This World of Love and Strife, page 7
“Okay,” Reggie said, then after watching Maggie’s body quake with fury: “You almost done?”
“Almost. For good, this time.”
“Whatever you say to me just rolls right off. That’s because a good person can’t hurt me. You’re one of the best. We need you around here. You know that, and that’s why you won’t leave.”
“Try me.”
“Nothing short of a cataclysm will turn you away, otherwise you’d have been gone years ago. I’m not saying that to get under your skin. I’m letting you know I don’t take you for granted. There’s a million different ways Nancy could’ve been taken care of. All of them lead to her death except one, and that’s a whole lot worse than death. I can’t prove that to you without compromising you.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You heard my conversation with Cato,” Reggie said, and then continued after Maggie nodded: “Your mind immediately jumped to Cato possibly being insane. He’s unstable, but not insane. He and I come from similar backgrounds.”
“I thought you two didn’t know each other.”
“We were aware of each other, but never met until that fateful night, which I’m sure you remember.”
“What am I missing?”
“We’re involved with shady business. That’s obvious. It goes deeper than you can possibly imagine. I’m hesitating if I should tell you. Not because I don’t trust you, but I don’t think you’ll be able to grasp it.”
“Just get on with it.”
“I’ve never told an outsider about it,” Reggie said, realizing he was extremely nervous. He hid his trembling hands and went on: “We’re part of a group called the Vanguard. It’s a cabal that goes back at least thousands of years. They’ve got people in positions of power all across the world. The mayor of Lumina City is part of it. They’ve got plenty of people in the White House. Not sure if the president is, but people around him certainly are.”
“As far-fetched as it sounds, it explains why the two of you have gotten away with acting so brazenly.”
“We don’t get a free pass or anything. It’s just a little leeway,” Reggie said. “And don’t get the idea that it’s wholly political. Most of the Vanguard don’t wear suits and shake hands with elite. At its heart, it’s more of a military operation.”
“Against who?”
“Demons,” Reggie said, unable to suppress a nervous smile. “You probably aren’t going to believe me.”
“Whether you’re lying or telling the truth, get on with it.”
“Like I said, Cato isn’t insane. There’s creatures-let’s call them entities-breaching our world from somewhere else. Wherever they come from, they’re like spirits. They get in people’s heads and control their thoughts. Everyone deals with them to some degree. It’s how they anchor themselves in our world and eventually manifest. The Vanguard has been around for so long, they’ve got their comings and goings down like clockwork. They got each demon’s appearance down to the day. Most of them, at least. There are people unaffiliated with the Vanguard who try to manipulate the demons to appear earlier. Some of them even manage to gain a small degree of influence over them.”
“This is too much.”
“Well, that’s where me and Cato come in. Demons thrive in the dregs of society. Control the dregs, control the demons.”
“Are you sure the two of you weren’t brainwashed by some kind of weird cult into doing their dirty work? It’s not like you can see these things.”
“Come on. Do you think I’m stupid?”
“No, but I don’t know much about you. How did you end up with these people? You’ve told me about your childhood before. How’d you go from that to this?”
“It happened when I saw one of those things. It’ll be fifteen years next month,” Reggie started, only to pause for a drink. Maggie handed him a beer. After a long gulp, he still hesitated. It wasn’t a matter of shame or secrecy. He hadn’t felt as comfortable around someone like Maggie since he started with the Vanguard.
“You look scared,” she said.
“What?” he said defensively.
“I believe you, Reggie.”
