Reapers, Inc. - Brigit's Cross (19 page)

“I see,” Seamus said as he exhaled the smoke
through his nostrils and reached for the file Brigit held out for
him to see. “Why would he think I need back up?” he asked as he
scanned the contents.

“It contains multiple souls. I suppose he
thought back up might even the playing field for you,” Brigit
explained. “Are you finished here?”

“Aye,” Seamus smiled. “Just let me fetch me
walking stick,” he said. Brigit nodded and stepped back as the
other Reaper went to retrieve the shelaighley he had set aside so
that he might use his fists instead. Once it was in hand, he turned
and smiled the charming smile again. “Ready when ye are, lass…”

Brigit and Seamus left the pier in San
Francisco in silence. She had nothing really to say to her
co-worker. The idea that he was stealing mementos from his
assignments irked her. She wondered if John would have anything to
say about it once he found out. As they had passed through the
portal, however, Brigit’s thoughts returned to the task at hand.
She had scanned the file briefly – enough to know that they were
definitely entering a situation that would need their full
attentions.

The Chupacabra Gang had been notorious in
their day. Their evilness rivaled the other well known motorcycle
gangs of the time. They had often made headlines for having robbed
unwitting vacationers on the side of a highway. They were known for
raping the wives, beating the husbands for sport and torturing the
children for laughs. They were outlaws of the highest sort. Their
‘Wanted’ posters still hang on every Post Office wall through out
the southwest.

Brigit had only been eight years old at the
time. She had been unable to fathom then what she could wrap her
mind around now. Her mother had simply told her that the
Chupacabras were pure evil in black leather and chains riding a
two-wheeled death chariot. As Brigit had scanned their file, she
realized without doubt that her mother had been right for once.

The Chupacabra hideout had been in an old
airfield hangar in the middle of the New Mexico desert. The portal
had delivered Brigit and Seamus to the main door, which hang open
from the years of disuse. Whomever had entered and destroyed the
chiefs of the gang had neglected to lock up on their way out.

“Keep quiet,” Brigit warned in a whisper.
Seamus nodded in agreement. They returned their attention to inside
the hangar. It was filled with boxes and crates, creating a maze of
passages that could prove dangerous to anyone moving between them.
The windows high up the walls had been spray painted black,
allowing no light to filter through.

Together, they entered the hangar and began
to slowly walk down the corridor of crates. Involuntarily, Brigit’s
grip tightened on the handle of her umbrella. She wished she had
something a little more substantial to fight with, something a
little more dangerous. John’s instructions had been to reap them
all by ‘any means necessary’. As she listened to that instruction
in her mind again, she realized this would not be an easy
assignment by any stretch of the imagination.

“Why did ye become a Reaper?”

The question, though in a whisper, broke the
silence like a roaring wind. Brigit had instructed him to keep
quiet for a reason. Somehow, she had known, Seamus Flannery would
not be able to follow such a simple instruction.

“I have a promise to keep,” she replied in a
whisper as well. She was hoping the answer was short enough to
suffice, that it would give him the hint to maintain the silence
they needed to aide them in their hunt for the Chupacabra Gang.

“To yer Maggie, I presume?” Seamus sounded
amused. “That’s sweet, lass. How long have ye been dead?” he
continued.

“Long enough,”

“No, seriously, how long?” he asked again. He
was beginning to raise the volume to his voice.

“Since Halloween. Now, will you please lower
your voice?” she snapped. She glared at him over her shoulder. It
was a look she would never have guessed she was capable of. It was
a look she knew she had received from her mother plenty of times
throughout her childhood. Brigit knew it was the look because it
had affected Seamus the same way it had always affected her. There
was a sudden shock registering on the Irishman’s face followed by a
hard swallow and, then, silence that told her she had achieved her
goal.

A loud clatter followed by a loud curse and
then laughter brought the Reapers to a halt. They exchanged glances
again and came to the same conclusion that their task was directly
in front of them. Brigit wondered if the element of surprise was
going to be in their favor; but, it was too late to change their
game plan now.

