Demon Mania (Demon Frenzy Series Book 2)

by Harvey Click

“Okay, you servants of God stay out here in the hall and watch. If you see anything covered with snakes let me know. The rest of you come with me.”

  They followed her into a reasonably rectangular room considerably bigger than the tiny ones they’d been roaming through. The walls were the same hazel color as Terra’s eyes, and so were the sheets on the queen-sized bed.

  “Oh, Terra, this must be your room!” Azura exclaimed. “I can’t believe I’m here with you at last after all these years, in your own room. I can’t tell you how horribly I’ve missed you!”

  She embraced her sister tightly, but a moment later Terra pushed her away. “I told you, there’s no time for this kind of shit,” she said. “We have work to do. Father’s going to dismiss a demon, and we need to keep it quiet so he can.”

  “Are you talking about that thing with snakes all over it?” Joe asked.

  Terra ignored him and opened a cedar chest at the foot of her bed. Resting on a hazel blanket at the bottom were seven swords, seven knives, and a small quiver holding seven arrows. A crossbow was lying on top of them.

  “The tips of all these weapons have been dipped in curare,” she said. “It will paralyze the demon so the ritual can be performed. You wouldn’t believe what I had to go through to get my hands on that stuff.”

  “What makes you think you can paralyze a demon with curare?” Bill asked.

  “I read it in a book.”

  “You can’t believe everything you read,” Bill said.

  “It was one of your own books that Godson swiped. It says the Amazon Indians have been doing it for centuries, and we’re going to do it too.”

  “I don’t want anything to do with this,” Joe said. “We want to find Amy’s baby and get out of here.”

  “You can look all week long and you won’t find that baby,” Terra said. “I know, because I put her in a very safe place. I’ll take you to her after you help me—and not before.”

  “Terra, these are my best friends,” Azura said. “You’ve got to help them.”

  “Quit blubbering. That thing’s probably up there eating Godson’s body right now, and we need to paralyze him before he’s done chewing. In case you don’t know, if you look at his eyes you’ll turn to stone, so you’re going to have to pierce him without looking.”

  “Terra, you can’t do this!” Azura said. “My friends will get killed.”

  Terra slapped her face and said, “I said quit blubbering. If you want that baby you’re going to help me. Deal or no deal?”

  “How do we know you’ll show us where she is?” Amy asked.

  “You don’t, but it’s not like you have any other option.”

  Azura was sitting on the bed crying. The others looked at one another, and Joe said, “Okay, it’s a deal. But if you don’t keep your part of it we’ll kill you.”

  Nyx pulled one of the knives from the cedar chest and said, “This thing’s no good for throwing. I’ll dip my own knives in some of that shit.”

  “No you won’t,” Terra said. “Not if your knives have been treated to kill demons. If Gorgoseus is dead he can’t be dismissed. An hour later he’ll come back to life and we’ll have to go through all of it again. And by the way, I suggest you keep your fingers off that blade if you don’t want to end up paralyzed.”

  Joe picked up the crossbow and said, “I never liked these damn things. This would have to be the one time I didn’t bring my bow to a fight.”

  “Leave all your swords and knives here,” Terra said. “Then gear up and let’s go.”

  They replaced the swords in their scabbards with poisoned swords. Nyx slid the seven poisoned knives into the sheaths strapped across her chest, and Joe slung the quiver containing seven poisoned arrows over his shoulder.

  “Get my mirrors off the walls,” Terra said.

  There were two matching mirrors about two and a half feet wide and three feet high. Shane grabbed one and Joe the other.

  Still carrying the head by its long hair, Terra led them out of the bedroom to the elevator. She poked numbers on the keypad, and as the door slid open she motioned to the Nephilim and the two disciples to join them. The small elevator was packed tight with nine humans and one half-human, and Amy had no choice but to watch the puffy mushroom head of the half-human pulsate because her face was crammed just a few inches behind it. It smelled like something that should have been buried several days ago.

