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The old cannery sat at the edge of this forgotten corner of the city like a poorly healed scab. Half of it crumbling from a private war fought here long ago, ignored and neglected by a city that had enough to deal with, it was a target of graffiti, illicit meetings and other small crimes not worth the trouble. An art piece of shattered walls, broken windows, exposed rebar, of dark shadowy corners and stains of paint, blood, and god knows what else. A sore spot. A blight.
It was also, at present moment, Caitlyn Kiramman’s assigned mission.
Shifting the weight of her rifle in her hand for the hundredth time, she let her gaze run over the jagged silhouette of the building against the darkening night sky. She studied it, face in concentration, before footsteps came to rest beside her.
“Doesn’t look so bad,” Jayce said in his usual optimistic swagger. “I’ve seen Viktor do worse to his labs.”
Caitlyn had to laugh at that, a single burst of air making an amused noise. “Hopefully this won’t anything like taking down Viktor, else I would have asked for more competent backup.”
With a chuckle, Jayce reached behind him to squeeze the handle of the large hammer that rested on his back. “Funny.”
“I’m hilarious,” Caitlyn replied with a haughty sniff and both hunters shot each other smirks. With a final quick glance to her work partner Caitlyn moved her gaze forward back to the mission. “Your collar is buttoned incorrectly.”
Jayce snorted. “Sorry, mom.”
“Just pointing it out. You should really stop visiting Mel right before missions,” was the teasing reply he got before Caitlyn began to move forward. “Let’s go.”
The journey into the old building was slow and careful, debris scattered like mines and they had to move slowly to avoid making a sound. The reports they had been given of this location were mixed — some said a poltergeist had made this lair it’s home, some said a terrible beast built by unholy hands, some said a truly nasty tomcat. In any case, it was a danger that needed managing, and Caitlyn’s assignment was to manage it.
Once they had cleared the pathway into the building, they slowed their pace even more upon approaching the doors long since torn off their hinges. Caitlyn went first, looking in and around corners for any sight or sound of movement. When all seemed quiet, she motioned to Jayce to follow and levelled her rifle, finger resting just beside the trigger in anticipation.
They walked softly, but the empty wide space echoed their footfalls despite best efforts. Hand raised in caution as they moved forward, Caitlyn kept her eyes darting around the dark shadows of the old broken building. She felt the small gentle whoosh of air indicating Jayce has removed his hammer to swing it around in a defensive hold.
Other than subtle creaking of strained support beams and cracking columns, the place was dead quiet.
“The report said that,” Jayce began in a low whisper but Caitlyn quickly shushed him with a wave. Letting out a hard exhale, he leaned in closer to try and whisper quieter. “It’s just one, right? How big do you think it is?”
Caitlyn merely shushed him again, raising her gun to position to squint through the sights. She glanced around the settled dust and debris, looking for any sound of movement as Jayce slowly followed behind her.
When the sound came it came from behind them, the loud reverberation of something heavy striking the ground from a height. Instantly the pair looked at each other and then Caitlyn whipped around while Jayce watched her back, weapons ready.
Caitlyn couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
A demon was standing behind them, straightening up after the landing. A woman, taller than Caitlyn by a full head at least, skin red and rough looking with short white hair waving messily around two large, pointed horns that curled back from her forehead. She was dressed in a leather vest and pants combination and her hands looked encased in gigantic gloves of carved stone that curled and uncurled from fists. Watching at them with wry amusement as the dust settled from her fall, the demon cracked her neck to one side.
She smirked.
“Hey guys,” the demon spoke in a tame but amused voice, waving one giant hand idly in the air. “I know the locks don’t work that great but this still counts as trespassing.”
Caitlyn immediately cocked her gun and held it defensively in front of her, backing up a couple of steps to get a safe distance. She elbowed Jayce who turned from guarding her back to face the demon instead.
The demon regarded him coolly. “Nice hammer,” she said with a light twitch of her nose and a dull drawl to her voice. “You come to renovate? Gotta say, place could use it.”
“We’re more exterminators than construction,” Jayce tried to quip back and Caitlyn shot him a glare and a hiss. The demon seemed amused by that, chuckling.
