House of Ill Repute

It was just after Six PM when we descended to the hotel lobby. Penny was in a dark grey pant suit that showed off her amazing figure. I had opted for a pair of dark blue denim jeans, black buttoned shirt and a leather biker jacket.

We looked at the two of us in the elevator mirror and had to laugh. Together we were a very mismatched pair. It felt good to be working with her once again.

Since we were only going to check out the body in the morgue I had left my swords behind. A short straight bladed knife was strapped to my left forearm, ready to be drawn by my right hand from under the jacket sleeve.

Penny had a small 5mm caseless Pistol in her purse and a fighting knife strapped under her left armpit, concealed by her suit jacket. I did not doubt she had other weapons on her person. Or perhaps inside her body, waiting to be activated. She was very secretive about what Enhancements she actually had.

Regardless we both had tactical armour weave lining our jackets. I may not like guns but I respected their ability to put holes in me where I least wanted them.

When we got to the front doors, I waved away the doorman. We would not be taking an auto-cab tonight. I used my phone to signal the vehicle provided for us by the Order. Its onboard dumb AI drove it from the hotel parking area to meet us at the front.

Penny whistled appreciatively as it pulled to a stop. It was the latest model of Ford Urban Elite, a variable suspension sports SUV. It was a tasteful black in colour, with large wheels that could be raised or lowered depending on the drive mode engaged. For now it was in sports mode, sitting low and menacing to the ground.

I got into the driver’s seat and Penny got in the other side, thanking the doorman who had rushed over to open her side. Once we settled ourselves I overrode the AI and took manual control. If there was any trouble, I wanted to be the one doing the driving. The onboard system duly advised me that if there were any accidents while in manual control I would be held fully accountable. I acknowledged tersely and control was surrendered to me.

Just to be perverse I floored the accelerator and we squealed away from the covered portico of the hotel. I watched the poor doorman run backwards to avoid the tyre smoke I had left behind us. I made a mental note to tip him big next time I saw him.

We rocketed out on the main road and I deftly merged us with the other traffic. It was about ten minutes to the central City Morgue so Penny just relaxed while I wove us through the dusk.

There are a number of hospitals in Pan City, some for the general public and others for private patients. A few research facilities run under the guise of hospitals too, for benevolent reasons and otherwise. Most have their own morgues, but the City Morgue is where the bulk of the bodies end up.

The Order likes to keep tabs on the bodies that turn up, especially any that are the result of unusual trauma. These are often indicators of creatures from beyond the Boundary being active. Our agent within the Coroner’s office flags them for investigation.

Actually getting to view a body can be a tricky process. We have had to impersonate family members, medical examiners and the like in the past to get access. Tonight is a break – the operative is on the night shift and can sign us in.

I park the SUV in the parking lot at the back of the hospital, away from the general admissions and visitor parking. The morgue does not get a lot of casual visitors, especially at night so I am able to park close to the access doors.

The agent is a middle aged woman with a white lab coat and thick glasses. Even in the days of advanced cybernetics and adaptive contact lenses, some people stick with the old ways of doing things. Kind of like me and my swords I imagine.

Penny and I are hustled past the security guard on the reception desk with a wave of our guide’s ID tag and we arrive at a small examination room. It is reserved for the more unusual cases and this body would certainly qualify. It has been taken out of cold storage and laid on a metal table under lights and a scanning array.

It is an older man, maybe in his forties, currently covered by a sheet from the neck down. The guide tells us the body has had a preliminary examination, but has not otherwise been touched. Whatever marks and wounds are upon the corpse were inflicted by the killer. She drags the sheet down to the ankles and reveals the naked body.

His name was Marco Pillot, a low level executive at an accounting firm here in Pan City. He was reported missing three days ago by his wife. She had last seen him when he left to go to work in the morning. Apparently he was known to come home late once or twice a week. Mrs Pillot had suspected he had a mistress somewhere.

Looking at his corpse, it might be conceivable to think an enraged spouse or a jilted lover had done the things we could see to him. But they would have to be a very unhinged kind of person. I was sure the Police Auxiliary would be checking that out but I knew it was not the truth.

I know of the rituals needed to summon a Mare. These are the creatures from the Dark Side of the Boundary, powerful and evil, that can be bound into service by a Warlock. They can take many forms, but the body before us had been mutilated and drained of its blood while the heart was still pumping. Runic symbols had been carved into the flesh in a specific pattern to dedicate the life essence to only one form of Mare.

“The Warlock has summoned a Blood Mare” I told Penny. It was better known to most Hunters as a type of Vampire, feasting on the blood of its prey and draining their life essence. Such Mares were able to regenerate terrible wounds and pass that regeneration power to the Warlock.

