The World in Shadow (Eternal Warriors Book 2)

by Vox Day

  “It’s a Warriors thing,” he explained. “Mariel told me all about it. So let’s go!”

  Jami’s heart sank. Going back into that hotel was the very last thing in the world she wanted to do. But she had no doubt whatsoever that Christopher was telling the truth. She could see it in the determined set of his face.

  She took a deep breath, and grabbed Holli’s hand. She could feel her sister shaking, but when Holli looked up, her eyes were hard. She was ready.

  “Okay, then let’s do it,” Jami heard herself saying. “Anyways, Eric might still be in there.”

  “What!” Jason was beside himself. “Are you nuts! Jami, what do you think you’re doing?”

  She ignored him, and held tightly onto Holli’s hand as her sister prayed.

  “Lord Most High, Heavenly Father, Almighty God, please, oh please, give us the strength and courage to face this evil and vanquish it. We trust in your power, and ask that your will be done, nobody and nothing else’s, in Jesus's name.”

  Jason, seeing that she wasn’t paying him any attention, finally stepped in front of Christopher.

  “Look, kid, you have no idea what you’re dealing with. I don’t know how you got here now, or who Mary is, but there’s people with guns in there, all right? I can’t let you do this!”

  Jami held her breath as her brother placed his hand on her date’s chest.

  “There’s a lot worse things than guns in there, Jase, and that’s why we have to go in. I know you don't understand, there's no way you could.” Christopher slipped his keys into Jason’s hand, then pushed him gently out of his way. “I don’t know how long it will take for the ambulances to get here, so you’ll probably have to drive people to the hospital. Stay in the car, and keep the engine running.”

  Jason glanced from Christopher to Jami, and back again. He looked like they’d suddenly turned into aliens or something, but at least he didn’t seem inclined to stand in their way again.

  “Dude, at least let the girls stay out here.” Her date shook his head. “Look, just let them stay and I’ll go in with you, okay?”

  Jami’s heart melted. It was the bravest thing she’d ever heard anyone ever say. And to think that he would do that for her….

  “Jason, it’s okay,” Jami reassured him, and she stood up on her tiptoes to kiss him lightly on the cheek. “Please, listen to Christopher and stay here. He’s right, people are going to need you!”

  Jason shook his head, but he stayed out of their way.

  “Be careful, you idiots!” he finally yelled after them, and Jami waved to him in what she hoped was a confident manner. Then she swallowed hard and gritted her teeth. She wasn’t ready for this. God, please, please, please, be with us and protect us, she prayed fervently. And send every angel you can spare!

  The three of them held hands, with Christopher leading the way and her in the middle, as the three of them pushed their way inside through the surge of fleeing boys and girls. It was slow going at first, and it was tough to hang on to Christopher because they were fighting against the flow. But the panicked crowd was a lot thinner once they fought their way in past the lobby and began to walk cautiously towards the ballroom.

  A sobbing girl ran by, her yellow dress stained with blood, and Jami was shocked when she recognized Jill Mondale.

  “Not that way,” Jill shouted at her as she ran past them. “They’re still in there….”

  Another gun blast punctuated her cries, and Jami winced. As they drew closer, she could hear moans and pleading cries nearly drowned out by the loud music roaring out of the ballroom. There was another loud blast.

  “Sounds like a shotgun,” Christopher commented calmly. He squeezed her hand. “It’s nothing. Don’t be afraid.”

  “Who, me?” Jami tried to remind herself that she’d confronted demons before. No big thing, really… oh, come on, girl. Admit it. If you manage not to wet your pants, you’re doing good.

  The thing was, the demons they’d run into before weren’t possessing kids armed with shotguns, and come to think of it, most of those confrontations had ended with her and Holli running away. Which, to her mind, was starting to look like a really good strategy.

  “Oh, no,” Holli said softly as they turned the last corner. Christopher breathed in sharply, and Jami herself was forced to close her eyes. She felt Holli drop her hand, and she didn’t have the strength to hold on herself.

