“I’ve heard the story. You’re a legacy member of the Choir, eh? What’s that like, exactly? Hero to all? Rich and entitled?”
“She-roe to all would be nice. Not rich. Sometimes I think people expect more from me because I’m the daughter of a founding member. Sometimes I think people expect less.”
“Because you’re the daughter of a traitor?”
I gave him a long look, but I could detect no accusation in his face. His blue eyes held curiosity. Still, I punched him in the arm.
“Gah! You’re a wild woman!” He rubbed his arm and pretended to look hurt. “Can I go back to holding your hand now?”
“If you play nice, sure.”
“Sure. She-roe.”
“I never really knew my father as a person. He’s mostly a face in a photograph. He started building the Keep with Victor years ago and disappeared when I was a toddler.”
Trick tipped his head back and stuck out his tongue.
“What are you doing?”
“Drinking snowflakes, obviously.”
“Okay. I’ve never done that.”
“Try it. It’s refreshing.”
I did and it was.
“If you tip your head way, way back, you might get some up your nose.”
I laughed and tried it.
Trick took me by the shoulder and, with his leg behind my knee, lowered me into a snowbank so we lay side by side. I laughed as Trick kissed the first snowflake that landed on my nose.
“What are you doing, recruit?”
“Drinking snowflakes,” he said. “This way is better for my posture. And kissing the first snowflake that lands on a pretty girl’s nose is good luck.”
“In Ireland?”
“I would think that would be good luck anywhere, wouldn’t you?”
I laughed until he stopped me by kissing me on the lips.
“We should keep moving,” I said. “It’s a small town and there are eyes everywhere.”
“Peeking out from behind curtains, are they?”
“No doubt.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m in a snowbank on my back so I can’t draw my sword from its sling. The sheath is digging into my shoulder blade something awful.”
“I’d hoped to distract you with my charm and passion.”
“Oh, you are, you are!” I said. “But the pain in my shoulder blade is pretty bad and my arm is throbbing despite the Advil. I hardly mind, given the circumstances. As romantic kisses in the snow go, that was great. However, my ass is cold.”
“Can’t have that.”
“No, we cannot. Also, I should point out that the last time I was seen in town, I was mourning my dead boyfriend and making quite a spectacle of myself.”
“Yeah, I can see somebody jacking their jaws over being seen with a new guy, apparently deliriously happy.”
“Do I look deliriously happy?”
“Give me time. I’m just warming up.”
“Yet my ass is still cold.”
“Right. Sorry.” He stood and helped me upright. “Shoulder better?”
“Yes.”
“Are you always in a position to draw a sword?”
“Ideally.”
“Even when you’re naked?”
“Especially then. You never know who is sneaking up behind you. Maybe it’s a demon or maybe it’s a Bassett hound with a cold wet nose.”
His eyes narrowed. “That’s an oddly specific worry.”
“Well…my first boyfriend had a dog and — ”
He nearly collapsed with laughter. I kissed him to shut him up. He settled down quickly and I kissed him longer. When I broke our embrace, he kissed me again, deeper.
“Trick.”
“Keep your hood up and no one will know who you are. We could stand in the middle of Main Street and I could kiss you all day and no one would know it’s you.”
“I’m sworn to defend the realm of Earth,” I said. “Can’t do that if I’m killed by a snow plow. C’mon. I’ll show you where I went to school.”
“I can’t wait,” he said. Trick smiled as he reached down to brush the snow from the back of my jeans. He took his time doing it and I let him.
I missed this. I missed the play of young love when it’s all new and exciting. Budding love is all the fun of a game except it is not a game. In a game, one player wins and the other loses. As I looked into Trick’s eyes, I knew we were headed for the same goal and we would both win.
“Ahem!” I said. “We should get to know each other better before you go brushing more snow from my bum.”
“Is that what I was doing?”
“No. So, if you want to do that again, we have to know more about each other. What’s your favorite color?”
“Sky blue.”
