Dragon Horn Read online

  AND HERE IS A SCENE INVOLVING TAKING CARE OF A KIDNAPPED VICTIM:

  Alayna left and went back to the Deep Burrow. She planned to tell the Celtic Gods about the latest situation and hopefully get some advice.

  Trying to distract myself, I called my vampire friend, Jonathan, and set up a meeting for later tonight. After dark, of course. As I poured some dog food into Colossus’s dish, a pang of responsibility hit me. Aka Manah probably wouldn’t accept a dead demon in return for my knife.

  Searching my cabinets and fridge, I wondered what demons ate. Raw meat? Canned dog food? I wasn’t exactly up on their latest dining habits. I found some beef jerky and decided primal salty sustenance was probably the best choice. Stuffing the bag in my pocket, I walked out the front door.

  I stepped into an unseasonably warm late-winter day and strolled down the sidewalk to my office. The storm had completely passed, not a gray cloud in the sky.

  As I entered the office, a sense of guilt hit me. No. She was a demon and probably made up that whole sob story to get me to let my guard down. She just wanted to kill me. An evil demon.

  I opened the closet door and her pupils dilated, trying to take in the new light. My right hand grabbed the bag of jerky. I opened it and dumped out all the beef in front of her.

  “Do you expect me to eat it like an animal?”

  “Eat it. Don’t eat it. Doesn’t matter to me.”

  “Wait. I have to relieve myself. You aren’t going to make me do it in here, are you?”

  I hadn’t thought about that. Luckily, I had a bathroom in the back of the office. Carefully reaching into the dark closet to avoid getting bitten, I hooked her under the armpits and helped her to her feet. She rocked back and forth as I held my grip.

  The demon stabilized herself. I moved behind her so that I could pick her up and carry her to the bathroom. I slid my hands under her arms again and lifted the light demon off the ground. We only made it two steps before she swung her leg back and crushed my testicles.

  I dropped her to the ground and grabbed my sweet spot. Dropping to my knees, I cried out in pain. As I recovered, the demon tried to slither like a snake toward the door. It took a few moments, but I got up and stopped her feeble escape attempt.

  “You know, I was starting to feel bad about all this, but that helps me know that I made the right choice.”

  “What am I supposed to do? You have me locked in a dark closet. You’re going to send me back to hell. What would you do?”

  “This whole song and dance isn’t going to work on me. I’ve been fooled by demons before. Sorry but you’re not to be trusted.”

  “You just love to paint in broad strokes, huh?”

  I knew what she was getting at, but I didn’t have time for a moral debate right now. We worked together to get her into the bathroom. Ooohhh. Didn’t think about having to take her pants down. As I tried my best not to peek, I pulled down her spandex pants and she sat on the toilet.

  Leaving her some privacy, I left, and kept the door still cracked to make sure she didn’t try another great escape. I waited. And waited. And wondered if she was related to a race horse.

  Relieved that she was finally done, I heard a horrible string of words. “I need someone to wipe.”

  A great debate raged in my head. Should I take off the bungee cord around her wrists and let her do it, or bite the bullet and perform the task myself. I concluded that she was too rambunctious to let her arms free.

  We will skip over the details. Suffice to say, the demon was cleaned properly and returned to the closet. Guilt attacked me again as I stuffed a female into the lightless closet in my office. Then I remembered how Satoku seemed unconcerned that she had ripped my heart out. I slammed the door shut and went back home.

  After trying to read three different books that couldn’t take my mind off the breakup or the kidnapping, I decided to call on my Irish friend.

  I grabbed the half-full bottle of Jameson out of the cabinet. No need for a glass. No need to know how much I’m drinking. I wished my best friend lived next door again. He never made me feel bad about drinking before dark.

  I had to be careful with the sauce. My father was an alcoholic so I might be more susceptible to fall into a bottle. But it was the only thing that made me stop thinking about getting dumped. I took a few pulls, and then a few more before passing out on the couch.

