Baron - Witchblade: Demons

DEMONS

MIKE BAROM

ibooks

new york www.ibooks.net

DISTRIBUTED BY SIMON ft SCHUSTER, INC.

PROLOGUE

TThaddeus Bachmans antique shop was the crown jewel of Worth Street, a renovated and gentrified slice of the Village dedicated to separating the upscale from their money. Bachmans famed brownstone rubbed elbows with Lubitsch Rare and Hard To Find Books on the west and The Estelle Galleiy-featuring Outstanding Western and Wildlife Art-on the east. Bachmans four-story brownstone had been built in 1898 by a shipping heir, and had been equipped with a ballroom on the top floor. Bachman renovated the joint stem to stem, turning the first floor into his main showroom.

Four broad steps led to his generous red granite stoop, a double wrought-iron gate protecting his Italian hand-carved oak doors from the depredations of the hoi polloi. At ten a.m. on a Tuesday morning, those gates should have been open, allowing ingress to Bachmans loyal customers, who included several members of the House of Saud as well as a Baldwin or two.

In particular, they should have been opened to admit Robert Hotchkiss, Esq., an investment banker facing a messy divorce. Hotchkiss was 5 11, thin on top and round in the middle. He had one of those bland middle-aged faces that gets less memorable as it ages, marching toward anonymity. He wore a black Fedora to hide his bald spot. He glanced impatiently at his Tag Heuer and cursed his soon-to-be ex-wife for putting him in this

position-forcing him to sell a Japanese sword she didnt know he owned-to pay his lawyer.

Where was Bachman? Worth Street was chock-a-block with cabs, delivery vehicles, tourists, bike messengers, and immigrants with portable stands hawking everything from fake Rolexes to Viagra. Hotchkiss leaned on the bell. Inside, he could hear a faint trilling. He went down the steps and stood on the sidewalk, trying to see in through the large display window on which the words Thaddeus Bachman Antiques was written in Gothic gold-leaf script, with black accents. In the comer was the blue-and-white rectangle of Panther Security Systems. Behind the glass were two Ming Dynasty vases, a jade dragon, a freestanding silk screen, and an immense, hand-carved mahogany Balinese wedding scene that must have weighed a ton, complete with dancers, firewalkers, and elephants. Bachman specialized in Eastern art, had perked right up when Hotc hkis s told him about the sword. The bankers father had smuggled the sword home from Iwo Jima after World War II.

Hang on to this Bob. You never know. It might be worth big bucks someday.

A frisson of panic crawled down Hotchkiss spine. He was hanging by a thread at the Bloare Agency, the investment house where he worked. If he missed the 11:30 meeting, it would only give his boss the excuse he needed to give Hotchkiss the sack. It was a warm June morning and as usual, Hotchkiss was overdressed in his wool worsted suit and London Fog overcoat. A bead of sweat crept out from under his hat.

He returned to the stoop. The nerve of the man! In frustration, the banker grabbed Bachmans elegant wrought-iron gate handles and shook them. The handles swiveled freely. The gate opened.

Peculiar.

Hotchkiss folded back the gate, which swung silently on oiled hinges. He tried the heavy brass latch on the split Italian doors. It swiveled, too, and the door swung inward.

Bachman? he said. Investment bankers didnt bellow. You in there? The darkened foyer beckoned.

Hotchkiss ventured further, searching for a light. He found one. He stood on a parquet floor beneath a domed twelve-foot ceiling from which hung a Tiffany chandelier. On his left was a glass case featuring Bachmans announcements, an intercom system, and an alcove holding a jasmine-scented candle in a jade bowl. Directly ahead was the closet-sized elevator. To Hotchkiss right was the heavy door leading to the shop itself.

Hotchkiss turned the knob. If the place were unlocked, he would leave Bachman a note. It didnt occur to him that something was amiss. His primary emotion was irritation that the famed Bachman had stood him up. The door to the shop swung inward, revealing utter blackness, and emitting a peculiar coppery smell. He stepped through the door and felt along the wall for a light switch. His hand swept something small, which fell to the floor with a tinkling sound.

Crap, he muttered, venturing further into the cluttered room. He was assailed with the comforting odors of antiquity, all our yesterdays stacked and polished with lemon wax... and something else. Something metallic and dangerous. Hotchkiss recalled that Bachman kept a goose-necked lamp on the counter opposite the door. He took one step toward the counter.

His feet shot out from under him, as if hed stepped on ice.

Hotchkiss went down, instinctively shoving out his hands to break his fall. He slipped on something slick and sprawled on the floor, feeling ridiculous for one nanosecond-until his reptile brain clicked that all was not normal in the antique shop.

The strange smell, the sticky slickness added up to animal panic. Demons lurked in the shadows. Gasping, Hotchkiss scrambled to his feet, hanging on to a hand-carved Indonesian table, spilling expensive doodads to the floor, where they landed with a muted clatter. He scraped, bumped, and turned into the heavy drape separating the display window from the shop. Like Jerry Lewis flubbing an entrance, he twisted in the drapes, admitting sunlight into the shop. He looked down. He was standing in a sea of crimson. He stared at his blood-soaked hands and found himself sobbing. He began to shake.

His first thought was to call the police. He hesitated. His soon-to-be ex-wife knew nothing about the sword, or certain other assets hed kept hidden. If her vampiric lawyer learned about this attempted sale, it wouid go even harder on him, if that were possible.

Breathing in little shrieks, Hotchkiss decided to let himself out the rear. If he hurried, he would just have time to stop at his condo, shower, and change. He looked toward the front of the store. The height of the floor and the forest of objects insured that no one in the street could see in.

Shambling toward the rear, Hotchkiss glanced once behind the counter.

He immediately wished he hadnt.

CHAPTER

ONE

P

1 ezzini! Lieutenant Joe Siry yelled from his redoubt at the end of the detectives bullpen, on the second floor of the Eleventh Precinct.

Detective First Grade Sara Pezzini paused at her keyboard. Since discovering she could type seventy-five words a minute, Lt. Siry had found no end of work for her.

What? she yelled back. No intercoms in the Nineteenth. It was a miracle they even had computers, and what few they had had been purchased with forfeiture money from a drug kingpin Sara had helped bring down.

Would you come in here please, Siiy shouted back without a trace of self-consciousness. Hed been bom screaming, and he hadn't stopped since.

Sighing, Sara saved her work and stood, tucking her gray cotton sleeveless turtleneck into her Versace jeans. Like a hog-calling contest around here, she muttered as she strolled toward the lutes office, aware of but not intimidated by the sex-hungiy eyes of two male detectives.

Sara looked like some coke-crazed casting directors dream of a detective. At thirty-three and 105 pounds, she looked ten years younger. But no one would ever mistake her for a pushover. Not with that swagger. Her auburn hair hung straight down her back. She wore her detectives badge on her belt.

One detective hummed the theme from The Twilight Zone, in reference to Saras caseload. Even before acquiring the Witchblade, shed been the go-to guy on weird. Every bizarre killing or ritualistic murder fell in her lap. Initially, this was because the overwhelmingly male hierarchy got a kick out of watching this perfect 10 get down and dirty with the guys, just to see if she could do it. Being a woman in the police force was a lot like being gay or a Quaker, in that she was constantly being called upon to prove herself. No matter how many cases she closed or perps she brought in, there would always be a gaggle of cops standing around saying, Yeah, but what have you done for me lately?