Chapter 34

(Four)

The gamble with the gang of boys really had paid off wonderfully. It had meant following them around for a few days to keep them on a short leash, and therefore not gaining anything new on the demon. But it paid off big time.

Not only was the big beast bodyguard now out of the picture for a good while, if not permanently, but we had caught some great footage of the target fighting. I was quite surprised the bodyguard survived at all. Usually a HEFW shredded anything it was pointed at. But then the kids operating it had no real experience, so hadn't held the trigger down for more than a quick burst. Plus I guess the demonic taint did offer a degree of robustness.

Still it had very nearly gone all pear shaped. After the beast body guard was dispatched I expected her mistress to just leave her to take the fall. Instead, the demon raced over to her aid. Even taking a hit to her face. Which in my surprise, I had been unable to prevent. Still I managed to remotely disable the gun before our little unknowing assistant did any permanent damage. It wouldn't do to have our hunt cancelled because some loud mouth brat of a school kid killed our game with a coil gun.

Then glories of glories the demon revealed its true form. If there had been any doubt that this was a creature of pure evil, then it has now been completely vanquished. The true face of this monster rose up out of it like the very fires of Hell. It's clothing turned to ash and it's demonic form reasserted its dominance over the usual camouflage. Five nearly had a fit having to cross herself repeatedly. I had to take over the operation of the video camera for a while. I could understand her reaction. There in the flesh was something the holy texts had warned us about.

She attacked her enemies, throwing them around like rag dolls and blasting them with fire. Soon the whole alleyway was ablaze. Our thermal imaging camera burnt out just looking at her. So goodness knows how hot she was burning. Eventually she returned to her almost human form and tried to get help for her body guard. There was some cold calculation about this I was sure. She would use this attack, as she had used all the others, to make her kind more accepted. Give her an easier job dragging souls down to her master. In order to cover our tracks a little we jammed her cell phone. Having a load of police descend before we could clear out would be tricky. Ideally we would have retrieved the coil gun and any surviving ammo but the demon took it with her, too wily to let such a prime piece of evidence go to waste.

She then, seemingly without effort, lifted the big beast up and carried her off to get help. Even affecting a piteous wail for help.

We got it all on tape; the fire, the fighting, even the carrying. This would tell us what we needed to know about the demon. Now more than ever, it was clear that this was indeed a minion of Satan.

The fire could prove to be a problem, but so long as we know about it we could potentially compensate for it. This was going to be a hunt for the ages. Now we knew our quarry I was itching to begin the hunt.