Daemon

by Doug Dandridge

  Sarah tugged at his arm and he looked over at her. She pointed up and he followed her finger, his breath caught in his throat as he watched an aerial armada of pigeons flying in an endless stream over the city. He saw another formation of larger birds, what he took to be geese, further to the east, on a southern heading.

  Barking and meowing caught his attention next, and he looked down to the street where dogs were cavorting. Cats sat here and there, everywhere that one could perch, and he remembered what he had said to his dead partner, Sergeant Montoya, days ago, about how they had disappeared from the city.

  “It’s alive again,” said Sarah, holding onto his arm, looking up into his face. “The world has come back to life.”

  Jude looked into himself, into the power that he had forsaken for the God that had restored the world. He could not feel the magic, the power that had thrummed through the city for centuries. It was gone, totally snuffed out. People would have to live without it. Looking back at the sky, at the streams of birds heading for wherever they were going, he thought it would be worth it. They would have to use the powers of science, as well as their faith in the Universe, to forge a different path.

  Something rubbed against Jude’s leg, solid and soft at the same time. He looked down and saw a large orange tabby cat, purring as he stropped his body across Jude’s trouser leg. The cat looked like…

  “Santana,” said the surprised Detective. The cat looked up, meowed, and jumped into Jude’s arms. The big feline snuggled in, purring away. Jude hugged him tight and felt fresh tears coming to his eyes.

  “You were dead,” he said to the cat as he buried his wet face into the animal’s silky fur.

  “So was Sarah,” said Father Williams, coming toward them with a smile on his face.

  “Did everyone come back to life?” asked Jude, a bit of worry intruding on his joy as he thought about Daemon and Stark.

  “I don’t think so,” said the Priest, motioning to a line of bodies that had been removed from one of the burned out buildings. “I think the Good God looked after his own. Those who rejected him and died are gone for good. To whatever place is reserved for them.”

  “I’m starving,” said Sarah, holding on to Jude’s arm with one hand while she ruffled Santana’s fur with the other.

  “I need to find both of my babies something to eat,” said Jude, looking back toward the church.

  “We should all break our fast,” said the Priest with a smile. “Then we can get down to the business of rebuilding a civilization that can exist with the world, and not sap it of its life.”

  “Amen,” said Jude, thinking of the little blue man who had started the downfall. Or not. The downfall had really started three centuries ago, when man took the easy way out, and painted himself into a corner. They would have to make sure they didn’t do that with technology as well. Jude took a long look at the surrounding city and thought they had a good example to guide them, if they didn’t allow themselves to forget.

  About the Author

  Doug Dandridge is an ex-professional student with degrees from Florida State University and The University of Alabama, and coursework in Psychology, Biology, Geology, Physics, Chemistry, Anthropology and Nursing. Doug has interest in all of the fantastic, including science fiction, fantasy and horror, as well as all eras of military history. Doug is a prolific writer, having completed 25 novel length manuscripts. He is still seeking a major publishing contract, but has decided that self- publishing is the way to go at this time. His work can be found on Amazon. Doug lives with his five cats in Tallahassee, Florida, and currently has no social life, as he is too busy writing around his work schedule.

  Follow my many characters and settings at http://dougdandridge.net

  Contact me at BrotherofCats@gmail.com

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  Reviews, rating and comments on Amazon about this novel are much appreciated. If you liked the novel please leave a review that will help others to discover this novel. If you have comments about mistakes I might have made, posting them in a review will tell me what I need to do to grow as a writer and put a quality product out on the net. If you want to see these characters again (at least the ones that survived) a review will let me know I should consider writing in this particular Universe again.

  I read all the reviews of my books and love to hear what my readers have to say. If you have a moment I would be grateful for you time. Review Page.

  Books by Doug Dandridge

  Science Fiction

  The Deep Dark Well Trilogy

  The Deep Dark Well: An Adventure 40,000 years in the making. Pandora Latham was a Kuiper Belt Miner from Alabama. She’s used to landing on her feet, even when the next surface is through a wormhole, halfway across the Galaxy and 46,000 years in the Future. Pandora must discover the secret behind the end of civilization, and the enigma of the Immortal Watcher, the last survivor of the Empire that once ruled the stars. Her decisions will set the path for Galactic recovery, or a continuation down the roads of Barbarism.

  To Well and Back: Pandora Latham is back, working Watcher’s plan to restore Galactic Civilization. But first she has to deal with the Xenophobes of the Nation of Humanity, back in the Supersystem with their sights set on making the Galaxy their own. Pandora is angry at the hyper religious Nation, and you don’t want to make a woman from Alabama angry.

  The Exodus Series

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1: The introduction to the Exodus Universe. Two thousand years prior mankind fled from the Predatory Ca’cadasans, traveling a thousand years and ten thousand light years to a new home. Now the greatest power of their sector of space, things seem to be going well for the New Terran Empire. Until the enemy appears once again at the gates. And the years have not softened the aliens’ stance toward Humanity.

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2: The saga continues. The Ca’cadasans attack at the moment when the government of the Empire is at its most chaotic. There are other enemies as well, waiting for their chance to fall on the overwhelmed humans. And a young man with no ambition for power finds himself in the position he most dreads.