They were damned hard to destroy in their own right, but it meant the Warlock would be so much more resistant to attack. In order to kill the Warlock, we would have to destroy the Mare first.

The body was meant to have been destroyed or hidden. Some twist of fate had let the corpse of Marco Pillot be found. Twists of fate, unexpected occurrences, lucky breaks – they happen around me a lot. One of the stranger aspects of my power.

“Can you trace his Fate lines back to see where he had been sacrificed?” asked Penny. She was not at all squeamish and had been looking intently at the wounds and marks on the body.

“No, my gift only shows me the possible paths of the living” I replied. “I can’t see the past lines of the dead, or of anyone living in fact. That is the gift of the Crone”

“Well, you are getting on a bit” suggested Penny. “You must be the oldest Maiden ever” she added. I glanced sharply at her but she ignored me and was poking the body with a stainless steel medical implement of some kind.

“Please don’t do that” said our guide and relieved her of the tool and placed it back in a metal dish.

“Maybe we should look around the place where the body was found?” I suggested. “I may be able to pick up on the fate lines of anyone involved”.

“Worth a shot” agreed Penny and we thanked the guide for their time. She remained behind to put the body away while we headed back to the reception area. When we arrived the guard was not at his desk so I began to walk past to the car park. I sensed Penny stop behind me so I turned to look back at her.

Instinct told me she had spotted something out of place. I was drawing my knife and she had pulled her pistol from her purse when the mutilated corpse of the guard was hurled at us from behind the reception counter.

Penny went into combat overdrive, dodging under the body and letting it slam wetly into the wall behind her. Something leaped from behind the desk, a dark shape with elongated legs and arms that jumped vertically at least five meters to the ceiling.

Multiple shots from her pistol ripped through its flesh, the small but armour piercing bullets throwing bloody spatters on the roof tiles. In less time than I could ready my knife she had emptied her magazine into its body.

It hung for a moment from the ceiling, hissing at us from its wide mouth that was filled with blood red fangs. The naked flesh of its body was a glistening black and the blood it had consumed was a bright smear of red across its torso.

As Penny reloaded I flung my dagger at the Blood Mare. It reached out casually and caught the blade just before it struck the head. It grinned evilly at me. I smiled back and uttered the activation word for the spell focus carved into its solid metal length.

“Infernus” I said and sent my power into the linked weapon. A ball of flame nearly three meters across engulfed the Mare in white hot fury. Penny and I were flung backwards by the wave of heat and ended up sprawled against the reception doors. Glass shattered and sprayed outwards into the parking lot.

A thrashing tangle of arms and legs fell to the floor, writhing as the fire seared its flesh. The automated sprinklers activated and water sprayed over us all, quenching the blaze. The Mare climbed back to its feet and Penny fired in rapid succession from where she lay beside me. It shuddered as her bullets tore open its skull and smashed the teeth filled jaws.

As the water washed across the floor it rose up once more and crawled towards us. On bloodied limbs it advanced, the broken jaw snapping and the one remaining eye glaring yellow from the black tattered flesh.

I staggered to my feet but Penny was so much faster.

“Just die you son of a bitch!” she screamed and leaped forwards with her long bladed fighting knife. The Mare lunged for her but she slid sideways past its bite and slashed the knife across its neck. Her Ceramite blade split the flesh easily and the head rolled to the side. The body shuddered once and lay still, its gore mixing with the water and flowing across the tiles.

She looked back to me in triumph, a mad grin on her face.

“Cleanup in aisle seven” she said.

=====

As the sprinklers shed water over us, I walked past the Mare and retrieved my dagger. The Mare was already dissipating back to the Dark Side, its body fading away in black steam. A foul stench filled the air that the falling water did little to quell.

The fetid odour of rotten flesh and blood. I felt like I smelled this far too often in my line of work.

“Are you OK?” I asked Penny, speaking louder against the wail of the fire alarm that was filling the area. She was wiping her knife and placing it back under her jacket. Her hair was splayed around her shoulders and face, dripping with water and mingled blood. The madness of battle had left her but she was still alert.

“Just a bit scorched” she replied and eyed the dagger I had thrown. “You could have warned me you were going to toss a grenade at the damned thing”

“Sorry, I was caught up in the heat of the moment” I answered, then laughed at the unwitting joke I had made. Penny just made a face at me then turned serious.

“Vee, would that thing have backup nearby?”

“Yes, the host will be close by. It would be vulnerable so it probably has a guardian” I responded. I moved carefully toward the broken glass doors that lead to the parking lot and looked out.

“Get down!” shouted Penny and pulled me to the side as gunfire zipped past. I felt a heavy tug on my jacket as a single round tore the weave and passed my flesh with mere inches to spare.

Penny kicked into motion again, sidestepping me and rolling out through the gaping holes in the door frames. Bullets slashed the spaces she had been in as she raced forwards, bringing her own pistol on target.

