I checked my shoulder and it felt like a grazing wound, but the area gushed blood. I turned to Reg. “Go. Get out of here before you get hurt. Wait. One second.” I grabbed his forearm. “If things don’t work out for me, tell Satoku...tell her I was only trying to help. I was only fulfilling my oath. And you know how much I care about you, right?”
Reg looked me in the eye. “You gonna be all right, man. Stop with that sappy shit. I’ll stop slowing you down now.”
“I’m going after the Jersey Devil even if that means the cops are going to shoot me. I’m scared, Reg, but I got to do it. Just in case I don’t make it out of here. Thanks for everything. You’re a great friend.”
Reg didn’t have time to respond because the crowd separated us. I noticed that the shifters hadn’t left, and several were in fights with cops. The shifters’ movements were slow, but they were ripping officers to pieces once they grabbed hold. As the crowd thinned out, I kept moving toward the fountain. My costume gave the shifters the impression that I was one of them.
The gunshot wound had knocked some magic out of me and I could still feel some vines slipping from the cut. I built up some more fire and strength and heard more gunshots. Crouching down behind a few shifters, I checked over both of my shoulders.
Bingo.
I stood up, spun around, and faced the Jersey Devil in demon form. He was wearing what appeared to be a fur coat until I took a closer look. It was hair. Human hair, courtesy of Glenn the “Barber” I’m willing to bet. The hair of his shifters vastly increased his hold over them. Crafty demon.
The Manticore and Empusa flanked the demi-devil. Another hail of gunshots broke out and I heard the bullets whizzing past my head as I hit the deck. They narrowly missed the Jersey Devil, who held a staff toward the sky and shook it around.
I hugged the ground. The Jersey Devil pointed his staff at the police and every cop stopped in their tracks and fell to the ground, motionless. It hadn’t affected any of the shifters who walked in circles like zombies, absorbing the energy from the eclipse that was ending soon.
I got back to my knees and noticed the Empusa and Manticore were still flanking the Jersey Devil. Round two, bitches.
I kept building intensity inside and manifesting it. I looked up to a lonely storm cloud in the sky and pulled in the electricity from it. My body was about to burst from all the internal pressure.
I stared at the three enemies and sent a wave of magic at them. They didn’t recognize me because of the costume and increased mass. The invisible pocket of fiery power crushed all three demons, sending them back into the fountain.
Mabon appeared out of nowhere. He had been behind the giant Manticore, but now he lay on his side only fifteen feet away. I ripped off the mask as the disguise wasn’t important anymore.
I ran to rescue the Celtic God, and just as I went to scoop Mabon up, his body slid away toward the Jersey Devil who had made it back to his feet. His fake fur coat had been burned off from my heated magic pocket.
The demi-devil used some sort of magnetism to pull the Young Son to him. The Empusa sent a blast of sulfuric acid in my direction that stopped me in my tracks and I barely dodged the spray at the last moment.
The Jersey Devil yelled to the Empusa. “You can take Mabon away for now. I’ll send a signal when we need him back at the close of the eclipse.”
The Empusa’s hair, which blended into her flying cape, began to ripple in the still air. She clutched Mabon under her arm as he fought to get loose and they took off into the sky, streaking past the eclipse.
The Jersey Devil turned to the Manticore. “Go kill that son of a bitch.”
I know he didn’t just call my mom a bitch. It’s on now.
Chapter 39
THE MANTICORE’S LION legs started moving slowly toward me. The demon hurled a force of energy at my face. I cast a quick defense spell, creating a shield in front of me. His force crashed into my shield, broke into a thousand pieces and shot off in different directions.
Confused, the Manticore charged me, building up speed along the way. Remembering my first brawl and knowledge of the beast’s weaknesses, I hatched a quick plan. I guessed the Manticore was trying to get close enough to whip me with his poisonous tail.
My two-prong plan started by developing an orange fireball in my left hand. Upon seeing the bright light, the Manticore lifted his eyes to the sky, still charging. I begged the only cloud in the sky to share some of its inner electricity with me.
