Heaven can Wait Page 3

  Quick as Selene was, she wasn't quite fast enough to get the first strike in. The hulking demon reacted faster than his appearance had led her to expect. The phallus that he had extended from his body had thickened and rammed forwards taking Selene low in her stomach. The impact sent her flying backwards across the warehouse but she managed to keep her feet when she landed.

  The demon left a giant slug’s trail where it sloughed towards her. It's previously tiny arms, reminiscent of the almost vestigial fore-limbs of a tyrannosaurus rex, were now whip-like tentacles and had been joined by a half dozen more flailing appendages. At least it had put its pseudo-penis away.

  Selene threw herself sideways as one of the tentacles came close to her head. She tucked and rolled over her shoulder. She came up on one knee only a couple of metres away from the surviving prostitute, the only other living thing in the warehouse-come-lair, and the only being out of the three of them who could truly be described as mortal. Well, mortal or no, Selene planned on ending the demon’s existence in short order. Just as soon as she could get in close enough to strike at him.

  In a one-two-three sequence another trio of the elastic limbs came at her. They hit the concrete floor with the noise of a wet slap and left stains the size of dinner plates when they retreated. The attack had come almost midway between the two women and the attack startled the hooker out of her inactivity. She reacted by screeching and crawling to get as far away from the horror as she could. The whore was at last showing signs of a desire for self-preservation but truth to tell Selene would have preferred that she stay where she was and silent rather than retreating and making this distracting din.

  Another tentacle headed towards her head, the demon at least wasn’t finding the hooker’s noise a detriment to his concentration. Selene had faced battles similar to this an almost innumerable number of times before, and in more distracting arenas than this. She watched the round end of the tentacle coming unerringly at the space between her eyes, she could handle this.

  Her normally ice-blue eyes flared red. When the flare died down her eyes were black. Iris, sclera and all, her eyes were obsidian orbs betraying her unnatural heritage.

  The tentacle coming at her face seemed to slow, it was as if the air it was pushing through on its way to her was suddenly thicker. In contrast Selene herself was able to move even more rapidly, the air offered no resistance to her. The only way she knew that the air was still there around her was by the roar it made as she moved.

  She sidestepped to avoid the oncoming tentacle and took a step forwards. Her blade flashed and she sliced through the limb. She took another two steps forwards and another to the side. From here she was able to sever another two tentacles. The first appendage she had cut was only just starting to come free and succumb to the pull of gravity when Selene moved again.

  Any onlooker, for example the whore screaming in the corner if she had been able to muster the courage to look across at the confrontation, would have seen the demon striking out with its elastic limbs but hitting nothing but air. Selene was a blur, ducking around, under, inside and outside the demon's attacks. Her blade flashed even faster, it cut gelatinous flesh with almost every stroke.

  By the time the first of the severed tentacles hit the floor, amidst a growing pool of the demon's ichor blood, Selene stopped moving and stood off to the side. She was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling under her red leather vest. A stray strand of hair had come loose during the battle and she blew it away from her face. A swirl of colour swam over the surface of her eyes, when it passed they had returned to their natural ice-blue.

  With a sequence of wet slaps the demon limbs she had removed fell to the warehouse floor. Now the demon’s blood joined that of its victims and its lackeys travelling away down the central drain.

  The demon regarded her in shock and in pain. Perhaps it had been a long time since this creature had faced a truly worthy opponent. Certainly it hadn’t expected to face a worthy opponent in the seemingly unthreatening young woman that Selene’s appearance would suggest, even after witnessing her making short work of its guards.

  "What are you?" The demon gurgled.

  Selene smiled and there was nothing kind or remotely humorous in it.

  "You don’t need to know."

  And she moved again, she was fast certainly, but not inhumanly so, as she drew her blade around the demons thick trunk of a neck. Its folds of flesh and multiple chins made his neck almost as wide as the rest of him, but Selene’s silver edged steel bit deep. She sawed her blade deeply into the layers of fat and muscle. She forced the sword to cut through tendons, ligaments and bone. With a final effort, that elicited an involuntary grunt from her, she yanked the dripping blade free. Gore cast from the edge of her sword to spatter across the far wall.

  She hadn’t cut quite through everything that had joined the demons head to his body but she had done enough. The weight of the head and gravity did the rest. The massive head slipped sideways, halted a moment when a piece of its thick skin struggled to keep it in place. The flap of flesh tore and the head tumbled down. The head and body hit the concrete floor almost simultaneously.

  Selene stood for a moment. Her body was rigid but a shiver ran all of the way through her. She sheathed her weapon and slipped her free hand in the front of her trousers at the same time. A few quick flicks with her fingertip helped to tip her over the edge and she shuddered letting her eyes flutter closed for just a fraction of a moment.

  "Is it dead?"

  The voice was soft and trembling and Selene ignored it. She reclaimed her empty pistols and reloaded them with fresh clips of ammunition. Her booted feet crunched on the fragments of glass inside the window where she had made her entrance.

