A Shot in the Dark

by K. A. Stewart

  “So what do you know? Brother Cameron.” I leaned forward, keeping the sword between us. Y’know, just to remind him it was there.

  “Surprisingly little. I’m one of the frontline soldiers, not someone who calls the shots.” He blinked slowly as the tip of my sword came to rest on his hand, pinning it ever so lightly to the floor.

  “Look at me, Cameron.” I waited for him to raise his eyes. “I don’t trust you, and I don’t believe you. If I have to keep prying things out of you, one secret at a time, things are going to get ugly. In your current condition, you might want to think twice about trying to take me on.” See, in my world, where the code of the bushido ruled, Cam had already marked himself as a dishonorable man by lying to me. Punishing him for it was therefore just and right. Guess it was a good thing for him that I was a nicer guy than that.

  He looked me in the eyes for long moments, weighing his options, I guess. Finally, carefully, he picked the blade up with two fingers and moved it away from his hand. “We had heard . . . rumors. Rumors of a hit going out on champions, us, anyone who makes a name for themselves fighting against the demons.”

  “Rumors from where?”

  He hesitated for long moments until I tapped the back of his hand with my blade again. “I’m not . . . There are things that aren’t known outside the order. I shouldn’t speak of them.”

  “But you will.” I saw it in his eyes. He’d follow whatever orders he’d been given, but they didn’t set easily on him. He wanted to tell me; he just needed a little encouragement. “We’re all in danger here, Cam. We have a right to know why.”

  “There’s a book. An ancient text, older even than the oldest known printed Bible. It predates . . . everything, as nearly as we can tell. Written in three languages, left as an instruction manual of sorts. The order is based around it.”

  “Go on.” Ghost stories. In the dark. That’s all.

  Cameron rubbed the uninjured side of his head, and I could see him weighing his words carefully. “The book details a time of great strife. A time when the residents of Hell would rise up and war with each other. The war will spill over into the human world, causing complete and total destruction.”

  Like riots, droughts, wildfires. Revolutions and famine. Everything we’d been seeing on the news for months now. And this was just the beginning. “Chaos, mass hysteria, dogs and cats living together . . .” He didn’t get the reference and just gave me a puzzled look. “Ghostbusters? No?”

  He gave me a flat look. “I got hit in the head today, forgive me. Anyway, like any prophecy, the clues and portents are open to interpretation. But our cardinal believes that the time is now, and that Hell’s first order of business will be to remove us. All of us.”

  I could tell Cameron believed it. I mean, really believed it. His order thought the end was near, probably in all capital letters. Normally, I’d have laughed in his face.

  Normally, that is, except for a few stray comments from Axel that I just couldn’t get out of my head. “They don’t follow the rules, Jesse.” “Think of it like a family food fight.” There was trouble brewing Down There. Axel was trying to make light of it, but there was some kind of internal discord. I promised myself that the next time Axel showed up, I was getting some kind of information out of him one way or another.

  “But they can’t hurt us. We have to allow it, we have to bargain for the fight, or they can’t touch us.” Ironclad rule. Except Axel’s words from last spring were marching double time around inside my head now. They don’t follow the rules, Jesse. Over and over again, like an alarm blaring. And more recently, We always come back.

  That one single fact was banging around in the back of my skull, part of me screaming in hysterical terror. The Yeti was back, but if I stopped to think about it right now, I’d cease to function. I’d think about it later. Hopefully.

  “Those things out there bled, didn’t they? You wiped it off your sword.” He nodded toward my blade. “Then they’re not demons. And they’re not subject to the edicts.”

  He was right. Whatever those things were . . . they weren’t demon, and all bets were off. Christ, I had to get to a phone, I had to call Ivan and warn him, send out an alert through Grapevine. Something. Anything. Oh Jesus . . . Estéban . . . The kid was with my wife and daughter. If they went after him . . .

  “We were watching all of you. All that we knew about. They sent me to Kansas City to . . . try and mitigate damage, I guess.”

