Demon at War (The Mike Rawlins Series Book 3) Read online

  Demon immediately ran alongside Jim, bumping into him. “No one understands me like you do, Jim.”

  Mike waved his hand in a dismissive gesture as Jim glanced back at him questioningly. “He’s sucking up. Don’t pay any attention.”

  “Do you have to call in your team?”

  “I hope not,” Mike replied, jogging to Jim’s side. “As you saw, we had a rough night. Maybe we’ll be able to pin down what’s causing the noises, and it’ll just be a presence.”

  When they reached the front of Brennan’s Demon halted, shaking his head. Mike felt the tingle he had begun to recognize as his own inner Haunt radar since crossing over. “It’s a Haunt, Jim.”

  “We have a full house brunch crowd, Mike. Do you need to come back later after hours?”

  “The signal’s weak, Mike,” Demon projected. “I’m figuring just one. It probably took over the ghost I felt the other night. The fracking Haunts are moving around too much for my liking. We need to go in and get a closer read.”

  “We’ll go in and check it out.” Mike slipped his equipment bag off his shoulder. He extracted his iron spike from its leather holster Mike had custom made for it. He then tucked it in under the back of his shirt and jacket.

  Jim led them through the milling customers who ogled the toned down Demon, slinking alongside Mike and Brennan’s manager with his game face on. Mike noticed immediately all levity fled Demon’s features and body language. He paced with a panther’s gait, all senses turned outward to differentiate between the large human crowd and what his sixth sense about Haunts warned him of.

  “Pull Jim back, Mike,” Demon directed as they neared the room. “It’s in there right now or the space above. No question.”

  Mike grabbed Jim’s arm before the manager could lead the way into the small room. “Stay here, Jim. D says it’s there right now. Can you close the door behind us?”

  “Sure, but it’s really cramped in there.” Jim pointed to a doorway next to the liquor room entry way. “This door here leads to the attic storage space. It always sounds like the noises come from above if you need to check there too. Do you want me to get your friend, Denny? I told him I’d let him know what’s going on and if you needed his help.”

  Mike’s decision to place Denny in charge of Demon Inc mission operations shot a feeling of guilt through Mike in an uncomfortable rush. “Don’t say anything yet. Let me and Demon take a look inside first.”

  Jim nodded and backed away as Demon entered the room with Mike at his side, the iron spike in his hand before the manager shut the door. Demon crept around the well-lighted cramped space with his hackles up and teeth bared. Mike switched the iron spike from one hand to the other while scanning the ceiling area cautiously. He gave Demon the room to move around in as he stayed near the entrance.

  “Did you bring anything with you, Mike?”

  “I have my super-soaker full of holy water and a container with blessed salt. I already clipped on my lapel camera. We’re recording right now, and routing directly to Demon Inc.”

  “You are the man! The damn Haunt went through the ceiling right here.” Demon sat and looked straight up. Squirt the ceiling in a spread pattern. The room’s small anyway. Then lay some blessed salt over the floor. I’m betting it’s confined to the same areas the ghost it took over haunts. You know of course if we screw this up you’re going to get raked over the coals for not getting Denny’s input, right?”

  Mike took out his super-soaker and began methodically to spray the ceiling. “I guess we’ll just have to not screw this up, Farfel.”

  “One of these days, kid… one of these days,” Demon snarled.

  Mike grinned while spreading blessed salt in a thin layer over the floor. “Okay, let’s go see what kind of trouble we can get into. I rubbed Colloidal Silver all over my spike, and it’s already added into the super-soaker tank. At least we won’t stink bomb the whole restaurant if I have to spike the Haunt.”

  “I’m thinkin’ the moment reach the storage area, it’ll try and phase down into the liquor room. The holy water sprayed ceiling will freeze it in place momentarily. That’s when we hit it. You go high, and I’ll go dead center low.”

  “On it.” Mike opened the door, coming face to face with the anxious Brennan’s manager. “We have to go up, Jim. We’ve sealed the liquor room so the Haunt can’t come down. Keep the door closed though anyway while we’re up in the storage space. Is there walking room up there?”

  “You’ll have to crouch a bit. We use it as a storage area so you’ll see a lot of boxes and crates around. It’s well lighted. Good luck.”