“We’re from the Bureau of Paranormal and Arcane Defence,” Caitlyn informed her,
“Oh, fancy,” the demon interrupted with a quirk of an eyebrow.
Caitlyn ignored the interruption. “And we’ve been ordered to remove you from these premises.”
Her teasing grin dropping into a more serious expression, the demon raised her huge hands to scratch idly at the wrist of one. “Removing me? Nah. Sorry Cupcake, that’s not happening.”
“I’m afraid it is,” Caitlyn raised her gun, glancing over and nodding to Jayce. “Now we can do this the easy way or we can do it the hard way.”
“Oh, I get a choice?” The demon said with a cheerful perky voice. “Then hard.”
Jayce looked over at Caitlyn, who rolled her eyes only slightly in response and nodded. Gripping the handle of his hammer firmly, Jayce ran forward, hammer glowing blue with the charge of it’s Hextech, letting out a shout as he prepared to swing.
Grinning wide, the demon ducked and dodged as the hammer swung into the empty space where her shoulders had been.
Jogging backwards, the demon rolled her shoulders, slapping her hands together before she raised them as fists. She dodged quickly to the side when Jayce attacked again, the large weapon crashing down onto the concrete, but Jayce was well practiced and recovered with an upward swing. The demon blocked it with her stone fists, a heavy sound of ringing impact coming between them. She blocked again, and again, not showing any sign of tiring against the heavy strikes from Jayce’s weapon.
In fact she seemed to be enjoying herself.
With a frustrated noise, Jayce tried an underhand swing at the demon’s waist. The demon flipped into the air, grabbing onto the weapon with one giant hand and then flipping herself again with it held tight, the motion causing Jayce to go flying, skidding against the floor in an unconscious heap.
Now holding the weapon in her hands, the demon tossed it up a couple of times to take it by the handle. She looked it over with an expression of mock interest, as if studying. Caitlyn quickly raised her gun, aiming and firing at a finger, causing the demon to release the hammer in surprise, the weapon dropping with a loud crash, and she looked over to Caitlyn who readied her rifle again.
The demon raised an eyebrow once more, grinning ever so slightly.
Then she was charging forward and Caitlyn fired another shot at her shoulder, but the demon moved too quickly and dodged out of the way, ducking down and sliding to a stop in front of Caitlyn with her fingers pinched around something.
The bullet Caitlyn had just fired. Plucked out of the air like it was nothing.
Grinning like a cat that ate the canary, the demon tossed the bullet aside and grabbed at Caitlyn’s gun before she could react. She twisted the barrel of the rifle into a useless 90 degrees angle without any sign of effort, just the sound of snapping metal.
Quickly, Caitlyn dropped her hold on the rifle still in the demon’s hand and jogged backwards, pulling out her backup pistol. The demon struck her with a backhand, the force sending her flying back across the floor to where Jayce was laying, unconscious. Caitlyn winced, her ribs bruised and aching, catching her breath from being winded by the blow as the demon walked steadily over to her.
“Look Cupcake,” the demon squinted down, coming to a crouch, calling her that name again, “I don’t really wanna kill you and you don’t really wanna die. So how about when you wake up, you mind your own business from now on, yeah?”
Caitlyn tried to push herself up, could see her gun lying just out of reach. If she could roll over and grab it she might have the advantage to—
“Nighty night,” the demon said, and Caitlyn felt a pressure at her temple seconds before the world went dark.
“Well that didn’t turn out the way we planned.”
The quiet beeping of the infirmary room was the only sound for a moment. Caitlyn sat there in the bed, staring resolutely at her hands resting on the thin, faded white bedsheet that covered her legs, listening to the sound of her own heartbeat registering on the machine.
In a cold plastic seat beside her, dressed in a crisp heather grey suit, her mother sat stiffly with an expression of concern.
“The reports were inaccurate,” Caitlyn shook her head. “We thought we were apprehending a nuisance, but the resident is… something else.”
“Yes, I read Jayce’s report.” Madam Kiramman smoothed out the crease at the knees of her pantsuit, folding her hands overtop again. “A large demon with formidable physical strength but no demonstratively magic. He also said she was a bit… rude.”
Caitlyn snorted despite herself.
