“I’m feeling a bit exposed out here in Old Town. Why don’t we go back to my house and finish our discussion there?”
A hint of a smile graced her lips. “Of course. Let me get my things.” She dropped off the bed and started stuffing her belongings into a couple of small suitcases. She was traveling light. I guessed she’d thought her assassins would finish the job quickly. She should have known better. I’d always been pretty good at disappointing people. You’d think she’d remember that, being married to me and all.
I’d called a cab while I watched her pack, my car still at Coffee Hut. I didn’t imagine Meinie would swing back by to give us a ride. Too bad, he seemed like a nice enough fellow. He had good taste in music, at least. Once Veronica was finished, I grabbed her bags and headed outside with her. Much to my surprise, it was only a few minutes until the cab pulled up at the curb. The cabbie must have been desperate for a fare to have arrived so soon. The look on his wrinkled face when he saw us told me he thought he’d made a mistake. I didn’t give him the chance to change his mind. I gave him directions and a healthy cash incentive to get us there fast. Money talks and people listen. He heard me loud and clear. We were on the road in a flash. I glanced at Veronica and despite the bruises and bloodstains marring her face it was still very apparent why I’d been so attracted to her in the first place. Her sharp features lent her a classic beauty that even all the damage couldn’t completely hide. It didn’t hurt I could see down her shirt. She turned and smiled at me, sliding down in the seat to snuggle beside me. I put my arm around her and sighed. It felt like old times. No matter how everything else turned out, no matter how bad things got, no one could take away the happiness I felt. With her boobs pressed into my side and her hand on my lap, the end of the world was a distant memory.
Retribution
For the first time in days I felt relaxed. I held Veronica’s lithe body tight against me, feeling the warmth of her presence. Even though she’d tried to kill me three times, there was a sense of comfort that seemed to override all of that, a feeling of righteousness born of past intimacy. At that moment, it didn’t matter what either of us had done, it was as if we’d never parted. All that mattered was we were together. Or maybe it was that her hand, resting on my crotch, kept twitching. Regardless, I was feeling pretty good. That, of course, meant something had to ruin it. Without warning, Rachelle’s voice exploded inside my head. “Frank!”
I winced, jumping in my seat. Veronica sat up and looked at me like I’d let one rip. I could see the cabbie staring at me from the mirror, his eyes nervous. I tried my best to grin like nothing happened and turned into the seat so my voice would be somewhat muffled. I still didn’t trust trying to think my response, especially not with Veronica there stirring up my libido.
“I’m here.” Veronica raised her eyebrows, her eyes going wide. The cabbie just shook his head, no doubt regretting picking us up. I couldn’t say I blamed him.
“We’ve been attacked.” I could hear Rachelle’s thoughts trembling. “Squads of Dread Fiends have struck at DRAC installations all across the city. Even worse, they’ve gone after our members at their homes.”
I hissed. “Is everyone okay?” I knew when I asked it was a foolish question.
Dread Fiends were the shock troops of the Demonarch. What they lacked in brains, they more than made up for in ferocity. More beast than anything, they were bred to fight, born to kill. They did both quite well.
I could hear the hesitation in her voice. “We’ve yet to assess the damage, but I fear for the worst. There are many of our brethren still out of contact. The fiends attacked in waves, picking targets spread too far apart to allow for quick or organized responses.” She paused, then continued as if having just been given new information. “Rahim has formed a search and repel party, but he is not optimistic he will be in time.”
I turned to look at Veronica. By her reaction, it was clear my face reflected my concern. “What do you need me to do, Rachelle? Should I join up with Rahim?”
Veronica must have realized what I was doing because her eyes narrowed and she sat back, listening and waiting for me to finish. She’d seen me do it before. The cabbie just drove faster. He knew crazy when he saw it and he wanted us out of his cab as fast as possible.
“There is little you can do, Frank. DRAC’s headquarters are secure once more, and Rahim will do what he can for our people. Just be on the-”
I didn’t hear the rest because the cabbie stomped on the brakes. In unison, Veronica and I slammed into the divider between the seats. I felt a solid thud as the side of my head smacked into the plastic, pinning my face against it. My thoughts scrambled, the connection with Rachelle was lost.
