Mad World
This is AU after City Of..., featuring Lindsey McDonald and Doyle.
It's very dark, so I'd rate it NC-17.
Feedback is always a groovy thing.
Mad World
The phone on my desk rang and I finished what I was working on before answering. I knew it was rude to keep a client waiting, but this was a closing argument for a very important case tomorrow and I really didn’t want to lose my train of thought. The ring was starting to get on my nerves though, so I grabbed it. “This is Lindsey McDonald, sorry to keep you waiting.”
There was silence on the other end, making me frown. I could hear someone breathing rapidly, but I highly doubted the secretary would have put a crank call through. “He threw your client out a window, right?”
I sat up in the chair. Not many people would know that. There was no evidence that he’d existed at all, even the dust had blown away. “That’s right. How can I help you?”
“It’s not me you need to help, it’s him.”
Thought my eyebrows were going to pop right off my skull. “And how would you know that?”
“I just had a vision from the Powers knock me on my ass and you were the main character.”
I was quiet for a moment. Everyone had heard about the Powers, they were the greatest threat to the Senior Partners. Both sides were incredibly powerful, but they never seemed to do anything for themselves, that’s what we mere mortals were for. Sometimes I felt like I was a pawn on a chess board being moved by things much larger than myself.
“What do I have to do?”
“Have you heard of a place called Caritas? It’s a demon club, but anyone is welcome.”
“I need to wrap something up here, but I can meet you in an hour. Give me the directions and describe yourself. I’ll find you when I get there.”
---
Caritas wasn’t like any club I’d ever been in before. The clientele was a mix of humans and demons with a few vampires scattered between them. Normally some of them would be tearing one another to pieces, I’d even seen members of rival clans sitting only a table apart, but everyone seemed to be having a good time. I watched as a Kreblish demon picked up the microphone on the stage and began to tap his claws to the music before breaking into song. Then I winced at the pitch of his voice. Dogs around the neighborhood were probably fleeing in terror.
Heard someone call my name and I spotted him over in the far corner of the room. He wasn’t entirely human; I’d worked with enough of them to know the difference by now. That kind of thing never bothered me though. He pushed a bottle of whiskey across the table at me as I sat down. I took a couple of swallows, wincing as it burned down my throat before passing it back.
“They call me Doyle.”
Now that he wasn’t breathing so hard, I could hear an accent starting to bleed through. “So you’re a seer?” There were different kinds of seers and the ones the firm used gave me the creeps. They had these eyes that seemed to look right through you.
“Think of me more as a messenger for the Powers. They show me something, it damn near splits my head in half, and it’s my job to pass it along to someone who can prevent what I see from happening. They lead me to Angel; I’ve been helping him find his path.”
“I did a little research on him, just to find out who the hell he was. From what I can tell, a vampire with a soul is a very rare thing. He used to be evil and now he’s trying to make up for it by saving people. Am I wrong?”
“No, you aren’t wrong.” He took a pull from the bottle and sighed. “It feels weird to be sitting here with you. You work for the other side. That client of yours was a nasty bastard and you knew it.”
Of course I knew it. But compared to some of the other people I represented, he was Mary fucking Poppins. “What’s your point? I doubt that this vision of yours told you to come and lecture me about working for scumbags. Evil happens to pay very well.”
He chuckled softly. “I saw Angel in a fight with one of your clients. He won’t win. If he falls, the world will lose a Champion that can never be replaced. Do you understand that? He’s important.”
I leaned across the table. “So you want me to stop my client from fighting him in the first place? I don’t have any control over them; they can do whatever the hell they want.”
“Things are already in motion. I can’t find Angel anywhere. Your client has him right now. I hit my head after I had the vision otherwise I would have warned him sooner. Now it’s too late.”
“Which client is it? I have dozens of cases. Give me something to go on and I’ll figure out where he is.”
“He was a big guy, face and neck covered with tattoos. His eyes didn’t match. He had a knife... there was blood everywhere, Lindsey. This is all just a game to him. He doesn’t even know who he has. I heard him say your name, so that’s why I called.”
“Oh fuck me...” The whiskey I’d had threatened to come back up for a return trip and I forced my stomach to behave. I was shaking my head, trying not to think about it.
“What? What is it? Who is this guy?”
