Reaper: The Demontouched Saga (Book 3)

by Douglas Wayne

  It takes me a few moments, but I manage to pull the amulet back to my hand. Before I can do anything with it, though, Baldie knocks it free. I hear it rattle as it hits the pavement. I need to shift to bring it back, but something tells me that I missed my shot.

  “You have some balls, priestie. I’ll give you that,” Pimp Hat says.

  “Unlike you.” One of these days I may learn to watch my mouth. Today is not going to be that day. If I’m gonna die, it’s going to be on my terms.

  It takes everything I have to not scream when Baldie pulls the knife from my arm. I feel the warmth of the blood as it flows down to my fingertips. I have to take a few breaths to keep from blowing chunks all over the duo.

  I have never been good with blood loss. My wife used to make fun of me because I would nearly pass out every time I had blood drawn. Right now I feel about a hundred times worse than that. The only semi-positive news is that Eunie has clearly backed off.

  Pimp Hat puts me down and faces me away from him. “Start walking.”

  “I’ll get the bitch.”

  These two ass clowns have just hit my limit. You can mess with me a hundred different ways and I’ll gladly take it. I may kick your ass for it, but I’ll take it. Messing with my woman is clearly crossing the line.

  I try to pull off a roundhouse kick on Pimp Hat right behind me and miss him by a proverbial mile. I’m no Chuck Norris, but I should have at least hit him. I don’t even get a chance to make up for my shitty effort before I take a fist to the chest.

  With the pain in my arm, and now my gut, it takes me a few to get to my knees. When I do I only get rewarded with a cracked rib or three thanks to Baldie’s boot. Not that I want to admit it, but this fight just crossed the impossibility barrier. The only thing I can do from here is give Sara a chance to run.

  From my vantage point on the ground, it looks like Baldie doesn’t have a firm grip on my knife. It’s a shame he doesn’t have it closer to a vital organ since I need a killing blow to take him down. I’m not so sure that a simple knife wound will do a lot of good at this point.

  So I try the only other move I have. I reach forward, managing to pull the knife from his hand. The moment I feel it in my fingertips, I lunge at Pimp Hat with everything I have left. That isn’t a lot. The strike would have been dead on if his ribs weren’t in the way. As it is, he is on the ground feeling the same intense pain that I felt earlier.

  “How’s that feel?” I spit on the asshole before he can answer. Before I can make a move on Baldie he has me in a rather unpleasant full nelson which knocks my knife to the ground. I flail my arms in an attempt to get free, but he doesn’t budge. So I try the only other counter that I know.

  I jump up in the air, curling into a ball when my legs get near my head. Then I shift my weight forward and to my right, hoping to toss him over my shoulders.

  The end result isn’t even close to what I expected. He manages to shift his weight to counter my move. Instead of him being on the ground, he has me in a stronger hold. As an added bonus he is holding my head down to my chest.

  “Go to sleep, priestie. It will be much easier that way,” Baldie says.

  I have a minute or two left, if I’m lucky, before I pass out from air loss. Less if I keep struggling. I close my eyes and give in, hoping that he feels my lack of motion and drops his guard. It probably won’t work, but it’s all I have left.

  “Get away from me!” Sara screams.

  I open my eyes, trying to get a view of what is going on, but it’s hard to see anything when you head is being held down to towards the ground.

  “Don’t make us hurt you like your little boyfriend here.” Pimp Hat says.

  “Put me down!” she yells.

  My stomach drops. I don’t care that they have me. Shit, I’m surprised I lasted this long to be honest. Sara, though, doesn’t deserve this. It’s like the motel all over again. The only solace I have this time is knowing I’ll be unconscious before too long.

  It’s not helping me any now.

  I notice the ground starting to glow a shade of reddish-orange. It is coming from somewhere ahead of me, judging from the dancing shadows below.

  Pimp Hat lets out a blood curdling scream as the glow brightens. Within moments the only way I can tell it’s still night out is the shadows still lingering in my peripheral vision.

  “What the hell did you do, bitch?” Baldie drops me and I hear him jogging in Sara’s direction.

  I look up and see her backing up in an attempt to get some distance from him. I focus on the knife and send it into his back, making sure to put a little something extra into it when it got close. He drops on his face, dead before he even gets close.

  Sara runs to me at full speed. “Are you O.K.?”

  “I’ll survive. How about you?”

  “We have to get you to a hospital.” She puts her hand on my wound.

  “Rip it off,” I say holding my arm out.

  She tears off my remaining sleeve and wraps it tightly around the wound. I then remove a button from my shirt and slip my hand in like a sling.

  “I need to get to Uriel first.”

  “What is so important that you need to see her before getting your arm looked at?”

  “I need to know how you used the amulet.”

  - 3 -

  “Tell me, again, what did you do to activate the amulet?” Uriel asks her for the third time. She is just wanting to be thorough, but I can see the weight of the questions wearing on Sara.

  “I told you. I don’t know. When he tried to grab me I just closed my eyes and held my hands out.”

  “And then he just started burning?”

