Just before they moved to New York, Cal and Niko were hiding out in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Texas. Characters belong to the talented Rob Thurman. I just take them out and play with them once in a while.
Severance Pay
It had been years since the last time they had caught up with us. As a matter of fact, that had been the event that had propelled our asses to the big city. We'd been lucky that time. No fire, no melting trailer, no mother going up like a Roman candle. Just swords, knives, and the purple blood of monsters.
-Nightlife
It was three o'clock in the morning, and the Texas summer heat had barely eased up. Cal left the back door to the bar's kitchen open optimistically in hopes of a cool breeze, but the wind from outside just brushed in more desert heat and little sand drifts. Cal was sweating and elbow deep in hot, sudsy water when Niko stepped in out of the dark. His eyes locked on his little brother and he took in a deep breath of relief. Cal opened his mouth to ask what was up, but the acid drop in his stomach already told him.
"I saw one today," Niko said. As Cal dried off his arms on the stained apron he wore, Niko continued. "The car's loaded. We're leaving."
Yeah, that was their life in a nutshell. They never stayed anywhere long, and still the grendel managed to find them every time. At the mere rumor of a brutal murder or glimpse of a pointy-eared silhouette, they pulled up stakes and hit the road. There was just one thing. Cal pulled off the apron and tossed it on the floor. "Let me go ask Jake for my last two days pay. We're gonna need the gas money."
Niko nodded, but unhappily. At times like this it was all he could do not to grab Cal, throw him over his shoulder, and sprint for the car. But Cal was right: they were always scrambling for money. He followed Cal to the manager's office, at one with his brother's shadow.
Cal banged on the door, yelling Jake's name. He opened it and leaned inside. "Hey Jake? I gotta get moving. I need my pay…" He trailed off. Jake was sitting in the dark, but they could see the outline of his body and over-large cowboy hat. And there was blood. The smell of wet, slick blood poured out of the room and over Cal until it flooded his senses. The not-Jake figure leaned forward to reveal the long, steely teeth of a grendel exposed in a fierce grin. Jake's pride and joy hat was perched jauntily on its head.
"Howdy, little cousin," it rasped. "You can't leave just yet. How about some southern hospitality for your kin?"
Cal sprang back into Niko, who pulled him away with one arm as he drew his katana with the other. Cal saw another grendel coming from the kitchen, and he heard the skitter of clawed feet on sawdusted floor coming from the main bar room in the other direction. "Nik," he whispered hoarsely. Niko made a split second decision, and pulled Cal towards the kitchen, sword out and other fist wrapped tightly in the back of Cal's shirt.
"Gun," he ordered, but Cal was already there. He pulled his Glock out of his back waistband, and fired away at the grendel that was between them and the open back door. It hissed and sprang up and off the wall towards them. But Cal was motivated and a good shot. He had two rounds in it before it was within Niko's reach, and Niko finished it with a silver sweep of his sword. They hit the kitchen with the grendel from the front room cackling right behind them.
A sick gray light peeled open in the doorway to their freedom, and the cowboy hat wearing grendel pounced through. Niko pushed Cal towards a defensible corner, and braced himself, sword extended between the two monsters and his brother. The grendel angled in, sliding along the floor and making little test lunges towards the brothers. They were playing now, but their attention spans were short. Soon enough they would get bored and the slaughter would begin in earnest. Cal fired off a couple more shots, and was out of ammo. He had used more in the hall than he realized. He tucked the gun back despite the hot barrel stinging his abdomen. He drew a long, wicked knife and tried to maneuver to one side, but Niko shifted slightly over to block him.
"Goddam, it, Nik," he hissed. His brother didn't notice. All Niko's attention was on the grendels.
The cowboy grendel grinned wider, and lunged. Playtime was over. There was a flurry of slashing claws and light reflecting off a sword blade. The other grendel tried to flank Niko, but Cal flung a small cast iron frying pan at it. It dodged into shadows, and for a second Cal lost track of it. Cal turned to slice at the grendel Niko was engaging. He felt savage claws latch onto his knife arm. He turned to see teeth long as his fingers bared right in his face. He screamed in rage and grabbed the first thing off the counter he could reach with his free hand. It was a ladle. Cal scooped grease from the deep fat fryer and splashed it in the face. Even an hour after closing time, the grease was still hot enough to scald flesh. The grendel shrieked and tore its claws free of Cal's arm to clutch at its eyes. A second later its head was swept off its shoulders by a swift cut of a katana. Purple blood pumped out of its neck in several bursts as the body slumped to the floor. Niko turned back to face the first grendel.