I snatched a glance outside and could see a dark van parked about twenty metres away, its side door open. Two men in plain suits beside it were firing large handguns towards Penny, desperately trying to track her movements.

With a curse I got to my feet and pushed the broken doors aside. One of the gunmen noticed me and switched his aim in my direction. I summoned my power and thrust my left hand forwards. His gunshots slammed into my blue shield spell and fell harmlessly to the concrete paving beneath me.

“Penny!” I shouted “We need them…”. Penny closed her range and fired twice, killing each man instantly with a single clean shot to the forehead. “….alive” I finished. The men dropped like puppets with their strings cut.

“What?” said Penny as she moved up to the van, her weapon and eyes scanning for any new targets.

“Too late now” I said and headed over to her, looking about myself in case there were any more guardians. I reached out with my power and found no fate lines linked to the two dead men. But the van showed traces of someone still inside.

Penny was already at the open door, her weapon trained on someone in the back seat of the van.

“We’ve got a live one Vee, but she doesn’t look too good” she said. I stood beside her and looked at the young woman strapped into the seat. She was dying, the strain of being the host for the Blood Mare too much for her body to withstand.

I climbed into the van and sat next to the woman on one of the seats. She looked at me with dazed eyes. I think she had been pretty once, but the ravages of addiction had eaten at her long before the Mare had been grafted into her flesh.

“I’m sorry” I said to her and placed my hand on her forehead. There was nothing I could do for her. Blood dribbled from her slack mouth and pooled against her neck and chest, staining the simple white dress she wore. Her ravaged body looked naked underneath the thin cloth.

“Who are you?” I asked her. Her eyes met mine and she tried to answer but no words would come. It did not matter. My power flowed around her in her dying moments and I knew.

She was Amy Truong, barely eighteen years of age. Her parents lived here in Pan City, hard working and decent folk, but Amy had fallen in with a bad crowd. It had led her to this moment, this ending.

“Who did this to you?” I asked her. The lines of her fate linked to one name I knew. I had met him before. Many of the Church had.

Amy passed and I saw her path end. I closed her eyes and sat back.

“Did you get anything?” asked Penny, looking at me with concern.

“Yes” I answered. “She was connected strongly to Silas Rose. She blamed him for her fate”

“Bloody hell, Vee!” Penny exclaimed. “You mean the actual Silas Rose, from the Board of Governors?”

I nodded my head in agreement. He was one of the six people who ran the entire Zone, aided and abetted by the Archimedes Network. Governor Rose was in charge of overseeing all the religious groups here in Pan City. His department ran the Tower of Babel among other things.

Penny grabbed my shoulder and pulled me bodily out of the van.

“We need to go, now!” she said in no uncertain terms. She guided me back to our vehicle, my feet stumbling a little. I think I was in shock. If a Warlock was in league with a Governor, we had put ourselves against some dangerous foes.

I snapped out of it when we reached the SUV. Penny looked worried too. She knew how bad this could be.

I unlocked the doors and we climbed in. As we drove away I could see flames licking out from the doors to the morgue. I think the evidence of the sacrifice and the Mare was being erased already.

=====

“So that girl was a host to the beast we killed?” asked Penny as I drove us through the brightly lit highways of Pan City. I had no destination in mind yet so I was just keeping us moving, following the ring roads that circled around the metropolis.

“That is right” I replied. “Mares are creatures of the Dark Side. They cannot exist for too long in their natural form on our side of the Boundary. It would destroy them. So they must be contained within a host. For some Mares that could be an object, like a ring or a weapon. Others, like Blood Mares, need to be bound into a living body”

“What happens to the host?” wondered Penny. “Do they remain alive while the Mare is inside of them?”

“Yes. It is an awful fate for any sentient being. The Mares take over all control of the body and force the mind into submission. It is a complete violation of the mind and body”

“Kind of like rape” said Penny quietly. She was looking out of the window at the highway lights flashing by. I looked over at her, unsure how to respond. Penny had never really spoken of her early life to me, but I knew it had been one of abuse and suffering. I did not doubt that her feelings towards men were from those dark times.

“If we kill the Warlock, we might be able to free the souls of all those he has bound with Mares” I told her.

“We can’t save their bodies too?” asked Penny, looking at me once more.

“Maybe” I said, but with little conviction. Freeing someone from a Mare was rarely successful. It would take a mind and body of unusual resilience to survive it. Even if we could keep a victim alive, the damage to their mental state would be overwhelming.

“At least killing the Warlock will stop them from doing it again” accepted Penny. “And I am very good at killing things.” She gave me one of her smiles and I had to smile back.

“That’s the spirit” I said.

=====

I came to a decision after we looped about on the expressways for another ten minutes.

