Chapter 52: Shovel Talk

--- Old Man Hendrickson ---

For whatever reason when the door didn’t immediately open, little Rey-Rey decided that he was completely justified in continuing to knock. He also felt he was justified in applying a little more… oomph, as it were. (Of course, ‘oomph’ in this case is eldritch death magic.)

“Shit, man, you’re about to take that door off its hinges.” He told the runt, while feeling more than a little put out that he had to be the voice of reason instead of the stoner mentor that occasionally said something insightful without meaning to. “Give the kid a second to answer the door. Rate you’re going you’re probably scaring that girl he’s with.”

That made Reymundo pause, before letting out a shaky breath. “You’re right. You’re right… I don’t want to scare her…”

(So you’re trying to scare the kid then?) He scoffed, with a shake of his head. “Just because you haven’t gotten laid in like twenty years doesn’t mean you need to block the kid from doing so.”

Little Rey-Rey thought that golden eyed glare of his would scare the old man who knowingly cucked that one god in a threeway involving what turned out to be an eldritch horror and a goat…

He tried very hard not to remember what happened to that poor poor goat… (There’s a reason I avoid the Greeks…)

It was then that the kid finally decided to open the door, looking more than a little panicked as he did so. “Can I help you… Hendrickson?” The boy frowned as his fear turned into confusion.

(Which is good. Better confused by the crazy shit happening around you than to be scared of it all… And if you do get scared that’s when it’s time to smoke a Necronomacone.)

Figuring that since he was the one who actually knew the kid it was better for him to explain things, he stepped forward.

Or rather that was the plan until Reymundo slammed his hand on the door as he sniffed the air before forcing it open with more strength than the kid could ever hope to muster and in doing so revealed the girl that the kid was apparently sweet on.

Namely one Harper Everette, aka Reymundo’s younger daughter in all but blood who was currently unconscious while wearing a smile and no shirt.

“This isn’t what it looks like!” The kid cried as his fear came back in force as he stumbled away from the door.

“Oh!” He said realizing why the currently growling little Rey-Rey was being such a hard ass tonight. (The kid was hooking up with his daughter!)

Reymundo and the kid both disappeared in a flash of static.

“Oh…” He said realizing why this was probably going to end with the kid dead. “Oh shit…”

--- Aurelio Hermenez —

One second he was answering the door for his usually laid back boss and some scarred up scary looking latino after half way cleaning the blood off of him and Harper.

The next he found his entire back in agony as he found himself falling through the air with a hand around his face after being shoved through a brick wall.

A brick wall not even two feet from his window…

Before this could end in the logical conclusion of him being pasted on the ground after the three story fall from his apartment he found himself being wrapped in the surprisingly comforting embrace of the shadows.

“Oh, good… you’re awake. You blacked out for a moment there.” Geraldine told him as she dragged him out of the shadows several meters from where his assailant -the scary ass latino who looked like he could snap Aurelio like a twig- landed without looking the slightest bit worse for wear.

“You know, usually I give you blood sucking cabróns a lot more slack than everyone else.” The golden-eyed man told him, with a laid backness that did nothing to cover for the fact that he was intending to murder Aurelio. “I mean, sure you’ve got your stupid little gang war against the wolves, but you never drag innocents into it and I never have to drag into a grave.”

The world around the man began to drain of color, filling with a static that had his every instinct screaming, “Aurelio, we need to run. We need to run now!”

“Oh, heh-heh, don’t you know?” The man chuckled before disappearing in a glitch of reality, only to reappear with his hand wrapped around Gerry’s throat and a maw full of fangs. “You can’t run from death.”

(If I wasn’t about to die that would be so fucking metal.) He internally squeed.

“Not the time.” Geraldine reminded him as she grasped at the man’s hand. “Can’t… phase… through…”

The man gave the ghost a sympathetic nod “No, you can’t.” before crushing her throat and causing Geraldine to shatter into black mist.

“Gerry?” He whispered, not sure if he should panic yet or not.

(I’d start panicking.) His partner assured him from within the safety of his mind. (If he can hurt me as I am you should very much be panicking.)

“As I was saying. Normally I give you guys a lot of slack, but tonight you were stupid enough to sink your fangs into my daughter.” The man growled as the static grew heavier. “So I’m going to rip your throat out with mine, before bringing you back to life, ripping off your dick, and shoving it down your throat so that you can choke on it.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Would-wouldn’t it be easier to castrate me before killing me?” He asked for some (stupid) (stupid) reason.

“It would.” The golden eyed man admitted. “I really want to kill you more than once.”

The man lunged forward with his mouth open, and Aurelio reacted more on instinct than anything else as he threw his hand forward. From his shadow a wave of black something surged forward before slamming into the man in front of him.

“Did… did I do that?” Aurelio gasped breathlessly as he watched the man stamp a boot down several meters away, killing the wave of shadows he’d been dragged away by.

(Well, it was you who directed it.) Gerald answered as he climbed to his feet. (But truly, we need to run.)

“I don’t think he’s going to let us do that.” He admitted with a grimace.

“Shadows… you’re one of William’s runts?” The man frowned as he almost seemed to stare through Aurelio.

(Gerry, give me whatever you can give me!) He told the spirit possessing him before slamming both of his hands onto the ground and pushing as much magic as he could into his shadow.