  Mike patted the manager’s shoulder as he went by with the equipment bag slung over his shoulder and his iron spike held close to his body. Demon led the way to the narrow stairway. The lighting in the attic storage space immediately blinked and went out. Mike pulled his high output, wide range flashlight out of his equipment bag, shifting it to the hand not already holding his spike at the ready. Demon bounded up the last few steps, growling and leaping from side to side with Mike storming in behind him. With Demon blocking the storage area Mike put his flashlight on the floor and took out his super-soaker. He sprayed a thin stream while dragging the super-soaker rapidly back and forth, throwing a spray of holy water over the storage area.

  An ear piercing scream heralded the flitting, smoking, dull green vision of a Haunt in the guise of a nineteenth century woman, outfitted with Haunt fangs and claws. It dived down into the floor, only to shriek once again in pain as it ran into the holy water barrier.

  “Easy partner… easy,” Demon cautioned, watching the Haunt strain upwards. It slowed, tortured by the holy water spray with an agonized, hollow eyed grimace over its features. As it flowed into sight Mike kicked the flashlight beam slightly to point at it. “Now!”

  Demon rushed in, ripping at the Haunt’s middle, while Mike ran and leaped at it with spike descending toward its skull. The Haunt slashed upwards in a panic, catching Mike across his chest as the Colloidal Silver laced iron spike impaled its head. Demon’s fangs ripped into the Haunt’s middle at the same time. It vaporized, leaving only the wounded and bleeding Mike to hit the floor, his spike rolling away from his hand.

  “Get Denny,” Mike directed, his hands clutching shirt and jacket into the open wounds.

  Demon streaked down the stairwell and past the startled Jim. He ran through the already hushed restaurant patrons who had heard the Haunt’s death shriek. In seconds, he invaded the room set aside for Demon Inc meetings, where the teens on a group date were eating. Denny spotted Demon rushing in, and hurried around the table to meet him. Demon gave him a jerk of the head before taking off again back through the restaurant with Denny running after him. Demon led him to the storage room where Mike clutched his shirt and jacket in a bloody compress against his wounds.

  “Mike! What the hell?” Denny rushed over to his friend’s side, stunned at the amount of blood.

  “Get my super-soaker, Denny! Soak me down. I still have half a tank left.” Mike tore open his jacket and shirt, revealing slashes to the bones of his ribcage. Blood welled out of the wound again without the makeshift compress.

  Denny grabbed up the super-soaker without another word. He sprayed the mixture point blank into the wounds with Mike catching all the residual mixture up in his shirt and jacket. Smoky vapor steamed from the wounds as the holy water/Colloidal Silver mix neutralized the Haunt’s poisoning slashes, closing the deep furrows as it had before when Mike was slashed. When Denny emptied the super-soaker, Mike held his shirt and jacket against his chest, letting the soaked clothing remain against his skin.

  “I thought Jim just wanted to say hi,” Denny said. “I didn’t know he was recruiting for a Haunt mission. Another half an inch deeper and you’d be dead. I thought you weren’t going to do anymore of these rogue missions.”

  Chapter Two

  Seductive Surprise

  Mike nodded as he sat up. “We agreed to investigate. D only felt one Haunt.
I had my small equipment bag I carry everywhere now, and we decided to do a quickie on the Brennan’s Casper. I wasn’t sure the mixture without the charge would vaporize the Haunt. D and I thought hitting it at the same time would insure we wouldn’t make a mess of the place.”

  “Frodo ain’t buyin’ it, Mike,” Demon told him, watching Denny’s face. “He knows you went rogue on him to feed the darkness.”

  “Even I’m not sure of that,” Mike replied telepathically. He shrugged and stood up, tucking in his shirt. “Thanks for watering me down, Denny. You go on back with the girls. Joanie’s probably freaking out. We’ll stay here and make sure everything’s okay. Tell Jim we’ll be done in a minute.”

  “Sure Mike. We’ll see you two out in the limo when we finish.” Denny left quickly, his footsteps echoing down in the stairwell.

  “Leaping for an iron spike head shot… really? You could have drilled that Casper right between the horns from the front, and we could have kept Frodo out of the loop.”

