The Stars Never Rise (The Midnight Defenders Book 2)

by Joey Ruff

  It snorted again.

  “Holy fuck.”

  The Bonnacon sat there patiently while I just watched it, unsure.

  “Will you let me ride your back?”

  A slow nod. Part of me thought I’d imagined it.

  The animal’s shoulders were high like a bison, and I reached up, took a handful of hair, put a foot against its bent leg and climbed on. It took me a moment to figure out how to steer before I remembered it understood what I said. I wove my hand through the ridge of hair along the back of its neck and placed the other palm flat against its skin.

  “Let’s get these fuckers.”

  The Bonnacon lifted its head and scanned the coming onslaught of Kittim, snorted furiously, and charged headlong into the fray. Three quick bounds and we drove past DeNobb who remained standing beside the truck, immobile, his eyes cast towards the sky and the flashing figures.

  The Bonnacon charged straight into the thick of the horde, not slowing once. Its horns swept back uselessly, but its hooves trampled many and flaming piles of shit burned in its wake and incensed the night. It ran circles through the parking lot, bowling the Kittim over, stomping them, bursting their soft bodies.

  Everything moved so fast. One minute I was near Victor, the next, Menkh. We waded deeper in, steering clear of the fifty-cal rounds that cut through the Kittim as easily as air. Splooshes of burst sacs and spilling water were all around. Yet they kept coming. The rate they were dropping, we had to have burned through a few hundred in a matter of minutes, but the torrent was never-ending, and their numbers, if anything, seemed to be increasing.

  The rain.

  Cassiday said water healed the Kittim. We weren’t actually killing them. They were just wearing us out.

  Tentacles shot past my head, and I ducked to the side. There was a shriek behind me, and Kinnara was pulled low before tearing the tentacles with her free leg. I turned to her and shouted, “This isn’t working!”

  She flew nearer, only a few feet away. “They are weak, Swyftt. They fall before every blow.”

  “And they don’t die,” I said. “The rain heals them.” A knowing look lit her face as she flew higher and looked around. “Tell the others. As long as its fucking raining, we’re not going to be able to do shit. All they have to do is outlast us.”

  She nodded as she flew off.

  To my right came the huffing, heavy breathing of a charging beast. I expected to see Menkh as I turned, but instead found a Capricorn charging me.

  “We’ve got company.”

  The Bonnacon spun and lowered its head just in time to catch the Capricorn. Its rear-curling horns locked with the short spikes coming off the Capricorn’s brow.

  For a moment, the beasts were locked in a stale-mate, their strength equally matched, and then the Bonnacon snorted, lit the flames that crowned its head taller and brighter. The Capricorn hesitated at the tactic, and the Bonnacon surged forward, gaining better footing, and pushed the Capricorn back.

  It mewled, and three nearby Kittim turned towards us, twinkled their eyes, and lifted their arms. The sleeves of their robes fell away to reveal the dull, jagged blades of their shell daggers.

  I spun the Mossberg around and splattered them as they charged.

  The Bonnacon startled at the shotgun blast, and the Capricorn took advantage. It threw its head up in a quick motion, broke connection with the Bonnacon, and spun its head to the side. One of the long horns gored into the Bonnacon’s shoulder, and the beast dropped in a wounded cry.

  “No!” I cried.

  The Capricorn took a step back and prepared to stick with the other horn on the other side, but I stood, pulled the gun around, and leapt from the back of the Bonnacon to the back of the Capricorn. I planted the mouth of the barrel against the base of the Capricorn’s skull, and I pulled the trigger.

  The beast dropped, and I leapt from its shoulders and hit the ground in a roll.

  I ran a quick tally of shots taken, figured I had two shells left. It made me nervous.

  I looked at the Bonnacon, and its wounded eyes found me. It mewled, sounded beckoning.

  “What?” I said. “I’m not a fucking vet.”

  It tried to stand, stumbled, fell again.

  Nadia screamed. I turned to see the truck and the Kittim swarming over it. DeNobb had snapped to attention and climbed into the back beside her. One climbed over the tailgate, struck with the dagger. DeNobb put himself between the blade and Nadia, took it in the chest, in the shoulder. Nadia screamed.

