by N. P. Martin
He is more concerned with Leonard, who has turned to face the new arrivals. Dimitri stands about ten feet away, staring at Leonard like he doesn’t give a fuck who the Grand Duke is. The mad bastard. Whatever. Lucas is grateful for the distraction. He jumps over the glaring portal in the floor and lands right behind Leonard, driving his fist into the Grand Duke’s back, who hits the floor so hard the carpet and concrete crumple in around him.
Despite the force of the blow, Lucas knows he only has a second before the Grand Duke is up again, so he bolts to the front exit, Dimitri already ahead of him, wisely not hanging around to see what Leonard does next.
Shiny black gangster cars are waiting outside, three of them, all with drivers with their foot on the gas, ready to gun it as soon as Dimitri, Lucas and the rest are safely inside. Dimitri and Lucas dive into the back seat of the first car and the driver slams on the accelerator before the door can even be pulled shut. The car speeds off at a screech, the back door hanging open for a second before swinging in and slamming shut on its own.
“Fuck this,” Lucas says sitting up and looking out the back window. “Teleporting is so much easier.”
“You’re welcome,” Dimitri shouts, laughing, loving every second of the mayhem. “I didn’t ask Leonard to put a suppressor spell around the whole fucking block.”
Through the window, the Demon Ecstasy club is drawing further and further away as the car speeds away as fast traffic will allow. A few of Leonard’s clones burst out of the club, followed by Leonard himself, who stands looking at the cars driving away from him. Lucas half expects the old cunt to appear in the car with them until he remembers the suppressor spell applies to Leonard as well. Thank Christ for small mercies, he thinks.
“Relax,” Dimitri says, his massive broad sword clanging on the floor at his feet as the car swerves in and out of traffic. “A few more feet and we can get the fuck out of here to my place. Right about…now actually.” Dimitri smiles at Lucas and vanishes out of the car.
Lucas does the same and a split second later he is standing in Dimitri’s lair.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Dimitri is already sitting in his faux Egyptian throne, chugging red wine straight from the bottle when Lucas arrives. “Your meat suit took a bullet,” Dimitri says, offering Lucas the wine bottle. “Sorry about that. I’m sure you’ll survive though.” He smirks to himself.
Lucas declines the wine bottle and touches the bullet hole in his shoulder. “I’ll fix it later. How did you know Leonard and his drones were at the club?”
“You ain’t the only one with contacts. I been in this city a lot longer than you have my new friend. I know everything that goes on.”
Lucas sits down on a wooden crate that is marked fragile. He wonders for a second what is inside it, then decides he doesn’t want to know. He has more pressing things to worry about anyway. “I can’t stay here long. Leonard will locate me again soon enough.”
“That he will, the old bastard.” Dimitri looks hyped up still. Clearly he enjoyed the siege and rescue he mounted at the club. He reminds Lucas of a mad Russian wired to the moon on vodka and cocaine. His tattoos and gold jewelry only add to the look. “I’ll be ready for him if he ever comes here though.”
“You better hope for your sake he doesn’t. Thanks by the way.”
“No need to thank me. You owe me. That’s enough.”
Lucas nods, uncomfortable with owing someone like Dimitri anything. “Sure.”
Dimitri sits back in his ridiculous wooden throne and takes small swallows from the wine bottle he’s still holding, appearing to relax slightly. “I don’t know what you brought with you when you arrived in this town,” he says. “But this whole city is beginning to resemble our former home.”
“So I believe.”
Lucas is well aware of the city’s rapid decent into chaos. The non-human element of the city has decided to go overground, hunting openly on the streets, killing humans and turning the city upside down. Humans being humans are also helping, of course, turning on each other like frightened monkeys in a panic, looting and burning whole neighborhoods to the ground. “Nothing to do with me,” Lucas says. “Somehow our own kind are working with the Nephilim in some conspiracy they planned. Tolloch is leading the charge for the demons. I even hear angels are involved.”
