Only two guards stood between me and the building I needed to get into. Gideon ran a bunch of scenarios by me that ended up with the guards being dead, and almost all of them made enough noise that more guards would come running.
Discarding the majority of his ideas almost immediately was pretty easy. I didn’t know what my chances would be in a gunfight, especially with automatic weapons in play and the fact that I’d never shot one myself. Not to mention that Balthazar had Rain.
If I killed enough of his people, he might just decide to kill her and leave. At some point, you had to cut your losses when you were an evil son of a bitch. That meant I needed to find a more diplomatic solution.
Looking through my bag, I found another vial of the sleeping powder I had used earlier. Why couldn’t I have found this when I needed it at Rain’s house. If I managed to live through this, I was going to have to do a serious amount of reorganizing in my bag. The good news was I had it now, and being super organized wasn’t exactly my thing. Plus, it was nice to get a taste of Gideon’s abilities before I tried to storm the castle.
I sprinkled some of the dust into my hand and held it out just past the corner of the building. I’d never tried this before, so I hoped it would work.
“Spiritus!” The dust flew from my hand and moved towards the guards. This was something I was going to have to remember for later. The two bodies hit the ground just outside of the door. I counted down another ten seconds to make sure they were completely out and then ran around the corner of the building. I had to push one of the guards to the side so I could get to the door. The handle turned when I tried it, and I stepped inside.
You should move the bodies from in front of the door, the angel suggested.
“Fuck.” That was a damned good idea and one I should have thought of.
The patrols didn’t come to this building, but if they looked this way while walking, two guards unconscious by the door would be a good indication that something wasn’t right.
Moving back outside, I took the guard’s guns and placed them inside and then moved back for the first body. I didn’t even need to ask as Gideon loaned me some of his strength so I could drag the heavy bastard inside. Body armor adds a hundred pounds. At least, that’s what I told myself so I could feel better about needing Gideon’s help. The second guard was just as easy to drag inside with the enhanced strength, and I left the two men slumped in a pile just inside of the door.
It was hard to admit that I wasn’t very good at this secret agent thing. I mean, I’d probably seen Daniel Craig do this shit a million times. But when it came down to doing it myself in the heat of the moment, well, I just wasn’t thinking far enough ahead. For the first time since coming inside the door, I actually looked around. Thankfully, there weren’t any more zombies or guards with guns waiting to greet me. What was waiting for me was another door.
This door had a small window set in the center of it. I placed my hands on the outside of it and was surprised to feel the cold seeping through the large steel door. Looking through the window showed a small amount of frost on the ground. Not enough for this building to be a full-on freezer unless it was cleaned all the time, but more like a really cold refrigerator.
Just what in the hell did Balthazar need with an entire building set up as a fridge? I’d never heard of anything like this outside of maybe a meat packing plant.
The second thought I had is why in the hell would he be keeping Rain in the fridge unless she was dead, and why the fuck did a giant refrigerator need guards posted outside? There was no way to know what the answer was without going in. This felt like another trap waiting to be sprung, but I didn’t have the luxury of not checking it out before moving on.
Can you sense anything inside? I inquired.
My vision of this place is also blocked.
Damn.
Trap, definitely a trap. There wasn’t time to break down all the wards, plus I had a feeling they were set inside the walls this time, so I wouldn’t have been able to break them without going in anyways. Ugh, I hated this shit.
Pulling open the door, I stepped into the great unknown. Three paces into the room and nothing happened. I started to feel a little bit better until I heard the door click locked behind me. “Well, that can’t be good.”
Going back to check the door wasn’t really an option. I heard it lock, and I still needed to check this building for Rain before I moved on. Boxes lined this part of the fridge, cutting off the view from the rest of the building. The first order of business was to try and get a peek at what was inside without drawing any attention. I wasn’t harboring any illusions that I was alone in here.
Kneeling down, I moved along the boxes until I reached the opening. I ducked my head around the corner and then pulled back. That couldn’t be right. No way was this fucking possible.
Shaking my head to clear it, I slowly looked back into the room. I let my gaze linger and then pulled back, trying not to retch. I could throw up when I got out of here. Right now, I had to figure out what was going on.
Standing back up, I looked out at the open floor in front of me, still trying to process what I was seeing. Rows and rows of meat hooks hung from the ceilings. They were evenly spaced about three feet apart, with a wide row down the middle left open so you could move freely towards the back of the room and a large butcher’s table set up there.
The meat hooks and the slaughterhouse vibe wasn’t what was disturbing. Ok, it was pretty fucking disturbing all on its own. Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre had married Saw and then gave birth to the most disturbing movie that ever existed. That was just the vibe the room gave off; it was what was hanging from the hooks the sealed the deal.
People were hanging from them like sides of beef. Only this wasn’t a freezer, and they weren’t skinned, at least not yet. Fuck, some of them even still had their clothes on. Like they had been kidnapped, killed, and hung here for processing.
The only good I could see in this was that none of them were moving still. If one of them started moving, I’d probably shit in my pants. That would make for a hell of a rescue.