  “And then you followed me up here. What about Estéban? Who’s watching him?”

  “The boy?” Cam blinked a little, obviously puzzled. “He’s just a kid. He wasn’t considered a priority, I guess. They didn’t think about putting someone with him—” He choked, possibly because I had him by the shirt collar, hauling him into my personal space.

  “That boy has killed a demon. And now he’s alone, with my wife and daughter. If anything happens to any of them, because you didn’t consider him worth saving . . .”

  His hands were strong—much stronger than I’d thought—as he gripped my wrist, trying to loosen my hold. Cam was a creature of surprises. “They said . . . no homes . . . Too hard to hit the homes, too much . . . protection . . .” He gasped when I let go, gulping air.

  Someone moved at the bottom of the stairs, a shadow sprawling across the ceiling above us. “Jesse? You guys okay up there?” Cole. And calling me by name was code. If I answered with anything other than “little brother,” he’d be up the stairs in a heartbeat, guns blazing. Figuratively. I think.

  “We’re fine, little brother. We’ll be down in a little bit.”

  “A’ight.”

  Cameron was still rubbing his throat when I looked back at him. “Who said, Cam? You keep saying ‘they said.’ Who is ‘they’?”

  “There was . . . an interrogation. I wasn’t there. I told you I’m just a foot soldier. Information was obtained.”

  “They interrogated . . . what? A demon? How did . . .?” The concept was alien to me. How do you hold something that can disappear at will, let alone interrogate it with any semblance of credibility? “How do you interrogate a demon?”

  “Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to know.”

  “Even better than that, how did you find one? One just happened to fall for the box-and-stick trap?” Cam looked down, away, and a chill settled over my skin. “You summoned a demon, didn’t you? Summoned it, bound it somehow.”

  He still wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Not me personally, no.”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Something like that, you can’t just sit still for. I stood up to pace the confines of our small circle of light. “Christ on a freaking cracker, Cam. You’re supposed to be the good guys, and you’re summoning demons? You don’t summon demons! Not for anything, or anyone. That’s how they get in, just that little bit of acceptance. And after that, maybe a small deal, something harmless. Then a little more. Then more. Then they have you by your short and curlies and there isn’t crap you can do about it, unless you come to someone like me. You simply do not summon demons!”

  “It was necessary. We knew something was coming—we needed details. It was the only—”

  “Oh screw your details. I notice you didn’t impart any of this great wisdom on the rest of us. What if we hadn’t brought you on this trip, Cam? How many of your other ‘brothers’ weren’t anywhere near the people they were supposed to be watching? I mean hell, there’s only five of you to begin with!” Again, he refused to meet my eyes. “More than five. Probably lots more. Any other lies you’d like to clear up, while we’re up here?”

  “None of these things were my decision, Jesse. You have to know that.”

  “I don’t care whose decision it was. You just better hope the rest of your ‘brothers’ are as good at their job as you are. ’Cause if your secrets got anyone hurt, I will personally turn you over to Ivan Zelenko for an asswhupping.” Ivan was one person that I never ever wanted mad at me, and if the knights had endangered his people . . .
Mad wasn’t even adequate to describe the old man’s reaction. I don’t think they’d invented a word yet for how pissed he was going to be. “And then I’m gonna kick the crap out of the pieces of you that are left.”

  He nodded, and I could see the exhaustion weighing down his shoulders. There were circles forming under his eyes already.

  “You need to rest as much as you can. We can’t let you sleep, in case you have a concussion, so you’ll have to make do.” I headed for the stairs, leaving the lantern behind. “We’ll continue the conversation in the morning, when you’re coherent.”

  I was halfway down the stairs before he spoke again. “Jesse.” I stopped, looking back with my eyes just level with the floor. “It may not have been the best idea. But they did what they had to do for the information. And it probably saved your life today.”

  “Yeah? Tell that to the Quinns. Let me know how safe they feel.”

  10

  There really wasn’t much else to do. Wisely, no one wanted to venture out into the darkness with those things, and so we were left with nothing to do but bed down for the night and wait for the sun to rise.

