“You did what!?” – Woman on the other side of the call shouted, shocked. “Do not move from there, do not touch anything… ugh, more than you did already. And please at least tell me there are no witnesses?”
“Officer, are you asking me to leave no witnesses? Someone’s a dirty cop…” I joked, to ease the tension since the policewoman I just called was in fact my girlfriend.
Dia, or Captain Claudia Corvo as she prefers to be addressed in front of her subordinates, and I have known each other as kids. It was her who actually introduced me to this whole Bounty Hunting gig, after my parents disappearance. And helped me and my sister all this time ever since.
“Shut it! You know full well what I meant, and I really am not in the mood for your jokes right now. We will talk when I get there, just… Don’t make more mess than you already did”.
It took the squad a good portion of an hour to arrive. In the meantime, I managed to acquaint myself a bit closer with “Boss’s” office. On the second glance it really felt out of place in this old warehouse, like it was cut and pasted from some villa or a gallery: paintings strung on the wall, white marble floor with an expensive looking carpet in the middle, now stained with what remained of the bodyguards. Everything here exuded nouveau riche, shame really, I hoped it was some established drug lord not some upstart. But well, Dia picks me targets, I just bring them, or what’s left of them at least, to the police and get paid. Curiously the room did not have any other exits besides the one I invited myself in, a really poor choice for a wanted criminal. Only standing out feature was the desk. It was massive, took almost a quarter of the room, dark hardwood, maybe I should get one like that for my place. I took a peek into it but nothing really stood out to me, not like those guys hold any records.
I heard police sirens closing in, finally they arrived. I pulled my mirror. “Oh, she’s gonna freak out”, I thought when seeing how I look. On a normal day I would consider myself rather attractive - long wavy black hair, fair porcelain skin (ok, more like pale, almost white thanks to daddy dearest coming from a rather unsunny place), burgundy eyes. Tonight I was a blood covered mess, from the top of my head through the tank top and cargo pants, even my jackboots. I was covered in what could only be remains of Ivan and Yevhenii.
And as I pondered the poor state of my garment, footsteps closed in, and of course there she was, policewoman of obvious mediterranean look, with the expression of utter terror on her face. She rushed as she grabbed me by the wrists, scanning from top to bottom.
“Dia, I’m ok, it's not my blood, we talked on the phone, remember?”
She froze for a second, then straightened up.
“You seemed ready to scold me when we talked”.
Her face seemed less tense now.
“I was going to, but then I saw you covered in blood. It’s just… Seeing you like this when you mentioned That Thing, memory of the last time just rushed in. And all I could think about was: Please be alright, please, don’t make me go through that again“.
I shuddered at the thought, but quickly perked up so as not to make her worry anymore.
“It’s fine, last time, need I remind you, it was a bit different. Not only were there way more guys jacked on the 'dandruff', they were clever about it and properly used it. Those two just snorted it and bloated a bit. Nothing I couldn’t handle Dia”.
Finally she seemed calmed down.
“Next time, just please give me a heads up, when you are going to show covered head to toe in blood ok?”
I smiled. “I would, had I noticed it before calling, but you know how I get when I flare up?”
“Yes, I know”, she looked around. “Good thing, you seem to be back to normal right now, considering technicians will be here in a minute”.
I glanced at her, surprised. “Shouldn’t your squad be briefed about, you know, my circumstances?”
Her face became stern. “Yes they know,but it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want them, or frankly anyone else to see you in that state. It’s not something easy to process.”
“You did”, I uttered
“I have known you since we were little. And still, the first time I’ve seen you flaring up freaked me out so much that it took awhile until I could talk normally with you, not to mention you saved my life back then.” - Dia seemed to reminisce.
“You might have a point, never really looked at myself when this happens, is it that scary?” - I blurted.
“Imagine yourself, air around you moving like from heat, eyes glowing fiery crimson, hair like flame rising skyward, streaks of light moving under your skin. Image itself is mortifying enough, but then comes the aura you exude, this otherworldly tension, that makes any human seem insignificant bug in front of you.” - She seemed to tense up at the thought. “I haven’t seen you like this in a while, but it’s still vivid in my memory. So if I have a choice I’d rather avoid guys seeing you like that, they wouldn’t look at you the same way after”. There was a hint of sadness in her tone.
“Cool, if me using just a fraction of those powers has this effect, I can’t wait to show you the actual changed forms…”
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Dia was petrified. “The… What !? That’s not it?”
I winked. “Just kidding… Well not exactly, but I don’t think there will ever be a need to actually use them. So I’ll keep them to myself…”, I paused for a moment. “Unless, you want to see…”
She fixed her gaze at my eyes. “Why would I ever want to…” - At that moment more footsteps began too close up. “Rest of the team is coming up, we will talk about this at home”.
Soon the room was filled with officers and technicians. Outside a medical examiner was studying the beaten remains of the Boss, with many glass pieces sticking up in his neck and all over the body. The cleaners were working their best to get rid of the mess I left in the warehouse.
“There is no doubt, he’s dead” said the coroner and turned his head up to look at us.
