She hesitated before saying, “I was just wondering if you think our relationship goes beyond our working arrangement. What I mean is, are we friends?”
I wasn’t sure exactly why she was asking that. When you go up against supernatural forces with someone, it tends to form a bond; you’ve both had a shared experience fighting a common enemy and, at its core, that’s what friendship is about. Whether the fighting a common enemy means complaining about one of your teachers at high school or killing faerie changelings, it’s all the same. It forms friendships. “Yes, I think we’re friends. Don’t you?”
She smiled. “Yes, of course we are. It’s just that I’ve never really had any friends, so I wasn’t sure. I was a geeky girl when I was growing up and I didn’t really fit in. My parents made me socialize with the girls who lived on our street but while they were playing with dolls, I was looking at the books on their parents’ bookshelves for something interesting to read. I’ve always been like that.”
“I’m your friend,” I said, “and I always will be. Even if you move back to England, we’ll still be friends, Felicity. We spent time in the trenches together and that means a lot to me. And I’d say that Mallory and Leon are your friends too.”
The smile grew until it lit up her face. “Thank you for saying that, Alec, it means a lot.” Then the smile turned into a frown. “But it makes my decision much more difficult. When I moved over to America, the only people I was leaving behind were my parents and Jason. I didn’t see my parents much anyway, and I said I’d go back to visit them once a month or so. They were fine with that. And so was Jason, at first.”
She pushed her meal aside. “What I’m trying to say is that it won’t be so easy to leave Dearmont behind because for the first time in my life, I have friends.”
“So don’t leave,” I suggested.
“It isn’t that simple. On the other side of the ocean, there’s Jason and a completely different sort of life. I’m torn.”
“Let me tell you something,” I said. “Every now and then, I look at the people who have no idea that the supernatural world exists and I envy them. I think to myself what a great life I might have had if I hadn’t been thrown into this constant battle against creatures that most people think only exist in fairytales. But once you know about preternatural beings, once you know that magic is real and there are such things as enchanted swords and the faerie realm, you can’t ever forget that. You and I, Felicity, we’ve seen things that most people will never see. And once you’ve seen those things, you can’t turn your back on them, no matter how hard you try.”
I hesitated, wondering if my speech made it sound like I was trying to talk her out of going back to Jason. I was trying to talk her out of it, but only because I knew how hard she would find leading a normal life when she had knowledge of the hidden things that exist in the world.
“What I’m trying to say is that your choice of whether to stay in Dearmont or move back to England is really a choice about who you are deep down inside. Are you the Felicity who helps protect mankind by assisting in preternatural investigations with the hope of one day becoming an investigator yourself, or are you the Felicity who leads a normal life married to a banker? You need to ask yourself if the latter option is even possible, knowing what you know about the world.”
Her eyes filled with tears but they didn’t spill down her cheeks, they just made her dark eyes glisten. “But if I leave Jason, I’ll be leaving the only man I’ve ever loved, the only man who’s ever loved me. He’s my only link to a life of normality. If I throw that away, I’ll be like a boat cast adrift in a dangerous sea. My life will be like yours, constantly uncovering murder and death wrought by supernatural monsters.”
“It isn’t all that bad,” I said, defensively.
“No, I know that,” she said, reaching across the aisle to touch my arm. Her hand was warm and she left it resting on my forearm as she spoke. “You know I want to be an investigator myself. Well, at least, I did want to be an investigator. Now, I’m not so sure.”
“Working with me has put you off?” I asked. “If you want to be assigned to someone else, I can ask my father….”
“No, Alec, it isn’t that. I don’t want to work with anyone except you. It’s just that this sudden trip to London and being forced to make a decision has made me think long and hard about things. We see so much death. Poor George Robinson was killed by the changeling. Amy Cantrell had to see her own mother’s dead body after it had risen from the grave. We’re going to be investigating a church where people were most likely crushed to death by some creature or demon. I think about all that and I wonder how seeing it every day will change me. I don’t want to become hardened to atrocities like that.”
