Page 23 of Reaper
Ran my blood?Fuck.If there were samples of my DNA somewhere, I had to make sure I got those back before I brought this whole place down around their ears.I’d left plenty of blood splattered around plenty of crime scenes over the years, but to my knowledge I’d never had anything run where it could be labeled and tied directly to me.That could be dangerous.If some shadowy branch of some shadowy government somehow found out that I had a sliver of demon soul inside me, they’d want to put a lot of very large needles in very uncomfortable places and run very invasive tests on me to figure out how to create demon-infused human weapons.
Shit, I didn’t trust the non-shadowy agency of the government Iworked forwith that information.Becks knew, of course, and her boss, Paranormal Division Director Keya Pravesh, but I trusted Becks with my life and soul, and Pravesh had her own secrets to hide from the higher-ups, so we had a little mutually assured destruction working for us there.
I snapped my attention back to Pete, who was waiting for an answer from me.“I don’t know, Pete,” I said.“I don’t know about all that DNA stuff.I just know that when I started out, I had to cast spells on myself to enhance strength, speed, and endurance.Over time, I had to refresh the spells less and less often, so maybe pouring the same magic into my body over and over again changed me somehow.You know magic, dude, it’s all about intent and willpower.I poured enough of myself into those spells over the years that I guess they just kinda…stuck?”
“Shit, makes as much sense as anything, I guess,” Pete said, with a broad grin that didn’t quite make it to his eyes.He was holding something back, and I couldn’t tell if it was his decision, or if he had orders.Either way, I was probably right not to trust him completely.Although, if you’re the prisoner, it’s always a good idea not to trust the guards.They have one job, and keeping you happy isn’t it.
“I think I’m gonna clean up and soak in that tub now, if that’s cool,” I said, peeling off my scrub top.It was crusty with a mix of dried blood and sand, and had several rips in it.“Think I can get a new change of clothes?These are hanging on by a thread.”
“Oh yeah,” Pete said, pointing at a small dresser.There was no mirror, because you don’t give prisoners things that can be turned into a weapon in half a second, but there were some toiletries on the top, along with a belt.“There’s real clothes in there.We kinda guessed at the sizes, but we went up and down a little in the pants and the shirts.It’s basic stuff—t-shirts, jeans, sweats—but it’s all clean.And there’s a six-pack of assorted beer in the fridge.”He pointed to a dorm fridge beside the dresser.“I’ll be back at seven tomorrow morning to walk you to the mess hall.Have a good soak, man.Good fight.”
With that, Pete hustled out of the room and I untied my Docs and peeled out of the rest of my disgusting clothes.They’d been pretty good about providing fresh scrubs every day, but I’d still coated them with a thick layer of sweat, blood, and fine sand tonight.I stood under the steaming shower for a while, letting the heat soak into my muscles, and reached out to Becks.
You there, babe?
Yeah, I’m here.Glad you’re okay.
A little banged up, but you should see the other guy.
I can.I’m in your memories, remember?I could almost feel her laughing in my head.
Yeah.Listen, it’s gonna take me at least a couple more weeks to get to the bottom of all this.You finding out anything on your end?
No more bodies have appeared, so whoever lost the last Main Event must have been someone that didn’t leave a corpse.
Or they’re getting better at hiding them.No Main Event tonight, so there shouldn’t be any deaths.Next big fight is Saturday, and I’ll move up another bracket.
There’s five brackets, right?
Yeah.I need to win two more before I fight in a Main Event.Any luck on figuring out where the fuck I am?
I’ve got a couple of ideas.There aren’t many places in town big enough for the kind of operation you’ve described, so we’re looking to outlying areas like Pineville, Concord, or Matthews.
That tracks.There’s still some undeveloped land up by the speedway.Not much, though.The chunks of North Charlotte and Concord where the racetrack was had grown up a lot in the past decade.
So we’ve narrowed it down a little, but I can’t get enough of a fix on your signal to narrow it down any.It’s like your thoughts are being bounced off a bunch of different satellites or something.
Weird.Well, I’ll let you get some sleep.Now that I’ve washed most of the blood off, I’m gonna soak in a tub of scalding water and let my muscles recover.
Wish I was there to wash your back.
It’s hard to blush across a telepathic link, but somehow my fiancée managed to bring it out in me, along with some other awkward responses to the thought of her washing my back, among other things.I wish you were here, too.Love you.
I know.She tamped down our connection and I filled the tub, sinking all the way up to my chin.There were a lot of questions still rolling around in my head as the heat soaked into my battered body.Where the hell was this place hidden?Who was running it?
I had a pretty solid suspicion that the shadowy “Boss” I’d met a few days ago might be the day-to-day manager, but I was pretty sure the real power lay elsewhere.
How much could I trust Pete?I liked the kid, but at the end of the day, he worked for the people running an underground fight club for cryptids, not all of whom were here voluntarily.That made him sketchy at best, and a murderer at worst.
What was I going to do when it came time to fight to the death?I’d killed a lot of people—human and cryptid alike, but could I murder somebody for the entertainment of a bunch of bloodthirsty assholes?Or would it be self-defense because if I didn’t kill whoever I got matched up against, they would definitely kill me.Sometimes life was easier when I was just a berserk killing machine ripping Nazis to shreds all across Europe.At least then I knew the assignment—see a Nazi, kill a Nazi.This whole “conscience” thing was a real pain in the ass.
Those thoughts were all tumbling through my head like psychotic squirrels when the heat, the fatigue, and the relaxation of the soak all combined to pull me under into a deep, dreamless sleep.
18
That sleep lasted about three hours before I woke up, everything pruned as a motherfucker, with my back hurting all over again from falling asleep sitting in a hard-ass bathtub.I drained the tub, showered again to loosen up my muscles, dried off, pulled a thick comforter over my naked body, and sprawled across the plush queen-sized bed for another few hours.
I felt a lot better when I woke up the second time, around six in the morning.I took another shower, this time to mostly wash the sleepy off, and got dressed.They did pretty well with sizes, so I grabbed a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, and was just looking through the mini-fridge for something to eat when Pete knocked on my door, waiting all of half a second before entering.I guess my promotion to Tier Three came with some privacy, but not really.
