Jason came striding down the sidewalk seeking Zara just as the coroner's team guided the gurney with its massive black bag down the shallow porch steps. Stopping, two forces tugged at him. One he recognized as Zara. The other came from the black bag.
Corpses shouldn't pull.
Something with enough power to be killed by human means and survive would endanger his mission.
They packed it away as he considered his options. Go to Zara and try to convince her she was in graver danger than she thought or go after the threat himself. She seemed to innocent to be caught up in a wars tarted before man understood fire.
The van pulled away from the curb. He watched it turn the corner at the end of the street, marking its direction. Then he looked up into the empty windows of Zara's apartment. He had to protect her. She had already lost too much. He trotted down the street after the van and when he turned the corner unfurled his wings to fly.
The blaze of his office made him appear as a haze flying so close to the ground.
The van turned onto a busier street and merged into traffic. Then it weaved hard and knocked up on two wheels before almost landing on a white sedan. Even from above, Jason saw the blood on the driver's side window before it shattered out. What crawled through the hole was human in shape and size but not color. Its mottled flesh under the remains of a bloody white shirt was blistered black and green. The entry wounds of the bullets in his face oozed black. It leapt from the van to the median and walked away, straightening its ruined clothes as if it were nothing but a business man leaving a dinner with friends. It even checked its cuff links. One was missing.
Jason dropped on it like a comet.
The creature deflected his sword stroke with thick unyielding claws.
"Kimbu," it said as they faced off under a tree with the faint early stars overhead "Get in my way and I'll kill you."
"You are not supposed to be here."
"When I'm done, I'll leave."
It attempted to proceed and Jason cut off its exit with his sword. It did not look amused.
"Little kimbu, you know not what you defend." It thrust the sword away. "Get out of my way."
Sirens blasted and wailed, drawing closer. In this age, there would be video. They needed to flee the scene. With any luck, they'd be mistaken for weirdos in a city full of them. Cars stood still in both directions as people tried to make sense of the accident. The demon slid across the hood of a small red Honda and disappeared into a nearby parking garage. Jason couldn't remember if it was one of those with cameras or not, but he didn't chance it. He skirted the outside and headed for the back.
They met again on a backstreet where Jason lunged in for the kill his sword put another rip in an already mutilated sleeve and drew more black blood. With a hiss, the demon went for the medallion st Jason's neck. Without it, he would lose his physical body and become a lost one. Not a fate he wished to endure. He snatched back and the demon kept coming, bowling him over before continuing to run away.
It was going back for Zara.
"No, you don't." Springing to his feet, he gathered his strength. The demon was getting away. Then the bolt Jason threw hit him square between the shoulders and knocked him flat. Jogging over, he tried not to smell the frying he could clearly hear.
You don't know what you defend.
The demon groaned and the stubby remains of its destroyed wings tried to take flight. Jason brought his sword down to the creature's neck. Now was not the time to contemplate. He crunched the point through the demon's neck bringing up a spray from the wound. The spray hardly touched him before the entire scene turned to the ash of long dead fires.
_______
All together three pages. Any thoughts on Jason?
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