by Joe Fowler
“So I would still have to fight for what I wanted.” I said. I wanted to keep him talking as long as I could.
“Not as much as you think. Most would cede to you because of my name alone. Others you might have to handle forcibly. Once word spreads that you can handle yourself, the fighting would stop.”
“What are these rewards you spoke of? The women thing sounded good.” Sorry, but any man would have thought it sounded good. Don’t judge me.
“Hell is full of beautiful women.” He was smiling. I’m sure he saw this as his way to corrupt me. If not for Alicia, he might have had a chance. "From the beginning, women have used their bodies to get what they want. From prostitutes, to adulteresses, to mistresses, women have slept their way to hell since the beginning. The more powerful demons can have all the sex slaves they want. Any other questions?”
I thought of asking about the food, the living arrangements, and a dozen other things, but I decided that I had heard enough of his voice. I knew the others still might have up to ten more minutes to even get here, but I couldn’t listen to him anymore. Time to begin trying to get off the floor. My body hurt from head to toe, but I knew the pain would be less in my wolf body. I wondered when it had gotten dark outside. I must have been unconscious for some time. I managed to stand. It was better that I was still naked, it would make it easier to change. Well, here’s to stupidity.
“Father, I don’t need to hear any more. There is no way in hell I will give you permission, now or ever.” I said it as bravely as I could and turned into my wolf the instant I had stopped talking.
His fury was palpable. He took his time standing up. I braced myself for the onslaught that I knew would be worse than what had happened before. This beating was going to hurt me very badly.
In a flash of movement, he grabbed the huge chair he had been sitting in and was swinging it at my head. I rushed him and got my knee into his gut. Before he had even dropped the chair I was hitting him in the head with both fists flying. He was knocked back into the wall and slid to the floor. I only hesitated for a nanosecond, but it was too long. I rushed him again, but he was prepared this time. He blocked my swing and hit me with an uppercut that sent me flying across the room. I had barely landed when he kicked me in the head. Groggy and hurting as I was, I managed to grab his foot before the second kick could land. I pulled it out from under him and rolled to my feet. He regained his feet nearly at the same time.
“Why are you still fighting me? You can’t win. I am offering you a hell that would be more enjoyable than heaven, yet still you fight.” He was as furious as he could be.
“If hell is so good, why are you trying to escape it? You could be there with your loveless whores now.” As I spoke he tried to rush me, but I spun away backhanding him across the jaw. It did not improve his mood.
“Are you really trying to speak to me about love? I loved my father more than anything but He turned from us in favor of you hairless apes. Love can only bring heartache, nothing more. Love is the great lie told to make you believe.” He was really on a rant now. He seemed to forget that we were fighting.
“So, you got kicked out of heaven because you were mad that God wasn’t paying as much attention to you? How stupid is that?” Okay, that straw might have broken the sanity camel’s back.
He flew at me in such a rage that he left himself wide open. I kept hitting him and he kept wildly attacking. I actually started to have hope for a few seconds. Winning actually seemed possible if he continued this rage. Unfortunately, the hope I had been trying to keep alive from before, ruined my new hope of winning. Gunshots rang out all over the place. Outside and inside the house, guns were being fired at an alarming rate. I sighed in momentary relief, my friends were here.
My father was at the window in a blink, cursing his evil ass off. I looked out the window myself and saw wolves flashing across the yard. They were taking out the gunmen quickly. There weren’t as many of them as I was expecting. This must be just one of the two groups that my friends had broken into. Since my father was still mesmerized by the sight of the wolves, I took the opportunity to head for the door.
“Where do you think you are going?” My father grabbed me from behind and flung me back into the room. “We aren’t through.”
I was distracted by the smell coming through the door. It seemed so out of place with the elegant décor. It was a sickly sweet smell. Then I remembered where I had smelled it before. Vampires! There were vampires here.
“Watch out, there are vampires!” I sent this thought to all the wolves.
“Josh! Where are you?” Seth was here.
“Second floor, right hallway. Fighting my father.” That was all I could say, since dear old Dad was charging at me. I tried to fight back. He was tired of being Mr. Nice Demon though. He was doing all the damage he could. I must admit, he was good at it. I only marginally realized when the beating had stopped. I opened my eyes to see Seth’s giant wolf form fighting my father.
I tried to stand, wanting to go help Seth. I fell back twice before reaching my feet. I could feel my bones mending from this last attack, but I hadn’t healed enough yet to be of much good to Seth. That was when two vamps entered the room and headed for Seth. I stopped them. With a desperate lunge, I took off one vampire’s head and rammed the other against the wall. We faced off briefly. He made a mistake and I ended him with a swipe on my claw. When I turned around to help Seth, my father’s back was to me. I grabbed him and flung him head first into the wall.
It was instantly clear that Seth had been doing a hell of a lot better against the demon than I had. My father was a bloody mess. He was barely moving. Both Seth and I took a step nearer with the intent of finishing him off. We were interrupted by a dozen or so vampires all rushing into the room. I was sending vampire bodies flying all over the room, some still had heads but most did not. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Seth dispatching them as fast as I was. When I looked back at the door I saw many more vamps streaming in.