  Other Scifi

  Diamonds in the Sand: When a perfectly healthy scientist falls dead of an apparent heart attack, it is up to Sarasota Police Detective Lieutenant Gary Lariviere to find out what really happened. The scientist was working on Nanotechnology, a secret desired by everyone from the Government to the Mob. There are too many suspects, including the woman that Gary comes to love. The Army had made Gary better than human, but had they prepared him for the terrors that had been unleashed by the new technology?

  The Scorpion: The Scorpion had been the world’s deadliest living terrorist. Kestral McMann had been in on the kill. Now The Scorpion is back as a mind upload, using clones to penetrate the tight security of an isolationist United States. McMann is the only man who can stop him. But can McMann survive the threat of his own side, and the insane President who leads the Nation, in time to stop The Scorpion from plunging the Great Satan back into the Stone Age.

  The Shadows of the Multiverse: Something has been periodically wiping intelligence from our Universe through the ages. It’s back, and it’s up to three unlikely heroes, the Captain of a Battle Cruiser, a Physicist turned Archeologist, and a Child, to save the intelligence of the Universe from Monsters from another Dimension. Can they learn to use the powers of their unusual Quantum Minds to defeat creatures that have been playing the game for billions of years?

  Afterlife: What if you didn’t believe in the afterlife of the World’s Religions? And what if science offered you the alternative, survival within the Virtual World of a computer, where your mental abilities are magnified and you can do anything you want? And what if the World decided that your way was wrong, and declared war on you, meaning to destroy your reality? What would you do? Afterlife, a tale of survival
at all costs.

  Fantasy

  The Refuge Series

  Refuge: The Arrival: Book 1: A nuclear war in Central Europe opens the gates between dimensions, sending millions of Earth Humans into a land of myth, archetypes and fantasy. The Evil Emperor of the Ellala Elves sees the humans as energy to fuel his transformation to immortality. But the humans have brought their own weapons with them, as well as a race of Demigods who will battle the fantastic armies of Refuge. The war is on, and only one side will ultimately survive.

  Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2: The Ellala have a plan to destroy the human military and capture the civilians. And the humans find that their weapons will soon cease to function. So it’s use it or lose it for the Earth Humans, and they use it with a vengeance. Tanks against Mages, Attack Helicopters against Dragons, and Nuclear Weapons against Death Gods. And the other peoples of the planet come forth as allies to the humans that they see as the fulfillment an Ancient Prophecy. But will it be enough?

  Refuge: Doppelganger: Set thousands of years after the arrival, Kurt von Mannerheim, the Immortal Emperor of the Imperium of Free Nations, must give up everything to save his Empress, the Elfin Princess Gwenara Elysius von Mannerheim. The world is at a crisis point as the Evil Tarakesh Empire, under its Immortal Emperor Heinrich Stuppleheim, prepares to overrun the world with its Nazi Ideology. And Kurt must face a creature of legend that may prove too much for even his physical and mental abilities.

  Other Fantasy

  The Hunger: Abused wife, drug addict, prostitute; Lucinda Taylor had been victimized by men all her adult life. Left for dead by her pimp, Lucinda was turned by a passing vampire. When he is destroyed she becomes a free agent, slaking her hunger for blood on the bottom dwellers of society, the type of men who once victimized her. The crime boss of Tampa is her next target, and the City by the Bay is about to become a bloodbath. But can Lucinda avoid those who are hunting for her; the Priest, the FBI man, and a pair of Vampires who would like nothing better than to send one Avenging Vampire forever into the dark?

  Daemon: A Steampunk Fantasy. The world is dying, the victim of the magic used by society for the last three hundred years. Daemon Corporation thinks they have the answer, stealing the life from other worlds, bringing from other dimensions the intelligences that inhabit them for sacrifice on Earth. But something has come with them, a force that is killing the employees of Daemon Corp. It is up to Forensic Mage Detective Jude Parkinson to find a way to stop the unstoppable, while keeping the head of Daemon Corp from silencing him to keep the dark secrets of the company out of the public eye.

  Aura: Triplets are born on a world where the magical Aura decides the fate of its owner. Ariel is a girl with more than double the normal Aura, destined to become a mighty Priest or Mage. Aiden has a less than normal Aura, and is destined to be a soldier or laborer. While Arlen has no Aura at all, and is seen as an abomination in the eyes of the Church of Baalra the Dragon God, which has no power over those with Negative Auras. Fate will rip the siblings apart, then bring them back together as they battle to defeat the Dragon God and leave the Evil Empire, before Ariel is taken as the Avatar of Baalra, his mortal vessel on Earth.

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  Excerpt from The Hunger

  Lucinda over flew the house a dozen times, scanning the night with all of her senses. She could not feel the presence of the police. Or the scent of the FBI man. There were some men around the house, but she could feel the taint on them. They were bought men. Padillas’ men.

  She bared her teeth as another scent came to her. A faint scent, but one very recognizable to her from its intrusion into her life.