“You won’t be,” I said. “I’m not hardened to it and I’ve been working this job for years.”
“But everyone has a different tolerance level. What you said is right; I’m not just deciding between Jason in England and my friends in America, I’m deciding who I want to be, what sort of life I want to live. That’s why I’m torn. I don’t think I know myself very well.”
My eyes were drawn to the window beyond Felicity. Where there had been clear, bright sky only a moment ago, I could see dark blue storm clouds rolling toward the plane.
The seatbelt signs over every seat illuminated with a ding. The pilot’s voice came over the speakers. “This is Captain Reynolds speaking. I’ve illuminated the fasten seatbelts signs so if you could all go ahead and do that, you’ll be glad you did. We’re experiencing some turbulence.”
The plane rocked slightly.
“There’s a storm approaching,” Felicity said, buckling her seatbelt and staring out through her window.
“That’s not a natural storm.” I dug into my pocket and took out the crystal shard. Even before I removed it from the pouch, I could see that it was glowing a bright, icy blue. “We’re under attack,” I told Felicity.
“What?” She turned to face me and saw the glowing crystal. Her face went pale.
I unbuckled my seatbelt and stood up. My weekend bag was stowed beneath the seat behind me and my enchanted dagger was in there. I needed to get it.
“Alec, sit down,” Felicity said. “Fasten your seat belt.”
The plane tilted to the left at a sharp angle. I held onto my seat, but remained standing. “I need to get my dagger,” I said.
Felicity looked from the storm-filled window to my face. “What? Why?”
“Because whatever’s in that storm will be boarding this plane.” I could hear the anxiety in my own voice. There was powerful magic at work to create a storm cloud of that size. The wielder of that magic might be inside the cloud and would soon be inside the plane. I hoped that whoever had cast the spell that created the cloud was elsewhere and was only sending lesser minions to kill us. Either way, I needed the dagger.
The pilot’s voice came over the speakers again. “Mr, Harbinger, sit down!”
“We’re being attacked,” I shouted. I had no idea if he could hear me all the way at the front of the plane through the cockpit door, but at least the two goons in the suits and shades could. They were here to protect the plane and us, so it was time they did their job. “We need to lose altitude,” I shouted as loudly as I could.
I wasn’t sure if he had heard me and heeded my warning or if the air pressure within the storm forced the plane down, but we were suddenly dropping out of the sky. The emergency oxygen masks dropped from their hatches over the seats.
I began digging in my weekend bag, my hands reaching past my clothing to the dagger in its leather sheath. I unsheathed the weapon. It glowed bright blue in my hand as I struggled to regain my feet. The plane was still angled to the left and we were still descending fast. Thousands of feet below us was nothing but ocean and none of us were going to survive if we hit the water at this velocity.
The two guards didn’t know what to do. They sat in their seats with their seatbelts fastened. I staggered along the aisle to where they were seated. Th
ey looked up at me, their eyes unreadable behind the shades.
“Are you guys armed?” I asked them.
They both nodded.
“Well, you should get your weapons ready, because we’re about to be boarded.”
The pilot must have regained control of the aircraft because our descent slowed slightly.
“Are you crazy?” the shaggy-haired one said. “Nothing’s getting on this plane.”
“Yeah,” his bald partner agreed. “It’s just a storm. It happens.”
“It’s a magical attack,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. “Do you have a crystal shard?”
“Yeah, I’ve got one here,” Shaggy said, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a crystal shard that was glowing as brightly as the one I’d left on my seat. “Oh,” he said. “We’ve got a problem.”
Baldy looked at the shard and laughed dismissively. “Even if the storm is a magical attack, that doesn’t mean anything’s getting on this plane. The pilot will handle it. He’ll fly us to safety.”
“The storm isn’t the problem,” I told him. “It’s whatever is in the storm. Something is riding that cloud and coming this way.” I had to grab the back of his seat when the plane jolted suddenly.
“Alec!” Felicity shouted.