“Like I said, it was almost fifteen years ago,” Reggie began, then after another sip of beer and deep breath, went on: “Me and my two friends, Nick and Ramirez, went to see a movie with some girls. I don’t remember much of that part. Guess it was another life. Anyway, we split from them and headed for an abandoned warehouse to drink the last of the booze we had stashed. The place was where that fancy Italian restaurant is now. I think it’s called Rizzo’s. The old building was a lot taller. We’d get on the top floor and toss the bottles down at bums. Revenge for drinking our stuff when we weren’t around. They didn’t go inside until past midnight, probably because handouts went dry around then. I remember the smell. You’d think you were up to your nostrils in a sea of piss. That night was different. It smelled like something was burning, mixed with something foul. Sulphur, I later learned. We looked around a bit to make sure nothing was on fire. On the top floor, we found a dead bum. His guts were ripped out of his chest. Blood was all over the place. On the floor and the wall and the ceiling. My first thought was a bomb went off in his gut. What the hell else could cause something like that? Stupid Ramirez walked up to the dead guy, right through the blood pool and everything. Nick told him to get the hell out of there, while I was stunned. Not just by the sight of it all, but his damn confidence. How do you walk up to something like that so sure of yourself? I had a lot of time to think about it over the years. Demons have all sorts of tricks. I thought maybe it made him see something or was playing some kind of siren song we couldn’t hear. The only trick the thing had was camouflage. It leapt from the ceiling on top of him. He struggled like hell for a few seconds. If he said anything, I couldn’t hear it over Nick’s screaming. I was trying not to shit myself. Wish I could tell you I had the urge to save him, but I didn’t even understand. Didn’t know if I should run or what. I just watched. This demon, I later found out was named Vescoria, had one arm in Ramirez’s stomach and the other ripping at his face. These things always go for the eyes first.”
“Vescoria?”
“It’s a silly name. The thing is like a jellyfish with four arms. Four arms to shovel food in its big mouth. Poor Ramirez,” Reggie took another sip of beer, remembering his friend’s corpse. Nothing but red jelly from the waist up, legs melted down to fat and bone. “It killed him. Seemed like it took forever. Neither of us had the courage to do anything. Not until it started running at us. Well, it was more like cartwheeling, its frills flying around like a windmill. We went for the stairs. Nick was a much faster runner than me. He was on the next floor before I got to the end of the stairs. I could hear Vescoria behind me. Sounded like a piece of cloth flapping in a rough wind. If I turned around, it’d have gotten me. Luckily, when I got to the top step, a guy came up from my side. I saw a bright explosion come out of his shotgun. Silver coated buckshot. Only then did I turn around. Vescoria was lying in a heap, and that crazy bastard jumped on top of it. He stabbed it with something and backed off. A silver stake to its heart. God knows how he found it so fast. The things anatomy isn’t exactly human.”
“Not even a scratch on you?”
“Not from him,” Reggie said, standing. He lifted up his shirt. He had one scar near the side of his waist and a long one going down his back. “I’ve encountered three more of these bastards. Staked one myself.”
“How did you go from running to fighting them?”
“Well, the guy that saved us was Lucian Blake. He was young at the time, probably around Cato’s age. It was his first solo kill. He wouldn’t let me and Nick leave the warehouse until we talked to some people. To be honest, he scared me almost as much as the monster, so I didn’t budge. Nick took Ramirez’s death hard. A few guys came to confirm the kill and told us to go home. ‘Don’t bother telling anyone. They won’t believe you,’ one of them said. Lucian offered to drive us home. Our conversation wasn’t too different than the start of ours. Nick wanted to kill more of the things. I had nothing better to do with my life. Sure as hell didn’t share his enthusiasm.”
“And he recruited you right there?”
“Not too different than talking to an army recruiter. Our boot camp is a hell of a lot harder, I’m sure. It was three years of hard labor until we saw our next demon. That’s how I got the scar on my back. The bastard had arms like blades. Would’ve cut me down the middle if Nick hadn’t dove onto it. He didn’t,” Reggie trailed off. It was a while until he continued: “I tried prying the thing off him. Hacked at it with a knife. If I had something better, maybe it would’ve gotten off Nick in time. It just cut right through him so damn fast. Chewed through his guts like jelly.”
“Did you kill it?”
“No. Lucian did. Saved my ass.”
