Tim Marquitz - Echoes of the Past

Built like a brick shit house stacked on top of another, Venai had ripped the wall open with her bare hands. Matriarch of sorts to Jorn and their dead pal, Zellick, and one of the Nephilim herself, she hammered the last nail into my suspicion as to who had been feeding the DSI information.

Taller than me, and about three times as wide, Venai was what Arnold Schwarzenegger always wished he could be. She wore the fashionable SWAT outfit of the DSI, but she made Captain Johnson of the tree-trunk legs look like kindling. Her blond hair cut short to the scalp, and her face completely without adornment or makeup, she also made the poor captain look feminine. Built like a Sherman tank with a bumper of double-d’s strapped tight to her chest, she complemented her look with thick steel plates covering her knuckles like MMA gloves made out of I-beams. Each had three vicious spikes on the front. I’d seen them in action up close, and I have to say, they hurt; a lot.

“I told you we weren’t done with you, demon,” she shouted, her basso voice echoing off the walls. “You’re going to pay for what you did to Zellick.”

I really can’t say I felt too bad about capping the little shit. He and his friends didn’t have a problem going after my cousin, and Zellick certainly didn’t mind shoving his twelve inch penis-compensator knife into my lung when I wasn’t looking. As far as I was concerned, it was a bullet well spent.

I’d also given Venai one in the shin, but it looked like she’d gotten that taken care of, which spoke to the resources the DSI had at their disposal. Not a good sign.

“You know, Venai, we’re really gonna have to do this some other time. I’m in kind of a rush. I’m off to get my back waxed. Wanna come with? Two-fer-one special.”

She growled and hunched a tiny bit, but didn’t come at me. I hunkered down right along with her and shifted to make sure I was directly in front of her torso. “Now, now, Angelikins, I’m not really in the mood to be shot again, either, so call off the dogs before I kick their asses back to the pound”

I could see the wheels in her head working through her eyes. She was clearly wearing a wire, her eyes drifting for no apparent reason, and it was transmitting our conversation back to someone. I imagined some tactician was guiding her in the best way to take me out. I figured it was Rebecca Shaw pulling the strings.

Venai knew what I was capable of. She and her friends had caught me off guard and overconfident at my house, but even then things didn’t work out so good for her. She wouldn’t be here confronting me without some sort of backup plan in place. I had a pretty good idea that part of that plan waited outside with sights aimed and fingers at the ready. The DSI storm troopers were likely circling around back while we bullshitted.

It was time to go before I got trapped inside. “Keep up the weight loss, Venai. You’re looking marvelous” I told her, conjuring my best Billy Crystal as I backed toward the gate.

She clearly got the message to stop me. With a roar, she started forward and I raised my newly reacquired gun. Unfortunately, she learned from our last encounter. Rather than charge in like a bull, she kicked a chunk of wreckage from the front wall at me. I ducked and stumbled back into the piles of comics and paraphernalia laid out across the floor. Dancing to avoid crushing a case of Lady Death cards, I caught a fist to the chest for my adoration-I mean consideration.

I went through the first wall pretty easily. It was only a facade set up to divide the two sections of the store. The second wall, however, was made of brick. Too bad the Big Bad Wolf didn’t have me around. We’d have been chowing down on some roast pig, because I huffed, and I puffed, and my ass blew the house down. Well, I blew a hole in it. It was deja vu all over, but it didn’t hurt too much. I figured I’d begun to develop callouses on my back from all the wall busting.

I crashed into the alley behind the store and rolled to my feet. Venai wouldn’t have engaged if the cavalry weren’t in place, so I willed a quick shield in place and ran for the exit. Bullets pinged off my defenses right on cue, and I heard Venai burst from the store, taking the rest of the wall down with her. I didn’t bother to look back. Gun held out in front of me, I bolted for the corner as I waited for the trap to spring. With all the gunfire and smashing and crashing going on, I knew there wouldn’t be any civilians in the street. That made life easier. So, right before I reached the end of the alley, I dropped as low as I could go and still run and strafed the walls on both sides.

I sprang from the alley, my peripheral vision picking up guys in black hunkered down behind the walls, covering their heads. They shouted as I flew by, turning too slowly to shoot without taking out their own guys. My feet slapped the asphalt, and I dodged around a few cars to put them between me and the government goons and kept going.

Jorn trundled toward me from an alley off to the right side, but it was clear they’d expected to contain me in the store. There was no way Tubs was gonna catch me. I was gone before he hit the street, giving him a view of my disappearing ass.

A weird whistle sounded nearby as I hit the end of the block. I made the mistake of looking for the sound. A glint of silver careened toward me, a gray-black streamer of smoke trailing it. My brain kicked in at the last second. It was a flippin’ RPG, and I don’t mean Dungeon’s and Dragons.

I spun and ducked for cover as the rocket propelled grenade struck a nearby car and exploded. Heat and shrapnel pinned me like a honeybee whore on prom night. What pitiful remains were left of my stinky hoodie fell off in flaming pieces. I felt as if I’d been tattooed by Michael J. Fox. The explosion knocked me onto my ass, and I stayed there until the smoke cleared and the sharpened pieces of metal stopped raining from the sky.

Apparently, that was too long.

Venai closed and tried to take my head off. She feinted with a kick and launched a right hook. She shouldn’t have bothered. Too slow and obvious to throw anyone off, I jumped back out of her reach, but I’d learned my lesson, too. I stayed low and kept my shield going, and sure enough, a bullet thrummed off it. Out in the open, I was a sitting duck for the DSI snipers lurking about. I didn’t have any clue how many they had besides Johnson, but all it took was one. I needed a way out, and I found it.

Venai closed again, and I scooped up a handful of burning shrapnel and threw it at her face. Her hands jumped to block her eyes. I followed right after and punched her own fists into her face. She cried out and stumbled back as I ducked low and around her, slipping in behind. I could have ended it right there, a shot to the spine or the back of the head, but I wasn’t worried about Venai on her own. Jorn was too far away to be a factor yet, but the snipers and RPG guys were definitely a threat. Sooner or later they’d wear down my shield and get through, so I improvised.

As Venai tumbled back, I braced myself and grabbed her shirt, shifting her momentum so her feet came off the ground. She made a cute squeaking noise as I hefted her in the air; think Sasquatch cute, not kitten. She was like lifting a Volkswagen. I was gonna need to schedule a visit with my chiropractor after this.

I wrapped my hand into the back of her shirt and twisted the cloth around to pull the thick material against her throat to keep her occupied. My other hand made like I was bowling and wedged her pants into places no man had ever gone before. It was both arousing and disturbing in equal measure. I felt honored to be her first.

Nephilim shield in place, I ran for it, making sure my magic covered the rest of me. Venai grunted at every step, squirming but not able to slip free. None of her buddies took a shot as we bounced along, but she was heavy and was tiring me out. Fortunately, I didn’t need to get far. I ran down the street a ways, putting all the DSI guys at my back. It was so much easier avoiding getting shot when you knew what direction the bullets were coming from.