“He’s an artist of the flesh. He uses people for his canvas, takes days, sometimes weeks to finish one of his works. Son of a bitch is a serial killer, but they haven’t been able to make any of the charges stick. It’s my job to keep him on the street, keep him carving for Wolfram and Hart. They use him to gather information from the more... stubborn people.” I shuddered.
“How can you work for people like that?” He had a look of utter disgust on his face and I didn’t blame him a bit.
“Like I said, evil pays very well.” I ran a hand over my face. “The money isn’t for me, it supports my family. It’s a job Doyle, and I’m damn good at it.”
“Where can we find this bastard?” He started to get up and I could see him swaying on his feet a little.
“I know where his studio is. At least Angel’s a vampire, whatever happens shouldn’t kill him. It won’t be pretty; I’ve seen the finished projects.” Holland had one on the wall in his office. I’d never seen skin under glass before and I felt ill every time I had to step foot in there.
“Please tell me you have some kind of plan.”
Actually, I didn’t have a fucking clue, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. “I was supposed to drop off some paperwork tomorrow for him to sign; I’ll just be a little early. When he opens the door, I’ll distract him somehow and you can get Angel out.”
“That’s a stupid plan, you’ll get yourself killed.”
“Well, if you have any better ideas, I’d like to hear it.”
He stared at his fingers. “That’s what I thought. I have a crowbar and a baseball bat behind the seat in my truck. Between the two of us, we should be able to take him down.”
“If your client winds up hurt or dead, won’t your firm be upset?”
“They’ll only upset if they find out. And maybe if we hit him hard enough, he won’t remember a damn thing.” Holland would be more than just pissed off, he’d get that little smile on his face and I’d find myself in very deep shit. “Let’s go.”
---
Doyle seemed a bit shocked by my client’s house. “This is suburbia. You’re telling me a serial killer lives right here, surrounded by all these normal people? I bet they don’t have a damn clue what he really does.”
“Haven’t you ever watched the news when people like him are caught? They always say the same thing, ‘He was a quiet man, kept to himself, never bothered any of us, but there was this smell coming from his basement that seemed a bit... off'. You have no idea how many people like him are floating around.” We both shuddered.
“And you work for them.”
“Well, if this goes badly, I won’t be alive long enough to care.”
I parked the truck in front of his house and shut the engine off. “He lives alone, no animals to worry about. He’s damn good with a knife, especially up close. Watch yourself and stay out of my way.”
“Why are you doing this?”
It was an honest question, so I decided to give an honest answer. “It’s the right thing to do, Doyle. I might work for evil, but I haven’t managed to become it yet. I’m certainly not going to let someone be sliced up if I have a chance to stop it from happening.”
“You’re taking a big risk here, Lindsey. It isn’t just your job, it’s your life.”
“You don’t think I know that? I could have just given you directions, but then both of you would probably end up dead. At least with me here you have a fucking chance. Now grab that crowbar and get your ass out of my truck.”
I slid the baseball bat up my sleeve. It was sawed off, but I had one hell of a swing. As I started towards the sidewalk, I grabbed my briefcase from the trunk. At least it looked like I had reason to be there. Doyle kept the crowbar out of sight and was a few steps behind me as I approached the porch.
The neighborhood was quiet; everyone must be enjoying their nightly television shows or doing those things that normal people do. I wouldn’t know, my life hadn’t been normal in years, maybe it never was. Rang the bell a couple of times and waited nervously for him to open the door. “Are you sure he’s even home?”
“If he has Angel, he’s home. His studio is through a panel in the basement. Unless you knew where to look, you’d never even know the room was there.”
The door opened and I plastered on my best fake smile. “I came by to give you that paperwork, Gregory.”
He stared at me for a second before grunting. Then his beady little eyes focused on Doyle. “Who’s he?”
“My new intern, I’m supposed to bring him to all my meetings with clients.”
Doyle managed a tiny smile. For a moment I didn’t think he’d let us in, but then he pushed the screen door open. “Both of you can come inside, but hurry up, I’m in the middle of something.”
As we stepped inside, I thought I could smell copper. Glancing around the room, I spotted smears of crimson on the floor and walls. Gregory saw what I was doing and smiled. “Your boss likes my art. I think he’ll pay top dollar for what I’m working on right now. Would you like to see it? It isn’t finished yet, but I think it’s amazing.”
“You’re actually going to let us in the studio? I thought you liked keeping all of your stuff hidden until it was ready to be framed.” Doyle shot me a look, but I ignored it.
