Demontouched: The Demontouched Saga (Book 1) (6 page)

“Michael sent me. He commends the sacrifice that you made for your family. He has always admired that trait in humans. But, unless you end your pact with the demon Einuir, you will be hunted and killed. Your soul will be dragged right to hell with your demon friend.”

“How does he know about Eunie?” This is shit that most people don’t know. Shit, Nal just believes that I turned into a mini Magneto after the Rising.

“He is God’s lieutenant. He knows everything.”

“Well, tell Michael, as much as I would love to end my pact, I don’t think Eunie will give me up without a fight.”

“Then a fight you must give him, or it will be Michael giving you a fight. You wear the cloth of the father. It is time you walked in his shoes. It is in his path that you will find the answer.”

“I walk in his shoes every day, sister. You are going to have to do better than that.”

“Walking his shoes and walking his path are two different things. Hopefully you can live long enough to learn the difference.” She turns around and walks away so I turn to get my bag. She gets to the road and turns around. “And Mitch, one more thing.”

I look back at her.

“Thank you for going to save the women.”

But I haven’t…

I walk inside and shut the door. This rabbit hole just got a shit ton deeper.

-8-

“How do you plan on getting the demon inside of you out, so you don’t end up being hunted by the angels?” Sara asks, skimming the copy of the Bible I keep in the glove box.

“There might be something about it in Blaine’s journal. He made a pact with a demon like I did. Unlike me, he did it for selfish reasons. I personally think his control had a lot more to do with being on the same team. Eunie and I are the apocalyptic version of the odd couple.”

“Talking about that, I’m surprised he lets you wear the suit.”

“He doesn’t care what I wear as long as I don’t touch my skin with holy water, salt, or one of the iron crosses.” I flash my gloved hands at her.

She lets out a slight gasp. “I always thought you were just a germaphobe.”

“Part true.” It is hard to keep everything off of you in my line of work, but I try when I can.

I park the car about a mile away from the motel. We could have come in the front entrance and saved some time, but I can’t risk someone noticing the car. With the dented passenger side and all of the bullet holes, it stands out like a sore thumb.

“From here we walk.”

Thirty minutes later we are in a wooded area behind the motel. I chose this path because the spring foliage will give us some cover when we get the hell out of here. It wouldn’t stop a bullet, but it may make it harder to aim.

“Nancy said the rooms bordering the pool are used to do business, so that means there will be a few guards there. The girls are kept on the second floor on the other side of the complex. That would put the other half of the guards there. First we are going to hit the guards around the pool, save any girls that are in service. Then we hit the guys on the other side.”

Sara looks over at me and unbuttons her shirt. “I have a better idea.”

* * *

I pull out my binoculars as Sara gets close to the pool. As expected, a balding guy with a fairly large beard approaches her from the pool house. They talk for a few minutes and start to make their way towards one of the rooms.

Damn that girl works fast.

They are about to go inside when another guy runs out of the poolroom. This is a younger guy, maybe twenty. He has long black hair, a sleeveless white shirt and sagging black pants. Beard waves him over and the three enter the room.

Two goons occupied, hopefully Sara can hold her own for a few minutes so I can get the girls.

I walk out of the woods and work my way to the other side of the complex. Out front I notice two black SUVs sitting out front. Inside one I see a middle aged man on the phone. Once he notices me, he gets out of the vehicle.

“You lost, holy man?” He puts the phone in his pocket and walks my way.

“I just found this on the ground behind me,” I pull out the knife. “I just wondered if it belonged to someone here.”

He gives me a quizzical look that quickly changes to one of horror when I push the knife out of my hand and into his skull. I walk up to the body and pull out the knife. I place a cross on his chest and say a few words then start walking towards the stairs.

I walk up to the room 203 and knock on the door. A fat guy answers the door in nothing but his not-so tidy whities. “World has gone to shit if a priest is here for a whore. Take your pick, Father.”

I look in the room and notice three of the girls. Their faces light up once they recognize me.

“I’ll take all three, if you don’t mind.” I reach for my wallet.

“We don’t do group deals. Pick one or fuck off.” He says, reaching for the door.

In one fluid motion I pull out my knife and shove it in his gut. I pull the blade up causing his intestines to spill onto the floor. If that wasn’t nasty enough, it releases the most horrid smells I have ever smelled. Like the dead cat I found under the porch when I was a kid. I swear it had to have been there for two weeks before we finally noticed it. I always figured the dog managed to piss off a skunk. I’m definitely going to file this in my “Don’t ever fucking do this again” file.

When the body hits the floor and I place a cross down on his back.

“Ready to get out of here?” I clean my knife on the now dirty-reddies and walk out the door with the girls in tow.

When I get to the bottom of the stairs, I notice one of my crosses in a pool of blood nearby on the parking lot. My eyes following the trail of blood heading back towards the pool area.

Well shit. This is a bad way to find out you are dealing with demons.

I go back to the room and stick the angel blade through fattie’s heart. The last thing I want is this nasty fucker following me around smelling like that.

“I have to pick up a friend at the pool.” I pull out a gun handing it to one of the girls. “Stay close, but not too close.”

I follow the trail of blood back to the room that Sara went in. This is going to be fun.

“Through the woods, follow the trail back across the creek.” I hand my keys to one of the girls. “If I’m not there in an hour, take the car back to the Nal’s pad.”

“We want to help, Mitch.”

