“Why’d you do that anyway?” Adara said. “Sneak in here, I mean.”
She looked sheepish. “I saw you guys get arrested on TV. I thought the government was going to cart you off to Area 51 or something, so I decided to attempt a jailbreak.”
“But you got caught,” retorted Gideon. “Some sneak you are.”
“Hey, it was going really well until I ran out of ‘juice,’” she countered. “Then that FBI man with the weird eyes caught me snooping around the interview rooms and ‘politely escorted’ me here…while giving me a stern lecture about using supernatural abilities in an imprudent manner.”
“Oh yeah, Jefferson the vampire.” Adara ran a hand through her tangled hair. “Such a warm and fuzzy guy.”
Enzo tapped his empty coffee cup on the table. “Do you think he really drinks human blood?”
“Don’t know.” Adara held up her hands. “I just learned vampires were real. I have no clue if they’re anything like the pop culture creatures.”
Enzo absently rubbed his neck. “Whatever. As long as he doesn’t bite me.”
Gideon snorted. “Personally, I’d be more concerned with that faerie lady. Aren’t faeries supposed to be mischievous little bastards that play cruel tricks on people?”
“In the myths, yeah,” muttered Solomon. “But this isn’t a myth. This is reality.”
“Seriously though,” said Victoria. “How is this reality? All this crap is nuts.”
The group pondered the question for a second, then collectively shrugged.
“Assuming we survive the library assault, we can all go to group therapy and work out the trauma later,” Adara said.
Movement past the blinds of the break room’s window caught her attention. She shoved the last half of her donut into her mouth and followed it up with the rest of her coffee.
“For now,” she continued, “let’s focus on the tasks at hand, so that we can make sure the city is still standing tomorrow morning.”
The break room door squeaked open, revealing Dawes on the other side, once again wearing the magic mask that blunted her razor-sharp faerie features. “Gang’s all here,” she said. “We set out for the library in forty-five minutes. We’ve got tactical uniforms and body armor ready for all of you in the locker rooms, so finish your little icebreaker, go down there, and suit up.
“And while you’re at it, you might want to mentally prepare yourselves too. Word from our advance scouts is that the campus is teeming with demons. No matter what kind of attack strategy we try, it’s going to be an uphill battle.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
In the women’s locker room, as they strapped on Kevlar vests, knee pads, and wrist guards, Adara taught a girl barely out of high school how to banish demons back to Hell and how to repair a spell created by God to stop demons from invading the Earth in the first place.
She felt a keen sense of guilt as she did this, knowing that the shy and soft-spoken Victoria was likely to get hurt—or worse—during the assault on the campus library. The girl had literally been drafted into this ludicrous mission because her curiosity had gotten the better of her and a vampire FBI agent had caught her sniffing around a police station.
Victoria had assured Adara several times that she was willing to take the risk. “This is my city too,” she said when they first entered the locker room and Adara gave her the chance to bow out before things got too dangerous. “My family lives here. My friends live here. If the demons break through the barrier, then everyone I love will probably get killed, just like all those poor people on Maynard.
“So even if I didn’t have a god shard, I would still want to help you guys fix the cornerstone in whatever way I could. But since I do have one, I should use it to the fullest extent to give our side the best chance of winning.”
Adara pointed out that Victoria’s particular power would likely get her assigned to sneak people to the cornerstone right under the demons’ noses, putting her in the most precarious position of them all. But Victoria simply shrugged and added, “Sometimes the dice land on shitty sides. Doesn’t mean you should quit the game early. You got to play it through to the end to know what the final outcome will be.”
Adara wondered whether her bravado was false, whether a deep-seated fear was hidden behind that veil of chestnut hair. But like with everything Adara had faced over the past day and a half, there was a countdown slowly dialing back to zero. When that countdown ended, the world would probably end with it.
So she couldn’t stand in the musty locker room, under the harsh glare of the fluorescent lights, and laboriously pick the truth of Victoria’s feelings out from beneath the dense field of freckles spread across her pale skin.
She taught Victoria the spells they needed to save Edgerton from destruction, and hoped that her decision didn’t cost the girl her life.
Adara was only twenty-five. She remembered being eighteen—remembered just how naïve she had been when she was teetering on the fence between adolescence and adulthood. I’ll watch her back, she promised herself, and make sure she doesn’t get stabbed by a cruel twist of fate before she even has a chance to really live. Even if I have to throw myself in front of the knife.
Too many innocent people had already died today.
Adara swore she would put an end to that bloodbath, one way or another.
Armored up, Adara and Victoria rejoined Enzo, Solomon, and Gideon in the hall outside the locker rooms. Enzo and Solomon had taught Gideon the spells, and the three were still practicing as Adara and Victoria walked over. They were whispering the incantations under their breath and trying to perfectly sync their rhythms.
Adara thought this was a fine idea. She and Victoria joined in, forming a circle of shard holders whispering the words of the Shattered God.
They kept at it until Jefferson came to collect them.