  I looked at the Bonnacon, turned to the truck about thirty yards away. Then I ran for Nadia.

  Before I reached the truck, the conch shell blew again and the Kittim froze in place. Their attention fixed on an empty spot in the parking lot near the camera store.

  A peal of thunder tore through the sky, and in a flash of lightning, Perun crashed to the ground, shattering the concrete beneath him. He was belly-up and his wings were bent uncomfortably, possibly even broken. Feathers were loose and falling away from him. His beak was marred.

  Atop him, was the dragon. Aegir had coiled himself around the bird’s body, and they were eye-to-eye with each other.

  I didn’t know what the significance was behind their feud, didn’t know what it would mean if Aegir was successful, but I did know Perun didn’t send armies to murder me. I knew Aegir was a pompous Fallen angel. I knew he was obsessed with winning and went to a lot of trouble to make this fight happen. I wasn’t in a mood to see what came with his winning.

  I climbed up onto the truck tire and peered into the bed. Nadia sat with DeNobb, whose wounds were already beginning to heal. Their focus was on the dragon, but they looked at me. “Nadia, we need to stop the rain.”

  She looked confused. “Jono, I…”

  “You can do it. You told me earlier. You couldn’t make it rain, but you could stop it.” The amulet glistened at her neck. “Or, rather, Huxley could.”

  She nodded, looked like she might say something else, and fell silent. Her hands clasped over her amulet and her eyes closed.

  DeNobb looked at me. “Is he killing that bird?”

  I nodded.

  “We have to stop it. What can I do?”

  I thought back. “The only thing Aegir seemed worried about were gargoyles, but they’re all either dead or…” I looked around to the fallen gargoyle mountain on the ground nearby. I looked back at DeNobb. “I have an idea.”

  I told him. He nodded and climbed out of the truck. As I turned to dismount, Nadia looked at me.

  “I can do this,” she said. “It may be a long shot. This is…a lot of rain. But…maybe from an elevation. A mountain or something. Closer to the clouds.”

  I turned to see Kinnara and signaled her.

  “Nadia needs to get higher,” I told her.

  She nodded.

  “Jono,” Nadia said. “No…”

  “You see a mountain around here?” I said. “You wanted higher, she’ll get you higher. Keep your shit together. You wanna play with the big dogs, here’s your chance. Don’t pussy out on me now, love.” I looked at Kinnara. “Keep her safe.”

  Nadia stood, and Kinnara took her in her talons and flew into the sky. As I ran back towards the Bonnacon, I couldn’t even see her anymore.

  I signaled to Cassiday as I ran. He caught pace with me.

  “You’re a soldier?” I said.

  “I’ve seen my share of battle.”

  “Do any field dressing? Splints?”

  “Some. Why?”

  “You ever dress an animal?”

  He eyed me curiously. “Swyftt, what are you…”

  I stopped before the Bonnacon, and Cassiday gave me a wry grin. “I’ll do what I can. Any materials?”

  I handed him the Mossberg and pointed to the faded Supersonics t-shirt he wore under his jacket. He shrugged and took his jacket off.

  I turned back to Aegir, watched him squeezing the life out of Perun, saw the silver fading in the thunderbird’s eyes.

&nbs
p; “Come on,” I said.

  Cassiday took a shotgun shell from the chamber and emptied the powder into the gash in the Bonnacon’s shoulder. Then he struck a match and burned it. The Bonnacon roared in pain. I patted it on the nose and said, “Hang on. I need you for one more thing.”

  The Bonnacon nodded slowly.

  “Thank you,” I said. They weren’t words I used lightly, but it was a creature of majesty that chose to help when I needed it. Maybe I would have to buy it a beer after all.

  Perun flapped its wings mightily, struggling under the crippling coils of the dragon. His silver eyes flickered to me.

  “Fight,” I said quietly. “You don’t let him win. When I gave up, you were fucking there for me. Fight.”

  Slowly, the thunderbird closed his eyes. His wings stopped flapping and fell still. His body went limp.

  Victor and Menkh charged. Aegir saw it, unwound from the bird and met them head-on. The behemoth’s talons tore through the hide of the dragon, piercing scales, rending huge chunks of flesh that began to heal in the water almost immediately.

