Chapter 4

Saturday very early morning

Outlaw Demons Property

Outside of Port Jonesby Washington

Dell was furious. Where the hell had all the bikers gone? And more importantly where was his cargo? He and his hipster chief advisor Sam, had decided on a whim to go check out the talent they had just imported only to find the Outlaw Demon compound empty. He had paid top money for a prime product to resell to a very important client and they were nowhere to be found.The compound was completely abandoned. If those idiot bikers had hijacked his product to sell somewhere else there was going to be hell to pay.

Dell kicked the side of the open, empty steel container in frustration.

“Shit, where do you think everyone is Sam? Did they try to fuck me on the deal or what?” said Dell

Sam lifted his vintage tweed porkpie hat and wiped his pale forehead clear of the light drizzle that was falling while he thought.

“I don’t know mano but since we can’t reach Big Jim or anyone else in the Outlaws, I think we’d better prepare for the worst case.” said Sam.

“Dammit dad’s going to be pissed. I promised him something special in this shipment for his new partner. Do we have any younger ones on deck? We gotta figure out some way of getting our money back.” said Dell

Dell hated his father, but was still loath to disappoint him. The old man was an overbearing, self righteous son-of-a-bitch, but Dell still needed him. Without the protection his dad, the Senator, provided, a man with Dell’s proclivities would be unlikely to stay out of prison for very long.

“There’s a few we have at the warehouse that may work or we can always troll Seattle for some fresh meat. But you know how that goes. Those local girls always have a history and we can’t have this blowing back on us.” replied Sam.

“You don’t think the cops busted them do you?” queried Dell

“Naw, and even if they did there’s no way they have any hard evidence on them and no way they’d turn state’s evidence on one another, or us. The bar is a great cutout so we are insulated financially. It’ll just be a pain in the ass for awhile.” said Sam.

As they clambered back into the black Range Rover, Sam realized that he was experiencing a feeling somewhat new to him- puzzlement. Very little in his 4,000 year old existence was unpredictable. That people were easily manipulated into horrible evil was a given throughout his history. He also was completely unsurprised by what a great motivator simple greed was. It had been the same in ancient Magadha as it was now. A few baubles, a little gold and these pathetic humans could be goaded into evil at such levels that even he was appalled. He often chuckled to himself when he heard some clueless human say ‘the devil made me do it’. Demons didn’t make people do anything. Most of the time he and his kind didn’t even have to discuss evil deeds. They just had to dangle a little money, sex, or power and wait for humans to do all the dirty work.

No, what was puzzling Sam was how all his carefully laid plans had come undone all at once. His long life had taught him to be an immaculate planner and he had been planning this latest evil for years. It had started out with an unexpected call up from Hell and at first it was a simple quest to create the most evil in the most efficient way possible.

Then Sam had realized that sheer coincidence had dropped an amazing opportunity right into his lap. This was a chance to spread evil on a level that hadn’t been seen since the days of Caligula. But it was all going to go to shit soon unless he got a handle on what had happened at the compound.

Maybe he should call back his HellHounds from their fun tormenting the local Fae? They could sniff around the compound and maybe find a clue that would point out the culprits. He had to do something and it was obvious that Dell, the spoiled idiot man child, was not up to the task

This was, after all, the same moron who had unwittingly called him forth from the underworld.

Two years earlier

Belltown Billiards and Pubbery/ Demon Union Hall

Seattle, Washington

Bakasura was enjoying a leisurely morning torturing money lenders when he got the call. It was mildly annoying as he had just got to the good part where he forced them to crap out the molten gold ingots he had force fed them earlier.

These calls never amounted to much anyway. He’d get a mild tingling sensation between his horns and he’d have to schlep all the way over to the Union Hall to wait at the portal. He’d gotten hundreds of calls over the last centuries but very few of the callers from the Upper World had ever managed all the intricacies that would actually open the interdimensional doorway.