“Sure, you helped me out last month. That first lawyer I had never would have kept me out of jail, you’re much better than she was.”
He took us through the house and I was shocked by how normal it seemed. Don’t know what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it. I set my briefcase down on a table in order to have another hand free. A plan was forming in my mind and I’d only get one chance to act.
As we reached the basement steps, I motioned for Doyle to hang back a little. Gregory reached out to turn on the light switch and that’s when I let the bat drop out of my sleeve.
I hit him as hard as I could in the back of the head and sent him falling down the stairs. The sounds his body made as it bounced off the walls and the steps made me sick, but I couldn’t think of any other way. Doyle and I went down the steps as quickly as we could. By the time we reached the bottom, I could hear Gregory starting to stir.
“Where the hell is this hidden door, Lindsey?”
I looked around, trying to remember the diagrams I’d seen a month ago. “It’s in the north wall of the basement; one of the boards is a different color.”
While he was hunting for the door, I walked over to where my client was lying. “Going to kill you, you son of a bitch.” He started to reach into his pocket and I hit him in the arm with the bat. Gregory howled in pain, writhing on the ground.
“I found it!”
There was a creaking sound as the door in the wall opened and we were hit by the stench of death, pain, and blood. Doyle gagged, reeling back from the doorway. He clutched his stomach and was sick in the corner. I gave my client one last look before making my way over to where he was. “Keep your eye on him, I’ll see if Angel’s okay.” He nodded at me, struggling to keep from being sick again.
I stepped through the door and winced at the sound my shoes made on the blood-covered cement. “Angel?” There was a moan from the middle of the small room and I almost turned around. A human would be dead by now; they never would have survived what Gregory had done. The bat fell from my fingers, clattering on the floor and shattering the silence.
He must have fought before being chained down to the table. I could see bruises all over his face, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The muscles in his back were exposed to the air and I covered my mouth to keep from gagging. The masterpiece Gregory had been working on was stretched on the wall, coated in whatever the hell it was he used to keep it preserved.
Angel was a vampire, he should be able to recover from something like this, but even with his healing abilities, it would be quite some time before he was back to normal. I looked around for the keys to the locks that were keeping his body chained to the table. Spotted them in the corner and then I began to get him loose.
He woke up when I’d freed both of his feet. “Hurts...”
“I know.” I got his hands loose as Doyle staggered in. He took one look at Angel and the remaining color in his face vanished.
“What did he do to him?”
“He removes the skin while they’re still alive and then let’s them watch what he paints in their own blood until they die.” My voice sounded strange to my own ears, as if someone else was talking.
Doyle muttered something under his breath in a language I didn’t understand. “Help me get him off of the table; he’s too heavy for me to carry on my own.”
Angel didn’t scream as we picked him up, but he made a noise like a wounded rabbit that sent a chill down my spine. Doyle tilted his head to look at me. “Your client is still alive, Lindsey.”
“What do you want me to do? The world would be a better place without him, but I’m not going to murder a guy just because he’s evil.”
“Leave him...”
We both turned our heads to look at Angel. He started to say something else, but then his eyes rolled up in his head. “It’s your call, Doyle. You want him dead, you do it.”
“I have a better idea.”
---
We managed to get Angel out to my truck, but he couldn’t sit up in the seat so Doyle sat with him in the trunk. “If he was alive, I’d take him to a hospital. Then only thing I can think of is bandage him up and wait for the skin to regenerate on its own. There’s nothing to stitch.”
“I’ll make sure Angel’s okay. He’s strong; he’ll recover in no time.” He reached out and brushed his fingers along Angel’s cheek.
I started to get into the driver’s side and paused, turning back to look at Doyle. “No one will know he’s down there for days.”
He smiled at me and it wasn’t nice at all. “They won’t know until someone complains about the smell and by then it’ll be too late.”
They’d have to find the hidden room first, and even if they did, the keys to the locks were now Doyle’s pocket. The bat and crowbar were back behind the seat. I didn’t even have to worry about fingerprints. Thanks to the firm, they weren’t on file. The only way it could get traced back to me would be if the mind readers picked it up, but the odds of that happening any time soon were slim to none.
I started the truck, shaking my head at the neighborhood as I began to drive. They had monsters right in their very own backyards and didn’t even know it. Demons and vampires were nothing compared to the people next door. Those were the ones to watch out for.
