“Like you care what happens to me.”
Kerrick kept a hold of Demona’s arm. “Believe it or not, I do care. Not just because you are some key to a prophecy, but because you were my friend.” Kerrick gripped Demona’s arm harder and shook her.
Demona ripped her arm out of Kerrick’s grasp. “Fine, if you say so. Somehow you never seemed so friendly.” Demona turned once more and braced herself for Kerrick to stop her again. She looked over her shoulder to find him following her. “It was either hot or cold with you—”
“You saw more of me than anyone has in the past fifty years,” Kerrick yelled to her retreating figure.
Demona did not want to hear Kerrick’s voice anymore. I need to get away from this conversation. “How did you know to avoid the lightning bolt? The demon was aiming it directly at you.” She shot a glance at him over her shoulder.
“I have that instinct about situations I’m in, remember? I sense when danger is coming.” Kerrick slid his hand over his head in an attempt to rid it of rainwater that was clinging to his hair. “I just knew I needed to step away from where I was standing. I was just lucky enough to listen to my gut when I did or I would’ve been toast.” Kerrick continued to follow Demona.
Demona was in such a rush that she failed to look where she was stepping and stumbled on the edge of a pot hole, which had filled during a previous rain storm. She regained her footing, but not quick enough to avoid stepping around the puddle of water. Her boot slipped into the water and filled the inside with dirty, icy muck. Demona pulled her foot from the puddle and shook it in an attempt to rid it of the freezing water. She gave up after feeling like she was doing the hokey pokey and marched on ahead with her cold soggy foot squeaking as she went.
“You know, now is as good a time as any to discuss what happened between us,” Kerrick announced.
No, no, no, no, no! “I thought that discussion was over?”
The drizzle became a light steady rain that did nothing, but make Demona even more miserable with the situation. The rain was quickly soaking into her clothes and a chilly breeze began to flow down the empty street. She knew that it was only a matter of time before her teeth began to chatter.
“I’d rather not talk,” Demona said. “I just want to get back to the group before anything else happens and before I freeze to death.”
“Then, just listen to what I have to say,” Kerrick replied, “while we walk.”
Demona did not answer. Instead, she continued on her way down the road. While fleeing from the demon Demona lost her sense of direction, she looked for familiar buildings to determine where she was. The last thing she wanted to do was ask Kerrick for directions.
Then, she recognized the buildings she was walking past, but could not place them. That was until the buildings grew scarcer the more she trekked in that direction. Soon she came to stand in front of a single abandoned home situated on the block. It was the house she and Kerrick had gone to during a field-assignment, where she had injured her ankle after being careless. The townhome was menacing as it stood alone on the empty block.
Demona’s clothes were soaking wet and she decided not to linger by the strange house any longer. She continued on her way down the road now that she knew where she was and where she was going. She wiggled her toes as she walked. The cold water had begun to numb her foot to the point that her toes now seemed foreign to her as she moved them.
She just needed to find the rest of her group; she hoped that they were still at the same place she left them. Hopefully Felix is okay. I just need to find them and we’ll end this demon problem. We’ll go back to headquarters and warm up. Everything will be fine! The mood that Demona was now in after fighting the demons, listening to Kerrick, and dealing with the incessant rain, was nothing short of vehement.
Kerrick had been rattling on as they walked down the road. The street lamps reflected on the glistening road. The rain refused to let up. Demona knew that Kerrick was talking to her, but she refused to pay him any mind. Instead, she focused on finding her way through town and back to her friends.
“I’m sorry!” Kerrick shouted.
The words almost made Demona spin in his direction. “Shh! The demons will hear you!” She was so distracted by the words Kerrick had spoken and the urgency to make him be quiet that she almost tripped again. After processing what Kerrick had said, Demona was able to return her attention toward walking steadily down the slickening road once more, scanning every direction for movement.
“I didn’t want things to go that way between us. I know you know that Darius ordered me to keep you interested in the TGHC. I know you said that the demon, Abd al-Malik, showed you that vision,” Felix said. “But did the demon show you anything else?”
Kerrick waited for a response. Demona continued to pretend to ignore him.
“No, he didn’t, did he? Well, there is a little piece of information that you are missing,” Kerrick said.
Demona was so close to being fed up with him. “I didn’t need to see anything else!” She yelled a little louder than she had intended. She glanced around quickly making sure her voice had not travelled too far.
Kerrick sighed. “More of like a big piece, really. Remember I told you about Elisabeth, my wife? There’s more to the story. She had an affair while I was away with the militia.”
Demona’s teeth began to chatter. The rain had soaked to her bones and gave her what felt like a never ending chill. She was so irritable that for a moment it took everything for her to keep from turning around and smacking Kerrick in the face. She was tired of everything, and mostly she was tired of Kerrick.