“Like your eyes,” I said. “So…possible narcissistic personality disorder. Good to know. Your turn.”
“Well, I already know your favorite dessert is lemon meringue.”
“Ah, but what’s my favorite dinner here in beautiful Medicament?”
“Tam, I’ll ask the easy, breezy, innocuous get-to-know you questions, if you don’t mind?”
“Shoot.”
“Your father. He never tried to make contact when you were older?”
“That’s not easy or breezy, but no.”
“Maybe he wanted to keep you out of the Keep. Maybe he was trying to protect you.”
“It was my mother who tried to keep me out of the Choir Invisible. She would have succeeded, but — ”
A misty wistful wandered out of the fall of snow.
“But I see dead things and that screwed up my life plan. I had a mind map and college scholarships on the way and…”
I knew that misty wistful and she wasn’t wandering. She came right for us, eyes huge and frightened. She wore black pants and a white blouse. That wouldn’t have been a terrible way to dress for eternity except for the blood spreading down her shirt in the shape of Africa.
“I’ve never seen a ghost quite like this,” I said. “She’s just been killed.” Her throat was slashed.
The misty wistful recognized me. She tried to pull the hood of my parka down but could not. She tried to grab me by the shoulders but she couldn’t do that, either. She was so new to her fate in the in-between life, she didn’t understand the rules.
I could see the fear in her eyes. She waved her arms and pointed down the street frantically. Whoever had killed her wasn’t far away.
“Call Mr. Chang, Trick.”
The misty wistful tried to speak but no sound reached us. Perhaps, in time, she would be better able to communicate. The longer a ghost is around, the better they get at negotiating the energy obstacles and bridges between worlds. Still, it didn’t matter. One of the few kids with whom I’d gone to school was sent straight to me in the middle of a snowstorm.
“What is she trying to say?” Trick asked.
“That Chumele wasn’t wrong about the quick when but way off on the where.”
“Huh?”
“The demons are here. I don’t know how many yet, but they don’t want us to get at the secret weapon.”
The misty wistful could apparently hear me well enough. She stopped her wild gesticulations and nodded earnestly, still staring into my eyes.
“Thank you, Allison,” I said. “I’m sure you were sent here for a purpose and now you have fulfilled that purpose. If I’m right, this will be okay.”
“Wait!” Trick said. “What are you doing?”
Iaijutsu is the art of drawing one’s sword from its sheath in one fast, smooth movement. It’s meant for surprise attacks, counterattacks and for ending arguments quickly. In this case, my blessed blade sent Allison Mackenzie to Elsewhere in a blink.
“Hey, Quick Draw! Are you sure that was the right thing to do?”
“Yeah. I didn’t want to give her time to worry. That’s the problem with life and death. We have too much time to worry about what’s coming.”
“But t
he ghost — “
“I was never great at charades, anyway,” I said. “In the middle of a demon attack, I don’t want to wonder, ‘Gee, Lassie, did Timmy fall down the well, again?”
“Tam!”
“She’s free. We’re the people with problems. C’mon. Back to Mama’s house, on the double.”
“We should go get the secret weapon.”
“I don’t know what we should do. I wasn’t put in charge and Mr. Chang didn’t tell me where the secret weapon is. Call Chang! And draw your sword!”
He hurried along behind me. “Draw my sword? In public?”
“People can’t see ghosts, but once demons cross the bridge to our realm, even the Normies will see monsters running down the street and eating their hearts.”
Trick got his phone out. “Humans will see the ghosts and demons?”
“Ghosts, no. Demons, yes. I imagine this could be quite a shock to small town life. Medicament’s local paper is a little rag called The Monitor. The paper’s one reporter writes front page stories about missing dogs, so I’m sure this will be big news.”
“Chang’s not answering.”
“Perfect.”
“Tam? Who was the dead girl? You knew her.”
“Allison Mackenzie. A girl I went to school with.”
“I’m sorry. That’s terrible. Were you close?”
