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And not one step further
Fright took a deep breath and disappeared.
I dove for the Ur-demon, scooping up a heavy branch and throwing it at her face on the way.
She broke it apart with a glance, her monstrous will hanging heavy on the stormy air.
I rammed my shoulder into Juris-Meladoquiel’s gut, driving the possessed Moroi backward before cutting a deep, ragged ‘X’ across her chest with both sets of claws.
Juris-Meladoquiel slapped me aside with frightening strength, sending me sliding into a pine. “I miss having claws,” she sighed at me, casually sealing the vicious wounds over. She glanced to the side and took a quick breath.
“Stop.”
Fright popped into visibility, frozen in place with his own clawed hands almost around her neck, struggling against her command.
She snatched him up by the throat; Fright grabbed her arm, digging his onyx claws into Juris’ pale flesh as the Fae’s large eyes bulged in alarm.
“See?” Juris-Meladoquiel commented. “This would be much better with claws, don’t you think?”
I tackled her legs, knocking her off balance. Fright pried her fingers free as I seized one leg and lifted her off her feet, shredding the muscles and tendons in the back of her thigh while I was there. The Fae followed up by yanking her arm out to the side, dislocating it, then stabbed his keen, teardrop-shaped claws deep into Juris’ spine as I slammed the possessed vampire face-first to the ground.
I stomped on her borrowed skull, trying to crush it flat against the packed earth, but it refused to yield.
The Ur-demon laughed through the pain in Juris’ voice, chuckling around a mouthful of dirt.
I flinched as a flash of brilliant light destroyed my darkvision, leaving me reeling and senseless as the impact of thunder followed close behind, shaking the air and the ground like the detonation of a bomb. I staggered, blinking away the dancing, dazzling specks that cluttered my vision, and took a hasty few steps away from the new blazing, lightning-shattered tree maybe ten feet away.
Meanwhile, Juris-Meladoquiel rose; Fright stabbed his claws into the back of her neck, just below the skull, straining to press the demoness back into the dirt. But she simply grabbed his wrist, pulled the claws free and bent his arm awkwardly to the side, twisting it and locking it into place.
Then she punched Fright right in the center of his chest, hurling him twenty feet into a pine tree.
As she healed, I darted to his side, checking on the Fae, trying to help him to his feet as he coughed pallid, cold blood. “You okay?”
He made an uncertain expression, looking down at his hauberk and at the fist-sized section of dented ebony links at the center of it.
“We’re in trouble,” he whispered.
“Yeah,” I replied, clasping his arm and dragging him upright. “But we can handle it.”
Juris-Meladoquiel’s laughter echoed through the damaged trees, off the storm clouds above and through the inside of my skull. We watched as she shook out Juris’ floppy arm, the shattered bones cracking back into their proper places.
“Keep it coming,” the Ur-demon hissed hungrily. “This is getting good.”
She gestured with the newly healed arm, her will pressing at the air from Next Door.
But she wasn’t pointing at us.
“Look out!” Fright shoved me aside, splitting us up as the steel beams from the fake construction area shot toward us all at once, dozens of beams and thousands of pounds of steel showering the tree-line in a torrent of metal. Splintering wood cried out as the pines flattened, broke, or shattered under the onslaught; Fright and I ducked, dodged, and teleported in desperation, lest we suffer the same fate as the trees.
I glanced back as Fright cried out; one beam clipped his shoulder, spinning him around, holding him in place long enough for another to slam into the middle of his back, flinging him headlong into the darkness.
And while I was distracted, another one hit me directly in the gut.
Broken trees and half-buried lengths of steel whipped past as the impact slung me out the other side of the treeline, plowing a shallow furrow in the dirt along the way. I grunted as I came to a sudden stop against the edge of a stone walking path, cracking the stone and covering my head with my arms until the last of the rain of blunt steel spears abated.
I pushed aside the beam and rose from the dirt, feeling an uncomfortable shifting from the pair of freshly broken ribs low in my body.
“Are you okay?” Fright popped into visibility right next to me, and I almost stuck a claw in him by reflex. He was missing a couple of teeth, and his father’s fine ebony mail was scuffed and coated with dirt and pine needles, but the tough little nightmare Fae was alive.