  “Oh, I forgot to mention one little detail,” Terra said as the door slid shut. “Gorgoseus has scaly skin like a snake. The scales are said to be pretty tough on his torso and limbs, so your knives and arrows are likely to bounce off unless you hit him in the eyes or the groin or the soft skin of his neck.”

  “And you expect us to do that without looking at him?” Joe said.

  “Use the mirrors,” Terra said. The elevator door slid open and she whispered, “Shh. He’s right there in Godson’s bedroom. I can hear him eating. If he has his back to the door, maybe you can pierce the back of his neck while his head’s turned.”

  “Who the hell’s gonna look and see which way he’s turned?” Joe whispered.

  Terra pulled her poisoned sword out of its scabbard and handed it to one of the disciples. “Run in and jab this in his neck, servant of God,” she whispered.

  “Can I have a mirror?” he asked.

  “No, you might drop it,” she said. “We can’t afford to lose them.”

  The disciple stared at the bedroom door for a moment and then looked at Terra, as if trying to decide which was more frightening. She set Godson’s head on the floor, placed her foot on it, and smiled.

  He tiptoed to the doorway and then ran inside. There was a loud scream, and they heard him fall to the floor.

  “Guess his back must not be turned,” Terra whispered. “Who’s next?”

  Nobody said anything.

  She took Bill’s sword and held it out to the other disciple. “Run in there with your eyes shut,” she whispered. “Whip the sword back and forth as fast as you can, and you’re bound to hit him.”

  The disciple stared at the sword for a second or two and then set off running down the hallway. He made it about twelve feet before she shot him in the back.

  “Well, at least there’s no more need for whispering,” she said. She handed the sword to the Nephilim and said, “You know what to do.”

  His tiny black eyes darted back and forth in his mushroom head, and Amy could see he was considering using the sword on Terra. She aimed her gun at him and said, “Go ahead and try it, Toadstool, and I’ll turn your head into mushroom soup.”

  The Nephilim ran into the bedroom with his sword slashing furiously back and forth. He screamed, and they heard him fall.

  “Fuck this shit,” Nyx said.

  She grabbed the mirror Joe was holding, ran up to the bedroom doorway, and stood sideways in it. Holding the mirror with her left hand, she threw one of the poisoned knives with her right, and they all heard it clatter to the floor.

  She was drawing another knife when Joe yelled, “Stand back!”

  He ran up and stood with his back to the doorway and the crossbow over his shoulder while Shane stood in front of him holding up a mirror for him to see inside. An arrow whistled into the room. Joe drew another, cocked it into the crossbow, and a second later it flew through the doorway. And then another.

  “Here it comes!” he yelled.

  They all looked away from the doorway as the thing darted through it. Amy saw its huge knobby clawed feet heading after Joe, Nyx, and Shane, who were running down the corridor. She glanced behind her and saw the elevator door sliding shut with Terra and Bill inside it.

  Azura grasped her hand. “Come with me,” she said, and she gently tugged Amy into the bedroom. “We’ll be safe together.”

  The Nephilim and the disciple were lying on the floor near the door, and if they weren’t solid stone yet they soon would be. Their skin had turned white like alabaster and appeared to be just as hard.

  Amy tried not
to look at the half-devoured carcass on the bed, but its reflection stared back at her from the mirrors on the wall. She glanced at the ceiling and saw another reflection up there.

  “We have to help the others,” she said. “It’s going to catch them.”

  “I’m going to call it to dinner,” Azura said.

  She stuck her head out the doorway and yelled, “Hey, Gorgoseus, we’re in here eating your feast. Yum, yum, it tastes good! We’re going to eat what’s left of it, and you’ll never be free!”

  “What do we do when it gets here?” Amy asked.

  “We’ll sing together. No bogyman’s going to hurt us when we’re singing together.”

  Amy heard its slithery step coming down the hall toward them. She and Azura went to the far side of the bed and stood with their backs to the doorway. They raised their swords and began to sing together.

  Their voices joined as one, and Amy heard the melody cascading through the air like water down a cliff in some remote and secret place, a better place beyond demons and pain and strife. She felt intimately connected to Azura and felt an exhilarating power surging through her, connecting her to an invisible world much larger than either of them.