  The priest, she thought, flapping to get higher into the air. But the scent was very faint. As if he had been there earlier but was no longer there. She flew over the house a couple of more times, noting the men walking the fence line. A pair of large dogs ran through the yard, barking up at her in their frustration.

  The giant bat descended toward the shadows of a power substation a couple of blocks from the house. The city had placed lights on high poles to illuminate the important structure. But the lights on one of the poles had burned out, and the other poles cast dark shadows on one side of the complex.

  She landed there and again changed, a plan forming in her mind. The dogs were something that needed taking care of first, if she was to have a chance of getting into the house without an alarm being raised. But taking the dogs out would in itself raise an alarm. It couldn’t be helped, and might provide the impetus to flush her prey from cover.

  The large red wolf sprang from the cover of the substation and ran across the street. Through one yard it hurried, leaping the fence into another. A dog barked at her, then backed up with a squeal as she turned baleful red eyes on it. Another leap and she cleared another fence. She ran along the back fence of the Padillas house, hearing the large dogs barking at her as they ran along the other side of the fence, paralleling her moves.

  “What the fuck’s wrong with them?” called out a voice in the yard. “What’s driving them so crazy?”

  “Hell, I don’t know,” said another voice.

  Lucinda ran to the corner of the property, under a large tree that provided shadow on both sides of the fence. She ran away from the fence and into the adjoining yard, turned one hundred and eighty degrees, and rushed the fence. With a leap she was in the air, flying toward the fence to smack three feet up on its ten-foot height. Boards splintered as her forepaws struck, then caved inward under her one hundred forty pounds of weight. But she had timed the speed and momentum of the jump perfectly, and did not completely smash in the fence.

  “What the fuck was that?” yelled the first voice she had heard outside the fence. Something hit the broken boards hard as she backed up. She let out a low growl as the large body hit the boards again. Then again, as the boards splintered out and the head of the Rottweiler growled out at her, its paws scrambling to propel it through the hole in the fence.

  The large dog landed heavily on the ground and scrambled to its feet as the second dog appeared at the fence and started to push through. Dog one moved in a crouch to the side of Lucinda while number two fell through the fence and came back to its feet. It took one look at Lucinda, another at its partner, and then moved to the opposite side of the giant wolf. Both dogs growled as they moved forward, and cursing and yelling voices approached the hole in the fence on the other side.

  Lucinda turned and leapt into the night, her long legs propelling her at great speed along the grassy lawn. The two dogs yelped, looked at each other, and took off after her. Lucinda ran tirelessly across a street, then through other yards, howling into the darkness. It sounded to Lucinda’s canine ears as if every dog for a mile started to barking or howling. But she could also hear the breathing of the two she was interested in following far behind her. She slowed for a moment, allowing them to close the distance. She wanted them to continue to follow, until they reached the place of her choosing.

  The vacant lot came into view. Lucinda moved across the last asphalt street and into the weeds, the dogs within twenty yards of her heels. As she reached the center of the yard she spun around and launched herself at the lead dog, jaws wide. She clamped down as she struck the eighty-pound Rottweiler, pushing the dog back on its heels as she felt its windpipe give under her fangs. Planting her feet, she shook her massive neck and shoulders and felt the snap of the Rottweiler’s vertebrae through her jaws.

  The second dog hit her in the flank, its teeth ripping through her fur and into the flesh beneath. Lucinda tensed her neck muscles and flung the dying dog up and to the side, releasing her grip and sending the dog into the air, to hit hard on its side in the weedy yard. She turned on the other dog, which was standing there snarling at her with the hair
on the back of its neck standing on end. Lucinda growled back, baring her large teeth as she moved toward it.

  The other dog whimpered and yelped, and then turned and ran from the yard. Lucinda took off after it like she had been shot from a rocket launcher. She could feel the flesh healing on her flank as she ran, a bit of stiffness that slowed her slightly. But not enough to save the dog. She leapt through the air and landed heavily on its back, knocking it to the ground. The dog struggled to throw her off, but she clamped down on the back of its neck with her strong jaws and sank her teeth into its flesh.

  Lucinda bit down hard, her teeth chomping through muscle, then bone, as the vertebrae cracked in her strong jaws. The Rottweiler went into a frenzy of motion, trying to get its killer off of it before it was too late. Then its muscles went limp as Lucinda severed its spine with her more than canine jaws.

  Lucinda released her grip on the dead beast, standing over it for a second as she fought the regret that threatened to overwhelm her. She shook the feelings from her as she raised her muzzle into the air and let out a mournful howl. Answering howls erupted in the night air.

  It had to be done, she thought. The dogs had been the best early warning system Padillas had. And now they were gone. But there was no way she was going to penetrate the yard and into the house tonight. Not with the uproar that reigned in that neighborhood.

  She sniffed at the dead dog, and then trotted over to the other. It too was dead, and therefore of no use to her. And she felt the hunger coming over her again, as her body after its exertions and metamorphosis’s demanded sustenance. Without a backward look she loped into the night, keeping to the shadows as she headed toward a seedier section of town and the prey she knew abounded there.

  * * *

  “What the hell was going on out here?” called George Padillas to his men from the back door of the house.