Double-Barreled Devilry: A Deckland Cain Novel by D Michael Bartsch

Author:D Michael Bartsch [Bartsch, D Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-06-07T06:00:00+00:00

Sitting behind the desk was Ted. Ted is a gremlin, a minor Hellion. I don't know what his real name is. Gremlins can be controlled by anyone who speaks their true name. That makes them pretty skittish.

The little green bastards usually root around sewers and parking garages in bigger cities. They're pack rats, finding junk and taking it back to whatever hovel they are calling home. Ted was peculiar among Gremlins in that he had a decent head on his shoulders. He was old and had given up scavenging other people's trash long ago. Now, he made his money as a fence for stuff that you shouldn't be able to buy. He specialized in magical artifacts and information, the evil kind.

Ted is only about three feet tall, so his office chair is a big leather monstrosity with a five thousand dollar wooden booster seat strapped to it. He's a little sensitive about it, so I try and make sure to bring it up whenever possible.

Tobacco smoke was thick in the air. I could see an ashtray filled with snuffed out butts sticking up like a cancerous hedgehog. He was holding a lit cigarette in his little three-fingered right hand. His scaly skin was a faded snot green color, and each of his stubby fingers ended in dull black nails.

His head was a rounded melon that pulled forward into a six inch long, pointed snout. Bat like ears, covered in patchy white hair stuck out of his head. He was wearing a toddler’s tuxedo, minus the bow tie, and I knew that if I could see legs behind the desk, his bare feet would be dangling in the air.

Looking up from his work, Ted snarled. Yellowed teeth filled his elongated mouth in unevenly spaced patterns, three rows deep. He stared at me hard from behind his gold-rimmed glasses.

I didn't let the little guy bother me. I closed the door and walked to the guest chair on the opposite side of his desk. Sitting down, I sat back and smiled.

“Ted.”

He regarded me coolly. He'd closed his ugly mouth, but I could still hear a throaty noise as he growled beneath his breath.

He carried on like that for nearly a minute before he took a long drag from his cigarette. He held the smoke in for a moment before breathing it out through the nostril holes on the top of his beak. Smoke streamed into the air in twin columns, shooting up in front of his face.

“Cain,” He said. “What in God's name are you doing here?”

“We need to talk.”

“Get the hell out of my store before I kill you.”

I was pretty tired of people holding stuff against me. Ted had more reason to be pissed at me than most people, but it was still annoying.

“You can't kill me, Ted. If you have someone else do it, you know that you'll have to assume my debt from Balthazar. He told you that five years ago.”

Puffing away, the little green Hellion leaned forward.

“I'm starting to think that half a million wouldn't be that much to see your head on a plate.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.