2
3a.m. had come and now the seconds were falling closer to one minute after. I knew from the reports that there were at least four dozen men inside the building. I also knew that Amm was warming up because one of those men was screaming incoherently. A solid thump on the outside wall opposite us was followed by a brick dust as something pounded on it from the inside.
The 20 had all drawn weapon now and merely waited.
At the metal door I could hear muffled shouts and then the door, surely a solid four inches of iron, bowed outward like a sheet of tin and held for mere seconds before exploding into the alley. Amm rode atop the door with the bloody leavings of what I guessed to be the man with the muscled arms.
A gang of men swarmed after in a shower of sparks and shouts brandishing weapons of all make and size.
Amm, a beautiful girl at any time, stood when the door skid to a stop – she was covered in blood and gore and bits of rock and she stood like a goddess of death. In the light of day and in the first dim shine of twilight Amm stood only a head under myself at six feet with a blond and brown mixed hair and smiling brown eyes. She was athletic, even well muscled for that, and fairly curvaceous and never wanted for suitors in the least.
At 3a.m., on any night, and when she stood feral before a pack of men, each of whom was easily twice her weight and size, she was transformed. Her hair was still a sandy brown and blond mix but the edges had taken on a black stain and it crept up the follicles at a snails pace. And the eyes, her eyes so happily brown at any other time sparkled with firelight that was not there and shone with an eerie light as if consuming darkness.
Even from above and even after two years of this experience I was frightened of the creature which Amm had become. The 20 closed on the scene to apprehend the hoodlums and low men, acting swiftly not in fear of escape but for the safety of our bounty. Amm was what the Warden’s on the Block called a ‘loose cannon’ and could turn a bad situation into a blood bath.
Then, as things often do in this line of work, the plan goes awry as more men spill out of the building and enter combat with the 20. I lean on the edge of the building, calling out signals to the 20 in the alley when things go from bad to disastrous as four of the gang members corner Amm.
I scream to any member I think can get to her but all are involved with struggles of their own and one of the hoodlums takes a swing at Amm with a dice club, knife blades and nails sticking out from it’s head. I leap down from the building myself, using the same pinion as Flanders had and run for Amm but I knew from the moment the men closed on her that they were dead.
The man with the club misses by a long shot because Amm was now beside him and she reaches up almost lazily as if about to caress his jaw line and her shadowed face twists in rage. Amm grips the man’s jaw and removes it leaving a gaping hole of tissue and blood and the man falls with a low guttural slurping shriek.
Braver than I would be, the remaining three men close on her.
One wields a knife and immediately goes for a gut shot but finds himself biting down on his own knife in a gush of blood pitiful murmurs. A wooden club whistles over Amm’s head and she pivots to one side and kicks high and wide, catching the man with the club on the ear, bowing him over. His remaining partner, also bearing a knife, stabs down and into his head and the wooden club falls heavily to the ground.
The last man stands confused as his knife lodges in his friend’s skull and tries to free his weapon.
I’m almost to Amm now and hoping to save the man’s life by knocking him the hell out but she’s on his back already, pulling his head to the side and exposing his neck. I can almost see the pulsing vein near his shoulder and then Amm bites into it, tearing away the skin and flesh.
The man screams and pushes away from her and falls beside his friends clutching at his neck as if he could stop a flow of blood that great. I shake my head and run to a stop mere feet away from the small massacre. Around me the 20 are bringing things to a close and Amm turns her strangely pale face to me in the dark of the alley and gives me a half smile covered in blood that raises a bile in my throat.
She fondles the palm of my hand with the tips of her fingers and presses her body against my left side and I feel the inhuman warmth that comes to her at 3a.m. Amm purrs in my ear and paws playfully at my shirt with the same hand that tore a man’s jaw from his face only minutes ago. Some sadistic side of my subconscious lust rises to her lack of indecency but I quell it as I look beyond the carnage to the gang thugs and hoodlums we captured alive. It wasn’t a bad night, all things said.
Feeling ignored Amm slips her fingers into the top of my trousers and massages the length of my groin. Amm became my lover during the daytime hours over a year past and I failed at that time to realize how much of her personality carried into her night time transformation. So I became the lover of a woman who was two very different women, and the night time woman did only one of two things with any enjoyment:
Kill and fuck.
And if she has recently killed there is only one thing Amm really wants to do – fuck.
I look at her and know I have to pay her some tribute of gratitude and admiration for her contribution to the night’s work. I brace myself for the taste and kiss her bloodied lips and feel her tongue tasting of salt and raw flesh flick into my mouth. Even in my disgust she triggers erotic flashes and lust and I pull away, trying to focus again on the job.
The 20 are gathering the captured hoodlums and
I swallow the sweat and blood from my kiss with Amm and shudder with the effort it takes not to lose the nights dinner. Amm stands at my side fondling and caressing me to get my attention but I refuse to look at her for the moment and respond to the cough
“Speak,
“The inside is a blood bath. I’m not sure how many we lost yet, there are some… body parts we haven’t connected with bodies yet. It’s bad inside. The problems in the alley were mild by comparison,”
“What’s your issue,
“Sir, with your permission I will speak with you later.”
“Sir? Yeah,
I speak through my gritting teeth to my second in command, “Stow your flak,
Almost as if I’d summoned him by speaking his name Ferns appears at the mouth of the alley with his cadre of shtick savvy, round bodied policemen. They stroll in casually, stepping heavy footed around the hoods lying on their stomachs, hog tied. Ferns is a contrast with his flesh force, skinny as a rail in the middle of mounds fat and mouth breathing. Even so, I always get the feeling of un-health more so from Ferns than from his round policemen.
“Flossen,” Ferns drawls, peering down his hawkish nose.
“Ferns,” I say, forcing myself to unclench my jaws, “right on time as usual. Were you crouching behind the dumpsters?”
He chuckles softly, nodding his spindly head, “No no, Flossen. Unlike most of the raff around here lately, I try my best to stay away from trash.”
I tighten my embrace on Amm as she stiffens and leans away from me. No matter how distracted Amm may appear, and until that point she had been busily nibbling at my neck, she never misses or forgets anything.
And there were no happy mediums with Amm, she would kill Ferns and every one of his police rather than speak with them or trade veiled insults. She had no disdain, no anger, and no empathy; not after 3a.m. – she knew threat and affection.
“Just get to it Ferns before things get out of hand, I’d hate for you and your men to have to leave while we settled everything down again.”
Ferns presses his lips into a thin line and motions for his men to gather the bound hoods and get them to the wagons in the street without taking his eyes from me. Amm is nearly snarling at my side and he breaks his stare to look at her like he was viewing a rabid dog on a leash.
I am done for the night with Ferns no longer looking for the ill banter we share almost nightly. Hugging Amm to me I walk down the alley away from the street and into the darkness. Amm is still glancing back at Ferns, tempted to break from me and destroy him so I slip my fingers into her pants to my knuckle and squeeze her ass.
Her tongue flicks out over her rich red lips made even more brilliant by the dark blood still wet on her mouth.
Before we slip out of the lamplight and out of the alley Shank looks up at me where she sits on a large hoodlum crying against the pavement. It looks as if she ended up breaking most of the teeth in his mouth to pacify him.
“Shank, let
Shank whoops and starts for the rest of the 20 to spread the news gliding between the tied gang members like a swift breeze.
..3.17a.m.