  It was hard to open her eyes again and take in the awful sight. The entrance to the ballroom was filled with guys in tuxes and girls in dresses, all lying sprawled in impossible poses. But she could see that some of them were still alive, because they were still moving. One dark-haired girl even lifted up a hand to Jami, her anguished eyes begging for help, but Jami couldn’t do anything for her because Christopher was pulling her forward again, into the darkness of the ballroom.

  They stopped just inside the doorway. The grinding music was so loud it made her ears hurt, but Jami barely noticed. She was focused on the two tall, shadowy figures stalking about the other side of the large hall, searching for signs of life. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she saw that there were some thirty or forty kids still in the room, and although most were lying wounded or worse on the floor, a small group of eight or ten kids were huddled fearfully in a corner. It was towards this last group that the killers were gradually making their way.

  They didn’t seem to be in a hurry, though. One of them, the shorter one wearing sunglasses, paused as he stepped over one injured boy, then pointed the gun downward and fired with the barrel less than two feet away his target. The boy below him convulsed violently, and then lay still, as the killer pumped his fist. He waved the other killer over, and after pointing out his latest victim, the two of them exchanged a high-five. Jami felt herself swaying, and wondered if she was going to faint or throw up first.

  The lights came on without warning, and the two killers alertly spun around towards her. The taller one had to shield his eyes against the sudden brightness, but the one with shades on was already raising his shotgun to his shoulder. Jami started to shout a warning, but then the music stopped abruptly, freezing the killer where he stood.

  “I always thought White Zombie was overrated,” Christopher announced with false bravado, as he stood up next to her with an orange extension cord in his hand. He was standing next to the light switch that she had somehow missed seeing in the darkness.

  “Who the fuck are you,” the taller killer snarled. He walked slowly towards them, full of hatred and menace, followed by his partner.

  It was the boy who’d been beaten up by Kent Petersen last month. Jami felt sick as she recognized him from school. His face still showed the bruises. She’d never seen the other killer, the fat one with the shades, but she knew the taller one was a senior at Mounds Park. His face was deathly pale, and his eyes had something weird going on with them, but even more disturbing, if that was possible, was the pentagram painted on his forehead. No, she realized as he came closer and she saw the ragged shape of the occult symbol. The crazy killer had actually carved it into his skin. In fact, both of them had.

  Ironically, the horrid marks made her feel more confident. This wasn’t insanity. It was total in-your-face Fallen evil, no question about it, and that was something she knew how to deal with.

  “We are servants of the Most High God,” Christopher answered the possessed boy.

  “Who, by the way, beats your masters every time,” Jami added.

  The two killers looked at each other. The taller one’s face twisted with rage.

  “You think your fucking dead god is going to protect you here? I don’t have any fucking masters except me, bitch!”

  He raised his gun and pressed the blue metal barrel against Jami’s temple. It was warm, almost hot.

  Jami swallowed, but she refused to look away from the killer’s eyes. This close, she could see what was wrong with them. They weren’t so much cold as dead, as if the demons inside him had somehow drained all the life
out of him. There was no mercy, no compassion, nothing but hate and fury. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement, and she realized Holli was quietly helping those who could still walk to leave the ballroom through a service exit on the side. They needed time, though, and then, Jami knew what she was supposed to do. It was simple, really. But did she have the faith?

  I believe, Lord, but you're really going to have to help my unbelief! The killer didn’t matter, first she had to deal with the demons inside him.

  “Tell me who you are, in Jesus’s name,” she commanded the evil spirit she knew had to be lurking somewhere inside the boy.

  “Jesus who?” The killer’s voice was different now, more mature and bitingly sarcastic. “Maybe I am Jesus!”

  “Jesus Christ of Nazareth,” she answered firmly. The killer snarled, and his eyes rolled back in his head so that only the whites were showing.

  “Just fucking blow her head off already!” the fat killer shouted with irritation. He raised his weapon and pointed it at her, but Christopher raised his hand.

  “No!”

  It was a command, not a plea.

