by T S Paul
Looking to both my right and left, I could see my companions were still mesmerized by her original spell. Waving my hand, I dispelled the subliminal messages and woke my friends.
“What happened?” Agent Smith shook her head and blinked.
“Magick. Wake the others,” I pointed. Turning back toward Camilla, I spoke to her. “You never did tell me your name?”
She spoke the last of her spell and turned to glare at me with fire-red eyes. They seemed to have an inner light. “I’ve been called many things on this plane of existence. Haboryrm is what and who I am now. But you can call me Master.”
“And Camilla? What of her?” I asked. I suspected the answer, though.
“A sacrifice worthy of a King! Is your soul as delicious as hers and her daughter’s were?” Haboryrm asked.
“I will destroy you and send your essence back to the Hell you came from,” I responded to him.
Haboryrm laughed. Not hiding it anymore, his voice was like a rolling boom. “You won’t have time. It has begun, and stopping it is no more. The world will burn in fire and blood. Your fault, Agatha Blackmore.”
There was a loud crash amidst the roaring of a very large engine. I couldn’t see over the edge of the balcony, but it sounded really close.
“My ride’s here. Enjoy the surprise.” And with that, Haboryrm, Autumn, and the strange woman threw themselves over the balcony!
I ran forward and saw them bounce off the wall below and jump into the rear of the same armored car we’d seen earlier in that warehouse.
“No!” I yelled out, even as I directed fireballs at the retreating vehicle.
“What happened?” Agent Smith asked as she ran out onto the porch.
I motioned toward the car. “It left.”
Cat and Chuck were more affected by whatever spell they had been under, and both were shaking their heads and growling. Alicia started flipping through piles of paper and things on the tables.
“I know where she’s going!” Alicia cried out.
“Where?” I asked.
“These notes all talk about Fort Sumter. How it’s the perfect place to hide out and hole up while everyone dies. Whoever wrote this is seriously twisted inside,” Alicia commented.
I held up my hands in front of my face like I was saying a prayer. “That’s where the Portal is. There was a massive black cloud over the harbor when we entered the city. How would he get out there?”
Anabelle snatched a map off the pile and pointed. “Two locations. The Yacht Club or the ferry docks. Over here by the museum and aquarium is the ferry they run for tourists.”
I looked at the map. “Too obvious. That’s where most people would go. What sort of boats does the yacht club have?”
“Rich people boats. Sailboats, cabin cruisers, and speedboats,” Smith answered. “It’s closer too. We could grab one of the cars downstairs and get there—”
“Guys?” Alicia had drifted onto the balcony and all but whispered that word. Only Chuck heard her. He stepped over to the balcony and looked to where she was pointing. A growl escaped his lips.
“Anabelle!” Alicia called out.
Anabelle Smith looked up. “What?”
“Big problem down there,” Alicia said as she pointed toward the park.
“Don’t tell me more Demons, because I think I’ve bagged my quota this year,” Smith replied as she stepped over.
“Worse,” Jones replied.
“What’s worse than Demons?” I asked.
“Zombies?” Jones said.
As we watched, the dead were indeed rising all over the park. Somehow, Haboryrm must have managed to raise them. We had a brand-new obstacle between us and the fort.
Chapter 19
Getting the trolley to start was easy. It was a simple four-cylinder engine. Robert Jenkins, the team’s troubleshooter and all-around gun fighter was good at stuff like that. The issue was which boat to take. Team Wood had decided to take the fight to the enemy at Fort Sumter, which hadn’t been in any of their plans. Not even that of tactical commands.
“No Michael, I’m not drunk! Can’t you see the cloud over the fort on your cameras? I swear to you that if the Demon Lord is in this town, Fort Sumter is where it’s at!” Xavier yelled into his audio pickup device.
The fancy tourist trolley had just been sitting there, so his team took it. Deviating from the Master plan meant his team was going rogue, but it was a necessity.
