Yuri sat in a metal chair in front of Mike, the door closed, so nobody could hear them, visible through the little barred window.

  “So…we have problem.” Yuri sighed.

  “You do, I’m doing fine.” Mike replied.

  “You know just like I do that she is dangerous, yet we both do what we must to protect who we love. Problem is that you’re not crazy and you might actually kill her. I can’t allow this. If she dies now, I lose everything. You don’t understand, you cannot. You are machine that protects Tanner, and kills anything in your way. I am in your way right now. If I would let you go, you would promise not to kill Nadja, and you will just try anyway.”

  “Not yet. I can’t kill her yet. I promised her 7 human sacrifices and a dead president, and we have 2 upright sheep to go to the altar, and a very alive former president still in the running for election. After that, my deal with the devil is done and I then I’ll kill her.” Mike smiled.

  “None of this works for me. Kill 2 American celebrities, make speech, I will dispose of the bodies and we are still friends. If you kill Bloomberg and start a war, Russians will die. Men who don’t need to die, one I care about very much, and I need Nadja alive a little longer. This is negotiation. I let you go, you beat me a little, you kill musicians and TV stars, we nod in passing as usual. Then you stall. You promise war and dead president, and you make excuses until I tell you that I have finished what I sold MY soul for…and then you kill the bitch. Or you try and she kills you. I don’t care. As long as I am gone and safe, passports and guns. I made promise too, your promise makes mine not work.” Yuri proposed.

  “Counter offer. I just beat the shit out of you as planned, escape, kill 2 more sacrifices and make the flag bleed red white and black on national TV, Kill a president, and then kill the bitch, and you just get the hell out of my way. Seems better for me.”

  “You really want a war for her?”

  “The end of days is ticking down, Yuri. The date is set and nothing can stop the events or delay them. You don’t have to be here for it. Just leave.” Mike shrugged.

  “You have money? Passports, witness protection? You have personal pocket president in Russia giving you favors? Because she has them and I need them or nothing matters. War here spreads to Russia, where I would be.”

  “Yuri, you have one major problem with your negotiations. You assume I give a shit about you, or that you have anything of value to me. In order to negotiate, you have to have something I want.” Mike scoffed.

  “You want Tanner. You want her alive.” He boldly said. Mike’s eyes went dark and cold as he tilted his head and a strange, familiar look washed over his face.

  “You really want to even joke about that, Yuri? Right or left handed?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you shoot right-handed or left-handed?” Mike asked.

  “Left.” He lied.

  “Should have told the truth. I expected you to lie and if you had told the truth I would have assumed it was a lie, and break your left hand instead. You gotta learn when to outsmart people by being too honest. For even hinting that you’d hurt her, I'm gonna break your fucking hand. If I ever hear you even hint again that you would harm Tanner to get to me, I’ll kill you, slowly. I’ll go to Russia and kill your family and your neighbors and your friends and your fucking dog if you have one, burn them all alive, I’ll break your arms and legs first and make you watch from a chair as I do it, send you the videos. Mail you some fingers maybe. You think Nadja is evil, you haven’t fucked with evil till you met Mister Black, and so far you haven’t had to because..." he said blinking slowly, his eye color slightly different, slightly orange. "Because you kept it between Michael and yourself, Da?” he said, fading into a strange accent that Yuri knew far too well.

  “What is this…mocking me?" Yuri asked, fear creeping up his back.

  “schas po ebalu poluchish, suka, you fucking ape!” he said in Nadja’s voice. “And for mentioning such betrayal, you get to suffer, and since you lie like fucking idiot as usual, fumbling to reload magazine or get guns across American border, you get punishment. So say the word Tanner again to me, Yuri. Think it too loudly with ill intent, and I bring hellfire to your home and mail your Boyfriends ashes…but for your first offense, I only break your right hand.” He hissed as the lights went out and Yuri finally saw what black looked like. Mike opened his eyes, hands breaking free and leaping the metal chair. Yuri slid forward to block, Mike dodging the cold metal outline and targeting the warm red figure going for the door. Yuri swung a backhand with a knife, missing in the dark with aimless urgency as Mike carefully aimed and swung the metal chair, doming his bald head with the seat and knocking him to his knees. He stomped down to pin the knife, breaking Yuri’s right hand in the process and taking the blade away.

