Before she could react, Shel was on her. He straddled her middle and wrapped his hands around her neck. Even without using his claws, the demon’s hands enveloped her throat. Jo thrashed and struggled the best she could, but the beast was too big, and she couldn’t get any leverage to hit it with her hammer.
She lay there, struggling, as the world started to shift to grey, and black dots closed in on her vision. She turned her face to the side, and just before everything went away, she caught one last glimpse of her mother and daughter in the stands, looking on in terror. Ginny’s eyes were huge, and Cassandra’s face was streaked with tears, but the old woman didn’t look away, just like she hadn’t looked away when Jo’s father died, all those years ago. Jo saw one last loving look in her mother’s eyes, then her vision faded to nothing.
Suddenly a shriek like a thousand tormented bats filled the air, and the pressure vanished from Jo’s throat. The weight on her chest gone, she rolled to her side and coughed, sucking in huge gasps of sweet, welcome air.
After long seconds of coughing and trying to breathe, Jo looked up and saw Mitch standing over her, flaming sword in his hand. His face was a rictus of pain, and his knuckles were white on the hilt of the sword, but he held it. He held it upright, the flames dancing along the edge of the blade and casting yellow-orange light across the ring.
“Come at me, motherfucker,” Mitch said in a low growl.
Shel leaned against the far wall of the cage, a mixture of fear and elation on his face. “It really is you. I didn’t know, but now...the sword...I see it. You really are Michael.”
“Apparently so,” Mitch said.
“I have to leave,” Shelton said. “There are people who will be very interested in this news.”
“You’re not going anywhere, demon. Not even to Hell.” Jo levered herself up from the floor with her hammer, then hefted it into both hands as she caught her balance. She looked over to Mitch, who nodded. “Let’s finish this.”
Mitch and Jo advanced on the demon, who now had a black-rimmed wound in its shoulder to match its pulped knee. Shel waved his clawed hands in front of his body, holding them at bay with his razor-sharp talons. He steered their fight around the perimeter of the octagon, turning slightly to his left with every step, working to position himself with his back to the cage door for a quick exit.
Jo took in his plan in an instant and took a deep breath. “There’s no way this doesn’t suck,” she said, holding her hammer straight out in front of her and letting out a guttural yell. “Aaaahhhh!”
Jo charged the demon, lowering her shoulder into Shel’s abdomen and slamming his spine into the cage, right on one of the lightly padded uprights. She knew from experience just how thin the padding was and just how solid the four-inch metal tubing that made up the corners of the homemade ring was.
Shel’s head snapped back and impacted the ringpost with a hollow gong sound, and Jo heard a rib or two snap under her shoulder. She backed up a few inches, then drove her shoulder into the demon’s gut again, letting a grim smile play across her lips at the whoosh of air escaping the monster’s lungs.
She felt the claws scrabbling across the leather coat on her back, tearing the thick material but unable to get to her flesh. She jammed the hammer into Shel’s lower abdomen, pressing the blessed silver-coated head into the demon’s body for a little more damage. The beast howled and tried to pull back, but there was nowhere to go. Jo felt the hammer blow of an elbow crash into her spine, and she fell to her knees.
On the ground, she bobbed her head side to side avoiding knee strikes from the demon, then slammed the hammer down onto one of Shel’s unprotected feet. A shriek filled the room, and Jo found herself rolling to the side as he thrust her off and dove for the middle of the ring.
Only to run right into a flaming sword held by a pissed-off angel in disguise. Mitch jabbed the blade at the demon’s middle, forcing Shel to backpedal and pinwheel his arms to keep balance. Jo stood up and swung her hammer at the demon’s head, connecting with a resounding crack.
The monster fell to the canvas, unmoving. Jo stayed back, rolling her shoulders and checking for wounds. Her coat was much the worse for wear, but the leather did its job in protecting her from the demon’s claws. She looked at Mitch, who stood with the sword in hand, a grimace of pain fixed on his face.
“Still nothing?” she asked.
“I still don’t feel like picking up a harp and dancing on clouds, if that’s what you mean,” he replied, his voice tight.
“That still hurt?” She nodded at the flaming blade.
“Like somebody jabbing needles into my palms,” he said with a nod.
“Let’s trade.” Jo walked over to him and held out a hand. He passed her the sword and took her hammer with a relieved sigh. The flames winked out the instant the sword left his grasp, and the room dimmed considerably. Jo looked up at the bleachers. “Y’all okay up there?”
Her mother and daughter nodded vigorously, and Jo called out, “I’ll be up there in just a second. Mama, you cover Ginny’s eyes.” She looked back at the demon sprawled in the center of the ring.
“I don’t know if this will work, or if you have to do it,” she said, walking to Shel’s lifeless body. “But there is no way I’m leaving this son of a gun in one piece.”
“Do you ever just say son of a bitch like a normal person?” Mitch said, stepping up next to her.