Commander Michael Best, Arcane’s tactical commander, gripped the console in front of him to steady himself before speaking. “Xavier, we put that plan together specifically for your team to use. You need to explain why you aren’t using it.”
“We split up from the FBI Witch and her people. Were you aware she could penetrate our shields?” Xavier asked.
There was silence on the other end as Michael held his tongue.
“So you were aware of that.” Xavier closed his eyes and took a jagged breath. “We could’ve been killed, you know? Hamilton and Victoria are still trying to figure out how she did it. So we split up. The mass of Demons stopped their infiltration and seemed to be moving in an easterly direction, toward that Magical cloud. According to my Mages, Portals like that one don’t just appear out of nowhere. The one we seek has to be out there.” Xavier hooked a thumb over his shoulder before he realized there was no camera on.
“So you changed the plan,” Michael remarked.
“Exactly. We changed the plan. All that’s left now is getting out there and stopping the Demon.” Xavier explained to his boss.
“I’ll let you get to it then. Our techs tell me that only historic Charleston is affected by the cell tower blackout, so stay in touch. Command out,” Michael said, then cut the connection.
“He sounds a bit strained,” Victoria commented.
Xavier looked out into the harbor. “Did I ever tell you they offered me that job? You have no idea the pressure on that position. You have to answer to both Right and Left, and sometimes to the President himself. When I said no, they promoted Mike. Forget about him. Do we have a boat?”
Even as the words left Xavier’s mouth, the sound of an engine cranking broke the silence in the air. Both Xavier and Victoria looked to the right to see TJ waving.
“Looks like our ride is ready,” Victoria remarked.
Xavier smiled and said, “Now the real challenge begins. Are you sure you two can close this thing?”
Victoria took her boss’s elbow as they strolled down the pier. “Leave the Gate to us. A bit overblown, but that’s what that thing out there has to be. All our intel says that the Demon, and we’re sure it’s harbored in Camilla’s body, she or it hasn’t left either of Autumn’s houses. Even a Demon needs to do specific things to engrave a Portal into the living earth. It has to be a Gate. We closed the one in Sicily, didn’t we?”
“True, you did, but it took modern explosives to do it, not Magic. I just worry. Sicily’s lights and clouds didn’t look like that,” Xavier pointed out.
“Not that we saw. But we were underground at the time, remember?” Victoria replied.
Xavier nodded, remembering finding the Portals in Sicily. That was a battle to remember. Just getting in there was bad enough. Finding more than one of the permanent Portals was a shock he and command were still recovering from. They’d been destroyed on site.
“This spell is beautiful. The one who created it must have been a Master in their own right. The outer circle should have held whatever it was they brought up except for this spot right here.” Victoria pointed to a portion of the spell next to one of the elemental symbols. “That is wrong. It changed the basic spell allowing entry. The one who wrote this did it on purpose.”
“Can you stop it? We’re running out of time, here.” Xavier replied even as Robert’s gun ran out of ammo.
“Time’s up.” Robert dropped the minigun and pulled out his pistols again.
“Do it or die.”
Victoria laid both her hands on the edge of the
permanent circle. The faint white glow around her grew brighter and brighter as she started to pray in what sounded like Gaelic.
TJ slashed at an Imp that suddenly popped out of the portal. His left-handed swing caught the beast across the front as his right swing removed the head. He brought the right blade back around just in time to cut another Imp’s right side. His follow through with the other blade cut half the thing’s face off.
Hamilton stepped up, focusing his hand in front of his body. Like cupping an invisible ball, the Mage held a black shield of swirling smoke over the active Portal. The strain obvious in his voice, Hamilton whispered, “Close it! I can hold them only a moment,” into the mic.
Victoria held up her left hand while keeping the right on the ground. “Now.”
