The Perfect Ten Boxed Set

by Dianna Love

  My voice was calm and deep as I raised my hands and began the summoning chant once more:

  Here in this place and before the eyes of the unbelievers, come forth.

  I call the creatures of the elements. The seekers of release who wish to walk amongst the humans.

  I bid you to destroy the binds holding you in thrall.

  Come. Prove yourselves.

  A faint wind brushed against my skin. A hot, dry wind, not from damp Maryland in March, but someplace far away. Smelling of sulfur and brine.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and kept chanting, stretching my arms higher, deepening my voice, ignoring the frisson of warning along my skin.

  There is a reason for being. Journey here. Now.

  May your masters honor and bow before you. Sending you on your way.

  You who laugh at the mortals. Come close.

  Echo-demon I summon thee!

  The wind picked up and I swore I could feel grit and sand abrading my skin. Kelly caught her breath. I kept my eyes closed.

  We welcome you demon of the deep. Come play with us. Show us your might.

  Demons did love a dare.

  The lights in the room flickered then went out. My eyelids flew open. Fortunately the few kerosene lanterns stayed lit even as they cast long wavering shadows dancing across the room and deepening the darkness in all four corners.

  Mandy was no longer scowling but sending wary glances over both shoulders. Jaylene faced where the danger was greatest, head-on, towards the circle. After her childhood, what was one lone demon?

  Kelly’s breathing came short and shallow. I feared she’d hyperventilate before I finished the summoning. But I couldn’t stop now. The echo-demon was too close. I could feel its presence like sharp cat claws stepping paw-by-paw across my exposed arms. The tensing of my neck and shoulders. The knot tightening in my gut.

  “Come on,” I whispered. “Show your ugly face. Come forth and die.”

  Now! Echo-demon. Close nearby as day dissolves into night. Show us your—

  The explosion ripped through the room, tossing me far enough backwards that I landed with a curse on my tailbone. Ten feet in front of me, Jaylene and Mandy held their positions. They were no longer waiting or wary. Legs braced, swords held high, muscles tensed. They were ready for bear.

  Crap. Where was. . .Kelly had winked out. Only her sword shook in the flickering light. The late afternoon sky had clouded over, as if evil brought its own darkness.

  And not one but three echo-demons swirled like a bad nightmare in the middle of the gym; twelve feet tall, brackish green in color, scales covering their bodies as they materialized into more corporeal shapes. First one, with three horns sprouting from his misshapen head, then the second, with a gaping mouth of shark-like teeth, and then the third, with a double-forked tail, each ending in a knobby spike.

  Oh by the Great Spirits, what had I done?

  CHAPTER 3

  Kelly’s sword splattered against the ground as the horned demon laughed. A rasping, high-pitched roar climbing the scales that could make a hardened soldier’s blood curdle and be heard as far as Washington D.C.

  What the heck were the four, or the three of us who were visible, to do now?

  Not sit on our asses for sure. I pushed my hands to the floor to jump to my feet. Too late, I realized my mistake. I forgot my bleeding finger.

  Even this far from the kerosene lights I could see the splayed imprint of the fingers of my right hand against the floorboard. A jagged outline of blood from my still bleeding finger clearly visible.

  I’d just given the demons permission to break the containment circle.

  “Watch out,” I shouted, slamming forward, unarmed. “They’re free.”

  Too late. The laughing one had already swooped toward Mandy who was whirling and slashing as if she’d been in sword fights all her life.

  Jaylene swore and attacked the two demons still wavering in the circle.

  Go Amazon!

  I rushed toward Kelly’s sword only to trip and fly, face first onto the floor beneath the nearest demon. The one with the snapping jaws who gaped down at me, looking as surprised as I was. At least I thought his expression was surprise and not, “oh-yippee-ki-yay—a snack.”

  I’d forgotten that just because I couldn’t see Kelly didn’t mean she wasn’t there.

  Idiot.

  Dead idiot if I didn’t do something.

