Horde of the Demon Priest (Demona Book 3)

by Megan A. Hepler

  Kerrick leaned towards the side of her face. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered. His lips gently brushed against her ear.

  Demona tore herself from his grasp. She glared at Kerrick as his words echoed through her mind. She glared at him and tried to figure out his motives. “You don’t get to miss me. Remember? You’re the one that betrayed me.” She looked at her friends ahead of her.

  Felix had noticed her absence and stopped to look for her. He now stood facing their direction with a look of concern on his face. Kearne hung limply from his arms.

  “You’re right. I didn’t tell you the truth. I was incapable of telling you the whole story. Maybe one day I will have that opportunity,” Kerrick said.

  “Your excuses don’t matter anymore. I have more important things to do than listen to you.” Demona marched along the path to where Felix waited.

  Felix’s left eyebrow was arched. “What was that about?” He asked.

  Demona shook her head. “Nothing. Kerrick’s just up to his old tricks. He’s not worth my time, and you have nothing to worry about.” She continued walking, trying to get as far away from Kerrick as possible.

  They had reached the stairway they had used to descend into the cavernous city and prepared to climb back up into the human world above. Kearne was partially awake, which made Felix’s job a little easier. They made their way up the stairs. Felix attempted to pull Kearne up the narrow steps, while Demona braced herself to move out of the way if he began to fall backwards.

  Kearne had been Demona’s first capture when she worked as a field-agent for Darius. Later, Kearne met up with her in Dissium as the result of Darius’ manipulation charm, which forced him to search for Demona and make certain that they achieved their task of finding the artifact. After they had found the artifact he was compelled, by the charm, to follow it back to Darius after Queen Yuriko stole it from Demona. Then, Demona made a deal with Darius that they would continue to help him fight the demon priest, but one of the conditions was that Kearne was to go free. Word had been sent to Demona two weeks later that Darius had kept his word and that Kearne could be found in Club Chamber.

  Demona cautiously glanced backward to make certain that nobody followed the group. They had almost reached the top of the stairway when everyone stopped moving. Demona tried to glance around Felix and Kearne to see what the holdup was.

  Ileana’s voice flowed softly down the stairs. “Let’s make this fast. The lush is going to slow us down if we run into any demons, or possessed.”

  “I agree,” Demona said.

  Felix lightly slapped Kearne’s face a few times in an attempt to wake him up. “Come on, time to wake up. You are going to need to keep up with us, just in case,” Felix said.

  “In case….of…wha?” The words slurred from Kearne’s mouth. He began to regain some awareness of what was taking place around him. Kearne put more weight on his feet, but his legs were still wobbly from his whisky buzz. It was enough to help Felix move him farther up the stairway.

  Felix shrugged. “At least he’s responsive now.”

  “All right, let’s get moving,” Ileana said.

  The group made their way up the final stretch of the stairway to a door that led to the town above.

  Chapter 2:

  Fleeing From Evil

  They exited a door at the top of the stairs and emerged into an alley behind a large three story brick building. The group stepped into the bright morning sunlight and was momentarily blinded by the change in lighting. After their vision had adjusted to the sun’s morning rays, the group hurried down the alley to the street ahead. Demona could see her breath in the chilly air, a sight she still appreciated after having been one of the living dead for several years.

  “Let’s hope Kaleb is still waiting where we left him,” Felix said.

  They rounded the corner onto the street to find a parking lot situated diagonally from them. There were several cars scattered around the lot, but only one caught their attention. Kaleb’s black van was positioned at the far corner of the lot, but it was not the van that caught their attention. It was a dark misty form which hurled itself at the van’s windshield as the engine began to start. The van lurched forward with a sputter as the swirling mist prepared to ram itself into the van once more.

  “Damn.” Ileana’s red eyes seemed to flare as she watched the demon attack the vehicle.

  The group huddled just within the alley and watched the scene unfold before them. Kaleb’s van jerked forward again and made its way out of the parking lot. The tires squealed when it rounded onto the street just ahead of the group.

  Kaleb motioned for them to get away from the area. “Run,” He yelled through the driver’s window. His van sped farther down the street luring the demon away from them.

  The foursome watched his van speed down the road and the black swirling mist that pursued it. Demona caught more movement out of the corner of her right eye and spun in its direction. It was as she had feared; the commotion had drawn the attention of another demon.

  Demona echoed Kaleb. “Run!” She whipped right back around in the direction they had come moments ago. Her long black hair wrapped around her face with the sudden movement and blocked her vision. She ran ahead blindly, while she frantically pulled the strands away from her eyes.

  The smoky, misty form, which had now found four new targets of interest, hovered in the distance for a moment. The form seemed to suddenly fly in their direction as the group bolted down the alley and followed Demona. Kearne was fully awake from the adrenaline that pumped through his body and was easily able to keep pace with the others. The group continued to run as a high pitched shriek emitted from close behind them. They clutched at their ears to block the sound, but none of them dared to look back.