Xavier gripped her hand, and the effect on the man was massive and immediate. He staggered to one side as he felt a huge wave of his energy leave his body and rush along invisible channels into the female Mage. Victoria tried to pull loose to sever the connection, but the commander held on for dear life. The hole needed to be closed, even if it killed him.
Another light flashed. This time it came from Victoria’s right hand. The air crackled with power as the now visible hole began to close. It was as if a whirlpool was created from nothing. Demonic hands, claws, and other appendages tried to claw their way through, but the hole closed anyway.
Panting heavily, Victoria looked up at Xavier, who still clutched her hand. “It’s done. I still sense something else here. We need to find it.”
And find it they did. Portals from a time lost to human comprehension. Destroying them was important and necessary. And as Victoria had told him at the time, a huge loss of intel. Mr. Right had called him to yell during the transatlantic flight from Sicily. He’d been pissed. The leadership behind Arcane had been searching for active Portals for a long time.
Victoria looked at them reverently. She touched each piece of molding gently. “They’re doorways. Permanent Portals to other dimensions or alien worlds. Creatures like the Fae and the Vampire race used them to travel in the ancient world. Arcane is aware of their existence, but to my knowledge, we don’t have access to them.”
“Can you tell where they lead?” Robert asked. He had his pack open and was pulling out the last couple of items.
“There are only a few clues. That one has a Dragon on the lintel. They are an extinct species here on Earth but could exist elsewhere. The two in the middle are unknown to me. The carved letters are alien.” Victoria touched the last door and almost took a step into it.
“What’s that one?” Robert had a camera in his hands and was taking pictures as fast as he could.
“Time to go,” Robert ordered as he looped detonation cord around each door and the walls.
“Robert, you can’t!” Victoria laid her hand on Robert’s arm. “These are priceless! We’ve never found a set of working doors like this before.”
“We’re in the protection business. This is a threat. Remember all the Demons we saw? How much do you want to bet they went through one of these? This is our job.” Robert yanked his arm away and attached a small electronic device to the cord. “We have to go. Now!”
All three team members were running when the explosion went off. None went to check to see if the wall was demolished. There simply was no time. Robert’s report would recommend the site be destroyed by air, but that was up to Command.
“Go! Go!” TJ waved and yelled at the rest of the team as he started up the stairs. “We’ve set off something that is dangerous!”
Even as he said it, the monastery walls shivered. The explosive shock waves raged through the building, touching off cave-ins and causing large chunks of the ceiling to fall.
Firing at their pursuers more than a hundred Demons, Xavier ran up the steps after the others. A small cloud of dust and dirt billowed out of the cavern complex.
“What did you find down there?” Xavier asked, his breath coming in pants.
“Trouble with a capital tee. There was a full Portal system.” Robert explained. He started to talk about the ornamentation and language of the doors, but Xavier cut him off.
“You did the correct thing. Command will… Actually, I know they will freak out and come down on you like a ton of bricks, but it was still the right thing. We watched those Demons go somewhere, and we cannot afford to experiment on where. Opening Earth up to a possibly even bigger invasion cannot be allowed. Regardless of the wishes and desires of the people we work for.”
Xavier shook his head to clear it. Now he was going to do it again. Saving the world from Demons was the goal. Not exploring places humanity had no place visiting. He looked at the tour boat, squinting his eyes. “This thing’s a bit big. Can you handle it?”
TJ laughed and pointed toward the top of the boat. “Not me. Robert over there is the expert.”
Xavier gave him a nudge and all three of them walked down the gangplank to the large tour boat. At more than thirty feet long, it was massive.
Robert stood in front of a panel of lights and switches. Expecting a wheel like in the movies, Xavier was surprised. “Can you drive something like this?”
Looking back at his boss, Robert smiled. “I used to be a SEAL. I can drive anything.”
Pushing a lever forward, Robert gave the engine some gas and carefully turned the small wheel in front of him.
A loud scraping sound could be heard, then suddenly there was a crash! The boat shuddered and the engine started to race. Everything was trembling.
