HUNTERS OF THE DAMNED

JIMMY BUTLER SPOTTED THE DEMON as she crossed the street.

    Beautiful, he thought, and began to follow. She was, in fact, a beautiful woman, somewhere in her late twenties or early thirties, dressed conservatively, probably coming home from work. But then he reminded himself: She wouldn’t be working. Not unless it’s a profession that hurts other people.

    He didn’t know her profession, didn’t know her name, didn’t know anything about her other than she was no longer the person she had been born as. She was possessed now, a demon to her core, and that was all he needed to know about her. He followed, and went over in his head what he would have to do, the steps he would have to take.

    She moved quickly, slipping through the stream of pedestrians heading home before the sky went dark. She moved with assurance, with the brazenness of a native-born, knowing exactly where she was headed and how to get there. 

    The demon inside her, of course, would not know these things naturally. Instead, it would draw upon her memories and her knowledge, use these tools to its advantage. As she approached a corner, she paused and turned her head. Jimmy saw the confident smile on her lips, the flash of boldness in her eyes. His brain tingled. Buzzed. He could feel the damned thing, so close now, and he knew he wouldn’t lose its trail even if it turned the corner and ran outright. 

    Jimmy didn’t know the city at all. He was a stranger here, far from his home in Boston. He had spent the afternoon tracking her, following the tingle in his head as she grew closer—

Not she. It. It’s an it.

    He had to keep reminding himself of that. It was so easy to give this thing a personality simply because it controlled a human shape. But the woman, whatever her name was, was suppressed; there was only the revolting thing active in her now, moving the arms and legs and muscles large and tiny with directed electrical impulses. Just a puppet, Jimmy thought. Though another part of him knew better, knew that puppets were not aware of what was done to them, did not have to live with the consequences of what was done to their bodies while the puppet master was in control.

    He shook the guilt away and kept moving. She—it—had crossed the street of busy Dublin and made her way to an apartment complex surrounded by a metal gate. Jimmy paused, suddenly aware that there might be security measures to keep him out: a code or a doorman. He thought for a moment that he might have to confront the demon on the street, but that idea was quickly discarded; the street was crowded, and there were cars whizzing by from both directions. He’d never lay a hand on it without a dozen people seeing him.

    Has to be her apartment.

    He quickened his step. Better get in close, hope he could follow it in the front door if there was a code, or somehow convince the doorman he was a delivery man—

    The demon stopped so quickly that Jimmy nearly ran into it. It started walking backwards, parallel with a man it had just seen. Its female form faced him and smiled as they walked, but the man didn’t seem to see her. Jimmy sidestepped out of their way, then watched as they continued down the street, side by side. 

    “Hi,” the demon said, and smiled brilliantly at the man.

    The man finally looked at her, noticed how pretty she was, and immediately had a frown deepening the folds in his face. Jimmy guessed that the man was not used to a beautiful woman saying hi to him out of the blue—he was well under six feet, at least a hundred pounds overweight, and didn’t look like he’d had a whole lot of luck with any kind of women in his life.

    The demon smiled even more brightly at him, which simply made the man look away and say, “Not interested, love. Keep looking.”

    If Jimmy thought that would be the end of it, that he would again be able to follow the demon back to the woman’s apartment, he was surprised. The demon placed a hand on the fat man’s shoulder, a light touch that was gentle enough to make him stop in his tracks and look at her again as she—it, damn it, it—said, “We could go back to my place. It’s near here.”

    The man looked her up and down. Saw the expensive clothes, the light makeup, the healthy pallor. His frown remained. “Haven’t got a pound, love. You’ll do better with a man of means.”

    But the smile on the pretty woman’s lips did not falter. “I’m not asking for money.”

    He gave her a hard look now. Then he looked around, probably wondering if she was having a laugh on him, her and some friends filming this for the Internet. Jimmy turned away from them and studied the sign in a storefront—but he remained close enough to hear the blunt edge of their words.

    “This a joke?” the fat man demanded.

    “No. It’s an offer.” Jimmy glanced over, saw the demon lean in and whisper something to the man. The edge of his lips turned down even further. 

    “Not interested,” he said again. But he didn’t leave. He was frozen to the spot.