  Click! The guy with the shades pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. He cursed, and as he tugged at the ejection lever, Christopher grabbed the weapon. Yellow shells went flying everywhere.

  “I don’t think so,” he said, as he wrenched it out of the killer’s hands and spun it around to point it back at him. “Don’t even think of moving, because it’ll work this time, I guarantee it.”

  Jami smiled, despite the shotgun that was still being pressed against her head.

  “I said name yourself,” she demanded again. “Now!”

  The tall boy growled, and he lowered his weapon.

  “I am Mahalidael,” the demon admitted reluctantly.

  “And you, what is your name,” Jami asked the other possessed boy, who was holding his hands up in the air.

  “Rahdar.”

  Jami caught Christopher’s eye, and they exchanged a meaningful glance. He made a ‘yer-outta-here’ gesture with his thumb, and she nodded. All authority on Heaven and Earth, that was what the Bible said. Maybe it wasn’t hers, but it was hers to use, for sure.

  “All right then, Mahalidael, Rahdar, you know what’s up. By the authority of the only Son of the Most High God, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I command you to leave these boys!”

  Jami wasn’t sure exactly what she was expecting, but she was kind of surprised when the boys’ heads didn’t spin around and they didn’t scream or anything, they both just slumped to the ground unconscious.

  “I guess I always thought an exorcism was supposed to be a little more dramatic than that,” confessed Christopher, as he laid the shotgun carefully on the ground. “But man, that was too close. I’m glad that’s over! Now we’d better see what we can do for these—”

  “It’s not over until I say it’s over, old friend,” a strangely familiar voice broke in unexpectedly.

  Chapter 32

  Decisions

  “There is no spoon.”

  —Neo, (“The Matrix”)

  Jami snapped her head around so quickly that she almost sprained her neck. Hovering in the air only ten feet away from them was a good-looking demonlord with black wings. He looked familiar, and with a start, Jami recognized him as the one they’d confronted last winter at the grade school. But this time, he had a lot more than a few demon babes with him, now he’d brought along what looked like a small army of evil spirits. There were forty or fifty of them, and they were the most random mix of creepy, ugly, scary beings that Jami had ever seen.

  “Kaym!” Christopher breathed. “You did this….”

  Floating on either side of Kaym were two big, scary-looking angels. One had a man’s body and a lion’s head, while the other had a human head, but two massive red-shelled pincers in the place of his arms. The demonlord smiled coolly.

  “You’ve met my colleagues already, of course, but I don’t suppose you would recognize them in their own forms. Allow me to present the archons Lord Rahdar and Lord Mahalidael.”

  Jami backed warily away from the looming horde of evil spirits. She looked around and was glad to see Holli had left the room. I just hope she stays the heck out of here! Fear gripped her insides as her mind grasped frantically for something she remembered reading some time ago in one of their Bible studies. One of us can put a thousand to flight, two of us can send the legions fleeing, wasn’t it something like that? A legion, that was a lot less than fifty. And there were two of them!

  The handsome demonlord laughed.

  “That’s just a song, stupid girl. Don't get carried away.”

  So they could read minds? How was that fair? Well, take this, then! She taunted the evil spirit by deliberately recalling the image she had seen of him last winter, shrinking before the silver fire of the Holy Spirit.

  The arrogant smile disappeared from the angel’s face.

  “We’ll see about that!” he snapped.

  “You can’t touch us, Kaym, you know that!” Christopher insisted, and the demonic army roared with laughter. “We are protected by the blood of the Lamb!” The demons laughed even louder.

  The demonlord stilled his followers with a gesture, and indicated the fallen bodies strewn about the giant room. There was blood everywhere, and the smell was terrible.

  “This place has been consecrated, dedicated to the Great Prince. Blood, you say? This is a temple of blood, ah, and the incense is sweet! Your prayers will not be heard by the Enemy here— nor would his angels dare to enter this place.”

  “Actually, they would, if they’d been ordered!”

