Black Winged Angel

Kyou stood there with his hands buried in his pants pockets letting the wind whip through his long hair. He arched an eyebrow wondering what he’d done to anger the entity. He was no closer to finding out what it was… but again, the familiarity of it haunted him. Something told him it would not be the last time they crossed paths.

Turning toward the door, he gave a knowing smile. He quickly pulled it open and stepped back just in time to see everyone fall through the entry.

They had left the room, but as soon as Kyou locked the door behind them, they’d crowded around it, pressing their ears to the polished wood. It took them all by surprise when the door was abruptly pulled open, making them all fall forward and onto the floor.

“I suppose this means I will have to retrain all of you on your eavesdropping skills,” Kyou stated before stepping out of the room. “And Suki, call the workers to repair the window.”

*****

Toya tugged at the collar of his shirt growling in frustration. Leave it to Kyou to find a way to get him dressed up. The getup was almost similar to the crap he’d seen sappy vampires wear in the movies, complete with some lacy frilly thing around his neck. The pants only went to his knees and he was wearing white stockings. Stockings? What the hell did Kyou think he was… a pansy?

Toya had forgone the wig and settled for just tying his long hair back in a low ponytail at the nape of the neck with several locks falling down on the sides. The only part of the elaborate costume he did like was the long black hooded cloak with red lining. It actually went really well with the rest of the outfit. The other plus was the fact that Kyoko’s eyes had lit up when she had seen it on him.

His golden eyes softened when he glanced over at her. She had called him the sexiest vampire she had ever seen. His gaze trailed her body in the same appreciation.

She was dressed in an outfit as elaborate as his, but she took to it a lot better. Kyou had picked out a dress for her that was reminiscent of the Colonial era. It was a nice combination of red and black plaid with the little poof in the back that, to Toya, seemed to sway with each step she took. She was holding a black lace parasol and had a feminine top hat pinned in her auburn hair that served no other purpose except to be stylish.

The only problem with Kyoko’s outfit was it was short in the front… it only came up to mid-thigh while the back was long and dragging on the ground. The top of the bodice was also low cut and showing more cleavage than Toya ever wanted anyone else to see… anyone except him.

Seductive was the first word that popped into his mind, but he hadn’t shared that compliment with her. He had only teased her back by telling her she would introduce the young boys in the children’s area to their first crush.

Despite Kyou’s possible inner pervert surfacing due to the outfit, Toya had to admit his brother had showed impeccable style by choosing it for her. Neither of them had the scary monster look, so it was kind of perfect for hanging out around the kids at the festivities. If Kamui and Amni’s facts were right, the witch was going to take another child tonight.

“TESTING!”

Kyoko placed a hand to the side of her head and winced a bit while Toya growled at the listening device in his ear.

“Turn down the god damned volume, you hellish nerd!” Toya exclaimed loudly, hoping Kamui's speakers would burst.

Kamui giggled, “Sorry couldn’t resist. Oh and Toya, if you want to keep undressing Kyoko with your eyes, don’t do it here.”

“How the hell…?” Toya muttered looking around.

Kyoko grinned and placed a hand on Toya’s arm to get his attention, then pointed up to the traffic camera mounted on top of the stoplight.

“Son of a bitch,” Toya growled. “He’s tapped into the traffic control center again.” He grinned and looked over at Kyoko. “Why don’t I give him a show?”

Kyoko smacked Toya on the arm and glared at him with a red blush on her cheeks.

“The only one who’s going to see Kyoko naked is me,” Kotaro exclaimed good-naturedly from somewhere within the five city blocks that had been roped off for the Halloween parties. “I’m the one she truly loves.”

“HA!” Kamui exclaimed. “Kyoko goes more for the quiet types, which puts me in the lead at the moment.”

“You just yelled in her fucking ear with your testing… how the hell does that make you the quiet type?” Toya argued.

“Will all of you stop joking around?” Tasuki demanded. “We’re here looking for demons, not discussing Kyoko’s sex life.”

“How about lack of sex life?” Yohji asked, causing another round of chuckles.

