I woke up to the jarring ring of my phone, squinting as I saw the caller ID—Jeremy. My ally and, apparently, my personal 6 a.m. wake-up call. Grumbling, I picked up.
"Got information for you," he said. "Based on the information gotten from you and your dad, I discovered what demon killed your mom. The demon that killed your mom—it's called a Bael. They're rare, but incredibly dangerous."
I stifled a yawn. "Rare and dangerous? Sounds like my high school dating life."
"This isn't a joke, Damien. A Bael is suicidal to go against. Even hunters don't mess with them."
Jeremy's tone was like he was talking to a kid near an open flame. He added, "If your dad finds out I told you, he'll kill me, but I thought you needed to know, that's why I told you. Please try not to do anything stupid."
"Too late, I'm running late for work," I replied, already rummaging through my closet for anything that wasn't wrinkled. As I hung up, I could practically hear Jeremy's exasperation through the phone.
An hour later, I strolled into the station, hoping to sneak in without too many glares from the higher-ups. But any chance of that went out the window when I saw River sitting at my desk. Great.
She looked up, catching my surprise but saying nothing. "One of the bartenders gave me a lead. Apparently, our victim had… other businesses. Less savory ones."
I raised an eyebrow. "Other businesses? Sounds spicy."
River didn't elaborate, though I did catch a business card poking out from her pile of files. She stood, tossing it into her bag. "Saddle up. We're going out."
"But I haven't had my coffee," I groaned, stretching my back with as much drama as possible.
She glared. "Damien."
I relented, throwing on my coat. "Fine, but only because you asked nicely."
We skipped the polite method of calling the number on the business card. River's plan? Go straight to the location—a warehouse in the industrial district. The place was as sketchy as it sounded, with dim bulbs flickering overhead, barely illuminating the cracked walls and dusty floors. I pulled River aside before entering.
"Stay behind me," I said, in the no-nonsense tone that brooked no arguments. I had more experience in the field so it was only normal that I took over from here, and besides this wasn't the kind of place to make rookie mistakes.
Inside, the silence was thick, broken only by the hum of the faulty lights. We barely made it ten feet in before I heard the unmistakable sound of guns cocking. Three men emerged from the shadows, guns trained on us.
"Drop the weapons," one of them barked, clearly irked by our badges.
River raised her hands. "Don't worry, you can put the guns down. We're just cops looking around."
The guy sneered. "The guns were put up in the first place because you guys are cops."
I lowered my gun slowly, walking forward with my hands up, keeping my tone conversational. "Hey, no one's got any beef here. Let's just… chat."
"My name's Damien, what's yours?"
I kept their eyes on me as I edged closer. The moment I was in range, I moved—quick, fluid. I disarmed one guy, dodging a bullet from the second. Within seconds, all three men were on the floor, groaning in pain. When you train all your life to fight demons, fighting humans-especially the inexperienced ones, will feel like a training session.
River blinked, her mouth slightly open. I raised an eyebrow. "Well? Shouldn't you be cuffing them?"
Snapping back, she fumbled with her cuffs and got to work. Once we had them secure, we marched the men back to the station for questioning, where the whole "bad cop, good cop" routine got rolling.
"We can put you behind bars for at least twenty years for just possession of illegal firearms, attempted murder and assaulting police officers," I said, tapping my fingers on the table for effect.
River followed my lead. "Or, we can cut that sentence in half… if you cooperate."
One of the guys leaned forward. "Put us in witness protection, then we'll talk."
"Sure," I smirked. "After your 50% sentence is served. Just tell us one thing—did anyone you know have anything to do with Ms. Riley's death? we got information from our sources that she killed a few days after she had a dispute with you guys."
The man looked reluctant, but after a sidelong glance at his buddies, he relented. "It was our boss. Mr. Brown. She found out one of his dirty little secrets, so he got rid of her."
River leaned in. "What secret?"
"He was using—" The man started coughing, hard enough to make me sit up.
"What was he using?" I asked, watching him closely.
His coughs intensified, his face turning red until, suddenly, blood spewed from his mouth. He slumped forward, his body eerily still. I shot up from my chair, moving to examine his body to have a clue about what could've killed him, I did basic anatomy in school so I knew a thing or two about things like this. I looked at his arm and noticed that a fresh tattoo had appeared—a skull, identical to the one on our victim from the other day, the one whose murderer I thought I killed.
The remaining two suspects went pale. Whatever courage they had evaporated instantly.
When we stepped out, River was still reeling. "What was that?" she asked, turning to me, eyes wide.
"What was what?" I asked her back, playing dumb
"Come on, you know what I mean."
I shrugged. "Could be cyanide. Some crime syndicates use it on their members to prevent… leaks."
River's face paled. "I've never seen it work like that. It was terrifying."
"Yeah, well, terrifying things are part of the job. The sooner you get used to it, the better."
"Don't you think there's something bigger going on here?"
I chuckled dryly. "Ordinarily, I'd be all for a good conspiracy theory, but right now? Let's focus on what we've got. We have their confessions, which means we can haul in Mr. Brown. Let's get him into custody and see what else we can pin on him."
"Right. Hanging out with you has clearly messed with my head."
I gave her a crooked grin. "I'll take that as a compliment."
As River walked off to update the captain, I paused, thinking back on the tattoo I'd seen. It definitely hadn't been there before. I'd checked his arm when River handcuffed him.
From what I've witnessed, that tattoo seemed to be something that the demon uses to mark its victims. Could their boss have made a deal with demons to help his empire grow? Humans and demons working together?
This just got interesting.