By now the ground was slick with blood and grease. The air was thick with the scent of grendel blood and burned flesh, but worse, Cal could smell Niko's blood. These motherfuckers had hurt his brother, and it was his fault. Rational thought left the building. The only thing that mattered now was killing grendel, killing his monster half. He locked eyes on the remaining grendel.
It grinned wide. "Ah, there you are, little cousin. I was beginning to wonder if you'd forgotten all about us. Come, play more games with us." Its hooked fingers made a come-hither gesture.
Niko lunged forward, feinting the katana in a side arc and then with lighting quick speed changed direction and impaled the grendel straight on. As he slid the sword deeper into the surprised grendel's chest, Niko growled, "Cal. Is. Mine." He twisted and tore the sword free in one savage motion. The grendel staggered back, one clawed hand clutching at its chest.
It was a ruse. Cal didn't know how, but he knew the center of the chest was not a killing blow for a grendel. Before Niko could be fooled, he rushed past his older brother and slammed his knife up under its chin. It jerked and fell. Before Cal could set about dismembering it, Niko pulled him up.
Cal stood and drew in long, shuddering breaths as he stared at the wreckage on the floor. Hideous, lean, long hooked claws, pale bodies and long sharp teeth exposed in rictous grins. I came from one of these, he thought. He shivered like a spooked horse ready to bolt.
"Cal?" Niko put a hand on his shoulder. He shook his head slowly. "Cal!" Niko pulled him around. He checked him over, moving his arm this way and that, wrapping it in a dishtowel.
"I'm okay," Cal said dully. He saw bloody tears across Niko's abdomen and sucked in his breath. He pulled out Niko's shirt to get a better look. Parallel slashes angled up. They were shallow, but looked painful. Cal looked up at Niko and opened his mouth.
"Don't. This is not your fault, little brother." Niko said firmly. He wrapped his palm around the back of his neck and pressed his forehead to Cal's. "I'm alright. Truly. But we need to get moving." He gave Cal a little shake and pushed him towards the door.
Cal paused and picked up Jake's fallen hat, fingering the brim as he stared numbly down at the twisted bodies. Niko said firmly, "This isn't you, Cal. You're my brother, not one of these monsters. Don't ever think otherwise." He plucked the hat from Cal's hand and let it drop.
When they got outside, Cal sucked in a huge breath of hot desert air that smelled of nothing but warm sand and oil from the nearby road. His legs suddenly turned to jello and he staggered. He leaned against the building, palms pressed flat on the wall, and began to retch. Shock took over, and for several minutes it was all he could do but be wracked with heaves and shaking. Sweat poured off his face and his breath came in harsh gasps. Niko wrapped an arm around his torso, supporting him until Cal could finally establish some control over his own body. As the shaking subsided, Cal whispered, "Sorry."
"It's alright. You're only having a delayed reaction. You held it together when it counted, right?"
Cal shrugged, but Niko was done waiting. He hauled Cal to the car and in seconds they were peeling out of the parking lot and flying down the highway. By dawn they would have more than a hundred miles between them and this place. Cal rolled down the window and let the warm air sweep over him, carrying away any trace of grendel scent.
After a while, Niko said, "I've been thinking about where we'll go next."
"Yeah? Some other dead-end hole in the wall?"
"No. It's too risky. The grendel always seem to find us in these rural places faster than heavily populated places. We need to go somewhere where we can get good and lost for a while."
Cal thought about it for a moment. Then it dawned on him what Niko meant. "New York, huh? Well, if we can make it there…"
Niko held up a warning finger. "Do not finish that sentence. I do not want that song in my head the rest of the way."
Cal smirked. He could make some crack about how the zen mind could filter out any unwanted monkey thoughts, but he let it go. Instead he held up five one hundred dollar bills. "Well, at least we've got some gas money."
Niko frowned. "Where did you get that?"
"Jake's hat. He always tucked money in the inner brim. I figured he didn't need it any more."
Niko frowned, but he couldn't argue with that. He let it go, too.
Just when Niko thought Cal had drifted off to sleep, his little brother tilted his head and looked over at Niko sardonically. "So. I'm yours, huh?"
Niko smiled in contentment. "That you are, little brother. Dirty socks and all. And I wouldn't have it any other way."