(Right, I’d rather not be attacked again but…)

From within his nearly black shadow a number of forms began to crawl out of the darkness, clawed hands pulling out snarling maws, until half a dozen shadow beasts stood in front of him. Each of them a twisted chimera of cat, wolf, bat, and half a dozen other animals he couldn’t hope to identify in the time it took them to rush forward.

(Hopefully these will at least slow him down.)

“No.” Rather than looking the slightest bit concerned the golden eyed man grinned as he entered a boxing stance with one of his hands open into a clawing shape.

As the beasts lunged at him, the man punched through the first shadow construct, before grabbing a second and using it as a shield to block a thirds lunge with a swing that sent it flying into a fourth, knocking it to the ground. The man stepped forward, crushing the two under foot just like he did a fifth by slamming it into the ground with his makeshift shield’s skull.

He merely looked at the last one and it shattered into black mist, a look that was shortly turned Aurelio’s way. “That’s not something his folk can do. Meaning…”

“Tha-at didn’t slow him down at all.” He laughed with wide eyes as he realized, (I’m going to die.)

(No!) Geraldine assured him as the shadows began to pull towards him. (I’ve already done that and I do not desire an encore anytime soon!)

--- Reymundo Ochoa ---

He looked up at the three story tall shadow monster that the pendejo stupid enough to play with his little girl’s heart had turned into. “This must be your Spirit’s power.”

While the thing in front of him wasn’t quite as impressive as ol’ Will’s shadowblade spell, it was something he hadn’t ever seen from one of the Vamps. That lot at most wrapping themselves in a thin layer of shadows, never going so far as to construct full on monsters to fight in their place.

(Either way definitely different from what Zoey had.) Her spirit was connected to her soul in a way he couldn’t unravel but it was still similar to an actual Arcane summon, if made more permanent. (He’s more like Kelly’s undead thing but… the fact that she had a body outside of him, even briefly… A hybrid of the two maybe?)

In which case there was going to be a whole spectrum of bullshit to deal with. (Fun…)

“Still,” He cracked his neck one way and then the other. “I’ve killed bigger.”

The spirit bound to the boy let loose a roar that shook the windows and woke the neighbors before drawing back a car sized fist full of darkness and launching it at him just as fast as one getting a traffic ticket.

Unfortunately for them, that was still not his level as he easily twisted the magic bound to his soul to leap into the air before letting it loose in a clawing slash as he came down. His own Death magic easily ate its way through the Anima giving this construct life and severing the arm as he landed none the worse for wear.

The rest of the shadow’s arm retracted, snapping its shoulder back but doing nothing to harm the main body. Even less than that as the shadows quickly formed a new limb out of the darkness of the night.

“Regeneration, cute.” He taunted, knowing that if it was actually regeneration his magic would’ve killed the effect. (Meaning they’re going to replace their limbs as I cut them off until they run out of magic.)

The gigante shadow crossed its arms before spreading them wide and unleashing a veritable storm of shadow-constructed bats from its chest, all swarming at him in a tunnel of shifting darkness.

He reached for the soothing coolness within his soul before pushing it out into the world around him, causing it to fill with static as all color drained away. Only unlike the other times he did this, this static devoured all it touched.

The Necro he’d long since grown comfortable with ate every bat that touched it, and those beyond it as it slowly creeped along the tunnel seeking out to consume all life in the ever present cycle of it and its truest love.

At least until the Spirit possessing the boy smartened up and killed the tunnel before the static could kill her. Not that that saved their constructs.

When the last bat was finally consumed, he wrestled the blessing of death back under control before it could kill someone he actually cared about, containing that eternal hunger back within his soul.

To keep the spirit from realizing how much effort that took, he taunted her by asking, “Is that the best you cabróns got? Because this isn’t anywhere near my best.” He grinned, before killing the space between him and the goliath’s face.

What he could read of the construct’s face lurched back in surprise, not that that saved it when he merely killed the little space it had built up again, allowing him to land on the goliath’s face. A face that he promptly shoved his hand inside of before channeling his magic into it and devouring the spirit like he would the rest of creati-

He once more wrestled the piece of Death inside of him under control as he and the kid fell to the ground, him landing with little trouble whatsoever and the boy probably getting crippled if not for blood magic.

Not that that was really a concern to him, given how he was more focused on the fact that, (Damn, I’ve gotten rusty… I mean, I can still beat a demonio’s ass but the Lady hasn’t been this aggressive in years.)

Even as he picked the boy up by his throat, Reymundo couldn’t help the way his eyes drifted towards the golden crack in the sky. (Wonder if that’s what’s got her so uppity right now?)

(Whatever that’s tomorrow’s problem.) He decided as he turned his attention back to the punk who hurt his little girl, trying to gather what shadows he could to prevent Reymundo from (ripping the little pendejo limb from fucking-)

“What the fuck!?” A familiar voice cut through his bloodlust, causing him to freeze as his head slowly turned to where his daughter in all but blood -more specifically the daughter in all but blood who had no idea he was a Hunter- stared at him standing over her date ready to rip the boy’s beating heart out with wide eyes.

He absolutely hated the way, he and the kid both said, “Mierda.”