I turned around and saw what had alarmed her. At the back of the plane, a portal was opening. It was a glowing red oval outlined by thick black smoke, large enough for a man to step through.
But what stepped through it and into the plane was no man.
Chapter 8
The demon stood at least seven feet tall. Its skin was dark red and stretched tightly over thick muscles. Apart from the red skin, blazing yellow eyes, and black horns curled over its bald head, the demon looked humanoid, meaning it had two legs and two arms and only one head. Demons come in all shapes and sizes, and as things went, this one was less horrific than some I’d seen. It looked hideous, though, with sharp black claws at the tips of its fingers and equally sharp-looking teeth in its mouth that made its grin look shark-like.
It stepped forward, chattering its teeth together in a manner that was either supposed to scare us or was a signal to the second creature that came through the portal.
This demon was spider-like and it scuttled into the aisle between the seats like a huge tarantula. Despite its eight arachnid-like legs, it had a human head that was covered in the same hairy red skin as the rest of its body and had pure black eyes. It chattered its teeth in the same way the first demon had and I realized they were talking to each other in some hellish language. I had no idea what they were saying. Probably deciding which of us to kill first.
Felicity shrank back in her seat, her eyes full of fear. Behind me, the two guards had finally pulled their weapons, enchanted daggers like mine. The interior of the plane was illuminated blood red by the glowing portal with a hint of blue light emanating from our daggers.
The spider demon shot forward suddenly, shrieking in a high-pitched voice that made my teeth hurt. I dodged its charge, diving onto the seats next to me. As the demon passed by me, I lashed out with the dagger, slicing the enchanted blade through one of the scuttling legs. The shriek raised a couple of octaves as the demon’s brain registered the damage I’d done to it. Dark green blood spurted from the wound, hitting the wall of the plane.
The creature charged into Shaggy, who lashed out with his own dagger, cutting through another of the demon’s legs. More blood spurted, this time covering the opposite wall. When its foul stench reached my nose, I gagged. The smell was so bad it made my eyes water.
While the two guards fought the spider demon, I stepped back into the aisle to face the big red guy. It grinned with his shark-like mouth as I stood in front of it. “Stupid human,” it said in a deep, throaty voice. “You are already dead and you don’t even realize it. Our mission is already accomplished.”
I didn’t know what the hell it was talking about until a chill shot through the air and I heard a rushing sound all around me. I glanced at the walls on either side of me and cursed. The plane walls were disappearing where the spider demon’s blood had touched them. The blood must have been some kind of acid; the sides of the plane were melting away, exposing us to the freezing air outside. As the cabin lost pressure, I felt the air being ripped out of my lungs.
The red-skinned demon laughed and showed me his sharp black claws. “I will end you now. These other humans can die in the crash, but your death, Harbinger, must be reported to my masters. There must be no doubt that you are gone.” He lunged forward, swiping his claws at me. I managed to step back out of the way, bringing the dagger up to defend myself. The demon skillfully avoided the blade.
Behind me, one of the guards screamed. The sound was cut off almost as soon as it had begun and became a low gurgling. Beyond the windows, the clouds parted to reveal the shimmering surface of the sea below. The plane juddered as the pilot applied the air brakes in an attempt to slow our descent.
He was doing his best but he needed to get us to a lower altitude so we didn’t freeze to death or suffocate when all the air escaped.
I leapt at the big red demon, more out of desperation than skill, and plunged the glowing dagger into its chest. A strong smell of sulfur erupted from the wound. The blade ripped through the tight red skin and cut into the muscle beneath. I’d been hoping to hit the creature’s heart but I had no idea where this monster’s heart was situated in its body.
With a tight grip on the hilt of the dagger, I pulled the blade down, hoping to cause as much damage to the demon as I could before it killed me. If the guards killed the spider thing and I damaged this one enough to get it to flee back though the portal, Felicity might have a chance of survival if the pilot did his job correctly and managed to crash land the plane on the water.