“Save the banishment spell for the greater demons,” Adara warned them before they set off for the back parking lot of the station. “The imps are physically strong and fairly resistant to critical damage, but from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think they can perform any magic. As long as you stay out of their reach, they won’t be a major threat. Regular firepower should be able to hold them off long enough for us to do what we need to do.”
She turned to Jefferson. “Assuming we have enough guns.”
The vampire stifled a grin. “I assure you, we have more than enough.”
“Good. Then let’s go pick a fight with a demon army.”
“They’re not quite a full army yet,” Jefferson said. “More like a battalion.”
“Woohoo,” Enzo replied. “That makes me feel so much better.”
On that sour note, they pushed through the exit doors and stepped outside.
To find that Jefferson hadn’t been exaggerating about the guns.
Sixty-odd people filled a parking lot sized for half that many, and all of them were armed to the teeth.
FBI SWAT agents arranged into eight teams of five waited along the south side of the lot. Each SWAT agent held a hefty assault rifle and had two backup handguns holstered to their belts. The belts also sported an assortment of knives and flash bangs, along with a pair of actual grenades painted military green.
Near the back of the SWAT group, four people with honest-to-god RPG launchers were carefully slipping them into black bags, presumably to obscure their presence on the trip to Edgerton College.
You didn’t want the media snapping a lucky shot and then reporting that the FBI was hauling rocket-powered grenade launchers around a metropolitan area that was currently reeling from a massacre and a massive explosion. If the populace hadn’t already descended into total panic, they certainly would if they learned the FBI was planning to blow something up.
The rest of the FBI agents in the parking lot were dressed and armed similarly to Jefferson and Dawes. Nondescript dark suits with hip or shoulder holsters that held standard-issue handguns. These agents, Jefferson told them as they were escorted
toward a line of black Humvees idling on the east side of the lot, would be coordinating the various SWAT teams.
In addition, these smartly clad agents would work with the National Guard unit Adara and friends had met earlier to manage a wide perimeter around the campus. If any demons tried to get out, the soldiers would do all in their power to keep them contained. If any regular citizens tried to get in, the idiots would be summarily arrested.
“Most of the agents here are human,” Jefferson stated, popping open the back door of the first Humvee in the line, “but all of them have experience fighting nonhuman entities. While most haven’t fought demons, they can handle themselves in combat with a strong supernatural force. So while the operation’s in progress, don’t worry too much about what’s going on outside the library. Just keep your focus on fixing that cornerstone spell. We’ll handle the rest.”
Adara nodded. “I won’t say I trust you, since we just met, but I do believe you.”
Jefferson chuckled. “That’s a good start, I suppose.”
Dawes, who was talking to an isolated group of agents nearby, shot Jefferson a gesture that apparently indicated they were ready to set off for the campus. In response, Jefferson bundled the shard holders into the Humvee. Once they were all buckled in, Jefferson and a SWAT agent climbed into the front seats of the vehicle.
Shortly after, the rest of the Humvees filled with FBI agents, and then they were off.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The courtyard behind Barrow’s and Joys & Toys was chosen as the staging area for the assault on the library. The Humvees parked along the street adjacent to the courtyard, and everyone filed out in a fashion that was less neat and orderly, and more hectic and rushed.
No one knew how much time remained before the cornerstone crumbled away, so every second felt like it could be the last till doomsday. That constant pressure put them all on edge, to the point where they didn’t even bother using the cobblestone paths of the courtyard. They just tromped all over the flower beds and crushed the fresh spring growth under their heavy boots.
Dawes and Jefferson took center stage in the tightly packed gathering of Overlock agents, with the shard holder group at the front of the crowd. Curious gazes poked and prodded the enigmas that were the young men and women with mysterious powers derived from God.
Solomon and Victoria fidgeted under the weight of the roving eyes, not used to so much attention. Enzo and Gideon pointedly ignored them and refused to look away from the two agents at the head of the gathering. And Adara met each gaze with a challenging one of her own, demanding to know their judgment.
Most refused to give her one, and looked away. But a few nodded in respect.
After Dawes took a quick head count to ensure everyone was in the courtyard, she and Jefferson ran over the outline of the plan in full:
First, a vanguard of twenty SWAT agents would use their high-powered rifles to pick off the imps guarding the exterior of the library.
While the imps were preoccupied by this onslaught, a second set of SWAT agents would charge the library’s west entrance, which was the closest entrance to a stairwell that led down to the basement.
Right behind this second wave would come the shard holders, who would use the cover of the SWAT agents to enter the basement stairwell.
“Two SWAT teams and Jefferson will accompany you downstairs,” Dawes said to the shard holder group. “They’ll keep the demons occupied while you locate and repair this cornerstone spell.”
Jefferson added at a louder volume, “The rest of you already know your assigned roles, so disperse and move into your starting positions.”
A muttered chorus of “Yes, sir” rolled over the courtyard, and the SWAT agents cleared out with even less finesse than they’d entered. Jumping the low courtyard fence and bending the decorative railing with heavy heels. Kicking up dirt against the back walls of the artisan shops that lined the street. Chipping bricks by clipping corners with the butts of their rifles.
Adara would’ve been irritated at the sight of so many people disregarding the welfare of Edgerton’s independent businesses—if there hadn’t been a battle on the near horizon that was likely to set fire to everything in a ten-block radius of Edgerton College.