“Who are these guys again?” Seamus asked, his
voice was notably lower in its whisper this time.

“The Chupacabra Gang,” Brigit answered.

“What the hell kind of name is that?”

“I’ll explain later,” Brigit promised.

“How many of them are there?”

“Six, I think,”

“No matter,” Seamus shrugged as he hoisted
the shelaighley to rest on his shoulder. “I’ll take the bigger
ones.”

Brigit ignored the cocky remark as they
continued the remaining length of the corridor. From the sounds of
the ruckus before them, all six of the gang members were in the
same space. That was good for the Reapers. It would save them the
time of hunting further. As they stepped into the clearing, Brigit
and Seamus took a second to observe. The Chupacabras were amusing
themselves. Empty beer bottles were strewn on the floor around them
as they sat at a small table playing cards. By the pile of cash and
jewelry in the middle of the table, Brigit guessed they had been
interrupted during a serious game of poker. It was suddenly no
wonder that they had been taken by the surprise that led to their
mortal demise.

“Hello, boys,”

The sound of Seamus’ announcement before
striding into the space was like a slice of lightning through a
blackened sky. In surprise, Brigit cast an annoyed glare that fell
unnoticed on the Irishman’s back as he walked away. Before she
could return her attention to the startled gang members, the fight
had already begun. Seamus broke into a full tilt charge at them
with his shelaighley held high over his head, a war cry escaping
from him as he ran.

He was trying to prove something, she thought
as she watched him start swinging the Blackthorn stick wildly at
the gang members that had now jumped to their feet with knives and
broken beer bottles held by the neck in their hands. He was trying
to prove that he needed no help, she mused as she watched the
melee. One of the Chupacabra had Seamus in a headlock as another
was punching him repeatedly across the jaw. Seamus, though, was
laughing and delivering a sharp elbow to the ribs of the one
holding him captive. The remaining three Chupacabra were vying for
their turn to punch the intruder. Brigit remained where she stood.
She was waiting for the moment that Seamus would indicate a need
for her assistance.

As Brigit continued watching, she suddenly
realized that all six were not in the room. One was missing. Where
was the sixth gang member?

Just as the question came to mind, she heard
the screeching cry of a woman from behind her. Brigit turned in
time to see the attacking woman running at her, a steel pipe raised
high above her head. The female Reaper only had a second to raise
her umbrella to fend off the blow. The Chupacabra woman stumbled as
Brigit’s defense propelled her out into the open. Brigit calmly
followed the woman, coming within arm’s length of her so that the
door to her fate would appear. The woman swung the pipe again, but
Brigit ducked it effortlessly as she reached to open the door.
Twice more, the pipe was swung at her head. Brigit deflected the
blows with the black umbrella, all the while keeping her eyes
locked on the deep black orbs that betrayed the other woman’s every
thought. As they began to circle each other, Brigit maintained an
even breath as she read the woman’s frantic search for the Reaper’s
weak spot. Raising the pipe above her head, the Chupacabra woman
decided a full frontal attack was her best option. She did not
realize her back was to the door that Brigit had so casually
opened.

As the woman charged, Brigit lowered her
umbrella and waited. The look of surprise on the Chupacabra woman’s
face fully explained the unexpected force of Brigit’s front kick to
her abdomen. The force of the kick propelled the woman through the
air and through the door. Still maintaining her calm, Brigit
stepped forward and swung the door shut before returning her
attention to Seamus.

The sight she found, however, made her
cringe. Seamus was beaten badly. He had managed to pass three of
the gang members through their doors; but two remained unscathed.
From where Brigit stood, they appeared to be the fiercest of the
bunch and they were going to town on Seamus with the intention to
kill. While she was aware that they could do no such thing, she
could see that Seamus was losing the battle. He had been
sufficiently mauled by the group to be reduced to a huddle of
swinging yet target-less fists. His shelaighley had been lost
somewhere during the fight.

