Suki smiled as she swung around the corner and came to a screeching halt. Jerking the Hummer into park, she got out and opened the rear door. With a huge grin plastered on her face, she grabbed the flamethrower from the arsenal and strapped the fuel tank to her back.
Hefting the unusually heavy weapon, Suki sprinted around to the front of the haunted house.
She was wearing green military fatigues tucked into the top of combat boots. Two belts of bullets crisscrossed over her chest and a standard belt was around her waist with a sword and knife holster on her hip. Around her neck hung a pair of dog tags that had her name on them along with an identification number.
The look was completed by a blood red bandana tied around her forehead and her hair was down and free-flying everywhere. She looked like sheâd just walked off a battlefield, which drew more than one man to stare at her.
The bullets, knife and flamethrower looked fake for Halloween but what no one knew was they were one hundred percent real.
âDamn Suki,â Kamui whispered. âDo you need to look any more sadistic?â
Suki grinned up at the camera mounted on top of the traffic light at the corner. âYou like it?â
âDamn straight!â Kamui exclaimed. âBut Shinbe would like it better.â
âLike what?â Shinbeâs voice rang over the transmitter but Suki ignored him as she walked up to the front door and gave it a hard kick, sending it flying back against the wall with a bang.
âOh nothing,â Kamui said innocently. âUnless you like Suki looking all bad ass while holding a flamethrower and showing enough cleavage to put a centerfold to shame.â
Suki ignored that comment too as she made her way deeper into the haunted house. Sheâd get the PC wiz later. Walking through the curtain, she stepped over the dead ghoul lying on the floor and wrinkled her nose at the other one cut in half.
âI swear those two cops are messier than three year olds at dinner time,â she muttered. Her lips thinned when she saw the lady on the table. Passing the room up, she noticed an open door off to the side and a terrible ruckus coming from the darkness below. Hefting up the flamethrower, Suki started to descend the stairs.
âHere goes nothing,â she informed anyone listening.
Kotaro laid Yohji gently against the bottom step and turned to face the deadly crowd in front of him. Wanting to keep them away from his injured partner, he surged forward. It was like wading through thick mud and smelled worse.
Pain exploded along his right cheek when one of the ghouls bit him, making his teeth grind together. He hefted the one that had bitten him and slung him over the others, back toward the tunnel, knocking over more that had been trying to enter the basement.
Reaching behind him, Kotaro pulled a long-bladed knife from the hidden sheath tucked into the back of his pants. He swung his arm in a wide arc as he brought it up, piercing flesh and making black blood spray everywhere.
He cried out when another set of teeth bit into his left arm and plunged his blade into the top of the ghoulâs head. A feral growl erupted from his throat when he felt three more bite into his legs. Removing the blade, Kotaro swung again, this time decapitating the closest ghoul.
A sharp click and loud hiss made the monsters look up toward the top of the steps and he smirked at the ghouls around him.
âBring the barbeque sauce?â he asked the lady that now had everyoneâs attention.
*****
Darious stood in the back yard of the haunted house with his eyes closed, not only witnessing the battle inside but hearing it as well. He had toyed with the idea of going through the house to reach the underground tunnels, but knowing that would slow him down he stayed with his original plan.
The Guardians could take care of themselves⦠just like they had abandoned him to do so long ago.
Withdrawing his power of sight from the basement, Darious buried the feelings of hatred and forced the worthless emotions aside. He inhaled deeply, smelling the scent of the master demons behind the mayhem⦠he had smelled them before. Hell Hags⦠humans called them witches but he knew what they were and that there were three of them within the city tonight. It wasnât surprising as they usually traveled in packs of three.
He would have to kill them before the ghouls would drop back into hell were they belonged.
Finding the direction easily, Darious started walking almost indifferently through the back alleys of the city. Once he left the main hub, the sounds of the night quickly surrounded him. In the dark corners were demons⦠hiding, spitting and hissing his name as he passed. He ignored them knowing he had bigger fish to fry this All Hallows Eve.
As he neared the cemetery, Darious felt an all-too-familiar presence and snarled. It annoyed him that only the weakest masters had awakened first, while the real threat slept somewhere beneath the city.
What angered him the most was that he had never wanted to return here after reading the scrolls for the second time. After the monastery had been destroyed, monks had come to rebuild⦠only to let it fall to ruin once they realized the ground was evil. Theyâd abandoned this land knowing it was useless.
Now the forgetful humans had built a thriving metropolis over the heart of sleeping evil.
*****
Kyou stood in the middle of the cemetery, scanning the area with sharp eyes. Heâd been listening to the others talk on the com-link and while heâd gotten some amusement from it, he knew the problem wasnât within the haunted house. The graveyard was the true center of demonic activity. It wasnât in a ghoulâs nature to abandon their feasting ground without a master pulling their strings.
Closing his eyes, Kyou let his senses fan out around and under him⦠searching for the power he knew was there.
He could feel the dead growing restless within their graves and understood this cemetery had been troubled for a while now. The dead had been disturbed⦠something that all the guardians agreed was a very big taboo⦠it just wasnât allowed.
His lips thinned knowing most of the graves under him where empty. Whether they had been devoured, or were now up and walking around was the question. His golden eyes opened and narrowed before turning his head toward the huge mausoleum to his right.
Stepping forward, Kyou opened the heavy door to the crypt, ignoring the creaking and groaning of the hinges. He took in the damage that had been done and understood why this particular crypt had been chosen. The family within had to have been centuries old and with no living relatives to continue its care, it was basically ignored, which worked in the demonâs favor.
All the caskets had been unsealed and lay open across the floor. Skeletal remains littered the floor, some of them still hanging from their vaults⦠ripped open to the elements. In the center lay two larger caskets, obviously the matriarchs of the family. The femaleâs side was virtually undisturbed but the maleâs side had been desecrated.
A large hole went straight through the maleâs coffin and what was left of the body inside it. No one had to tell him where the other end of that tunnel led. The demon had probably made the corpses dig it and connect it to the main tunnels.
A noise from further back in the crypt made him look up. Kyou stepped away from the disturbed vaults and followed a narrow path leading back and down a slope. He could immediately tell the moment he was completely underground, as the air became heavy and mold laden.
He heard something that sounded strangely like speech and stepped around a wall, discovering another row of caskets. Several had been pulled from their vaults and thrown open on the floor. A hell hag in her true form was bent over one of the partially decayed bodies, hissing an incantation into the corpseâs ear.