Red Moon Demon (Demon Lord) (40 page)

The second
I
said
Achill
,
the door opened
. A
ngie stood in the doorway
,
tall and busty,
her
long red hair sleek and ember-red.
Sarah stood behind her
,
look
ing
completely d
if
ferent
from
before
. More innocent, less driven. I understood, having held the amulet. Those who use it do not stay unchanged. As
I looked at Sarah
,
Angie stepped
over to block my view.

Angie said,
“Caine, she
’
s not
evil
anymore
. You don’t have to hurt her.
”

I put on my serious-as-death face. “But what if I want to?”

She growled at me. “Get over it.”

I laughed at her.
“Yeah
,
I get it, don’t worry
. Look,
I know where William is, but I need to make sure he doesn
’
t make me kill him
. A
gain
. S
o
, you coming?”

Sarah s
lid out past Angie. S
he looked like a lost teenager, scared and hopeful, “
G
ramps is really alive?”

“
Yeah
,
whatever
you and
the amulet did
,
keeps bring
ing
him back
,
and not as a zombie
. W
hat kind of spell did you use?”
I asked.

“
I don’t really remember. It’s like I’ve just surfaced from a dream and all the details are fading.”

“
F
ine
. Are y
ou both coming
?”

They both said,
“Yes
.
”

“Okay, but if I
hear any complaints, I’m blowing shit up
,
” I said.

They didn’t say anything,
shutting the door, following me to my mustang at the curb. We
piled in and headed for the highway. There was
a
covert government installation waiting for my personal attention.

FORTY

“A demon by any other
name

…
still smells like trouble
.”

—
Caine Deathwalker

We reached
the address Cassie had given me,
and
parked outside
the gate of a
Hollywood
FX S
tudio
.
People knew of Area 51.  They knew of the Illuminati.  They knew about the magic bullet and the grassy knoll.  They knew of a Kenyan-born president’s photoshopped birth certificate.

But they don’t know about this place
.

We climbed
out
and headed for
an
unassuming gray brick building.

Smart
, if any one s
ees
unnatural
bodies the
y’ll
just think th
ey’re
prop
s
.

A small shed stood near the gate, a uniformed security guard on duty.

“
Are
you going to kill him?” Sarah
had a troubled look on her face.

Walking between the girls,
I
draped my arms over
their shoulders
. I activated t
he
D
emon
W
ings
tattoo on my back
,
and endured a grinding pain, as if all my bones were being crushed to powder. Had I still been on the Red Moon, real wings would have speared from my back, fanning out in a shocking display, but I was on Earth again. The pain eased and m
y presence
was erased, along with that of the girls. Shielding us all had hurt more than normal, and wouldn’t last that long.
We needed to hurry
.

Once past the guard shack, and inside the warehouse, I whispered to Angie,
“
U
se your nose, and don’t worry about the
tingly
feeling on your skin
;
it’s just my magic
.
”

She
guided us
past a receptionist that frowned at the door which seemed to have opened and closed itself. We moved on past oblivious security
cameras
, as
the receptionist
went to the front door, stared out, and shrugged. While she had her back turned, we went through another door, closing it softly behind us.

I whispered,
“
K
eep your hands on me
. Break contact and they’ll see you.” We went along a wide hallway, past numerous doors of frosted glass, until Angie stopped us.

“Here,” she said.

I pulled out my
lock pick
mini
-
gun, stuck the prongs in the lock
,
and a few squeezes of the trigger later
,
the door was open
. W
e walked in
, careful to stay clustered together.
Angie
pull
ed
us past
a number of
stainless steel slabs. We saw savaged
bodies from the bloody ba
ttle, legs and arms lying
in piles
. W
e stopped in front of a
frosted
door and
listened to the
people inside.

“
D
amnedest thing I’ve ever seen
.”

A cool, feminine voice said, “Don’t worry about it. These things happen. Just
clear
everyone out of this area, and I’ll see what I can do about stopping the next zombie apocalypse.”

I knew that voice.
Cassie
? She got here fast.

I pulled the girls out of the way
as
the door
opened and numerous workers in white coats left in a hurry. Cassie was the last to go.
She looked like a supermodel with dazzling smile, blond hair, and a knock out figure. I’d met her, and her daughter, on a recent trip to east Texas where I’d left
a
few bodies lying around.

While a
respected
PRT member,
Cassie
was laid back enough not to count every unnatural creature of the night as a threat to mankind. This generosity of spirit came from the fact that she herself was only passing for human.
Not something commonly known.

Angie growled low in her throat as Cassie went by.

Cassie’s gaze flicked over us. I saw recognition in her face as she easily pierced our protective shroud. She winked at me and kept going.

Angie whispered, “Kitsune bitch thinks she’s all that!”

“There’s a reason for that,” I said.

“What?
” Sarah whispered.

I smiled. “She
is
all that,
and
more
.” I only wished I knew it from personal experience.

We went in
, separating as the cloaking magic failed at last.
T
he room looked like
a film set
version of
an
autopsy room
. T
iles
lined the
floor and walls
. C
ircular lights
were
suspended over stainless steel slabs
that had
drains for blood
and other bodily fluids. There were
water hoses for clean up
and
cabinet doors in the wall
s
where bodies were stored, waiting their turn at examination.