  Kelly’s sword was out of my reach as I rolled away from a massive, clawed paw slamming the floorboards beside me. The two-tailed demon was no longer off guard and no longer immobilized.

  But it would be, I thought, as I rolled onto my back, pulled my knees toward me, and thrust my feet out, hoping what I aimed for was a set of very large demon balls.

  Being raised with brothers taught me where males were most vulnerable and not to hold back when in a brawl. Especially a life or death one.

  A blood-curdling scream rattling my eardrums told me I’d guessed right.

  Score one for Noziak.

  The demon curled in on himself, not enough to be out of commission, but enough for me to clamber to my knees and slam a shoulder into the backside of the nearest other demon knee, the demon Jaylene battled.

  It faltered, but that was all. My shoulder would be black and blue for a week.

  Now I knew how David fighting Goliath felt. But at least he’d had a slingshot.

  Two-tail monster was straightening, looking as pissed off as an echo-demon could. He released another bone-rattling scream and lunged toward me.

  The only place for me to back away was deeper beneath the shark-toothed one Jaylene fought. But if I scuttled too far beneath it, I risked Jaylene slashing me. Not far enough and I could be smashed by one of two-tail’s hammer tails or his reaching claws.

  “Alex!” Kelly screamed my name from somewhere outside the circle as I saw a sword sliding across the floor my way. I just hoped Kelly wasn’t attached to it.

  I turned, curled, and lunged as if heading for home plate with a third out hanging in the balance.

  My grab for the sword was clumsy, but I wasn’t going for style points as I grabbed and thrust the slicing sword’s edge toward the nearest green. It proved to be the leg of the two-tailed monster that wanted me. Bad.

  “Take that. And that.” Yeah, I sounded like a cartoon character, but if I could shout I could still breathe as I slashed right and left, aiming for tendons, or joints, or anything that would topple this monster. I fought from the floor and then my knees. The team’s martial arts instructor was going to rake me over the coals for my sloppy control.

  If I lived.

  “Mandy,” I heard Jaylene scream somewhere to my right. “Get up.”

  Not sounding good.

  And all my slashing and hacking was like dismantling a California Redwood with a butter knife. Only this dude was yucky green and grinning as if it knew whatever I did was in vain.

  Think, Noziak, think.

  But with an echo-demon bearing down on me thinking was the last luxury I had.

  I slammed the sword hard enough into the monster’s foot to earn another roar and vibrations up my arm as the blade bit into floorboard beneath the beast.

  Damn.

  “Noziak, roll away,” a voice shouted. Male. Must be Stone.

  Thank God, the cavalry had arrived.

  I didn’t question but flipped into an awkward, wobbly roll taking me a few feet away from the heat of the battle. I hadn’t even come to a full stop when I heard a hissing rat-a-tat-tat like a muted jackhammer.

  What?

  I scrambled to my knees, sword held at an angle in front of me, my arms shaky from muscle burn and saw the two-tailed echo-demon doing the rumba.

  Wiping sweat out of my eyes. I could see it wasn’t dancing as much as reacting to a warfare stun gun gripped in the hands of Stone, standing not five feet from it. The scent of burning demon flesh made me throw my arm across my nose, but it didn’t help. Besides, I could see Jaylene needed
backup with the two demons converging on Mandy.

  Jaylene held the most threatening demon at bay as I rose to my feet and rushed forward to do a swoop and grab toward Mandy who cradled her good arm and was tottering on her feet. Of course a swoop and grab works best when the other person knows I’m coming, is capable of grabbing my arm back, and isn’t freaked to the max. Instead I did a body tackle that splayed Mandy on the floor a good ten feet from the nearest monster. I jackknifed to my feet, hearing her cussing a string of Spanish I didn’t want to know the meaning of.

  “You’re welcome,” I shouted as I ran and slashed at the nearest demon, the shark-jawed one.

  “Just hold them off,” I panted at Jaylene, fighting almost shoulder to shoulder, which wasn’t smart with swords, but we’d gone from smart to suicidal the second the demons had appeared. I’d be happy for survival.