  Demona heard the crack of thunder and a lightning bolt shot on the ground just as her feet were about to hit in the same spot. The ground glowed hot and smoldered. “We need to find a place to defend ourselves,” she yelled.

  “Look!” Felix said. He pointed to a glass door partway down the alley. Felix used his newly acquired speed to gain some ground and reached the glass door. He broke it with his elbow and quickly unlocked it from the inside. The door swung wide open and the group ran through the frame. They reclosed and locked the door, but it would be useless in delaying the demon with a shattered window. The shelter provided only a few extra moments for them to prepare to face the demon.

  Demona looked around the room frantically for some way to improve their situation. She spotted a metal door and ran through it with the others close behind. She then closed the door and braced it with a mop handle that sat beside the door jam. They found themselves in a room lined with dog kennels. Their appearance seemed to send a shockwave through the kennel as dogs up and down the room barked at the new arrivals. The group huffed as they attempted to catch their breath.

  “What now?” Felix asked. His short brown hair was disheveled and seemed to stand on end from the cold static in the air.

  “We’ve only got a few seconds before whatever that thing was finds a way inside,” Demona yelled over the noise. “Any ideas what it is?”

  The others shook their heads. Within seconds of asking the question they watched the swirling mist find its way through the crack between the bottom of the door and the floor. The mist spilled into the room and began to solidify. It formed into what looked like a giant, grotesque baby with short legs and razor sharp teeth that lined a monstrously wide mouth. Its gray skin was lumpy with warts and hideous oozing growths.

  The four gripped their ears when the demon emitted another ear piercing scream that rattled the room. The dogs drew as far away from the demon as possible and cowered, whimpering in the corners of their kennels. The demon waddled its way to one of the cages, tore the chain link door from its hinges, and tossed it to the side. The dogs whimpered and tucked their tails between their legs, as the door clanked onto the ground.

  “We have to figure out how to defeat this thing,
” Kearne shouted.

  “There’s no way we can continue to outrun it—”

  Ileana’s words cut off as she watched in horror as the baby-like demon grabbed a shaggy, black dog within the kennel and began to open its mouth in preparation to stuff the helpless animal inside. Demona’s elemental magic instantly kicked in at the sight of the animal’s peril. She sent a blast of wind that seemed to startle the demon enough that it released the dog from its grasp. The dog landed on the ground with a thud. It whined, but quickly recovered and ran down the kennel walkway in the direction of another door.

  Ileana and Kearne ran in a panic to the doors within the kennel and threw them open. The dogs were reluctant to move as they cowered in fear of the demon. The two chased the dogs towards the door and safety. Felix stood holding the door wide open at the other end of the room and allowed the terrified animals to escape. Demona watched several of the dogs flee, whimpering with fear, their tails tucked between their legs. The demon’s attention had returned to the group and it slowly made its way in their direction. A lightning bolt shot from the demon’s hand and struck the ground just as Demona took a step backwards. It left a scorch mark in the place that she had stood only moments before.

  “Oh! It’s an iya demon!” Ileana said. “We need to go now! There isn’t a way for us to kill this thing that I know of. If we stick around, we’ll be its next meal.”

  “We can’t just leave it,” Demona said. She sent another blast of wind in the iya demon’s direction and knocked it backwards against the wall. The demon’s head slammed into the cinder block wall and it wailed from the impact. The demon was momentarily dazed and shook its head in an effort to refocus.

  “We have to! Let’s find Kaleb, before this thing gets back up.” Felix said. He grabbed Demona’s hand and tugged her away from the concussed demon.

  They ran out of the door, before the demon could recover from its disorientation, and out onto the busy Main Street sidewalk. The town was just beginning to come alive and more cars began moving about, when they emerged from the kennel. A few people were startled by their sudden appearance; they looked annoyed after first dodging the runaway dogs and now the seemingly crazy people. Demona glanced back to the door they had exited and hoped that nobody would enter the building before the demon could leave. She caught the sight of several dogs running farther down the road in the opposite direction.

  The group jogged down the sidewalk dodging the pedestrians as they made their way back to the parking lot where they had first seen Kaleb’s van. They rounded the corner of the block just in time to see his van coming in the opposite direction. The black van skidded to a halt in front of them. They threw the doors open and hopped into the vehicle before anything else could happen.

  “Are you guys okay?” Kaleb asked.

  Demona spoke to the back of his head; his long brown surfer-like hair was pulled back in a pony tail. “I just watched a demon try to eat a dog. No, I’m not okay.” None of the others responded, because she spoke for them all. She stared out the window and spotted the large, dark shaggy dog standing not far from the alley they had run down moments ago. The dog seemed to follow the van carefully with its eyes as it began to drive away. It sat down on its haunches with the tip of its tongue hanging lazily from its mouth moments before it went out of her sight.

  Felix turned to Kaleb after noticing the almost completely shattered driver’s side window and the series of cracks that ran through the windshield. “What about you?”