  In the mirrors she saw Gorgoseus coming in through the doorway. He stared at their backs with big round black lidless snake eyes, his hideous gray face smeared with blood and his wide fanged mouth open with a long forked snake tongue flicking back and forth as if tasting the air.

  Where hair should be, his head was covered by a writhing nest of long gray snakes, and more snakes squirmed and coiled from his massive shoulders and his wide scaly torso. The snakes were all staring at the witches as well, staring and hissing with their fanged mouths wide open and ready to bite.

  Amy was terrified, but her terror seemed to be somewhere far away, hidden behind the melody that flowed like bright flashing water through the mirrored room. She touched her sword against Azura’s and heard the two blades sizzle and crackle with the power of two witches joined as one. A low-pitched hum filled the air like a pedal point beneath their song, and the mirrors began to vibrate.

  Gorgoseus was shuffling toward them around the end of the bed. Two of Joe’s arrows protruded from his throat, but the poison didn’t seem to be slowing him down. As he drew closer his snakes coiled up against his body like horrid pin curls ready to strike, and Amy realized if she lunged at him the snakes would reach her before her sword reached him.

  “Let go of your sword,” Azura said.

  She let go of her own, and it shot through the air like a javelin. It bounced off the hard scales on his sternum and clattered to the floor.

  Amy let go of her sword and tried to guide it telekinetically, but the mirrors confused her. The sword hung vertically in the air in front of the demon, and when she tried to turn it toward him it began to slash chaotically back and forth and severed dozens of snakes from his torso. Gorgoseus howled with pain and jumped back a foot or two.

  The severed snakes were squirming irately on the floor and slithering toward the witches. Azura leaped onto the bed and yanked Amy up by the hand, but the sheet was slick with thick gore, and Amy fell face-first onto Godson’s half-eaten ribcage.

  She struggled to get up, but the mess was slippery and Azura was standing above her, straddling her body. They were defenseless with both swords somewhere on the floor. Amy saw Gorgoseus’ huge knobby hand reaching toward her, its claws dripping with venom, and she knew this was the end, but above her Azura was still singing calmly and beautifully, as if it was a lovely day and everything was fine and pleasant.

  Suddenly Azura’s sword flew up from the floor and plunged deep into the demon’s groin. As he reared back with a fierce roar of pain, she lost her balance and fell on top of Amy, who was still lying on top of Godson’s carcass.

  They were trying to untangle themselves when they heard Joe yell, “Keep your heads down!”

  An arrow whistled through the air and a knife followed it, then another arrow and another knife. Joe and Nyx were in the room, standing near the door with their backs to the demon and using the mirrors on the wall to aim. Shane was there too, leaning down to slash snakes on the floor with his sword.

  Gorgoseus was still upright on the other side of the bed, but he was tottering with several knives and arrows stuck in his neck and Azura’s sword still deep in his groin. Then a knife plunged into one of his big round lidless eyes, and he grunted and collapsed very slowly to the floor.

  Chapter 24

  Joe and Nyx drew their swords and leaned down to help Shane with the snakes on the floor. Amy heard the elevator door slide open, and a moment later Terra and Bill peered in through the doorway.

  “Nice job,” Terra said. “If any of you want work, I’ll be happy to hire you.”

  Nobody answered her. Bill grabbed his sword from the floor where the Nephilim had dropped it and started helping the others with the snakes. “Careful,” he said. “Their fangs are full of demon venom.”

  Amy hated snakes even without demon venom, and she remained on the bed beside the corpse. She wanted to sit up, but Azura was still lying on top of her and showed no inclination of wanting to move. She weighed very little, and her slender warm body felt good.

  “Remember, you can’t look at that damn thing’s eyes even now,” Bill said. He kicked the alabaster body of the disciple and said, “Hard as granite. It would make a nice statue. Maybe I’ll take it with me.”

  “We better get this ceremony underway,” Terra said. “I have no idea how long that curare will keep it quiet.”

  “There are only six of you,” Bill said. “That’s only half a coven.”