  "WHAT ARE YOU!?" Yuri yelled, clutching his broken hand.

  “Stay down or die.” Mike growled, accent fading away, putting him to the floor with an elbow and exiting the room. He darted through the dark stairwell as Tanner and Rowan got up, using their phones to see, and just hoping not to get killed in the disorientation. Tanner crossed her wrists, pistol and light now locked and ready as Rowan wished he carried a gun in the house, and made his way blindly to the stairwell for the weapon’s locker. He tripped and ran directly into Yuri. Punching him in the face as a reflex.

  “Fuck, sorry, I thought you were Mike!” Rowan gasped. “You can hit me back later. Fuck, I thought I was a dead man.”

  “You are.” Yuri said, grabbing his head and slamming it off the concrete wall, stomping his head as he fell to the floor. He stomped 3 more times until the crunch was enough to satisfy his rage. “Take my secret to your grave, flesh eater.” He barked, heading down the hall and stopping in the dark. He felt eyes on him. Locked on his back, like an animal ready to strike, and he remembered the words Mike said. Stay down or die repeated in his mind and he slowly sat down on the cold floor, slumping to one side and laying down, the soft rustle of shoes sprinting the other direction as he exhaled with relief.

  “MIKE!” yelled Alexander. Hearing motion and clicking on the scope of Tanner’s Sig 556. “I can see in the dark too.” He bragged, panning the nigh vision scope mounted on the loaded rifle. “And I’m quite dangerously armed.”

  “That makes two of us.” Mike whispered from seemingly nowhere, a hand grabbing the barrel and yanking it to the side as 2 rounds fired, the magazine was yanked out and the scope turned off. “Now that makes one of us.” Mike corrected. Kneeing him in the crotch and rotating the gun to slam the scope into Alexander’s nose, flattening him out, dazed and weaponless. The barrel, still warm, gently pressed against his throat as he grabbed it and was unable to move it from the locked position. “One round in the chamber left. Alexander Windrek… Do you love Tanner? Would you die for her?” he asked.

  “Without question.” He wheezed.

  “Good. She’s all yours. Learn to fight better you glamrock pussy, and take care of her. Because if you ever hurt her, I’ll hang you from the steeple by your own entrails.” He said, knocking him out with a kick to the face, firing the last round at the ceiling and dropping the gun in his lap. Tanner rounded the corner and saw him on the ground, presumably dead, grabbing the gun and chasing the ghost to the back door. She turned and noticed the Taxi cab peeling out of the gravel drive, taking aim and seeing Mike and Nadja driving away, debating on how confident she could shoot one head without hitting the other, and then realizing the gun was empty.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “FUCK!" She yelled, shooting nothing, and noticing the breaker box open, tripping the main switch back on, as the lights flickered to life. She ran back inside and dropped the gun, falling to her knees as she realized Alexander was alive and moving, hugging him and startling him in the process.

  “Oh my god, I thought he killed you.” She sobbed.

  “I recall he did promise merely to beat my ass. Man of his word, that one. Respectable man of honor.” He groaned.

  “Are you shot or stabbed or…anything?”

  “My pride is as broken as my nose and glasses, otherwise I’m just very fucking unhappy and do not desire to stand up yet.”

  “Yuri…you’re alive too?” she asked as he staggered through the hallway.

  “Broken hand, I may have black eye or broken teeth. Rowan is dead.”

  “He’s dead? Why is he dead?” she yelled.

  “My guess is he did not stay down when Mike said to stay down. Everyone who lived, stayed down when he put them down. Mike is very honest about his warnings. Rowan is also gifted at pissing people off. WAS good at pissing people off. What does it matter? Mike is gone and we are in shamble.” He coughed.

  “Can anyone drive or shoot? I can’t do both, I just need one.” Tanner said, reloading in a frantic pace.

