God Touched - 01 (18 page)

     My squad found me a few minutes later and Sarge called for a medic.  I waived him off, indicating he should help someone seriously injured.  The last thing I needed was for a medically trained individual to document my rapidly healing wounds.

The efficient machine that is the NYPD soon had generators, lights and organization. The Special Situation Squad was running things and pretty quick Velasquez, and Roma pulled me into a quiet corner to debrief me, while DeMarco and Aikens looked over the sophisticated drug lab that had been found in one corner of the vast room. Sommers and Takata moved to the dark part of the room, their weapon lights illuminating the wreckage of double industrial doors leading into a tunnel. Joined by one of the few intact Entry teams, they followed the carnage into the tunnels beyond.

     Roma and Velasquez
both listened carefully as I ran through my part in the altercation with the Damnedthing and Hellbourne.  The Inspector paused me for a moment and called Aikens back over, then had me restart my narrative from the beginning.

  “Chet, you ever come across a mention of a Damnedthing before?” Roma asked the skin
ny technician.  Aikens
thought
about it
, then answered, “I don't remember any details, Inspector, but there is something vaguely familiar about it.  I'll need to delve into the archives and make some calls.”

“Do that now.  I'm going to need more information about it before I can even attempt to explain it to the Commissioner,” Roma said.   I learned a lot from that sentence.  Roma had more juice than I thought if he reported directly to the NYPD Commissioner.

  Aikens left to get his research underway and I continued with my play by play.  When I got to the odd conversation between myself and the Hellbourne, Gina interrupted with a question.

“Have the demons ever talked to you before?” she asked.

“Well the free floating or geographic kind, the ones you guys rate on your scale ten system, almost always talk to me.  Taunting, insulting, thre
atening, it's all part of their
own brand of psych-ops.  But the mobile Hellbourne have never addressed me before.  Hellbourne don't linger or hesitate when I show up, they just react really quickly.  I think it's because they can't track me.  I'm cloaked from them like they’re cloaked from everybody else.  Pisses them off.”

“But this one knew you?”

“Well, they all
know
of me.  They always know stuff about me.  That's why I don't have friends or particularly, girl friends.  They would know immediately and use that person against me,” I explained.

They both looked at me blankly for a moment, then Gina's mouth dropped open as she thought about what I had just said.

“Explain that again,” Roma said.

So I detailed the results of my one and only date in high school.  This time their expressions reflected a much worse emotion: pity.

“But wait, didn't that Hellbourne say they would take care of your girlfriend?” Gina asked.

I had changed that part of my narrative.  I didn't mention the vampire part, just the girlfriend part.

“It was referring to a girl that they have already targeted.  I've been actively protecting her and they aren't happy about it,” I said.

“Who is the girl?” Roma asked.  I hesitated, not ready to divulge her name and he frowned at my silence.  He started to speak, probably an order, but
Velasquez
interrupted.

“It was the girl you helped at Plasma last Friday.  It was Tatiana Demidova, wasn't it?” she guessed.

My face gave me away and Roma rocked back on his heels in shock.  After a pause he spoke.

“When we spoke yesterday, Chris, I had no idea that you knew the Demidovas.  Gina discovered that little fact when she did some follow
up calls to your Precinct Commander.  I've been interested in the Demidovas for years.  And I think you know why, don't you?”

I still kept quiet, unwilling to worsen the situation.

“Listen up Gordon, you WILL tell me what you know, do you understand me?”

Gina spoke up again, her eyes watching me thoughtfully.  “Actually, I don't think he will, Sir.”

Roma looked at her in surprise.

“Think about it, Sir.  He is protecting this ....girl with his life from demons.  And she is already on the demons' radar so to speak.  On top of that, she's a drop dead knockout.  It's obvious, Sir.  He likes her or maybe even loves her.”

She was too perceptive.  I looked down at a point on the floor between them and focused hard on a chip in the concrete there.  Roma pondered Gina's revelation and then finally spoke.

“You like her in spite of what she is?  You do know what she is, don't you?”  he asked.

“I'll take your silence as answer.  Boy, I gotta tell you I didn't see this one coming. How can you reconcile your fight against demons with your....your relationship with
her
?”

That pissed me off.

“Do you know them? Sir?
Or are you judging all of them on stereotypes?”

He stepped back at the tone in my voice, which could have been a lot worse.  She might not want anything to do with me, but I would be damned if I would get lectured by someone who had never met her.

“Regardless of what you know or think you know, the Hellbourne want her dead and that should be reason enough to protect her,” I finished.

“I've seen the results of their handiwork, Gordon, and if you think she is all warm and fuzzy you’re kidding yourself.”

“Sir, when I was seventeen, I participated in a Search and Rescue in Yellowstone with my grandfather.  We eventually found the missing hiker, or what was left of him.  We also found both grizzly and cougar sign.  Both had fed on him and there wasn't enough left for the coroner to decide which had killed him.  But while it taught me to respect the hell out of bears and cats, it didn't teach me to hate them all.”

Roma was white-faced by this point and started to lean forward for his rebuttal, but
Velasquez
gently touched his arm and he stopped himself with what appeared to be a tremendous effort.  With a foul oath, he turned and stormed away.

Velasquez
looked after him for a moment, then turned back to me.  “You should know that one of them killed his wife three days after they returned from their honeymoon.  He is not....a fan of theirs.”

“Well, Gina, I'm sorry for his loss.  I really am, but that doesn't mean they’re all worthy of his hate.  Some are honorable and find alternative ways to survive.”

“She must be pretty special, your girlfriend, that is.”

