CHAPTER The Demon Vigilante Squad

Modern times...

Jon looked down in shock as they flew over Las Vegas toward Henderson Executive Airport. He was grateful for the harness that held him in front of the female Bibre Cruor.

"How long have you been doing this?" He asked because she didn't seem to be straining at all. He noticed her occasional click or whistle and his wolf's sensitive ears detected distant replies.

"Since the Black Death. During World War 2... My clan and I helped the Allies. Jumping out of bombers with paratroopers and to aid the French Resistance." She banked and he felt the stomach-dropping thrill of hang-gliding. "We have even jumped out of Stealth Bombers at altitude and speed during the Gulf War. Now that was fun."

He glanced down and his wolfen eyes could barely see the dark ground, so he focused on the lights. They were so high. "How much further to the hanger?"

"Only a few more minutes, maybe fifteen. Look, there's Dart and Shishi." She pointed but he couldn't see anything but slight blurs in the night sky.

"I don't see them."

"Our skin acts like a chameleon's when we are flying or hunting," she explained then she dove. "We also don't show up on regular FFA radar but sometimes the dopplers will show us as a spot. They think we're a flock of small birds or bats flying in a dense group. Like the ones we're approaching."

The flock of bats swirled and circled around them but unlike the horror movies of his youth none struck them or of attacked him for his blood. His hands clenched the shoulder straps of his harness.

She bent her neck and whispered in his ear, "Don't worry, Special Agent Beta, I haven't dropped anyone in centuries."

"How reassurrrrrr-inggggg!" He shouted as she folded her wings and they dropped like a stone, they unfurled and caught them like and opening parachute as Anjael cackled out her mirth.

"You're a biyatch." Panting in near panic he tried to remain calm as two more Cruor wearing harnesses suddenly seemed to appear below them.

"No, I wasn't born into your species... I wasn't born at all, I was hatched." She was still giggling as he muttered curses when they landed at the edge of the small private airport. Anjael unhooked him and he staggered, dropping to one knee.

"First time, Bureau?" To Jon's shock, five men in night-ops camo balaclavas and fatigues, walked out of the shadows armed to the teeth. One held out clothing to Anjael as another offered her weapons.

"FBI Special Agent Jon Kemper, meet the Lt. General, two Colonels, and two DEA Agents who were Spec Ops, you don't need to know their names for the report you won't be making." Anjael grinned as she hauled him unceremoniously to his feet. "And this is my clan, Dart." A giant sandstone-colored gargoyle nodded. "Shishi." Something that looked like it belonged at the door of an Okinawa temple blew a stream of steam from his nose. "And over there are my Uncle Ouroboros with his companion, the Beta." The dark basalt gargoyle and giant gray and black wolf cautiously moved around the perimeter.

"So, I can know the Cruors' names but no one else's?" Jon asked grumpily. Three of the men in front of him were werewolves too.

"She doesn't care if you know the Cruor's names because they all have unsigned open-ended Presidential pardons and honestly, there isn't a prison on this planet that can hold them," the Lt. General announced with a chuckle. Jon was certain he had heard the wolf's voice before, but they smelled of nothing so he couldn't identify their packs.

"Agent Kemper, if you will wait in the van with me, you can watch the raid from there." The human Colonel led him to a van painted to advertise casinos.

A vampire woman wearing a mask barely glanced at him as the screens showed the inside of the hanger. They watched for a few moments then the woman announced, "Killing the power in... three... two... one."

The cameras switched to night vision view. The three now-human looking Bibre Cruor went in first, followed by the four soldiers, shooting drug dealers once each with silenced weapons. In less than a minute, it was over. The Cruor searched to make sure there were no surprise survivors.

"That's it." The vampire announced as the feed looped back to before the attack with a split screen of the exterior. "The security feed is looped for the inside and real time on the outside to the security company for the airport and the cartel overwatchers.

The human handed him a folder. "We're sorry your agency got pulled into the cartel war. Wink Wink."

Grinding his teeth, Jon asked, "So these guys are the Demon Vigilantes?"

"Yes, they are now, and here come the Jalisco cartel lackeys who killed them," she announced. "Just watch, our feeds are separate so you will see what really happens."

A SUV pulled up and five armed men got out. One went to the power box and cut the cable with a shower of sparks. They kicked open the door and rushed in shooting. On the night-vision feed, Jon watched the team, casually shooting toward the attackers as the Cruor moved from body to body holding them up to be further shot up by their enemies. Several minutes later, three wounded men rushed out and jumped into the SUV, dragging a fourth dead body which they abandoned when bullets hit the car from inside the door. They sped away as the police sirens screamed in the distance.

"Sir, the bats are out of the belfry," she said then laughed at something Jon couldn't hear but somehow, he knew Anjael had made a joke because the vampire responded in French and giggled more. She seemed the type to joke in life and death situations, so he resisted shaking his head because nine humans died tonight.

They watched the sheriff's department SUV stop at the building. The officers checked the body by the door, and then entered carefully. Their maglights revealing the carnage and lighting up the scene for the security feed. Half an hour later, the covert team drove away as a dozen police, fire and rescue, and ambulances surrounded the scene. Jon's cellphone rang.

"That's about this." The vampiress grinned.

Answering it, he said, "Hello, Agent Kemper, here." He listened to his fellow agent excitedly talking about the firefight between two cartels and the county sheriff's officers claiming they found the vigilante killers. "No, I'll meet you there. Bye." He was very unhappy. "I want to talk to Anjael."

The human Colonel knocked on the wall between them and the driver. The van stopped. "Here's you're stop... A word of advice; do not tell her to stop being a vigilante. You have no idea what she went through as a child and young female. If it weren't for her, the crime rate in this city would be double what it is."