  “Stone coming.” Hack.

  “Stun gun.” Hack. Hack.

  “Hold on.” Splat.

  An arm bigger than my mid-section swatted my shoulder and sent me careening into the nearest wall, taking out a kerosene lantern on the way, and ending in a sprawl against wooden side boards.

  The air whooshed out of me as the lantern winked, then sputtered out. I swear my bones rattled.

  “What the . . .” I raised my head enough to see Stone had one demon down, but not dead, unless they could twitch indefinitely. Stone was tasering the horned one while Jaylene had taken over swiping at Jaws. But her strikes were wide and weakening.

  Swords weren’t cutting it. Pun intended as I scrambled for what would stop these things. For good.

  A drop of blood slipped into my vision from a cut near my right eye. It stung like a banshee’s bite but knocked some sense into me.

  At last.

  I’d summoned the demons. I should be able to send them back.

  Optimum word being the word should.

  I mentally apologized to my dad for the second vow I was breaking. Calling forth demons, of any kind, came at a cost. Sending them back did not eliminate the price the one who summoned them had to pay. This was not a child’s game.

  No kidding.

  Besides I didn’t know if I had enough left in me to do anything except flap my hands, and even that was in doubt.

  I wavered to my feet, bending at the waist as cracked or broken ribs were not giving me much leeway.

  Fine. I stretched my arms from there, no doubt looking more like a bowing supplicant than an all-powerful witch-shaman.

  Inhaling as deep a breath as I could, I tried to ground myself in the moment, ignoring Jaylene and Stone fighting without me as I shouted the names of the four elemental kings.

  Yod He Vau He, king of the east.

  Adoni, king of the south.

  Eheieh, king of the west.

  Agla, king of the north, from whence all warriors abide.

  Call back those who belong to you.

  My voice wasn’t loud enough. I sounded more like a wheezing lightweight. But if I didn’t get this spell cast, Jaylene was going down. Then Stone. Then the rest of us.

  I straightened a little more, gasping at the pain and pushing it to the side, ignoring my blurring vision.

  I conjure thee O Circle of Power that beist a boundary between the realms of men and the realms of demon-kind.

  Guardian and Protection I shall preserve and contain.

  As I have called so shall I send.

  Be gone!

  Demons of the deep. Be gone!

  I slid to my knees, every ounce of energy within me sucked dry. Except for one last call.

  Be gone!

  The power of three. With a loud crack as if something solid torn asunder shook the room, Jaylene staggered backwards. Mandy remained curled on the floor. And even Stone, the one amongst us with the most battle experience, swayed.

  But I didn’t care. Not then. Right then I was a hundred percent focused on the swirl of orange and red sweeping from what had been the middle of the containment circle. Only now it was a vacuum of power, a whirlwind spinning counter clockwise and inhaling the three demons as if they were fallen leaves.

  Stone ducked. Jaylene fell to her knees, head bowed.

  Kelly’s voice shouted, “Take that you green baddies.”

  Baddies? Muggers and forgers were baddies. Echo-demons in mass? Oh, we’d passed baddies a long time ago.

  The volcano of power whirled and twirled and then, poof, disappeared.

  And silence reigned, broken only by the hiss of the remaining lanterns, heavy breathing by all of us, and a small whimper from someone. I couldn’t even manage that.

  Jaylene crawled toward where Mandy lay in a motionless fetal curl. Stone looked around as if not trusting the disappearance, or he was trying to figure out where Kelly was.

  I just concentrated on my next shallow breath. It was all I could do. That and try not to let go and sink into the oblivion clawing at me.

  Noziaks didn’t faint.

  Until Jaylene called out, her voice hard and guttural, “She’s dead. You killed her.”

  Damn, what had I done?

  Maybe, just this once a Noziak could black out.

  CHAPTER 4

  The following morning I was still asking myself what had I done wrong. But for different reasons.

  I was flat on my back in one of those sterile hospital beds in the compound’s infirmary. Morning light cantered through the side windows, making everything look more metallic and white than it was, if that were possible.