Dimitri snorts and shakes his head. “Fucking angels working with demons to spread evil.” He laughs. “If it wasn’t true I would never fucking believe it. What’s this goddamn universe coming to these days, huh?”
“Maybe it’s the Apocalypse.”
“The Apocalypse? The Four Horsemen and shit. You believe in that bullshit?”
Lucas shrugs and winces at the pain it causes the wound in his shoulder. “I don’t know. I’ve seen enough to know that anything is possible. You think the King is backing Tolloch in all this?”
“I’d be surprised if the King of Hell isn’t involved. If he isn’t, Tolloch will be in trouble.”
“This could be bad for us. Hell could end up running the show here.” Lucas shook his head at the thought.
“Fuck that,” Dimitri says. “The last thing I need is for some jumped fucking demon aristocrat thinking he’s the boss of me.” He bangs the wine bottle into his chest. “No one is the boss of me.”
Nor me, Lucas thinks, but doesn’t say it. Once he has the feather, then he would worry about the new world order. He stands up. “Time for me to go, before Leonard tracks me here.”
“We make a good team, you and I,” Dimitri says, leaning forward. “Just because we are demons doesn’t mean we can’t work together.”
“I thought we were already.”
Dimitri smiles. “That’s right. We are. And now, you owe me.”
“You said.” Lucas’ stare hardens on Dimitri for a second.
Dimitri’s smile broadens and he sits back in his throne. “Stay safe, Lucas. It’s getting dangerous out there.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Lucas ends up in the Caribbean, in a beach side hotel room that he knows Janice is staying in. She happens to be lying on the white sheeted bed when he appears in the room. She is wearing a red bikini and her tanned body is glistening with sun tan oil. She screams when Lucas appears out of thin air. “Fuck you, Lucas!” she shouts, almost throwing the drink she has in her hand at him. “You scared the shit out of me!”
“Apologies,” Lucas says, looking around the sizable room. “Nice place. Why aren’t you on the beach?”
Janice puts her free hand to her chest as if to try and calm herself down. “I drank too much last night. Today I feel ill, so I came in to lie down for a while.” She shakes her head at him. “What are you even doing here?”
“I ran into some problems back home.” He spots the bottle of dark rum on the dressing table, next to all Janice’s jewelry and makeup. He goes and picks up the bottle and takes a large swallow from it.
“What problems? Have you been shot again?” Janice is off the bed, coming up to him. “Jesus, you have. Who shot you this time?”
“Friendly fire.” He takes another mouthful of the rum and places the bottle back on the dressing table.
“Friendly fire?” She shakes her head. “I don’t even want to know.”
“You don’t, believe me.” Lucas stands awkwardly, unsure of what to do next. His only plan had been to get out of Mercy City and away from Leonard and his squad of demon drones. It is just a waiting game now, he realizes, and he hates waiting. He just hopes he doesn’t have to wait too long. If Frank is doing his job right, the feather should nearly be in his possession.
Janice, looking delectable in her bikini, gently touches Lucas’ shoulder. “You want me to see to this?” she asks, referring to the bullet wound. “I could go get some dressing or something.”
“No. I’ll take care it later. It’s not a problem right now.” Although if his body takes any more damage, he would end having to get a new one, and that could take a while because Lucas is fussy about the bodies
he possesses. He prefers them to look as he did back in Egypt, which usually entailed going to Egypt itself to find the right one.
“Then what are you doing here?”
“Hiding out, sort of.”
“From who?”
“Bad…people, who want me…dead.”
Janice puffs her cheeks, shakes her head like she doesn’t know what to do with him. “I never met anyone like you, you know that?”
“And you never will again.” He forces a smile and it feels like it hurts his face. He would have to go again soon. He can’t hang around in any one place for too long. If Leonard shows up here, Janice will be dead, and Lucas doesn’t want that. He likes her too much. Maybe even needs her, in a way. He is about to tell her that he isn’t staying when the phone in his jacket pocket rings. His stomach tightens when he takes the phone out and sees that it is Frank calling. “I have to take this,” he tells Janice and he opens the sliding doors in the bedroom and steps out on to the private stretch of beach that cost him a small fortune to rent for the staff vacation.