“How about all of you shut up?” Kyoko ordered, suddenly angry that she was blushing ten shades of red. “Just because I don’t have a boyfriend, doesn’t mean you can make fun of me.”

Toya’s expression softened and he pulled Kyoko into a hug. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“OH MY GOD, CALL THE MEDIA QUICK… TOYA JUST APOLOGIZED!” Kamui yelled into the com-link.

“You know,” Toya stated. “I’m half tempted to go back and kick his ass.”

Kyoko giggled, “Don’t worry about that right now. I’ll let you have fun later.”

She smiled shyly, realizing that had sounded a little more X rated than she had meant it to sound. As their eyes locked, she noticed his hair had fallen down around his face, which was soft and tender in the dim light. Tucking a lock of his hair behind his ears, she kissed him on the cheek.

It was all Toya could do to breathe as he blushed at the double-edged comment and the feel of her soft lips against his skin. He smiled wickedly up at the hidden camera and stuck his tongue out at it before taking Kyoko’s hand and slowly leading her through the throng of people surrounding them. At least her last few words had shut everyone up.

The block party was in full swing, with music bands performing on every street corner and in every club. The partial moon hung high above, casting twisted shadows around them. They’d parked on the other side of the square because Kyoko wanted to walk through everything and get a lay of the area before they reached the children’s block.

She pulled Toya to a stop as she pointed to a drain near the sidewalk.

Toya nodded as he let go of her hand and stepped closer to it. “Hey Kamui, we got a grate removed from the drain near…” he looked around for the closest landmark which happened to be right in front of the drain.

He arched a dark eyebrow, “House of Screams… damn that’s cheesy. You want us to check it out?”

“Yohji and Kotaro can check it out if they will stop pawing Kyoko long enough.” Kamui answered in an irritated voice.

Toya growled as he turned and sure enough, Kotaro had his arm around Kyoko’s shoulders while Yohji’s was around her waist, his hand riding dangerously low on her hip. Toya rubbed his hand over his forehead as if he were in pain before he took long, determined strides toward them.

They immediately jumped back, both clasping their hands behind their backs and looking as innocent as possible. Kotaro even had the audacity to start whistling while looking up at the buildings around them like they were the most fascinating things on earth.

“Kotaro,” Toya growled, “keep your hands off of Kyoko.”

Kotaro pouted and Toya turned his glare on Yohji, who was actually stupid enough to return it.

“Don’t even think about it,” Toya stated. “Now are you two gonna check out that drain or do I have to throw you down in it?”

Kotaro threw up his hands in surrender, “Fine, fine… we’re on it. But I’m sending you my dry cleaning bill.” He quickly pulled Yohji out of harm's way when he noticed the idiot was trying to kiss Kyoko on the cheek. “Come on dummy, before demons aren’t the only thing you have to worry about fighting tonight.”

Kotaro touched his earpiece, “Hey computer nerd, where does this drain lead?”

“Hold on, I’m searching,” Kamui said slowly. “I think… yeah, got it! It leads right under the haunted house directly in front of you. Let’s see, it’s a pretty old place… give me a minute.”

“Just tell us if there’s a way into the drains from the house,” Yohji demanded.

“What the hell do you think I’m looking for?” Kamui yelled back. “I swear, you all seem to think that this stuff is always easy to find. It takes research damn it!”

Yohji gave Kotaro a deadpan expression, “This coming from the guy who can break into the CIA database in his sleep.”

“Whatever, we’ll leave you three to argue about it,” Toya stated. “I’m taking Kyoko over to the children’s section of the festival, so we can do our part.”

Toya put his arm around Kyoko’s shoulders and steered her away from them. They froze however when Kamui’s voice came back over the earpieces.

“Um, people… we got a problem.”

“What is it pipsqueak?” Toya asked, his voice changing tone at the seriousness Kamui was emitting.

“That drain leads into the house alright… through the basement. It also leads to the local cemetery about five blocks away. Apparently, the tunnels were dug during some kind of revolution. Local legends say it was an underground ‘highway’ for demon activity.”

“Damn, I’m glad I’m not you guys. Totally sucks to be you right now,” Toya said with a smirk. “Hey, Shinbe, Tasuki, think you can come over and help these ladies out?”