I held my right hand in the air and a surge of silver energy shot from my finger, racing toward the heavens. Simultaneously, a lightning bolt crashed down from the cloud. Both bolts collided with each other, creating a bold white flash that could be seen for miles.
My eyes were affected, and I rubbed them to bring my vision back. Once the spots and streaking lights disappeared, I saw that the Manticore was standing as still as a statue. The flash of light had him frozen in place.
Acting quickly, I manipulated the ball of fire into a flaming discus. I continued to mold the blaze until it looked like the circular blade of a power saw. I spun it around on one finger to create some momentum. With a light flick of the wrist, the fire blade raced toward its target, the long neck of the Manticore.
The Jersey Devil screamed, “No. This can’t be happ...”
But before he could finish the words, the buzz saw blazed toward the Manticore and made contact, slicing through the wide, thick neck with ease. The old man’s head of the Manticore fell to the right, plopping down on the grass. The flames had cauterized the wound and burnt the flesh enough so that no blood rushed out of the open neck.
However, it did release a foul odor akin to burning tires. The body of a lion finally tipped over, hitting mother earth with an ominous thud. Holy shit, I had just killed one of the top demons that the Red Cavern had to offer. Using knowledge of an opponent plus magic made for a deadly combination. The euphoric rush ended rapidly as I stared down my ultimate enemy.
The Jersey Devil tapped his staff on the ground three times. His lips started to move, but he wasn’t saying anything.
Not good.
I felt an amazing pressure around my body and I started moving toward the Jersey Devil. I held both arms out and it was almost like I was flying except for the tips of my shoes dragging on the ground.
The speed increased as I neared the demon and noticed that I had caused a huge gash to the Jersey Devil’s potbelly. Instead of blood, a thick white cream seeped from the wound. I still couldn’t control my body as I rushed toward the enemy.
I got within ten feet and the demon lifted his leg.
When I got within striking distance, his foot sprang forward, hitting my chest with the strength of a sledgehammer, contorting the five layers of my epidermis, crushing my ribcage, pushing the bones back into my chest cavity, cracking three ribs, possibly breaking one, creating an internal emergency for my organs and blood vessels, causing extreme pressure on my lungs and heart. My head whipped forward, planting my chin into my sternum, my brain thrust forward colliding with my skull, vision blurred, my teeth crunched together biting off a small piece of my tongue, snot rocketed out of my nose, the stitches in my forehead came loose, blood rushing to escape the reopened wound.
I was launched backward and landed on my ass, the wind chased out of my aching lungs.
“GGGAAAHHH,” I gasped for the air that had just been booted out of me. Was this guy a fucking mule? I took short, wheezing breaths and they hurt like hell.
The Jersey Devil smiled and twirled his staff above his head. “Should have quit while you were ahead, or behind. Should have stopped poking around in this stuff, Mikey.”
It was the most pain I’d ever experienced in my life. I wanted to roll up into a ball and cry for my mother to save me. I wanted to scream for him to kill me. Right then. Right there. Most men would have never gotten up. I thought about my mom and knew what she would want me to do. What kind of man did I want to be?
Fuck giving up. It
was time for some action.
I struggled, barely making it to my knees as the pain circulated around my chest, but I wasn’t giving up. “At least I ruined your plan to lock the gates of hell.” It hurt to talk, breathe and move. Other than that, I was doing great.
“Ha ha ha ha ha. I only need them to bring that stupid God back to set the spell during the total eclipse. I’ll kill you quickly and get back to what I was doing.”
“The cops will be here any second. Give it up J.D.”
“Bring more cops. You see what happened to them. Time to die, Mikey. For real this time.”
The Jersey Devil started chanting in a language unbeknown to me. I realized this wasn’t good. I heard stomping from behind so I spun around and about twelve shifters were coming after me. They walked like zombies with extremely rigid movements, the exact opposite of the elusive shifter I had encountered in the emergency room.
