Kicking Ass

Todays Snippet theme is all about kicking ass. So here’s he opening scene from NO ANGEL in the MOST WANTED anthology.

Anna Blair was special. She knew it, and accepted it. Her short bouncy blond curls framed a face of fair skin, dark chocolate eyes, and lips that were naturally full and perfectly shaped. People often told her she looked like she was kissed by an angel. And they always looked at her funny when she replied that there was no angel in her life…but she had been blessed by the devil.
She thought herself a simple girl, living a simple life. The goal was to stay alive, and it didn’t bother her that she often had to kill to do it. Emotions hadn’t factored into her life for a long time.
Yet, walking back to her motel from the movie theater, she couldn’t stop thinking about what a sap she was to get all teary over fictional characters that kept their friendship strong with a pair of “˜magical’ jeans.
The stupid thing was, people saw the movie and laughed at the thought of magic. Anna watched the movie and saw the magic clear as the full moon in the night sky. The magic wasn’t in the pants, but in the way the girls remained friends and accepted each other’s differences with love.
That was the kind of magic Anna envied. She’d never had friends. Not even as a little girl. Her only friend had been her mother, but her mother had been killed when Anna was twenty-one, and now, nine years later, Anna doubted she’d ever have another friend. It wasn’t safe for her to have friends. Being close to her put people in danger, and she’d been raised to protect people from the evil she knew was in the world.
She accepted it, as she did so many other things she had no control over. That didn’t mean it didn’t hit her in the heart when she saw others have what she’d always wanted. Even if it was just in a stupid movie.
Some people were born to lead a life full of love, health and happiness. Anna had been born to an ex-Catholic nun, and raised to fight demons. As if to remind her of that fact, the wind changed and Anna caught a vibe on the air that had her muscles tightening, and her thoughts narrowing.
The tiny hairs all over her body stood on end and she knew evil was nearby. Stepping to the edge of the sidewalk she placed her back against the building and closed her eyes. She’d gone to the late movie, and it was almost midnight, so the sidewalks were pretty much empty. It wasn’t hard for her to tune out the few cars passing by as she concentrated on seeing the thread of energy she’d felt.
Amongst the blackness that formed when she closed her eyes Anna could see the energy that surrounded her. People gave off energy, plants and animals gave off energy. All living things gave off energy of different levels and different vibrations. Anna sorted through the colors in her mind and found the one that had make her skin crawl. It was pink, of all colors, and writhing angrily amongst the lazy ones of plants and animals around her.
It was also fading fast. Anna opened her eyes and concentrated on using her powers to keep the alternate view of energy overlapping the one everyone else saw. She moved quickly, her boots silent on the sidewalk as she followed the energy trial.
She should’ve been prepared. She should’ve seen the energy thread thicken, strengthen. Her only excuse was that the thing had parked itself around the corner of a solid brick wall that blocked the trail. As she started around that corner, a long green arm reached out, grabbed her by the throat and pulled her into the alley.
Pinned to the brick wall by her throat she fought for breath and immediately kicked out, her steel-toed boot connecting with its stomach? She rolled her eyes down and saw that the thing that had her must be seven fucking feet tall!
“Anna Blair, you are wanted.” Its voice was human, even melodious. Too bad it was big green and gross looking. Okay, and evil…don’t forget it was evil.
Black spots started to float in front of her eyes as he squeezed her throat tighter, cutting off her air completely. Anna stopped struggling against the hand that held her so high up off the ground, and called to her first power. She opened her right hand and a flame leapt to life. With a flick of her wrist the fireball landed on the things head. The patch of black hair that grew in a long thick mohawk caught fire and he dropped her.
Her rubbery knees and collapsed beneath her. She rolled as she fell and landed on her hip. “Ouch!” That was going to leave a bruise, but at least she hadn’t landed directly on her tailbone.
Without a second’s hesitation she rolled again and stood up several feet away. She reached behind her and pulled two very small, but very deadly knives from the hidden sheath in her waistband.
“Okay, big guy,” she said holding the knives loosely in each hand as she looked him over. It was indeed over seven feet tall, heavily muscled, and vaguely human looking. It reminded her of the fictional Hulk from the movie she’d seen weeks earlier. Not quite as gross or slimey as she’d originally thought, but still evil. The energy coming off him was definitely evil. “You need to tell me what the hell you are, and who sent you?”
It roared and shook its head. “I am Maracas, sent by Focalor, Great Duke of Hell. He wished you to be brought to him, and I am his servant.”
Yellow eyes gleamed at her from a broad flat face. She tried not to focus on the small black horns that were visible now that he was bald. “You’re not like any demon I’ve ever seen before,” she said.
Throw the knives, you idiot. Don’t talk to him. The little voice inside her head was drowned out by her training. Her mother had trained her, to know your enemy is to defeat your enemy. She needed to know. As long as she kept her distance she could kill him with a flick of her wrist.
“You’ve not faced a true demon before,” Maracas said as he stepped forward.