  I was never any good at waiting. As the guys hauled their sleeping bags downstairs (opting to sleep in front of the fireplace instead of up in the loft), I did a walk-through of the cabin, checking defenses. Cam’s spell may be holding the nasty-bads back for now, but by his own admission, it wasn’t going to last forever.

  I started in the main room, and while it may have looked like I was merely watching the night outside the windows, I was actually passing my hand over the glass, feeling for Cam’s wards. At each one, I found the telltale prickle of magic in place, and I was careful not to touch it and disrupt the protections. With those in place, I might be able to doze a little, at least.

  On my way through the kitchen, I gave the faucets a twist, just to see the clear cold water come running out. The water was actually piped in from a spring just behind the cabin. A spring that, I hoped, was still on consecrated ground. “Hey, Marty? If you guys have any buckets, start filling them with water.” Siege strategy said that you first cut off water and food from those penned in. I didn’t know if the Yeti was versed in siege warfare, but why take the chance?

  Outside the back door, the night was cool and silent. To the west, the mountain peaks still had a faintly lavender glow, but otherwise night had fallen. Was dark always so black? In a few hours, the moon would be rising somewhere behind me, but right now all I had was the faint gleam from the cabin windows.

  The ward tingled a little when I passed through it, and I stood on the back porch for a few moments, listening to the world around me. Nothing moved. No birds, no animals, hell, I don’t think there were even any insects buzzing around. Everything sane had cleared out hours ago. Even if I couldn’t see the Yeti and his pets, I knew they were there.

  I flexed my fingers on the hilt of my sword and stepped off the porch. Funny, holy ground didn’t feel any different from regular ground, except for the very faint tingle across my skin. Magic. Cam could call it prayer if he wanted, but it all smelled and felt the same to me. I paid special attention to that tingle as I walked across the clearing, ready to jump back if I crossed the barrier between consecrated and not.

  Things were moving in the trees now, rustling softly. The only reason I could even hear it was that everything else was so freakin’ quiet. Whatever they were, they knew I’d left the cabin, and they were tracking right along the edge of holy ground. That wasn’t encouraging.

  The spring itself was the only natural sound for yards and yards. The water burbled quietly, trickling from a small spill of smooth rocks into a man-made pond. It was still within the boundary by about three feet, and I had to wonder how long it would take for the spell to fade, to open this up for attack. Once we lost our water, we’d be out of time to make decisions.

  How soon? I dipped my fingers into the pond, letting the pure water trickle over them while I had a good think. How long do we have? How long did Mira and Anna have, if those things were after Estéban? How long for Ivan, and Sveta, and Avery, and all the others I’d never even met?

  Barely a yard in front of me, the bushes parted and a bald head appeared, nose wrinkling to sniff the air. I stood slowly and brought my sword up, dropping into a defensive stance. The creature leaned forward, testing the invisible barrier between us, then hissed in silent displeasure. Whatever it was, it wasn’t willing to cross Cam’s threshold. “That’s a good boy. You stay right there.”

  It cocked its head to one side, a very human gesture of curiosity, almost like it understood what I was saying. Its eyes were solid black, but glowed somehow, and I got the impression that something larger was looking out at me from the inside. Goose bumps ran laps up and down my back.

  Another one slipped through the brush, roughly shouldering the first aside, and they bared their teeth at each other before turning to look at me again. I took the opportunity to get a good look at them, despite the darkness.

  Both male, that much was evident, their bodies were almost skeletal, stained and dirty skin stretched tight over a framework of bone. Their teeth were rotted black, and the odor of decay slowly permeated the area. They breathed, but made no other sound that I could hear, and they crouched on all fours like a hound rather than moving on two legs. Their movements would have been fluid on another animal, but on them they were strange and alien, like their bodies just didn’t fit what their brains were telling them to do. Or what their master is telling them to do.

