neighborhood. After all the weirdness around my house, the storms created by the Tree of Life were the last straw for most of the people. A whole bunch of them up and moved away, abandoning their homes to never come back. I imagine some of them had gotten caught up in the deadly fall and were killed, but regardless, the nearby population had dwindled in just the last few days. While that was good in a sense, it made it real easy to pin the tail on the paranormal jackass when shit like this went down. Hoping I’d gotten away without being noticed this time, I went back over to watch what Karra was doing.
She lifted one of the werewolf heads and set it on the table where Chatterbox had been just a minute before. The zombie head peeked up from his shelter underneath and gave a crooked smile, not that he could give any other kind. It took me a second to figure out what Karra was doing, staring into the dead wolf’s eyes, but I got it. Unlike me, she didn’t need a living body to interrogate.
After a moment, the wolf’s eyelids fluttered and its eyes filled with reddened life. Its gaze swung around and found Karra’s as it licked its lip, its blackened tongue lolling between its shattered teeth.
“ Mmaasssstttteeeerrrr,” it said in a roughened imitation of Chatterbox’s dragged-out enunciation.
“Why are you here?” Karra asked it.
Despite spending a bunch of time with Chatterbox, and having seen Karra’s powers in action, it was weird watching her carry on a discussion with a dead werewolf.
“ Ttriigggaallltthherrronn.”
What a surprise. Not in the mood for Captain Obvious’ charade, I stormed over and grabbed the werewolf head by its scruff. “No shit, Sherlock, now tell me why you want me.”
Karra must have commanded it to answer because it did without hesitation.
“ Rreeevveeenngge.”
I flung the head into the dining room for the fiends to collect and dropped back onto the couch. The cushions squished. The rutting sounds of Chatterbox’s porn hit me right then and I mashed the remote to shut the TV off.
“Looks like the weres are pissed at me for ruining their attempt at becoming the dominant life forms on the planet.” I let my head fall back into the cushions and ignored the clinging moistness that stuck warmly to my scalp. “No good deed goes unpunished.”
Karra gave me a pity smile, and I peeled myself off the couch and went to the kitchen. I pulled the last of my beers from the fridge and returned to the living room. After Karra waved off my offer of the beer, I popped it open and took a big swig and went to the front door to see if it could be fixed or it needed to be replaced. I ordered the fiend out of the way and it stepped aside, carrying the door with it.
My heart nearly exploded when I saw there was someone standing right outside. The beer fell from my hands and shattered at my feet…again.
Tall, humanoid in shape, and obviously male, the stranger was dressed in what looked like rumpled leather armor. It was covered in strange designs I couldn’t quite figure out. There were too many inconsistencies to the coloring; some parts were a dark brown whereas others were pale, almost pink. My eyes focused and it suddenly hit me that the designs weren’t designs at all, but faces.
The armor stared back at me through dozens of dark and dead eyes, the plates of the suit crafted entirely out of what looked like people. Their torment showed in their frozen expressions. I recognized one of the faces that made up a part of the thigh. It was Asmoday’s.
My gaze snapped to the stranger’s face. He smirked, but nothing in his manner-barring the outfit made out of people-came off as aggressive. Short black hair covered his head except where a curved set of horns erupted from his scalp. They sprouted thick just above his temples and rose up a little before curling toward the back of his head. They ended in sharp points. His eyes were a bright, yellowish-orange and looked like two suns set into the recessed sockets of his skull. The rest of his face was fairly human in shape, a wide nose just above a normal looking mouth.
He grinned at me and shot that perception all to hell. A mouthful of shark-like teeth reflected the inside house lights. I let my senses loose and picked up a conflicting mix of power and emptiness, but there was also a hint of the same oddness I’d felt when scanning Xyx and Hasstor. I recognized his aura.
Without warning, a flash of bluish energy exploded before me, symbols and sigils appearing in the magic, and the stranger disappeared. Tracers of his power were still shimmering on my retinas moments after he was gone.
Karra ran up behind me. “What the hell was that?”
I reached out into the stormy night, unable to detect a presence of any kind. “I think we might have found who was inside the case.”
She pushed past me and surveyed the street. “I felt his power right before I ran out here. What happened? Did he say anything?”
I shook my head. “He ported away without a word. I opened the door and he was standing right here.” I pointed to the porch. “I didn’t sense anything from him until right before he took off. The fiends didn’t react at all.”
We both looked to the sub-demon holding the broken door. It stared at us, but it hadn’t moved an inch since I’d told it to step aside. Ordered to protect me and the house, it should have engaged the guy immediately, but it hadn’t done anything. It acted like it hadn’t even seen him.
A dim bulb flickered in my head. “That would explain how he managed to kill Asmoday without the fiends tearing him a new one. I mean, it doesn’t exactly explain why they aren’t reacting to him, but it does tell me how he could have waded through thousands of them to reach Asmoday.”
“Why would he come here?” Karra asked.
I shrugged. “Apparently, it’s in the bad guy handbook that they have to fuck with me first. I would also imagine my being related to Lucifer,” the name tasted like shit on my tongue, “has something to do with it. I mean, who wouldn’t be pissed after being locked up in a trophy case for who knows how long?”
Karra reached out and took my hand. “You’re not safe here if he can just ignore the fiends.”
“I’m not even sure what he wants. He didn’t say anything or act aggressive. He just stood there and smiled, then poofed.” I glanced toward the storm clouds that obscured the night sky. “You’re probably right, though. I think he was the one behind the specter. I didn’t realize it right away, caught up in how alien he felt, but I’m pretty sure he was the presence I scanned outside the bar.”
“Then come and stay with me.” Karra pulled me into the house. “I can talk to my father about this alien, and maybe he can track him down somehow.”
I shook my head despite wanting nothing more. “It’s obvious I’ve got a big ass target on my back, and I don’t want you in the middle of it any more than you already are. If the weres and E.T. can find me here, they can find me at your place, too. I don’t want to put that on you.”
“Frankie-“
I cut her off. “Don’t Frankie me. You’re the only good thing in my life, and I’m not gonna put you at risk. Lucifer has proven he’s got no problem letting innocent people suffer for his actions, and I’m not gonna let him hurt you any more than he already has.” Karra huffed and put her hands on her hips, but I waggled my finger at her. “I’m used to being on the hit list. It’s just another day at the office, but if I were to lose you to all this bullshit my uncle’s stirred up, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Besides, what would your dad do if you were to get hurt?”
She stared at me a moment with hard eyes, and then sighed, conceding my point.
“You’re the only thing keeping him out of the chaos left behind by God’s disappearance. Add in a quest for revenge by the most powerful Anti-Christ to ever walk the Earth and I might as well have let Gabriel have Heaven. Dying to a storm of deadly ash would be preferable to the Hell Longinus would unleash were he to lose you.”
“You’re not supposed to be the reasonable one.”
“I have my moments, but you know I’m right.”
Karra nodded. “I do, but I don’t like it.” She tried her best to smile, and I kissed her crooked lips.
“Go and be with your dad where I know you’re safe. Find out what you can about the alien. I’ve got my own research to do, and I don’t think it’ll help to have you there.”
She sighed and nodded again, returning my kiss.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. Given who I’ll be with, I’m not too concerned about anyone taking another shot at me.” I leaned in and luxuriated in her. “I’ll call you after a while.”
It took her a few moments to pull away, but she did, at last. With a forced smile, she went into the portal
