Bad Grace (Watcher Chronicles Book 1) (12 page)

Frank nodded. “Just tell us what we want to know. I think there’s been enough bloodshed for one night.”

“Okay,” the demon said, resigned now. “Krakus is at a warehouse near the river.”

“Which warehouse?” Sam asked. “There’s a lot of fucking warehouses near the river.”

“It used to be a cold storage, like a meat factory.”

“I know it,” Frank said. “What’s he doing there?”

“Another ritual. He needed space for more people this time.”

“How many people?” Eva asked.

“I don’t know. A lot. We collected maybe a hundred humans.”

Everyone looked at each other. Jesus, Frank thought. A hundred people were about to lose their souls, maybe already had. “Eva,” he said. “Bury this fucking scumbag in the ground.”

CHAPTER 17

The many old warehouses along the river were first built years ago when boats still used the river to transport goods back and forth. Over the years, the warehouses gradually grew empty until most were left abandoned, including the few factories that existed around them. The entire warehousing district was due for demolition soon, so it could be developed into riverside apartments. In the meantime, the empty warehouses and factory buildings made great places for criminals to do drug and gun deals in relative secret, as there was rarely any kind of public or lawful presence around.

The city’s supernatural element also liked to make use of the empty warehouses and factories. Fight rings involving supernaturals had a regular presence in the buildings, staging pit fights at least once a week. The old factory buildings especially were a favored hangout for the vampire fraternity, providing them with a dark and remote place in which to nest.

Overall, the warehouse area along the river represented a virtual playground for the cities darker elements, human included. It therefore didn’t surprise Frank to learn that Krakus had chosen an old meat factory in the area to perform the soul stealing ritual. It was the perfect place to do it, somewhere he definitely wouldn’t be disturbed. Even if vampires were present, they would stay clear of demons. Anyone else foolish enough to interfere in any way would quickly wish they hadn’t, no doubt, Frank and his team not included.

It was full dark when Frank pulled up outside the old meat factory. Eva and the others arrived right behind him. They got out of the vehicles, weapons already on them, looking somewhat worse for wear after the demon fight at the bar. Everyone, including Frank, was ready to go again though.

The old factory was cloaked in darkness and shadow. The metal front doors lay partially open. No light came from inside.

Frank turned on the flashlight on his Saiga-12. Jack did the same with his gun and then Frank signaled for everyone to move towards the factory, with him leading the way, Jack just behind him.

Frank had no idea how many demons would be inside the factory. He had a feeling it wouldn’t be that many, considering how many were taken out back at the bar. One thing was for sure though, if Krakus was in there, then so was the blonde bitch and the biker asshole that had almost cleaved Frank’s skull in the night before. The thoughts of getting payback on the demons filled Frank with an angry resolve that further fueled his primary motivation to retrieve the feather. He just hoped the feather was inside the building somewhere. If it wasn’t…

He pulled open one of the metal doors and it creaked loudly on its hinges. He winced at the noise. Jack stood beside him, aiming his weapon inside, his flashlight throwing a bright beam into the darkness of the interior.

Fuck it, Frank thought. The demons probably already knew they were here anyway.

He wasn’t overly concerned about keeping a surprise element. After the bar, his blood was up. So were the others.

He
wanted
to start spilling demon blood again. To save the people that were inside the building somewhere.

The factory had three floors, but Frank doubted Krakus would go to the trouble of transporting a hundred people upstairs to the higher floors. The demon and his human captives had to be on the ground floor somewhere.

When Frank and the others stepped inside the building they fanned out slightly, flashlights pointing through the dark interior. Their boots crunched on glass spread around the floor as they tried to move as quietly as possible, though Frank wasn’t setting a slow pace. He was moving quickly towards a set of large double doors directly ahead of him, guessing that the doors led into a bigger space.

As he got near the doors, Frank stopped when he heard a voice that he recognized immediately as Krakus’s. The demon was speaking loudly, deliberately, as he seemed to recite something in another language, possibly Sumerian. Frank glanced at Eva, who was standing next to Jack. The look she gave him back told him what he needed to know, what he already knew.

