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CHAPTER 10

  THE WALK INTO town was refreshing given the circumstances. It gave him a chance to clear his head. Since Agnes was employed where the crime happened, someone would be looking to question her. She was a suspect at most, a witness at least.

  Kane traversed the streets avoiding eye contact. No one looked over their shoulder and strangely everything appeared business as usual.

  The streets should be crawling with authorities, especially on this side of town. Maybe Harry already worked his magic and fed the police their scapegoat.

  He continued down the back streets to the center of town, only a few blocks from where the dead man’s blood spilled into a halo and mocked him that morning and up to the tenement where Agnes lived. As he approached the entry, he caught a familiar feeling that put a picture of the old woman in his mind. The knot in his stomach was back, and the scent of decay followed shortly thereafter.

  Kane pushed through the entryway and looked down the hallway at the doors that lined each side. The feeling grew stronger as he walked, looking from one door to the next until he reached one that set fireworks off in his head. He caught himself sniffing the air and realized it was a scent that her was tracking. Somehow in his transformation, his sense of smell came to match his heightened visual acuity, hearing and new found strength.

  He drew in deeply through his nose and tasted the air, it jogged his memory and the face of the horrible Agnes came to the forefront. He pictured her flailing her arms and cursing him for stealing her prize. He tried the door handle and found it to be locked. A swift boot to the knob cured that and he burst in quickly closing it behind him. The room was empty.

  Kane put his ear to the door and listened to see if other tenants were investigating the noise but heard nothing. He imagined that was the kind of place where questions would not be asked for fear of becoming involved. He took one last deep breath to memorize the stink that was Agnes.

  Leaving out the front of the building and down the road, he followed her scent. If he had to track her in this way, so be it. If she didn't go to her apartment, he thought perhaps he could pick up her trail from when she fled the house. From there, he would follow her to her final resting place. The path, instead, led back to the victim’s house.

  He expected the home to be covered in police or other investigators but it wasn't. It was still. Still except for the stench. Agnes's scent was thick and angry in the air around the home and Kane went to the door he had kicked in earlier that day to take a look inside.

  The door was still broken when he approached. Lamps were lit inside and he heard shuffling as if someone walked about on the second floor. He breathed deeply and found the scent of his prey heavy, but also the scents of others. In the hallway next to the dining area, he saw the man still lying on the floor, exactly as he had been that morning. No one knew yet that the man was dead.

  “Agnes never left,” he breathed.

  Kane immediately rushed upstairs. The amount of blood he found when he got there was astonishing. He could see the bedroom. The old woman's hand came down again and again, punching a blood-soaked blade into something unlucky with crushing force. He knew then that Agnes had watched him leave that morning and she had come back to wait on the wife and the child. He didn't hear a child's voice. He didn't hear any voices, only the wet thuck-thuck-thuck sound as the knife came down again and again. His thoughts turned black.

  Agnes grunted with each successive blow, spattering droplets from the wet blade with each raise of her hand. Kane entered the room and saw the dead child on the floor, carved into a horrid pile of ground meat. The only recognizable features were the tiny limbs that radiated out from that bloody mass. He never felt such sorrow or anger. As his mind fractured, his fury exploded like flames belched from a dragon's throat.

  Agnes raised her hand for the last time and Kane snatched it driving the knife downward with such power that her elbow dislocated and her forearm broke. The knife lodged in the back of her skull. She let out an odd shrieking sound and her body convulsed wildly when it hit the floor. He didn't look at the shiny wet mess she'd made of the poor child’s mother but turned instead to finish Agnes.

  She was blinded by the knife in her skull, and trying desperately to grab its handle with her good arm while the other flopped, broken and alien looking. He put a knee to her chest and pulled the knife from her head, killing her instantly. Her body still glowed with the pulsing greens and blacks and reds. Kane, however, was not finished…No, he would make this delivery special. And he would deny Harry at least part of the prize. His desire was to disassemble the hag, but it was Harry that would make her suffer. Kane just wanted satisfaction.

  The blade slid easily into the meat of her left breast before he pulled it across in a crescent shape that exposed the muscle and ribcage beneath. Kane played with the knife for a moment finding it took little effort on his part to pry her ribs open. He wanted what was underneath.

  Kane dropped the weapon and plunged his thick fingers into the opening and using his other hand for leverage, he pulled until two of them snapped with a sharp, wet, popping sound. He then pulled two more with the same results. Finally with relief, Kane ripped a black, shriveled heart from its home and held it in his hand, staring at it with white-hot hatred. The aura winked out. He tucked it into his coat pocket letting the remaining blood ooze out through the fabric and dragged the body down the steps to the hallway, through the kitchen and out the door leaving a red, glistening trail behind.