“I’m admittedly embarrassed that the recon was so poor to put you in this position,” her mother continued, “it’s a blessing your injuries are so minor.”
Shifting further up in her bed, Caitlyn nodded. “At least that fact means we can go in with a better understanding of what we’re up against.”
“Caitlyn,” her mother made that tight lip expression she always does, head shaking ever so slightly. “I’ve had you taken off.”
“You’ve what?”
“This mission is a bit beyond you, I’m afraid. Better to let a strike team handle it, once we can arrange one.” Cassandra raised a hand, to dismiss or sooth concern.
“With due respect, ma’am,” Caitlyn drew herself up to sit straighter, letting the frustration show as determination. “I can manage.”
“She took out Jayce’s hammer with only a couple of strikes, the repairs are astronomical.” Her mother shook her head and Caitlyn squared her jaw. “The answer is no, Caitlyn. We’ll have to recon a better team for this one.”
Frowning, Caitlyn looked away rather than give into the temptation of protest.
The quiet beeping continued to play out in the room between them, the artificial lighting making the bruises on her forearm look more sickly than they really were. After a long pause, an even paler, wrinkled hand was laid overtop Caitlyn’s as her mother tutted.
“You failed but you survived dear,” she said soothingly. “It’s still an achievement.”
Her mother left the infirmary room and Caitlyn began to plan.
She packs her favoured personal hunting rifle and a spare pistol.
The cannery still stuck out against the night sky that was never truly dark in the smoke and neon lights of the fissures, a jagged broken thing that scarred the glow behind it. Jaw set and shoulders squared, Caitlyn began to slowly move around the treacherous minefield of debris once more.
She made her way inside, back into that dark empty, cavernous space, weapon at the ready. The sound of her boots against the dust and gravel on the concrete floor sounded impossibly loud and she winced at each footfall, doing her best to silence the steps.
A noise came from above her and she whipped around, gun aimed, but other than the sound of her steps echoing there was nothing. The building had multiple holes in it’s decaying frame, but light was still spares and Caitlyn had to squint into the shadows.
Another sound came from behind her, this time the clatter of small stones falling to floor, and Caitlyn whipped around again. Now certain that the demon was aware of her presence and toying with her, Caitlyn began to back up slowly to the wall. She kept an eye the dust motes in the few beams of moonlight for air disturbance, tried to map a pattern out from the two locations she had heard noise, studied where the demon had appeared last time and eyed the second floor railing at that spot. If she lived up there, she could potentially come from—
“Back for more?”
Caitlyn whipped to her right at the sound of the demon’s voice, that smug feminine tone to match her smug demonic appearance. The demon was leaning against a pillar, picking idly at the palm of one of her giant stone hands with a bored expression. She glanced over to Caitlyn and winked - goddamn winked - and pushed off the pillar in a casual, lazy fashion. She began walking towards the hunter, arms swinging at her sides.
“Just you today, Cupcake? What, did Hammer Boy cramp your style?”
“I can take you on alone,” Caitlyn said with firm confidence, keeping her rifle steady.
“Yeah?” The demon said, tilting her tall frame forward slightly, still looking more entertained than menacing. “Gun looks old, is it your personal one? I bet you’re a pretty good shot with that thing.”
“I am, thank you.”
“Then why haven’t you shot me yet?”
“I…” Why hadn’t she? The demon was getting too close for range at this point, but something held Caitlyn back. The demon grinned, wide and pointed fangs, and scratched at her chin with her thumb.
“Scared I’ll catch this one too?”
Caitlyn exhaled slowly, not letting her emotions show. “No.”
The demon chuckled and began to run forward and Caitlyn quickly fired. The demon ducked to the side, dodging the shot and Caitlyn quickly reset the cartridge and fired again. The demon ducked again and swung her hand out to grab at the rifle, but Caitlyn was ready this time, dropping out of reach and kicking the demon’s leg from under her.
Top heavy with those stone fists, the demon tumbled forward and somersaulted on the concrete with a loud clatter and cursing, sliding across the floor much like she had sent Jayce sliding the previous time.
Standing herself back up, Caitlyn fired another shot at the wrist, watching and taking note of how the bullet embedded a hole but otherwise made no damage. The demon winced however, pushing herself back to stand with a curse under her breath and rolling her neck.