  Their bare feet weren’t clawed, per se. More, it looked like their toenails had simply overgrown. The same with their fingers. Still, there was no mistaking the dexterity of their hands. I’d seen them grab and shred.

  Briefly, I wondered what would happen if I stood at the very edge of the marked boundary and cut their heads off. Something told me that would be a bad idea. I mean, shedding blood on holy ground? Just didn’t seem to be a good thing.

  A third joined them as I watched, the handless female I’d taken a bite out of earlier. If she noticed her missing appendage, it didn’t show. She shuffled around on the stump just as easily as on her remaining hand. The wound itself wasn’t bleeding, but I could see smears of something black and thick left on the foliage as she passed. I swallowed hard and tried not to think about what that was. Just looking at her was making me a bit queasy. I could have handled something more . . . animal, I think. They were just human enough to be grotesque. The wrongness of it all turned my stomach.

  The female silently snarled at the two males, and they slunk back, giving her space. Her gaze fixed on me, and there was something in there, something more than that otherly blackness the males had. I felt like she actually saw me. “And just who are you in there?”

  There was more movement in the bushes to my left as even more of them gathered, drawn by some unheard signal. It was time to go. Slowly, I backed toward the cabin, not willing to turn my back to the eerie creatures who had massed to my presence. I was never so glad to feel my heels hit wood as I was that night, stepping back up onto the small porch.

  “Darling, aren’t they?”

  Either I was getting slow, or Axel was really freakin’ fast. My sword missed his head by a fraction of an inch. I may have sliced hair. “Jesus freakin’ Christ!”

  “Shh . . . No reason to get him involved.” The blond demon hooked his thumbs in his belt loops and leaned against the wall, shushing me with a grin. “And we wouldn’t want your buddies to come investigate the ruckus, would we?”

  “How the hell did you get here? The ground is—”

  “Consecrated? Yes, I know.” He made a face and spit. “Nasty business that. Hadn’t counted on that.”

  “Counted on wh- . . .” It made sense, suddenly. “You were inside already. Upstairs. That’s what Duke was growling about.”

  “Stupid mutt. At least he’s smart enough not to take me on.”

  “But how’d you get out here? The wards . . .”

 
Axel snorted. “Your little priest friend should learn his limits. There’s barely enough power here to make me itch.” With a smirk, he demonstrated, hopping back and forth over the threshold of the open door. “I’m on the east side, I’m on the west side. I’m on the inside, I’m on the outside.”

  “Wonderful. So the wards aren’t any good.” Just what we needed.

  “Au contraire. They’ll work perfectly fine against anything that isn’t me.” He grinned, and it occurred to me that his injuries from earlier were gone. Only the faintest hint of a shadow showed where the worst of the bruising had been. Damn, demons healed fast. “I’m just that good.”

  “What about the ones at my house?”

  “Ah, now those are good wards. Your little priest could take some lessons from your wife.” Somehow, that made me feel better. If Mira’s wards would keep Axel out, surely they could keep out anything else Hell sent at her. Just until I could get home.

  “So you’re . . . what? Lurking around here so you can offer to clue me in for . . . dun dun dun . . . a price?” I wasn’t up for playing games tonight.

  The demon frowned at me. “Now there’s no need to get snarky. I am what I am.”

  “Boy, don’t I know it.” I tried to move past him, and he barred the door with one arm.

  “Jesse, in all seriousness. You need to talk to me.” Sometimes, when he got all serious in my voice like that, I could almost believe him. Almost.

  “In exchange for what? I think I’m gonna be needing my soul soon, so I really can’t offer that up at the moment.”

  He nodded. “Yes, you’re going to need it. Even if I tell you not to, you’ll do it. Maybe because I tell you not to. But that’s because you are what you are. Rather static creatures, aren’t we?”

  “Same shit, different day.” Dammit. I needed information, and at this moment, I trusted the demon on the porch more than the priest upstairs. “All right. What info do you think I need, and what do you want for it?” There was this little voice in the back of my head screeching “Warning, warning!” but I ignored it.