by Tracy Sharp
The thing was pissed off.
It came running at us, all four legs stomping forward as it snorted at the air.
Strummer and I ran in different directions, both of us hoping to confuse the thing.
It stopped in its tracks, raised its head and roared. The sound shook the ground.
Strummer and I both stood very still. I held my breath, my gaze ticking between Strummer and the creature. If either of us moved, it would come barreling at us, snapping those enormous teeth.
The thing continued sniffing the air, and then tilted its head.
The flapping of wings made it lift its nose as Raven flew overhead, shrieking at it. She circled above the creature, and it reared its body up and snapped its teeth, nearly catching her between them.
She rose higher, and then flew toward the bridge, screeching.
The thing followed, letting out a frustrated snarl.
What the hell would kill this thing?
I watched as Strummer made stabbing motions with his hand, his leather jacket making a shushing sound as his arm moved through the air.
I grabbed Sally from her holster, aiming it at the demon.
The demon stopped, turned, and came tearing back toward us.
I shot at it, multiple times, watching grimly as my bullets simply bounced off its scales. Not good.
A dagger. I had one I took from the ashes of a skin walker a few years ago. I found it in my knife belt and wrapped my fingers around it, and tugging it out of its sheath. The blade made a nice zinging sound as it slid out.
The thing turned toward the sound, then came running at me, its strange webbed feet pummeling the ground. His roar blasted my ears, deafening me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Strummer lift both hands toward the sky, and then swing them toward the creature. Bright, jagged bolts cut through the blackness and hit the ground around the monster, but none struck it. It was running too fast.
I stood my ground, literally shaking in my shoes, as it came for me. I held the dagger, waiting, my fist trembling.
If I failed, I’d fail Candace. I couldn’t let that happen.
Desperation and fear turned to courage and rage as I took a running leap at the thing, adrenaline making me jump higher than I ever had in high school basketball. Who would’ve thought that all the motivation I needed was a big-ass, prehistoric-looking demon snapping its jaws at me to jump that high?
The thing tilted its head, bloody gore-speckled teeth opening wide, coming for me.
I raised my hand and swung my dagger down, aiming for the bloody sockets of its ruined eyes.
The monster swiped his claws at my arm, and I heard a crunch and felt unearthly agony tear through the arm as my wrist broke. The dagger fell from my hand, dropping uselessly to the ground. I had a split second to mourn the dagger, and another to feel really sorry for myself, and then I was flung into the air, spinning several times before landing on the hood of the police cruiser.
This was going to be difficult.
The thing packed a punch.
I lifted my broken wrist and I wished I hadn’t. The hand was flopping in a decidedly unnatural way. A wave of nausea washed over me. But I had no time to puke.
The pain was righteous. It made my head swim. I rolled off the cruiser and staggered around like I’d had a few too many. Right then I wished I’d had. I kept walking until I got my feet going in the same direction. “Shake it off,” I said under my breath. “Just shake it off. You got this.”
I forgot about my broken wrist and raised my hands toward where I thought the demon was, ready to use my shiny, new found magical powers, but the flopping wrist made me feel faint and my head went fuzzy. I felt the world tilting.
I took several deep breaths.
“Stay there, Ezra,” Strummer’s voice said through the haze.
“The hell I will,” I breathed. I took more deep breaths. “Maybe I will. Just for a second.”
The world went all swirly.
“Ssssssssssh,” a female whispered from behind me. “Stay still. They will hide you.”
I peered through the gray mist and saw Fiona’s red hair and pale face.
“I don’t need them to hide me,” I said. “I just need... a painkiller. You know, the one that gets you through your day so you can jog on the beach and play golf or tennis.” I smiled weakly. “I need to kick this thing’s ass..”
“You need to stay put. You’re in no shape to fight. The demon sees the ghosts, but not us. She has no interest in the ghosts.”
“She? That thing is a she?”
“Yeah. What? Like female demons can’t be bad asses?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but decided against it. I had no idea how to respond.
I heard lightning bolts hit the ground with a weird, electrical sizzle.
“I can’t let Strummer do this alone. Besides, I’m not a sissy who needs him to fight my battles for me.”
I could hear the eye-roll in her voice. “Ezra. Don’t be stupid.”
“I can be stupid if I want to. You’re not the boss of me.” I vaguely thought I was being funny, but the excruciating pain made it hard to tell.
Fiona sighed. “Fine. It’s your funeral.”
The ghosts moved away from me as Fiona backed off, leaving me exposed. Part of me wanted to run back into the protective circle of the ghostly mist, but I’d never be able to live with myself if I didn’t stand and at least try to fight.
Strummer held the strange, twig-like wand in his hand, and he pointed it at the demon and said some words I didn’t understand. I didn’t know what language he was speaking, but it was none that I recognized.
The monster froze, howling and trembling with fury.
“What did you do?” I stared as it tried to move, now a twitching mass of destruction.
“I bound it, but I don’t think the binding is going to last long.”
I searched for my dagger. “Can’t you turn it to dust with your lightning bolts?”
“I can’t use the lightning bolts and the wand at the same time. One undoes the other.” He pointed to a spot somewhere to my right. “Over there. See it?”