    Jimmy stared at them now. He watched the demon put the woman’s hand on the fat man’s thick arm and purr something to him. Even licked her lips. The bustle of the sidewalk wrapped around them, oblivious to the flirtation going on. Only Jimmy could see it, and see how much it disturbed the fat man.

    At last, the man’s large hand touched the demon’s arm and the man looked deeply into her eyes.

    Shit, Jimmy thought. I’ll have to wait until they’re done...

    But the fat man said sternly, “You need to find a good church, my love. Get some God in your veins—”

    The demon flinched. It ripped its arm away from him and flashed its teeth in an ugly rictus. “Faggot,” it spat through those pretty lips, and turned its back on him. Right past Jimmy and on its way to the woman’s apartment again.

    Jimmy followed, but he hesitated long enough to see how the blow had struck the fat man. His eyes were wide, but narrowed quickly. The big head shook slowly, and disappointment washed over his features—not for any missed opportunity for fun, but in genuine sympathy for the woman who had made a play for him. “Poor lass,” Jimmy thought he saw the heavy lips mutter, and then the fat man went on his way, mingling with the pedestrian flow again.

    Good man, Jimmy thought, then hurried to catch up with his prey.

    The demon reached the woman’s apartment building without another incident. The creature ran a card from the woman’s purse through a slot, and a buzz from inside clicked open the door. 

    “Hold, please,” Jimmy called. He ran up, smiling, and saw her hesitate. Maybe the vestige of the actual woman inside the body reasserting herself, telling the demon not to let strangers in—but he didn’t want to think about that. He had to convince himself that the woman was dead; all that stood before him was the demon. The tingle in his brain went into a full buzz as he neared it. The demon continued to hesitate, as if thinking things through. But what was there to think about? Strange or not, killer or minister, it shouldn’t matter to a demon. Jimmy knew this, and wasn’t surprised when the demon smiled at him—a sexy, full-faced smile that actually caused a tremor of arousal to scuttle through Jimmy—and opened the door wide for him to walk right through.

    “Thanks,” he said. He bowed his head, playing shy. The demon kept looking at him, even as it moved to the elevator. He could almost imagine it licking its chops.

    “Coming up?” it asked him. He realized he had been standing still, relieved at having made it this far, as the demon stepped into the open elevator and held the doors. 

    “Of course,” he said, and moved inside. The creature didn’t step aside as he entered, but brushed up against him, its smile growing at his discomfort.

    The elevator doors closed. The demon pushed a button for the fourth floor. Before it could ask, he pushed the seven.

    The beautiful eyes looked at him with naked hunger. “What are your plans tonight?” it asked.

    He acted surprised. “Um...nothing, really. Just a little telly.”

    “You’re American.” 

    The use of a poor Irish accent and the word “telly” hadn’t worked. He had hoped to come off as a native Dubliner. 

    “Student,” he said, thinking fast—a near-impossibility with the buzz going on in his head. “Dad paid for the apartment.”   

    “Lucky you.” The words were thick with amusement. “Could get even luckier.”

    He didn’t answer that. But he could see what she—it, for fuck’s sake!—meant by the look it gave him. A look he’d seen from women now and then in his vast twenty-five years.

    “I don’t have—” he began.

    “No money,” it said. The beautiful green eyes rolled in their sockets. “Why do men always think I’m looking for money?”

    “Most men aren’t used to such a beautiful woman coming on to them,” he answered promptly. That made the woman’s smile that much wider. A trick of the light, surely, but he thought he saw fangs. 

    The elevator bell rang. Fourth floor. The door opened.

    The demon grabbed him by the shirt front, not hard, very gentle, as if holding a string, and pulled him forward, an obvious sign that it wanted him to follow.

    Jesus, he thought. But he followed.

    They went down the corridor, third door on the right. From the outside, the building looked modern and clean; the hallway itself was decorated with heavy carpeting and ornate lamps. Yet Jimmy felt like he was walking into a dark, deep dungeon as he followed the demon to its door and watched it unlock and open it.

