"Holy crap," I muttered. "You live this dangerously all the time?"
"Quite a bit of the time, yes," Dragon smiled and tied off the gauze. "Karzac is working late tonight."
"My fault," I said. "I hauled a torture victim to him at the hospital. He may still be working on that guy."
"That's why you wanted the information."
"Yeah."
Karzac wandered in half an hour before dawn, looking as if he'd been in a fight. I made a cup of tea for him before going to bed. Dragon had already gone to sleep; I could hear his soft snore as I passed his bedroom.
* * *
"Sorry, didn't realize anybody would be here." I'd strolled into the living area to get my news fix, carrying a bag of blood. Dragon and Karzac were both up watching the news so I turned to go back to the bedroom.
"You will not upset us by having a meal in our presence," Karzac scooted over on the sofa. Dragon had the easy chair taken up. Seriously, that man was all muscle and had his shirt off tonight. No surprise where he gets his name; he had dragons tattooed everywhere, including one huge one on his chest and another large dragon on his back, with smaller dragons flying up and down his arms.
I sat down on the end of the sofa; Karzac now had the other side and we watched the news together while I sipped my blood. It was a partial bag and just enough for my meal.
"The Vice-Governor of the realm is in critical condition at a local hospital," a journalist announced. "Authorities claim he was tortured by Solar Red. The temple is denying the allegations, asking instead for proof of their involvement. No arrests have been made."
"Fuckers," I muttered, rising to dump the empty blood bag inside the canister in my bedroom. I'd figured out what it was for, finally. It was kept cool; plugged into a socket so the bags wouldn't smell because of residual blood left within.
"Are you off today?" I asked when I came back and sat down.
"This is off-day; everyone is off on this day," Karzac explained. "You may go to the streets this evening and there will be people sharing food and drink—no one will be working except journalists, medical personnel and law enforcement. Those employees switch and have every other off-day."
"That's nice," I said. "Now, tell me how Solar Red came to be here in the first place."
"The Ra'Ak brought them in," Karzac muttered, sounding angry and frustrated. "This is a legitimate if brutal religion from another star system," he added, turning to face me. "We have space travel, as you might imagine, and these priests were shipped in by the hundreds. At first, they convinced the populace to listen to them because Refizan was experiencing a dramatic rise in crime—killings and thefts, among other things—that began shortly before Solar Red arrived. All carefully orchestrated by the Ra'Ak, as you may have guessed. The Solar Red priests promised order and safety, wriggling their way into acceptance in this way. The crime rate dropped sharply after they came, but now it is rising again. The Ra'Ak are behind this; they are attempting to take the planet and the darker and more evil it is, the easier it will be for them. Refizan is peaceful and has no standing army—hasn't needed one for a very long while. We are protected by Alliance troops if we are attacked, but a renegade religion is not considered an attack."
"I am going out tonight; there are demons in the east side of the city," Dragon said. Only then did I notice he had two swords lying on the small table beside his chair; they were sheathed and he lifted them up, along with a shirt.
"Is that how you take their heads?" I asked, nodding toward his blades.
"Yes. I have a lengthy bus ride ahead of me to get to them," he sighed.
"I can get you there in no time," I offered. Dragon looked at me sharply. "I do it all the time," I said. "Karzac should know; that's how I got the Vice-Governor to the hospital yesterday."
"She did do this," Karzac nodded. "I was so focused on the patient I failed to remark on this feat."
"If you wouldn't mind; I detest riding the bus."
"So the buses don't have drivers?" I asked. Karzac did say everybody was off.
"They run along metal rails in the streets," Karzac replied. "The stops are computerized; everything on Refizan that can be is automated."
"Come on," I urged Dragon. "Just tell me where you want to go and I'll get you there. If there are lots of demons, I'll help." I stood up and offered Dragon a smile.
"What happens when you do this?" Dragon asked as I came to stand beside him.
"You turn to mist, just like I do," I said, and took his arm, causing both of us to disappear. We flew high over the city, searching the area where Dragon indicated the demons were—he'd given me mindspeech as I misted us along. I scented the demons when we were directly overhead, so I dropped Dragon behind them and came back to corporeality. I see them; Dragon sent mindspeech with a curt nod. I silently agreed as we crept along the streets behind the monsters.
There were fifteen of them, all walking toward what looked to be a large block party. This would be ideal for them—just wander up to unsuspecting people. These demons hadn't turned into the muddy brown monsters I'd seen the night before; they still appeared human, although their scent told me otherwise.
Get them before we have witnesses, Dragon instructed and drew his blades so quietly I barely heard them leave their sheaths. Dragon wore his swords crossed over his back and kept them nice and sharp, I could tell. I turned to mist and flew forward. Forming claws only, I removed four demon heads in two seconds or less. The others turned on us then and Dragon and I were fighting among them quickly. Eerily silent, they rushed us one or two at a time, grimly intent on taking us down. With no thought for their safety, they fought just as silently as they'd done the night before, but I'd been so busy trying to kill them then that I really hadn't noticed how quiet they were. It was like fighting robots—there didn't seem to be true sentience in any of them. Dragon and I ended up fighting back to back, as the demons attacked us. If they got close, they died. Dragon was death on those things, as was I. They were all dead quickly and piles of sandy particles littered the brick street around us.
"Nicely done," Dragon inclined his head respectfully as he sheathed his blades.
"Are there any more? I'm thinking about paying the priests a visit if there aren't others," I said, flicking a dusting of demon particles off my tunic. The clothing was my biggest beef with the planet—if you didn't count Solar Red, demons and the Ra'Ak, that is.