  “I was just trying to keep him away.” She wipes the tears from her eyes. “I didn’t mean to kill him.”

  “You did good, child.” She looks over the amulet again. “What I don’t get is why she could use it at all?”

  “Maybe part of Israfil managed to get imprinted into the amulet?” It was the only theory I had. The only information we had on the amulet was that it could imprison a demon and linking it to the wearer. I assumed that the demon could vacate after the person died. Apparently I’m wrong.

  “You may be right. We need to study this before you try to use it on Einuir. The last thing we want is to have you dealing with two demons fighting for your soul.”

  “No doubt. One is bad enough.”

  “As for Sara, I want to keep you away from it. We don’t know what it might do to you if you keep it around.”

  I fully agree with her there. It is scary enough knowing she was able to do something with it in the first place. I remember how much I changed after I made my pact. I don’t want her to go through that if I can avoid it.

  “What do you think about the attacks?”

  “I believe that your friend from the strip club was involved. They may have had the other blasts set up ahead of time, in case there were others outside of the building.”

  It was supposed to be a big event. It wouldn’t have been hard to imagine close to a hundred thousand people showing up for it. Shit, it would be hard to imagine that many people wouldn’t show up for a chance to get things back the way they were. Running water and electricity are two luxuries that most people would kill to have back.

  “Something still doesn’t fit. The only documents on that file we found were linked directly to the bombs in the convention center. If the two were linked, then why didn’t we find more?”

  “Israfil was a brilliant strategist. He loved to leave clues scattered around to throw us off of his trail. We would set up ambushes and attacks based on that information just to find ourselves on the receiving end.”

  “So you are telling me he knew we would learn about the bombs ahead of time? And then he knew we would have a celebration afterwards? Some of those bombs went off blocks away from the center.”

  “Sounds like something he would do.”

  She may know Israfil well, but I don’t think it’s possible he knew abo
ut everything. If the bombs went off closer to the center, then I agree her theory makes sense.

  My thoughts immediately wander to Nal. He was the only one I know that knew about the bombs inside the center and the victory celebration after I took down Israfil. When you add in the two demons that nearly took me out that were planning on taking me somewhere. I don’t normally believe the words that come out of a demon’s mouth, but right now the evidence is firmly in Duncan’s court. It’s a damn shame I had to kill him. It would be nice to ask him a few questions right about now.

  I pull out my phone and walk towards the door. There is an easy way to settle this.

  “Where are you going, Mitch?” Uriel says with a look of concern in her eyes.

  “I need to make a call.”

  “You’re grasping at straws. He isn’t what you think he is.”

  “Just because you gave him some toys to give me, doesn’t mean you know him any better. The man is in it for himself. He has been that way as long as I’ve known him, probably longer.” I walk through the door and turn around. “I’ll give him a chance to tell me his side of the story. He deserves that, at least.”

  I walk over to the wall surrounding her compound before turning around. I’m amazed when I see that she didn’t follow me out or send someone out to talk.

  I dial Nal’s number and wait. The phone rings about six times before going to voice mail. Knowing he might be in a meeting, I dial one more time. He knows to answer when I call twice in a row. When he doesn’t answer the second call I know something is up.

  I walk around the compound, following the wall. Part of me wants to believe he is really a good guy in disguise, but the other part of me wants to beat the living shit out of him. The clues all add up and point directly at him.

  Sending me to Duncan so he can kill me.

  The bombs going off around the convention center.

  Baldie and Pimp Hat trying to take me to see someone.

  If Nal isn’t involved, someone is going well out of their way to make sure it looks like he is.

  “You OK, Mitch?” Zeke says.

  “I’m good. Just have a lot of shit on my mind.”

  “It’s been a rough few weeks for you. Want to talk about it?”

  “I’m just trying to piece together the attack downtown. Someone went well out of their way to set that up. Everything was way too precise. When the explosions went off in the convention center, it took only seconds for the bombs in the city to follow.”

  “The demons want to enslave your kind. Many of them left Heaven the moment you were created.”

  “I’ve heard the stories. Lucifer and all.”

  “Yes, but he was only the first. There were thousands of others that left with him. He united them under the cause of destroying humanity. Lucifer meant to give God a reason why your kind was not to be worshiped.”

  “Why worship us at all? The only thing we are good at is getting ourselves in trouble. Shit, most of the people didn’t even believe in him.”

  “He loved all of his creations. He still does, even now.”

  “Then why not end this mess? Get the rest of us out of here. Let the demons have this shit hole.”

  “He made a promise, and he had to keep it. The demons promised a war in Heaven if he didn’t start the apocalypse.”

  “So he settled for a war on earth. Fought by people who don’t care about him. That makes sense.”

  “He doesn’t always make sense, but he continues to have faith in your kind. Especially in you.”

  “Why me? What makes me so special? Last time I checked, I joined the other side.”

  “Yet you fight for the right side. Most people would have given up a long time ago. Not only do you stand against the demons, you actively defy them. If God could, he would make hundreds more of you.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  “I can understand that, but it’s true.”

  “What about you? What do you think?”