I shrugged, clumps of dirt trickling from my shoulders and falling from my shredded cardigan. “I’ve had worse.”
Juris-Meladoquiel strode calmly from the destroyed treeline, smiling. “Oh, was that last one too much? Please don’t disappoint me now.”
Fright blinked at me with big, shimmering eyes. “We’ve…got this?”
I nodded and picked up the dented steel beam by my feet.
“Yeah,” I rasped. “We’ll make do.”
I planted my feet and knocked out Juris’ legs with a baseball swing while Fright scrambled for the nearest steel beam of his own, grasping it tight in thickly gloved hands. Juris-Meladoquiel flipped back upright on a broken leg, and Fright clobbered her right back to the earth, shattering her shoulder and bouncing her off the dirt. Claws scoring the steel, I raised the heavy length of metal high overhead, aiming for what I hoped was a killing blow.
“Stop.” Inky eyes locked with mine, and I ground my will against the command. “Now swing.”
I overbalanced, caught off guard as she commanded me to do what I was already straining to do, and the beam whistled through the air, clipping Fright on the shoulder again and knocking him flat. There was no time to apologize; she grabbed the Fae by the leg and threw him at me, still clutching his own improvised weapon.
I stumbled back as she rose, and this time she met Fright’s eyes instead as he righted himself. “Now,” the Fae went still as Meladoquiel drew in a deep breath and commanded him, “despair, and DI—”
I rammed the butt end of the beam into her face, busting out teeth and breaking off the deadly end of her orders. As she staggered, Fright shook the effects off with a snarl and broke her knees with his own steel beam, bringing the Ur-Demon crashing to the dirt.
We bludgeoned her with simultaneous, bone-crushing blows before she could rise; I pulled back for a tremendous strike and crunched her face in as she picked Juris’ head up from the ground, sending her sprawling and tumbling headlong into a shattered stump, breaking her host’s back with a snap.
Fright caught my arm. “But how do we kill it?” he hissed.
“That,” I hefted the steel beam, “is a damn good question.”
And I had no idea what the answer was.
He stared up at me, not letting go. “If we can neither defeat this daemon or kill it, what do we do?”
“We keep fighting anyway. For as long as we can.” I met his corpse-light eyes resolutely.
Fright swallowed hard and nodded.
We approached the possessed Moroi warily, our bulky, hundred-pound weapons at the ready. I felt a spark of hope ignite as I watched the Ur-demon struggle to put Juris’ body back together one more time.
Maybe we could beat her after all.
Juris-Meladoquiel shuffled back, trying to stay out of the range of the massive clubs she’d given us. The sound of sealing skin and setting bones was audible, even over the now-constant rumble of thunder overhead.
I couldn’t restrain a grin. “Give it up, Meladoquiel! We’ve got you. Juris isn’t strong enough to overpower us both at once.”
“I have to admit, it does seem that way,” she purred, her voice burning thick, syrupy, and corrosive in my ears. “This broken, flawed body can’t beat
you two, it’s true.” Slowly, she raised her arms skyward, palms open and empty. Fright grinned at me, triumphant, as her stolen body stopped moving, stopped healing.
But suddenly, I felt only dread.
“Nor can I possess either of you,” she continued, straightening. “Unfortunately…” Juris’ open hands tightened into fists, as if gripping the sky, which somehow darkened even further, churning violently in response. “Unfortunately for you, I am FAR MORE than this flesh I wear.” I tried to advance toward the demoness, but found I simply couldn’t as reality flexed and warped around us, space stretching like ink-soaked taffy. Juris’ harrowed face stretched into a rictus grin as the Ur-demon behind his eyes bore down. At my side, even Fright’s eyes went wide as the massive demon Next Door pushed at the Walls between worlds.
The ripples in reality settled as an unholy halo burst from the edges of Juris’ silhouette, supernaturally sharp spines and oily midnight black tendrils. We gave ground as rocks and tree stumps shattered from her mere proximity, the grass smoking and boiling away where her inky tentacles brushed it.