It's very dark, so I'd rate it NC-17.
Feedback is always a groovy thing.
Mad World
The phone on my desk rang and I finished what I was working on before answering. I knew it was rude to keep a client waiting, but this was a closing argument for a very important case tomorrow and I really didn’t want to lose my train of thought. The ring was starting to get on my nerves though, so I grabbed it. “This is Lindsey McDonald, sorry to keep you waiting.”
There was silence on the other end, making me frown. I could hear someone breathing rapidly, but I highly doubted the secretary would have put a crank call through. “He threw your client out a window, right?”
I sat up in the chair. Not many people would know that. There was no evidence that he’d existed at all, even the dust had blown away. “That’s right. How can I help you?”
“It’s not me you need to help, it’s him.”
Thought my eyebrows were going to pop right off my skull. “And how would you know that?”
“I just had a vision from the Powers knock me on my ass and you were the main character.”
I was quiet for a moment. Everyone had heard about the Powers, they were the greatest threat to the Senior Partners. Both sides were incredibly powerful, but they never seemed to do anything for themselves, that’s what we mere mortals were for. Sometimes I felt like I was a pawn on a chess board being moved by things much larger than myself.
“What do I have to do?”
“Have you heard of a place called Caritas? It’s a demon club, but anyone is welcome.”
“I need to wrap something up here, but I can meet you in an hour. Give me the directions and describe yourself. I’ll find you when I get there.”
---
Caritas wasn’t like any club I’d ever been in before. The clientele was a mix of humans and demons with a few vampires scattered between them. Normally some of them would be tearing one another to pieces, I’d even seen members of rival clans sitting only a table apart, but everyone seemed to be having a good time. I watched as a Kreblish demon picked up the microphone on the stage and began to tap his claws to the music before breaking into song. Then I winced at the pitch of his voice. Dogs around the neighborhood were probably fleeing in terror.
Heard someone call my name and I spotted him over in the far corner of the room. He wasn’t entirely human; I’d worked with enough of them to know the difference by now. That kind of thing never bothered me though. He pushed a bottle of whiskey across the table at me as I sat down. I took a couple of swallows, wincing as it burned down my throat before passing it back.
“They call me Doyle.”
Now that he wasn’t breathing so hard, I could hear an accent starting to bleed through. “So you’re a seer?” There were different kinds of seers and the ones the firm used gave me the creeps. They had these eyes that seemed to look right through you.
“Think of me more as a messenger for the Powers. They show me something, it damn near splits my head in half, and it’s my job to pass it along to someone who can prevent what I see from happening. They lead me to Angel; I’ve been helping him find his path.”
“I did a little research on him, just to find out who the hell he was. From what I can tell, a vampire with a soul is a very rare thing. He used to be evil and now he’s trying to make up for it by saving people. Am I wrong?”
“No, you aren’t wrong.” He took a pull from the bottle and sighed. “It feels weird to be sitting here with you. You work for the other side. That client of yours was a nasty bastard and you knew it.”
Of course I knew it. But compared to some of the other people I represented, he was Mary fucking Poppins. “What’s your point? I doubt that this vision of yours told you to come and lecture me about working for scumbags. Evil happens to pay very well.”
He chuckled softly. “I saw Angel in a fight with one of your clients. He won’t win. If he falls, the world will lose a Champion that can never be replaced. Do you understand that? He’s important.”
I leaned across the table. “So you want me to stop my client from fighting him in the first place? I don’t have any control over them; they can do whatever the hell they want.”
“Things are already in motion. I can’t find Angel anywhere. Your client has him right now. I hit my head after I had the vision otherwise I would have warned him sooner. Now it’s too late.”
“Which client is it? I have dozens of cases. Give me something to go on and I’ll figure out where he is.”
“He was a big guy, face and neck covered with tattoos. His eyes didn’t match. He had a knife... there was blood everywhere, Lindsey. This is all just a game to him. He doesn’t even know who he has. I heard him say your name, so that’s why I called.”
“Oh fuck me...” The whiskey I’d had threatened to come back up for a return trip and I forced my stomach to behave. I was shaking my head, trying not to think about it.
“What? What is it? Who is this guy?”