William was the star attraction, occupying the central slab. His
naked body looked freshly dead.
His severed head balanced on a supportive yoke, eyes closed.
The body was intact except for the hands.
They lay near the damaged stubs of
his
wrists.

One of the hands began tapping two fingers.

They other hand picked up the rhythm, tapping along.

The corpse’s eyes snapped open, scanning the ceiling, shifting
to
us.
He frowned. Tendrils of white flesh were rising like worms at the end of the wrists.
The strands wiggled in the air, searching.
Similar strands from the amputated hands reared as well.
As the strings met, they fused.
They contracted.
The wrists were pulled back into place.
I
shifted
my
gaze
to the neck and head.
A similar process was in effect.
Ropes of tissue filled the gap between head and neck.
The ropes pulled.
The head returned to its proper place.
All signs of the previous amputations faded.

Angie turned away, holding her stomach like someone trying not to be sick.

William Cooper blinked.
He drew a deep breath.
He kept breathing.
Slowly, He sat up.

Uncle William!” Sarah had stood in a state of shock, as if she’d not seem him in pieces before. Now, she ran and threw her arms around him, crying against his naked chest.

He patted her a little clumsily, as if this was new to him.
I understood. William was an Alpha wolf. Showing a soft side of his nature could be interpreted as weakness. That led to challenges in the pack. And to
gruesome, bloody
deaths. Alphas therefore didn’t
often go in for public displays of affection—except toward their mates.

I walked over to William, gun
in
hand
.
H
e looked up at me over Sarah’s head. H
i
s eyes snapped o
ver to my gun. His eyebrows bridged, arching in a silent question.

“Shut up
,
” I said, “it’s over
,
I won, you lost,
Angie and
Sarah
get to live. Because you were stupid enough to oppose me however, the rest of your little pack paid the price. They’re dead.”

His muscles bunched, like he wanted to shove Sarah aside, jump me, and rip my still-beating heart out of my chest. My gun was pointed at the back of Sarah’s head.

He controlled himself.

I continued. “Y
our Fe
n
ris want
s
you to control the
new
wolves made
that night—
before they go nuts on the townspeople
and have to be put down
.
In other words, clean up the mess you made.
”

I
stepped to the side so Sarah wasn’t between us anymore, made a show of almost putting my gun back in the holster,
only to
lash out with the hilt, pistol whipping
William across the face
. His head rocked. His eyes blazed a deeper yellow. He bared white fangs.

I did put my gun away then,
trusting my protective shield.
“That’s for making my job harder
. N
ow
,
I’m going home
. Y
ou take
things from
here with th
e
s
e
two.”

* * *

The sound of
hammering and
power tools
,
and
the
metallic
smell of dwarf magic,
made it hard for me to enjoy my
Blue Lagoon.
Old Man had
imported
some
I
ron
-Clan
dwarfs to fix up all the damage
in the office that William’s wolves had done. He was billing William for this of course.
Leona was still getting comfortable with Osamu
hanging around, having moved into an empty bed room. S
he
did
like
him;
I was just hoping she didn’t eat him
. H
e was handy to have around
, especially since he
made his own sake
—by the barrel. This had instantly endeared him to Old Man.

Izumi
had returned from
Under-the-Hill
with
her mom
. They were now out terrorizing Rodeo Drive in Beverley Hills.
Women—
fey, human
,
and
otherwise
—
do love
t
heir
sho
p
p
ing
.

Leona was parked on a bar stool next to me. She was convinced the dwarf workmen would steal everything not nailed down if not watched closely. She’d been listening to my story of Vivian and the Slayers.
“So
,
how did
you get past
the
m
without handing over the
necklace
?
”

T
hey
weren
’
t happy to
lose the
amulet.
It
went
all the way
back to the original founder of their group, Mordred Pendragon.
”

“Club-footed bastard,” Leona opined.

I
slid off the stool and went around the
bar
to make a pitcher of
Cachaca
, distilled sugar cane, fresh lime juice, water, and sugar
.
Diabetic suicide.

“I
suggested
the necklace was demonic and red moon an omen of doom. Then I offered to get the necklace back for them.
T
hey refused
my generosity
, smelling a trap.
”

The leopard nodded.
“
Humans always think the worst of demons.
Hey,
I’m surprised you didn’t want to keep
the relic. W
ith all that power
,
you could have done
anything
.”

“Free power isn
’t real. T
hat thing should never have been made
.
”

Magical c
loud
s
swirled
by the fireplace
.

Osamu put a hand over his gun
,
but I put my hand up
to stop him
. He obeyed, but
seemed
un
easy
with restraint.

T
he cloud
s
thinned
and Old Man
was revealed
. I
didn’t wait for him to ask
;
I just started
pour
ing
him a drink.

“I got a new job for you
,
” Old Man said.

I looked at him and went for my gun
.

H
e put
up
his hand
s
.
“Wait, don’t worry
. Th
is is
your
kind of job, so,
are
you in?”

“Do I get to kill, and only kill?”

“
To
y
our heart’s content
.
”

“I’m in
.
”

“By the way, have you heard what everyone’s calling you
now?
”

“
D
on’t really care
.
”

“You have a new name, Red Moon Demon.”

I looked at the Old Man and smiled.
“Red Moon Demon
.
I like it
.
”