“Sorry about my dirt stained shirt and the shit in my pants, but I think we should go on a date sometime.” Ugh, even I couldn’t pull that off.
The real catch was going to be figuring out if Rain and Balthazar were in here or somewhere else. That meant moving through the rows of bodies and looking around. That wasn’t something I felt super comfortable with, but at least the lights were on.
A slow whistling sound started at the back of the room. It sounded so out of place it took me a moment to realize someone was whistling a happy little tune. The whistling stopped for a moment and was replaced with a grunt before starting again. Then I saw what was making the sound and realized things had gone from bad, to worse, real fucking quick.
It was hard for me to consider calling the thing in front of me a human. Sure, there was a possibility that it was, but oddly enough, calling it a demon made me feel better. I’d never heard of one being able to manifest physically on our side of the veil.
Sure the demons sometimes forced someone’s soul out and took their meat suit for a spin, but if the shell they were using was destroyed, they ended up back in Satan’s inferno. Granted, until yesterday, I had no idea that demons could be trapped inside of a living host with the host remaining in control. Gideon had shown me the truth when I met Balthazar for information.
The demon in front of me resembled a human to the extent it had two arms and two legs. Its arms were a little bit longer than they should have been, making him look almost ape-like. You could have sold me on the fact that it was a really fat chimpanzee if it wasn’t for the pale white skin. Its skin was bone white, but it also had a shine to it, almost like human skin that had rotted in the water. The demon’s legs were short and stubby but looked damn powerful.
The creature tossed the human it had been carrying onto the butcher's table and started stripping off the rest of its clothes. The whole time
, it continued to whistle that happy song, the name of it was right on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t quite catch it.
The demon finished stripping the human and pulled two huge meat cleavers from the wall. It kept one in its right hand and attached the other one to a clip on its belt. Coupling the two giant knives with the stained leather apron and it was almost enough for me to freeze. If I had to venture a guess about the second cleaver, it was at the ready in case the first one got dulled chopping through the bones.
Watching the knife move to the creature’s waist, it dawned on me just how weird this being really was. It was fat, almost grotesquely so, but it wasn’t that tall. I’d have pegged it as being just over four feet, but weighing at least three hundred pounds.
It kind of looked like an egg with legs as it waddled around. The rolls of fat on its back jiggled as it shuffled, hands hanging down below its knees. Still, despite all of that, it gave off a sense of power and death like nothing I had ever felt before.
Now that I was locked in here with the damn thing, I wondered just what I could do to get back out. I’d never faced a demon like this before, and I had the feeling if I tried to do an exorcism it would hack me into pieces with one of those giant cleavers.
The guns were outside of the locked room which left me with the contents of my bag, a folding knife, and the cross around my neck to try and kill the damn thing.
Any ideas?
If we had completed our bond, I’d be able to summon my sword.
Any chance of that happening in the next five minutes? I asked, my internal voice sounding hopeful yet sarcastic, knowing the possibility was low.
Gideon didn’t answer, which I took to mean stop asking me stupid fucking questions. Although I’m sure he would have said it with much more flowery prose, but with just as much sarcasm buried under the words.
Still, there had to be something I could do to kill the damned thing. There were extra knives lined up on the wall. The only problem with getting one of them in my hands was that I’d have to get past the demon to get one, and then I’d have to be able to dodge one of those cleavers to use it. Could you even kill a demon with a knife?
This foul creature is merely a shade of the demon that resides in hell. You can kill a shade with a knife, a demon, not so much, Gideon responded to my inner thoughts.
Well, then, what we need is a distraction, and then a little help from my friend from on high.
I will be ready to rid the earth of his vile presence, he said, sounding almost excited.
Just like I thought, angels it seemed were always up for a little demon slaying. Death to the unrighteous and all that jazz. Granted, if what Gideon was saying was right, this was just a shade of a demon that was still trapped in the pits of hell. I’d have to learn more about what that meant, but that would have to come after this thing was dead and I wasn’t.
At least, that was the outcome I was hoping for.
There had to be something in my bag I could use to distract the fucking thing. I started digging around inside of my bag just as the first strike of the demon’s cleaver fell. The resounding wet thud it made brought a grimace to my face. That used to be someone. A mom, a daughter, a husband, or a brother, and he was just cutting into it like it was meat down at the deli.
For the first time since coming into Balthazar’s compound, I felt the rage building inside of me. This thing had no right to be here, no right to be making human burgers for demon consumption. I looked around the room and thought about how much food that fat fuck could actually need.
Then it hit me like a freight train to the head. There had to be more of these shades here. That or they were selling the meat to them in other places. It just didn’t seem real. I was pretty tapped into the underground magical community, and I’d never heard of anything like this. If there was a whole secret world living among us then this was a battle that wouldn’t end here, and probably one that I couldn’t win alone.
Deep inside of my bag I found an old pouch of gunpowder. I’d put about five bullets worth of gunpowder in the little pouch years ago, not knowing what I would ever use it for, but knowing that I would need it someday.
