The Stars Never Rise (The Midnight Defenders Book 2)

by Joey Ruff

  “An invitation for what?”

  Aegir ignored the words and looked to the sky.

  “I am disappointed that you did not honor your part of the bargain,” he said. “I charged you with ridding the assassins for me, and yet you turn and use them against my children.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Cuz your children mean so much to you.” I cast a glance at DeNobb, but he seemed so shell-shocked he hardly knew what was going on.

  “You may as well tell the rest of your friends to join us,” Aegir said. “Or do I need to put you in mortal peril before they join in?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. My heart sank a little as I thought of Ape bleeding out. Had London not gotten him away?

  Aegir stretched his hand to the area just behind him and cleared the fog away with a sweep of his hands. At the corner of the parking lot, a black, shiny Hummer was parked, all polished and chrome. Victor, Menkh, and Kinnara stood beside it. Aegir waved his hand, and in the next breath, the three of them stood beside us.

  I felt relief to know that Ape had gotten away.

  “You thought, what? You would surprise me from behind? You thought to mount a sneak attack and catch me weak?” He laughed, thick and mirthy. Then he looked around at the fog. “Let us cut these pretenses. Let us lift the curtain.”

  With a snap of his fingers, the fog vanished completely. At the far end of the parking lot was a heap of charred metal, an even sphere maybe fifteen feet in diameter. It looked like it had once been a truck, but someone had taken it and shaped it into a ball as if it were nothing but a lump of clay. Then set it on fire. I could make out where the windshield had been, saw the skeletons of its passengers hanging through the open glass. There was a mangled ladder near the top of the wreckage, and a darkened smudge on the door was shaped like a shield and bore the letters SFD: Seattle Fire Department. Beyond it, maybe a hundred yards, lay another. Beyond that, another still. I hadn’t considered the sirens of the firetrucks I’d heard earlier. I hadn’t realized that sirens never arrived, never got any closer. They’d just died, and I was too busy to notice.

  Cassiday and Victor saw it as well, and DeNobb said, “Oh my…fucking…”

  Aegir smiled. “Those precious, prized humans that he loves so much won’t be interfering in our show.”

  “What about me?” I asked.

  He laughed. “You still think of yourself as merely human?” He shook his head. “Adorable.” His face got suddenly serious. “I have plans for you, Mr. Swyftt. I will peel the flesh from your bones. I will make you suffer for a very long time before I extinguish your breath, and the Almighty will know not to fuck with me. Tonight, the end comes for all of you, and I will stake my claim on what is mine by right.” He pointed to the sky. “I was up there. I was worshipped for the glory that I am. I may have fallen, but after tonight…I will rise again.”

  “Not on my watch,” I said. I had a spark of an idea and slid my hand into my pocket, finding the little box there and drew it out. Opening it, I took the silver ring with the six-sided star and slid it onto my finger. Then I pointed it at Aegir and shouted, “By the Ring of Solomon, I command thee!”

  I became supremely aware of the awkward stares directed at me, and then Aegir roared with laughter. “Even if you knew the incantation, that trinket would not work on me,” he said. “The mighty king himself couldn’t bind me to his will, what makes you think someone without his sorcerer’s talent could even hope to contain me?”

  He flicked his hand, and a gust of wind hit me with the force of a speeding truck. I was thrown ten feet into the air and landed in the bed of the pick-up. My head throbbed. My body ached.

  Nadia lay on her side nearby, her arms and legs stretched to the side like a sleeping dog. I shook her shoulder gently, and her eyes cracked open. “Jono?” she said. Her voice was raspy and weary. “What…?”

  “Shh,” I whispered. “Keep your voice low.”

  She was overcome with a sudden panic and began to look around frantically. “Jono, where’s Jamie?”

  “He’s fine,” I said. “For now.”

  “The moment approaches!” Aegir bellowed. His voice boomed like thunder, and I peered over the edge of the truck bed at him. He addressed DeNobb and the others, and as he spoke, he appeared to grow in size. The change from frail old man to powerhouse was so subtle I didn’t realize the change until he stood eye-level with Victor. “I shall give you all the option to join me now. Once Perun is dispatched…” His gaze drifted off to the sky, to something I couldn’t see. “Ah,” he said.

