Page 15 of The Monster of Darkspell Comics

Pashar

I barely hold my annoyance in check as I glower at Anayolia Kremble. The demoness smiles at me smugly from behind her desk, her long painted claws drumming thoughtfully on its surface. Even in her human skinsuit, she is nothing short of the personification of pure evil.

Her smile widens. “Pashar, your visits to my office are so rare. How delightful. And Fanny, such a pleasure to see you again,” she adds, her smile softening into something that looks like genuine warmth.

My brows draw together as I study the demoness. Since when was Anayolia ever... nice? She was known to be ruthless and capable of tearing apart demons with her own claws, and yet here she was smiling almost maternally at Fanny.

“It’s great to see you, too, Ms. Kremble,” my female warmly returns.

“I just brought Pashar down here because I took your advice and explained everything to him. We talked to Jasper, and he mentioned directing him to the mall when he arrived at the inn, but he hadn’t thought anything about it at the time other than utilizing the town maps and bulletins posted here. ”

“The ghoul, huh?” Anayolia’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

“The inn is outside town limits and not directly under our authority. This human must still be holed up in there. That’s going to be tricky.

But let me show you what I’ve found.” Turning in her chair, lifts her remote and points it at the tv which promptly crackles to life before a fuzzy image snaps onto screen.

“This was two weeks ago, roughly around the time that our lovely Fanny arrived. My guess is that he was riding on the same bus-line that passes through our town about once a month.”

I squint at the screen as a grainy image of the male in question passes through the mall’s entrance. He pauses, his head slowly moving right and then left as shoppers pass by him on either side.

“Whoa,” Fanny murmurs as she peers at the screen.

“That’s totally something right out of Terminator.

Just look at him. If it weren’t for the fact that he can converse like a normal human being instead of being all robotic, I would be having some serious thoughts here.

Definitely has to be part of some sort of special ops or secret service shit, though. ”

The view from the mall cameras shift, tracking him as he walks around the mall.

It’s clear that Anayolia took the time to combine it all into one recording for our benefit.

His movements are brisk but intentional as he methodically works his way around the mall.

He stands outside them for a while, staring inside as he watches the traffic and staff within the shops before moving on.

“And then the next day,” she says, as a new date pops up in the corner of the screen.

Once again, he enters, but this time he goes straight to the first store on his right.

Each day the film progresses, he moves systematically through the mall, hitting the stores one by one.

Sometimes he goes inside and sometimes lurks just outside them, watching.

The number of times he returns to Dark Spell Comics makes my spines rise beneath my illusion and my corethi twist angrily.

“You will see as the days pass, he starts entering the stores, but it’s all very obviously planned out.

After about a week, he begins to station himself at various points through the mall at different times of the day,” she points out as the film suddenly shows him sitting at the food court at the Flaming Chopstick.

“I didn’t realize that he’d been here so much,” Fanny murmurs, her eyes wide as she studies him. “I’ve seen him quite a few times, but nothing like this.”

Anayolia’s lips tighten angrily. “Quite. He disappears too easily into crowds. Even I failed to notice anything was amiss until you shared your concerns—and that does not happen . And most certainly not in my territory.”

“Any orders from the front desk ?” I say meaningfully. A small legion of demons being sent in to hunt down and annihilate any trace of threat would be useful.

To my surprise, her lips twitch with amusement.

“I didn’t realize we were speaking in code here since clearly our dear Fanny knows exactly what you are, but no.

My father entrusts me to handle it. As you are likely aware, Death Canyon City was established to be a central access point for demons carrying out their duties, sending reports, and even serving out their punishments.

Complete administrative control has been turned over to me on the demonic end but I’m only one part of the council, so my power is.

.. limited... so to speak, not only by the rules of being a demon dwelling in the human realm but also in terms of my administrative capabilities beyond the scope of the mall.

Still, my father has every bit of confidence that we can resolve the matter. ”

“So, no troops,” I say drily.

“Not even a small task force,” she replies with a grimace.

“Wait, are we talking demon armies here?” Fanny asks, finally catching up to the gist of the conversation as her eyes jump back and forth between us.

I nod grimly. “It was my hope that the Master would assist in this matter, but it appears that was in vain.”

“No offense, but that probably would have been a bad idea anyway,” she says with a weak smile. “A few demons around probably aren’t going to garner a whole lot of attention, but I don’t think an entire military unit going scorched earth is going to go unnoticed.”

“Exactly what Father said,” Anayolia sighs as her claws resume drumming on the desk.

“The main thing is that we need to investigate without alerting and worrying the townspeople... that goes for the humans and monsters living here. And don’t involve Dzik.

His insistence on making wieners out of the flesh of the damned, while tasty, is perhaps the most questionable thing I’ve ever had come through these halls; I don’t need further chaos and bitching from him. ”

“Whoa. Hot dogs of the damned. Wicked,” breathes my female and my lips twitch fondly.

Anayolia chuckles reluctantly. “I shouldn’t be surprised that you are unbothered.

You are a peculiar human. Regardless, I’m sure you can understand why I wish to spare myself.

Thankfully, those who are here for punishment don’t have to report to me outside of regular supervision.

I want to keep it that way.” She directs a disgusted look at me.

“Frankly, if I had my way, you would be just as much in the dark given that you are also a boil on my ass.”

“I guess we are all lucky that way,” I reply flatly and then grunt when Fanny’s elbow lands in my gut.

“If that is it, then what do we do now, Ms. Kremble?” Fanny asks.

Anayolia lifts her hands in a helpless shrug.

“Keep gathering intel. I will hand this tape over to the council, but I will continue having the tapes reviewed nightly now we know who we are looking for. Beyond that, there isn’t much we can do without permission from the mayor.

And he’s such a stickler for the laws specifically outlined in the town charter. ”

Fanny’s brows beetle. “And who is the mayor?”

Anayolia sighs and leans back in her chair. “That would be a particularly unpleasant ogre by the name of Dukalth. Everything that goes on in town is ultimately his call, though he respects my particular fiefdom here.”

I snort humorlessly to myself. It is hard to believe that a demoness of her ilk is calling an ogre unpleasant, but I wisely keep the observation to myself.

Fanny’s face falls with disappointment. “So, what you are saying is that all we can do is wait until he gives the go-ahead.”

“In a nutshell,” she agrees with a heavy sigh. “Hopefully, he takes this matter seriously enough to assign several of his staff to look into it. In the meantime...” she trails off and looks at me expectantly.

I groan aloud. I’m honestly good with waiting. So long as everyone understands that I will viciously defend what’s mine, I can happily wait until hell experiences a unexpected cooling period. Investigating the activities of a human is not how I want to spend my vacation.

Fanny pats my arm sympathetically. “Come on, Nancy Drew, I will give you a hand.”

I give her a disgusted look, but I can’t be too angry with my Fanny, especially not when her hand is resting on my arm and she’s looking at me that way.

What a sad sack of slop she’s turned me into, but I can’t help a private little purr of pleasure.

My vacation may be ruined, but she is perhaps the most unexpected reward from it.