“Look. These guys are going to pissed enough. The blood trail is from one that I thought I killed. I can’t promise that I can keep you safe if you follow me. I’ll be fine, just go.”

“Kick their asses then, Mitch.” The girls kiss me on the cheek and run into the woods.

I walk up to the door and give it a few knocks.

Beard pokes his head out of the door. “Girls are over in room 203.”

“I’d prefer the smokin’ redhead you have in there.”

Something tells me he doesn’t like my answer because he opens the door and pulls a gun out on me. “She’s not going anywhere.”

I look into the room. Sara is hogtied with a gag in her mouth on the couch. “Let her go and nobody else dies today.”

“The only one dieing today is you.”

I focus my thoughts on the gun and flash my hands up. The shot goes off but it misses me high. I pull my hand in and try to force the gun out of his hand. When the gun doesn’t budge I throw my weight into a punch to his gut.

I’m freaking out. That shit always works.

“You don’t know who you are dealing with, do you holy man?” I hear from behind.

I turn around and see the guy from the parking lot, blood streaming from the wound on the top of his head. Bits of brain visible behind his hair.

“Well, you aren’t the normal class of asshole that I’m used to.” Its not every day you get to stare down a demon, full on. To be honest, most of the time you wouldn’t know it if you were. This asshole, however, is showcasing the trademark smoking eyes. Probably because he is using his powers to heal his host. From every thing I have read about demons, this is something they only used in case of emergency. It was usually faster to find another host than it was to heal it.

With a lack of warm bodies, they probably do this more often now.

“Drop the bag and knife.”

I throw down the knife and pull off my pack.

“I’ll take this.” He reaches over and pull the sword off of my hip and starts to examine it. “This is a very nice blade,” he says. “What I want to know is how a priest like you managed to get his hands on an angel blade.”

“Hand-me-down.” I shrug my shoulders. “Poor family.”

“Get on your knees, holy man. Say a little prayer for me,” he gives me a toothy grin.

The last thing I feel is the butt of his gun on the back of my head before things go black.

-9-

I wake up without a clue to where exactly the fuck they took me. My eyes are blindfolded, and my mouth is gagged. To my right I hear a chair shifting on the ground and the sound of a muffled voice. Almost sounds like whoever it is is screaming into a gag.

I’d put everything on it being Sara. I hate knowing I put her at risk. I know she wanted to help more than on the information front, but she isn’t built for this line of work. I admire her ambition, but this is why I try work alone. It is hard enough to keep myself alive sometimes.

I hear the sound of a creaking hinge followed by a clicking noise. Unless I’m mistaken, someone just came in.

When they pull off my blindfold, I open my eyes and see Sara sitting in a chair across from me. Her shirt is unbuttoned exposing her chest with her hands tied above her head and attached to a pulley in the ceiling. Her wrists are raw and bloodied like she has been trying to escape.

Beard walks over to her, pulls back his hand and slaps her across her cheek. I notice her jawbone quivering beneath her gag, her muffled screaming turns into a cry.

When I get out of this, I am going to find a nice slow way for this fucker to die.

He turns around and faces me, his eyes no longer smoking. He pulls up a chair, sits down facing me, and pulls the gag from my mouth. “The boss doesn’t like when someone steals his girls.”

“Funny. That’s my line.”

Beard laughs before rewarding me with a backhand. It doesn’t take long before, I taste blood in my mouth. This guy really knows how to get on my good side.

“I would love to stay and chat, but my boss has special plans for her.” He walks over, unties her, and throws her over his shoulder. “Have fun with the boys.”

The hipster kid walks over to a table in the corner of the room and brings it over in front of my chair. He walks to the door and opens it, grabbing my bag from someone on the other side.

“Think you are some sort of hunter?” He pours the contents of my pack on the table.

“When the time calls for it.”

“You hunt us, yet you bond with one of us.” I must give him a look of surprise because he just smiles back. “Don’t you worry, we’re going to fix that.”

He grabs my knife and cuts off my shirt and jacket. He sets the knife on the table and grabs one of the vials of holy water. “Can’t forget these!” He grabs my gloves and puts them on his hands before popping the lid off of one of the bottles.

He tips it over, pouring a bit on my hand. I try to muffle the screams, but they just come out in full force. My hand feels like it is being dunked into a pot of boiling water. I look down and notice the skin on my hand is starting to smoke and bubble. It is taking everything I have to keep from passing out.

Even more odd is that Eunie is seemingly MIA. Struggled to keep the fucker quiet yesterday just to have him go in vacation today. If I get a chance to talk to him again, we are going to have to work out a few more things.

“Shit isn’t so fun, is it priestie?”

I shake my head, trying to keep my lower lip from quivering. The last thing I want to do now is start crying like a little bitch.

“Then you are going to love this.” He sets down the vial and picks up one of the crosses.

If the holy water felt like that, I can only imagine what this is going to feel like. I close my eyes and prepare for whatever is coming.

Suddenly the door slams open. I hear a something whiz by my ear, opening my eyes in time to see a flash of white light hit Hipster dude right in the face. He lets out a scream as his body is enveloped in a white flame. I look back at the door and notice a young man with white hair holding a bow in his hands. He rushes over and cuts my hands free.

“Get your stuff. We have to get out of here fast.”

“And who the hell are you?”

“Zeke. Now, go.” He offers his hand to help me up. “You did good, the girls are out.”

I reach down and pick up my shit and put it back in my bag. Then I do the only sensible thing I can think of.