Demontouched: The Demontouched Saga (Book 1) (9 page)

I hear a car door close. I look over in time to take Beard’s fist to my face, instantly breaking my focus. The sound of metal scraping the ground fills the air, followed by Sara’s screams. I take in a deep breath and hold my hand out, stopping Beard’s next jab.

I close my palm and watch as his fist starts to turn white as bone, tears streaming down his face. “Let me go!”

“Gladly.” I focus on the sword at my feet and pull it to my free hand. I release my grip on his fist and thrust the sword into his stomach. I watch the darkness leave his eyes and fly towards my pack. Fucker is lucky I didn’t have time for the slow route.

“Enough,” Duncan says.

I turn around and see Duncan holding my knife to Sara’s throat.

“Throw me the orb or I gut her, right here.” He holds the knife up closer to her throat. She begins to shake her head at me. She may be willing to sacrifice her life for me, but I’m not willing to let her. Not today.

I pull off my pack and pull out the orb. “At the same time.”

He nods and I throw the orb. I notice Duncan let go of Sara in order to catch it. I put my focus into the blade of the knife and thrust my hand forward. Duncan’s hand twists slightly as the blade enters his neck. The orb bounces off of his fingertips and shatters the moment it hits the pavement.

I walk up to the asshole, sword in hand. “Your thirst for power makes you weaker.” I thrust the point into Duncan’s heart. Grey smoke billows from the wound, filling air. He lets out a final scream as the last of the smoke exits his body.

I run over to Sara and untie her. She turns around and holds me tighter than ever, looking me in the eyes. “I love you.” She tilts her head in and gives me a kiss.

After a minute I pull my head back and smile. Guess this means she is completely over the stripper panties. I tilt my head back in for seconds.

-14-

I tip over my backpack, dumping the pieces of the Orb of Souls onto my table.

“Couldn’t keep it in one piece?” Zeke says.

“Duncan was more interested in the orb than the knife.” I shrug. “I was more interested in keeping us alive than keeping the orb whole.” I look back at Sara sitting on the couch. “Besides, it looked a lot sturdier than that.”

Zeke holds up one of the larger pieces to the light. “It looks like it still works.”

“Then we better find out why they had it. I find it hard to believe that they created this thing just to transfer Eunie to Nal.”

“Talking about Nal.” Zeke looks at me. “How do you think he will react when you bring him Duncan’s head?”

“Considering he might have sent me up there to die, I don’t think he will throw me a party.”

“I’ll talk to Uriel. She has to know another way to help you get control.”

I haven’t told him that I was able to do new things when he fought Duncan. It could just be Eunie wanting to keep me as a host, but something tells me there is more to it. “That’s a good idea. She may be able to come up with another plan.” I gather the shards and put them into a bag. “You should give this to her too. It will be a lot safer in angel hands than mine. Thats for sure.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to go pay Nal a visit. Even if Uriel comes up with something, Blaine’s journal may actually have something worthwhile.”

“I should go with you. We don’t know how he will react knowing you killed Duncan.”

“Or when he finds out that he won’t be taking Eunie from me just yet, if that is what he had planned.”

“That too.”

“I have to do this on my own. If I walk in with an angel, they will know the jig is up for sure. Right now we have to assume he is still in the dark, that is, if what Duncan said wasn’t a lie. If I walk in with the head he may just think I got lucky. We may be able to play him for a bit longer yet if so.”

Zeke grabs the bag and walks to the door. “Take care of yourself then.”

“You too.”

I sit back and start rubbing my fingers through my beard. I look over at Sara and smile.

“I get it.” She smiles back. “What do you need me to do.”

“Try to find anything you can on Einuir. Something tells me he isn’t who we think he is.”

-15-

I notice the shirt is leaking blood onto my passenger seat. I wish I had thought to put the head into a plastic bag, but those are things you think about only after you cut the head off of a demon. If it wasn’t trashed enough before, I really need to get rid of the car now.

I take my time driving to Nal’s pad. I thought I knew him pretty well after working for him for the last three years, but Duncan said some things that has me thinking. On one hand, Nal isn’t exactly going to win any good citizen rewards, but he cares more about his people than your typical demon. I normally wouldn’t give a shit, but the more I think about it, the more it looks like he was sending me to die. I could be wrong, I find it odd that he didn’t know Duncan was his boss. Of course, there is that chance that Duncan was just full of shit.

I pull up to the old Holiday Inn and park the Caddie. I grab my gear and Duncan’s head and step out of the car. Out front I notice Adam out front smoking a cigarette.

“Dude, you actually cut off his head?” His eyes go wide and his jaw drops slightly.

“Just like Nal ordered.” I lift the bag up slightly. “Wanna see?”

“Dude, no. I’ll pass.” It was funny to see Adam like this. I’ve personally seen him do things to people that would give your average person nightmares for years. I know what I need to get him this Halloween.

I laugh and walk in the door. I look over at Rick and Joe sitting at the bar. I walk over and take a seat on one of the stools. “Got any Jack back there.”

Joe nods and pours me a glass. “Ice?”

“Straight up is fine.” I grab the glass and down it. “Nal in?”

“He’s in his office.” He raises the bottle. “One for the road?”