Robert gave the boat more gas and the trembling increased. “We’re stuck on something…” He started checking all the gauges. “Did you untie us?”
TJ just looked at him. “No? What do I know about boats? You said get the boss.”
“Somebody cut the lines!” Robert shouted.
Xavier turned towards the door, when the boat yawed to starboard, suddenly striking the opposite pier with a loud thud. Everyone but Robert was tossed to the floor. He only just managed to grab the wheel of the boat. But in doing that he sent them to port again!
“Can’t you do anything?” Hamilton’s eyes began shooting light green sparks, he stormed into the wheelhouse and grabbed the wheel pulling it into the correct position. “All of you, off MY bridge. I’m taking over.”
“No, I’m the one who was navy. I’ve got this,” Robert explained.
“Navy what? Dishwasher? Trust me on this. I have way more experience than you do with ship handling. Go play with your toys.” The Mage’s hand suddenly glowed a sinister green color. “I can make you.”
“Fine.” Robert stomped off the deck like a two-year-old.
“TJ, go with him. Make sure he doesn’t drown or something.” Xavier looked to the Mage. “Thank you, Hamilton. We were in trouble.”
“You think? Just go away. I’ll get us there,” Hamilton turned back to the controls and started pressing buttons.
Xavier watched for a moment and when the boat didn’t explode or anything, left the wheelhouse. There was a battle to prepare for.
Hamilton watched them leave and let out a comment to himself. “Idiots.” His own naval career was so top secret that he couldn’t think about it and not break security. The existence of his own Magic caused his former career to vanish overnight. Security agencies don’t like potential mind readers.
Victoria looked back at the wheelhouse and asked, “Does he know where to go?”
“I’m just letting him drive the boat,” Xavier explained.
“You guys worried about the Demon Bats or anything out here?” TJ asked. He pointed up at the sky. “They’re swarming over there.”
All three of them looked up, studying the colonies of bats that weren’t of this earth.
“They’re pretty far away still. Keep an eye on them for us, TJ. Did Robert get settled in somewhere?” Xavier asked.
“Main cabin. He’s loading all the guns.” TJ hooked a thumb over his shoulder.
“What used to be over there?�
� Victoria pointed at the small island they were passing. A ruin or something was right on the highest point.
“Castle Pinckney. It’s been a fort since the 1700’s. They used it as a prison during the Civil War. Used to be an anti-aircraft station during the last Demon War. Too bad it isn’t still there,” Xavier pointed out.
“How do you know this stuff? About Charleston, I mean?” Victoria asked.
“Lived here as a kid. My dad was stationed down near Parris Island. They really cram local history down your throat in the schools around here. I’m surprised I remember this much,” Xavier replied.
“What do you think is over there?” She looked to their target.
“Hell on earth. We only got a taste of it over in…” Xavier started to say but was suddenly thrown forward as the boat hit something.
Wham!
The boat started to lean to one side as smoke began pouring out of the engine compartment. Hamilton jumped or floated down from the wheelhouse and landed on the main deck. “We need to abandon.”
“What happened?” Xavier asked.
“Hit something, a reef or sandbar. I didn’t see it on the radar but I’m not that familiar with this harbor,” Hamilton explained.
“This is why you should’ve left me alone. Now we’re sinking!” Robert yelled.
“You tried to kill us before we even started!” Hamilton shouted back.
Xavier stepped between the two men and shouted, “We don’t have time for this! Lifeboats?”
“Doesn’t have one or it fell overboard already. We need to go, or we could get sucked under,” Robert explained.
“Go where? All I see is water,” Victoria cried out.
Xavier looked ahead. “What about that? It looks big enough to hold us.”
Ahead of the boat was a tall buoy-like structure sticking up out of the water. It had a flashing light at the top and a bell.
All the members of Team Wood grabbed as much gear as they could and jumped into the harbor.