  “I think you are worth dieing for.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  Zeke puts his hand on my shoulder. “Agreed.”

  “I need to get back downtown. Whoever did it may have left some clues behind. With any luck we can take down another demon before he does any more damage.”

  “You aren’t in any condition to fight. And you know if you go back, you will have to fight.”

  He is right, but I still have to get back there. Something big is going down and I may be able to stop it. “You going to stop me?”

  “No,” he says. “I’m going to join you.”

  “No confidence in me, eh?”

  “I have plenty of that, but you need someone you can trust with you. Someone you won’t have to worry about keeping safe.”

  “I won’t turn you down, that’s for sure. When do we leave?”

  “As soon as I give you something,” he says. “A gift.”

  “I’m not good with surprises. The last surprise gave me this.” I point to my arm.

  He breaks off a branch from a small tree. “Put this in your mouth and bite down.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Just do it. And close your eyes.”

  I put the branch in my mouth, closing my eyes as instructed. It doesn’t take long to understand why. I feel his hand on my arm heat flowing out of his fingertips. After a few seconds, I can only hope that the branch holds. I’ve burned my hand a few times when I worked in fast food, but I’d take that pain any day of the week.

  A bright light penetrates my eyelids. I clinch my eye shut even more, hoping to keep the light from blinding me.

  After nearly a minute, I feel relief as his touch changes from a searing heat to feeling like he had a cold towel on it. I loosen the grip on the branch and spit it out on the ground. “Am I good to open my eyes now?”

  “You are,” he says.

  My eyes immediately gravitate to my wounded arm. I remove the remnants of my sleeve expecting to see a nasty scar. Instead the arm looks normal. If you didn’t know that I was stabbed earlier that day, you wouldn’t think anything was odd.

  “What did you do?”

  “Some of us have the gift of healing. It doesn’t always work.” He twists my arm around to get a better look. “Seems like you got lucky.”

  “I’ve been really lucky lately. I just hope nobody dies when that luck runs out.”

  “People die, Mitch. You can’t stop that. The only thing you can do is to make sure you die of old age, or to a cause that is worth giving up your life for.”

  It doesn’t change my thoughts. I’ve been really lucky so far. It is bound to run out. When it does, I just want to be alone. I can’t let someone else die for me.

  “We should tell Uriel where we are headed,” he says. “She can be a worrier.”

  - 4 -

  The drive back downtown is abnormally quiet. I want to tell myself that it is normal, but the churning in my stomach tells me otherwise.

  “What did you see when you were getting out of there?” Zeke says.

  “Couldn’t make out anything with the darkness and the smoke. But I’m expecting to see some nasty shit when we get there. I heard a lot of screaming and gunshots early on. They got quieter as we got further away.”

  “Maybe they were trying to get all the people to one spot.”

  “Then explain how my path was clear. I would have been out of there if it wasn’t for that damn kid.”

  “They knew you wouldn’t be trapped easily, yet they still drew you in. I know you believe otherwise, but this looks like Israfil’s handy work.”

  “That’s even more far-fetched than Uriel’s story.” There is way too many pins that have to line up for that to be true. How the hell could one being, demon or not, know exactly what my moves would have been. One wrong turn, or if I had actually been an asshole and left the couple or just took the car and his plan is foiled.

  “A little faith can go a long way, Mitch.
”

  “I have faith in you,” I say. “In humanity is another issue entirely.”

  We are quiet the rest of the drive. I know he believes Nal is one of the good ones, but I need more proof. My gut is telling me I’ll find the truth out here, so it’s not worth arguing about any more.

  He parks the car about a block from where I got my ass kicked. They didn’t focus much in this direction, so I figure it would probably be the best way in. It’s not like we have a load of options.

  “Where to first?” he asks.

  “I need to get the pack and the sword from my car. It’s not far from here.”

  “Don’t think it’s being watched?”

  “Probably is, but I have to take that chance. I don’t want to be caught without a way to kill one of them again.” If I had the sword here last night, the fight may have been different. I would have had a much better chance of walking away from it, anyways.

  The area is in much worse shape than I expected. Chunks of debris are strewn throughout the streets, visible through a fine cloud of dust swirling through the air. We walk around blood that has pooled around the low spots in the roadway as we make our way down the street.

  “Where are all the bodies?” I ask as we close in on my ride. Last night this place was a battleground. With the explosions and the gunfire, you would think there would be a few bodies around. It’s not like we have a government agency in charge of cleaning shit like this up anymore.

  “I was thinking the same thing. We saved a few of the people, but there were already dozens of people we couldn’t help,” Zeke says. “Someone must have moved them.”

  “But who would want to do that?” I ask while pulling my stuff out of the car.

  “I don’t know, but it is clear someone has.”

  “Let’s take a look around. Maybe we can find them.”

  Zeke nods as he readies his bow. Some people may question his choice in weaponry, considering that guns aren’t that scarce. Where they see a lack of range and a distinct disadvantage in the power department, we see a huge advantage in the stealth department. When you use a gun, you get one shot before you lose your advantage. If you are lucky, that target is the key to the whole situation.