“I do humbly apologize Toya,” Shinbe said over the radio. “But Tasuki and I are on the other end of the square and unfortunately, we are currently preoccupied with our own work.”

“Yeah,” Tasuki stated then screamed.

“Tasuki?” Kyoko asked. “Are you okay?”

“He’s fine,” Shinbe said trying not to laugh. “He just got the life scared out of him by an old man and a teenage zombie wanna-be. Hey Tama, love the costume.”

“We changed our minds, we’re coming,” Tasuki growled. “Damn old man, always scares the crap out of me.”

Kyoko giggled along with Suki. It seemed Grandpa Hogo had found Tasuki.

“Tell Grandpa hello for me and I’ll call him tomorrow,” Kyoko said.

“I’m not telling that old geezer shit!” Tasuki exclaimed sullenly.

“Tell him or else,” Kyoko warned, as her emerald eyes grew stormy.

Kotaro, Yohji and Toya took two big steps back from the auburn-haired woman. When Kyoko got that expression on her face, there was only one alternative… run.

“Um, we’re gonna go ahead and check out the inside.” Kotaro said hesitantly. “We’ll keep you posted at what’s going on.”

Yohji didn’t even need prompting. They took a couple more steps back as though Kyoko might attack them once their backs were turned before hastily making their way to the house.

“Kyoko,” Toya said wonderingly. “You’re scary, you know that?”

Kyoko smirked, “It runs in the family.”

“Tell me about it.” Tasuki mumbled in her earpiece.

Suki could be heard laughing again, “And you guys all wonder why I love working with you.”

“Suki dear,” Shinbe said softly. “You can be scary all you want… it only makes me want you more.”

“Shinbe, shut up,” Suki said in frustration.

Chapter 3 “Haunted Houses”

Darious stood in the shadows, watching as the small group went in separate directions. He hadn’t even bothered with invisibility because, tonight of all nights, he would blend in just fine. His eyes narrowed on the fact that Toya had thrown his arm over the woman’s shoulder. Why was it that they were so accepted within the human circle… when he had always been rejected? What made the guardians so damn special?

His brooding gaze caressed Kyoko’s face as she smiled and he knew she did not fear them, but instead, stood among them as if she belonged. What would he give for her to smile at him like that… like a man instead of a monster?

Something tightened in his chest, but Darious shrugged off his melancholy as his attention returned to the two cops that were entering the makeshift haunted house.

He could sense the demon activity inside but he was more interested in the source of the demonic activity. The master controlling the peons is what he needed to find. Destroy the master and you destroy their underlings. It was a simple concept that most found a bit too easy to overlook… until you actually faced a master in combat. Only then did it not seem so easy.

First and foremost, he needed to find the master demons and kill them. The Guardians could handle the rest of the vermin loose tonight… the easy targets. He slowly turned his head and gazed in the direction of the graveyard before vanishing from site.

Kamui slurped loudly on his blueberry slushy then chewed for a moment on the straw. He saw the disappearing act of the man that had been stalking Kyoko since she and Toya had arrived and it made him smirk. Turning to another one of the laptops open next to him, he scanned the frozen frame of Darious.

‘So, you have finally found us,’ Kamui thought to himself, making sure to keep that particular thought locked away from Amni and Yuuhi. He had often wondered if the dark angel was still stalking the lands.

He enlarged the photo and his smile died as he noticed the lonely look that haunted Darious’s eyes.

*****

Kotaro and Yohji approached the woman standing at the entrance of the House of Screams and started to make their way in. They immediately noticed a sign outside that indicated no one under the age of eighteen was allowed, which meant ID’s were being checked.

“What’s the big deal with the age limit? They have naked zombies or something?” Yohji joked, secretly hoping he was right.

“I’m sorry gentlemen,” The woman said. “It’s a ten dollar entry fee to go in.”

Yohji choked. “Twenty dollars? That’s highway robbery.”

Kotaro showed her his badge and smiled. “You don’t want our money and it’s time for you to go take a break.”

