Star Eater
Chapter Forty

Mason stared at the back of the Guided Way shop. He’d been inside many times, but this was the first time he was going to sneak inside. He only prayed that he could get the jump on whoever was in there. He’d brought all his preparations to bear. Ava was in the back with their mom, holding her hand.

Mason glanced in the rearview mirror at his sister, who nodded at him brave and calm. His eyes slid to his mother who stared out the window vacantly. She hadn’t spoken since his brother had died in the war. Silas had shoved her down the stairs in an effort to get to his second son. Mason wasn’t sure if it was the head injury, or knowing that her husband had eaten one of her children. He prayed she didn't know what happened, but he thought deep down she probably did.

Inhaling, he checked his watch. 6:30. He was running late. He parked around the back alley.

“I have one more thing to get. You have everything right? You know where the money is, you have the new debit card and passports?”

“Do you really need to get this?” she asked quietly. “Can’t we just go?”

He turned around and took her hand. “I really need to get this. If I don't come out in ten minutes, just go, Ava. You promise me?”

“I can’t—”

“Please,” Mason said. “Please.”

She dipped her chin once, her eyes filled with fear. Mason’s heart pounded. He reached out and touched their mother’s knee and then firmed his resolve.

Courage, Honesty, Benevolence… he recited the eight virtues as he got out of the car.

He was going to do this. He was actually about to get them away. Finally.

As he approached the back door, Mason allowed his mind to wander to his future, to the possibility of living outside his father’s territory. True, he wouldn't be able to pursue karate at the national level, but he would get to continue to study. He and his sister and mother would get a tiny apartment in a small town. He might have to get a job and the thought actually thrilled him. He could support them. And he could go to school and not worry about being murdered every day. He reined himself in. You need to get that case first, he thought.

As he reached for the back door, his phone went off. Luckily, he’d put it on vibrate. Checking it, he saw it was Kai. He closed his eyes in relief, and then read the message.

“Are you safe?” Kai texted. “Did you get the case?”

“Not yet,” Mason replied.

“I’m at the building,” Kai texted him.

“Joseph will be listening to the FBI responses. You have to at least go in the building to shut everything down or he’ll know something is wrong.”

Kai texted back ‘ok’. Mason closed his eyes again. He really was doing this and so was Kai. This was his only shot. He needed to get the case and then get the hell away from here. He checked the alley both ways. Nothing. Mason put on his best arrogant expression, and walked in through the back. 

There were two minorlings hanging around. Their job wasn’t more than acting as guard dogs. They were lower level and not much of a fight. But their presence confirmed that this is where the case was stored. Why else would Joseph leave men to guard a storefront that was essentially full of tourist crap after it was closed?

Mason strolled in like he belonged. One of them nudged the other and then asked Mason what he was doing here.

“I think I lost my watch here the other night,” Mason said.

He closed the gap between the three of them. The one minorling glanced around the floor automatically. The other seemed annoyed. Mason walked right up to them.

“Did you see anything?” he asked, letting annoyance creep into his voice.

“No,” one said.

Mason didn't hesitate. Without warning, he punched one square in the face. The minorling dropped. Mason was already on the ball of his foot, coming around to hit the second with a kick, dislocating his jaw. The daemon roared and half changed as he fell back. Mason delivered another crushing blow to his first victim, coming down with an elbow to the top of his head. And just like that, he was unconscious.

The second one had time to recover. He rolled to his hands and knees, and charged. Mason grabbed his arm, knelt and flipped the daemon smoothly over his shoulder. Once his victim was on his back, Mason wrapped an arm around his neck and squeezed until the kicking stopped. The blood pounded in his veins and there was a roaring in his ears, but this time it wasn’t fear. He reveled in it. Self control, he thought and, with some effort, let the daemon go, checking his pulse. Still alive.

From there, Mason breathed a sigh of relief and moved quickly. They wouldn't remain unconscious for long. He slipped into the bathroom and knocked on the walls until he found the right one. He walked back out into the main room, trying to find some place where he could access the safe. It took him a few minutes of knocking, tugging, pushing, and moving boxes before he located an Ogham character on the footboard near the floor. He pressed it and the wall opened, sliding to the left to reveal a niche with a large safe set back in it.

It was a button combination safe with a cell phone type keypad. Mason stared at it in consternation before he remembered the shredded note from his uncle’s bin, the one Ava had found and shown him. He typed in the word ‘Defodau,’ their original family name, just as he’d seen it on the shredded piece of paper Ava had recovered.

Nothing happened.

Joseph waited patiently in the SUV for Kai to return. About five minutes passed. Surely not enough time to worry yet. Besides, there was no reason to worry. This was going to work, and then Silas would be free. Even as he thought it though, an alarm rang out on his phone. He took it out of his breast pocket and read the screen.

“What’s wrong?” Cole asked.

“Someone activated a trap I set. The safe in the Guided Way shop alarm went off,” Joseph said. “I think we found our mole.”

“I have men five minutes away,” Cole said.

“Good,” Joseph said. “Send them to catch the traitor, but tell them to take him alive. I want to have a conversation with whoever has been selling our secrets. And call in someone to pick up Akuma. We can’t leave him here without a ride.”