“No. That dead boyfriend I told you about? She was my rival for his affections. I used to call her High Titter.”
“I’m so sorry,” Trick said.
“Me, too,” I said. “If she’d won Brad over instead of me, he’d still be alive and running for his life right now.”
Lesson 135: I had once daydreamed of killing Allison to clear my way to Brad Evers. It was a silly little fantasy. Lots of fantasies are no fun if they come true.
“C’mon, Trick! Run!”
We didn’t make it a block before the demons spotted us.
Chapter 27
When the demons attacked the Keep, they were contained in the courtyard and there weren’t that many of them. We had the full force of the Choir Invisible against a small group of invaders. Still, the monsters decimated us.
This time, it was just Trick and me. As we rounded the corner by Eisner’s Restaurant, I realized how screwed we were.
A pack of six yellow demons huddled around the hood of a police car. As Trick and I appeared, the monsters paused and turned to look our way. I saw the Sheriff and one of the deputies sprawled on the hood. They were past hope or help. Apparently content to feed on easy prey, the yellow demons turned back to their grisly, raw meal.
Thirty or more red demons farther down the block also spotted us. There was no hesitation. They ran toward us, up Goucher Avenue. With no archers, pikemen, spears or gatling guns, we were helpless.
I would have accepted a nuclear missile or an asteroid strike gratefully at that moment. Easy obliteration is preferred.
The lead warrior’s golden eyes widened and he turned the stampeding herd straight at me. Snow kicked up behind their pounding, cloven feet. We were in the open.
I held my sword high and stood my ground. “Trick! Run! Run away! I’ll distract them as long as I can!”
I had no illusions that I could hold them off. If one of us was to survive and get the secret weapon — whatever it was — I had to serve as an alluring meal. “Run. Tell Wil and save Mama!”
In that final moment, time slowed. It wasn’t the vegans back at the Keep. It was nerves and hormones and all my senses firing at once.
I thought of Brad and I wondered if I’d see him again. When the demons took me down, I wondered how long it would hurt before I lost consciousness. I considered falling on my sword, and would have. However, an extra few seconds might mean life for Trick. If one of us lived, there was hope for the cause.
I told myself that, if I was lucky enough to go to Elsewhere, I hoped to see Samantha again. I’d apologize for not saving her. I hoped there was hot-buttered popcorn wherever I was headed.
I hoped Whoever’s In Charge would be merciful. I hoped Clyde understood that I killed him for the right reasons. Mostly, I mourned the world I was leaving. If the demons were to inherit it, all our hopes and dreams were dashed.
Just as the wild-eyed demons were about to bear down on me, I realized I didn’t believe I would be spared. Everything was too hard. Maybe I’d go Elsewhere, but in that moment I thought it more likely that a good part of me would end up as nothing more than demon poop. Or worse, they’d take me to Ra.
Trick didn’t run. He stood beside me. If there had been time, I would have sworn at him. Given a few seconds more, I might have added, “Well, if you’re going to be that stupid, we should fight back to back. But we’re doomed you stupid, stupid noob! They’re going to eat us!”
Of course, there wasn’t time.
Instead, Trick touched my sword hand lightly and I lowered the weapon. He embraced me and kissed me. The demon herd parted and streamed around us.
We kept on kissing until they’d passed us entirely.
“That was — ”
“Gallant?” he suggested. “Amazing? Romantic? A grand gesture?”
“Stupid,” I said. “Desperately, pathetically brainless.”
“We’re alive.”
“If we’re alive, it’s because they want something else more than a snack.”
“You’re welcome,” he said.
I punched him in the arm and not playfully this time. “Next time, follow orders.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Go! Get back to my house. Call Wil and try Chang again. Regroup at my house. Second choice is Chang’s house and third is the dojang.”
“I don’t know where any of those places are except for your house. I was at Mr. Chang’s house for a little more than an hour before I snuck out.”