  I woke up with a splitting pain running from temple to temple. Closing one eye, I focused on the empty bottle of Jameson on the coffee table. I drank all of it? What time was it? A quick check of the cell phone clock showed 12:45 a.m. I had to get to the Purple House for my meeting with Jonathan, the six-hundred year old vampire.

  AND HERE’S A FEW SNIPPETS OF INTERACTION BETWEEN MIKE AND ALAYNA:

  MIKE TALKING TO ALAYNA ABOUT THE BREAKUP

  I nodded and followed Alayna down the steps. We got to the bottom and she looked up at me. Her smile of excitement disappeared and she took a deep breath. “What’s wrong, Micheal?”

  “She just dumped me. She got accepted to Princeton, so see you later, Mike. It’s been real.”

  Alayna put the potion on the coffee table and closed her eyes. A few moments passed and she opened them. “I am so sorry.” She hugged me around my midsection.

  I put my hand on her back and pulled her in tighter. The levy broke and my tears spilled down my face, showering Alayna, who didn’t move at all. She absorbed my pain. She always had. I wanted to say something, but the words got caught in my mouth and never made it past my lips.

  “I know it hurts now. If it’s meant to be, then you two will find each other again. In the meantime, it’s not a crime to date other women. Mike, you’re a young man and life’s an adventure. Enjoy yourself. Even though it probably feels like you just got hit with a sledgehammer, it will pass.”

  “It shall not pass,” I joked in my best Gandalf voice. We both enjoyed a bittersweet laugh.

  TALK TO ALAYNA/SNEAKING BOOZE TO COPE

  And I’d be going as a single man. With all the commotion, I’d almost forgotten about Satoku. Why did she do it today? I tried not to dwell on it, but that proved impossible.

  After about ten minutes of wondering why she didn’t want to keep the relationship going, I stumbled into my kitchen. I knew what would take all the worry away. I reached in the cabinet and pulled out the bottle of Jameson. Just a little nip to take away the pain.

  I quietly opened the bottle so Alayna wouldn’t hear and took a few swigs. The booze tickled my chest and pushed my problems with Satoku back down, away from my mind. I gulped the bottle one more time and silently slid it back into the cabinet.

  I paced around my apartment and thoughts of my girlfriend, check that, ex-girlfriend crept back into my head.

  AND FINALLY THIS WAS A SCENE TOWARD THE END THAT JUST DIDN’T MESH WITH THE WHOLE PLOT AND SLOWED DOWN THE RUN TO THE FINAL BATTLE(THIS IS INCOMPLETE):

  My phone buzzed with an alert for a text. I looked at it, convinced it had to be a joke. It was Satoku’s mother and my partner from the Pittsburgh Police Force, Gretchen Meyer.

  Hesitantly, I opened the text, expecting to be chewed out about my ex-girlfriend.

  You need to get over my house. I know how to get the city back. ASAP.

  I sent her a quick text saying that I’d be right there. I decided to rush over to Gretchen’s house and pick up Colossus at the doggy sitter after I talked to her. I jumped back in my Maxima and zoomed over to Liutenant Gretchen Meyer’s house.

  After making good time, I pulled into the driveway of her ranch style house located near Ross Park Mall. I parked behind her Jeep, which was usually tucked away in the garage. With haste, I jumped out of the car and rushed up to her front door.

  A small note was taped to the door, just below her silver knocker. I snatched it off the door.

  “Come in, Merlino. We have much to discuss.”

  That was strange. Gretchen wasn’t the type to leave her doors unlocked. Being a cop had ma
de her an obvious target around Pittsburgh. I doubted the door was going to be unlocked until I twisted the knob.

  I slowly pushed the door open. I didn’t hear Gretchen, but I did hear the timer from her toaster oven ticking away just like mine. Taking two more steps, I realized I had fucked up.

  Spinning around on my toe, I sped toward the front door and burst through the jamb. Not stopping or slowing down, I raced down the driveway toward my car.

  BOOM!!

  The energy from the blast hit me in the back, lifted me off the air, and tossed me about eight feet toward my car. Laying face down, a shower of light debris landed on my back. I reached around to check for blood and rubbed my hand around.