“Well, she's not my girlfriend.  She doesn't feel that way toward me.”

“Hmm, then she's pretty stupid,” she said and left before I could think to say anything else.

I got back to the Precinct a couple of hours later, catching a ride with a returning squad car.  Roma had finally calmed down and ordered me to report to him at Police Plaza at one PM the next day. 

The final statistics of the raid had been interesting. There had been four five- man entry teams in that pitch black basement, plus myself.  One man was dead and four more seriously wounded and in critical condition. The rest had wounds of varying severity, but no one else had died.  It was bad, but it should have been worse. The only reason the Damnedthing hadn’t killed everyone in the room was because it hadn’t chosen to.  The Hellbourne wouldn’t show mercy, so I had to believe that the monster had avoided inflicting its full fury on those of us in its path, probably paying a price for its defiance.

      Roma had briefed the Commissioner, who showed up in an entourage of high- ranking brass and despite my attempts at avoiding attention, I had been forced to meet the big man himself.  He was actually pretty decent, just nodding at me and shaking my hand. That the whole thing had been a trap for me
by the Hellbourne
was only obvious to Roma, Gina, and myself. 

     So, I found myself walking to my car from the Sixty-Eighth, when a small figure appeared silently across the street from me.  I stopped and groaned at the sight of the spiky haired little vampire.  “Hey Chris, how ya doin?” Lydia asked quietly.

“Lydia, what the hell do you want?  Can’t I go a whole day without a vampire toying with me?”

“Look, I just need to make sure that you’re all right.  Tatiana really needs to be reassured, all right?”

I snorted in disgust.  “Yeah, sure. Of course she does.  Riiight! Why would I be alright?”

“Please Chris, it’s been a really bad night all the way around and I just gotta make sure.  She’s been ….doing poorly and when you went down in that pit, well, let’s just say that we all had a bad time of it.”  I was closer now and I could see that she was looking tired and her clothes were torn in places. I stared at her for a few minutes, not feeling sorry for her in the slightest.

. “Chris, you gotta know she was lying last night, right?  I mean you couldn’t believe that?  She’s the worst liar ever. She was trying to drive you away…to protect you.  It was a really stupid idea, one that was not herown even.  It was Galina’s.” 

“Lydia, I
saw
how ashamed she was for having an ‘infatuation’ with a human. And ya know what?  I think she’s right.  Life was bad enough before, but to think I might have had some friends for a few days and then find out it was all a ‘mistake’?  Well, it turns out I was wrong last Friday when I said the worst you could do was kill me.  Nope, having
nobody
is worse, much worse.  And you all had a bad night? Give me a friggin break! You were having a party!  How bad could it be?  Someone picked the wrong appetizer?  Should have gone with Italians instead of the Swedes, maybe?”

“You’re a real friggin asshole,” she answered. “Our
party?
Our party consisted of Tatiana trying to get to you and it took the whole damn Coven to stop her!  She threw her father through a wall and if
all
three Elders hadn’t been there, she would have gotten out and gone into that pit after you!” She was yelling now.

  I was just about to respond in kind when the growling started.  Not a vampire type growl, or even a were.  This growl shook the very air around us.  Lydia pinpointed its source first, turning her head like
radar
till she was staring at an alley opening behind us.  I already had a pretty good idea what was doing the growling, ‘cause I had heard a lot of it a few hours ago, and I quickly put myself between it and Lydia. 

Two red eyes appeared about six and a half feet off the ground, but there was nothing else around them.  Lydia started to move around me.

  “Dammit Lydia!  Stay behind me.  There is nothing you can do to this thing!”

The eyes moved out of the ally but in a circling motion, like the Damnedthing was trying to get behind me.  Why didn’t it just charge me?  I took a chance and scanned it with my Sight.  Same red, green and purple aura, same grizzly bear outline.  But the first time I had seen it, its aura had been streaked and faded in places.  Now it looked better, the color more solid, particularly the purple. Great!  Sparky was even stronger now.

“What the hell is that thing?” Lydia asked in a shaky voice, clutching my arm in a death grip.

“That’s the Damnedthing I was dancing with in the basement. Ah Lydia, I’m gonna need that arm and you’re just about to break it.” 

She eased up instantly and I concentrated on the huge monster in front of me.

“It’s scared of you?” she asked as it continued to circle and I continued to turn, my arm keeping Lydia behind me.

I snorted.

“Are you kiddin?  I can’t even slow this thing down.  Bullets don’t touch it.  Hell, I doubt a tank would win against this thing.”

It was huffing as it circled and I was struck by how really bear-like its actions were.  I put both hands up in front of me and formed a shield of purple aura, not at all certain it would help.  The giant Damnedthing immediately leaned up against my shield, the impact about knocking me to my knees.  Then it
rubbed
its neck on the shield.

   “What’s it doing?” Lydia asked

“Well I’m not a hundred percent certain, but I think it’s scratching its neck on the strongest shield I can make.” I answered.

“Chris, what are we gonna do?”

The big red eyes swiveled to look at us and I had the strangest mental picture flash through my head.  It was like a video of myself and Lydia a few moments earlier, shouting at each other in anger.  And suddenly I had the oddest feeling that Sparky was trying to get at Lydia.  My brain spun for a moment and it occurred to me that he hadn’t started growling till Lydia and I started yelling at each other.

I spoke quietly.

  “Yo, Sparky!  You can’t have her.  She’s my friend.” 

I had the same mental flash as before, with the yelling and everything and somehow I
understood
that was his view and he was sending me that picture.

“Yeah, we were pissed at each other.  Friends can do that.  Doesn’t mean I want anything bad to happen to her.”