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Sorry about the absence. I hope to be back by September 15 October 6, with a full explanation. Or, at least, a decent excuse.
Using one of Antonio's knives they cut Banny out of his superhero costume. He then put on a pair of shorts, a t shirt, and sneakers he had had in a couple of plastic grocery bags.
Antonio headed into the bar. The place was empty, somewhat clean, the chairs on the tables. It looked like it was just closed for the night. The demons had taken the time to cover their tracks.
Which was typical. Antonio would not be a Demon Tracker if the job were easy. Or paid poorly.
He checked the back door. And the back alley. Yes, I did leave something of a trail. Looks like they tried to cover that, too. Well, that's embarrassing.
He came back in to investigate the spot he'd seen the leader, and Lissa was there. Her nose was... weird. A cat's nose. She asked, "This the spot where the gonner was? 'Cause I'm getting a human smell from here, and something different all over the rest of the place. Something bad. I'm guessing demon. Oh, and I get your scent, too. Wow, you sure bled a lot! Anyway, it smells human, but it could be a gonner. I don't think you can tell by scent. 'Cause gonners are human. Sort of. Now, I'm no bloodhound, but I think I can follow this trail."
"If not," said Banny, "mebbe we could ask Mr. Fwuzzums."
The other two agreed not to ask the dog to do their job for them; it was a point of pride.
Lissa became a full cat. She picked up the scent. A young, healthy woman, early twenties. She had washed herself, used Right Guard and Decline perfume, about three or four hours beforehand. She had drunk a hell of a lot. She was not pregnant, and it was not her time of the month. And those were just the surface details.
Okay, this was getting scary. Lissa had wanted more power, but this was just a bit too heady.
Lissa followed the path. The woman and her demons had chased after Antonio, his trail was easy, with the blood and the poisons and the aftershave, but still they'd lost him. They'd wandered around a bit, checked out likely directions, failed to smell his obvious track. Lissa was congratulating herself on her nasal superiority when the scent stopped.
It was a parking garage. The woman had gotten into a car. "But I have the tire scents," a now-human Lissa said. "I could track the car down the road."
"Yeah," Antonio said. "You could track the car down the road, walk down the middle of the street as a kitty, not pay any attention to traffic. Does the word 'roadkill' mean anything to you? How about 'flatcat', 'streetpizza', 'furryfrisbee', 'crowbait', 'sailkitty', 'tire-'"
"I get the point!"
"Besides," Banny added, "you looked really gross when you did that. Like your nose got longer and bigger. And your head wriggled."
"I think you somehow reshaped your nose and your brain's scenter center, so your sense of scents was even better than a normal cat's? It looked bizarre. Please do not do it again."
Antonio talked to the parking lot attendant. He had recognized the girl from the Demon Tracker's description, she had been a regular, and a beautiful woman. The attendant didn't know more than that, but said the other attendant, Ronnie, might. Several female customers had restraining orders against Ronnie for stalking, so he might reasonably know her full name, address, telephone number, and favorite song. A quick call to Nicoletta on Banny's cell, and the blind woman checked the NWDB (National Weirdo DataBase). She found only one Ronald working at a Boston parking garage. Within minutes they had his full name, address, telephone number, and favorite song.
Ronnie lived close by, which made sense, so the three headed to his apartment . On the way, Antonio recognized a young blonde woman walking near them.
"I must speak with her. She and I have... unfinished business. This will-"
"I'm on it, " Lissa said. She ran over, grabbed the blonde by both ears, head-butted her hard, ground a heel into her sandled foot, and shouted, "Listen up, bitch! We got some things to talk about, and you listen and you cooperate, or I rip your waxy little ears off and wear them on a necklace! Got me? Don't nod, you cheap-dye-job bimbo, just whimper once for yes or twice for no!"
Antonio shouted in horror at Lissa to let the poor girl go. She did, confused, and the blonde ran off top speed despite a limp, screaming. Antonio yelled, "I had had a date with her! I missed it because of the demon fight! I wanted to apologize, and maybe ask her out again!"
Banny said, "Then you probably should have tried flowers or candy, and not insults and violence."
Lissa wiped off her fingers. "You're better off without her anyway. Her ears are filthy."
"You two deserve each other! How'd you meet, a dating service for freaks?"
Go to Chapter 29: A Sudden Need For A Secret Identity
Go to Chapter 31: Saturday, June 30th, 2001. Two Years Ago Today
Bring your friends into the Gonspiracy! Tell them about
Banny
And
Lissa
and get their eternal gratitude, and a chance to win $10,000 and a Sony DVD Player, because using your friends for your own personal enrichment, and having them owe you for it, is the gonner way!
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Dave Lerner Stories (note that to use the mailto you'll need to edit it in your 'send to' window. I apologize, but I've already lost one address to spam, and if I get inundated again, I won't have time to read your letters.) - All Rights Reserved. Note that this includes images of the Tricryptogon, and the name "Tricryptogon".