In the side rearview mirror, she saw two black SUVs pull onto the road behind them. With her attention focused on their pursuers, she missed the two SUVs that pulled into the road in front of them and barricaded the way. For a split second, she considered the ramifications of ramming the roadblock out of the way, but she reconsidered after the reaching the conclusion that the bus wouldn’t build enough speed to do any real damage before it got there.
The only chance they had would be to scatter. If everyone took off running in different directions, some of them might get away.
“Get ready to run,” Marla yelled as she slammed on the brakes.
“There are more demons on the way,” someone protested from behind her.
Two figures stepped out of the vehicles in front of the decelerating bus. As they walked toward the prophets, their bodies changed. The one on the left morphed into a conglomeration of different sized, shaped, and colored human parts. The demon on the right grew to about twice the size it had originally been and developed canine characteristics, including a slavering, furry face. With a dark humor, Marla wondered if the demon on the right had, at one time, been an inspiration for the wolf man.
Prophets ran to the front, but stopped abruptly when a black cloud blew over the bus. With shrieks and warnings of impending doom, many of them took to huddling on the floor. The cloud sailed past them in the direction of the demons that sought to stop the prophets.
“More demons!” one prophet cried from the ground. “We’ll never survive.”
The cloud collided with the two demons approaching the bus, and two more human-looking figures walked onto the road ahead of them. One of them, sporting a cane and a limp, hobbled toward the prophets, while the other stood and watched the cloud do its thing. When the cloud moved away from the demons it overtook, nothing but bits and pieces remained of what Marla had thought to be immortal beings. The man with the cane pulled out a white piece of cloth from within his jacket and waved it around in the air as he approached the bus.
“A prophet?” Marla asked aloud, though the question wasn’t meant for anyone.
“No,” a man’s voice said from behind her. “All the creatures before us are demons.”
With a sigh, Marla got up and headed to the door. “I’m going to go out there and see if I can figure out what’s going on. If anyone can drive a bus, get in the seat and watch what happens. If I die when I get outside, then you’ll know to get everyone the hell out of here. Just do your best to try to plow the bus through their blockade.”
“I’m going with you,” a girl’s voice informed her.
Marla smiled, not needing to turn around to see who had spoken to her. “No, Brianna, your place is on the bus until we know if the folks on the road mean us harm.”
“No,” Brianna responded simply and got up to follow her.
“I’m not your mother, but if you follow me out there, I’m liable to bust your butt when we get back,” Marla warned as she faced Brianna with a somber look on her face.
“Okay,” the girl replied, nodding her head and stepping closer to her.
Marla rubbed her temples and shrugged her shoulders. “All right. I guess it doesn’t make much difference whether you’re on the bus or not at this point anyway. But, for the record, this is quite an act of bravery, and I told you so.”
***
Nagina, in the form of a giant gorilla, tore both arms off a demon and mercilessly beat the fiend next to her with them. Abbie, not far away, was busy mentally paralyzing as many monsters as she could telepathically reach. The prophets and mercenaries around them struggled to eliminate as many of the prone or wounded demons as they could, while adding their own abilities or firepower to the effort. However, even prone, most of the demons took more than one bullet to finish off, and more were on the way.
Taking a moment to rest her mind was too much. Abbie took a strong blow to the stomach that sent her flying backward. A large, mostly featureless demon, of an iridescent blue hue was standing where she had been. She was on her back, out of breath, eight or more feet away. Prophets and mortals rushed in to protect her, but more fiends pushed forward. With Abbie temporarily stunned, attacks on her party became much more effective.
The blue demon took a couple unhindered steps and reached its long arm toward her. The skin glowed brightly, and its face gained the outline of features. It looked to be grinning wickedly at her. Then, an explosion detached its arm at the shoulder. The grin turned into horror, and, shortly thereafter, its other arm flew off the body following a blast. It fell to the ground, writhing, and a couple of nearby mercenaries fired several shots into its head until it stopped moving.
Quickly picking herself up, Abbie scanned the field, and found whom she’d hoped to find. Raul was running to her from the south. Smiling, she returned to paralyzing the demons who had engaged in physical combat with her group. Two more fell within seconds to her psychic attacks and were finished off by people around them.
“I wasn’t expecting you,” Abbie said warmly to Raul as he approached, blowing the left leg off a charging demon as he came. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“The people I care about most in this world are in or near Kingstone,” he replied. “I can’t think of a better place for me at the moment.”
Abbie winked slyly at him before returning her attention to the battlefield. “Now that you’re here, I can say the same.”
***
A surge of demons from the south killed three prophets and a mercenary before Alex could even get there, and six more were incapacitated. There were at least twenty-five demons charging in on them. With a wave of his hand, he sent four flying backward into another wave coming in fast behind. A volley of ammunition slowed the onslaught, even killing a couple. Alex disintegrated two more.
Sophie, whose group moved over to reinforce, disappeared and reappeared around the battlefield twenty or more times. Every time she reappeared for a couple seconds, she was behind a demon, driving her slender sword into a vital place or firing a high-caliber round at it. Then, she would vanish again, before any of the fiends around her could avenge their fallen comrade.
