A Shot in the Dark jjd-2

by K. A. Stewart

  He nodded, and I could see the exhaustion weighing down his shoulders. There were circles forming under his eyes already.

  “You need to rest as much as you can. We can’t let you sleep, in case you have a concussion, so you’ll have to make do.” I headed for the stairs, leaving the lantern behind. “We’ll continue the conversation in the morning, when you’re coherent.”

  I was halfway down the stairs before he spoke again. “Jesse.” I stopped, looking back with my eyes just level with the floor. “It may not have been the best idea. But they did what they had to do for the information. And it probably saved your life today.”

  “Yeah? Tell that to the Quinns. Let me know how safe they feel.”

  10

  T here really wasn’t much else to do. Wisely, no one wanted to venture out into the darkness with those things, and so we were left with nothing to do but bed down for the night and wait for the sun to rise.

  I was never any good at waiting. As the guys hauled their sleeping bags downstairs (opting to sleep in front of the fireplace instead of up in the loft), I did a walk-through of the cabin, checking defenses. Cam’s spell may be holding the nasty-bads back for now, but by his own admission, it wasn’t going to last forever.

  I started in the main room, and while it may have looked like I was merely watching the night outside the windows, I was actually passing my hand over the glass, feeling for Cam’s wards. At each one, I found the telltale prickle of magic in place, and I was careful not to touch it and disrupt the protections. With those in place, I might be able to doze a little, at least.

  On my way through the kitchen, I gave the faucets a twist, just to see the clear cold water come running out. The water was actually piped in from a spring just behind the cabin. A spring that, I hoped, was still on consecrated ground. “Hey, Marty? If you guys have any buckets, start filling them with water.” Siege strategy said that you first cut off water and food from those penned in. I didn’t know if the Yeti was versed in siege warfare, but why take the chance?

  Outside the back door, the night was cool and silent. To the west, the mountain peaks still had a faintly lavender glow, but otherwise night had fallen. Was dark always so black? In a few hours, the moon would be rising somewhere behind me, but right now all I had was the faint gleam from the cabin windows.

  The ward tingled a little when I passed through it, and I stood on the back porch for a few moments, listening to the world around me. Nothing moved. No birds, no animals, hell, I don’t think there were even any insects buzzing around. Everything sane had cleared out hours ago. Even if I couldn’t see the Yeti and his pets, I knew they were there.

  I flexed my fingers on the hilt of my sword and stepped off the porch. Funny, holy ground didn’t feel any different from regular ground, except for the very faint tingle across my skin. Magic. Cam could call it prayer if he wanted, but it all smelled and felt the same to me. I paid special attention to that tingle as I walked across the clearing, ready to jump back if I crossed the barrier between consecrated and not.

  Things were moving in the trees now, rustling softly. The only reason I could even hear it was that everything else was so freakin’ quiet. Whatever they were, they knew I’d left the cabin, and they were tracking right along the edge of holy ground. That wasn’t encouraging.

  The spring itself was the only natural sound for yards and yards. The water burbled quietly, trickling from a small spill of smooth rocks into a man-made pond. It was still within the boundary by about three feet, and I had to wonder how long it would take for the spell to fade, to open this up for attack. Once we lost our water, we’d be out of time to make decisions.

  How soon? I dipped my fingers into the pond, letting the pure water trickle over them while I had a good think. How long do we have? How long did Mira and Anna have, if those things were after Esteban? How long for Ivan, and Sveta, and Avery, and all the others I’d never even met?

  Barely a yard in front of me, the bushes parted and a bald head appeared, nose wrinkling to sniff the air. I stood slowly and brought my sword up, dropping into a defensive stance. The creature leaned forward, testing the invisible barrier between us, then hissed in silent displeasure. Whatever it was, it wasn’t willing to cross Cam’s threshold. “That’s a good boy. You stay right there.”

  It cocked its head to one side, a very human gesture of curiosity, almost like it understood what I was saying. Its eyes were solid black, but glowed somehow, and I got the impression that something larger was looking out at me from the inside. Goose bumps ran laps up and down my back.