Cole nodded and got on the phone. A minute later he hung up.

“They’re on their way,” he said.

Joseph nodded and told the driver to start the car.

Mason was beyond frustrated. He tried his cousin’s name, and every other word combination that might be important. He tried “power” and “money” and a few family ancestor names, but nothing opened the safe. He thought perhaps there might be something explosive in the stores of the shop, then remembered all the munitions had been confiscated by the FBI.

The two minorlings were stirring. Mason didn't care. He was about to change into his other form and try breaking the damn safe open with his bare hands when his sharp ears caught the front door opening. The shop was closed, which meant someone had been alerted. He was out of time. Mason swore savagely. He transformed and blinked onto the Plains. He tried walking the twenty or so feet and blinking back towards the alley, knowing it was a risk, knowing he might be seen or worse end up in a wall, but he didn't have any choice.

Time and space moved so differently on the Plains. When he blinked back in, he was still inside the shop, right in front of the back door, five feet from freedom.

“FREEZE!” someone shouted from behind.

Mason froze and glanced over his shoulder. Another minorling had appeared and was holding a gun on him. He ran two steps anyway, before an arm appeared out of nowhere and clotheslined him. He fell hard, and lay there dazed as the minorling that had come in from the back hovered over him.

“Boss is not going to believe this,” the daemon muttered.

Mason’s heart sunk. He’d failed. He just hoped that Ava and his mother got away. Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the Find ɴøᴠel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Kai reached the dark loading bay. He dug his bag out from between the two pallet stacks and dressed quickly, zipping up the bio-suit with relish. It was starting to feel normal wearing it. He put the clothes back over the suit, and slipped the gloves and shoes back on. Then he turned on his phone, impatiently waiting for it to reboot. After long last it did, but there was no message from Mason. Kai’s stomach sank.

Maybe he just forgot to text me, he thought, holding out hope.

Maybe we’ve been set up, Akuma thought, reminding him of the evidence box. It was a hard point to ignore and both demon and boy agreed to proceed with caution. Kai slipped the phone back into the bag, and checked his wallet. He had about five hundred dollars in cash on him.

Kai walked back to the alley where the SUV was supposed to be parked. Then he crouched and peeked around the corner. The alley ran the full width of the block with a few dumpsters and objects obscuring his view. There was an SUV waiting.

Does that look different to you? Kai asked.

Yes, smells different too, Akuma confirmed.

Swearing, Kai considered his options. Akuma, however, took the reins, the demon’s anger making his rash.

Akuma! Kai complained.

Let me, the demon said. Akuma stepped into the alley, keeping flat against one wall so that a dumpster covered his entrance. When he was far enough in, he sunk into the wall behind him. The demon didn't go through the wall of the building, which was good. They could both hear the busy sounds of a restaurant through the stone they stood in.

Instead, Akuma walked down the alley inside the brick with casual efficiency. When they were close enough, Akuma crouched and slowly, warily, stuck his head out into the alley near the ground. The demon resisted the urge to gag at the smell.

Joseph and Cole are not in there, Akuma said. Kai suggested he see what was up.

So Akuma slunk out into the alleyway keeping close to the ground, and then moved behind the SUV. He phased through the trunk and into the backseat, keeping low, only letting his head up to his ears into the car proper. The backseat was empty, but the front seat was occupied by two minorlings.

“—was he thinking?” one of the daemon asked.

“Who knows,” the other responded. “That kid is dead for sure,” he added.

“Bob said he was trying to get into the boss’s safe,” one said. His partner snorted.

“Joseph will bleed him.”

“That’s if the others didn't kill him when they caught him.”

The two daemons laughed.

Rage rose up in Kai. He wasn’t sure where his started and Akuma’s ended, but it was there. Akuma dropped down under the car. He stayed phased out and crawled up towards the engine, ignoring the layer of moisture that seeped into their clothing. Once there, he pulled his gloves off, rolled onto his back and shimmied so that he could unzip the bio-suit down to Kai’s navel. Then he reached up and touched the engine. Cold flowed out and into the motor, seizing it up in parts with a freeze so sharp the radiator cracked.

Satisfied, the demon retreated back into Kai, who turned around and crawled out the back. He stayed low and darted into the last building on the block. He ran through the building, and cut a corner, heading out onto the street. The building remained dark around him because he hadn’t zipped the bio-suit back up. Frankly, it was getting annoying. Can we control this? Kai demanded.

I don’t know, Akuma said.

Kai found an emergency exit and stopped long enough to zip it up. He pulled on the gloves again and walked out into the street.

We don’t have much time, he thought. Kai dug the burner phone out of his bag. It took a moment to turn on but the instant it did he dialed 911. If they want to play games, I can play games too, Kai thought.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“There’s a suspicious SUV parked in an alley off of Watseka and Culver Boulevard. All the lights went out in those buildings when it showed up,” he said. Then he hung up and threw the phone into a street trashcan. He hailed a taxi. “I need you to drive me to Honey Flowers on Ocean Park Boulevard and I need you to get there fast.”

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