“We need to finish the demon now. I will try to hold off these idiots.” I said this to Seth, and moved to block the doorway, all the while beheading as many of them as I could. It was a good plan anyway.
“He got away!” I turned to see what Seth meant, my father hadn’t made it out the door. “He jumped out of the window. We have to go after him. He can’t be allowed to get away. Let’s go!”
Seth jumped out the window using the hole that my father had used. I just ran and jumped creating a new hole. I landed beside Seth and sniffed the air to get my father’s scent. Seth and I took off at the same time heading back through the front door of the house. Adramelech was no fool, he knew he had no chance of outrunning us. Plus he would have help inside the house. More help than I had thought.
There were almost ten vampires to every wolf. Seth and I delayed our pursuit of my father to even the odds for the pack. It didn’t take long. Seth and I were both dispatching the vamps at an incredible rate. Then Seth’s head snapped up quickly and he shot up the stairs and down the hall to the left. I realized one of the other wolves had called for help. In this madhouse filled with growls, howls, gunshots, and screams, telepathy might be the only way to communicate. I finished off enough of the rest of the vampires and continued searching for Adramelech wanting to get this over with.
His scent went up the stairs and to the left. I shot down the hall and burst into the room just in time to see the demon standing over Seth. Seth was still moving, thankfully. I never slowed. I plowed into my father sending us both into a wall. I was swinging my claws and tearing at him as best I could. He still managed to kick me off and get back to his feet. Seth was hurt bad, I didn’t have time to look closely. I moved to stand between my father and Seth. I would make sure Seth survived.
“Boy, get out of my way. I will kill you too, but I want him dead first.” Adramelech could barely stand. I looked more closely at Seth, while still keeping an eye on my father. There were several gunshot wounds all over Seth�
��s body.
“You chicken shit! You weren’t man enough to beat him so you shot him? How much of a coward are you?” I was furious.
The rage in my father’s eyes was frightening. He attacked me with all he had left, it just wasn’t enough. I knocked him into a wall and stood looking down at him with contempt. He was crawling away from me. I put my foot on his ass and pushed him down onto his belly. His head hit the wall and he laid motionless. I moved in to rip his heart out. That’s when I grew three holes in my chest. I half turned as I fell. I saw Mrs. Williams, Crystal’s mom, still pointing her gun at me. Well, that wasn’t very nice of her.
“Why won’t you just give in? You were always such a nice boy, now you are causing us all kinds of problems.” She seemed to think I was being rude because I wanted to live. How inconsiderate of me. “We are not going to let you ruin this for-”
This gunshot came from behind her. Mom was standing there shaking with a gun in her hand, she had shot Mrs. Williams. I shimmered back into human form and cried out with the pain. Mom stumbled to my side and fell to her knees. She had tears streaming down her face and she was covered in blood.
“Mom.” I said and smiled at her. She tried to smile back, but was too overcome with emotion. I looked at my chest to inspect the damage. One lung was down, I knew. I think at least one bullet grazed my heart. I wasn’t dead, but I could barely breathe and wasn’t going to be fighting anytime soon.
Seth was starting to move a little. The demon was unconscious. I knew we needed to kill him now while we could, but I didn’t have the strength to move. Mom was trying to comfort me but she was shaking and crying too hard. I had to find a way to destroy Adramelech once and for all but I couldn’t see how. Then I sent my vision out to find Keith. He was just outside the house coming in the front door. I almost blacked out with even that little bit of effort. I managed to stay awake, though.
That was when I heard the worst thing possible, the demon was stirring. Mom started to panic even worse, but then she stopped shaking and her face became determined. She started crawling over to the gun that she had dropped. She grabbed it and turned just a little too late. My father grabbed her by the throat. She got off two shots into his belly. He broke her neck. I heard the last few beats of her heart as she pitched forward.
Keith was here. He stood in the doorway looking around the room. He took stock of Seth, seeing he would be ok. He turned to me and smiled. That smile told me that I would survive and that everything would be taken care of now. Then Keith turned to the demon. The shocker was how panicked Adramelech became when he saw Keith.
“No! Why are you here?” My father was trying to crawl backwards through a wall to get away from Keith. I was growing confused.
“I’ve been waiting on you, moron. Do you really think we would let you get away with this?” Keith was smiling as he spoke.
“I followed the rules that were given. I earned this chance. You don’t have the right to send me back to hell.” Adramelech was trying for outraged now. I was still confused about all of this. I barely noticed when Seth got to his feet and walked behind me. I was zoned in on trying to figure out why my father was so afraid of Keith. “This plan took almost two hundred years with generations of rituals done. You don’t have the right to even touch me.”
“You are right. I can’t touch you, and you should be happy. You are not going back to hell.” Keith said. He looked up at Seth and asked. “Seth, my friend, do you think this demon deserves to live?”
The words were still echoing in the air as Seth bit Adramelech’s head off. It was over. I closed my eyes and sighed. When I reopened them, my focus went to Keith. It was time for him to tell me.
“Keith. I need to know.” I knew he would understand what I meant.