  Another one slipped through the brush, roughly shouldering the first aside, and they bared their teeth at each other before turning to look at me again. I took the opportunity to get a good look at them, despite the darkness.

  Both male, that much was evident, their bodies were almost skeletal, stained and dirty skin stretched tight over a framework of bone. Their teeth were rotted black, and the odor of decay slowly permeated the area. They breathed, but made no other sound that I could hear, and they crouched on all fours like a hound rather than moving on two legs. Their movements would have been fluid on another animal, but on them they were strange and alien, like their bodies just didn’t fit what their brains were telling them to do. Or what their master is telling them to do.

  Their bare feet weren’t clawed, per se. More, it looked like their toenails had simply overgrown. The same with their fingers. Still, there was no mistaking the dexterity of their hands. I’d seen them grab and shred.

  Briefly, I wondered what would happen if I stood at the very edge of the marked boundary and cut their heads off. Something told me that would be a bad idea. I mean, shedding blood on holy ground? Just didn’t seem to be a good thing.

  A third joined them as I watched, the handless female I’d taken a bite out of earlier. If she noticed her missing appendage, it didn’t show. She shuffled around on the stump just as easily as on her remaining hand. The wound itself wasn’t bleeding, but I could see smears of something black and thick left on the foliage as she passed. I swallowed hard and tried not to think about what that was. Just looking at her was making me a bit queasy. I could have handled something more… animal, I think. They were just human enough to be grotesque. The wrongness of it all turned my stomach.

  The female silently snarled at the two males, and they slunk back, giving her space. Her gaze fixed on me, and there was something in there, something more than that otherly blackness the males had. I felt like she actually saw me. “And just who are you in there?”

  There was more movement in the bushes to my left as even more of them gathered, drawn by some unheard signal. It was time to go. Slowly, I backed toward the cabin, not willing to turn my back to the eerie creatures who had massed to my presence. I was never so glad to feel my heels hit wood as I was that night, stepping back up onto the small porch.

  “Darling, aren’t they?”

  Either I was getting slow, or Axel was really freakin’ fast. My sword missed his head by a fraction of an inch. I may have sliced hair. “Jesus freakin’ Christ!”

  “ Shh… No reason to get him involved.” The blond demon hooked his thumbs in his belt loops and leaned against the wall, shushing me with a grin. “And we wouldn’t want your buddies to come investigate the ruckus, would we?”

  “How the hell did you get here? The ground is-”

  “Consecrated? Yes, I know.” He made a face and spit. “Nasty business that. Hadn’t counted on that.”

  “Counted on wh-…” It made sense, suddenly. “You were inside already. Upstairs. That’s what Duke was growling about.”

  “Stupid mutt. At least he’s smart enough not to take me on.”

  “But how’d you get out here? The wards…”

  Axel snorted. “Your little priest friend should learn his limits. There’s barely enough power here to make me itch.” With a smirk, he demonstrated, hopping back and forth over the threshold of the open door. “I’m on the east side
, I’m on the west side. I’m on the inside, I’m on the outside.”

  “Wonderful. So the wards aren’t any good.” Just what we needed.

  “Au contraire. They’ll work perfectly fine against anything that isn’t me.” He grinned, and it occurred to me that his injuries from earlier were gone. Only the faintest hint of a shadow showed where the worst of the bruising had been. Damn, demons healed fast. “I’m just that good.”

  “What about the ones at my house?”

  “Ah, now those are good wards. Your little priest could take some lessons from your wife.” Somehow, that made me feel better. If Mira’s wards would keep Axel out, surely they could keep out anything else Hell sent at her. Just until I could get home.

  “So you’re… what? Lurking around here so you can offer to clue me in for… dun dun dun… a price?” I wasn’t up for playing games tonight.

  The demon frowned at me. “Now there’s no need to get snarky. I am what I am.”

  “Boy, don’t I know it.” I tried to move past him, and he barred the door with one arm.