  “Yeah,” Mike agreed, “the head shot wasn’t too smart. I was caught up in the moment. Hey, I didn’t get any blood on the floor. I’m wearing it all.”

  Demon launched into an immediate snorting show of amusement. “Another bright side is you got raked again without being cut in half. A few dozen more and you’ll only feel some pain.”

  “A few dozen? I think I’ll try to be a little faster.”

  “Maybe a little smarter might be better.”

  “That too. C’mon, Farfel, let’s go down and calm our friend Jim. We’ll see if he can maybe give you a quick shot and beer in the liquor room while I sweep the salt.”

  “I’d take a chunk out of your ankle if you didn’t already look like night of the living dead. Maybe I better not have the shot and beer. Who knows? Maybe the movie theater will have a Haunt too. Maybe you can make out with the next one since you want to get so close. We still have to find out how the hell Brennan’s ghost grew a Haunt. Jim told us their whole crew watches the Demon Inc Channel on YouTube. I’m thinking someone heard about the summoning spells and decided to have a go.”

  “Let’s low key that investigation. We’ll leave it to Jim. I don’t want to alienate the only guy that can put all of Demon Inc in a room with good food, boilermaker for you, and no parents.”

  “Good point.” Demon trekked down the stairs with the bloody Mike right behind.

  Jim spotted them from where he was attending to the inflow of customers. Mike and Demon remained near the stairwell until the manager could break free to come over.

  “Your friend Denny looked grim so I didn’t question him after he told me you two would be down shortly. That’s a lot of blood, Mike. How’d it go?”

  “You were right about having a Haunt here, Jim. It was summoned into the ghost that was haunting the place in a benign way. We’d like you to do some investigative work to find out who summoned it, because a Haunt infestation is dangerous. I know it probably seems like a video game watching it on YouTube, but these things are hell bent on establishing a presence in as many areas as they can on a down low basis. They’re trying to get a foothold here to destroy us.”

  Jim’s features flowed from surprise to sober determination. “I think I know a few candidates for conjuring the Haunt. I’ll follow up on it. Then these things don’t just bang a few things together and flit around once in a while. When they decide to make their move, they can attack us like I guess happened to you.”

  “You have the basics down. We cleared out a few nests already with portals opening from their world into ours. This isn’t a game. These things will wipe us out if we don’t stop them,” Mike replied. “Thanks for helping us out. Show me where your broom or vacuum is and I’ll clean the blessed salt on your liquor room floor. If you can spare a beer and shot bowl for my partner here, he can down it while I’m sweeping. I hope the sound of that Haunt didn’t scare a bunch of your customers away.”

  Jim shook his head. “We didn’t lose anyone. Forget the cleaning. I’ll take care of that. Stay right here by the liquor room though. The beer and shot bowl is coming right up. I wish you’d had time to film our Brennan’s Haunt.”

  “I did. It’ll be on YouTube by tomorrow. I’ll call you when Denny uploads it.”

  “That’s great, Mike! Be right back.” Jim hustled away toward the bar.

  “How much of your lacerated chest made it into the movie, Sparky?”

  “Crap!”

  * * *

  When Denny returned to the room Jim had set aside, he saw the relief on Joanie’s face. “Everything’s okay. It turned out Jim did have a Haunt here. I’m betting Mike thinks it was conjured into the ghost Demon noticed the last time we were here.”

  “That is so sick!” Mandy grabbed Denny’s hand as he sat down. “What did you do?”

  “Doused Mike’s chest in a holy water/Colloidal silver mix. He got nicked, but he’s okay. Mike and Demon sent the Haunt along to hell, so Brennan’s is clean. The manager’s really happy.”

  “He got worse than nicked, didn’t he?”

  Denny nodded. “Yeah, but he healed even faster than before, Joanie. It looks like Mike’s not taking a meeting on Casper capers unless the rest of Demon Inc is involved.”

  “Is he well enough to drive us around still?” Melissa asked. “I mean shouldn’t he go to a hospital? I’m really confused about the dog and what all of you do in that Demon Inc business.”

  “Sometimes we are too, Mel,” Joanie replied. “If Mike wasn’t alright, Denny wouldn’t be here eating. Demon’s more than a dog.”

