Demon Driven (15 page)

Some more threats, promises and flexing of
Big Brother muscle, and presto, she would have an instant
complaint. As for disbanding the Special Situations squad, it would
have taken very little to push Commission Kane over the edge. Hell,
Duclair was probably the one to deliver his initial briefing in the
first place, an easy time to instill doubt and uncertainty.

The other squad members would be assimilated
back into the big NYPD machine. Takata and Sommers would be
snatched up by special operations teams. Chet was a technical
wizard, worth his weight in gold. Demarco could do wonders for a
homicide investigation and Gina was probably the best profiler on
the force. The vast administrative pool would pull in efficient
Olivia, leaving just myself adrift.

A federal job offer baited with the promise
of criminal assault charges being dropped, and I could be expected
to fall on her plate. Failure to accede to her wishes would result
in a rapid conviction, federal charges of threat to national
security or some such crap, and she could have me hunted by the
entire U.S. government law enforcement apparatus.

What were my options? I wasn't on the best of
terms with Tanya at the moment, although I
would
find a way
to change that. My finances were pretty solid, but could be frozen
at the mere mention of Patriot Act. If forced to run, all I would
accomplish would be the high probability of injuring or killing an
appalling number of law enforcement personnel, almost none of whom
would deserve it. On one hand, I had to admire the skill and
bureaucratic savvy that had boxed me into this corner. On the other
hand, the black berserker inside wanted me to storm the federal
building and lay waste to everyone who dared attempt to control my
fate.

My pocket vibrated. The cell display showed
Gina's face.

“Hi,” I answered.

“How ya doing?” she asked in a careful
manner.

“Well, I've been thinking.”

“Not your strong suit. You might hurt
something,” she joked softly.

“Yeah, well I haven't gotten any job offers
from Mensa today, so you might be right,” I said.

“Although I'm expecting a job offer of
another sort.”

“Oh? Of what sort?” she asked.

“The federal sort...you know...the kind that
comes with the wave of a magic wand to make all your troubles
disappear.”

“It appears I was a little hasty. Maybe
thinking isn't so bad for you. How might you respond to such an
offer?” she asked.

“Well, my gut tells me to utilize high
explosives and incendiaries. But my brain is suggesting trying to
find a less....pyrotechnic approach,” I said.

“Really? I thought all you special ops guys
favored using explosives to solve virtually every problem, from
domestic issues to acne?”

“You have me confused with the SWAT guys. I
am
special, but it's more of a short bus /Rainman kind of
special. And this whole thinking thing is really frustrating –
nowhere near as satisfying as blowing stuff up!”

“So what have you come up with?” she asked,
the humor in her voice sliding away.

“Still working through options. I feel like
Harry Potter facing the dragon test in
Goblet of Fire
,” I
said.

“Well as I recall, Mad Eye Moody told him to
play to his strengths!”

“Okay, first of all, it wasn't
really
Mad Eye Moody, and secondly, I can't ride a broom for shit!”

She laughed out loud. “Right! But you have a
whole arsenal of clever tricks that Auntie B doesn't know about.
Maybe you should let her know just how big a pain in the ass you
would be to have around,” she suggested. “But not go overboard and
hurt anyone.”

“You really think I could convince anyone
that
I
could actually be a pain in the ass?”

“Please! You’re such a PITA that it takes a
vampire administrator, an Alpha werewolf and a Detective Sergeant
to get you squared away, not to mention a vampire princess to keep
you in line!” she said.

I was surprised she would mention words like
vampire and werewolf on a cell line that was almost certain to be
monitored by Duclair's people. But then again, she might just be
sending a message to Duclair about the resources I did have. Or
used to have. Whatever, as long as Duclair believed the Pack and
the Coven might be in my corner, it could be leverage of a
sort.

“Hmm, you know, you’re pretty good at this
thinking stuff. You're giving me all kinds of ideas,” I said, my
brain rolling through possibilities.

“Of course! That's why you need to let us
four ladies do the thinking for you!”

“Changing the subject, what's the story with
the Squad?” I asked.