  “Jesse, in all seriousness. You need to talk to me.” Sometimes, when he got all serious in my voice like that, I could almost believe him. Almost.

  “In exchange for what? I think I’m gonna be needing my soul soon, so I really can’t offer that up at the moment.”

  He nodded. “Yes, you’re going to need it. Even if I tell you not to, you’ll do it. Maybe because I tell you not to. But that’s because you are what you are. Rather static creatures, aren’t we?”

  “Same shit, different day.” Dammit. I needed information, and at this moment, I trusted the demon on the porch more than the priest upstairs. “All right. What info do you think I need, and what do you want for it?” There was this little voice in the back of my head screeching “Warning, warning!” but I ignored it.

  He pursed his lips a bit, moving to gaze out into the darkening night. “Aren’t you even going to ask me what they are?”

  “Would you tell me?”

  “I might.” He grinned without looking at me, but I could hear it in his-my-voice. “If you ask the right question.”

  “Can they be killed?” ’Cause really, that’s what it came down to. Whatever they were, wherever they came from, if I could kill them, I had options.

  “Decent question. The answer is yes.” He looked at me, waiting.

  I gritted my teeth. “ How can they be killed?”

  “Ah, now that was a good question.” He nodded. “Destroy the neural pathways, and the body will cease to function.”

  “So… boom, headshot.”

  “If you like. They do feel pain, and they know fear, but… they aren’t allowed to react to it. For the controlling force, they are tools, nothing more. Expendable. Don’t expect mercy from them. Don’t expect to reason with them.”

  They were still there, sitting silently in the bushes. It seemed, without my proximity to react to, they were simply left, waiting. I was reminded eerily of empty dolls, abandoned by some careless child. I shivered. “He’s the controlling force. The Yeti. Yes?”

  “The Yeti?” That got a laugh from him. “That’s priceless. I’m going to have to call him that from now on. Yes, they’re his. They only respond to him, because he made them.”

  “Made them how? What are they?” I honestly expected him to dodge that one. I mean, how to kill them was a pretty valuable piece of information and he’d just handed it over. Asking for more was just being greedy.

  You can understand my surprise when he kept talking. “You all look alike to us. Did you know that? If you and your brother stood silently side by side, I don’t know that I could honestly pick you out.” He gave me a small, sly smile. “It’s the voices that tell you apart. The voice is what calls us out of the darkness. That is what we follow into the light. Your voice is the doorway to your soul.”

  “That’s real poetic, Axel. You should write that shit down.”

  He rolled his eyes at me and pointed out into the night. “They make no sound. They have no voices of their own. Think about why.”

  “Am I going to be quizzed on this later?”

  “Maybe.” Dropping his arm to his side, he sighed heavily. “Nasty business, those things. Not done very often. It’s one of those things I wish we could unlearn.”

  I caught a hint of disgust in his voice, and I wondered at it. “Do you have any? Your own little army of creepy spider-monkey people?”

  “No.” The answer was short, clipped. “Whatever you think of me, there are things that even I won’t do, Jesse. And that is one of them.”

  Well, holy crap. Who knew Axel had morals? “So what do you want in return for all this? You don’t ever give me anything for free. And I’m fresh out of sticks.”

  He turned to face me again, his eyes flaring red for just a moment. “Never think this is a selfless act on my part, Jesse. These events work toward my agenda. All I ask from you at this time is to do what is true to your nature. And I’ll do what is true to mine.”

  “That’s not exactly comforting.”

  “It wasn’t intended to be. Unfortunately for you, you’re caught up in something you don’t understand. You’re the piece of straw being whipped around by the tornado.”

  I winced. “You had to say tornado?” After my close call with one last spring, I was more than a bit paranoid about even uttering the word. “So Cam was telling the truth? About a war in Hell?”

  Axel smirked again. Or still. Really, it was kinda his permanent expression. “You should get back inside before they come looking for you.”

  Ah, there it was. His limit. “And what about you?”