“Okay, not bad,” she said with a bit of a breathlessness to her voice. “Not bad.” Slamming one fist into the other palm, she shot Caitlyn a grin. “Round two?”
“I don’t think we finished round one,” Caitlyn shot back. The demon laughed, and took on a fighting stance, hopping on the balls of one foot then the other before running forward again.
Caitlyn fired in an instant and again the demon dodged, ducking down and to the side. She ducked in a pattern, Caitlyn noticed as she reset and raised the gun again, firing.
The bullet hit Vi in the fist this time, causing the demon to stumble at the loud ricochet noise startling her. She blinked with surprise at Caitlyn, who only cocked an eyebrow and smirked back.
The demon’s face split into a wide, excited grin. Using her hands as counterweight to throw herself around, she began to circle Caitlyn, never approaching her but constantly ducking and weaving, dodging as Caitlyn fired. She wasn’t getting closer and Caitlyn realized — she was goofing off. Doing it for sport. Maybe seeing how close Caitlyn could come to hitting her, or how cleanly she could miss Caitlyn’s shot as she led the hunter around in a defensive circle to keep her on her guard.
Holding her shot, Caitlyn almost had to smirk herself. She began to aim a little higher and to the side, seeing if she could catch the demon off guard, but was evenly met by those damned stone hands defending. The demon matched her skills infuriatingly perfectly.
Finally she landed a shot that stumbled the demon, grazing her shoulder and causing her to fumble back. The demon hissed, teeth still visible in a wide grin through the pain.
Caitlyn raised her gun to fire again, but it clicked the awful click of an empty chamber. Quickly checking her stock, she groaned to realize she’d run out of ammunition and was now essentially helpless to capture the demon.
Breathing heavily and grinning like they had played a round of sport instead of opposing forces battling, the demon stood up straight and placed her hands on her hips. “All out?” She asked gamely, still catching her breath.
“Seems like,” Caitlyn replied, returning her rifle to it’s holster, mindful of the pistol on her hip. If the larger gun was useless against the demon, the pistol would be even worse, and she was as good as unarmed even with it. She began walking backward, keeping her eye on the demon that didn’t advance; only waved with a wry “later!” and watched her go. It was incredibly mocking.
Once outside then building Caitlyn turned and began to jog back to her transport
already planning on her return.
This time she… takes advantage of certain access privileges to enter the armoury.
Laser guided pistol and rifle, ballistic rounds and a sonic emitter.
The moon was full, bright and red against the sky as Caitlyn snuck across the yard for the third time. She avoided the entrance taken the previous two times and circled the building, looking for another route. A broken fire escape to the side seemed to be the answer she needed and she pulled herself up, with a mild struggle.
She was a marksman; acrobatics were not her strong suit.
Once she had climbed up to the second floor, dusted the dirt off of her uniform, she tested the door leading inside and it swung open with a creak that made her wince. Carefully walking inside with the rifle ready in her hands, she looked around the corners into the shadows to see nothing. It was darker up here, less room for movement, and she would have to be careful.
Once again a noise caught her attention but this time she didn’t turn to the source, moving still in the first direction she chose. She kept a listen for a second noise behind her, confident at the very least that the narrow catwalk gave her advantage in that it reduced space for the demon to sneak up.
Another sound, quiet but sounding like a pebble kicked across the floor, came from behind her and this time she turned her head.
“Pretty sure you need permission for the back door too.”
Jumping back Caitlyn immediately fired, the bright green light of the plasma rifle in the dark making her blink and wince, spots flashing in her eyes. Instantly regretting the weapon but with no choice now, she kept one eye closed as she aimed and fired again, hope that at least the light was as distracting for her opponent as it was her.
The rifle was heavy and more difficult to wield than what she normally did, and when trying to follow the demon’s movements the weight of it pushed her off balance. She took a step back to try and steady herself and her heel hit the edge of the catwalk; she tipped backwards, off balance, heart stopping as she felt the ground vanish under her.
Until she was grabbed by a large stone fist, large enough to hold her around by her entire waist, stopping her from falling in midair. She heard the crash and cracking sounds of her rifle and ammo hitting the concrete below.