“The vampire that she had an affair with was Darius,” Kerrick said.
Demona stopped in her tracks. “Darius…”
“Yes—”
“And what else did Darius do? Because if I know him like I think I do, he probably screwed up your life beyond repair.”
Kerrick caught up with Demona so they could continue their conversation, while they walked side by side. “Well yeah, other than turning my wife into a vampire, who then turned me… he has enslaved one of my descendants.”
“What?” Demona was not certain she had heard Kerrick correctly.
“Elisabeth and I had a child before we were turned. After she turned me I convinced her to leave our son. Having vampires for parents would have been no life for him. After Elisabeth and I separated, fifty or so years later, I found my son and have been watching his family grow from a distance over the years.”
The rain was coming down heavily and began to mix with sleet. The little pellets stung Demona’s face as they raced from the sky. She covered her head with her hands, but it did not help to protect her much more. Kerrick directed her to a bus stop, where they could wait under protective covering for the sleet to stop.
Demona studied Kerrick as he continued to tell his story. Surprisingly, I believe him.
“Darius found me about twenty years ago and asked that I become his right hand man,” Kerrick said. “I refused. I knew he was the one responsible for my miserable undead existence. I wanted nothing to do with him!”
Demona shook her head with sorrow, knowing nothing good could have come from that. “I can’t imagine that he took that well.”
“No,” Kerrick replied. “In fact that’s when he informed me that he had my only remaining descendant captive. That if I wanted my lineage to continue I needed to do what he wanted.”
Demona shifted on her feet. “Oh.”
“I know you think I’m probably this cold, compassionless guy. I’m not. I love my family. I loved watching them live their lives. It broke my heart at the thought of my line ending, my last granddaughter dying.”
“It’s hard to believe,” Demona acknowledged.
“I am literally a puppet to Darius. I have been for the last twenty years. I want you to understand what happened between us,” Kerrick continued. “When Darius gave me orders about you, I had no choice. I had to do what he said.”
“I know. But I need you to understand; at first everything I did I faked. I was pretending with you, but after a while I felt something. It has been decades since I felt something for anyone. I struggled with what I was doing to you, because I knew you would never forgive me if you found out,” Kerrick said. “I couldn’t forgive myself.”
“I’m still not sure if I can forgive you,” Demona said.
“I understand… After the demon gave you the vision and you confronted me at the hotel, I knew I couldn’t deny the truth. That’s why I acknowledged everything. I wanted you to know, in the hopes that maybe you could someday understand.”
“So, why are we having this conversation? It doesn’t change the way things are between us. I’m with Felix now and it’s not going to end.”
Kerrick placed his hand lightly on Demona’s forearm. “I respect your decision. I wanted you to know the whole truth, because you are the only person I trust with this information. If anything should happen to me… I need someone to know what Darius is doing.”
Demona gave a single nod in response. “That, I can understand. The guy is just bad news. He seems all right at first, but underneath all of those mysterious layers there is something genuinely evil and manipulative. Like this is all a game to him.”
They continued to walk again when the weather changed back to plain rain. Things in town seemed to be quieting down as the predawn light began to creep across the sky. They made their way to where GLC had been battling the demons. Demona was happy that nobody seemed to be out that early in the morning.
Maybe we can preserve some people’s sanity. If they see the demons and everything else, they are going to think they’ve gone mad. That this is still more proof to support the idea of a highly contagious virus with psychotic symptoms, one of which they would think includes schizophrenia.
After turning onto the street that Demona had originally come from, they found most of the group scattered. Thankfully, it appeared that the battle was over and the demons were gone. Kerrick instantly walked to the group of TGHC agents standing on the side of the road over one of their injured. Demona spotted her friends. Ileana supported Kearne, who walked with a limp. Kaleb only had a few scratches across his face.
Then, Demona spotted Felix. She ran to him and threw her arms around him, relieved to see him alive. She pulled away and looked him over to make certain he was unharmed. She looked into his eyes and saw her emotions reflected back at her. He was equally relieved that she was safe as well. He looked her over to make sure that she was in one piece. Felix leaned in and gave her a kiss like no other. Demona ran her hands through his thick brown hair and pulled away.
“I love you,” Demona said.
“I love you too. I’m so happy to see you,” Felix replied.
She saw Felix’s eyes grow wide as he looked past her. Demona thinking that another demon was about to attack prepared to use her magic to defend Felix. When she turned around she found Ileana and Kearne locked in an embrace and kissing. Demona couldn’t help but laugh at the look on Felix’s face.
“I guess that cat’s out of the bag,” Demona said.