  Rolling onto my side, I checked for blood. My hand was clean. I made it to my knees and the earth started shaking again. Ducking back down and covering my head, I waited for the quaking to stop.

  “Bonjour, mon ami,” said a projection of Artoise, my guardian angel. He stumbled toward me as I rose to my feet.

  “You’re fucking drunk.”

  “Maybe a little. Did I save you?” DISHEVELED LOOK ON ARTOISE

  “Save me from what?”

  “I heard the ticking of a bomb, and I thought I could save you.”

  “No, you’re late. But now that time is stopped, I can go back inside to look for Gretchen.”

  I ran back into the house through a hole where the front door used to be. As I searched the house, I didn’t see any more bombs. I also didn’t see Gretchen or her wife, whole or in pieces. This had to be a set up.

  Fanning the smoke away, I darted back outside. Artoise was stumbling around, checking out Gretchen’s flowers. He asked, “Who would be trying to kill Gretchen?”

  “It looks like someone is using her as bait to try to kill me. I’m not sure if it is the sidhe who took over Pittsburgh or the demons of the Red Cavern.”

  “Why would the Red Cavern be involved?”

  Apparently, my guardian angel didn’t see the episode when I got my knife back. Considering they had just used explosives as a demonstration, they were the frontrunner. I didn’t want to tell Artoise about the implant. “The Red Cavern is always involved with this kind of stuff.”

  “Have you figured out how you are going to take back the city?”

  “No. At this point, I am going to have to rush into the eye of the storm, just like I did at the Red Cavern.”

  “Huh? When did you go to the Red Cavern? Did you get your knife back?”

  “I did.”

  “That’s probably it. You got your knife back so they have to fuck with you by doing this.”

  “Maybe. That still doesn’t solve where the hell Gretchen is right now. I have a bad feeling she’s been dragged into this.”

  “That sucks. So you are going to rush into an army of sidhe warriors and dragons?”

  “At this very second in time, I have no choice. The longer I wait, the more people will die from being trapped in there.” I felt it was the right thing to do since Burn had given up her life for this mission. It was the least I could do.

  Artoise started to vanish, and ten seconds later, his drunken ass had completely disappeared. I cleaned all the debris off my car, anonymously called in the report, and went back to my house a bit shaken. Not about myself, but if I’d gotten Gretchen killed, I’d never forgive myself.

  Blood Goblet

  Bloodline Awakened Supernatural Thriller Series: Book 5

  J.P. Rice

  Copyright 2018

  Chapter 1

  I pressed the point of the blade against the inside of my wrist.

  Sitting with my back against the bathroom wall, my sink and toilet were in front of me. My left arm was stretched out on the frame of the bathtub. My shaky right hand held the leather knife handle.

  I’d lost control of my body. I was a puppet. My life was now being controlled by an implant in my calf. And the ultimate puppet master was the most powerful demon in the Red Cavern. A devil named Montidore. Who knew making a deal with the devil could go wrong?

  A pearl of blood pooled around the silver point. My mind visualized jamming the dagger in as far as I could and raking it up to my elbow. What was happening to me?

  I really wanted to throw the knife down and stop this nonsense that had been going on for days. It was turning me into a monster.

  The pain in my calf subsided and I dropped the knife to the ground. As the blade clanged on the bathroom tiles, I collapsed and curled up into a ball. I’d become a monster. My worst fears had been realized.

  With my body under my own control again, I thought about taking myself out.

  The implant could cause me to take despicable actions, out of my control. I needed to talk to the Gods about this and figure out how to remove the remote-controlled device. My calf muscle tightened again.

  I picked up the dagger without thinking and laid the point of the long blade in the same exact spot as before. Trying to fight it was futile. My hand began to shake, and the razor-sharp knife threatened to cut through a vein.

  I raised the knife and prepared to stab my left wrist. As the knife swung down, my life flashed before my face. There was so much I still wanted to accomplish.

  At the last moment, my hand swerved and the handle slipped out of my hand. The knife fell harmlessly to the ground. My life had become a carnival sideshow for a bunch of devious demons.