“Woah-oh there Cupcake, let’s not go painting my floors with your guts,” the demon quipped, although the worry in her creased brow was evident. She pulled Caitlyn up, turning them both to stand firmly and safely on the catwalk once more.
Caitlyn responded by grabbing her pistol still attached to her hip and aiming it straight at the demon’s face. The demon let out another ‘Woah!’ and dropped her, ducking back. Caitlyn fired, scrambled to push herself up as she fired again at the demon’s retreating form, white hair a final beacon before she vanished completely into the shadows.
Glancing over the railing down to where her weapons were now shattered broken metal and plastic, Caitlyn cursed and reholstered, backtracking to the door outside, already coming up with a new strategy.
And an excuse for why the rifle would be missing from the stores if she was ever asked.
A hunting rifle, a bear trap, a trip wire gun, a netting gun, and a taser.
She came in the first way again, hoping that maybe the demon would be expecting her to come in from another avenue for a new trial. Quickly, she set out the bear trap behind a pillar, fired the trip wire before two others, and placed herself between them with the rifle, back to the wall, waiting, the net gun leaning loose against her hip in case she needed to quickly change weapons.
A rush of wind blew through the floor, but no sign of the demon. Caitlyn adjusted herself in her crouch, waiting.
Waiting.
Another breeze and rush of wind blew by and Caitlyn suddenly realized that it was from a newer direction. And while the cannery was in a shit state, it didn’t have open walls everywhere for the wind to enter. She steadied her grip on the weapon, eyes darting around in the darkness, suddenly more wary that maybe this demon wasn’t as alone as she previously thought.
SNAP
The clang of the bear trap springing shut made her jump, hands tense on the trigger, whipping the rifle around to aim at the shadows where she had placed the trap.
“You trying to take someone’s leg off?”
The demon’s voice came from Caitlyn’s left, following another slight rush of air. She emerged from shadow with the bear trap hanging off of one stony finger, the teeth bent against the stone. She was too close for a shot from the rifle, so Caitlyn immediately grabbed the taser at her belt and fired even though she knew. She knew that the prongs would scratch uselessly at the stone, that the electricity they pulsed out would fizzle flat.
Can’t blame her for trying.
“Gotta say,” the demon brushed off where the taser prongs had hit, and then proceeded her attention back to the bear trap on her finger, grasping at it to open the joint. “This is a lot of effort. You really know how to flatter a girl, Cupcake.”
The hunter just frowned. “Stop calling me that, my name is Caitlyn.”
“Huh, Caitlyn,” the demon titled her head while saying the name like she was tasting it. “I almost like Cupcake better.”
Caitlyn snorted in protest, tossing the useless taser to the floor and was about to rant her frustrations to this idiot, headstrong, infuriating demon when she was grabbed under her arms. Two giant wings had unfurled themselves impossibly from the demon’s back, lifting them both into flight.
Caitlyn was carried to the pier by the bridge, and, struggling, dropped unceremoniously into the freezing water.
Smoke grenades, two pistols, a laser guided sniper rifle with the extra scopes, night vision goggles.
“Y’know I completely forgot my manners, I know your name…” the demon landed onto the cracked concrete with a billow of dust, wiping some debris off her her arms. “But you don’t know mine.”
“It hardly matters,” Caitlyn coughed, the smoke from the grenades still lingering. The demon looked almost hurt by that statement, scratching at the back of her head near one horn that now had a chip in it from one of Caitlyn’s bullets that night.
“Just tryin’ to be polite,” she said almost wistfully, then snorted. “You visit me so much, after all. Name’s Vi.”
She held out a giant hand as if expecting Caitlyn to shake, smiling in a way that almost wasn’t her usual coy mockery, but that constant smirk still lifted at one corner. Caitlyn looked from the hand to the demon, fighting off her own smile that this bizarre standoff they’ve been developing, when Vi’s expression flashed from amused to horror as she shouted.
“Fuck, look out!”