Outside, the sun glares down from a cloudless blue sky. It feels like walking into an oven after being in the air conditioned room. Dotted down the stretch of beach are other apartments and Lucas can see his other employees living it up in the sun and splashing around in the crystal clear water of the sea.
“It’s me,” Frank says when Lucas accepts the call. “I’ve got what you want.”
Lucas stands stunned for a second, then closes his eyes. Finally, he thinks. After all this time. He adopts a cool, calm voice for Frank. “I’m very glad to hear that.”
“You find out what I need to know?”
“I did. You’ll know everything when I have the feather.”
“Well, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait on that. I have to try and find a way to stop this city from going to hell first.”
Lucas tightens his jaw. Saving the city? That could take a while. “Tell me where you are. We could meet and—”
“No,” Frank says, cutting him off. “The feather stays with me until I’m ready to hand it over.”
Lucas stares hard at the white sand in front of him, then lets a tight sigh escape his lips. “Try not to get killed in the meantime. I don’t fancy another hunting expedition.”
Frank shook his head. “Jesus, to hear you, anyone would think you risked your ass to get the damn thing.”
“Just be careful with it,” Lucas says before the line goes dead.
Lucas stands stock still in the sand, then hears Janice call out from the bedroom. “Everything okay?”
He looks over his shoulder and shows her his demon eyes. Janice visibly flinches and backs off to sit on the bed, the fear in her own eyes plain as day.
Not a very earthly thing to do, Lucas thinks, but he couldn’t help it. Frank has the feather and the Watcher is refusing to hand it over. Didn’t the stubborn bastard know that Lucas’ fate was hanging in the balance? Lucas supposed he shouldn’t have been such a hard assed business man with the Watcher in the first place, then perhaps Frank would have been more amenable about handing the feather over.
Lucas walks off down the beach, away from Janice’s apartment and towards a stretch of pristine sand that has no people or other apartments on it. Nothing but white sand and the waves gently lapping at it.
He has no choice but to wait. Again. The Watcher implied that he is going to try and stop the conspiracy that has the city in chaos. Lucas fails to see how Frank can do that, especially alone, if indeed the Watcher is alone. The only thing Frank has going for him is that he is in possession of the feather. The feather will protect him against any demon that tries to harm him, even one as powerful as Tolloch. Frank will be glad to know that when the time comes, if he even gets near Tolloch that is, and whoever else is involved in the conspiracy.
Lucas stops walking when he is forced to consider the very real possibility that Frank will get himself killed. What then? What will happen to the feather? Lucas doesn’t know. He only knows that if Frank fails, not only will the city fall, but also the world, as will Lucas, all the way back to Hell.
With his future looking increasingly bleak, Lucas heads back to Mercy City to find Frank. If the Watcher is not going to give up the feather, then Lucas will have to take it himself. Despite the potentially dire consequences of doing so, he has no other choice.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
By the time Lucas gets back to the city, things have gone bad. People everywhere are running through the streets in a panic, many of the humans being chased down by werewolves and vampires, wraiths and wendigos, and every other non-human species that exists in the city. Buildings and cars are on fire, pouring their thick smoke into an increasingly darkening sky. Lucas can only stand and look around as chaos rages around him. It is only the beginning as well, he thinks. This is just the prelude to whatever Tolloch and his cabal of Watchers and angels have planned. To the humans, it is the apocalypse. To the non-humans, it is play time. To Lucas, the city falling is just a massive inconvenience that he can do without.
When a huge, rumbling roar echoes across every part of the city, people stop dead in their tracks. Even the non-humans stop eating their victims to listen to the unearthly sounds emanating from the center of the city. Lucas has no idea what is causing the sounds, but he does know one thing: whatever monstrosity is making that noise, it could only have come from one place. Hell.
Lucas teleports into main street, which is all but empty thanks to everyone scattering elsewhere, and for good reason.