    “Come in,” it said. The look it gave him made his heart skip a beat. He hadn’t felt this way since his last time at college, when a girl named Jennifer had asked him back to her dorm room, and Jennifer hadn’t been half as beautiful as this woman—

    Damn it, snap out of it!

    “Something wrong?” the creature asked. It didn’t look worried, only expectant. And Jimmy reminded himself that it wasn’t here to hurt him, necessarily. Just to degrade and injure the woman it had possessed.

    He stepped into the room. The lights popped on. Not a large place, but nice enough. Clean and enough room to actually walk around without rubbing elbows against the walls.

    “I’d offer you a drink,” it said as it passed him, “but I don’t think either of us needs that, do we?”

    The buzz in his head was like a swarm of bees. For the first time, unnervingly, he wondered if the demon could hear it. He wondered if the creature could tell what he was about.

    Holy God, if that’s true, what have I walked into?

    But he didn’t think the thing would be undressing now if it knew. Wouldn’t be giving him those looks with those large, green eyes that made his stomach flutter and actually activated a part of his mind that wondered, slyly, if perhaps he could just spend an hour or so with this woman and have some fun before he did what he had to do...

    “Fuck,” he muttered. He chased the temptation away. The buzzing got louder, more demanding.

    “Exactly,” the creature said. It was down to bra and panties now. And then, like that, they were gone. 

    He stared at her naked body. Not just the curves and porcelain flesh, but at the scrapes and bruises that were forming all over. He licked his lips, trying not to let on, but his face must have shown something of his concern.

    “Had a rough day,” the creature said, still smiling. It took a step towards him. Its fingers were tracing slow, small circles around the woman’s nipples. “Tell you the truth, I’ve been fucking all day, all kinds of men, a few truly sick ones. My mouth hurts, my cunt aches, and my ass is a holy mess.” Its smile did not diminish one bit. “But what’s one more man before I go, hmm?”

    It reached for him, but he stumbled back. 

    I should leave, he told himself—but, no, he had a job to do. A job it had taken him a long time to figure out. He understood it now, though. And this demon was not going to get away.

    “No need for shyness with me.” The demon laughed. It didn’t sound at all evil, more musical, a laugh Jimmy would have enjoyed hearing all night long—

    He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. He realized he had an erection, but that was okay. Natural. The woman was beautiful, after all, with red hair and an athletic build and nipples the right size for his mouth—

    Stop, he commanded himself. He saw the woman, the creature, staring at him. Amused. As if she had just met her first virgin.

    Well, in a manner of speaking, she had. Not a virgin when it came to sex, not since high school, but certainly his first time at what he was going to attempt tonight.

    “Maybe we should have that drink after all,” the creature said playfully. Its fingers were now moving slowly down the woman’s stomach, slipping between her legs...

    Jimmy Butler concentrated and let the buzz expand from his brain, pushed it forward like a sharp wind maneuvering a rain cloud. It drifted, much slower than he would have liked, but finally enveloped the woman’s body that this creature inhabited.

    That’s when the woman’s features changed.

    “What are you doing?” it asked. Its voice was no longer filled with the promise of a pleasant evening.

    “I need you to sit down,” Jimmy instructed.

    The creature stared at him for a long moment. He saw the slight tremors around its nose and the length of its neck, as if trying to do something, something elementary, but finding it was unable.

    “What are you doing?” it asked again—but by then Jimmy was on it. A quick fist to the throat, not hard enough to crush the larynx, but enough to stop the creature from calling out. Then another blow to the stomach and a sharp kick against its knee, snapping the leg and forcing the creature to the floor.

    It took another strenuous ten minutes, but by then Jimmy had it tied to the bed, tape secured over its bloody mouth. It struggled, but it was only as strong as the person it possessed.

    Jimmy took up a chair and sat next to the creature. Its nakedness no longer affected him. He could see the blaze in the creature’s eyes, and the buzz in his head was deafening. This was no longer a beautiful woman. This was no longer a human being. Despite what vestiges of the innocent woman might remain inside the body, this was wholly a demon now. He had to believe that if he were going to make it through this night.

    He laid a hand on the creature’s head. He felt sweat, burning flesh. But after a while he began to see the images. And he knew, now, that he would get the answers that he wanted before he sent this demon back to Hell.