Suddenly the demon was beside Caitlyn, lightning quick, quicker than she had ever been before, and one of those stone hands is gripping Caitlyn’s arm and pulling her to the side, hard. Caitlyn let out a startled cry and instinctively tried to pull back but Vi tightened her grip and dragged her to nearly the other side of the room. Caitlyn fumbled her free hand to grab the knife in her boot and bring it up in a bid to escape when the sound of part of the ceiling crashing and falling right where Caitlyn stood boomed in the hollow space.
She turned and watched stone and metal crush the floor where she had been seconds earlier and Caitlyn felt her heart fall through to her stomach. Her hand squeezed and loosened around the handle of the knife before she blinked back to herself, realized the demon still had her arm.
“Let me go.”
Vi released her arm the second Caitlyn tugged it away, the stone fingers creaking as they opened and the demon stepping back a couple feet. She ducked her head, scratching idly at a shoulder. “You, uh…” she started, clearing her throat and looking over at Caitlyn again with uncharacteristic shyness. “You okay?”
“Fine,” Caitlyn replied tersely, rubbing at where the demon had squeezed and pulled her arm, confused and sore blending into an annoyed reaction. “Peachy.”
Looking a bit scolded, Vi just stared at the debris with the dust still settling with a haunted expression before she shook it off. “Whatever. Good.” Her voice terse, she turned away from Caitlyn with a frown and set jaw, muttering “See you next time.”
Still rubbing at her sore arm, Caitlyn could only frown at the pile of rubble in the wake of Vi spreading her wings and flying back to wherever she hid in the building, leaving the hunter alone with the fading smoke and dust.
Caitlyn stared at the bruise on her arm, the coffee she held in both hands letting out tendrils of steam on the table beside her in the morning sun. It was a perfect line on her forearm in the shape of the demon’s bulky stone finger, like a brand. To mark when a demon has saved her of all things.
“Uh oh, someone’s got thinking face.”
The chair across from her was pulled out with a squeak on the linoleum and Jayce lowered himself into it, leaning back against the black plastic with a smile. “What’s Caitlyn Kiramman mad about this time?”
“I’m not mad about anything,” Caitlyn frowned back. “It’s just that… it’s just my face.”
Jayce shook his head, leaning back with his hands folded across his stomach. “Ehh, it’s bitchier than your usual resting face, something’s bothering you.”
Caitlyn glanced down at the bruise on her arm and then quickly away, not wanting to draw attention to it. She tugged her sleeve up, making the motion seem like she was scratching at an itch. “It’s just be a frustrating week, is all.”
“Desk job’s got you down?”
“Don’t tell me you’ve been enjoying it,” countered Caitlyn with a wry tone. Jayce only laughed.
“I’m older than you Cait; even with all the Hextech the missions can hit hard. A bit of downtime now and then isn’t so bad, is it?” He let out another chuckle. “Although Graves’ handwriting haunts me more than some of the ghouls we’ve had to face.”
“Being behind a desk is not what I signed up for.” Caitlyn scowled down at her coffee mug. “And I don’t like leaving a job unfinished.”
“Happens to the best of us.”
Caitlyn only sipped her coffee with an air of annoyance. Jayce let out a little chuckle of a sigh.
“It happens,” he said with casual acceptance and defeat. “At least this one we came out with just bruises. And maybe some bruised egos too.”
“Have you ever thought why?” She looked at up him with her question and he looked back at her puzzled. She elaborated. “The demon made an effort to not kill us, that doesn’t strike you as curious?”
Jayce nodded his head thoughtfully, but didn’t look nearly as bothered as Caitlyn expected him to be. “She’s cocky. Strong, a bigger deal than most demons we face, probably liked the excuse to showboat. Leaving us alive was probably a strategy so that we would know she’s dangerous, but not a threat. And it helped me realize that maybe I’m not cut out for fieldwork anymore.
“Sorry?” She blinked at him, taken off guard by the change in subject.
“Mel’s expecting,” he admitted. “I can’t keep putting myself out there, getting hurt. This one was a wake up call, that I’m not the same young recruit I used to be. It takes longer for me to bounce back, and now I have to consider that I’ll be leaving people behind if I don’t.”
“You’re retiring?”
He chuckled, looking a little wistful. “Don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll find another blockheaded brawler for you to team up with soon. You’ll be back on the field before you know it, rolling your eyes and being the best damn shot this agency has ever seen, okay? Just take the rest while you can get it.”