“You will, Josh. I will answer all of your questions later. Seth and I have to finish bringing order to this place first. You need to spend the next few hours healing anyway.” He and Seth left the room.
As always, my trust in Keith was complete. If he said he would tell me, then he would. I reached over and placed my hand on my mom’s head. At least she got it right in the end. There were still some sounds of fighting, but nothing like before. I sat there not knowing if I should be happy or sad.
“Alicia, you there?” I called to her in my mind.
“I’m here. What’s happening? Are you okay?” Alicia’s voice was comforting, even when she was a nervous wreck.
“It’s over. The demon is dead. We won.” Just saying the words felt so good. I would have my life with Alicia.
“Did anyone get hurt? Anna and I have been worried sick.” Alicia had suffered through this. I would find a way to make it up to her.
“I haven’t been able to go around and check. I know that Seth and Keith are just fine. They are trying to deal with the last of the fighting. I am still trying to heal enough to be able to walk.” I admitted.
“Oh no. How bad is it?”
“I will tell you all about it later. I just wanted to hear your voice and let you know the worst is over.” It would be easier to tell her when she could see I was fine.
“Hurry. I am going to change now and tell Anna. I love you Josh.”
“I love you. We will be back when we can.” I broke off contact, exhausted.
It was sometime later, when I finally felt like I could move on my own. I went slowly down the hall to the room where I had spent much of the day fighting my father. I needed to find my clothes. The smell was horrible. There were so many rotting vampires. Seth and I had really did a number on them. I dug through until I found my clothes. I got dressed and sat down for a moment to regain some strength.
When I finally made it downstairs, most of the wolves were back in human form. The few who were still wolves were most likely looking out in case of a stray vampire that had been missed. Most of the rotting vampire corpses had been taken outside, but the stench was still horrible. I drew smiles from the pack who were in human form. They seemed happy that I survived. I smiled back, grateful for all of their help. I saw Seth and Keith standing with some others and I went to join them.
“He will be missed.” Jimmy was saying. No, that would mean someone had died! I shuffled closer as fast as I could manage.
“What’s wrong?” I asked when I was close enough.
“Carl didn’t make it.” Keith informed me. He looked down at Carl’s body which had been mostly covered. “The vampires finished him off after he was shot through the heart by a human.”
“Seth, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.” I said what I couldn’t help feeling.
“No, Josh. Carl wouldn’t blame you and neither do I.” Seth had tears in his eyes, but managed a smile. “Carl was the first one to volunteer for this. He knew the demon had to be stopped, but I think he was more worried about you. He hated what was happening to you and he was happy he might be able to help.” The other pack members voiced their agreement. They didn’t want me to blame myself.
Keith sent me outside for some fresh air. I didn’t know how much I needed it until I got clear of the vampire smell. With clean air in my lungs, I could start to put some of this behind me. Jimmy emerged from the house, pale and somber. I waved him over to the hood of my car. He looked as sad as I felt.
“You look like you need a break. Have a seat.” I told him when he got close. He sat on the hood beside me.
“You should have seen him. Carl tore through the doors taking vampire after vampire. He was careful not to kill the humans, only disarming them. He was the one who cleared the path Seth needed to go help you. Their numbers were overwhelming, but Carl was killing them fast enough to keep the rest of us from getting hurt. Then you and Seth blew through the front door unexpectedly. The two of you were the most amazing things I have ever seen. The two of you killed more of them in five seconds than we had in ten minutes. Once you two went back upstairs, we thought we would have it easy. For the most part we did, but one of the humans had been hiding. When Carl got too close, the huma
n stood and fired one shot right through Carl’s heart. Two vampires were there to make sure he didn’t get to heal.” Jimmy had tears streaming down his face while he spoke.
“Everyone keeps telling me that this isn’t my fault. If you hadn’t smelled me, then Seth wouldn’t have bitten me. Carl would still be alive.” I was not able to get past it. Carl had died helping to save me.
“So would the demon. To make it worse, the demon would be much more powerful. What if he had become so powerful that Seth couldn’t have killed him?” Jimmy looked at me. I knew the point he was making. “The whole pack might have fallen to your father. That doesn’t even begin to cover how many humans would have suffered because of him.”
“Well if you’re going to use logic, then there’s no fun arguing about it. It hurts, Jimmy. I will always feel like I owe a debt I can’t pay.” I said it like it felt. Jimmy put his hand on my shoulder and we sat there quietly for a little while.
Seth finally emerged from the house an hour or so later. He was giving orders and Jimmy went to do his part. The vampire remains were being swept out and scattered. The humans had been rounded up and Keith was telling them what would be happening, not just tonight but for the coming days as well. I sat on my car and tried to zone them out. My life would never be the same.
Chapter 15
Jimmy’s van led our procession back to Seth’s house. I drove my car and was followed by Cynthia in her Tahoe. Keith had stayed behind to deal with the police and the aftermath. We were all saddened by having to leave Carl behind as well. My mother’s loss was hitting me harder than I thought it would, but I was trying my best not to think of her during the drive. I mostly tried not to think at all.