After a moment of searching, Alex found a demon that looked to be giving orders. It was a big, ugly-looking monster probably most adept at smashing things. Shrugging, he took control of its mind and used it to maul the demon it had been giving orders to. Alex mutilated six more demons before one of the fiends finally stopped him as it ripped the heart out of his puppet’s chest and held it up triumphantly.
Alex laughed as he commanded that demon to throw down the heart and charge the others who had come closer to see what had happened to their now-dead commander. Once again, there was a moment of confusion that allowed for a vicious rampage. Four more went down before that demon was stopped. As Alex had hoped, and after two more less successful attempts, the demons in that area were killing each other without any help from him.
The gunfire below had become almost deafening, and with the prophets and mercenaries firing into the air at flying demons, or what they thought to be flying demons, Alex began to question the wisdom of being where he was. He scanned the battlefield and saw that three prophets had already fallen where Garrett’s group was fighting. After vaporizing a winged demon he spotted out of the corner of his eye, Alex moved closer to the eastern assault.
The hunter doubled one demon over backwards with his mace, while Dylan opened fire into the air, bringing down another flying demon. Two prophets, about ten feet from Garrett, were in hand-to-hand combat with a gray fiend that had long, spindly arms and a broad, gnashing maw.
Putting the demon to sleep, Alex floated toward a downed prophet while the two fighting the fiend were joined by two more, and they all beat it savagely. He made a silent thanks when he found the prophet was still alive. He’d never healed someone before, but didn’t doubt it was within his power. It would just be a matter of focusing his faith.
He put his hand on her forehead and concentrated, as he
had seen Salmar do before. The gash across her neck healed itself as Alex heard bones popping back into place. Her eyes fluttered open, and he teleported her to the living room couch of his parents’ house. At least she could recuperate there in relative safety.
Alex looked around for other wounded. There were several, many of them being attended to by others. Before he could go to another, he felt the ground begin to shake as he noticed a behemoth demon climb out of the crevasse that had just formed and start lumbering toward them. It stood at least thirty feet tall, and molten rock flowed around its body, while jets of fire blasted out from its eyes and mouth. Even the other demons scattered from around its enormous feet. Then, everything around him froze.
Sophie appeared next to him. “It’s taking an incredible amount of energy to pull you out of time with me, but this is very important. That demon’s name is Lahash, and the Elder Prophet Council put him down over two decades ago. Something just brought him back from Hell.”
“Well, I have a pretty good guess who that would be.”
“Lahash will destroy prophets by the score unless you stop him.”
“No problem. I was instructed on how to deal with just such a situation recently.”
“One other thing,” she added, looking strained. “Do you see Nathan?” she asked, pointing into the crowd of prophets gathered in the middle, reinforcing where needed.
Alex searched and did finally locate the Mad Prophet. “Yes.”
“Can you see his face?”
“Yes, but I don’t understand what this--”
“Describe what you perceive his state of mind to be from the expression on his face.”
Alex looked closely. “I don’t know. Maybe confusion.”
“After you deal with Lahash, go to Nathan.”
She closed her eyes. The battle around him resumed, and Sophie vanished.
Alex teleported to within fifty feet of the behemoth and grabbed hold of its mind with the intent of severing the fiend’s soul from its body as Lucifer had taught him. To his surprise, Lahash was not as blindly ambitious as Asmodeus had been. The demon fought back with its own mental attack, and Alex was momentarily dazed. Nevertheless, Alex had already made the link. After shaking off the effects of the psychic assault, he went to work on Lahash.
This demon was more cunning than Asmodeus. Each time Alex cut a connection the demon had to the physical world, it made another one just as fast. And it continued moving forward, swatting at prophets like insects as it reached the front line.
Alex bore down on the Lahash’s mind and felt it snap. Then, with ease, he forced the behemoth’s soul back to Hell, and the fire in it died. The giant carcass fell backwards onto charging demons, shattering itself and the bones of several fiends beneath it. Alex took some comfort that Lucifer would not acquire a new shape from Lahash’s body.
Finding a rather large demon to turn against its companions was not difficult, and Alex wasn’t sure he wanted to try to persuade Nathan to fight. That would take time they didn’t have, while potentially being absolutely fruitless. Still, the feeling that Sophie was onto something nagged at him. He decided that he’d better do something quickly because the battle didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon to give him time to think.
With a thought, he was next to Nathan who barely seemed to notice.
“Are they practicing dying?” Nathan asked without a hint of mirth in his voice.
Alex was dismayed. “Practicing? They are dying.”
That seemed to honestly surprise Nathan. “To what?”
“Demons, Nathan. There are dozens of them, and more are on the way. They’re all around us. Can’t you see them?”
The Mad Prophet looked to the people on the ground, then to where it looked like other prophets were fighting, but his look of befuddlement remained. “No.”
Alex was getting annoyed. The delusion had gone on for too long, and he needed to get back to the battle. “I assure you they’re out there,” he said with a wave of his hand, and looked around for somewhere to teleport himself where he would be of assistance.