  You know the uppity-ups expected a high-casualty rate when the fanciest, most well-equipped room I’d seen so far at the training ground was the hospital. No doubt this place saw a lot of action. I hadn’t seen the morgue yet, so maybe that was even more state-of-the-art.

  “You’re an idiota, Noziak. You know that? A freaking pendejo.”

  And this was my punishment. A bed next to Mandy with no bars, no sound baffling, and no referee between us.

  Jaylene had been wrong. Mandy hadn’t died. Close, but not close enough. She might feel like death was still an option, but she was alive and kicking with her mouth, the only weapon still available to her. And man, was she using it.

  A very small, very petty part of me wondered what it’d take to quiet a spirit walker? What kind of dispersing spell might work? Not for good, but long enough to have her shut up.

  But it seems that it takes a lot more than an echo-demon attack to take out a Latina spirit walker.

  My luck.

  “Didn’t the doctors tell you to keep a lid on it?” I snarled back, wishing I could turn on my side away from her, but the bandaged ribs, cracked not broken, and bruises along both shoulders made that move too painful to contemplate. And it was only last week that I’d regained use of my left hand, badly mauled by a Were-hyena the first week of training.

  “Docs said I was lucky to be alive. No thanks to you.”

  “Weren’t you the one busting my chops to get a little demon action?” I asked in my smarmiest, sugar-coated voice. The one my brothers would recognize meant walk warily around me. But Mandy was not one of my brothers, or my family, or even a friend.

  Damn, I should have accepted the pain meds when they’d offered them earlier. But no, Noziaks didn’t do painkillers.

  “You are one dumbass bruja,” Mandy continued as if she hadn’t heard me. “And you’re supposed to be our ace in the hole. More like ass in the hole. Our asses, your hole.”

  Okay, I got it. She had a busted arm, a fracture in her right leg, and a gash or two, or maybe more, but that didn’t mean I had to lie here and take her crap. Not when I had enough crap of my own swirling through me.

  Guilt. Regret. Anger.

  Mandy was right. I’d nearly killed the whole squad in one training exercise. And I hadn’t even told them it was a bloody miracle that the dispersal ritual had worked. Stone expected us to work together as a unit, dependent on each other for survival when we faced nonhumans on assignment. What was going to happen when we hit the
real world, with real demons and other monsters that made echo-demons look like pussycats?

  My mind whirred through a litany of bad-ass non-humans and they were only the ones I knew about, no telling what other ghoulies walked the earth.

  Maybe life in prison wasn’t such a bad option. There all I’d have to worry about was staying alive. Here I had that to deal with while praying to the Great Spirits I didn’t kill anyone else. Especially someone depending on me to protect them. What if it had been Kelly in that bed instead of smart-mouthed Mandy? The room would be quieter, but the guilt would be even worse. Or Kelly in the morgue because of me?

  That was it. Let the IR team be minus a worthless witch-shaman. Let them find someone else to summon evil and battle it at the same time. I sucked at both abilities.

  “I’m out of here,” I mumbled, grabbing the bedsheets with a white-knuckled grip to yank me into a sitting position, one accompanied by a lot of grimaces and shallow breaths.

  First stop: tell Ling Mai, head of this organization, that I was reneging on my earlier agreement. I was now opting for Door Number One. Life in prison for killing the rogue Were who’d attacked my brother.

  Second stop: say goodbye to Kelly, the only one of the IR team members who would actually notice I wasn’t around anymore. Vaughn, the team leader, might catch that I’d vamoosed, but I didn’t want to hang around long enough to track her down.

  Third stop: find a phone and call my dad before I was hauled off in cuffs.

  Yup, sounded like a plan to me. Sweat had popped out on my forehead by the time my bare feet hit the coolness of the linoleum floor.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Mandy grumbled, turning her head in my direction.

  She looked like hell, with green and blue bruises marring her face, her jaw swollen, and a killer of a black right eye. For once, I didn’t feel like pointing out the bad news.