The badge caught the woman’s eye and she followed it with her gaze, unable to look away as it glowed a soft blue.

“I don’t want your money,” She repeated in a dazed voice.

Kotaro glanced over at Yohji, his smile gone. “Let’s go.”

They walked inside, leaving the woman at the entrance shaking her head in confusion before she glanced down at her watch deciding it was time to go grab a bite to eat.

The front door closed behind them and the two men looked around. The front room was in a hexagon shape, with small round tables set into each corner. In the center was a larger round table with wilted flowers and fake rotten fruit in a bowl, all of which had been covered with sawdust and fake cobwebs.

Both men went on high alert as they noticed the sign that had the word ‘Enter’ scrawled in crooked letters next to a curtain-covered door and no tour guide. Creepy pipe organ music was playing over the speakers, giving the room what they assumed was supposed to be ambiance but it only came off as cheesy.

“Looks like a funeral parlor,” Yohji muttered. “They even have a coffin here.”

Yohji walked over to the coffin and, out of morbid curiosity lifted the lid. It was a decision he instantly regretted and wrinkled his nose at the smell.

“Kotaro… tell me this is fake and I’ll be your best friend forever,” Yohji begged softly as he cringed.

Kotaro had already started heading toward the curtain covering the next door. He backtracked to look inside the coffin and instantly turned away. The half-eaten human was laying on the now bloodied satin, twisted grotesquely so that the two halves of his body were facing in two different directions, three if you counted the way his head was angled.

This was an innocent human that had probably volunteered for a night of fun, pretending to rise from the coffin and give the Halloween thrill seekers a scare when they entered the room. But this man would never rise again… at least Kotaro hoped he wouldn’t.

Kotaro closed the lid to the coffin knowing there wasn’t anything they could do for the man.

“I guess that answers the question of why there isn’t a tour guide,” Yohji mused as he backed away from the coffin and glanced longingly toward the door they had entered through.

“This is what you signed up for Yohji,” Kotaro stated. “You knew that when Kyou offered the job to you. The only thing we can do is make sure no more are killed like this poor guy.”

He placed his hand on his earpiece knowing the others were listening, “We have a body count started.”

“And demon night begins,” Kamui said softly.

Kotaro lowered his head, hoping the afterlife was kinder to the mangled guy but something quickly caught his attention on the floor beside the coffin… bloody footprints.

“Hey Yohji,” Kotaro said softly and stepped away from the coffin, walking slowly across the floor. “Check it out,” he finished, pointing at the carpet.

Yohji stared at what appeared to be bloody footprints going across the carpet and disappearing behind the curtain door… they weren’t human. From that he could tell, they were oddly shaped with abnormally long toes and even longer toenails that left pinpoint bloody impressions behind.

Kotaro placed a finger to his lips, indicating quiet and Yohji nodded, removing his PPK from its holster. Taking up the rear, Yohji followed Kotaro into the next room beyond the curtain.

They made it several rooms into the maze of strobe-lights and motion-sensor screams and started to relax thinking the rest of the house was empty. Turning the corner into the next room they froze when they encountered a small group of house visitors jumping and squealing, some laughing at the scene in front of them.

Against the wall behind red velvet rope was a setup from one of the chainsaw movies… one of Kotaro’s favorites. The only problem was the guy driving the chainsaw into the body on the blood-covered table wasn’t human. However, the body on the table was very real… and still alive. The woman was tied down and screaming, begging for help, but the visitors thought it was part of the show.

Kotaro felt bile rise up in his throat and glared at the monster that had real human skin stretched across its face. No doubt from another poor human that had fallen victim to the ghoul this night.

“Why didn’t we hear the screaming out front?” Yohji whispered in horror.

Kotaro moved when the chainsaw started to lower toward the woman’s already bloody leg. Just as the flickering lights hit a dark moment, he jumped over the rope and slashed at the ceiling causing a pipe to burst overhead, making cold water rain down on the horror seekers.

“Make sure these people leave out the front door,” Kotaro hissed into the earpiece at Yohji while pulling out his Berretta. “I’ve got this covered.”