  There was a rustling noise of clothes and then an insistent tap-tapping as the whore walked on her impractical high-heeled shoes over towards her. Selene purposefully made sure she didn't look around but her acute sense of hearing made her perfectly aware of the hooker’s exact position.

  The prostitute was sniffling behind her while Selene was unbolting the door to make herself a more conventional exit. The prostitute could be sensed shuffling about behind her and as she threw the last bolt to finish unlocking the door Selene decided to put her out of her misery. She removed a few notes from her inside pocket and turned around.

  The hookers head was turned mainly to the ground but she kept flicking her eyes up. Her makeup was tear-streaked and, not surprisingly, she looked to be in an even worse state than when Selene had hired her and her companion earlier.

  "Here." Selene took hold of the prostitute's wrist and folded the money into her hand.

  "I won't tell you to keep quiet about what happened tonight, talk all you want. But if you mention me or give my description to anybody, or any damn thing." She paused for dramatic effect, taking a little twisted pleasure in seeing the effectiveness of her performance. "Well, you would regret it. But not for long."

  The hooker seemed to be only half listening, most of her concentration was focused on counting the money Selene had stuffed into her palm.

  "Hey, there's only half of what you said here."

  Selene opened the door. "That's your share, your colleague won't be needing hers."

  With that she stepped out into the cool night air. When she had got far enough away for the prostitute to think she was out of earshot she heard the hooker mutter, "Bitch!" under her breath.

  Selene guessed she couldn’t disagree.

  CHAPTER THREE

  I returned to the office feeling good about having been able to help Annabelle Chimes with her problems. That was the part of my work that I enjoyed, helping people get closure and to heal emotional wounds. There was something that was more rewarding in that than the often ignored work that I did as a consultant with the local police force, and more recently hunting bounties with Selene. That sort of work always seemed to leave a bad taste in my mouth. In the grand scheme of things though it was to help with exactly that sor
t of work that I was here in the first place. Helping to stop and catch rogue non-humans and assorted feral beings could have more far-reaching consequences than anything else I might do. That was why I stuck with it despite the consequences to myself. As I had been reminded far too many times by the elders before they finally passed judgment on me, my original calling had been to observe only not to interfere. Well since they issued me with this punishment I had been interfering plenty. Putting the good of humanity above my own safety and well being. Sheesh, how pompous does that sound? The elders must have been fuming to see how much farther I had gone now that I had nothing left to loose, I had already been banished it wasn’t like they would be handing out corporal punishment. I shook my head, no the elders wouldn’t have been fuming and that was the problem, they didn’t care about anything enough.

  My contented mood was already starting to slip and it dropped fully when I stepped through the door into my office. It wasn’t some other non-human talent, I just immediately knew there was something not right.

  “Hey, Faith. It’s been a while.”

  The speaker emerged from the door to the bathroom in the back of the office with the noise of the flush sounding behind her. She closed the door without looking and dampened the sound of the toilet. Almost as tall as my own above average frame, she was just as well endowed. She would probably have been even more, as some would put it, well stacked if she wasn’t so athletic. Where I was simply curvy in all the right places Selene had definition. The tight leather outfit that fit her like a second skin showed off a well proportioned body. Muscular in an athletic, gymnastic way rather than the usual bulk a fighter’s figure would display, and Selene was nothing if not a fighter.

  “Hello Selene,” The sound slipped from me as a resigned sigh. This could be nothing but trouble.

  Always the first thing that struck me about Selene was those eyes. An ice-blue that I would have said had to be produced by lenses on anybody else. Selene’s eyes were always the first thing I noticed, men tended to take a little longer before their gaze travelled up away from her body long enough to notice her face. Selene was well aware of this fact and played on it to her advantage.

  “It hasn’t been long at all,” I continued, we had spoken on the telephone the day before, and had met face to face in the middle of the last week. “What do you want?”

  Selene appreciated directness and I was in no mood to be bothered about being polite to my uninvited visitor in any case. I might still technically be an angel but I was not exactly a Saint.

  Selene was drying her hands on a small hand towel, there were the brown stains of dried and watered down blood on the once-white material. I hoped who- or whatever’s blood had made it’s way on to the towel it had done so a long way from my bathroom. I didn’t need to find dismembered corpses of any flavour in the bathroom, not again.

  “Can’t I just be here to visit an old friend?”

  I hesitated almost as though I was thinking about it. “I don’t think so.”

  Selene hopped up on the edge of the desk and flashed me an innocent smile. Even if she hadn’t been perched there all leathered up with the hilts of knives and guns poking out all over she wouldn’t have been able to pull off the innocent little girl act. There was something dangerous about my visitor. An aura of . . . something surrounded her. It was easy to explain when you knew that Selene, despite appearances, was something other than an attractive young woman. I had never been privy to Selene’s full background and she had never encouraged me to bring it up, it wasn’t like the bounty-hunter knew everything there was to know about me either so I let it lie. But I had seen what the other woman could do. You could hardly be a bounty-hunter who specialised in bringing in non-human and supernatural marks without having some sort of an edge. Not if you expected to live very long.