Krakus was in the process of reciting the spell for stealing souls.

Frank signaled for everyone to move forward to the doors. Upon closer examination, the double doors seemed not to be closed or locked. As carefully as he could, Frank gripped the metal door handle and gently pushed on one of the doors. There was no resistance and he cracked open the door just enough to know that it wasn’t locked.

He looked at Jack and nodded. Felt everyone else get ready.

Pushing open the door, he stepped through.

Frank had been right about what lay beyond the doors. It was a massive open space, perhaps once filled with storage units when the factory was still in operation, but not anymore. There was nothing in the room now.

Nothing except naked unconscious humans strewn all over the floor, seemingly laid down at random anywhere there was space. The demon back at the bar wasn’t kidding. As Frank and the others ran their flashlight beams over the mass of bodies, Frank thought there must have at least a hundred people in the room—men, women and even children, like the demons had gone out one day and grabbed the first one hundred people they seen before dragging them back to this place.

In the center of all the bodies sat the three demons who had held Frank captive the night before. Krakus, his blonde sidekick and the other hulk with the brutal elbow shot, all sat naked amongst the unconscious humans, kneeling so they each faced each other in a circle. They shot to their feet when they heard Frank and the others enter the room.

“You again!” Krakus said, obviously having no problem making out Frank in the gloom. Moonlight shone through the skylights above down intro the big open space, but it wasn’t enough to illuminate much in the room. Most of the bodies on the floor were mere shadows. The only reason Frank could see Krakus and the others was because they were sitting in a circle of black candles, which created a bright flickering circle of light in the center of the room.

“Me again, asshole,” Frank said as he stepped over the prone bodies to get to where Krakus and the others were sitting. He wasted no time. When he had a decent shot lined up, he took it, firing at the blonde demon who sat with her back to him but was looking over her shoulder. Before she could even comprehend what was happening, Frank had already shot her twice in the back from about twenty yards away. He smiled when he heard her scream, the force of the shotgun blasts sending the demon flying forward into Krakus’s lap. A plume of black smoke—just a dark streak in the gloom—shot out from the body. Blondey would have to find herself a new meat suit to wear.

Krakus swatted the blonde meat suit off himself and stood up, his face still human, as was the other demon’s, who also stood. Neither seemed too concerned about their situation.

“Don’t move!” Frank shouted.

“You’re too late, Watcher,” Krakus said. “The ritual is done. When these humans wake up they will find themselves soulless.”

Frank continued to close the distance between them, trying not to step on the humans as he did so, which proved difficult as there were so many of them on the floor. As he drew closer to the two demons, he noticed the wooden dish on the floor. It was about the size of a large wok and it was filled with a dark liquid that Frank guessed was human blood, taken from each of the bodies on the floor. When he saw what was floating in the blood, his eyes widened.

The feather.

He couldn’t help fixating on it as he stepped closer. Only Krakus’s voice drew his attention from it.

“I assume you and your cronies there paid a visit to the bar,” Krakus said, still calm and unconcerned. “Obviously, one of my weaker underlings gave you this location.”

Frank didn’t answer. Instead, he swung the shotgun at the biker demon standing beside Krakus and pulled the trigger twice. The first shot blew a massive hole in the biker demon’s bare chest. The second shot took his head off. The demon’s meat suit fell to the floor and the dark spirit inside escaped a second later. Frank realized after he pulled the trigger that he probably should have finished the demon properly, with the Watcher knife, but he couldn’t help himself. The urge for vengeance was too much. He swung the shotgun back on Krakus. “Shut the fuck up!” he barked.

Krakus smiled and raised his hands in a supplicating gesture. Said nothing.

Frank instructed the others to look around, make sure there were no surprises in the room, like more demons. When the others had moved to different parts of the room, Frank addressed the demon in front of him. “Back away from the feather,” he told Krakus.