“That son of a bitch is done for” he shouted, “I might have said that somebody messed him up bloody well but…”. The man smirked under his nose, “... But what kind of man could have done it? Impossible…Unless…” He paused, “Sledgehammer, that’s it”. Saying that, the coroner wrote a quick note in his files stating: "Cause of death - internal damage caused by blunt trauma, delivered through the pelvis” . Finishing this, he looked up, waved and shouted: “I think I am done with this one, but I wonder what could he possibly have done to you that you crushed his balls with a sledgehammer!” - Accentuating the last word, he winked.
“Oh, he was just really, really disrespectful, and called me a little girl. I’m not little, I’m…” - Claudia interjected. “Eli, could you finish there, and come over, we have those two ‘special’ cases to deal with” - She snarled at the poor coroner.
“Yes, boss. Be right there, boss” - he responded with a bland monotone. I heard footsteps coming up the stairs as he soon joined us; the young man with ebony skin, his braided hair tied into a high ponytail, wearing a regular police jacket.
“Ouch, that was one hell of a sledgehammer you used Lil…” he muttered. “Really though…”, he whispered, checking if nobody could hear it. “ Writing reports after your jobs makes me think I should try my hand at fiction writing, since I have to make them up”. He sighed.
“Eli! Not here!, Dia snarled. “I know most of the people here are familiar with this, and rather trustworthy. But at least try to keep it professional”.
“Yes, Captain. Keeping it professional, Captain”, he responded with his usual deadpan sarcasm. “ Back to those two then. While I cannot be certain until I run some tests, they seem to have the general symptoms from Angel Dust OD: signs of violent and rapid muscle mass increase, swollen blood vessels, and judging from the one whose head still exists, complete disappearance of iris and pupil from the eye”, Elie noted whilst holding open eyelids of the brute, underneath which was glassy remain of what once was eyes, now indeed completely white.
“It's the fifth case in the past few months. We can safely assume that someone is distributing this crap en masse”, Claudia said morbidly. “We are lucky that Lili is the one who stumbles upon those. If memories of my last encounter with those are good indications, one of those things is enough to put a SWAT team in danger, not to mention regular officers, or worse, civilians”.
“Not really”, I interjected. “The ones YOU remember weren’t OD’ing like that, they were taking small amounts over long periods of time, more like doping. They knew how to use it.” Dia and Eli frowned as I continued explaining. “Those two, and previous four cases just snorted a bunch of it. And got insta-swole !” I paused for a bit of an effect here, but was faced with nothing but straight faces. “Seriously you should loosen up a bit… Nonetheless, as I was saying, the effect is quite flashy at first glance, but quite weak and short-lived. In best case a few bullets put them down, in worst they cork out the next day, bleeding from every hole they have.” Dia groaned, whilst Eli was looking at me eagerly, making notes.
“You seem to be well informed on this topic”, he said with a suspicion in his voice.
“The job runs in the family, daddy dearest hunted any and all things even remotely related to infernal and celestial affairs. Can’t blame him, all things considered. Angel Dust was in circulation at that point already, though mostly in more religious sects and the like”.
I quivered recalling all the creeps my dad had put down over the years. “Like the one we dealt with a few years back Dia”, I turned towards my mortified girlfriend.
“Don’t… just don’t remind me”, she replied.
“Back to topic, he taught me most of what I know right now, having said that with our infernal heritage both me and Eve might have to deal with those things at some point.” I felt a bit gloom, reminiscing about times dad and mom were still here. “Can we change the topic, I don’t feel like talking about those things now”.
Eli’s curiosity couldn’t be sated that easily “Sure, sure, just one question though. I saw the men outside, you practically nailed every one right between the eyes, and you said that a few good shots should take down Dust OD’ed brute down. Why did you have to resort to such force ?”
I froze, a bit ashamed “My guns kinda broke… I guess…” I muttered. “Dia didn’ mentioned?”
Eli looked surprised. “Guns breaking… You mean they jammed or something. You really should invest in those. It would make cleaning after your jobs really easier”, he started rambling. Then Dia pointed at the shattered remains of what were recently a pair of new pistols, now with triggers broken off, and pieces scattered from me violently discarding them before. She said “Drop it, its fifth pair this month. Expensive ones don’t last much longer, and most gunsmiths we knew shut their doors and board the windows when Lili is in the vicinity. So she has a closet full of spares”, Dia shrugged.
“What can I say, they break on me, dad said that human weaponry isn’t sturdy enough for us to handle, but he only had swords and the like. And believe me when I say you don’t want me near any one of those things!” - Dia and Eli looked at me befuddled, as I crossed my hands in refusal. “Not to mention, would you want to clean up after that?” I said to Eli and he cringed. “As I thought. Now if that’s all, I really think I should be going home, Eve is probably all worried by now. See you there Dia”, I winked at her.
“Don’t wait for the dinner, I need to stay late considering the pile of bodies you left us with”, She grumbled.
“Love you too, dear”, I smirked.
Just when I was going to leave, Eli ran over to my side and slided a note into my hand. “For your gun problem. She is a bit quirky but might actually figure something out. Just tell her that I sent you…”, he whispered the last part. “And that she owes me for samples”.