She took three quick steps back, shaking her head. “I’ve been fighting demons my whole life, you’re not like anything I’ve ever seen.”
She was a fighter for sure, but she wasn’t an idiot. This guy was big and bad, very bad. If he hadn’t been blocking the entrance to the alley she’d have run for it. Since running wasn’t an option, she needed to know what she was up against if she was going to stand a chance.
He took another step, she took another three, keeping a fair sized distance between them. “I told you, I am sent by —”
“I know why you’re here, you idiot. I want to know what — Ack!” She scrambled back as he lunged, but he was quicker. And damn that long reach. His football sized fist connected with her jaw and she flew back against the brick wall at the end of the alley. The knives left her hands when she landed and her head smacked against the brick. Everything started to fade and she fought not to black out. “Fuck!”
Without her blades she instinctively reached for her fire, and started throwing fireballs out in his direction, hoping to slow him down and give her vision a chance to clear.
Maracas batted at them as each one came close, blocking or dodging most of them and barely slowing his advance. The ones that landed would lick at his skin for a brief moment before flaming out on their own. Except where she hit clothing, but soon the materials were burned away and Maracas didn’t even seem to notice.
Gathering her strength she straightened up, raised both her hands and threw, aiming at something much more sensitive that the hair on the top of his head. The fireball landed on his groin, and that one he noticed.
Definitely male, she thought with a snicker as she struggled to her feet. He got the flames put out at the exact time she reached back for another knife. She pulled it from behind and let it loose in one smooth move. The silver blade gleamed in the night and landed true with a loud thunk.
Maracas looked down at the little blade sticking out of his chest and laughed. “A knife to the heart won’t work with a real demon, little human.”
For the first time since she caught his vibe, true fear shot through Anna. “Oh, Deus,” she murmured.
Maracas laughed. “God can’t help you now,” he taunted.
A prayer leapt to her lips and she scrambled back as Maracas lunged forward, his hands aimed at her throat again.
She tripped over an empty can that went spinning away and his hands wrapped around her throat as she fell, with him falling on top of her. She grunted, the wind leaving her lungs sharply and black spots danced across her vision once again.
When she finally got her wind back, she realized that Maracas wasn’t holding her down he’d just landed on top of her when he’d keeled over mid-grab.
Pinned under what had to be three hundred pounds, Anna let her head fall back against the pavement. It might’ve been delayed, but the knife had worked it’s magic on whatever Maracas was. Mostly.
What mattered was she was still alive, and Maracas wasn’t.
She waited a few more seconds and finally decided the knife wasn’t going to finish the job for her this time, so she prepared to wiggle out from under her captor. She braced her back, and pushed up against the body pinning her to the ground. It shifted with ease, and then suddenly burst into bright blue flame as the knives magic kicked in and ashes rained down on her.
“Great,” she swore. Hacking and coughing she sat up and brushed demon ash from her clothes. “Just fucking great.”
She tried to stand and got as far as sitting on her ass before the world began to spin from the crack her head had taken when she’d hit the pavement. Slumping against the wall she closed her eyes and worked on catching her breath…and tried desperately not to think about the ramifications of what had just happened.
Through no fault of her own, she’d been born with demonic powers. And the demons of hell were not happy about it. They thought it sacrilegious that human have such powers, and had made it their goal to capture her, and retrieve those powers…by way of killing her. Focolar was a new name, and Maracas was certainly a new thing, unlike any other demon she’d ever faced.
What with the horns and green fire-retardant skin, she had to acknowledge the knot growing in her gut. Maracas hadn’t been a demon spirit in a human body…but a full on from hell demon.
Every other demon she’d met up with had looked just like a human, aside from the occasional flash from their goat’s eyes…but basically they could’ve passed for human.
How the hell did a full-blooded demon get on her plane of existence? It was unheard of. The big green thing was a whole new deal, one she wasn’t sure she could deal with.
Sometimes she wondered why she bothered fighting the supernatural bounty hunters that were sent after her. It wasn’t like anyone would miss her if she died. Her father had died before she was born. Her mother was gone. She had no friends, no family. No magic jeans to help her form life-long friendships with people who would accept her for who she was.
There were times she hated that her mother had raised her to believe. If she didn’t believe in God, then giving up the fight wouldn’t be seen as suicide, which was a sin that would send her straight to hell. Sometimes it seemed like no matter what she did, she was going to end up in the Netherworld.
Finally the world stopped spinning and she stood up, not bothering to bite back the moan of pain as she retrieved her three knives. Unzipping her hoodie, she shook off the demon ash then tied it around her waist so she looked reasonably clean in her jeans and tank top. She brushed the ash from her hair gently, careful of the goose egg growing rapidly on the back of her head, and then trudged out of the alley to find the nearest bar.
She needed a drink. Or five.

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