Devil Fighters of Titan
Tara Loughead
Copyright 2010 Tara Loughead
A Bulays and Ghaavn Adventure
For Jon Ostrander and Tim Truman and Ilona Andrews
"You know how recently we had aliens from outer space stealing parts of our women?" Ghaavn asked, looking at his comm.
"Yes," replied Bulays warily.
"And that was after you were joking about shapeshifters from another universe stealing frozen heads," Ghaavn continued.
"Yes, but that was just a joke."
"Apparently not. That was Lady G. She has a woman in her office that is chasing one."
Bulays had nothing to say to that.
*****
The woman sitting in Lady Gerald's office was hauntingly beautiful. She was also dressed in well-worn black studded leather pants, spiked gloves, and more than a couple of tattoos. She wore a well-filled halter than appeared to be of some metallic composite, and left most of her torso bare. Her well-worn sword stood point down, resting against the armrest of the couch at a lean.
"Bulays, Ghaavn, this is Gremjyl. Who is, apparently, a demon fighting soldier from another dimension."
"Ex-soldier," she added, in a gruff statement. "I'm freelance now. Although I have been known to kill the evil bastards for free if I come across them."
"A little underdressed for demon-slaying, aren't you?" Bulays asked.
Gremjyl stood. She shut her eyes for a second, and her tattoos glowed, coming alive and melding into what appeared to be some sort of organic armour. It overlaid where her body was not already covered. This also extended to cheek and faceguards.
"Satisfied?" Gremjyl inquired of the blonde amazon bluntly. "You don't survive the Demon Wars if you don't know what you are doing."
Bulays looked a bit embarrassed at that. "Nice trick."
Ghaavn was amused at his partner's discomfiture. However, he did have questions of his own. "How did you get here?"
Gremjyl closed her eyes again, and the literal body armour disappeared. "Where I come from is a nexus of many dimensions that shift and change and move. Often you can travel between them. It is something demons can do, too. I'd been hired to deal with this one, and followed it here."
"So why are you here, and not on the trail?" Ghaavn asked again.
"It has moved on, and I could use a little help."
"How did you find us," Bulays asked.
"I asked around. Some things are the same everywhere it seems." The half-smile that curled her lip made her seem more human. Before, Gremjyl had given Bulays the impressive of a beautiful rose, an extraordinary one of a kind that also had very dangerous thorns. The small display of emotion distracted from her otherworldly beauty long enough for Bulays to recover.
"You hang out in dodgy pubs, then?"
Gremjyl nodded. "Oh yes, with all sorts of reptiles. And donkeys." She paused. "Now, as to the problem of the ice demon..."
Bulays groaned.
"Ignore her, Gremjyl. She has a thing about the cold. And ice monsters."
Gremjyl got up and walked over to Bulays. She looked up into the much taller woman's eyes. "Not big on the frosty, then?" She touched Bulays' forearm briefly with the palm of one glove. "I can promise things will heat up later."
It was hard not to stare, given how beautiful Gremjyl was. Not to mention the rather nice cleavage. Bulays dragged her eyes back form where they had lowered to look back at the shorter devil fighter, with a challenge. "Really?"
Gremjyl gave that slight smile again, and stepped away.
"Now that you are all introduced, Bulays. I believe the 'Spooky Spell Squad' may be of some use," Lady Gerald interjected.
"Good," Bulays shot back. "See if they can scare up some demons, instead o' scaring girls and old ladies."
*****
Lady Gerald was as good as her word, as far as her thaumaturgical assets went. They found the demon, along with more than one frozen, severed head. Some of them mostly eaten. Bulays, Ghaavn and Gremjyl were back on the trail.
"Demons are disgustin'." Bulays was grossed out.
"That's putting it way too mildly, Bulays". She proceeded to demonstrate the epithets she would prefer to use. In multiple languages.
Bulays grinned at the stream of invective flowing from the oh-so-pretty mouth. "Fair enough, then."
"Looks like we are getting close," Ghaavn said, looking at his wrist necro.
"What is the best way to kill one of these, Gremjyl?"
"Insert cold steel into it. A lot. Hard."
"Sophisticated," grinned Bulays. "No big guns, then?"
"No, they don't always work."
"What, you mean its shapeshifting can make it immune to gunfire?"
"No, I mean guns don't always work."
Bulays and Ghaavn looked at each other, a little confused. Gremjyl explained. "In some dimensions, technology doesn't work. Guns stop shooting, cars won't go. Radios go silent. You try and fight a demon by beating it to death with a pistol butt there won't be enough left of you for a forensic squad to bury." She paused for effect. "Swords _always_ work."
"Works for me," said Bulays. "I'm a hopeless shot in close combat, anyway." Indeed, the blonde amazon was carrying a very long knife, more like a short sword, to complement her usual combat and throwing knife array.
"Guns definitely work here," Ghaavn added. "So I'll be happy to try shooting it if you ladies are all keen on the stabbing and slashing."