Kaleb moved toward them. “We have to stop them!”
“No, it is okay. I’ll explain everything to you guys later,” Demona said.
Felix narrowed his eyes as he looked at Demona once again. “You knew about this?”
“Yeah, just for a few days.” Demona shrugged. “Believe me I wanted to tell you, but it has been difficult to find time. Plus, I didn’t think it was my place to tell anyone about it.”
Chapter 13:
The Refugees
The small group went to aid their fellow GLC members. After finding some shelter in a closed down movie theater, Ileana used her internal fire to radiate heat so that she could provide warmth to all of the defenders that had become chilled when the cold rain fell from above. Many of the GLC members were huddled around her rubbing their hands together, while their teeth chattered and their bodies shook.
Kearne’s leg was now healed; thanks to one of the GLC defenders who was also a faith healer. He was now helping other members, with leg or similar injuries, into the building that needed to be supported by someone. He assisted them into the small theater and to the rows of seats where they could prop their legs up on the row in front of them and rest. Demona observed the drastic change in Kearne’s personality since he admitted that he was now human. He was less arrogant, more caring, and willing to participate.
Maybe he has found his place.
Demona handed Felix a roll of gauze which they had found in the theater’s storage room. Felix took it from her and gently wrapped it over the cleaned wound on his fellow defender’s arm. They were taking turns administering first aid to the injured. For now, Demona assisted Felix, by handing him the items he required as he needed them.
After Felix finished he stood and turned to Demona. He kissed her gently on the cheek and pulled away, while still holding her. “I am glad you’re safe. I don’t know what I would have done.”
Demona gave him a small smile. “I know. I’m fine. You’re okay. Let’s just hope our luck stays this way.”
Felix nodded with a smile. “Thank Aleph that we’ve managed to stay relatively unharmed.”
Demona nodded her head vigorously in complete agreement.
Kaleb walked into the dark theater and down the side aisle in their direction. “I think we got everyone out of the weather. Has he said anything?” Kaleb asked, referring to Kerrick.
Demona chewed on her lip. “Yeah, Darius sent them.”
“I never thought I’d say these words, but thank you Darius. Without TGHC’s agents I don’t think we could have made it through this,” Kaleb admitted.
“It’s true. Though, somehow I think this is all going to come back to bite us in the end,” Demona replied. “I guess we should see how TGHC’s people did.
After they had returned to the battle ground, Kerrick had gone off to check on the other agents. He was essentially their leader and it was his responsibility to coordinate with the agents and take care of anything that needed to be done. Demona beckoned to Kerrick where he stood among a group of TGHC members.
Kerrick walked over to them. “How’s everyone?”
“Everyone’s alive. We’ve got several people that are injured, but nothing life threatening. How did the field-agents fair?” Demona asked.
“A few minor injuries… Any idea how many demons there were?” Kerrick asked.
Felix ran his fingers through his messy brown hair in an attempt to tame it. “After talking with everyone we estimated their total at around thirty. We banished at least seven out of those.”
“Our guys killed at least four and trapped two in vials. Including the one Demona and I dealt with,” Kerrick said.
Demona shook her head and pressed her lips together. “That means we have at least seventeen demons to deal with… somehow. At least for now we can catch our breath and go back to headquarters.”
The morning light was beginning to spill into the opened double doors from the outside. The once massively dark room was beginning to grow a few shades lighter as the rays shone into the theater. The bright morning light did not reach far before it was swallowed up into the darkness.
Kaleb peeked out of the theater door and returned to his friends. “Looks like the rain stopped. We need to get out of town before people begin to question our presence.”
“I’ll give Itzig a call when we’re out of town and let him know there are a few houses on the block that may need their attention,” Demona added.
Kerrick and the TGHC field-agents said their goodbyes and slipped into a dark alley as they entered into the center of town. Demona suspected that there were probably several secret Terra Hollow access points in the area, but was uncertain. She was tempted to follow them, but knew not to extend her st
ay in Melville any longer than it needed to be.
If only it were that easy for us to slip out of town unnoticed. Aleph, help your faithful followers out of town safely.
The rest of GLC split into smaller groups and made their way to different road blocks in order to exit town and meet back at the RVs. Most of them were dragging themselves along with exhaustion from the fight. At least for the moment the demons were nowhere in sight and they could all make their way through town safely. The demons seemed to have become more organized since the last time they encountered the iya demon.
Several hours later, all of the GLC members had reconvened at the RVs. Luckily they were all able to exit town without question. It was time for them to go back to headquarters and to rest and recuperate before the next time they were called to fight the possessed.
Horde of the Demon Priest (Demona Book 3) Page 11