  I took another look. Maybe it wasn’t just the fact that you could almost taste her non-human heritage that prevented her from looking innocent. Perhaps it was that sultry sparkle in her eyes. The way she knowingly shifted her body under the light so that the reflective leather highlighted all the right places. I sucked down air and steadied her breathing. Perhaps it wasn’t so much a demonic energy that charged the air as it was a sexual one.

  “I’m wounded, you have such a low opinion of me?”

  I barked out a sharp laugh, I didn’t buy the hurt act any more than I had the innocent one.

  “Fine,” the bounty-hunter said, swinging her legs up and over the equipment on the desk. Her agility showed when she got her feet easily up and over the ancient computer monitor that loomed over the random papers and single stained cup taking up the rest of the space. She jumped to her feet, standing without making a sound, even her leather outfit didn’t creak.

  I had experienced this before and tried not to look impressed. I just stepped past the other woman and put my jacket on the back of the chair. I didn’t sit, instead choosing to stand with my arms on the back of the chair waiting for Selene to continue.

  “Tell me you’ve been out with a client and you don’t dress that way by choice. You can’t be happy dressing so conservative. What are you an old maid?”

  I tilted my head to the side and just stared at my guest. I didn’t want to get into a banter match with Selene right now. It wasn’t that I thought I was above it in some way, I just wished the other woman could get to the point. Plus there was a good chance I would loose any such contest, I generally tried to avoid getting stuck in situations where there was a good chance I would be the one loosing.

  Selene shook her head. “I can’t believe someone as straight-laced as you managed to get kicked out of the place up there.”

  Selene let the first genuine smile of the meeting come into her face. It made her seem more attractive, the way the smile gave life to those unnaturally blue eyes. I had seen those eyes come alive in a similar way before, but that had been a malicious glint that appeared when Selene was busy about her work. That certainly didn’t make her look attractive. The first time that I had witnessed that look in her eyes it had frozen my spine.

  “Okay, I can see you’re in no mood for the small talk so I’ll get down to it.

  “I need your help.”

  I gave another sigh and now I did take a seat. Selene mimicked me and dropped into the chair on the opposite side of the desk. The non-conformist in her wouldn’t let her just sit in the seat normally, she had to hook a leg over the chairs low arm and let it swing there. It was hardly a pose that most of my clients would have assumed. I was familiar enough with Selene that I didn’t find her casual approach in any way offensive. Even though I would never have admitted it to the bounty hunter I actually envied her her carefree approach to life. I would have loved to have had the ability to just be as relaxed as Selene. I had been with her during quite a few tense situations and Selene just never let anything faze her. For my part, I broke out in a cold sweat whenever it came time to sort out the accounts for the bank manager and worried about my cash flow from one week to the next. Being self-employed wasn’t always so great. Something so mundane would never even have raised a blip on Selene’s radar.

  “You want to hire my services to contact someone who has passed on?”

  Selene laughed. “Yeah, I want you to chat with a dead dude for me, but there’s more.”

  She hesitated and I was certain I was not going to like what came next. I never liked the extras Selene tagged on.

  “I also need you to come and look at a few things and give me your opinions.”

  Yep, fieldtrips with Selene were not my idea of fun.

  “The last time I went out in the field with you I couldn’t sleep properly for a month. You know I prefer not to have to use my talent like that. That’s why I have so much difficulty consulting for the police department.”

  “That and they only believe you part of the time,” Selene said with a lopsided grin, “And they don’t pay nearly as well as I do.”

  I didn’t respond. I hadn’t actually been pa
id at all on some of the half dozen or so cases where I had gone forward to volunteer my advice to the police. On the rarer cases where they had come to me seeking my assistance I had received a slightly more than token amount, not enough that I would have been able to take up consulting full-time even if I had wanted to.

  The grin slipped off Selene’s face. “I know what it takes out of you,” she was serious now. She unhooked her leg and sat normally so that she could lean across the desk and stare earnestly at me. “I know how bad it can be for you, and this one will be bad. But I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”

  Selene batted her eyelashes and hit me with the full on saucer effect.

  I gave another resigned sigh, I seemed to end up doing a lot of that when Selene came around.

  “Okay,” I barely breathed the word but Selene heard it well enough. Or perhaps she knew me so well that she had known I wouldn’t refuse. I’d rather not be predictable but I am woman enough to admit that I probably am.

  “Great,” the bounty hunter swivelled up and jumped out of the chair energetically. She practically bounced from the seat and then walked towards the door stopping to retrieve a long leather jacket from the rack at the side of the door. She dug a hand into a pocket and tossed a small roll of cash that hit the desk and rolled to a stop just making contact with the old mug.

  “I just have a few things to sort out first and then I’ll come by to pick you up.” Selene watched while I flicked through the money. “See, I pay a lot better than the cops ever do.”

  I had gone straight to the door after Selene left, turned the little sign in the door’s window around to closed and locked up behind myself. I had already turned the answer phone on. Somewhere around the side of the building the deep bass throbbing of a motorbike idling disturbed the peace. The throbbing turned into a growl as the vehicle sped off. That would be Selene on her way to ‘sort a few things out’.