A giant crater has opened up in the center of the street, reddish orange light pouring forth from it, looking like Hell is about to spill out on to the street. Lucas can only watch as a huge clawed hand grabs the edge of the hole from inside, and then a horned head appears, with leathery skin as black as the tar pits of Hell and eyes as red as blood. The demon pulls itself out of its birth hole and climbs up on to the road where it raises itself up to its full height.
Not much has shocked Lucas the last two centuries. The last time his jaw hung so slack was a hundred years ago in Romania when he witnessed a gypsy woman turn herself into a snake that had both penis and vagina, which she then used to fuck herself. That was some show, but nothing compared to the demon monstrosity that stands only fifty yards away from him now.
The great beast is at least two stories high, every inch of its skin pitch black, its arms and legs and torso rippling with hard muscle and cable-like tendons, and on its back, two massive protrusions that make it look like the worlds biggest manta ray is attached, with great rippling fins that no doubt doubled as wings.
“Tolloch, what have you done?” Lucas says while staring aghast at the giant demon as it snorts smoke from its manhole- sized nostrils. The thing will destroy the city, then every other city in the world after that. What did Tolloch and his co-conspirators hope to gain from unleashing such an unstoppable beast? Lucas thought they wanted to enslave the world, not destroy it.
The great black beast roars into the darkening sky and Lucas feels his body rumbling with the vibrations.
The demon then pushes off its thick legs and takes flight at a shocking speed, shooting into the sky like the world’s scariest fighter plane before stopping and hovering over the city itself like a demonic version of a stealth bomber, roaring down at the terrified inhabitants.
This is bad, Lucas thinks. Really fucking bad.
Then he spots movement to his left and he looks to see two of Leonard’s drone soldiers sprinting towards him with huge curved blades in their hands.
And now things are about to get a whole lot worse.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Lucas manages to avoid the vicious swipes from the clone’s swords and within an instant, he invades the minds of the two soldiers and causes their heads to explode.
Time to go, he thinks.
But he can’t teleport.
“Fuck!”
Within seconds he is surrounded by more of Leonard’s bald clones, w
ho seem to come from all directions, dozens of them this time, each one hairless and black-suited, most of them carrying the same curved blades, the rest strapped with those huge Soul Killer guns.
The demon monstrosity still hovering over the city roars again, shaking the foundations of every surface in the city. Despite the monster in the sky, neither Lucas nor the bald drones surrounding him look up.
“Quite the show, isn’t it?” a voice says from behind Lucas, who turns around to see Leonard standing in the middle of the empty road, cars burning on either side of him. The Grand Duke has forsaken his human garb and now looks the way Lucas remembers him from Hell. A tall figure in a dark cloak, a hood over his head, two bright blue eyes shining out of the darkness of the hood.
“Leonard,” Lucas says, keeping half his awareness on the foes that surround him. “Can’t you take a fucking hint? I’m not going back to Hell.”
The Grand Duke’s voice is a low hiss that still seems to carry loudly into Lucas’ ears, almost as if Leonard is standing right beside him. “I beg to differ, Lucreceous. Hell is exactly where you are going.”
“It’s Lucas you creepy bastard. And fuck you!”
With the giant demon still casting its massive shadow overhead, Lucas makes a dash towards the Grand Duke, knocking down any bald drones that try to get in his way. Just as he reaches Leonard, the Grand Duke raises his hand and somehow manages to stop Lucas in his tracks, just as if Lucas had hit a brick wall. The rest of the drones hang back, happy to allow their master to handle the situation from here on in.
Even though he is having difficulty moving, Lucas summons every ounce of power inside him and makes an attempt to invade Leonard’s mind. The Grand Duke smiles when he feels Lucas’ probing presence trying to enter his mind, seemingly unconcerned over Lucas’ power to hurt him in any way. “I admire your tenacity,” Leonard says, still holding Lucas in his invisible grip. “But we both know who is more powerful here, don’t we?”