“He’s an artist of the flesh. He uses people for his canvas, takes days, sometimes weeks to finish one of his works. Son of a bitch is a serial killer, but they haven’t been able to make any of the charges stick. It’s my job to keep him on the street, keep him carving for Wolfram and Hart. They use him to gather information from the more... stubborn people.” I shuddered.
“How can you work for people like that?” He had a look of utter disgust on his face and I didn’t blame him a bit.
“Like I said, evil pays very well.” I ran a hand over my face. “The money isn’t for me, it supports my family. It’s a job Doyle, and I’m damn good at it.”
“Where can we find this bastard?” He started to get up and I could see him swaying on his feet a little.
“I know where his studio is. At least Angel’s a vampire, whatever happens shouldn’t kill him. It won’t be pretty; I’ve seen the finished projects.” Holland had one on the wall in his office. I’d never seen skin under glass before and I felt ill every time I had to step foot in there.
“Please tell me you have some kind of plan.”
Actually, I didn’t have a fucking clue, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. “I was supposed to drop off some paperwork tomorrow for him to sign; I’ll just be a little early. When he opens the door, I’ll distract him somehow and you can get Angel out.”
“That’s a stupid plan, you’ll get yourself killed.”
“Well, if you have any better ideas, I’d like to hear it.”
He stared at his fingers. “That’s what I thought. I have a crowbar and a baseball bat behind the seat in my truck. Between the two of us, we should be able to take him down.”
“If your client winds up hurt or dead, won’t your firm be upset?”
“They’ll only upset if they find out. And maybe if we hit him hard enough, he won’t remember a damn thing.” Holland would be more than just pissed off, he’d get that little smile on his face and I’d find myself in very deep shit. “Let’s go.”
---
Doyle seemed a bit shocked by my client’s house. “This is suburbia. You’re telling me a serial killer lives right here, surrounded by all these normal people? I bet they don’t have a damn clue what he really does.”
“Haven’t you ever watched the news when people like him are caught? They always say the same thing, ‘He was a quiet man, kept to himself, never bothered any of us, but there was this smell coming from his basement that seemed a bit... off'. You have no idea how many people like him are floating around.” We both shuddered.
“And you work for them.”
“Well, if this goes badly, I won’t be alive long enough to care.”
I parked the truck in front of his house and shut the engine off. “He lives alone, no animals to worry about. He’s damn good with a knife, especially up close. Watch yourself and stay out of my way.”
“Why are you doing this?”
It was an honest question, so I decided to give an honest answer. “It’s the right thing to do, Doyle. I might work for evil, but I haven’t managed to become it yet. I’m certainly not going to let someone be sliced up if I have a chance to stop it from happening.”
“You’re taking a big risk here, Lindsey. It isn’t just your job, it’s your life.”
“You don’t think I know that? I could have just given you directions, but then both of you would probably end up dead. At least with me here you have a fucking chance. Now grab that crowbar and get your ass out of my truck.”
I slid the baseball bat up my sleeve. It was sawed off, but I had one hell of a swing. As I started towards the sidewalk, I grabbed my briefcase from the trunk. At least it looked like I had reason to be there. Doyle kept the crowbar out of sight and was a few steps behind me as I approached the porch.
The neighborhood was quiet; everyone must be enjoying their nightly television shows or doing those things that normal people do. I wouldn’t know, my life hadn’t been normal in years, maybe it never was. Rang the bell a couple of times and waited nervously for him to open the door. “Are you sure he’s even home?”
“If he has Angel, he’s home. His studio is through a panel in the basement. Unless you knew where to look, you’d never even know the room was there.”
The door opened and I plastered on my best fake smile. “I came by to give you that paperwork, Gregory.”
He stared at me for a second before grunting. Then his beady little eyes focused on Doyle. “Who’s he?”
“My new intern, I’m supposed to bring him to all my meetings with clients.”
Doyle managed a tiny smile. For a moment I didn’t think he’d let us in, but then he pushed the screen door open. “Both of you can come inside, but hurry up, I’m in the middle of something.”
As we stepped inside, I thought I could smell copper. Glancing around the room, I spotted smears of crimson on the floor and walls. Gregory saw what I was doing and smiled. “Your boss likes my art. I think he’ll pay top dollar for what I’m working on right now. Would you like to see it? It isn’t finished yet, but I think it’s amazing.”
“You’re actually going to let us in the studio? I thought you liked keeping all of your stuff hidden until it was ready to be framed.” Doyle shot me a look, but I ignored it.