  “If you’re any good you can do it with half a coven,” Terra said.

  “It means all of you need to concentrate harder,” Bill said. “It takes a lot of psychic energy to dismiss a major demon like this.”

  Amy looked down at the floor. Many snakes had been cut in half, but the halves were still squirming. Nyx’s foot strayed a little too close to a severed snakehead, and its jaws snapped shut an inch from her heel.

  “Careful, Nyx!” Amy said.

  Nyx looked down and kicked the snakehead under the bed. “Glad I’m wearing boots,” she said.

  “Well, I’m wearing tennis shoes, and I’m not standing on that floor with those damn things down there,” Amy said.

  Terra sighed and disappeared. She returned a minute later with a wide janitor’s broom and swept the snake parts under the bed.

  “If it pleases the princess, maybe now she can get her royal ass out of bed so we can send this thing to hell,” she said.

  They stood in a circle around Bill, all of them facing away from the demon that was lying on the floor at the other side of the bed. They joined hands, Amy holding Shane’s hand and Azura’s. In the mirrors she could see that Nyx and Joe weren’t willing to hold Terra’s hands, so even though she was part of the circle she was unconnected.

  Bill raised his walking stick and began to chant. He chanted in a monotone the same way he spoke, with no sense of melody or rhythm. Amy concentrated on the tuneless dirge, trying to find a way to join her mind with the sound, but it was like a dark, bleak threnody with nothing her inner voice could connect to.

  Minutes crawled by and more minutes, and nothing happened, no mist, no black fog, just Bill’s voice droning on and on. Amy heard a slithering sound from the far side of the bed, and in the mirror she saw one of Gorgoseus’ big knobby hands reaching up above the mattress. The thing was awakening, and Bill’s spell still wasn’t working.

  The hideous snaky head appeared and then the shoulders. The demon was sitting up and trying to stand. And then at last the air began to crackle with dry electricity and a few wispy tendrils of black mist became visible around the demon’s body.

  It slowly coalesced into a thin dark fog, and Gorgoseus let out a keening howl as the fog thickened until it completely hid his face in an angry pillar of blackness. His howl began to sound more and more distant, as if he was trav
eling away from them without moving, and then at last there was only the sound of Bill’s chant.

  The mist thinned and drifted upward like black smoke, and Bill stopped chanting.

  Nobody was eager to go to the other side of the bed and make sure Gorgoseus was gone, but after a minute of quibbling Bill took a mirror and went to have a look.

  “All’s clear,” he said. He looked under the bed and said, “The snake parts are gone too.” He hobbled wearily back to the others and threw the mirror on the bed. “I’ve done my chore, Terra. Now where are my goods?”

  She smiled and kissed him lightly on the cheek. “Thank you, Father, for dismissing Godson’s demon. And now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to dismiss one of my own.”

  She drew her sword and cut off her father’s head.

  Azura screamed, and when she was done screaming she sat on the bed beside Godson’s carcass and cried.

  “Stop blubbering,” Terra said. “He was a filthy child molester. You know that as well as I do.”

  “Maybe so, but he was my father,” Azura said.

  Bill’s head was still alive, his nickel eyes staring at Terra as he mouthed silent words. She kicked it across the room, where it bounced off the wall with an astonished expression.

  “Those Longevity ingredients are mine,” she said, “but there are enough of them to keep both of us young if you want to stay here with me and behave yourself.”

  “I’d rather be in hell,” Azura said.

  “Then go to hell. I intend to start my treatment tomorrow, just as soon as I get things in order around here. You can grow old and ugly, but I don’t plan to.”

  “You actually intend to stay here?” Azura asked.

  “Of course I do. The cowards in town sent an email today begging for a truce, and I’ll agree to it. I’ll leave them alone if they leave me alone, and if they don’t I still have plenty of Nephilim and disciples to keep them in line. And I’ll soon have plenty more disciples to replace the ones you’ve killed. The demons will flee now that their master’s gone, but I’ll summon more of them. I’ll read my books and learn how to do it. I plan to rule here like a queen for a thousand years.”