In unspoken agreement, Fright and I stepped back to back as the darkness came alive and the shadows became hungry blades, closing in around us. At Meladoquiel’s bidding, the night itself turned on us, cutting off any hope of escape with a veil of pure void.
“I WILL SHOW YOU WHY MORTALS TRULY FEAR THE DARKNESS.”
Fright and I staggered together, leaning against one another as the Ur-demon’s voice split our thoughts like an axe. We’d managed to push Meladoquiel to her stolen body’s limits all right, and this was our reward.
Not victory; not even a dignified defeat.
Only a horrifying death.
And perhaps even that would be fortunate.
“Sorry,” I offered Fright, my voice miniscule in the black, in the crushing presence of the approaching Ur-demon.
“I understand,” the Fae replied. He seemed…almost calm. “But there were never any other actions I could have taken.”
I turned away as Meladoquiel drew near, raising her hand and will to tear us both asunder.
And in the distance, deep and distant in the void, I spotted a tiny spark of light.
“Fortunately,” called a far-away, battered voice, “there will always be a light to burn away that darkness.”
Rhongomyniad flared, closer than it seemed, and the void wilted, the jagged shadows streaming away to hide behind Meladoquiel.
Charles limped down the walking trail, holding his blazing spear-staff aloft, a beacon to push aside the encroaching night. “You have broken me down,” he declared, his voice gruff, angry, and unforgiving. “You have possessed me and bound me.” The wizard directed his weapon toward the demoness, and she took a step back, her bristling halo dancing wildly in the flaring light. “You should have been cast from this world months ago. But by God, no more. It ends here.”
Meladoquiel hissed derisively. “You truly believe that weak church, that your weak God can cast me out? HE HAS TRIED BEFORE.” I struggled to hold my ground against her massive voice as Charles joined us at the front line: human, Fae, and Strigoi facing off against an Ur-demon, the light of Charles’ gleaming staff flickering in the ink weeping freely from her stolen eyes. “Now he is dead, and I?”
The ground trembled as she smiled, the expression tearing at Juris’ face as it stretched too wide. “I. Am. Still. Here.”
“And so are we!” Charles roared defiantly as he stepped forward, past us. “But you have been free for far too long! And you have done far, far too much harm.” He glanced at me, then back to the demon. “It is beyond time to see you put away again. You cannot best the three of us. Rhongomyniad will destroy your form here and banish you, if you will not yield.”
Behind Juris’ eyes, she watched us, her gaze lingering on Charles. “What makes you always think that just because there is a deeper darkness, that there must be a brighter light?” she responded, her invasive voice surprisingly quiet. “What makes you think that anyone is coming to save you?” She shook her head. “You of all people should know better. The only hope you've ever had…was to save yourselves.”
I stepped up beside Charles. After a moment, Fright joined us.
“Then we’ll just do that,” I replied.
She stared at me, at us. Slowly, she started laughing again. The Ur-demon threw back Juris’ head as the sound built and built upon itself as her mirth grew, echoing and burning into my mind as the clouds roiled above, as if they also mocked us.
“Silence!” Charles bellowed, the sound nearly lost in her all-consuming amusement. “There are no more bodies for you to take! Return to your Home,” he tightened an already white-knuckled grip on the battered shaft of Rhongomyniad, “or manifest now and face Arthur’s spear.”
Her rolling laughter trailed off as she wiped away inky tears from borrowed eyes. “You think that I’m trapped? That there’s nowhere for me to go?” She chuckled again, a subtle hint of Juris’ voice leaking out. I frowned. “What did you think this was all about, if not me?” Her caustic overtones peeled back from Juris’ voice; hints of cracked hazel glinted through the ink in his eyes. “This was only ever about me.”
In one battered arm, she thrust a chunk of something dark and ragged toward the sky.
Ca-Lethe Meladoquiel met my eyes, pinning me in place.
“You were right, Ashley,” she smirked. “I corrupted this ritual to bring myself over. But no matter how thin the Walls get…”
Juris-Meladoquiel looked up, staring at the rusty shard of cast iron in her hand, at the distant statue.
“…I still need a body.”