“You snuck — okay, never mind. First priority is call the Choir. Maybe we can contain this if Victor can call in the National Guard. Go! Go!”
Gunshots rang out. The snow muffled the sounds of the battle for downtown Medicament, but no amount of snow deadens high pitched screams.
The demons had come to Medicament. I heard someone shout through an open car window, “It’s the End Times!”
That genius wasn’t far wrong. He might have carried his message of ill tidings all the way out of town except he crashed into the water clock in front of town hall. The horn went on and on.
Before I could get to the driver, the demons got to him first. The horn’s blare was the beacon that summoned monsters. The horn then stopped abruptly. The Ra began to feed.
The man was dazed but still alive and feeling every torment as they tore into his abdomen. Two red demons split the man open with their claws.
He began to scream as I got to the first demon. I would have preferred my long katana to decapitate the monsters on the run. Heck, I would have preferred to shoot holy lasers at them from high orbit. However, I only had my short sword.
It was an antique replica of a Roman sword made with an ivory handle before people were generally aware that ivory made you an elephant-killing dick. The fact that it was of a more recent vintage meant it held it’s edge longer and the point was very sharp.
I leapt in the air and drove the tip of my blade through the back of the demon’s neck and through the front of his throat.
That one stopped eating. The second demon looked up at me (surprised, I assume.) I kicked him in the face. The demon stood and one of his blood-red wings lashed out, knocking me flat. He slashed at me with a claw.
As I rolled away, I wrapped myself in the fallen demon’s leathery wing. That dulled the next blow to my back, but not enough. I gasped for air as the demon stepped on me, pinning me. If not for the deep cushion of snow, he might have snapped my spine.
I tried to wriggle away, but I was trapped. I’d wrapped myself in a demon wing burrito of doom. I squeezed my eyes tight, waiting for the death blow.
It didn’t come. When I opened my eyes, the
demon was bent over me, it’s golden eyes a few inches away.
“Kargla funimee nickto,” it said.
“Sorry, I don’t speak asshole,” I said.
The monster turned my head with one clawed hand. He raised a fist. I shut my eyes again.
When I peeked again, he was gone. The monster was playing with me. I rolled out of the demon wing to my hands and knees and threw up. It was like being in a blanket made of giant dead bat. Sweating and shaking, I took off my parka and shoved my face in some fresh snow.
I still shook as I staggered to my feet and ran into the town hall. I didn’t have a plan in mind, but the Sheriff’s office was in there. I hoped to contact someone in authority directly to close off all roads to Medicament.
Then a chill shot down my spine. What if this was it? Not an attack on a single town but D-Day. Maybe they were everywhere.
As soon as I got to the Sheriff’s office, I was reassured. The power was still on here and CNN was on a TV on the wall. The sound was off, but Wolf Blitzer was talking to a grinning weatherman.
Lesson 136: When Armageddon is really here, nobody will care to listen to a guy in a suit talk endlessly about the weather. That’s what looking out a window is for.
The attack was only in Medicament and, somehow, word had not reached the wider world yet. Panting, I put my hands on my knees. My adrenaline was still working hard but the Advil had worn off. My forearm ached.
Lesson 137: That which does not kill you can still annoy the living shit out of you.
When I straightened, I discovered a Sheriff’s Deputy pointing his weapon an inch from my forehead.
He looked me up and down. “Do not move or I will kill you. I know you, don’t I? You look familiar.”
“Do I?”
“You’re the Smythe girl who went crazy and went upstate to the bughouse.”
“I prefer the term insane asylum.”
“And why are you wearing armor, huh?”
“Ephesians, chapter six: Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
“I asked you a question.”
“I answered, but I don’t think you’ll believe the truth.”
“You are wearing armor!”
“So are you, sir, and for the same reasons. We’re on the same side. But Kevlar alone won’t help you much with monsters. Please take that gun out of my face so we can talk. You really don’t know what you’re dealing with.”
The End of the World As I Know It (The Ghosts & Demons Series Book 2) Page 12