They seemed zoned in on the eclipse but the dirty dozen tried to attack me. I quickly sidestepped and knocked one unsteady shifter to the ground with ease.
The Jersey Devil screamed, “What is going on? Surround him. Rip him to shreds and kill him.” He chanted again in the unknown language, but much faster this time.
I pointed at his stomach. “Looks like your control sac popped.” I’d figured out that the other way the Jersey Devil was exerting control over the shifters was because he had collected the most intimate of body fluids.
Without going into too much gross detail, I concluded that the human version of the Jersey Devil had been on the receiving end at all the sex parties so he could store their fluids internally. Then he could shift back into demon form, still carrying the liquid. Coupled with his “fur coat,” it created a strong hold over the humans. Disgusting but powerful.
The Jersey Devil looked down, but his massive chest wouldn’t allow him to see his bulging gut. He gathered some of the cream in his hand and a look of shock, then horror came over his face when he took a peek. “I don’t need them. It would have made this much easier, but I’ll kill you myself.”
I had been manipulating pockets of air while our conversation was going on. I condensed three different pockets. The first was to stun the Jersey Devil and the next two were designed to do serious bodily damage. I launched the triple threat at my enemy and the demon easily deflected every invisible attempt.
He laughed, and his lips started moving again as I tried to think of my next move. Even doing that hurt. Something started tightening around my ankles. It felt like a rope, no chains, and it kept getting tighter.
Tighter. Tighter. Uncomfortably tighter.
The invisible bonds tugged me to the left and I fell. Suddenly, an intense energy picked me up in the air and started swinging me around in a tight circle.
The chains released, and I flew through the air. As my body rotated, I saw the Jersey Devil trying to push the cream back inside his body. The shifters were still marching around like zombies while the cops were lying on the ground, hopefully alive. Police sirens grew louder as I landed on my back, and the wind rushed out of my lungs again.
It felt like a dull knife was on a stabbing spree inside my chest. Jagged, sharp pains lay in the wake of the invisible blade.
I struggled to get to my feet and the Jersey Devil lifted his staff over his head again. A ripple, not a bolt, of lightning came down from the lonely cloud in the sky. The energy circulated around his staff in the form of a little blue spark. He pointed the tip of his staff at me just as I made it to my feet.
I saw the stream of electricity at the last second, too late to defend myself. The pain came in waves and launched my body back about eight feet. I smelled burning flesh. My burning flesh. And it didn’t smell good.
I opened and closed my jaw, feeling immense pressure in my head, and blew out a cloud of smoke. The stitches in my good/better shoulder split. My thoughts were scattered from the electrocution and probable concussion. I made it to my knees as the Jersey Devil approached. He cocked back and unleashed a powerful right hand that connected with my left cheek, sending intense shocks of agony through my jaw as my neck snapped to the right from the impact. The world went dark as I fell face first into the grass.
Chapter 40
THE SMACK FROM SWEET mother earth brought me back to consciousness, albeit in a delirious state of mind. My high tolerance for pain was being pushed to the limit.
“It’s going to feel good to get rid of you once and for all.” He kicked me in the side and I rolled onto my back. The Jersey Devil pounced on me, pressing his shin over my neck.
I used all my strength to try to get this demon off me, but he weighed too much and I was too battered. Oxygen ran low and perhaps even worse than that, the warm, creamy substance that smelled like sour milk dripped onto my face. I struggled to get loose, but the Jersey Devil had too much power. I was finished.
I wanted to look at the face that was going to kill me, even though it was one ugly mug, but the way he was positioned over me, it would have been impossible.
Killed on my first case.
Dead.
It didn’t matter anyway. Hopefully, at least I’d helped one person. I accepted death as stars streaked in and out of the sides of my vision.
As I thrashed around, trying to bust loose, I heard the police sirens getting louder and another high-pitched sound in the air. Suddenly, the Jersey Devil stood up. He looked down on me with narrow eyes, confused as to what was pulling him off me. That made two of us. Where was the source coming from? One person popped into my head. Alayna had come to her senses and arrived to help.