“I’m trying to set a good example for my baby,” Jo replied. She raised the sword up over her head and brought it down in a sharp chopping motion designed to sever the demon’s head from its shoulders.
And it would have, if there had been a demon there when her blow landed. But Shel sprang to his feet in a lightning-fast kip-up, going from flat on his back to standing before the pair in a blink, and he laid Jo out with an uppercut right on the point of her jaw. She fell back like a redwood toppling in a forest, and the sword went flying all the way across the ring. Jo lay on the mat, her head ringing and her vision blurry, as Shel stalked Mitch.
“Now it’s just you and me, angel. Just like in the bad old days, when you killed thirty of my brothers in the Battle for the Gates,” Shel said, his voice a sibilant rasp.
“I don’t remember any of that, but if you want to join them, come get some.” Mitch rolled his neck and popped his knuckles, bouncing from one foot to the other as he backed away from the demon.
“You know you’re going to die, right? It doesn’t matter how divine you are, once I rip that meat suit into half a dozen pieces, your pure little essence will just float away, scattered to the ends of the cosmos. There won’t be enough of your soul to put back together. You’ll be dead, angel, and I’ll be left here laughing and pissing on your corpse.”
“That’s nasty,” Jo said, struggling to her feet. “Don’t you know there’s a lady present?”
“Show me a lady, bitch,” Shel growled at her. He swung a looping backhanded left at her and knocked her ten feet sideways.
“She said, don’t call her that,” Mitch said. Shel turned and Mitch swung the borrowed hammer like he was Babe Ruth in the bottom of the ninth. The silver blessed hammer head crunched into the demon’s face again, and Shel crumpled to the ground like his strings had been cut.
“Nice one,” Jo gasped from the floor. “But I don’t think he’s done.” She pointed, and Mitch turned from her to see Shel rising from the mat once more. This time the demon didn’t spring up, but rolled over to one knee and stood, a little shaky on its feet.
“What’s the matter, big guy?” Mitch asked. “That one hurt?”
“Foolish angel, without access to your divinity, you can’t destroy me. But I can destroy you. Without you, there will be no return to the Throne. That means that we get to play on Earth as long as we like.” Shel smiled and advanced on Mitch. He kept his arms low and stretched out to the sides, claws extended. Mitch watched the demon’s hands but had to dive to the floor when the spiked tail lashed out at his face. Mitch swung the hammer at the d
emon’s ankles, but Shel leapt over it easily.
Shel landed with one foot on the hammer’s handle, and kicked Mitch in the face with the other. He reached down and picked Mitch up, holding him high overhead with his left hand. The hammer discarded, Mitch dangled in the demon’s grasp, unarmed and defenseless.
“Look upon the face of your slayer, angel. Know that I, Shelaxis, will go down in the annals of our history as the demon that slew the great Archangel Michael.” Shel drew back his right hand, claws extended to rip Mitch’s heart out.
Just before he struck, a blade suddenly protruded from the demon’s chest. Shel looked down, his eyes going wide as he took in the tip of Michael’s sword sticking through just above his left nipple. Mitch dropped to the ground, landing on his feet, and reached out to the blade. He wrapped his hand around the blade where it sprang from the demon’s chest and shut his eyes against the brilliance as the sword burst into flames. Still inside the demon, the sword burned with a holy fire that consumed Shelaxis from the inside out, and within seconds, the demon was reduced to a pile of ash in the middle of the ring.
The sword clattered to the floor, and Jo and Mitch sagged against the chain link walls of the cage. They looked at one another, exchanged weary smiles, and turned for the door. Jo held the cage door open for Mitch, who picked up the sword as he walked.
“I think this is yours,” he said, passing her back the hammer.
“Yep,” she said. “You keeping the sword?”
“If I can figure out how to turn these damn flames off,” he replied. “Otherwise it’s a little conspicuous.”
Jo laughed, then looked up at the bleachers. “I’m coming, Mama. It’s all over. We can go home now.”
Epilogue
“What the fuck do you mean, he doesn’t know he’s an angel?” the voice on the phone growled.
“Language, Harker,” Jo replied. “My little girl is in the car.”
“Sorry, Jo,” the voice said. “Sorry, Ginny. Don’t talk like me. Nice people don’t talk like me.”
“Are you not a nice person, Mr. Harker?” Ginny asked from the back seat of Shel’s Lexus. The keys were hanging from the ignition, and Jo knew he wouldn’t need it anymore.
“No, Ginny, most of the time I’m not a very nice person. Now please cover your ears while I talk to your mommy. I will probably use some other not very nice words,” Harker said over the speakerphone.
Ginny did as she was told, and Jo smiled at her. “I don’t know what the deal is, Harker. I put the sword in his hand, and it burst into flames, just like we thought. He used it to kill a demon, so there’s definitely some divine something going on here. But he has no idea about who he really is.”
“I think you people are batshit crazy,” Mitch said from the passenger seat, then winced as Cassandra leaned forward and smacked him on the back of the head. “Ow!”
