. They knew that Derek had been important to her. He had been important to everyone.
“How are you doing?” Damian asked.
She wiped her tears on her sleeve and shook her head. “Noah died,” she told him. “Noah Rappley from Amy’s Assassins. They called me this morning and let me know he paid his tribute in an ambush with a bunch of innocents. He died almost at the same time Derek did. Three others from Amy’s team are in critical condition.”
A tear fell down her cheek and she sniffled hard, trying not to let the grief take her again. Damian sighed and wrapped his arms around her. She turned her face into his shoulder and cried for minutes, finally pushing back enough to catch her breath. She shook her head against him, not understanding why everything had gotten so hard so fast.
“It’s worse now,” she sobbed. “The demons; they are coming out of nowhere and killing everyone. How are we supposed to protect the innocents if we can’t keep ourselves safe? I was just out with Noah a few days ago, laughing and having a hell of a time. He talked about a real life—one with people he loved—and that was starting to include me.”
“Shhh,” Damian whispered holding her tightly for a moment before drawing back. “I know this is hard to take in. It’s all happened so suddenly.”
“Everything in our lives is fucking sudden!” she burst out. “There are no easy goodbyes, if such a thing even exists. There are no warning signs or illnesses. Derek looked at me and smiled, then turned around and took a dozen bullets to the body. He thought everything was going to be okay, and in the blink of an eye he was taking his last breath. I’m just tired of saying goodbye. I’m so fucking tired of it.”
“I know.” Damian sighed. “But that is the way it is for us. There are a million hellos, and just as many goodbyes. I have to go check on the others, but if you nee
d anything—anything at all—you come find me, okay?”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “Thank you. I’ll get it together, I promise.”
Damian leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead before getting up and walking back toward the gate. Katie watched him go, knowing that one day her tears would be for him—if she didn’t get it first. She closed her eyes and tilted her head toward the sun, thinking about that night with Noah. Thinking about watching the sunrise with him, how secure she had felt in his strong arms. It had been an illusion, one that she had fallen straight into.
You know, I don’t usually tell people this, but I’ve been married more times than I can count, Pandora began. And definitely for longer than any human woman ever could be. None of them ever ended well for me, though. I was not the woman they thought, and I had to watch them die. I adopted the policy that I would love them and leave them.
“I just don’t know how I can deal with another death like this,” Katie admitted, speaking out loud. “It grinds me to the soul. The first ones…they were hard, but I think my body was in shock. These two—they have brought me to my knees.”
I know. I don’t know how you feel, but I know you can’t continue to take this over and over. The human body is fragile, but the most fragile part of it all is something I can’t see or fix. Your heart—not the physical beating organ, but the heart that loves, that cares, that feels. Demons can’t touch it. You took chances and opened your heart as a sister to Derek and as a lover to Noah, and I’m sorry you lost them both in one night. I wish I could have seen that coming; to have prepared you somehow.
“The crazy thing is, I don’t even know if I would have made a different choice with Noah. Being that close to him opened up a lot of things in me that had closed when I became Damned. For the first time, I felt secure in someone else’s arms. For that brief moment in time, I was safe from everything in the world.”