  “Your brother’s really something,” Danielle said. “I was in the parking lot when he took out that big guy that Brad tried to harass you guys with. Then he goes and wins a football game as the stand-in quarterback when Brad got suspended. That scar he has on his face now is scary.”

  “He spiked a Haunt, but it snagged him.” Mandy’s voice took on an excited tone. “I can’t wait to see the full scenes when that SyFy Channel does their Halloween special on Demon Inc. The YouTube clip made it look like the Haunt killed him. I guess we all should be taking this these Haunts more seriously.”

  “The only thing you can do is make sure you don’t mess around with Ouija Boards or any kind of conjuring or summoning game,” Denny said. “The Haunt danger multiplies every time they’re able to take over someone like they did with Mary Ansel from our school office and Ms. Kincaid.”

  “Enough Haunt talk.” Melissa put her napkin down. “What do you all want to do after the movie? I say we play ‘Truth or Dare’, or better yet, ‘Spin the Bottle’.”

  “Where the hell are we going to do that?”

  Danielle giggled. “Not at your house, Joanie. That’s for sure. We’ll play at my house. My folks went down to Carmel for the day. They won’t be back until around nine tonight.”

  “You don’t know my brother very well if you think he’ll let us pull a stunt like that.”

  “Don’t tell him,” Melissa said. “We’re supposed to be at Danielle’s from the time the matinee is over. He won’t want to hang around outside for hours. You can tell him you’ll call for a pickup. How about it Denny?”

  Denny could feel his face turning fire red. He couldn’t believe the conversation had changed directions from Haunts to ‘Spin the Bottle’ in five seconds. Life or death situations like Mike’s wound only moments before didn’t faze him anymore, but interacting with Joanie and her friends had him stuttering for words.

  “Say something,” Mandy urged, reaching down to grip Denny’s leg. “I see on your face you want to walk on the wild side.”

  “I…I thought ‘Spin the Bottle’ had to have… you know… an equal number of girls and guys. Mike reads me like an old dog-eared novel. He’ll know something’s up.”

  “Denny will tip him off anyway. He’s Mike’s groupie,” Joanie said, regretting it immediately as she saw the look of determination flash over Denny’s face.

  “I’m in,” Denny agreed. “How do we do this
then with just me?”

  “If the bottle stops at one of us, the one it’s pointed at kisses you,” Danielle replied. “If it stops at you, then you spin again and whoever it points at has to take off a piece of clothing, and kiss you.”

  Joanie popped out of her chair incredulously, waving her hands at Danielle. “Are you nuts? This was supposed to be a cute group date with a movie. My brother threw in a fancy limo ride. Now it’s kiss and strip?”

  “We could just have Mike drop us off at Danielle’s place with Denny, and you can go home,” Melissa said.

  Joanie sat back down with a stunned expression. “What’s gotten into you three?”

  Her friends giggled with traded glances at each other as if Joanie had been the only one not in on the plan. Denny decided he would let this all play out. He had learned one thing for sure, even Mike didn’t try to decipher what went on in the heads of teenage girls. Denny felt better Joanie understood how goofy her girlfriends were being, but he didn’t feel like causing a scene that would only make it worse for her.

  “What do you think, Denny?”

  “I think you’re trying to make me mental, and it’s working, Mandy.” The giggling laughter his statement elicited convinced Denny he was on the right track. “You want to stretch the boundaries, then okay, I’ll let you all experiment on me. Only one rule – anyone feels uncomfortable and says no more, then the game’s over. Agreed?”

  Joanie’s friends looked and nodded at each other.

  “We’re on then,” Danielle stated. “Why don’t we go over to the movie theater and play video games until the movie starts?”

  “Let me text Mike, and see if everything’s a go with him and the limo.” Denny quickly extracted his iPad from his bag. He sent Mike a text with his fingers flying over the keys as he added exactly what the girls had planned at Danielle’s. “There. He’ll answer in a moment.”

  Mike’s reply came within minutes. It read ‘sic, u b covered’. Denny stood up. “Okay, let’s go. Mike’s all set.”

  “We’ll make a stop at the restroom on our way out,” Joanie said, getting instant agreement from her friends. “Can you wait by the door for us?”