Yohji nodded and navigated the people out of the room and back through the parlor. He closed the door behind them and threw the deadbolt so no one could come back in. Yohji had a feeling a lot of people were going to be refunded their money but it was better to be disappointed than dead.

With a loud exhale, he turned back from the door and froze in horror when the body inside the coffin suddenly sat up. It moved stiffly… and liquid that Yohji didn’t even want to identify oozed out of it and down the side of the coffin to drip onto the floor. Shock kept his reaction time slow when it rose to its feet and lunged at the detective, burying its teeth in his shoulder.

Yohji was knocked over by the force of the body and panicked as pain exploded in his neck. He had dropped his PPK, so he used his fists to pummel on the thing before he was finally able to dislodge its teeth.

Grabbing his handgun from the floor, Yohji winced when he saw the wire to his earpiece was severed so he couldn’t call Kotaro for help… something he wouldn’t have been able to do anyway if his partner was in the middle of a fight of his own.

The creature came at him again and this time, Yohji did the only thing he could think of… he screamed and ran like hell.

The ghoul, seeing he was being interrupted, swung the chainsaw clumsily at Kotaro. Kotaro ducked to miss it, dropping his gun in light of a much more effective weapon. The only problem was getting past the chainsaw. When the ghoul regained its balance, it was at the expense of the woman’s life. The chainsaw cut into her midsection and stuck, sending blood everywhere.

Glancing back to make sure Yohji was out of eyesight; Kotaro raised his hand and cast a blue light straight into the ghoul. Becoming confused, the ghoul lifted the chainsaw, and then turned the blaring thing on himself. It laid into his shoulder, adding pressure as it ate its way diagonally down his chest and out the other side. As the demons head and one arm hit the floor, Kotaro tapped his earpiece.

“Yohji, I got it,” Kotaro said and waited for a moment before frowning. “Yohji?”

The silence was deafening until he heard a terrified scream that reminded him a lot of the cartoon character Johnny Bravo whom was known to scream louder than a bunch of girls having a screaming contest.

Kotaro abruptly witnessed Yohji running into the room, past him, and out the next door so fast that he caused a breeze. He then heard the sickening footfalls that only a possessed dead body could make. Moving to stand directly in its path, he silently waited on it to come to him.

The thing limped into the room and stopped, coming face to face with the handsome detective. Kotaro’s ice-blue eyes glimmered with sadistic glee as he rammed his palm into the face of the ghoul.

“Stay down!” Kotaro growled at the possessed body that now had a hole in its face big enough to put his fist through. Turning around, he took off through the door Yohji had just retreated through.

Yohji hadn’t even slowed down when he ran past Kotaro, believing with everything in him that the dead body was still chasing him and within reaching distance. The last thing he wanted to do was run a gantlet through the whole haunted house, so when he spotted a partially hidden door, he inwardly sang praises to whatever god was listening that he’d found an exit. But as he flung it open, his momentum was too fast and he couldn’t stop himself in time.

He had opened the door to a set of stairs leading down… stairs he actually overshot. Yohji screamed again when he started falling down them into the darkness.

Kotaro caught up to Yohji just when his partner flung open the door and took a flying leap… literally.

Using his powers, Kotaro moved faster than the wind itself, catching Yohji right before he impacted with the unforgiving concrete of the basement floor. He held the man back against him, noticing the cop was out cold having fainted from the scare… but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was the huge bite the ghoul had taken out of Yohji’s shoulder.

“Bloody hell,” Kotaro exclaimed before tapping his earpiece. “Kamui, we have a situation. Yohji is down. I repeat Yohji is--”

He didn’t get a chance to finish as a bunch of ghouls began coming out of a rather large hole in the wall. Kotaro used his sharp eyesight to see past them into the underground tunnel that he was sure was the one Kamui had mentioned connecting the house to the cemetery.

“Kotaro?” Kamui answered, and then swore a blue streak that would have made a sailor proud. “Suki!”

“I’m on it!” Suki exclaimed and started speed-driving down the back roads toward the haunted house. “Do we have any idea what we are up against?”

“Ghouls,” Yuuhi’s eerie voice came over the intercom.