“Hey Fred. what’s up?” Bakasura called out to the chubby, red skinned Union Steward sitting behind the wooden reception desk at the front of the nearly empty hall...

“Hey Baky, your turn in the barrel huh?” Fred replied.

“Yep I switched my on call with Asmodeus. He had some hot little number over in Vice and Recreation he wanted to show a good time.” said Bakasura

“Well this is probably a non-starter anyhow. Looks like a bunch of drunk college kid wannabees. There’s not even a serious witch between them all. I think the dudes are all just wanting to get drunk and get laid by the Goth chicks and the Goth chicks all just want to be taken seriously.” Fred replied with a chuckle.

Bakasura walked through the swinging double doors into the portal lounge and took a seat overlooking the swirling portal. The six foot wide portal was inset into the steel floor of the lounge and surrounded by an adamantine rail of deepest black.

As he watched his view into the portal cleared then sharpened in focus revealing what looked like the back party room of a large public house. Now this was a bit unusual. Rarely did they get a clear look into the portal. One of the humans doing the ceremony either had an unusually high predilection for evil acts or someone was just getting lucky with the incantations. Wait there was something else. Bakasura cast his demon sense further into the portal and finally found what was triggering his power sense. Under the floor of the old building lay an elaborate stone and wood altar.

The current building must have been built over the top of it. The place of power felt familiar to Bakasura. Maybe there had been Tamil, or Hindi immigrants to the city that had built and then abandoned this holy place. No matter the religion thought Bakasura, the power of belief itself had at one time permeated this place. This coupled with an unusually high quotient of evil from the primary caller was why he had been called and why the portal was so highly activated. Mystery solved, Bakasure returned his attention to the ritual itself.

It looked like there were about 30 college age kids standing around a pentagram that had been drawn crudely in red chalk on the beer stained wooden floor. Bakasura could tell that nearly all of them were inebriated. Two of them were entwined in a close embrace at the calling focus point on the perimeter of the pentagram. The young red-haired woman had a rather nasty looking black handled athame in one hand and appeared to be arguing with her tall dark partner. As Bakasura looked closer he could feel the evil pouring off the young man in waves. Now this is getting interesting.

As the focus of the portal sharpened yet again Bakasura could even hear their conversation!

“You are fucking insane if you think I’m letting you cut me with that pig sticker!” shouted the young man.

“Oh c’mon Dell, don’t be a whiny little bitch! You knew we were going to need blood to finish the calling! I”ll make it worthwhile, I promise!” she leered as she pushed her considerable assets against him.

“You said it would just be a prick!”

“No, I said you were a prick. But it will really only be a tiny bit of blood. I just have to use the ceremonial blade to get it. A big football player like you isn’t afraid of a little blood, is he? Bawk! Bawk! Bawk!” The woman taunted and then laughed derisively.

“Fuck it. Fine then, just take it easy okay?” he said, holding out his arm over the blood channel drawn on the floor.

“No problem, this won’t hurt me a bit!” she smirked

Grasping the man’s wrist firmly the woman turned his arm over to expose the veins. She then smoothly and deliberately slid the razor sharp edge of the black bladed dagger an inch along the most prominent vein. Blood flew out of the wound and onto the floor where the blood channel was marked.

“You bitch! The young man yelled as he struggled and tried to pull his arm back.

The red haired witch was much stronger than she looked though and the blood continued to flow onto the marked place on the old floor. The young man in desperation slammed his fist into the side of her head and she slumped to the floor momentarily stunned. A communal gasp went up from the others as some of the witch’s friends ran forward to pick her up from the floor.

“Dell, you are an asshole!” one said, staring at him in disbelief.

Hey, look what she did to me!” Dell shouted back as he attempted to staunch the flow of blood by wrapping the bottom of his tshirt around the wound.

The crowd around the pentagram broke up quickly as her friends escorted the witch out of the back room. The remainder of college kids streamed out onto the streets in raucous knots, looking for the next Saturday night thrill towing a whining Dell with them.