The blade glinted under the bright, silvery light of the winking stars. “Oh, thanks. Can’t you turn the demon to dust with the wand?”
“The wand isn’t as powerful against this demon. She’s very old.”
I huffed out a humorless laugh. “She. That kills me.”
“Yes, she will if you don’t put that blade through her head right now.”
“I mean, I’m not trying to be a sexist dick, but, I can’t believe that thing is female.”
“Ezra, shut up and use the dagger, or she will eat us both.” Strummer stared as the demon’s shaking became more pronounced, her movements bigger. She was breaking through the binding. In a few moments she’d be free.
“Can I stab her while she’s bound?” I headed toward her, blade gripped tightly in my good hand, which was actually my bad hand. The good one was flopping painfully as I tried to hold it against my chest. Every movement sent agony singing through my wrist.
“No. You have to wait until she breaks through it, but this gives you time to get ready to pounce. The moment she breaks through the binding spell, you stab her through an eye, and get to her brain.”
“Sure. No problem.” I gripped the dagger, praying I had enough strength in my weak hand to pull it off.
21
Candace
It was a lake of fire. When Charon steered her strange little boat to the edge of a bizarre looking, bumpy and uneven dock, Candace turned back for one more look at the crimson lake, which had turned into a lake of fire. Flames leapt up and crackled, spitting orange and blue sparks into the burning air. Her lungs hurt as she took quick, shallow breaths, trying to calm her fear.
As Candace stepped onto the dock, a moan came from beneath her foot. She looked down, and a wave of revulsion washed over her. The dock was made up of human forms. Some facing up, some down. Some w
ere on their side. All were tangled into each other, skin melted together. Their faces were stretched and merged. The face beneath her groaned from a mouth pulled freakishly to the left. The tongue darted out, trying to lick her shoe.
“Just a taste. Let me taste your tooooooeees,” the mouth hissed.
All the mouths began to whisper. And then they started biting. They snapped at her shoes off, trying to get to her flesh.
A cry of disgust and fear raced up her throat as she began running over the melted bodies. There was a bank of rock and black, twisted trees about thirty feet away, if she could just get to it.
Something clamped onto the front of her shoe, biting down through to her toes. She fell forward, and saw the excitement in the eyes of the eager faces below her, just waiting for a taste.
Her knees hit hot flesh and seemed to sink down, and both hands fell onto faces below, their skin so hot her fingers burned.
A tongue snaked through two of her fingers, and the thumb of her other hand sank into an eye, which gushed and spurted hot fluid all over her fingers...
Candace gagged, then cried out, kicking at her trapped shoe. She managed to free herself but lost the shoe to the mouth that had clamped teeth onto it. The mouth made satisfied chewing sounds behind her.
A guttural, repulsed sound escaped her, and then she launched herself up and ran for the bank, leaping onto it and scrambling up.
Thankfully, there were no bodies or faces on the ground. As of yet, anyway.
She headed into the trees, wondering what fresh horror waited for her there. The dark, twisted branches jutted in odd ways, like fingers poised to grab her. They cast twisted shadows in the eerie orange light.
Candace took a few deep breaths, and then started to run through the black, tangled woods, trying to look everywhere at once. If she moved fast, it would he harder for something to grab on to her.
She became aware of a low hissing sound. With mounting alarm, Candace realized the sound was coming from everywhere at once. She knew that sound. It filled her with terror and dread, and made her want to tear out of her skin.
Snakes.
She hated snakes.
Her gaze flicked up to the branches and down on the ground, but she couldn’t see them. Where were they coming from? She wanted to freeze in place, but then a snake might drop onto her from above. If she ran, she might step on one, or fall onto a nest of them.
With her heart battering her chest and skin crawling, she ran. The woods became thicker and darker. Where in hell was she going? She had no idea where to go.
One of the shadows moved to her right. Her eyes shot to it. It was long, and huge, and moved smoothly and unbelievably silent. Except for the hissing.
And it was fast, slithering parallel to her between the trees.
You’ve gotta be frickin’ kidding me. It was the biggest damned snake she’d ever seen.
Of course it was. Why wouldn’t it be?
She couldn’t outrun this snake. It was too big and too quick.
And then another shadow moved to her left, slithering, and easily keeping up with her.
Was this how she was going to die? Eaten by enormous, demonic snakes in hell?
They moved to converge in front of her, and she stopped dead, her breaths ragged in her burning throat.
Two huge cobra-like heads weaved before her, mouths opening wide to show fangs the size of swords. Venom dripped from them, dropping to sizzle on the ground. The eyes were diamonds of silver light.
There was nowhere to go. Candace couldn’t outrun them. They would get her and eat her.
Her terror was complete.
There was no time to think as a huge snake head shot forward, its strange eyes glittering hungrily. Candace jumped to her left, rolling away from the massive fangs. Instinctively, she rolled again, and the other head came down, monstrous fangs plunging into the ground, leaving deep grooves where they sank into it.
Both snake heads moved back, waving backward and forward, and then poising to strike.