Krakus narrowed his eyes for a second. “The feather? Is that why you’re really here?”

“I said back away or I’ll blow your head off like I did your friend.”

“You think I care about a losing a lousy meat suit. Go ahead, but first, you might want to tell your friends to watch out.”

Adrenaline shot through Frank as Krakus smiled. Suddenly it was clear why the demon seemed so unconcerned. Just as Frank was about to shout a warning to the others, a shot was fired, then more shots, followed by automatic fire. Then screeching noises that Frank recognized instantly.

Vampires.

And by the amount of gunfire and screeching echoing through the room, a
lot
of vampires.

What the fuck? Frank thought. This wasn’t right. Since when did vampires team up with demons? Almost never that he knew of.

He swung the shotgun towards Krakus again, but the demon wasn’t there anymore.

Neither was the feather.

“No!” Frank shouted, swinging the flashlight beam everywhere as he tried to locate the demon, who had obviously teleported elsewhere with the feather. “Motherfucker!”

We need that feather, Frank.

He tried to think, but as he did, he sensed movement near him and he swung the shotgun around to his left to see a vampire racing up the beam of his flashlight—naked, pale, translucent skin, hairless, with large red eyes and an open mouth full of needle sharp teeth, looking every inch the bloodthirsty monster that it was. Frank blasted the vampire in the chest, putting a large hole in it. The vampire flew back and stayed down when it hit the floor. It wasn’t destroyed—you had to cut their heads off to finish them—but it would stay down for a while at least.

The vampires were everywhere in the room, impossible to tell how many in the gloom, especially with all the human bodies on the floor as well. “Get out of here!” Frank balled as he started to move towards the doors, looking around to make sure the others were following suit.

He blasted his way towards the door, shooting at anything that moved by him. The others did the same, Eva and Tyreese using their blades on the vampires. At one point, Sam was jumped from behind, the vampire landing on his back. Only Sam dropping into a throw prevented the vampire from biting him. As the vampire hit the floor in front of Sam, Frank shot it in the head. Sam shot Frank a look of gratitude and kept moving.

Frank and his team continued to fend of the vampires—who never seemed to stop coming—until they all made it through the doors, Frank blasting one last vampire before Jack slammed the doors and secured them with a metal bar. Then they all ran from the factory to the cars outside and drove off as fast as they could before any more vampires came for them.

They all drove to the spot near the bridge where they had first met up earlier that night. Frank paced around by his car, agitated as he tried to keep his anger and frustration at losing the feather in check. Of course he couldn’t mention that to the others. The main mission was to wipe out the gang and gather intelligence. Finding the feather was a part of that, but it wasn’t a priority, except for him.

“Relax, Frank,” Jack said as he leaned against Eva’s Range Rover. “We’ll get the demon son of a bitch. We always do, don’t we?”

“Fucking A,” Sam said, wincing at a nasty gash on his shoulder.

“Yeah,” Frank said, nodding, reaching into the bag still around him and taking out the hip flask. After taking a swig, he passed it to Jack.

“Besides,” Eva said. “I think we have bigger priorities now. The city is falling into chaos. We need to find out who’s behind all this.” Eva gestured towards the city behind her. Everyone listened for a moment to the distant sounds of people running scared, of a city rapidly falling apart at the seams. In a far off part of the city, black smoke could be seen rising and a number of police and news helicopters patrolled the sky overhead. No doubt the humans were all wondering what was going on, probably thinking the apocalypse was happening. Frank couldn’t blame them for thinking that. It
was
the goddamn apocalypse.

“What are we supposed to do, man?” Tyreese asked, his dark skin slick with sweat and blood. “This shit is big. Five of us can’t go up against what’s going on out there, least not on our own.”

“I’m sure every other Watcher in the city is thinking the same thing,” Eva said. “We just have to help people as best we can. I also think our best chance at finding out who is behind all this is to talk to Leland Cunningham.”

“Cunningham,” Frank snorted. “He’s the one behind all this. He’s the only one capable of organizing something so large scale.”