  Kane took her back towards the tenement where she lived. He felt an alley in the low rent part of town was good enough for her body to rot and be eaten by bugs, stray cats and other vermin. There he wedged the corpse under a pile of refuse where such creatures might live.

  Then he prayed.

  “Lord, take mercy on this family that died for no reason. Forgive me my ignorance. Show me the way to rid my existence of Thurgood Harrison and please show Caitlin your grace.”

  Kane apologized for his crimes, for Harry's crimes. He wept hardest for the children he had lost while being trained in such a despicable occupation. He did not, however, apologize for Agnes nor did he make excuses for Father Hogan.

  Harry could have the heart, but afterward, Kane would leave town. He would travel, avoiding people, avoiding everything, and he would find a way to be rid of the beast while he figured out how to save Caitlin.

  Harry was, of course, there when he got home and he felt it when he approached his front door.

  “I will witness no more,” Kane said as he entered.

  “You are free to leave. Go wherever you wish. Just know that I will always find you.”

  “You have your trinket, now be off. I'll find a way out of this indenture. I have eternity to look,” Kane said and the demon chuckled.

  Kane didn't give it a second thought and simply pulled the heart from his coat. Harry’s eyes flashed with ecstasy and his dry lips formed a sneer. He carefully removed the muscle from Kane’s hand. With a gentle motion he squeezed the horrid thing and it beat with life again, pumping its viscous fluids onto the floor.

  “Mm. The blacker the better,” he said and placed it in the pouch with the others.

  Kane pictured him eating the trophies with a knife and fork at some formal table in hell.

  “Overall, you did an outstanding job my good man. Simply outstanding. I must extend my regrets about the young woman and the child. That was unfortunate. Had you paid attention, however, that would not have happened.”

  “I hate you,” Kane said. “With everything left in me...I hate you.”

  Harry smiled, “I must say that I do enjoy the violence and disorder that seem to follow you about. It’s marvelous to watch.”

  “You are deserving of all of your titles,” Kane said.

  Harry smiled again and vanished in a whiff of brimstone. Kane lay down and slept for hours. He would begin his search for peace when he woke.

  CHAPTER 11

  ONE EYE BLINKED open and then th
e other. As they came into focus, so did his mind and Kane rose immediately to set about packing his things. There had been enough evil, enough bloodshed, plenty for ten lifetimes. The devil was pleasantly absent and the air was light for a change. He felt promise for the first time in weeks. Whatever the future brought, Kane hoped it included Thurgood Harrison screaming in agony, followed by his head on a pike.

  He didn’t care that he would be found wherever he went. He only dreaded the thought of another victim, of another dark, ruined heart and another soul to deliver. Harry's influence gripped him and whether or not he disagreed with the demon's ways, Kane was starting to acquire the taste for hunting the devil's bounties and it disturbed him. He would close his eyes to the colorful patterns of the bustling humans around him. He would take a vacation.

  Finding him, he hoped, would from that moment on, be a challenge. If the Dark Lord wanted a sidekick, he would have to work for it. Kane’s hell was already established and although he might suffer at the devil’s hand, he could justify it to his conscience and he could live with it. It was the only way to keep his humanity.

  “Back to hell with him,” he said with a chuckle.

  He would plan. Eternity was a long time to settle the score and there had to be a weakness in Harry’s armor. Kane would find it. He would pray whether or not God would listen and he would find his answers. He told himself that the demon was smart, but he wasn't infallible or he wouldn’t have fallen in the first place. Kane also knew Harry's full power had not yet been displayed. No, it would certainly end with all-out-war.

  There were ships in port that would be on their way to the Mediterranean, even America. For a price he could get anywhere in the world he wanted to go and captains were always for experienced sailors. For now, he only needed somewhere he could again get lost in the crowd. Kane left his childhood home, his belongings, and all that was once familiar and comfortable and headed to the docks.

  His focus was sharp, his resolve intact, his love undying…he had Caitlin's soul to save.

  ..ooOOoo..

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

  Dan rides this rock through space with you. His wife navigates. His kids provide the adventure.

  Books by him:

  DEMONS AND OTHER INCONVENIENCES

  WHAT TANGLED WEBS

  THE UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ETHAN JACOBS

  LUNACY

  HOW TO EAT A HUMAN BEING

  GIVING UP THE GHOST

  By now, there may be others.

  Find them all here:

  www.amazon.com/author/dandillard

  Talk to him at any of the following places:

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