  Kaleb shrugged. “I managed to shake it.”

  “We left a demon back there, we’ve got to do something about it before someone gets hurt,” Ileana said.

  ****

  The group entered into the old brick church, now GLC headquarters, to find Molony and Ezekiel, their elder and pastor, hovering over a map. Demona approached the table and looked down before grabbing two pins from an open container. She stuck the pins into the map near the center of town. Every day they added more markers to it; each indicating the appearance of a new demon or possession. Their small town was becoming overcrowded with evil.

  “Two more?” Ezekiel asked. He had always been a huge support for Demona, especially during her lowest moments after leaving TGHC. He was a thick, round man with a big red nose. He was jolly and often reminded Demona of Santa. Ezekiel was the model of a patient man.

  Demona nodded. She sat on one of the wooden pews and crossed her legs. She huffed with frustration and looked at her hands as they rested in her lap.

  “We have to find a way to knock their numbers back,” Kaleb said as he paced the floor. “We left those two back there to cause more havoc.”

  Ileana sat beside Demona. “Or worse yet, eat a helpless dog.” She checked a scrape on her elbow. Her dark skin seemed to emanate heat from her internal fire.

  Despite Ileana’s warmth, Demona shivered at the thought of what she had almost witnessed. No animal deserves an ending like that. “Darius and the agents have ways that might help us cut down their numbers. They have incantations and demon vials to trap malevolent spirits. The magical abilities of witches and other dark beings are able to destroy the lesser demons.”

  “I think it’s time we called a parley with Darius,” Molony said. “There are things we need to discuss with him and his top agents in order to make this alliance and defeating the demons work.” His red hair seemed to cause his pale skin to glow with an orange tinge as light streamed in through a colored piece of stained-glass from above.

  “Wait. We have our own methods. Exorcism, remember?” Ileana said. She gave a look of distaste for the thought of joining forces with the TGHC field agents.

  Ezekiel folded his arms over his chest. “Exorcism is effective, when time allows. Do you think you could have performed an exorcism today?”

  Felix shook his head. “We barely had enough time to think about getting out of its way, let alone performing an exorcism. Besides we wouldn’t have known how to deal with that iya demon anyway. None of us have ever encountered one before.”

  Ileana looked at her feet sullenly.

  Demona nodded in agreement with Felix. She wished she had a better suggestion, but she knew nothing more than what little she had learned during her time as a field agent. She had destroyed one demon with her elemental magic, fire specifically. The other she had captured with an incantation and vial.

  “Molony’s right,” Demona said. “I’ll make the phone call to Darius and set up the meeting. I do have one other idea. When I was a field-agent, when we first found out about Abd al-Malik, the demon priest, Darius sent us to a demonologist to gather information. I think it would be useful to look him up and see if we can recruit him.”

  “Do you think we can trust him, with certain information about our kind?” Molony asked.

  “I remember Darius said the demonologist was suspicious about the existence of vampires and other dark beings. Maybe, I can use that to my advantage… somehow,” Demona replied.

  “I trust your judgment, Mona.” Ezekiel replied. “Do what you need to, within reason.”

  Demona stood and brushed her hair over her shoulders. She made her way across the creaky planked floor and out the double doors to find a quiet place to make her call. Demona exited the church with Kearne in tow. She seemed to hop down the stairs and stepped onto the recently thawed grass.

  “I take it I missed a lot, while I was locked up?” Kearne asked. His blue eyes seemed to show a tiredness and concern. He had changed since the first time that Demona had found him sitting on a rock in the middle of a forest. He almost seemed like a completely different person, no longer the charming smooth talker that he had once been so willing to lure women to their death. Demona no longer felt his seductive pheromones attempting to take control of her emotions.

  “You could say that. I think we missed a lot while in Dissium to begin with. We came back to all of this.” Demona stretched her arms out with her palms up to indicate she meant their surroundings. “When I first started coming
to the GLC headquarters it was nothing more than this old church, a few RVs in the grove out back, and wide open fields. Now, as you can see it’s become more of a military operating base that keeps growing by the day.

  “Ileana has dubbed the growing base, Roost Haven.” Demona shook her head and smiled. “She said the reason is that this has been her roost for years now, ‘the place her phoenix form likes to perch.’ And now it has become a haven for others as well. The nickname seems to have stuck.”

  Demona surveyed the area ahead of them. It seemed to be an endless sea of green and tan canvas tents of various sizes surrounded by a large chain link fence topped with barbed wire. People were busy at work in all directions. The smell of pork roast drifted through the air as Demona walked around the left side of the church.

  “This area is mostly for weapons and the cafeteria. The other side of the church is set up for a hospital wing. In the back are mainly tents and even farther back are the training grounds. There’s even talk of putting in a garden next spring. Hopefully this’ll be long over before then… By the way you’ll be bunking with Kaleb and Felix in their tent.”