  “Darling, I beg of you, remain prone and safe. Your kind and loving ex-boyfriend has just broken through steel handcuffs, broken through a large Russian man with a knife, a door, and a small gentleman with an automatic rifle and night vision, all armed, as he was wielding nothing but a voice and very stiff soled shoe. You may want to consider it a loss and consider adding a doctor to the household, because the only man here with any medical knowledge is apparently dead now. I remind you, dead, much thanks to your kind and gentle man of God with the utmost sanity and reason, far too drugged and restrained to be a harm to anyone, except for, a fucking Quartet of armed killers on home turf. May I suggest we instead try the tactic of tucking our tail and cowering like dogs?” Alexander coughed, staggering to his feet and wobbling.

  “That man is not Mike Finn.” Said Yuri. "We took wrong prisoner."

  “Do come again?” Alexander sighed.

  “Michael Finn is dead or husk. Your preacher is very much Mister Black now. Everything he said, as crazed as it may have sounded, very much possible. I worked for the Devil for a while. She is not who you think.” Yuri said. "You want proof this is real?” he asked Tanner.

  Tanner leaned over a computer screen with a look of confusion on her face. As Yuri. Made an eyebrow scrunch as if to say, “you see?” without saying a word.

  “Oh, surely you jest?” Alexander scoffed.

  “Don’t believe me, why do I care? Evidence is on the screen and imprinted on your face.”

  “This is a boot print on my face, not a stigmata, you fucking imbecile. I was bludgeoned by a man with much better fighting skills, not a…Zimey Goy…”

  “Zmey Goynych. Russian Shapeshifting Spirit.” Huffed Yuri. Did you not say you shot Nadja at the football game? Did she even seem to care?”

  “That is a fair point to make.” He sighed, looking like the was considering it. Tanner tossed her arms up in annoyance. “Tanner, dear, I placed an armor piercing round directly in her back, and she barely even noticed. She was wearing a flexible corset, not a plate carrier. There was no metallic armor clink, just a forward stumble and a very angry look back. A look similar to the one Mike gave me. I am not saying this is proof, I am merely saying this is disturbing, on top of an already one-sided situation, you may recall we keep losing… To a human, or on the off chance of supernatural evidence, a…”

  “Zmey Goynych.” Yuri said, tapping the screen for Tanner.

  “Yea, I can read a screen, dude.” Said Tanner, squinting to make sure. “A demon with red scales with iron claws roughly translated to “dragon”, that can shapeshift and change its appearance mannerisms of behavior, even take the form of household items in the presence of an enemy also found in Ukranian Mytholog-are you fucking kidding me right now? You too? What kind of drugs does she give you people?” Tanner yelled.

  “You would believe if you saw what I did. That was Nadja in there. Not the body. Nadja is Zmey Goynoch’s preferred form, apparently they can multiply or spread.” He sighed.

  “Are…you fucking shitting me? Demons and devils, but with Russian names now? People, there is an explanation that lies within the real world here, and it’s called military brainwashing and drugs. Look. The cuffs were picked, not ripped open by demon force strength. He just had a lock pick or key on him. Nobody got tore in half or their head bitten off by a dragon, you got beat the shit up by a very highly trained assassin on cocaine, PCP, Russian vodka and the belief that he’s literally a soldier for God…or the devil, maybe? Nadja is an operative, somehow even better trained, with better guns and funding, probably a degree in psychology and a degree in the power of pussy. We’re all just mid-tier killers NOT under the delusion of godlike powers, NOT on performance enhancing drugs and NOT, I assume, raised from birth to be some killing machine for the Russian government by her grandfather. YES, we are in over our heads and apparently screwed, and YES, we are fighting some serious monsters, but not literal monsters. Wake up Yuri. She drugged you too, she fed you Russian orthodox mythology and scare tactics, and now you’re scared. We’re all scared. Can we PLEASE be the group of killers that’s still sane and rooted in the real world here?” Tanner said, almost in frustration tears.

  “Then we have no chance.” Yuri sighed. “To be bluntly about it, You are little girl who stabs people, Alexander is fucking joke, Rowan was wealthy spoiled shit, and we may be better without him, and the only real killer here is me, with a broken right hand telling you we are committing suicide by going after. Mike is gone. Maybe you should wake up. Even he told you that himself. Or IT did, using his body.”