“My daughter has done told y’all about cussing in front of her little girl. I might not be able to slap Harker right now, but he knows what he’s got coming to him the next time I see him,” the older woman said.
“Hello, Cassie.” Harker’s voice was softer now, with a tinge of sadness. “It’s been a while.”
“Almost thirty years, Quincy. Your uncle doing okay? I heard about his latest Renfield. Please pass along my condolences.”
“Thank you, Cassie. I will. Next time your daughter comes back east, why don’t you come along and bring that little girl? I know Luke would love to meet her.”
“Quincy, as much as I love your uncle, I am not in the habit of taking my granddaughter on cross-country plane rides to visit vampires,” Cassandra said with a laugh.
Harker laughed right back. “I can understand that, but I guess you’re probably not in the habit of driving around with an angel in your car, either.”
“You have a point, you old rascal. Tell Luke we’ll get out there sometime this year. I promise.” Cassandra leaned back in her seat and put her arm around Ginny. She pulled the girl close and replaced one of the hands covering the girl’s ears with her own.
“I’m going to hold you to that, old woman. If you’re not here by Christmas, I’ll send Adam to play Santa Claus at your house.”
“Oh Lord,” Cassandra laughed, a rich, deep sound that filled the car. “I know I don’t want that big oaf trying to fit down my chimney! Now you finish up with my baby so we can go home.”
“Will do,” Harker said. When he spoke again, his tone was all business. “Okay, Jo. I don’t know what the deal is with your angel, but we need him back here. Put him on a plane tomorrow. I’ll get you a credit card number. He’ll be able to carry the sword on the flight. I’ll take care of TSA.”
Jo looked over at Mitch, who nodded at her. “Fine, Harker. But what are you going to do with him when he gets there?”
“Honestly? I have no idea. I suppose I’ll put him in a spare bedroom and start working on breaking whatever spell has his memory blocked. It’s not going to be pretty, and it’s going to take a lot of time. Mind magic is complicated as—heck. It’s complicated as heck, and I’m not very good at it to start with. I’m usually more the ‘burn it all down and sift through the ashes’ kind of magician. But we’ll figure it out.”
“And you have to have him there for this?” Jo asked. Mitch shot her a grateful smile.
“Yeah, I do,” Harker replied. “It’s not just for my research and the spell; it’s to keep you safe. You got lucky killing Shelaxis. He was a low-level Pit Lord. If the folks downstairs get wind of an amnesiac angel wandering around without anybody watching his back magically, they’re going to be on you like dogs on a bone. I can’t let that happen.”
“He’s right,” Mitch said. “You almost lost your mom and daughter once because of me. I won’t let that happen again. I’ll be on that plane in the morning.”
“Good deal. I’ll email you flight details and where to pick up your new IDs,” Harker said, then hung up.
“New IDs?” Mitch asked.
“Yeah, welcome to working with Quincy Harker,” Jo said. “He knows a guy. Doesn’t matter what the problem is, he knows a guy.”
“You live a century or more, sweetheart, you’ll know a few of those kind of guys, too.” Cassandra said. “Now let’s get this precious baby home and in her own bed.”
“Good idea,” Jo said. She put the car in gear and headed out of the parking lot.
“Joanna?” Cassandra said from where she sat in the back with Ginny’s head in her lap.
“Yes, Mama?”
“I’m proud of you tonight. You did good. Grandaddy John would have been proud, too. You carried his hammer like a Henry,” Cassandra said. “I hope you don’t have to take it up in violence again, but I know if you do, it’s in good hands.”
“Thank you, Mama,” Jo said, then turned the car toward home.
Afterword
Hey folks, how’s it going?
I don’t do many of these “Notes from the Author things, mostly because I figure if you want to hear my crap, you’ll follow me on Facebook, or listen to a podcast, or find me somehow. I mean, I’m out there pretty much all the time.
But this book is a little different, so I wanted to take a moment to explain what’s going on. The four Shadow Council Novellas for 2017 (one each for Jo, Watson, Gabby, and Adam) are all interwoven with the four Quincy Harker novellas for this year. So it’s kinda like instead of telling eight 150-page stories, I’m telling one 1,200-page story, and I’m telling it to you in 150-page chunks every month or two.
If that sounds crazy to you, imagine how it feels to have to write it!
So this book tells the story of Jo and Mitch. Next in the sequence will be the next Harker book, then a Council book, then Harker, and so on. By the time we’re done, there will be one hopefully awesome story that weaves through both series. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope that I’m writer enough to keep it from getting confusing along the way.
See you in a couple of months for the next Harker adventure!
Acknowledgments
Thanks as always to Melissa Gilbert for all her help, and for trying in vain to teach me where the commas go.
Many thanks to the amazing Natania Barron for this cover. You should go buy her new book, Wothwood. It’s badass.
The following people help me bring this work to you by their Patreon-age. You can join them at Patreon.com/johnhartness.
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Calling All Angels (The Shadow Council Case Files Book 1) Page 9