I sucked in some sweet air, and although it hurt, I sprang to my feet, reenergized. A familiar voice said, “I got him in a lock bubble, Mike. Can only last about a minute though.”
In shock, awesome, beautiful shock, I turned to see Reg and Colossus projecting the lock bubble on the Jersey Devil. The demon bounced around the small, opaque yellow circle, trying to find a way out. Reg must have been practicing the magic I was teaching him.
Of course. Colossus had probably absorbed some of that dark magic from the Jersey Devil’s sex parties up on the hill. That must have been where his magic was coming from.
The combination of pure and dark magic had more power than the Jersey Devil could handle. The demon chanted inside the bubble, but his hold over the shifters seemed to have disappeared. I looked up at the blood moon. The total eclipse was nearing its end, so if I could just detain this beast for a few more minutes, he would have no chance of locking the gates of hell.
Although there were only shifters and incapacitated cops around, I still had to be careful of what magic I could use. I couldn’t just start hurling fireballs, even at a stationary target. I couldn’t take the chance of hitting an innocent bystander.
Anger usually helped to form some powerful magic, but I was so proud of Reg and Colossus, I didn’t have the burning rage inside. I stared at the disgusting demon to get my blood boiling, but it didn’t help. I even thought about my father. That had always worked. The fight had been knocked out of me.
I finally decided to go with a fireless fireball so the heat would dissipate if I missed the Jersey Devil and not injure anyone else. I took a deep breath. “Ignis, non ignis. Ignis, non ignis.”
Reg called out, “Hurry up, Mike, it’s starting to fade now.”
I sent my mind to the center of the earth and started to gather molten lava from the core. I pulled a plume of fire from the surface and stored and galvanized the extreme heat. The lock bubble popped, but I hadn’t built up enough energy to hurt the Jersey Devil.
The demi-devil sent a wave of magic sprinkled with red dust toward Reg and my dog. The sparkling dust circled around like a tornado and picked up two of my best friends and hurled them ten feet in the air. The sounds of pain coming from my friends ignited the lava, heating it even further.
I burned from the inside out, and could smell scorching skin again. My body felt like it was about to burst into flames, yet I kept pulling in
more heat. I imagined smoke would soon come shooting out of my ears.
I went to hit the Jersey Devil with the burning heat, but my body wouldn’t move. I wanted to hold my hands out and project my internal heat onto the Jersey Devil, but something was preventing me. I could move my head around, but that was all. The demi-devil must have been using mental magic on me. But how?
I must have been vulnerable when I had been absorbing all that heat, leaving my mind open to be controlled. The heat remained inside me and I wondered if the Jersey Devil would use it against me. I was like a damn tinderbox and all he had to do was light the mental match.
Instead, I felt a strange feeling on my neck. An invisible hand or a claw was scratching at the outside of the front of my neck. The powerful hand started to penetrate my skin, finger by finger, followed by a small thumb. It felt like the Jersey Devils hand wrapped around my trachea.
I couldn’t move as the hand clamped down, rendering my lungs useless. I tried to fight it but only wasted the effort as the grip tightened.
Sorry Mom. I tried my best. Hope you are proud of me.
I noticed a purple flash across the sky and a scream came from behind me. I peeked over my shoulder as my eyes bulged, the internal grip continued, and my life slipped away. Reg had propped himself back up against his chair. He pulled something out of his Ghostbusters suit but I couldn’t figure out what it was. In an instant, he and my dog disappeared. He must have used the potion Alayna and I had made. How did he get up my steps? With Reg, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Reg and Colossus hit the Jersey Devil with a pocket of power. He spun around in circles, trying to locate the culprit.
Reg, you genius. The grip over my mind slowly slipped away as the demi-devil’s attention was diverted. Reg hit him again and the demon yelped in pain. I gasped for air and kept building and building the fire until breathing became labored and my blood flow slowed down. I was full to the brim.
Bloodline Awakened Supernatural Thriller Series: Books 1-3 Page 20