The demon roared with pain and anger, thrusting its hand up to grab me by the throat and lift me into the air. My back hit the aircraft’s ceiling. What little air had been in my lungs was gone and I felt blackness closing in from all sides. I was dimly aware of the dagger in my hand. I waved it weakly at the demon. The hellish creature grinned. “Now you must die, Harbinger.” It brought back its other hand, sharp claws ready to tear into me.
Then the blazing yellow eyes went wide and the sharp-toothed grin became a gasp of surprise. The demon’s grip faltered and I struggled out of its grasp as I saw the glowing blue point of an enchanted sword cut through the creature’s chest. The sword was withdrawn and the demon fell to the floor.
Felicity stood behind it, the sword glowing in her hand, her dark eyes wide as she looked down at the creature she had just impaled.
The demon wasn’t dead. It sprang to its feet and swept a clawed hand at Felicity, throwing her almost the entire length of the plane. She landed near the swirling red and black portal, the sword lying at her feet, its glow dying.
I tried to temper my rage at the demon and control my next attack, but my emotions took over and I leapt at it, slashing and stabbing the dagger over and over. It staggered backward as I drove the dagger into its body over and over; I ignored the stench of brimstone coming from the damned creature and concentrating only on killing the damned thing. I had to get to Felicity and make sure she was okay.
Finally, the demon lay dead beneath me. I climbed off its corpse before the flames that erupted over its skin caught my clothes. While the body burned and filled the plane with a vile odor, I ran to Felicity and crouched over her unmoving body. The left side of her white blouse was torn, revealing a bloody wound beneath.
“Felicity,” I said, “are you okay?”
Her eyes fluttered open. “Alec? What happened?”
A sigh of relief escaped my already oxygen-starved lungs. “You helped me fight a demon,” I said.
“That’s good,” she said weakly. Her eyes closed again.
Her wound needed attention. She was losing blood. I went in search of a first aid kit.
At the front of the plane, the spider demon’s body was on fire, th
e same as the big red demon’s. The heat singed the carpet on the floor. Baldy was standing near the body, sweat beading on his head. Shaggy was dead, lying face down in a pool of the demon’s green acidic blood. The acid was eating through Shaggy’s body and the floor beneath him. The portal that had formed at the rear of the plane was gone.
The plane rumbled. Through the windows and the melted parts of the fuselage, I could see that we were only a couple of hundred feet above the sea now. The pilot had managed to get us to a lower altitude but the aircraft felt unsteady beneath my feet.
“First-aid kit!” I shouted at Baldy. “Where is it?”
“Back there,” he said, pointing to a curtained area at the rear of the plane. He seemed to be in shock and I wasn’t sure I could blame him. Acid-spewing demons were beyond the limits of anyone’s job description.
I went to the curtain and pulled it back to reveal a stash of weapons and shelves of medical supplies. At least the Society equipped their planes for emergencies. This must be where Felicity had found the sword she’d used to stab the demon. Maybe she’d been hoping to hide behind the curtain, then found the weapon and decided to fight.
I grabbed bandages, cotton balls, and a bottle of antiseptic and took them over to where she lay. Cleaning the blood off her skin with antiseptic-soaked cotton balls, I inspected the ragged cut that stretched from her hip to her ribs. It didn’t look too deep but I knew that demon scratches were sometimes poisonous and that the poison could cause anything from death to a few days of illness, depending on the demon. All I could do was bandage the wound and hope for the best. Felicity needed proper medical treatment at a Society hospital where they knew how to deal with demon poison, but right now, that was impossible. We were in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of miles from anywhere.
I wrapped the bandages around Felicity’s midriff and tied them off.
The speakers crackled and the pilot shouted, “Brace yourselves!”
I picked Felicity up and carried her to the nearest seat. After buckling her seat belt, I took the seat next to hers and fastened myself into it. I put my arm across Felicity’s chest, holding her steady in the seat. Her eyes flickered open for a few seconds and then closed again. She was in the grip of the demon’s poison.
Buried Memory (Harbinger P.I. Book 2) Page 7