  “Me?” He shrugged his lanky shoulders. “I’ll be around if you think of any more good questions.”

  Great. My personal demon was gonna be playing Peeping Tom. There was one more thing that I really needed to know, if he’d tell me. “Cam says it’s a hit. That you’re all out to get us.”

  In the doorway, Axel stopped, glancing back at me. “Don’t trust the priest. He’s carrying around more secrets than you can possibly imagine.” Between one step and the next, he vanished. There was no scent of sulfur, proving that he wasn’t truly gone, just unseen.

  I gave it a moment longer, then went back inside myself. I suppose someone might have laughed at my dilemma. Should I trust the priest, who had already lied to everyone I knew, or the demon who fully admitted to having his own agenda? Yup, that was a corker.

  The guys had managed to draw up a couple of buckets of water, and Cole was looking over our food supplies when I passed through the kitchen. “How are we set, little brother?”

  “We were planning on a week, so we’ve got food. Water. Our real issue is going to be Zane.” We both glanced toward the big living room. I could see the Quinns sitting quietly with Cameron, three hands clasped together. Praying, maybe?

  Cam had his glass of water with him and I watched with interest as he dipped his fingers into it, tracing invisible symbols on Zane’s injured arm, paying special attention to the darkening flesh of his hand. The boy grimaced a little, as if it hurt, and the priest asked him something, to which he nodded. I lost whatever they were saying in Cole’s next comment. “At least those things can’t get close.”

  I didn’t have the heart to tell him it was only a temporary reprieve. Hopefully, we’d be long gone before Cam’s spell broke.

  After a bit of discussion, it was decided that sleep was the first order of business for everyone but Cameron. We’d each take a turn at watch, and take a turn at keeping him awake too. I, of course, intended to stay up and keep watch (I can sleep when I’m dead) whether they agreed to it or not. Marty opted to go first, and stood in front of the window, watching the clearing in front of the cabin. I elbowed him lightly as I passed. “You can sleep if you want, man. I got this.” He grunted in response, but really didn’t move.

  Duke’s massive form lay sprawled at the foot of the stairs, and he opened one eye when I bent down to scratch his ear
s. “Good boy, Duke. Very good boy.” Poor dog. I could only wonder what he thought of this whole situation.

  The big mastiff enjoyed the scratching for a few moments, his doggy sigh coming in somewhere between a moan and a growl. I knew how he felt.

  I settled near the dog, propping myself up against the stair rail, and we turned the lanterns down as low as we were comfortable with. Total darkness was not a happy thought.

  I lost track of time. Maybe even dozed a little. But when Duke moved, I came alert. The big dog raised his head, ears pricked, and whined softly in the back of his throat.

  At almost the same moment, Marty said, “Do you hear that?”

  I couldn’t hear a thing at first. Duke whined again and heaved himself up to his massive feet, padding to the door. He cocked his head and raised his paw like he might want out, then dropped it. His tail was tucked firmly between his legs, and his hackles rippled up across his muscled shoulders.

  Cole and Marty both got up, moving to the window again. “It sounds like… voices?” Once he said that, I could hear it.

  “Don’t… don’t go outside…” Cameron’s voice was faint, distant. Drowned out by the plaintive call from the darkness.

  Outside, someone was calling. It sounded like a man. I grabbed my sword-I wasn’t letting that out of arm’s reach again-and stood up, moving to take hold of the dog’s collar. Together, we opened the front door and stepped out on the porch, despite Cam’s continued protests. Duke seemed content to press tightly against my leg, torn between whining and growling.

  “Is someone out there?” Marty and Cole joined me, both looking to me like I should have all the answers. I was getting a bit tired of that look.

  The strange man’s voice called out of the night. “Order now before time runs out!”

  We all exchanged looks, and the call came again. “Just jump, I’ll catch you!”

  “What the hell is that?”

  The man’s voice was joined by another, and then a third, both calling out nonsensical phrases. “The rain looks like it should hold off the evening.” “Honey, what’s for dinner?”