“I never got the impression the two of you were friends.”
“He’s my boss. Sure, I’ve got a certain amount of loyalty and respect for him. I wouldn’t die for him. Then again, I wouldn’t die for anyone. I’m not built like that. It’s why I’m here.”
“How did that end up happening?”
“Lucian was the best candidate for the job and he trusted me enough to help out. I was familiar with Lumina City, so it all worked out in the end.”
“This is story is too long for you to make up on the spot. Still, I don’t know if I completely believe it.”
“It’d be weird if you did,” Reggie said, shrugging. “It’s all the same.”
“What about Cato?”
“He never told me much. I only know how he ended up here. Two years back, there was a civil war in the Vanguard. Let’s call them white hats and black hats. Supposedly all the black hats died. That’s a good thirty percent of the Vanguard. More than half of the white hats died, so that’s at least twenty more percent. A good chunk deserted. These are called apostates. Cato’s one of them. The thing with the apostates, most of them left after seeing how devastated the Vanguard were. A lot of them were hunted down and killed, which is the typical protocol going back millennia, but the Vanguard are in such sad shape, we’ve just let them stay in hiding at this point. Cato’s an exception because he ran from the battle. His mentor was killed by one of the black hats. He took up his mentor’s sword and ran away. I wasn’t around, but from what I hear, it was a pathetic sight. He was considered a prodigy. Now he’s a disgrace that’s marked kill on sight.”
“Yet you let him live.”
“He’s extremely useful. I don’t respect any of the laws in this country. Why would I respect the Vanguard’s?”
“How about respect for Cato?”
“I had a feeling it would come down to that eventually.”
“You admitted to using him. He could die!”
“He’d love that.”
“Nobody wants to die, Reggie.”
“Okay. He doesn’t value his life. Can’t prove me wrong there.”
“It’s still sickening. It’s all so damn sickening! If you wanted to convince me Nancy’s death was justified, it didn’t work.”
“I just gave you the reason. It’s up to you to justify it. I did. Cato did.”
“He’s losing his mind over it. So am I.”
“You want out?”
“How dare you talk to me like that? After everything we’ve been through.”
“We’ve been through a lot, and I’d hate for you to leave, but it could get much worse. It’s bound to at some point. I didn’t mean to sound callous about it. In all honesty, I’d rather you left. No matter how much I tease you, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you. Why stick around here?”
“Why do you?”
“Wherever I’d go, Lucian would find me. I don’t know if he’d kill me. Probably depends on how long it’d take to find me. He sure as hell wouldn’t give me a second chance. I took a vow. I’m in this for life.”
“What if he let you go?”
“Hypothetically? I’m fine working here. Not like I can retire. I’m too much of a scoundrel to go straight. I guess I’d be okay without the supernatural crap. That’s the stuff Cato begs for. He wants nothing to do with my side of work. We’ve got a good thing going. Not like he’s tied here, either. How about answering my question?”
“You’ve got the wrong idea about me. I’m more like you. I wasn’t a very good nurse. I feel like I belong here.”
“If that’s so, then I’m grateful to have you. Unlike me and Cato, you can bow out whenever you want.”
“I won’t,” she said, standing. “It’s almost time to open. I’ll take care of everything downstairs. In the meantime, clean this pigsty. It’s disgraceful.”
“Thanks for the break, madam,” Reggie said. Maggie left the room, slamming the door behind her.
A few hours later, a police officer stopped by the tavern. He asked Reggie for any information on Nancy, who was last seen at Nirvana Tavern before she passed away at her apartment. Reggie explained that she was a regular, and though he didn’t speak with her much, she seemed to get along with everyone. He didn’t see her leave, but he did remember her mentioning something about getting a cab.