We bounced back as suddenly as we hit, the car coming to a screeching halt. The two of us ended up in a tangled heap of limbs on the seat. It was like the game Twister, only minus the awkward sexual connotations.
“What the fuck are those things?” the cabbie shrieked, pointing at something in the street I couldn’t see, terror in his quaking voice.
I didn’t even need to look to know what he was asking about. With my luck, it could only be the Dread Fiends Rachelle was talking about. I whipped the door open and dove out, screaming at Veronica to do the same. She didn’t hesitate. On my heels, she hit the asphalt right after I did. Moving forward, I slapped the hood of the car and gestured for the cabbie to retreat. He wasted no time, grinding the gears into reverse, cursing the entire time. Spanish truly is an expressive language. With a choking cloud of burnt rubber swirling about us, I turned to face the fiends as the cab hurtled to safety. Clearly not human, four Dread Fiends stood in front of us as multiple rows of sharpened, rotten black teeth grinned in their cadaverous mouths. Their leathery skin glistened with moist putrescence as a bubbling, yellowish-green fluid oozed from their pores. I wrinkled my nose as the bitter scent of rancid flesh wafted over us. I tried not to gag as it settled thickly in the back of my throat.
Though I’d seen many of the fiends before, it’d always been off in the distance. Their place was the far reaches of Hell, the soul pits, the torment fields. They didn’t mingle with infernal citizens, they were kept apart. I’d never had the odious pleasure of being so close to one of them. It wasn’t on my to-do list, that’s for sure.
Their elongated faces were chiseled in hard bone beneath shaggy mops of knotted, coal-black hair. Sharp yellow growths burst from beneath their waxy skin in bunches, making their faces look like the bastard sons of skeletal porcupines. Their oval eyes shone with an unnatural orange glimmer, focused to a murderous fine point on us. Thick muscles rippled across their wide torsos as they crouched and crept toward us, the sharpened talons on their hands twitching in eager anticipation of the blood to be spilled. Our blood. Less than thrilled about the prospect, I backed away slowly, pushing Veronica behind me as I angled toward the cover of a nearby abandoned tenement. They had no intention of letting us go. With ravenous snarls, which sent dancing shivers rattling down the length of my spine, they charged.
I shoved Veronica toward the boarded-up building and yanked my. 45 out of my waistband. In fluid motion, I swung the pistol up and squeezed the trigger as I went, foregoing accuracy for speed. Turned out, it really didn’t matter how fast I was. I was rewarded with a hollow click of an empty chamber. The gun had run dry.
I fumbled for another cartridge just as the first of the fiends reached me. I had barely ejected the empty clip, the fresh one nowhere near inserted, when the beast slammed into me. I likened the impact to being tackled by a Bullet Train; a stinky, greasy, hairy Bullet Train with claws. I felt my chest cave in as my legs, arms, and head were snapped forward only to whiplash back when we hit the wall behind us. Shards of brick exploded on impact, the wall cracking and giving way, tumbling down on top of us. A gray cloud of mortar dust choked the air as it billowed up around us. I felt the pressure on my chest give way some as the fiend, which lay on top of me, shrugged off the wreckage and stood up. Without mercy, it reared back, its claws shimmering in the hazy light, and slashed at me. I closed my eyes and tried my hardest to sink into the ground.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to rely on that highly overrated defensive maneuver. I heard a guttural gasp above me and felt the fiend pulled off, sliding past my feet, and then it was gone. I opened my eyes in time to see Veronica Judo-tossing the stinky critter back toward his companions. It was a beautiful sight to behold.
“Get up!” she screeched.
Not waiting to see if I listened, she disappeared, the remnants of the wall blocking her from my sight. The fiends dodged their hurled buddy, which rolled past them to land in the street, and shot off after her en masse. They must have thought I was done. I muttered a curse and crawled to my feet. My head pounded out a tribal rhythm as my eyes swirled inside their sockets as I stood. I pushed down the nausea that bubbled in my gut and stumbled out of the hole. Despite it all, I knew what I had to do. I had to help Veronica. Outside, amidst the wreckage of the