“Sure, you helped me out last month. That first lawyer I had never would have kept me out of jail, you’re much better than she was.”
He took us through the house and I was shocked by how normal it seemed. Don’t know what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it. I set my briefcase down on a table in order to have another hand free. A plan was forming in my mind and I’d only get one chance to act.
As we reached the basement steps, I motioned for Doyle to hang back a little. Gregory reached out to turn on the light switch and that’s when I let the bat drop out of my sleeve.
I hit him as hard as I could in the back of the head and sent him falling down the stairs. The sounds his body made as it bounced off the walls and the steps made me sick, but I couldn’t think of any other way. Doyle and I went down the steps as quickly as we could. By the time we reached the bottom, I could hear Gregory starting to stir.
“Where the hell is this hidden door, Lindsey?”
I looked around, trying to remember the diagrams I’d seen a month ago. “It’s in the north wall of the basement; one of the boards is a different color.”
While he was hunting for the door, I walked over to where my client was lying. “Going to kill you, you son of a bitch.” He started to reach into his pocket and I hit him in the arm with the bat. Gregory howled in pain, writhing on the ground.
“I found it!”
There was a creaking sound as the door in the wall opened and we were hit by the stench of death, pain, and blood. Doyle gagged, reeling back from the doorway. He clutched his stomach and was sick in the corner. I gave my client one last look before making my way over to where he was. “Keep your eye on him, I’ll see if Angel’s okay.” He nodded at me, struggling to keep from being sick again.
I stepped through the door and winced at the sound my shoes made on the blood-covered cement. “Angel?” There was a moan from the middle of the small room and I almost turned around. A human would be dead by now; they never would have survived what Gregory had done. The bat fell from my fingers, clattering on the floor and shattering the silence.
He must have fought before being chained down to the table. I could see bruises all over his face, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The muscles in his back were exposed to the air and I covered my mouth to keep from gagging. The masterpiece Gregory had been working on was stretched on the wall, coated in whatever the hell it was he used to keep it preserved.
Angel was a vampire, he should be able to recover from something like this, but even with his healing abilities, it would be quite some time before he was back to normal. I looked around for the keys to the locks that were keeping his body chained to the table. Spotted them in the corner and then I began to get him loose.
He woke up when I’d freed both of his feet. “Hurts...”
“I know.” I got his hands loose as Doyle staggered in. He took one look at Angel and the remaining color in his face vanished.
“What did he do to him?”
“He removes the skin while they’re still alive and then let’s them watch what he paints in their own blood until they die.” My voice sounded strange to my own ears, as if someone else was talking.
Doyle muttered something under his breath in a language I didn’t understand. “Help me get him off of the table; he’s too heavy for me to carry on my own.”
Angel didn’t scream as we picked him up, but he made a noise like a wounded rabbit that sent a chill down my spine. Doyle tilted his head to look at me. “Your client is still alive, Lindsey.”
“What do you want me to do? The world would be a better place without him, but I’m not going to murder a guy just because he’s evil.”
“Leave him...”
We both turned our heads to look at Angel. He started to say something else, but then his eyes rolled up in his head. “It’s your call, Doyle. You want him dead, you do it.”
“I have a better idea.”
---
We managed to get Angel out to my truck, but he couldn’t sit up in the seat so Doyle sat with him in the trunk. “If he was alive, I’d take him to a hospital. Then only thing I can think of is bandage him up and wait for the skin to regenerate on its own. There’s nothing to stitch.”
“I’ll make sure Angel’s okay. He’s strong; he’ll recover in no time.” He reached out and brushed his fingers along Angel’s cheek.
I started to get into the driver’s side and paused, turning back to look at Doyle. “No one will know he’s down there for days.”
He smiled at me and it wasn’t nice at all. “They won’t know until someone complains about the smell and by then it’ll be too late.”
They’d have to find the hidden room first, and even if they did, the keys to the locks were now Doyle’s pocket. The bat and crowbar were back behind the seat. I didn’t even have to worry about fingerprints. Thanks to the firm, they weren’t on file. The only way it could get traced back to me would be if the mind readers picked it up, but the odds of that happening any time soon were slim to none.
I started the truck, shaking my head at the neighborhood as I began to drive. They had monsters right in their very own backyards and didn’t even know it. Demons and vampires were nothing compared to the people next door. Those were the ones to watch out for.