Reggie stayed in earshot of Maggie when the officer questioned her. She explained that Nancy was friends with many of the frequent patrons, though it didn’t seem like their relationships ever went beyond the bar. She often went home alone, which she frequently referred to as unfortunate to Maggie. Nancy was deeply troubled and admitted to using drugs in the past. Maggie had the feeling she was still using but didn’t feel close enough to Nancy to bring it up. The poor girl went home alone that night, and though Maggie cried, she couldn’t feign surprise at the inevitable suicide.
“It’s all so tragic, you know?” she said, breaking into full blown sobs. “If only someone had taken her home, she’d still be alive.”
Reggie was amazed at Maggie’s performance. The tears were so real, yet the words entirely false. The situation had eaten at her far worse than he thought. No doubt she felt enormous guilt. Her lie to the cop was likely cathartic. Now she was officially complicit in their crime.
Chapter Six
Cato took one step into the Levant Casino before a burly man in a suit approached him. When he took another step, the man’s pasty features tightened into a frown. He grabbed Cato roughly by the shoulder.
“You don’t get to just walk in here,” he said.
“Settle down, Ralph,” a voice called out from across the lobby. Cato recognized Hector, and as he moved forward, Ralph tightened his grip.
“Don’t move,” he muttered, patting down Cato’s jacket. He found a sheathed knife in his pocket, showing it to Hector, who shook his head in disapproval.
“That better not be silver,” he said, nearing.
“Why’s it matter?” Cato asked, grinning. Hector curled his hands into fists.
“What’s the point in carrying around a tacky ornament?”
“He’s clean,” Ralph said, pocketing the knife.
“I want that back,” Cato said.
“Of course,” Hector said, walking to his side as Ralph went back to the entrance.
“That’s a vampire,” Cato said.
“Is he?” Hector asked with a chuckle. “You’ve got the stuff?”
“Right here,” Cato said, procuring the leather pouch. When Hector reached out for it, he stuffed it back into his pants pocket. “You’re not the one paying me.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take you straight to the boss. Follow me,” he said, walking off.
It was fairly slow night for the casino. The slot machines were packed with old people and only two active games of blackjack on the floor. The upstairs was only occupied by three men at a poker table, its surface packed with chips. Not a bottle of booze or smokes in sight. Tonight was perfect for Cato to make his move.
The man standing outside the lounge area door was almost as large as the bouncer and equally pale. When Hector waved at him, the man went inside. Hector slowed down at the door, coming to a complete stop as he placed his hand on the handle.
“I’m going to be honest with you, buddy. You look like you’re going to be a problem. I don’t want to have to beat you senseless or worse. Am I going to have to?” Hector asked.
“All I want is my money,” Cato replied.
“If you say so,” Hector muttered, opening the door.
There were more people in the lounge than both floors combined. It wasn’t the volume of people that alarmed Cato, but their total silence. Even stranger, they were almost all women. He spotted Aldous in the center of them all, along with three others scattered around the group. They were all as white as the dead.
Cato estimated around fifty women in all. He wondered if these were accumulated throughout his lifetime or just in the past year, maybe less. These mindless slaves could be a hundred years old and they’d never age a day. Their stares were utterly vacant, even when their heads bobbed toward Cato as he walked by. Hector followed at his heels. When they were a few paces from Aldous, Hector seized the scruff of Cato’s coat and walked in front of him.
“You don’t need to get any closer,” he said.
“What’s your name?” Aldous asked, sitting on one of the couches. He had a woman at each side and one at his feet, her brunette head resting on his lap. As her face turned toward Cato, he recognized Theresa.
“Cato,” he responded, his eyes fixed on hers. She didn’t show a hint of recognition.
“Basil’s boy?” Aldous said. Cato’s stomach clenched upon hearing that name. “I heard we had an apostate operating in our city. You must be familiar with me. Why not use a pseudonym?”
“I thought I was in good company,” Cato said.
“Your insolence aside, I’m no apostate.”
“You’re no Vanguard.”
“I understand your frustration. Why is a man like me permitted—”
“You’re a demon.”