  “Please don’t.” Tanner said, fuming and clenching her fists to not snap and throw the laptop. “You are right about one thing, though. Mike is gone. That was my last desperation hope, capturing him and letting him detox. He’s with her, and he’s not coming back. I’m an idiot and I got everyone injured for trying to save someone who can’t be saved.” Tanner barked.

  “Injured or dead.” Alexander muttered.

  “Oh fuck Rowan, nobody liked Rowan anyway, he was totally gonna kill and eat someone eventually. We all know he almost certainly fucked the dead bodies. Everyone got that vibe. I’m not feeling bad for that hit to the team, but I actually like Yuri for some reason and I…I love you, Alex. I thought…” she said, breaking into tears. “I thought he killed you for a moment… and I can’t handle that right now. He just looks like Mike and sounds like Mike, and he’s not Mike anymore. I loved Mike, and she took him, and now he’s not coming back. He’s so mentally broken that he’s killing people for no reason, blaming it on the devil, while fucking the devil, and doing her bidding and he genuinely can't even grasp that he’s the one killing those people. Even if he did come back, the guilt would ruin him, and he’d never be Mike again. He’s a wanted Terrorists leader, Jesus fuck, why am I trying to save him? Nadja already killed Mike. She just did it mind and soul first and kept the rest alive.” She sobbed to Yuri.

  “You are just describing my theory in different words, you know.” Yuri sighed.

  Mike adjusted his neck and glanced over at his master, eyes glowing in the dark as they entered the cabin of death they called home.

  “I am proud of you, Michael. You betray your country and your god and your own soul for love. So very romantic.” Nadja smiled.

  “Well, we both know what we’re capable of, and as long as Tanner is safe, you get what you want. You break that deal, and I’ll destroy everything you ever wanted. You know I’m more dangerous than you, or you wouldn’t have bothered buying me. If you were the baddest killer on the field you’d do it yourself and here you are making deals, so that tells me I can do something you can’t. You came to rescue me. You need me. I know you could kill Tanner if I betrayed you, so we’re sort of in a stalemate on that, and frankly I’ve become numb to it all by now. Some parts of it are just a job, and some parts of it are actually quite fun. So we both get what we want. You really think god matters to me if he’s all in my head, or if I care about a few celebrities and rich pricks? I’ve killed some of them before you forced my hand, what’s the difference in the end. Wars happen, people die every day. As long as it’s not Tanner, I’ll cope. Simple as that. You won, as long as you don’t get greedy and break our deal. I hear the devil is really a stickler for contracts and deals. You better hope that’s true. Because I’d kill a million people to save tanner, letting you kill half a million for her is acceptable. I’ll just start the fire and watch. I thought I could just resist you, but the sad part is that I don’t have to. I just had to negotiate.”

  “You’re more like me than you realize. We make a very fitting couple.” She smiled.

  “How’s the back?” Mike asked. “That shot looked painful.”

  “Nothing to concern with. Nothing, you haven’t topped yourself during foreplay. If you think eyeliner magician with 556 can stop me, then you must have forgotten your faith in the parking lot. Perhaps God picked it up for you and will mail it back. He seems to live there now. Homeless old man with nobody to save. Nobody wanting to be saved.”

  “What about Gabriel? This Archangel you warned me about? He might shoot for your head, he did in both of the dreams.”

  “The same dreams you remember killing him in, just before he could? Should we go back to the parking lot and look for that missing faith?”

  “He’s something different. He’s a believer to the core. What if he puts some fancy blessed silver bullet in your head before he goes after me, and I’m the one who survives and you don’t? Surely something can kill you, So even if I kill the president and kill him, what fun is that if you’re not around to enjoy the victory.” He smirked. She reached back and grabbed the car keys from her purse and jingled them, tossing them on the chair with his coat.

  “Make your own faith or retrieve it for me. Parking lot or bedroom, Michael, your choice." She said, getting up and heading to the doorway, turning back as she pulled off her shirt and paused a moment.

  “I guess I just left my faith in my pocket after all.” He said, following her with a confident smile.