  “Swyftt,” Cassiday said. I turned to him. He stood beside the Bonnacon, patting its head. “He’s ready. He’s not marathon ready, but he’ll be okay for a short burst.”

  “That’s all I need.”

  Aegir raged, and his dragon form snaked triumphantly around the parking lot, swatting Victor into Menkh. Within seconds, the warriors – both of which were stronger than me – were laid out on their backs, dead or unconscious – I couldn’t tell. Victor was run-through with Menkh’s claw. Menkh was snapped nearly in half by the dragon’s jaws.

  I just watched. Waited. Prayed.

  The dragon shook, and in a blur of movement, assumed the form of the cloaked old man once more. He stroked his beard once, then turned to the thunderbird which looked infinitely larger than he.

  But then Perun’s form changed as well, from the mighty, vibrant spectacle to a simple man with tanned skin, broad shoulders, and white, shaggy hair. He wore overalls and a flannel shirt. His blood snaked away in the rain.

  Aegir stood over the man and slid a knife from between the folds of his robe. Then he knelt beside the body and placed the tip of the blade over Perun’s heart. He raised the blade slowly until the sleek blade caught the glint of the street lamp outside the camera store.

  Then the rain stopped.

  Lightning flashed through the sky, caught the tip of the blade, and Aegir flew thirty feet into the air and collided into the brick wall.

  A calm fell over the parking lot, and for a moment, there wasn’t a single noise in the entire city. Time seemed to stand still.

  “DeNobb, now!” I screamed.

  Jamie stepped stiffly from the body of the gargoyle mountain, around the truck and into view. He was dressed in nothing but his boxer shorts, and his skin was riddled with blisters and boils on every bare inch of skin, covering his face, his fingers, his legs to the point where he could hardly move.

  He threw his arms out to the side and screamed as every bulge and sore tore open at the exact same moment and a hundred or more four-inch creatures fluttered around his body, covering him like a swarm of bees. For a moment, DeNobb was lost behind the green, grey, and red creatures, and all that could be heard were the fluttering drone of tiny gargoyle wings.

  Aegir staggered to his knees and looked up as DeNobb threw both arms forward and shouted, “Fuck you, Daddy!”

  The gargoyles moved as one, and Aegir was swallowed in a cloud as they buzzed around him.

  “Cassiday?” I said.

  “Ready.”

  I turned to the Bonnacon and slung my legs over its shoulders, threaded my fingers through its hair, and prodded it forward. Twenty yards from Aegir, I told the Bonnacon, “Burn as bright and as hot as you can.”

  I threw myself from its back as the flames rekindled along its shoulders and worked up from a slow burn to a steady flame. I hit the ground and rolled as the flames rose thirty feet into the air and the Bonnacon struck Aegir full on, driving him into the brick wall that made up the exterior of a clothing store.

  The gargoyles that clung to Aegir ignited and he went up like a yule log.

  The Bonnacon stepped away from the old man, and Aegir staggered into the courtyard, between the stores and mall entrance where the flames burned intently. Aegir smoked and stumbled while flames continued to burn along his robe, his beard. His eyes locked onto me for one fleeting moment, and I felt the mark on my arm begin to burn red-hot.

  I gritted my teeth and smiled at him.

  His body shook as fifty-caliber rounds ripped into him. They were armor-piercing and incendiary, and he took every round to the chest without armor, without scales, just good old-fashioned human flesh.

  The Bonnacon reared back, snorted, narrowed its eyes, roared and charged. It caught Aegir and carried him straight into the open glass doors of the mall that burned and baked like an oven.

  Beginning with the nearest of the Kittim and slowly working its way back through the dormant ranks, the hooded figures melted into the pavement soundlessly. Soon, we were alone.

  There was a flurry of wings behind me, and I turned to see Nadia and Kinnara. “Aegir?” Kinnara asked. I pointed to the blaze behind me, and she nodded, satisfied.

  I looked at Nadia, put a hand on her shoulder. “You did good, kid.”

  She smiled wearily.

  DeNobb staggered over, put his arm around her shoulder in time to catch her. She collapsed against him.