Without saying another word, Nathan started walking toward where the groups with Abbie and Nagina were fighting off their own swarm of demons. Entranced momentarily, Alex watched him as he went. His jaw dropped when he saw the demons around Abbie fade into nothing as Nathan approached. The prophets around him stared and parted for him as he walked past them and right up to Abbie.
“What are you doing?” he asked of her.
Raul spun on him, but after a quick assessment of the threat Nathan posed, he turned back to watch what was happening.
“So this is how you’ve survived so long,” Abbie observed breathlessly. “I wonder why it never worked on Jeremiah.”
“Jeremiah may never have shown Nathan anything he didn’t already believe in,” Raul speculated. “If Jeremiah never took on a battle form, Nathan could have just perceived him to be another person, and this ability would have never manifested.”
Alex, who now stood next to them, added, “Raphael said this land would amplify abilities. Call the other prophets to us. Nathan’s disbelief may actually protect us all.”
Demons within a hundred feet of the Mad Prophet were melting out of existence, and the others were beginning to notice. Whatever was happening actually caused some of them to turn and run. Others were trying to stay as far away as possible, but showed no signs of stopping.
Abbie nodded and concentrated. Then, with fear in her eyes, she looked at Alex and uttered one word: “Sophie.”
Alex looked to the south and his heart dropped. Chiron was on the ground, and Sophie’s lifeless body dangled by the neck in Patheus’s outstretched hand. He silently berated himself for not sensing Patheus’s entrance.
“Take this,” Abbie said, handing him a jagged dagger.
Alex tucked it into his coat sleeve and teleported to within twenty feet of the demon. He announced that there was protection around Abbie and that everyone should go. Prophets who had not already taken the mental advice to join her decided to take that opportunity to flee.
***
“Marla?” the demon with a cane asked.
She and Brianna stopped dead in their tracks. “How do you know my name?”
“We all have our gifts, and attention to detail is mine. My name’s Saleos. And like you, I worked for Jeremiah for a long time, keeping track of his details. My associates and I noticed these demons setting up to do something, and we thought we’d find out what. It seems fortuitous that we did. You get to live, and we get to introduce ourselves.”
“You’re the rogue demons who helped Jeremiah defend his mansion,” Marla surmised.
“They are,” Saleos agreed. “I was pursuing other goals at the time. But we all have the same dilemma: We can’t go back to the lives we had before. Jeremiah made us believe that redemption is possible, and we need someone on your side to believe that too. The right person speaking kindly of us to the Elder Prophet Council could make a world of difference to both us and you. We could be assets.”
“Are we free to go?” she asked skeptically.
“Of course. But I do hope you’ll consider what I’ve said.”
“If we make it out of here alive, and the Elder Prophet Council survives for me to speak with any of them, I’ll tell them what you’ve done here today. If you are who you claim to be, Jeremiah has given me your contact information, and I’ll be in touch.”
“Fair enough,” the demon returned with a smile. “My associates and I will see you safely to your destination. We’ll watch from a distance, so the people on the bus don’t get too alarmed. After that, I will simply await your call with great anticipation.”
Marla studied him for a little while, as if she could read his true intentions on his face. “All right. But please do be careful to stay far away; the prophets have very keen senses.”
“Understood.”
She nodded, finally accepting who he said he was. After all, if he m
eant them harm, it would have already come. “I wish Jeremiah had introduced us. It would have made things much easier, and we could have been coordinating our efforts all along.”
“He wanted me to be a back-up plan,” Saleos explained. “If things went badly, I was to have an escape planned for Alex, Elizabeth, and Matt…I should say I was to be the escape. I was prepared to sacrifice myself to get them out of Kingstone, if needed, but it looks like that won’t be necessary anymore. Matt’s dead, and for that I am most sorry. I should have been more vigilant; I truly did not see it coming. Elizabeth is currently under the protection of an archangel. And—let’s face it—Alex doesn’t really need my help to do just about anything. As such, I’ll offer my services to you.”
Marla turned Brianna around, and they walked back to the truck. “We’re headed north. Just make sure there aren’t any more roadblocks.”
***
Patheus dropped Sophie into the blood-soaked mud beneath his feet. “Alex, I must admit that you are full of surprises. We’ve never had the pleasure. I’m Patheus.”
Demons began to encircle Alex and Patheus, wanting to strike, but wary of a warning that to do so meant certain banishment to Hell. So they kept their distance, though they prepared to fight or flee depending on the outcome of whatever was about to happen.
“I know who you are. I’ve managed to absorb quite a lot about demons since Jeremiah picked me up. And I know that you murdered Matt. Did you know I just helped destroy Metatron?” With that said, Alex attacked Patheus’s mind.
Patheus looked shocked, but he was stronger than most demons. He put up barrier after barrier to resist Alex’s barrage. Alex knocked each of them down with ease. Patheus clearly had no idea how much practice the prophet had. Before the thought of retreat even occurred to him, the demon realized that he was unable to move. He tried to teleport away and again failed.
Legends (To Absolve the Fallen Book 3) Page 32