  Jami jerked her head up as she heard a familiar voice behind her, and she recognized Paulus, her guardian angel, as he zoomed over her head. His flaming sword crackled as he slashed at the demonlord’s face, and Kaym, taken off-guard, barely managed to evade the blow. Paulus didn’t even slow down, and with his backswing, he chopped down the demon with the crab claws. A blizzard of white flashed past her eyes as a flight of Divine angels crashed into the crowd of Fallen, and Jami raised both her fists into the air.

  “Get ‘em, Paulus,” she cheered wildly, as her guardian sliced apart two freaky-looking things with hairless grey heads. The demons were clearly taken off-guard by the fury of this unexpected attack, and they began to fall back in some disarray. But then a red-skinned demoness evaded the thrust of an angelic sword and leaped towards her with a spiked club raised high over her horned head. Yikes!

  “Help!” she screamed.

  A huge white-robed form stepped in front of her, and intercepted her attacker with the point of his fiery sword. There was a blinding flare of red light, and the demoness was gone.

  “Here!” Her savior was a huge angel with midnight skin and a deep, rumbling voice, and he gently placed his sword in her much smaller hands. “Take this!” As her fingers closed around the hilt, he patted her reassuringly on the shoulder and then launched himself at a scorpion-tailed demon with red wings. A moment later, he was lost in the fray; the last Jami saw of him was with his bare hands locked around its throat.

  Jami stared stupidly at the sword. It was lighter than it looked, but the flames were crackling and hissing, and she could feel the heat coming off it. And what am I supposed to do with this?

  Something growled in front of her, and she looked up to see a huge, purple demon with a goats-head rushing at her, its great jaws dripping with disgusting flecks of yellowish foam. She shrieked and slashed the sword wildly in the general direction of this new attacker, and was lucky enough to score a hit on the left side of its giant, beastly head. The big demon screamed and dropped its weapon as it clutched at its ruined eye. Jami whooped at its dismay and brought the sword back like a softball bat, then swung as if she was going for the fences.

  The goat-head went flying, and the demon’s purple body dropped to the floor before exploding with a bang. She looked around, and saw that Christopher had acquired a sword now too, and was battling one-on-
one with Kaym. Wow, he really knew what he was doing with that thing, she thought, impressed with her brother, as he parried the demonlord’s black-flamed sword with his own golden blade and almost managed to spear the malignant spirit with a fast, two-handed thrust at his midsection.

  “You’ve lost, Kaym, you’ve lost again,” she heard him shout triumphantly as his adversary leaped back. “Don’t you know you’ll never win?”

  But the demonlord smiled contemptuously, and surprisingly, sheathed his dark sword.

  “You think you’ve won, simply because you survived? You always lacked vision, Christopher. And imagination. Not everything will be as it is written.”

  The evil spirit gestured around the room.

  “Behold, the work of my hand. We shall dine well in Hell tonight, don’t you agree?”

  The demonlord raised his arm imperiously, and swept his starry cloak over his head in a broad, all-embracing gesture. Jami blinked, and he was somehow gone, along with his whole demonic crew. Christopher met her eyes, and his face was full of suspicion.

  “Where’d they go?” she asked him, looking around the room, half expecting the small fallen army to pop up again momentarily. “How’d he do that?”

  “It’s not important,” Paulus answered her. Her guardian put his arm around her shoulder, and sighed heavily. “Come, my dear. There is important work yet to do.”

  Jami forced herself to look around the ballroom, still festively decorated, but in addition to the balloons, ribbons, and flowers, now strewn with bodies as well. Now that her adrenaline wasn’t pumped up to face demons and her own personal danger, she was forced to see the victims as people for the first time, and the sight shocked her to the very core of her being.

  “Thirty-two in here,” Christopher counted rapidly as he tore a strip of fabric off one wounded girl’s dress and pressed it against her bleeding side. He’d been a Boy Scout, Jami remembered. Did they have a merit badge for trauma? Either way, he seemed to know what to do. He glanced up from what he was doing. “Where’s Holli, James?”