  “You, too,” I told him.

  I walked over to the thunderbird in human form and stood over him. I watched him for a moment, wondered how a simple, human shell could hold such a creature, and I let the questions form in my mind. Eventually, I felt Nadia’s hand in mine, and I said quietly, “I told you he wasn’t human.”

  Crestmohr, Ape’s Chinook gardener, opened his silver eyes and looked at me and smiled weakly.

  43

  Victor’s wounds weren’t fatal. When he came to, he placed Crestmohr’s body in the back of London’s truck and pulled his Hummer around. He and Cassiday put Menkh in the back.

  “He’ll be okay,” Cassiday assured me.

  I nodded.

  “We made a hell of a team for a while,” I told him.

  He shook my hand. “Maybe we can do it again.”

  I laughed a bit, felt the ache all over my body. “Not anytime soon.”

  “Agreed.” I moved to take my hand away, but he held my grip for a moment longer. “Or maybe we can do dinner sometime?”

  I didn’t say anything as he moved off to collect his Browning. I shrugged it off and turned to see Victor. I nodded at him. He nodded back. His dark glasses didn’t reveal any emotion, but it was enough.

  Kinnara approached. “You were everything Lorelei described and more.”

  “You say that like this is the last time we’ll speak. I guess this is it, then?”

  She smiled. “I was hoping to have you one more time.”

  “I…” Images of Lori filtered through my mind, and I felt guilty as hell. I couldn’t meet her eyes.

  “Your devotion to my sister is admirable.”

  “What will you tell her?”

  She shook her head. “That you are well. Nothing more.” She smiled and drew her body closer to mine. “You did well.” I dared to look her in the eyes, and she kissed me. It caught me off guard, took my breath away, and as she climbed into the Hummer, I was confused by the way I rather enjoyed the kiss.

  I didn’t have time to really think about it before Nadia found me. “You okay?”

  I shook my head.

  I was alone with her and DeNobb, and they helped me to the truck. The flames burned behind us as we left the parking lot. Somewhere in the distance, sirens howled. We got into Nadia’s car and ventured deeper into the heart of Seattle, passing firetrucks and police cars. The storm had done an amazing amount of damage. Cars were flipped over. Buildings burned.

  Eventually, at some point in the c
lean-up process, emergency workers would find the mall. I wasn’t worried about what they might find. Fire was the greatest purifier. Everything would burn. All that was left would be ashes…and a bonnacon.

  But let them explain that. Maybe it would be ruled as the cause of the fire. An animal they thought existed only in myth. It would explain the eye-witness reports of monsters. The coppers had already seen the karaiju. Would a bonnacon be so hard to accept?

  As we passed the mangled balls of burnt, crumpled steel, the monuments that had at one point been firetrucks, I thought, let them explain that, too. That one might be a bit harder.

  Of course, the storm wasn’t really responsible for the damage. I knew that. But the unsuspecting people of the city didn’t. In fact, they would go to great lengths – despite the evidence suggesting the contrary – to believe that it was the storm. Because what possible other explanation could there be? People heard hooves, they didn’t think of zebras. The simplest answer was not only the most logical, it was the preferred. In my experience, people preferred to live lives of blissful ignorance, lives that they themselves remained at the center of.

  Besides, storm damage sounded better to an insurance company.

  DeNobb drove, and I passed my cell phone to Nadia. “Call Cooper,” I said. “Tell her where we are. Have her meet us at the entrance with a stretcher.”

  "Which entrance?”

  I just looked at her.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” I lied. I hurt. Everywhere. It felt good just to sit.

  She dialed, held the phone to her ear. “It’s ringing,” she said.

  “That’s usually what it does.”

  We pulled up at the Children’s hospital twenty minutes later. Cooper was waiting under the covered drive with a stretcher, just like I asked.

  I got out first and came around to meet her at the back of the truck. “God, Swyftt,” she said. “First Terry. Then an FBI agent was transferred in from county. How many people do I have to treat for you in one night?”

  “At least one more,” I said. I opened the tailgate and banged on it until DeNobb stuck his head out. I waved him over.

  We got Crestmohr on the stretcher and as Cooper wheeled him inside, I trailed behind.