  He was the size of a street lamp, and his large eyes turned a cold, sallow yellow before he turned his face to the sky. His robe fell away, tumbling down his neck that stretched out a good five feet. His hair grew longer on the top of his head, his muzzle stretched to become more pronounced, almost canine, and his skin became harder until it cracked into rows of reptilian scales.

  With a roar, Aegir, the man, was gone. In his place was a serpentine dragon – the kind a dozen china-men puppet in Asian parades – stretching nearly a hundred and fifty feet into the air before it fell in coils around itself like a giant rattlesnake.

  Its head hovered back and forth as it searched Kinnara, DeNobb and the others. Its eyes were hard and hungry, filled with fire and rage.

  It struck.

  Its neck recoiled back and snapped forward into the middle of the group, but they scattered. In a shimmer and flurry of feathers, Kinnara leapt into the air, her feet becoming gnarled talons, her arms sleek, red and black feathered wings. DeNobb jumped to the side, throwing himself out of the way, landing softly behind the truck.

  Cassiday was at the epicenter of the attack, and the jaws clamped down around him.

  Victor took one step backward and allowed the dragon’s head to come down directly in front of him. His body swelled to nearly twice its size, and he wrapped both arms around the dragon’s muzzle, interlocking his hands under the beast’s jaws.

  Menkh dove sideways, hit with his shoulder against the concrete and rolled, coming to a stop on one knee. His hands found the loose strings of his apron that hung flaccid at his sides and pulled them behind his back, working them together into a bow. Then his body shook and writhed as if in great pain, and he let go of the strings to fall forward onto his hands. His head bowed, and he changed.

  His features extended, the ridge of his spine arched up like a ridgeback boar. His skin took on a leathery texture with a creamy color and mottled with ashen grey splotches. The fingers on each hand split apart and grew thicker while each fingernail swelled to the size of a horse’s hoof. Only the middle nail on each hand was a long, curved talon.

  The thing was pure muscle with Menkh’s greasy black hair sweeping along its ridged back in a Mohawk. Ebony longhorns that would make a Texas steer envious swept away from either side of the beast’s head. Behind him was a tail as thick, and nearly as long, as an anaconda.

  Menkh was a Selkie, a shape-shifter that adopted the form of an animal when donning their hide. His skin was from a behemoth – ancient creatures, believed extinct long ago. I’d never seen a behemoth before, but apparently, they were part rhinoceros, part wild boar, and part raging bull. Legend stated they were the most terrifying land animal. Just seeing one, I had to agree.

  Menkh leapt at the coils of the dragon while Kinnara circled it from above. He tore into it with his long talons, drew blood and fury. The dragon lifted its head and tossed it side to side. Victor maintained his hold, clutching the jaws shut.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a spark of bright orange light twinkling no bigger than a star in the sky.

  The dragon managed to shake Victor off, tossing him through a light pole. The steel bar didn’t even hesitate under his bulk, just surrendered and snapped cleanly. Victor hit the concrete so hard the pavement rippled and cratered, shattering into a cloud of debris, rock and dust.

  The dragon turned to snap at Kinnara, and her razored talons struck against the s
ide of its face, going for its eyes.

  As Menkh tore into the folds of coils, a red-frilled tail swatted him across the face, launching him to the far side of the parking lot.

  Aegir snapped at Kinnara, caught her on the leg, pulled her down, and snapped again, swallowing her whole.

  Victor was on his feet again, running straight at the dragon. He leapt, grabbed hold of the beast’s jaw, and pulled himself into a sitting position on Aegir’s snout. He worked his fingers between the dragon’s lips and slowly lifted them apart.

  Aegir fought it, shaking his head, but the jaws creaked open. As the dragon threw his head back and looked towards the stars, Kinnara shot into the air. Holding on to her leg was Cassiday, his dagger in his fist, the blade dripping with milky fluid.

  “We’ve gotta do something,” Nadia said, looking straight at me.

  “What the fuck do you propose we do?”