As the shard holder group lingered in the courtyard, waiting for everyone else to reach their assigned positions, Adara inched closer to Enzo and asked, “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
She’d noticed him fiddling with his brace multiple times during Dawes’s and Jefferson’s announcements. Something he hadn’t been doing earlier in the day. It made Adara wonder whether he’d reinjured the wrist during the fight with Astaroth, when he’d been dodging imps left and right in order to save Gideon.
Adara had taken her eyes off him for most of the fight’s duration. He could’ve fallen down or hit his arm on something—and then decided not to tell her so she wouldn’t feel guilty or try to make him sit on the sidelines.
Enzo looked confused for a moment, before he tracked her line of sight to the brace. “Oh no,” he said with a chuckle, “I’m fine. It’s just that the area under the brace started itching a little while ago, and it’s driving me nuts. I’ve got the urge to shove a piece of sandpaper under there and flay my skin off.”
Adara slapped on her most skeptical expression. “Are you sure that’s all it is?”
“Positive.” He gave her a cheeky grin. “And even if it wasn’t, I’ve already told you that I’m not letting you do this alone.”
“I’m not alone anymore.” She swept her hand from side to side, indicating the other shard holders as well as the FBI agents. “In fact, I’m about as not alone as you can get.”
“Yeah, but you don’t know any of these people very well. Don’t know if you can trust them to watch your back. Don’t know if they’ll turn tail and run if the going gets tough. Don’t know if they’ll double-cross you at the first convenient moment. Me, on the other hand, you know you can count on. If for nothing else than to drag you through a wall when a demon throws a fireball at your head.”
“Do you actually think someone might betray us,” she said, “or are you just heaping on the daytime melodrama plot twists to make me feel less guilty about dragging you into a fight against an army of murderous monsters from the bowels of Hell?”
Enzo didn’t answer, but even the bruising on his face couldn’t hide his sheepishness.
Adara playfully jabbed him in the ribs. “And this from the guy who refused to go hiking with me in the Rockies.”
“I’m not a huge fan of sheer cliff faces and hundred-foot drops into icy ravines,” he said. “But I’m even less of a fan of apocalyptic demon invasions. So here I am, running into danger against my better judgment.”
“Hear, hear.” Solomon took off his glasses and wiped the lenses using the sleeve of his black tactical jacket. “I’m not one for superfluous adventures either, but this isn’t so much optional recreation as it is a requirement to keep the world spinning on its axis.”
Gideon, leaning against a nearby tree, cleared his throat to interrupt the conversation and jutted his chin toward Jefferson, who was walking over with a tablet in his hand. The vampire agent motioned for them all to come in close.
The five of them huddled around the tablet as he held it out and tapped on the screen to bring up a window. Blueprints of the library’s basement appeared. Someone had marked it up with brightly colored arrows, designating various routes they could take through the labyrinth of rooms and hallways in search of the cornerstone spell.
Jefferson pointed at each arrow in turn and explained that the red one, which wound through the basement in an uneven zigzag, would be their first choice. “It’ll help us avoid the largest open spaces in the basement, where we figure the demons are likely to congregate. But it’ll also avoid jamming us into the tightest spaces, where we won’t be able to defend ourselves with long-range weapons.”
He used two fingers to zoom in on the blueprints and pointed out a lo
ng white line that ran down one of the basement’s primary halls. “That is an exposed water pipe, and it runs half the length of the entire basement. I figure we can crack it open and give you, Ms. Caine, the opportunity to use your particular skills to flood any daring demons out of our path.”
Enzo made a choking noise. “That’ll ruin all the collections in the basement.”
Gideon rolled his eyes. “Hate to break it to you, pal, but with the firepower we’ll be slinging at the demons, and the literal fire they’ll probably be slinging back, the odds of there being a library still standing at the end of this fight are slim to none.”
“God, what a massive waste. All those historical documents, gone up in a puff of smoke or sucked down a drain.” Enzo rubbed his face, pained. “The college will be in shambles after this.”
“The city’s already in shambles.” Victoria stuck her head through the small gap between Enzo and Solomon to get a better look at the tablet. She was quite a bit shorter than anyone else in the group. “One more building burning down might be a significant blow. But if in letting it burn, we can prevent another massacre like the one on Maynard, won’t the sacrifice be worth it?”
Enzo bowed his head. “Yeah. It will. You’re right.”
Jefferson zoomed back out to the full blueprints. “You all have these routes committed to memory?”
Each of them took another minute to study the map before they said yes.
“Good.” Jefferson tucked the tablet under his arm. “Everyone’s just about in position, so we’ll be starting in ten. You all, me, and our two SWAT escort teams will head onto the campus through the entrance opposite the front side of this candy store here.
“After we pass the wall around the campus, you should hang back for a moment to let both escort teams fan out into a protective formation so they can shield our approach to the library. I don’t want anyone getting tackled by one of those wily imps before we even make it inside. Clear?”
“Clear,” they all mumbled over each other.
Baptisms of Fire and Ice Page 20