"Maybe triple... You should know that Anutari has never killed an innocent person," The vampire female insisted. "And you, Agent Kemper, have no right to call her out after the Pasadena incident. She's been doing this for centuries longer than you've been alive."

At the mention of his accidental shooting of a civilian, Jon stiffened but stepped out the open door. The Lt. General and werewolf Colonel stepped inside, and the van drove off. Anjael was waiting under a streetlight, her tight dark clothing gave her a goth look against her pale hair and skin. The flying harness hung loose. They apprised each other.

"So that's it? These guys are suddenly the Demon Vigilante Squad and you're free to go? What's the evidence?" Jon demanded grumpily.

"A bag of demon, gargoyle, and werewolf Halloween masks with DNA trace from the dead despite being sprayed with Lysol and assorted blade weapons that weren't completely cleaned of the blood of the most recent nine victims. You get your suspects, solve the case, then go home a hero, and the cartels fight each other while getting the message that the Vegas Queen of the Demons does not tolerate interlopers." She smiled at him in a way that took his breath away and terrified him to the core of his soul.

"And if I don't give up on it?"

Laughing seductively, she walked toward him with the graceful lilt of a dancer, only stopping when her D-cups touched his chest. "You will. You are too independent to want to be my thrall and I would hate to break you to make you submit and obey, despite my inner demoness' curiosity about your wolf." Her forked tongue licked the line of his jaw then she purred, "Cooperate and I will owe you a favor."

The sudden rushing thrill and terror of the female before him, surged through his system. "What are you offering?" He swallowed at the sudden dryness in his throat and the throbbing hardness in his pants as her tail caressed his leg to his crotch.

Leaning forward and pressing her breasts into his chest, her breath against his ear burned. "What do you most desire, Beta?"

"Are you certain you aren't a succubus or something?" He murmured as he turned his head toward her until the corners of their mouths touched.

She giggled then stepped back suddenly, taking the burning heat of her body away and replacing it with the cold desert air. "If I am, I'm a penitent succubus," Anjael revealed. She turned her head as a car approached. "And her is your rental car." She eyed him curiously, then inquired, "Do you believe in your goddess, Jon?"

Perplexed by the unexpected question, he nodded. "She blessed me. When I was very young, I found, loved, and lost my true mate to..." He stopped and swallowed again for a different reason. "It was a random act of violence; I couldn't have saved her if I wanted to... I tried to work as a fixer for a while then I joined the FBI. It's been hard to go on without her, but yes, yes, I believe in the Moon Goddess. I believe my mate is waiting for me and will greet me when I go to the Moon."

Anjael nodded but she looked immensely sad. "I'm glad... A war is coming, Jon; a war between the faction of the werewolves who follow the Moon's teachings and those wolves and witches who are apostates to their goddess and species. Their god would conquer and burn the world." The car stopped and a tall dark-haired Alpha with a mask on got out. "And here's your rental... Perhaps you should reach out to the Servants of the Moon. They could use someone with your skills to protect and evacuate the innocent."

"Why don't you help us?" He demanded.

"My kind are too few to stop this war. We cannot interfere. I can only offer sanctuary in my city and avenge the deaths of innocents under my domain." She walked toward the dark wolf. "Be careful, Jon. There are more things in heaven and earth than dreamt of in your philosophies."

The Alpha threw him his keys in a high arc. His eyes followed them in the glow of the streetlight until the landed in his hand because losing them on the side of the road in the middle of the Nevada Desert at night would suck. When he looked back, the Werewolf Alpha and the Bibre Cruor were gone.

"Wait! Anjael? How do I reach you?" Turning around, he shouted and searched the sky uselessly. "Goddess dammit! Anjael! I have more questions."

She didn't reappear. He got in his car and drove to the crime scene. It was exactly as she said evidence-wise, and his superiors were happy to close the case. A month later, he was driving home to see his cousin in Wisconsin and looking forward to a Weiderholt's Prime Rib. He wondered what he would make of the bizarre tale about the Vigilante Demon Queen of Las Vegas.

/\^^^^/\

As she flew, her beast shifted the harness and sniffed her. "Land."

He growled and she knew it was the beast and not the mortal mind in control. There was no moon, but both could see in the dim twilight created but the city.

"What is it, my beast?" She asked, looking into the golden-ringed eyes of the wolf who loved her. There was no sign of the mortal side who hated her. "Where is your mortal?"

"He sleeps. Remove his scent," he demanded in a growling voice.

She unclipped the harness and pulled off the stretchy top and pants. Picking up the harness again, she asked, "Can we go now?" But he took it from her hand and began sniffing her. "It isn't the new moon for two more nights."

"Not care, need to remove his scent." Shifting to his warform, he began licking her neck, her breasts, and down her stomach. He sniffed between her legs and growled happily as he continued grooming her.

She groaned as he continued to lick her. Her talons kneading his fur around his ears. "Beast, we cannot. I gave Abel my word we would not have sex except on the full and new moon."

"Not breed."

He pushed her down and continued to nip and lick at her sensitive flesh until she trembled and cried out in pleasure, then he crawled on top of her in all his naked glory and pulled her tight against him. His teeth clamped down on her shoulder, growling as he rutted against her abdomen until he came. She panted, inhaling the intoxicating scent of his desire.

"My Beast," she purred as he jerked and snarled. She lifted his head to look in his eyes. "I would never be with another wolf while I have you."

He shrank to his mortal and so did she. Laying naked in the cold desert air under the moonless sky, they stared at each other. The wolf used the body he shared to mark what he considered his. He touched her face with his nose, sniffing to make certain the scent of the beta wolf was removed.

"Beast, enough... I did not breed that Beta, I only flew him to the raid. Don't be jealous." She purred out the words as his displeasure rumbled in his chest.

"My queen."

"Yes, your queen."