  The tightness in my calf abated again and I wondered how much longer I could do this. It had only been occurring for the past few days, but it scared the living shit out of me. I wasn’t worried about myself anymore. I was a danger to society at large. The same society I’d sworn an oath to protect.

  When I had been faced with the choice of the implant or death, the answer had seemed easy. Now, I wasn’t so sure. I’d planned to remove the implant, but that was before the devil named Montidore had demonstrated the self-destruct option. Once the implant was removed, it would explode and kill anyone within about a ten feet radius.

  I was in a box on this one. I still couldn’t understand how the demons were doing all this with just a tiny chip in my calf.

  My phone rang. Back in control of my body, I got up and grabbed it off the window sill. Unknown Number. I swiped accept.

  Chapter 2

  I knocked on my bedroom door. “Hey Dante.”

  “What?” he responded in a sour tone.

  I announced, “I’m coming in, okay?”

  “It’s your house.” He was becoming a sharp-tongued smart-ass, just like his guardian.

  I opened the door and said, “Get ready to go. We’re going to see someone up in Tionesta.”

  “What’s that?” he asked, sitting on my bed with the laptop next to him.

  “It’s a place about two hours away, I think. So let’s go. You can bring the car charger so you can play on that laptop too.” Dante was still a little shy, which I totally understood. Most people’s eyes bulged when they saw him, so I carefully chose where to take him in public. Pittsburgh was more accepting of the supernatural world, but there were still a lot of skeptics.

  I left him alone and went downstairs. I grabbed Colossus’ collar and leash as I thought about the phone call.

  The call had come from the friend of a Shawnee man who didn’t use a phone. Apparently, the man knew about a Native American God or high spirit that had been kidnapped. It sounded right up my alley and I asked for directions immediately. I needed something to keep my mind from thinking about Burn.

  I got the dog and the kid into the Maxima and headed toward Tionesta.

  Tionesta was Native American for ‘home of the wolves.’ It was located in rural Forest County and the population was right around four hundred. The region contained some hallowed hunting grounds and was a haven for outdoor fanatics.

  The land had a strong Native American influence. Even a few Viking remnants had been found there, although they hadn’t been tested professionally for veracity. It made sense that supernatural beings would be dwelling there. Th
e guy on the phone hadn’t given me any details about the case, so it could be anything.

  We turned into a gravel driveway that had to be a mile long. It wound through a big field with a forest surrounding the green grass. A few minutes later, the house started to appear.

  As we pulled up, the house came into focus. It was a small, rectangular two-story house that had been painted a dull red or the once vibrant exterior had been dulled by the elements over the years.

  A clothesline was hung in the front yard with drying red dresses and men’s pants swinging in the breeze. A blazing firepit sat off to the side of the house, with an animal I couldn’t recognize roasting on a spit, just above the flames. Behind the house, there was a barren winter cornfield.

  I parked about twenty feet from the house. “Let’s go,” I said to Dante as I slammed his laptop shut.

  “Hey. I was in the middle of a game.”

  “Too bad. Time to go,” I told him, and he reluctantly unhooked his seatbelt and opened the door.

  I hooked the leash to Colossus’ collar and jumped out of the car. A big man approached us, and my pulse heightened. I was nervous about how he would treat Dante. He looked at the three of us without batting an eyelash and nodded his head with a stiff smile. Relief rushed through me because most people’s eyes nearly popped out of their heads when they saw Dante for the first time. Instead, his smile widened.

  Black Hoof stood a little shorter than me. His long hair, tied back in a ponytail, exposed a lean, strong face with a defined jaw. I guessed he was about forty. His dark eyes and a heavy five-o’clock shadow created a grim appearance that clashed with his warm, welcoming smile. He wore a tight necklace made out of blue and red beads that merged into the neckline of his tan leather vest and black undershirt. Matching leather pants covered his legs and were tucked into a pair of old hiking boots.

  The man bowed slightly and shook my hand. He had a nice firm grip. “Welcome, friends. My name is Catahecassa. It is Shawnee for Black Hoof. I took the name in honor of a great warrior. I also go by Clyde. Some people find that easier.”