Juris collapsed, boneless. The shard fell from his fingers.
“What did she mean?” Charles demanded, staring at me. “What was the ritual for?”
Two hundred feet above our heads, the sky echoed with the sound of creaking, moving iron.
“That,” I whispered.
Charles and Fright followed my gaze skyward as the statue began to move, stretching and tugging itself free of the bonds tethering it to its base. The wizard started cursing virulently in some language or other, and I nodded my agreement. “Yeah, I think we’re pretty fucked too.”
“Ashley! Dammit!” Charles grasped what remained of my cardigan in a big fist and shook me aggressively. “Snap out of it.”
I watched, transfixed, as the Vulcan dropped spearhead and hammer to the ground, crushing pavement and a concrete fountain, then began to climb down its base, picking up speed as it went, as Meladoquiel gained familiarity with her new body.
And here I’d thought the idea of Meladoquiel possessing Fright was terrifying. What could we do now?
“Not now!” Charles was abruptly in my face, breaking my line of sight with his brown eyes and deformed beard. “Ashley. Where is Tamara?”
The question brought be back to my senses with a shock. Instead of answering, I pushed Charles aside and burst into a dead sprint.
I darted through the devastated park, racing the echoes of iron on stone. Halfway across the manicured grass, I spotted the shattered cube of cinder blocks and shoved myself sideways through the closest shadow.
Gasping, I popped out in front of a startled Tamara as the Moroi sat up to check on the girl at her side. “Ashes!” she exclaimed. “I—”
“No time!” I grabbed Rooftop Sister off the ground and bundled her and Tamara into a bear hug, holding them tight as iron grated and rumbled above our heads.
A shower of stone sprinkled us from above, and Tamara looked up. “Holy shit.”
She squeezed me tight in return, and I closed my eyes.
Come on. One more time.
I yanked us all sideways as a tremendous iron foot smashed down where we were, shaking the earth.
After a slight delay, we puffed out of the shadows at Charles’ feet. I dropped both women and rolled on the ground. Drained, I pushed myself to my feet again—
—And made it all the way to one knee before I collapsed.
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Distantly, I heard Tamara asking me what was wrong, asking if I was okay. I felt her cool, comforting touch, miles away as the blood hunger crept back in. The thump-thump of the surrounding heartbeats—especially Charles’—disoriented me, trying to steal away my senses.
I heard someone speak, felt something nudge me, shake me. I tried to push myself toward it, tried to push my own desperate hunger away.
“Charles, she’s starving.” I could make out a raised voice: Tamara. “You don’t understand what you’re asking. It’s killing her. She can’t go on like this, she’s got nothing left to give.”
“Ashley. Get up.” Charles. “Ashley. I need you.” He was ignoring her. Typical.
“Charles, she can’t even hear you.” She sounded distraught, pleading. I couldn’t open my eyes.
“I cannot help,” someone else said, a strange voice. “I fear there is nothing can I do against that iron body.”
“There’s no one else.” Charles’ voice got closer; I could almost feel the warmth of his heartbeat on my face. “And…” His voice quieted; I could barely make it out. “Ashley. I can’t fix this mistake of mine alone.”
“Charles!” Tamara’s voice cracked like a whip. “Stop.” There was a beat of power behind the demand. “She can’t; you’ll only hurt her more—”
I tightened my fist, digging my claws into the dirt. My own muscles and bones, tight and hard like iron, slowly and stiffly responded. I pushed myself to my hands and knees, a monumental effort. So. Hungry. In the distance, the creaking and groaning of real moving iron still echoed from the storm clouds that followed it overhead.
I threw back my head and drank in Meladoquiel’s unfettered energy, devouring the deathly aura that had accompanied part of her to this world. I could feel it itching under my skin, the corrosive taint crawling through my dead veins, but I didn’t—I couldn’t—stop.
With a gasp, I regained my feet. Tamara put a hand on my arm to steady me, then hugged me tight. “Ashes! Are…you really okay?”
“Honestly,” my voice rasped, rougher and coarser than ever. “I’m pretty beat.” I smiled, feeling the torn skin in my cheek shift. “Mind if we hurry this up?”
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