She had stayed out of the fight too long and
now Seamus was hurt because of it. She had the brief thought that
there was going to be hell to pay for her decision to let Seamus
prove himself wrong. Their doors were opened. Brigit noted how
intent they were on Seamus and saw the opportunity she needed to
end the assignment once and for all. This had gone on long
enough.

Quietly, she approached the nearest gang
member. For all their cursing and yelling, he didn’t hear her
approach. Swiftly, she flipped her umbrella and hooked the crook of
the handle about his throat. She only had a second to register the
look of surprise on his face as she hurled him through the open
door to her right.

As she slammed the door, she felt the force
of the blow against her jaw. The remaining gang member had tossed
Seamus aside and was now focusing his wrath on her. Brigit shook
off the blow and locked eyes with the remaining soul as he took
another swing at her. Like the female Chupacabra, his eyes betrayed
his thoughts of attack. Her mind remained focused on reading his
thoughts as the sounds of Seamus’ moaning reached her ears.

“Do you know what I’m goin to do to you,
bitch?”

The voice that snarled at her was as close to
a demon’s as Brigit could imagine. The remaining gang member had
stopped swinging at her and they now circled each other like hungry
dogs. Brigit kept her eyes locked on him, aware that he could
spring at any moment. She doubted that she would be so lucky with
him as she was with the Chupacabra woman.

“What are you waiting for?” Brigit asked
calmly.

The lack of fear in her voice seemed to
enrage him. With a deafening roar, he charged at her just as Seamus
spoke her name. As it registered in her mind that Seamus was
calling for her, she was caught off guard and felt herself in the
death grip of the gang member. The air was being squeezed out of
her as he lifted her off her feet and crushed her against his
chest. A fire of maniacal delight danced in his eyes as Brigit
struggled against him.

“I’m gonna have some fun with you in a few
minutes,” he snarled.

His breath was hot against her face as she
let herself go limp against him. He gave her a good shake as he
began to curse at her. When her thoughts had finally stilled,
Brigit lifted her head back and looked him in the eye again. The
maniacal light was still dancing there. Tilting her head a little
further back, Brigit smiled briefly before snapping it forward with
as much force as she could manage. There was no sound as their
heads collided, but the surprise of it was enough to cause the
Chupacabra to drop her and stagger back a few steps. Brigit landed
easily on her feet, her mind focused, her body relaxed but ready
for the next assault.

Enraged even further, he charged her. Aware
that the door to his fate was open behind her, Brigit had only to
step aside as he rushed by. His roar turned to screams as he fell
into the dark abyss that led to his final judgment. Quickly, Brigit
closed the door behind him.

“Brigit,”

It was a painful moan that brought Brigit
back to her senses. She went to Seamus and knelt on the ground
beside him, quickly taking in the extent of the damage inflicted.
The gashes in his coat and shirt revealed the open wounds inflicted
by their adversaries. She knew there would be no blood, but, she
also knew the sickness associated with the injuries would quickly
set in.

“I’m here, Seamus,” she assured him quietly.
“Don’t move yet. Just catch your breath,” she instructed.

“I have something to tell you,” he murmured
laboriously.

Brigit let her eyes roam down his torso and
saw a long gash between two ribs. They had opened his side all the
way to his lung. Small bubbles of black goo were trying to pool in
the opened space; but they appeared to clot as soon as they reached
the air. Brigit frowned at the sight. They were spirits now. There
should be no liquid involved anymore.

“Not now, Seamus,” she said softly. “I have
to figure out how to get you out of here,” she explained as she
looked around for anything to bind his wound with. The Chupacabra
gang had been destroyed long before their file had been located.
Anything of usefulness during their mortal existence was now long
eroded to dust and blown away.

“No, I think you need to know,” Seamus
pressed, grasping her by the arm. His fingers were like claws
through the sleeve of her coat. Brigit glanced down at him. His
eyes were beginning to roll back into their sockets.

“What do I need to know?”

“I’m going to kill you for this,” he vowed
before passing out.