“Oh, and you can stop stewing over the cannery assignment” he patted at her shoulder, standing. “They’re sending in Drone Team to take down the place on Monday.”
“Drone Team?” Caitlyn repeated, shocked. “That’s a bit extreme, isn’t it?”
Jayce shrugged. “I mean, no haunted house, no haunting.”
A single pistol, for personal protection on the journey.
Caitlyn stepped into the main floor of the cannery for yet another quiet moment, dust motes floating in the faint moonlight the only movement she could see. Stepping as softly as she could, Caitlyn glanced around at the old railings, the broken pieces of the second floor where the demon often came from.
“You know,” Vi said, wings outstretched to slow her fall so that her landing was soft, silent, just a puff of wind and dust, “I’m starting to think you like me or something.”
“Oh really?” Caitlyn asked, gun drawn and aimed, backing up slightly. Vi just grinned, beginning to walk slowly toward her.
“Yeah? There another reason you keep showing up?”
“Why haven’t you killed me yet?”
Vi stopped short in her tracks, blinking at the question, the weight of her giant hands making her arms swing slightly. “What?”
“You’ve had plenty opportunity,” Caitlyn kept the gun trained, kept her feet steady on the ground. “You even had the chance to step back and let me die out of complete circumstance and instead you saved me. Why?”
“Um,” scratching at her chest, Vi glanced shyly around, shrugged. “I thought we were having fun?”
Caitlyn stared back at her, confirming. “This is… fun?”
“Yeah, aren’t you having fun?”
Admittedly, she was. The night she would spend strategizing details, trying to work out exactly what kind of demon Vi was, what her best weaknesses would be, trying to retrace her steps to figure out the flaws in her plan and adjust. Falling asleep to the thoughts of the demon charging, dodging, ducking, that grin always on her face, her laugh when Caitlyn managed to hit her.
A very small smile made it’s way across Caitlyn’s face, relieved and amused. “No malice in it then? You’re just… enjoying yourself.”
“Cute girl keeps me from going out of my ass with boredom? Yeah, I’m enjoying myself. Any don’t say you aren’t, I know you’re better than this Cupcake. You could have killed me every time, but you keep aiming for the non-vitals. So maybe I should be the one ask you why.”
Caitlyn reholstered her pistol and cleared her throat, raising a finger. “I’ll be right back.”
A single pistol, a basket containing a small variety of sandwiches, fruit, some cheese and dried meats and a box of cupcakes.
She hadn’t brought the basket inside initially just in case her hunch was wrong, leaving it just outside the entrance to the cannery, but Vi’s answers seemed satisfactory enough. Head held high she marched back into the building where Vi was still standing, looking incredibly human with her surprised but happy expression, all the details of her soft with her curious look at the basket in Caitlyn’s hand.
“This how you ask me out on a date?” She asked, with a hint of laughter.
Caitlyn ignored how warm her face got, and just continued on her way for her plan, walking right past Vi toward the back of the building. Curiosity won out over the demon, and Vi jogged up to walk behind the hunter. “What you got for me this time? More fancy rope? Extra large handcuffs?”
“Lunch,” replied Caitlyn.
Vi actually paused mid step, Caitlyn not slowing down and leaving her behind until the demon let out a startled “wait, really?” and jogged after the demon hunter.
The back docking of the cannery was missing most of it’s wall, just a large hole like a jagged window out to the bay of the ocean and the moon. The large dock there was mostly untouched despite the damage, and sheltered enough from the wind that Caitlyn was satisfied. She began to unpack the basket, first laying out the blanket she had rested on top, and then se
“You weren’t kidding,” Vi sounded almost in disbelief, coming up behind her. She let out a whistle. “So this mean we’re striking a peace treaty?” She asked even as she sat down beside the small blanket. Caitlyn, kneeling with her weight resting on her heels, only smoothened out the blanket edges and smiled to the demon.
“I have hopes.”
“Huh,” Vi picks up a sandwich in her large fingers, mulling it over. She gave it a sniff, and then a bite, chewing. “Kinda dry.”