“As you said. We've all been reassigned,
pretty much along the lines you would imagine.”

“I never thought Roma would cave like that!”
I said, disgusted.

“Listen, he did what he could, but he was
completely stripped of power and just so you know....he resigned
his position with the department effective immediately!” she said
sharply.

“Oh, well...I just thought he should be able
to do more,” I replied.

“See, there ya go with that thinking stuff
again. When you going to learn to leave it to us?”

“Yeah, I guess I should at that,” I
answered.

“Chris, the squad isn't going to just fade
away. We're all going to keep in touch and meet out of school. Keep
an eye on things. So don't go thinking you're all alone, okay?”

I allowed that I wouldn't, although I already
had. She told me that she had been reassigned to an old boss of
hers and that he would give her a lot of leeway and understanding.
We said goodbye and I lay back down to consider her suggestions, a
plan forming itself almost immediately.

* * *

I was well along in my diabolical scheme, or
at least I had the framework of a scheme, when I heard some odd
voices. Really, it was the accent that caught my attention. Male
and female voices speaking with an Irish brogue.

Sitting up, the oddest sight greeted my eyes.
A man and woman were swinging on the swing sets. Virtually all the
kids and nannies were gone, the gloom of evening indicating that
the hours had swept by while I was plotting.

The pair would have gotten my attention if
they had just been standing there, but the swinging really did it.
Something about it was kind of creepy, maybe the serial killer
smiles the two were wearing as they stared in my direction. The man
was tall, with curly red hair and freckles that stood out from a
mile. He was wearing leather pants, a long leather duster and an
honest to God plaid tam hat. The woman was more noteworthy, tall,
with wavy brown hair and dark brown eyes. She was also dressed in
leather; pants and a bustier, and she was wearing the hell out of
them. The terms ‘built’ and ‘stacked’ popped into my head.
Definitely a head turner.

But the creepiest thing was the dogs – if in
fact they were dogs and not horses. Huge, at least two hundred
pounds each, and black as coal. The five of them were lounging
around the couple in a semi-circle, all their attention on their
masters. One dog turned its head to look at me and its eyes were
gleaming red, like lava. Uh oh! I quickly scanned with my Sight.
The dog forms shone with red, purple and black stripes; the couple
– blue mixed with streamers of greasy black.

I was on my feet in an instant, as was
Okwari. The man swung back high, let go and jumped to the ground,
laughing as he did so. The woman slid gracefully to her feet and
all seven were suddenly headed our way.

I got the oddest feeling from Okwari, one I
had never detected before – fear.

“Well, and just what do we have here now,
Mary?” the Irish gent said, strolling casually.

“Sure and it’s the very lost soul what we’ve
been seeking, Colin. Although I am a might perplexed at his human
companion there,” the woman answered, swaying alongside him.

The hell dogs or whatever they were fanned
out and charged up the hill, the two on the outside circling around
us. Okwari roared out a challenge, but it seemed unsure to me.

The woman, Mary, pulled a black crystal
necklace from the depths of her cleavage, holding it in both hands
and beginning to chant in a disturbing, guttural language. The
hairs on the back of my neck went up at the sound of it.

Okwari did the strangest thing. He shuffled
his weight on both front paws side to side and let out a tiny
whimper. My three thousand-pound invisible killer spirit bear was
terrified of that black jewel.

I had no idea what she was doing but it
couldn’t be good.

“Listen, lady, I don’t know who you are or
what you want, but you better be staying away from the bear!” I
said, moving toward her.

Suddenly, I was frozen where I stood, unable
to move a muscle.

The man, Colin, moved in front of me, his
strangely disturbing grin still in place.

“Now then, that
bear
over there is
very valuable. Seems he slipped his leash and his owners want him
back, ya see. So me and me wife Mary here are just going to be
taking him back where he belongs. And you’re just going to be
sitting this out, ya hear?” he said, pleasantly, his hands weaving
in a strange pattern. Spellwork?