Probably should have thought of it when the zombies were chasing me, but gnashing teeth and the undead robbed me of my senses and with them any great ideas I could have come up with.
The cleaver came down again.
The sound rebounded off the walls, making me shudder. Now the cleaver was moving up and down in rapid succession as if the shade had found its rhythm. The noise was starting to make me a little antsy, and I felt time slipping away from me. Rain was here and counting on me; I had to act.
Looking down at the small bundle of gunpowder, I hoped it would be enough. I tied the little satchel to two rowan twigs and a book of matches. I’d be able to ignite the matches with my magic and then it should make a nice little show. Gunpowder didn’t go bad, did it? Oh, well. I was about to find out.
“Spiritus,” I whispered to the little bundle and watched it fly toward the demon.
The tricky part would be controlling the wind enough to get the bundle to do what I wanted. The little satchel flew around the demon in circles just above his head. The demon swatted ineffectually at it a few times before I moved it off to the left side of the room. The demon followed the satchel, and I started to creep forward, trying my hardest not to brush against any of the bodies.
The demon waddled out of sight, and I started moving faster. I reached the butcher's table and froze. The smell was one thing, but the way the body lay there in pieces was something else entirely. Her eyes were open and almost seemed to be pleading with me. There was nothing I could do for her now; she was already dead.
Still, I couldn’t take my gaze off of her. How long had this been going on? How long had I turned a blind eye to what was happening right in front of me? That was going to end now.
A sharp, curved knife caught my eye, but the blade looked a little flimsy. I took it down from the board behind the table anyway, and then picked out a more classic looking knife. You know the kind of thing the murderer in a horror movie would have carried around.
Now that I had my weapons, it was time to unleash my little surprise. The demon reached up to grab the satchel again, and I focused on my magic. “Incendo!”
The demon let out a little scream as the satchel burst into flames. The rowan wood would have added a little sting to the demon’s burning hand. I slipped back into the rows of bodies trying to stay hidden as the demon whirled around.
It didn’t see me, but I saw it take the second cleaver from its waist and start stalking back towards to butcher’s table. I continued to fade back into the rows of bodies as the demon’s black eyes scanned the room.
“I know you’re in here, little magus. You can’t get out, you know. Balthazar has seen to that.”
There was a little spell I used sometimes when I needed to speak with David, and I was too lazy to go downstairs. Or the occasional time I used it to screw with someone. You would have laughed your ass off at how people looked when they thought they were hearing things. I guess I was getting my own little taste of that with Gideon. The spell should work perfectly here.
“Decipio!” I focused at a spot on the other side of the room. “Maybe I’m not trying to leave.”
“Then you're dumber than most of the people that ended up on these hooks. This room isn’t that big, it won’t take long to find you.” The shade started moving towards the sound of my voice.
I turned my voice inwards. You’re up, Gideon.
This should be fun, he replied with excitement.
Just make sure I come out of this with all of my parts still attached.
That’s a promise I can’t make.
He could have been nice and lied, but that would have been blasphemous or something ridiculous. Surely, scaring the almost-literal shit out of me was the much better option. You’re not filling me with a lot of confidence here.
Gideon didn’t answe
r as I was pushed to the back of my mind. I still wasn’t used to riding shotgun in my own body, but I wasn’t up for this fight without a little help. Gideon silently moved me through the hanging corpses. My body was bent in a slight crouch, the skinnier blade was held reversed in my left hand for slashing, and the large blade was held normally to inflict vicious stabbing damage.
The demon turned and rushed into the rows of corpses. They swung to the side as its larger body couldn’t move through the hanging corpses without brushing against them. Gideon moved us forward while dodging the swinging bodies.
My left hand slashed out, cutting into the demon’s back. The skin peeled away like I was skinning a fish. The smell was bad—a thousand times worse than I expected. I probably would have thrown up, but with Gideon in control, the rotting sulfur smell was muted.
The shade spun, its huge cleavers flying through the air. Gideon had already moved me away before the demon’s blades sunk into one of the hanging bodies. The demon growled in frustration as it tried to yank the blades free. I felt myself jump, and the blade in my right hand came down at the juncture between the shade’s neck and shoulder. It sunk in up to the hilt, but not before my hand slipped down the blade.
The shade let go of the cleavers and spun towards me. The beast’s meaty arms slammed into my chest and sent me flying backward. I bounced off one of the hanging bodies and rolled to the side before the demon could close the distance between us. The shade smiled as it reached up and yanked the large blade from its neck. Black blood burbled from the wound. If the thing had been human, it would have already been dead.
“Nice try, little magus, but your time has come to an end.” The demon scuttled forward on its stubby legs, knife held high above its head.
Gideon pushed my body away and then flipped me back to my feet. I still had the smaller blade, but I had no Idea how effective it would be if the larger blade didn’t bring the thing down. The knife came down right at my chest. Gideon spun me away from the attack and just inside of the demon’s reach preventing it from attack me again. My left hand moved up, and the knife bit deeply into the demon's throat slashing it wide open.
Possessed (Bozley Green Chronicles Book 1) Page 16