“Is that how you say thank you?” Caitlyn teased, and the demon smirked around a second bite, cheek full.
“Nah, it’s pretty good. Not as good as a joint that used to be around here, served up this bread and stew combo, but nah. This ain’t bad for prissy food.” She swallowed and chuckled. “Oh, am I supposed to be pinky up?”
She raised a thick, stony finger and snickered. Caitlyn doesn’t laugh, but a smile teases at the corner of her mouth that she can’t help.
“I wanted to ask, tonight, about you. Why do you stay here?“ She waited after a moment of silent eating, finally asking her question when Vi was on her third sandwich. The demon shoved the rest of her food unceremoniously into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully, her red skin almost glowing under the moonlight.
“Died here.”
Her voice is so hushed and reserved Caitlyn almost thought someone else was speaking, had she not been watching the demon’s face to see her lips move. Vi continued to stare straight ahead, thoughtful before she spoke again. “I don’t remember much about it. I was human, at some point. My sister and I, we lived alone and we got into trouble a lot. Had to move constantly, without a place to call home, just squatting anywhere empty for as long as we could. We stayed here a bit, but there was this gang and they… I tried to save us. I think…”
She paused and looked down at her hands, the big stone claws, pensive. “I think I died trying. There was— something went wrong. I remember fire, pain. I was stuck… stuck somewhere for I don’t know how long, but I never stopped trying to get out, to find her, my sister. I finally got out of there, managed to wake up back here and I was like this. This place was like this.” She bit her bottom lip, sucking it into her teeth and shaking her head. “I never found her. But this is the last place we had together, and I can’t exactly go looking for her like,” she waved a large hand in front of her face, the red skin and curled horns, “this.”
Vi folded her hands back together, the creaking and scratching of the stone audible from the movement. She let out a bit of a sigh, shoulders sagging, and Caitlyn watched her before she put her own sandwich down and reached over. She placed her hand on the stone of Vi’s, which was surprisingly warm, and patted just once, as gentle as she could. Vi blinked, looking at Caitlyn’s hand, so small compared to hers, and then over to Caitlyn who smiled sadly toward her.
“You’ve been here this whole time because you don’t know where else to go.”
Vi darted her gaze away, made a shrugging motion of her shoulders to brush Caitlyn off. “Don’t really have anywhere else I can go,” she muttered.
Caitlyn pulled her hand away, but shifted a little closer. “They’re going to demolish this place,” she said quietly, but firm. Vi looked over at her again with wide eyed surprise, again looking more human and less like the demon she now was. “That was always the goal, to redevelop this area. It’s why I was originally sent to remove you. But you proved a bit difficult and the agency has decided to try the two birds with one stone method.”
A snarl pulled itself on the corner of Vi’s lip, revealing her fang and furrowed brow. “What the fuck.”
“I came here to warn you,” Caitlyn assured her, “but I can’t do anything to stop it. But if your only attachment to this place is grief, maybe it’s time to let that go as well. And maybe she’s still out there,” hesitating a second, Caitlyn reached out to place her hand on Vi’s again with reassurance. “Maybe leaving this place, you’ll have a better chance at finding your sister.”
“So what, I get a big trench coat and hope I blend in out there?”
“I think you’d look pretty good in one of our uniforms, actually.” Caitlyn raised her chin with a tight lipped smile, letting her eyes take all of Vi in. Vi stopped mid-quip.
“Huh?”
Caitlyn’s smile widened. “The agency has a few paranormal members already, it wouldn’t be unheard of. Not to mention I have a bit more sway in suggestion at the agency, certain privileges.” She shifted slightly closer to Vi again and nudged her with an elbow. “And we seem to work impressively well when fighting against each other — think of how we could manage as partners.”
A snort came from Vi, looking over to the hunter. “Partners?”
“I’m going to need a new one soon anyway, and why not you?”
Vi just stared at her for a moment, an odd sort of expression on her face, and Caitlyn frowned. “What?”
“So you do like me.” The demon raised an eyebrow and Caitlyn sniffed, turning her head away.
“Don’t push your luck.”
Still with that charming, devilish grin Vi just chuckled, picking up one of the cupcakes as carefully as she could and taking a bite that was mostly icing. “Knew it.”