  “I…” She shrugged.

  Behind her, the dragon lifted itself into the air, its mouth clutching and clamping after Kinnara as she zigged and zagged through the air, each snap of fangs narrowly missing her.

  Cassiday dropped from her grip, caught the edge of a light pole, and twisted around it to the ground. He landed with a roll, came up near the Browning, and pulled it around to the dragon. Fifty caliber rounds bore a line up the front of its face, between its eyes, and sparked along the side of its neck as it twisted and rolled through the air.

  More of its body was in the air than on the ground. Obviously, its weight wasn’t supported by conventional means. After a moment, the tail was off the pavement as well, and Kinnara was diving between its coils, clawing and slashing.

  Aegir wove his body around like a tunnel so suddenly that Kinnara was caught inside. But she was faster than him, making it out the other side, by the tail, before the coils could collapse around her.

  With a roar that sounded like a thunderclap, Aegir turned to Cassiday. Fire hydrants burst on the parking lot around the mall, spewing columns of water into the air like geysers. And rain came, thick and heavy, drops as big as dimes. It started on the east end of the lot and swept towards us like a wall, covering everyone completely and soaking us to the bone.

  Lightning struck Cassiday in a blinding flash, and he dropped.

  The static droning of the rain became white noise that drowned out every other sound for a few minutes. Aegir circled up into the air, twirled, and landed in a pile of heavy, thick coils.

  His eyes focused on the truck, seemed to lock directly onto me, and what I took to be a smile spread over his face.

  A conch shell blew.

  42

  The robed Kittim monks that stood around the perimeter of the parking lot were joined by others that seemed to appear straight out of the ground. A third and fourth row appeared behind those, and big, lumbering forms that were hard to make out in the lower visibility of the slumbering rain paced along the furthest reaches.

  The mall stood in front of us. We were surrounded on the other three sides by thousands of Aegir’s children. They didn’t attack. They just stood there, watching, keeping perimeter around us, allowing us a space that was almost as large as a football field.

  Aegir coiled before us, soaking in the big, heavy drops of the rain. As the water rushed over the scales, the gashes and wounds began to close and mend.

  “What do we do?” Nadia asked. She was shivering and her clothes clung to her wet skin. She wasn’t dressed for battle; she was dressed for a night on the town in her torn jeans and red coat. Around her neck, she wore Huxley’s amulet.

  “We survive,” I said.

  She kept talking, but I didn’t hear her. My eyes had caught another glimpse of the orange star that seemed to be growing larger in the sky, coming closer. It was still quite far away, but lightning flashed behind it and around it, striking the ground below it as it came, stringing from cloud to cloud as it passed between.

  “Oh my god,” I said.

  Aegir sat up, alerted to the presence, and turned to face it. Lightning struck the bearded dragon’s face once, then again, and a thunderbird the size of a small jet airliner descended over the mall.

  Fire burned in its eyes, and lightning sparked off the gleams of its talons, the razor edge of its beak. Mighty gusts like a wind tunnel blew over everything with each flap of its wings, casting the rain sideways.

  In its talons, it carried the Bonnacon.

  Nadia looked from the cow to me and back to the cow.

  Aegir studied the thunderbird explicitly, his eyes narrowing into malice and rage.

  The thunderbird, apart from its immense size, was unlike any bird I’d ever seen. Rather, it was like many birds. Its breast was the bright green, red and yellow of a tropical parrot. Its face was like a vulture with the beak of a condor and a large plume of feathers from the top of its head. The top edges of its massive, black wings were mottled white like a turkey’s, and the pinions were striped with red. Its red tail was sleek and smooth, like a hawk’s, with five long ribbons of green and blue feathers that trailed twice the length of its body, giving it an almost peacock-like quality.

  Perun, I presumed.

  It squawked at Aegir and dodged to the side to avoid the quick serpent strike. Then it circled the lot once and set the Bonnacon down, turned to me, and screeched. Its eyes sparkled and dazzled the most beautiful silver I’d ever seen. It reminded me of someone, though the bird’s eyes were more wild, more vibrant…less inhibited.