I opened my Sight, spotted the black bands
that held me in place. I sent a bubble of
will
out from my
core, like an expanding sphere of violet light. The black bands
were blown away like smoke, freeing my limbs. Instantly I lashed a
backhand at Colin, sending him flying back ten feet and spiked a
burst of aura at Mary’s jewel. The blast rocked her on her feet,
but didn’t knock her down, which surprised me as a similar one had
thrown a vampire waiter about seven feet into a wall. But her chant
was broken and she turned to me with a hiss that only increased
when she noticed her husband lying on the ground, shaking his head.
She shoved the jewel in my direction and a black beam of light
struck me in the chest, igniting a fire in every part of my body.
It was the most excruciating pain I had ever felt. Every cell felt
like a black spike was being shoved through it. I was remotely
aware of Okwari fighting the hellhounds, and, I could hear a
screaming voice. Oh…wait, that was me.

“Ya know Mary, I’m thinking that this here
fella might be the one our employers spoke of. Ya know, the fella
that broke free the damned great beasty in the first place?”

“If ya don’t mind me saying Colin, you’re
bloody daft! Of course he’s the one! Now we can take both back and
get a
ll
the reward!”

Okwari roared in rage, there was a meaty
thunking sound and a heavy, dense body slammed into me, knocking me
out of the beam’s path. Instantly, the pain abated to merely
horrendous, a huge relief from the completely disabling agony of a
moment before. I didn’t waste the moment,
moving
as fast as
I could, which was a damned sight slower than normal, but still
fast enough to slam the gem from Mary’s hand, her arm and hand
breaking in at least three places. They were still moving molasses
slow as I spun and slammed my palm into Colin’s chest, cracking his
sternum and flinging him into the children’s playground. I scooped
the gem from the ground by its heavy gold chain and turned to the
helldog that had hit me.
It
moved faster than its handlers,
heavy jaws dripping with ectoplasmic saliva, leaping at me. I
dropped below it as an image flashed through my head –
my right
hand with a gleaming bright line like the inside edge of Okwari’s
claws.

Shaping my aura into a mirror of the mental
image, I shoved my right hand into the chest of the hound as its
blocky black body flew over my crouching form. There was no
resistance as my bladed hand slid into the dog’s torso and cut
straight through to its groin. The partially bisected beast slammed
into the ground beyond me and I leapt on it, chopping my ax hand
through its neck. The head and body separated, starting to dissolve
as they fell to the dirt.

I turned to my bear, finding his rippling,
transparent form covered in giant dog forms. Each hellhound had
expanded to the size of a Shetland pony, and one hung from where
each front paw would be, with two clinging to his back with long
retractable claws. The hounds seemed to be writhing around in empty
air, but the air shimmered in a bear-shaped outline. I acted by
instinct, projecting indigo-purple bands of power out from each
hand, one band to either side of a dog on his back. Then I slammed
my hands together in the mother of all claps, and my targeted hound
on Okwari’s back imploded into black, red and purple dust. Again on
instinct, I called out mentally –
Kirby!

The shadow form of God’s Hawk swooped onto
the dog remaining on Okwari’s back, the smoke talons gripping the
hellhound and pulling it off. Apparently, it was too heavy for the
spirit hawk, who slipped back out of our world with a keening cry.
The dog slammed into the ground and bounced to its feet, just in
time to get hit with the hound that got flung from Okwari’s right
paw. The remaining dog received all of the giant spirit bear’s
attention and apparently didn’t like it. That one hung in empty air
for a moment before it came apart with a wet ripping sound, the
individual chunks vaporizing as they fell to the ground. There were
just two now, and they stumbled toward the witch, Mary, who was
just finishing a crude circle in the dirt around her and Colin. Her
face twisted with pain, fear and hate, she looked me in the eyes as
she spoke a guttural phrase and all four of them were sucked into a
swirling column of greasy air the color of thunder clouds. The
swirl corkscrewed into the ground and was gone, leaving Okwari and
I standing in an empty park.

I looked at my right hand, a faint gleam
running all around the outside edge of my bladed palm.