Watching as one of the snakes came at her again, she dodged it, and narrowly missed being skewered by those impossibly enormous teeth as they dug into the ground, leaving more deep grooves. As she rolled and came back up to her feet, she risked a frantic look behind her, trying to find an escape route.
They would just come after her. There was nowhere these two nightmare mutants couldn’t get her here. On instinct, she rolled back, and a gargantuan set of teeth came down again, gouging the ground.
She thought of the bottles of angel’s breath and angel dust and grabbed at one, not sure which it was. She thumbed open the lid and shook the tiny bottle upward, toward the snakes’ weaving heads.
The dust moved outward and rose up, but not high enough. It sparkled and then evaporated, not touching the two serpents at all.
Candace felt a wave of hopelessness fall over her as she stood there, looking up at the two demon serpents moving back and preparing to impale her. Two sets of shining eyes fixed on her. She turned, helplessly, looking around her again, finding nothing to help her.
But as she turned back, something glinted in the silvery glow of the serpents’ eyes, and both of the gigantic snakes drew back, recoiling.
She followed the gleam, which led her eyes to the charm Iona had given her. The mirror flashed again, and the hissing grew louder. Candace glanced up to see that the mirror was reflecting back to the snakes, and they closed their eyes each time the mirror reflected their image back to them and recoiled just a little.
Both snakes moved out of the gleam of the mirror and reared their heads back, weaving slightly, and then poised to strike, hissing louder.
Candace ripped the charm from where it was tethered on her belt loop and aimed the little mirror at the eyes of the snakes, tilting it this way and that, making the light from their eerie eyes flash straight back into their silvery irises.
One of the snakes shot back, then turned and slithered away, vanishing back into the shadows. The other, apparently refusing to be bested, gave a long hiss, its black tongue darting out as it watched Candace with its creepy silvery eyes.
Focus on one eye. Candace tilted the mirror again, shining the snake’s reflection directly into its left eye. The snake reared backward, falling on its diamond shaped scales, its hiss sounding like a sudden release of pent up steam. The serpent rolled itself back onto its front, twisting its body until it righted itself, and then slithered away without looking back.
Candace stood, breath ragged in her throat, surprised that she was still alive. A hysterical little laugh escaped her, and then she ran deeper into the darkness of the woods.
Ezra
The demon’s shriek was deafening as I jammed the dagger into its brain. The monster threw me off, and I went flying, the dagger still buried through her head. I landed on an old, decrepit picnic table, and heard the crack as I fell through the rotting wood. The wood provided a soft landing, but I felt several wood shards cut into my skin.
If I lived through this, I was going to be sore.
I climbed off the pile of rotting wood and found my footing, and then staggered toward where Strummer was watching the demon disintegrate into ashy embers. “That was trippy.”
Strummer backed away from the ashes. “Don’t get too close to those.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. I knew not to get too close, but was tired and punchy. Now that the immediate danger was over, the pain in my hand began in earnest. I raised the hand, cringing at the unnatural angle it hung at. I’m not gonna lie. I wanted to cry, but I settle for, “Ow.”
“We need to get you to a hospital.” Fiona emerged out of her protective blanket of ghosts and stood beside me. “That was some pretty nifty handy-work.”
My entire body ached, and I felt like just dropping where I stood and sprawling on the ground for a while. “Thanks. Gotta work on my landings though. Or not get thrown around so much next time I tangle with a demon.”
“Good idea.” She grinned at me. He
r ghosts stayed close, a constantly moving mist curling around her legs.
Raven flew down from a nearby birch tree branch, shifted back to human as she landed. She stood shamelessly nude, the mischievous glint in her eye telling me that she was enjoying my embarrassment as I turned to look away.
“You slay a demon and you’re still shy?” She said, her tone playful. “Adorable.”
“Quit torturing the poor guy,” Strummer said, walking away to get her clothes, which were piled somewhere on the far end of the bridge.
The bridge. Panic clenched my belly. “We need to pull Candace back up.”
“Yes,” Strummer said, walking back with Raven’s clothes in his hands. “She has been down there a long time.”
“Too long?” Fiona asked, and then shot me a regretful glance, as if wanting to take the question back. “Nah. Don’t listen to me. Of course it hasn’t been too long. She’ll be fine.”
I smiled at her. Fiona was sweet. The tension in her shoulders and the watchful look in her eyes told me she’d seen some tough times. I sensed a great inner strength in her, but her heart was kind.
She was a lot like Candy in that regard.
Strummer hadn’t answered Fiona’s question.
My throat closed over a lump and I swallowed it down. I refused to accept the thought. “It hasn’t been too long.”
He paused, his face unreadable, but the way his eyes studied the water grimly spoke volumes. “I don’t know. I haven’t heard Candace call to me.”
“That’s good, right?” I asked him, grasping at any straw I could find.
“How long has she been down there?” Raven buttoned and zipped her jeans, and stepped into her burgundy Dr. Martens.
Strummer looked at his watch. He was one of a dying breed who still wore one. “Twenty-seven minutes.”
My chest tightened. That was a long time to be in hell. I barely had enough breath to speak. “Pull her back up.”
“I will try, but Ezra, you need to prepare.” Strummer watched me with serious eyes.
“For what?” But I really didn’t want him to say it.