Gremjyl sniffed the air. "Seems like it is definitely close."
Too close. With a roar, the demon was on them. Large, grey-white and cold, its form wavering, shifting, the number of limbs hard to pin down. Until Gremjyl made it easier by removing one with a backhanded slash. The demon pounded at the woman, and a spiky tentacle like tail swung around at her, knocking her back, and she stumbled.
Bulays stepped in to distract it, throwing a knife. It stuck in the facial region of the monster, causing a trickle of bluish gunk to emerge. It didn't slow it down much.
Ghaavn was right, though, and the large-bore rounds from his handgun took the beast in the chest, stopping it for a few seconds as it screamed again. It shifted form, lowered itself, turned its rear and now more heavily protected side towards Ghaavn, and went for Bulays. She darted out of the way towards a building, but made a mistake. She forgot the demon could grow more limbs, and it did so. With one either side of her, she couldn't get away, and it closed in as she hacked at tentacle-arm. It sprang for her throat.
A surprised Bulays watched as the demon suddenly sprouted long, wavy hilted knifes in its eyes. It staggered back. A dark crimson leotard-clad woman had leaped from the top of the two-story building stabbed the beast, acrobatically used it as a launching point to jump back up to the fire escape and race for the rooftops again. And Gremjyl was there, slashing the demon down. Bulays was free, but her mind, working in combat time as it recognised something, the smooth turn of a hip in the moonlight, the flex of a leg. She raced to follow, jumping to grab the fire escape and pull herself up and race to the roof.
She crested the top, to see the barelegged shadowy figure race to the other side of the roof, headband trailing, moonlight glinting off her weapons as she ran.
"Helana! Wait!"
At the cry, she pulled herself up short from the leap she was about to make. Bulays rushed up to her, a little out of breath from the exertion. "Thank you," Bulays said. "We didn't know you were The Shining Knife. Or a demon hunter."
"Not even your Ministry knows everything Bulays. And you're welcome."
"Why are you here?"
"Just an accident, the wrong place at the right time. I have other quarry." Her looked dared Bul
ays to challenge her.
"Look, Helana. I, personally don't care how many scumbags you sign off. Plus, we have a deal, remember? With those moves, I couldn't catch you up here in a million years, anyway. I'm no circus daredevil."
Helana stepped in close. Her lips parted invitingly in the moonlight, and she said softly, breathily, "your lovemaking skills are no good to me as a dead woman." She pulled Bulays head down into a kiss. Breaking off, she continued. "Live. Let me go." She turned to leave, and called over her shoulder as she leaped for the next building. "Find another way to catch me." With that, The Shining Knife was gone.
Bulays rushed back to the fire escape, but saw that her partner and Gremjyl seemed to have things in hand. The far-more experienced demon fighter was moving with a beautiful, deadly grace. Her fluid sword work regularly removing parts of the demon, as she fought it, turned it, to allow Ghaavn shots at more vulnerable areas. It was clearly weakening. A hesitation was all it took for Gremjyl to leap and strike, Bulays saw as she reached the bottom of the ladder. Her swing took most of its head. She struck again on landing, and the demon fell. As it struck the ground, the barely attached head broke off, and the neck sprayed a nasty gout of blue-grey ichor.
All over Bulays.
"Oh, crap."
Ghaavn rushed over, concerned, as Gremjyl proceeded to reduce her quarry into little pieces. He saw she was fine, just steaming, and very, very stinky. Ghaavn started to laugh at the sight of the tall, insolently curved black-clad amazon of Earth covered in pustulent demon juice, again. This time in blue.
*****
"When you offered to heat things up, getting mad about being all ichor-y wasn't what I had in mind."
Gremjyl laughed prettily from the bar, collected her order, and came back to the table. "Four shots of this should heat you up plenty."
"Slammers?" Bulays eyes lit up.
*****
The hung over blonde told Ghaavn as he opened the door to their home. "Gremjyl's gone back home. Said if we were ever in her neck of the woods, she owes us one. That woman can really drink for her size.” She rubbed her head tiredly.
"Looks like I see someone that needs a large, really unhealthy breakfast."
"And a beer."
*****
Helana opened the envelope. Inside was an expensive printed card, and written on the front :
INVITATION
GALA OPENING
ANCIENT MARTIAN WEAPONS EXHIBIT
KAHORA MUSEUM
ADMIT ONE
Inside were more details and also a piece of crimson notepaper.
'Hoping to catch a killer woman,
Love,
Bulays'
Helana smiled.
THE END
Artwork by Vickie Shan https://www.flickr.com/photos/vickieshan/1342634747/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
And Tur Chaffe https://www.flickr.com/photos/turchaffe/2216734526/
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Coming Soon
The Adventures of Bulays and Ghaavn
The Impossible Venusian – Tara Loughead
Slave Ship of Space – Tara Loughead
The Gender Switch Adventures
The Blue Behemoth Regrown – Lee Brackett