  I looked at Nadia. She was enraptured by the beauty and the magnificence of the bird, but she didn’t appear to notice what I had seen.

  Perun turned his plumed head to the sky and let out a shrill cry. Three mighty flaps of his wings and he soared above the clouds. Aegir looked around at his Kittim, roared, and sprang into the air.

  I couldn’t see where they went, not in the darkness, but lightning flashed among the clouds and thunder roared. Occasionally, the creatures were backlit, a thousand miles in the air.

  The conch shell blew again, and this time, the Kittim advanced.

  I looked around. My machete was lost in the rubble of bodies. Grace was out of bullets, and the Five-sevens I wore on my hips were MIA. I had the Mossberg, but that only held seven shells. Plus the one in the chamber. Shit.

  I scanned the crowd. A couple thousand marching Kittim, each with tentacles and shell-like knives. They weren’t very durable, but that didn’t mean much. Look what they did to Ape.

  “C’mon, kid,” I said to Nadia. “You wanna get out of this thing alive, we need all hands on deck.”

  “Jono, what is going on?!”

  “Long story. I’ll tell you everything later.”

  She looked up. “Is that…a thunderbird?”

  “Like I said…long story.”

  She stood and staggered.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Light-headed,” she said. “I’m fine. Stood up too fast.”

  I moved to the back of the truck and looked down at the ground to see DeNobb laid out on his back. At first, I thought he was dead, the way his wide eyes stared vacantly towards the sky. Then he blinked.

  I climbed down and stood beside him, looking up as he did and saw the flashes of lightning, the silhouetted gods battling in the atmosphere. I looked back at DeNobb. “You’re a weatherman,” I said. “You see that bollocks regularly.”

  He laughed. “And all this time we blamed the weather on science. When there are actual beings that alter…”

  “And one of them’s your pops.” His entire body tensed at that word. “Most of it still is science, but we don’t have time for this now. Get your bloody head in the game.”

  The nearest of the Kittim were about thirty feet away, and as they neared, their pace quickened. I turned with the shotgun, and as they charged, I fired. The torsos of the nearest five exploded like burst balloons. Clear liquid splattered everywhere.

  As their legs toppled over, the next in line hurtled forward. I helped the weatherman to his feet and we mov
ed to the side of the truck. I turned, fired again, splattered another brace of the hooded figures.

  Red and green discs soared over our heads, hitting the next in line. The ones hit with red froze in place, causing the ones behind them to become congested in the flow. The ones struck with green went flying backward. Nadia was hurling them as fast as she could, but the Kittim kept coming.

  I fired again, noticed DeNobb standing idly, still partially shell-shocked. “Make with the gremlins,” I said.

  I looked at the sky, saw the strobe flashes coming quicker and thought, or rather, prayed. C’mon. I could use a little help now. Where are you?

  There was a roar to the left, and I turned to see Victor swatting his massive fists through the air, toppling half a dozen with every strike.

  “Hang on, Swyftt,” Cassiday called from somewhere behind me, and the Browning ignited to life.

  There was a snarl, and Menkh’s behemoth form ripped savagely through the ranks to my right.

  I fired again, pumped the next shell into the chamber and caught the glint of silver on my hand. As I backed towards the Bonnacon, I had a thought.

  I slung the Mossberg over my shoulder and turned to the shit cow. It sat there lazily, oblivious to everything that was happening around it, complacent, it seemed, by the falling rain. A low flame rippled across its haunches, over its shoulders, down its flanks. As I reached for it, the silver ring glistened.

  “I hope this fucking works,” I said quietly.

  I held my hand an inch from its skin, felt the heat emanating from it.

  “By the Ring of Solomon, I command thee!”

  The Bonnacon turned its head towards me as if I’d spoken its name, and then it turned away.

  I said it again. Nothing happened.

  Frustrated, I slapped the Bonnacon and thought, how does this fucking thing work? I just need a little fucking help here.

  The animal turned to me, snorted, and dropped to its knees. The flames along its back dimmed and then died while continuing to burn along its hooves, the tip of its tail, and the crown of its head.

  I kept my hand against its skin and said, “You can understand me?”