Michael (The Airel Saga, Book 2) - By Aaron Patterson Page 0,7
continued to move closer, towering over her by a foot or more.
“Hey,” she said, looking alarmed, “I’ve taken down bigger guys than you…” She widened her stance and dropped her hands to her sides.
“Woman, you are of the Brotherhood. Admit it and stand to fight.” He came off a little bored. Kreios did not want to argue with the demon, he just wanted to kill it and be on to the next. There were so many to kill, so many on which he could spread around the load of pain and suffering.
“Brotherhood? What are you talking about? She tossed her wiry hair in the jaundiced street lighting. The lot was empty other than a few lingering cars. It was past closing time.
Trina Wilson was her given name. She managed and tended the bar. She usually took home over $500 in tips, too, though she wasn’t beautiful. Whatever men saw in her was simply what happened when an excess of alcohol fogged the mind. She was good at working what she had, and it served her well.
More importantly, the demon for whom she played willing host was the Infernal—the leader— of a pod of the Brotherhood in the city of Portland, principality of Oregon. This Infernal had once answered to the Seer—Stanley Alexander’s overthrown master, Tengu.
“As I said,” Kreios continued, “I know who you are.” He stood weighing just shy of three hundred pounds and almost seven feet in height, wearing jeans, athletic shoes and a hoodie, blending into—sort of—the background of Pacific Northwest street scenery. He was massive.
“Dude,” she pleaded. “I just run the bar. I mind my own business. C’mon…you’re gonna pick on a woman?”
Kreios looked around. He didn’t want to have to kill any witnesses tonight. It was better to go in and out clean. “Demon, I am going to kill you, woman or not.” He began to tell his version of a joke: “After all, I believe in equal pay for equal work. If you give me usable information on your… associates…and their whereabouts, I will make your end quick. If not, you will suffer. There is no difference to me.”
She crouched and bared her teeth, hissing. Trina Wilson shook violently and then doubled over. Black wings emerged from her back as her Infernal master exited its place of refuge. The demon’s tail whipped around, clipping an old dented green dumpster and sending it across the parking lot. It careened off the brick wall of the building and smashed into a rusted-out Chevy truck behind Kreios.
He smiled and bent at the knees. “Ah, good,” he said.
“Kreiossss!”
The host Trina staggered away as the winged creature leapt fully free of her body. It was insect-like, its segmented body over ten feet tall, its midsection thick. The wings draped outward by ten feet on each side. The double barbed tail slithered and cracked like a whip.
Trina gathered herself together. Hunched down, she pulled a SIG P-225 from its ankle holster and fired three shots at the angel. The 9mm Parabellum projectiles grazed him but mostly spun out wild.
It stung, and he blinked at her. “You annoy me, woman.” In a single motion he lunged backward to the dumpster and tossed the heavy green steel trash box at her like a wad of paper.
It hit her full in the chest and she went down hard, the upside down dumpster finally pinning her between the asphalt and its grimy metal edge. She shrieked in pain, blood running down her forehead into her eyes from a large gash.
Kreios turned his full attention again toward the demon, but the lot was empty. He looked around, knowing that the demented thing would not run. It would fight.
He looked up just as it fell upon him from above.
A thunderous roar. Black drool flew from the maw of the demon as it waggled its head in apparent victory. It filled its lungs and screeched.
Kreios burst up and out in massive strength, throwing the huge black insect-like mass off him. He grabbed the tail as the demon tumbled end over end and yanked it back toward him, cracking the whip in reverse. The demon yowled in pain.
It flew, pivoting by tail held in the vise of angel hand, up over Kreios’s head in an arc. It landed on its back, raising a cloud of dust around them.
Kreios still held fast to the double-barbed tail. He braced himself to rip it from the beast, but the demon righted itself and rushed him.