I nod and grab the drink. “Time to give him his package.” I walk to the stairs.

“Hey Mitch,” Joe says.

I turn around.

“Easy on the new guys this time.” The two break out into a fit of laughter.

“No promises.”

I’m starting to doubt the things Duncan said last night. If Nal was really working for him, you would think his guys would be clued in that it was a problem if I made it back. Of course, the guys down below know they don’t stand much of a chance if I can get Eunie to cooperate.

It still doesn’t make me feel good about this whole thing.

I walk out of the stairwell and look down the hall. The new guys are sitting on a bench just outside Nal’s office. They stand up when I enter the hall.

“Nal in there?” I ask.

“The boss is in a meeting. They’ve been in there a while now. You can wait for him, if you like.”

I nod and sit down on the bench. “I’m sorry about the other day. Wasn’t personal.”

“That was some freaky shit, man.” He holds out his hand. “Jason.”

“Mitch.”

“Aaron.” The other guy shakes my hand.

“So, how did you do that?”

“Trade secret.”

The door to Nal’s office opens. A beautiful blond girl walks out of the room wearing a gray skirt suit. She looks down towards the head, but turns left towards the hallway. I don’t know why she was here talking to Nal, but I could get used to seeing her around.

Nal pokes his head out of the door. “Mitch, come in.”

I walk in and set the head on the table and untie the shirt. “One head, sealed and delivered”

“Holy shit, Mitch. You didn’t really have to bring the head.” I turn it over to show him Duncan’s face. “Why are his eyes like that?”

“Demon. You had some serious shit knocking on your door.”

His eyes widen. “How the hell did you take down a demon?”

“I have my ways.”

“So, he took over everything up north, from what I hear.”

“Yep. I finally ran into him at the warehouse.”

“Drug ops still in decent shape?”

“I’d say no. The only thing I saw were hundreds of people in cages. I didn’t look around though.” It never crossed my mind to walk back in and check. With the fire at the front of the building and Sara being taken out the back of the building, I had other problems to attend to.

“Recognize anyone?”

“Didn’t take the time to look.” I don’t tell him about freeing them, I want to see if he steps into anything on his own.

“Well, it’s a shame.” He reaches down into his desk. “I suppose you want this.” He hands me a small black notebook.

“You always find the good stuff.” I thumb through it before packing it in my backpack.

“Do you really think you can control your problem with that?”

“No, but it would be stupid not to try.” I had to do something. Facing demons is one thing, but I don’t want to have the angels knocking on my door any more than necessary. I stand up, walk toward the door, and turn around. “Who do you work for?”

Nal sits back and puts his hands on the table. “Most people would have asked that long before they got this deep.” He reaches down and pulls out a picture of younger Nal standing next to an older guy with graying hair in front on the deck of a large yacht. “That is my father, Vernon. The only asshole alive who would name his kid Roman.”

“I never pinned this as a family business.”

“It wouldn’t be this big if the world didn’t go to shit. It’s amazing how fast things grow when people stop caring.”

Drugs and whores. The lazy man’s way to happiness. If there was going to be a time for those things to boom, now would be the time.

“I’m gonna head on down the road. I want to sit down and read the journal.” I pull my keys out of my pocket. “Gotta make sure Sara is doing good too. I had to get the head to you before it made my car stink worse.”

Nal reaches back down, pulls out a set of keys, and throws them my way.

“What are these for?”

“Your car is a piece of shit. It is kinda my fault. Take my Expedition. Tank is full.”

“What is this going to cost me?” Everything Nal gives away has a price. Money. Service. There is always a price.

“You’ve done enough. Leave the Caddie. I’ll have the guys take care of it.” He walks up and shakes my hand.

“Thanks a ton, Nal. Call if you need anything, I’ll be at the pad for a while.” I walk through the door and back down the staircase to the lobby.

“What is the boss having you do this time?” Joe asks as I approach the bar.

“Nothing. I’m on vacation.”

“Not like you to take time off, Mitch. You feelin’ ok?” He pours me another double shot of Jack.

“I’ll be fine.” I have a lot to digest. None of which I wanted to talk to these guys about. I down the shot and put the glass back on the table. “See you guys around.”

“Mitch.” I turn around as I get to the door. “Take this.” He tosses me the bottle of Jack.

I nod at him and walk out the door. I know it won’t get rid of the screams, but at least they will be a bit more quiet tonight.

I walk out the door and to the new ride. I walk around it a few times to check it out. It’s not that I don’t trust Nal, but it would be stupid not to consider this being a trap. Nothing strikes me as being out of the ordinary, so I sit in the driver’s seat and take one last look around the inside.

I’m losing it. I can’t believe I actually bought in to Duncan’s bullshit back at the warehouse. If Nal really worked for him, there is no way I would still be alive. I put the keys in the ignition, start the car, and drive off. I get about five miles when my phone starts to ring. It’s not a familiar so I let it go to voice mail. A minute later it starts to ring again. I don’t want to play this game so I pick up the phone. “This is Mitch.”

“This is Zeke. We need you to check out a house out west.”

Guess I won’t be getting to that bottle tonight. “Give me the address.”

The End of Book 1

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