The Moonlight Monsters Detective Agency Volume One by Maggie Harper Page B

Christmas tree. Every now and then it took careful aim at a fleeing shopper and launched one of the presents with great force after them. Tina started to run towards it.
    ‘Hey asshole!’ she roared, ‘freeze!’
    The Krampus jerked its head in her direction and narrowed its eyes. In a flash it scampered around to the other side of the tree.
    Tina pulled out her pistol and loaded it. Normal bullets wouldn’t do much to a Krampus unless she got it right between the eyes, but luckily hers were SDA grade – made of steel with a tiny vial of holy water in each one, plus a massive punch of gunpowder to fire the message home. Not only that but each bullet had been individually blessed with a variety of spells and hexes at one of the special ammunitions factories owned by the Byron Shelly Institute (the loose organization that navigated the SDA).   All she’d have to do was graze the bastard and he’d be toast.
    As she stalked forward, she kept her gun pointed at the tree. Every now and then the Krampus would dart its head around the corner to get a look at her before disappearing again. The bastard might be dumb as a bag of hammers but it was certainly fast.
    Suddenly it popped all the way out around the tree and launched one of its makeshift missiles at her. Tina fired a shot as the present zoomed past her head at breakneck speed. Not only was the thing fast, but it was also strong.
    Her bullet had missed – she knew because she could still feel the creature’s dull conniving mind whirr as it tried to outwit her. She moved in closer, it was about to launch another box – from the right-hand side of the tree this time – and that was when Tina would take it down.
    With her eye leveled carefully on her crosshairs, she watched as the Krampus popped out and fired a large yellow-wrapped box at her. She squeezed one out and the demon howled in pain. A second later the box hit her with the force of a thousand punches in the gut and she fell to the ground.
     
    Christ, the asshole had knocked the wind right out of her. Wincing with pain and gasping to regain her breath she sent out her mind to make sure she’d definitely hit him. She had – the demon was stone-cold dead.
    Well there was that at least, she reflected as she forced herself to sit up. The pain was immense. She opened her coat and pulled out her shirt, shakily undoing a few buttons.
    ‘Shit,’ she muttered as she checked out the damage. There was a huge welt on her ribs. The collision had even broken blood.
    Tina stood up and closed her jacket. She’d have to call the Infirmary to deal with the dead Krampus . And then she’d need to find the others before someone got killed.
     
    The Infirmary were a brotherhood of psychic monks who specialized in supernatural medical aid. They got their funding from the Byron Shelly Institute too, so whenever the SDA needed to dispose of some magical criminal waste then that was who they called. Tina only hoped they could get here before the regular cops showed up and came across the dead Krampus . She’d have a hell of a time explaining that one.
    She pulled out her cell and dialed the Infirmary.
    ‘Hello?’ the receptionist answered in a deadpan voice.
    ‘Hello Janice? Tina Peterson here. I’ve got a messy situation, can you spare a team of cleaners?’
    ‘Let me guess, a Krampus , right?’
    ‘How’d you know?’
    ‘Your partner just called from Castletown Heights,’ Janice replied.
    ‘Shit,’ Tina said, ‘Boris, is he ok?’
    ‘He’s fine sweetie,’ the receptionist told her, ‘but what about you? You sound awful.’
    ‘I’m ok,’ Tina said, ‘just get a team out to Waterside Shopping Mall as soon as you can. I’ll be in touch later, there’s more of these things out there still, so stay alert.’
    She hung up the phone and continued back out to the parking lot.
     
    ‘Jesus love,’ Parker called as she climbed into the car, ‘you alright?’
    ‘Shut up.’ Tina replied.
    She reached over to the