“We need to talk to the Bishop” I said to Penny. “If we target a Governor on our own cognisance, it will have serious repercussions for all the Churches here in the Zone”

“Yeah, I know” she agreed. “I think you should call him”

“Why can’t you?” I said. “I am busy driving right now”

“He is your superior, not mine” she countered. “My boss is back in Rome”

I put the car into auto-drive and took out my phone. Penny watched me out of the corners of her eyes. “Just do it” she muttered so I hit his contact link. He answered almost immediately.

“What happened at the morgue?” said Bishop Wainwright. “Reports are coming in of multiple fatalities and half the adjoining hospital wings are on fire”

“There were some complications” I admitted. “A Blood Mare attacked us”

“You had better come and see me. We can’t discuss this over a phone line. I’ll be waiting at the Shrine”. He ended the call abruptly. I relayed what he had said to Penny, who just nodded. With a sigh and a prayer to our mighty lord I took control of the car once more. At the next exit I headed us to the Tower and the adjacent temples.

The Consolidated Churches Abbey has a few parking areas above ground, mainly for visiting dignitaries and the like. The majority of the vehicle parking is below ground, four levels of vehicle bays, access stairs and elevators. There are two separate Metro line stations down there as well, at the east and west end of the Abbey complex. A lot of people work in the Tower and there are hundreds and sometimes thousands of worshippers attending their holy places.

Tonight there were only a few dozen vehicles occupying the section of first level parking near our destination. I parked our SUV in a bay with no other vehicles nearby and powered it down. Penny checked the load in her pistol and got out of the car, her pistol held at her side.

I got out on my side and brushed down the marks and stains on my clothes. We were both still fairly presentable so we walked over to the nearest set of stairs. When you feel threatened it is never a good idea to put your trust in an elevator. They are far too easy to get trapped in.

Nothing chose to leap out at us and we made it to the grand entrance of the Holy Roman Church. Penny finally put her pistol back in her purse and we entered the centre of our church here in the Zone.

From the outside the church was a long concrete and glass cruciform shape, maybe two hundred metres long and one hundred wide at its biggest dimensions. It soared up fifty metres to the roof line, not including the bell tower which rose another fifty above that. The whole structure looked clean and modern, an interesting contrast to the ancient and unyielding faith it represented.

The central area had pews for a thousand parishioners at once, all facing a large dais and altar at one end. A crucifix with a symbolic Christ figure hung above this, glaring down in majesty at the few worshippers sitting in the pews at this hour.

We both made the requisite sign of the cross and hurried to the rear of the church. Here were smaller alcoves set along the wall, each a shrine to a major Saint or Martyr of the faith. At the statue of the Archangel Michael I found my boss, facing towards the effigy of his superior.

Penny and I sat down next to him on the hard wooden benches that faced the angel. I was always impressed by Michael. He was in charge of the Heavenly Host, fighting the good fight against the Devil and his minions. But he still found the time to look out for the weak and innocent of the world. He was big on smiting the wicked, something I could certainly relate to.

As I have mentioned before in my life, I am a very Old Testament kind of girl. Not withstanding some of my other life choices, that the church hierarchy still frowned upon. Nothing is perfect, especially religion. Most of it was just made up by old guys anyway so you had to take it all with a big pinch of salt.

“You banished the Mare?” began the Bishop.

“We destroyed it utterly” affirmed Penny.

“The host was close by, a young woman” I added. “She passed not long after the Mare was destroyed. I was able to search her Fate lines and got a definite connection to someone here in the city”

“You can’t see the past or present” said the Bishop. “How do you know she was linked to someone in her future?” He had known me for many years now and knew the limits of my powers.

“Her death sends a kind of shockwave through the fate lines is the best way I can describe it. She had no future herself, but her passing changed the futures of others” I responded. “When they are significant enough, I can see them”

Bishop Wainwright turned on his seat and looked me in the eye.

“You need to be very careful Sister Venerae” he said. “This person you are referring to is someone of significance here in the city, isn’t it?” Penny began to speak but he silenced her with a gesture. “No names. Even these walls have ears. Continue to investigate and track down the Warlock. If you need the help of the Order, call me. No-one is above our Judgement in such cases as these”

“No-one?” I asked. He nodded in confirmation and stood up to leave.

“Remember that you are not the only ones at risk here” he added and got stiffly to his feet. I watched him as he walked slowly away. I forgot sometimes that for all his strength of will, he was an old man now.

“So what now?” asked Penny.

“For now, we head back to the hotel and get cleaned up. In the morning I want to go and see our lead. If he agrees to meet with us, I can trace any contact he has with the Warlock”

“Sounds like as good a plan as any” she agreed. We stood, and I nodded to the Archangel, then we left.