by Mel Odom
Effortlessly, Merihim dropped into a crouch beside Cornish.
“What secrets do you hold, little man?” the demon asked.
“Don’t kill me,” Cornish begged. “Please don’t kill me. I can serve you better than he does. I can be more than he is.”
Warren didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t expected Cornish to try something like that. And if the demon took the First Seer up on his offer, what would happen to Warren?
He glanced over his shoulder and saw Naomi staring at him. If his life was forfeit, she knew hers was too.
“No.” Merihim’s voice was flat and mocking. “You already serve another. That’s the problem. You already staked your life with the one you chose to serve.” The demon traced the ridge of Cornish’s left eye with a thick talon. “I doubt your master would let you live after your offer.”
“Please. You can protect me. I know you can protect me. You’re stronger than she is.” Cornish struggled fiercely but hopelessly against his zombie captors.
Merihim grinned, and the expression was totally without compassion. “How could I ever trust you? You change sides as soon as the way becomes difficult.”
“I won’t. Take me. I will always be yours. I will always serve you.”
Warren felt sorry for Cornish because he knew the demon wouldn’t show mercy. But Warren also felt afraid because he knew Cornish’s fate could one day be his.
“No,” Merihim said. “And that’s enough begging.” With a simple flick of his hand, the demon drove his talon and then his finger into the First Seer’s eye.
Blood spurted from the eye socket and Cornish’s wails filled the room. Naomi sat with her back against the wall and her knees curled to her chest, arms wrapped around her legs.
A moment later, Cornish shivered all over then relaxed and lay still in death.
Nausea whirled through Warren’s stomach. For a moment he thought he was going to throw up. Sour bubbles of bile burst against the back of his throat.
Merihim’s work wasn’t finished. He hooked his finger behind Cornish’s cheekbone and pulled. The muscles along his arm rippled with the effort but he made it look like child’s play.
The front of the First Seer’s face shattered. Ivory bone suddenly jutted up through bloody flesh. Naomi got sick at that point and turned her head away as she threw up.
Merihim glanced back at Warren. “Come here.”
Unable to disobey, Warren walked over to the demon. The scent of burning rocks and decay clung to Merihim. Heat resonated from his body. Some of the Cabalists believed that the demons came from a much warmer environment and that was why they had started the Burn to terraform the areas they had dominion over.
“You never sensed the other within this one, did you?” Merihim asked.
“No,” Warren replied. He still didn’t know what the demon referred to.
“There’s still so much I need to teach you.”
Warren relaxed a little of that. If Merihim was going to teach him, that meant the demon didn’t have plans to immediately kill him out of hand.
Unless he was lying.
“You should have known he wasn’t alone,” Merihim continued. “No one, especially not a foolish human, would dare attack someone I had named as my own.” The demon waved a hand over the dead man’s ruined face.
In response, that one flesh and broken bone shifted. The soft gliding of tissue and slight rasping of bones sounded loud in the room.
A moment later, a new face took shape in the blood and wreckage of Cornish’s features. The face wasn’t human. It was demonic. Ridges of bony scales moved along the long jaw. The mouth was a mere slash carved beneath the hooked nose. Malice turned in the black eyes that moved from Merihim to Warren and back. The torn flesh of the dead man’s head shifted slightly until they resembled horns.
“Fulaghar.” This time the smile on Merihim’s face did hold humor. But it held the promise of pain and death as well.
“You know me, then,” the demon rasped.
“I do,” Merihim replied. “This was your idea?”
Fulaghar smirked. “It almost worked.”
“But it didn’t. And now I know you as my enemy. It didn’t have to be that way.”
“Ah, but it did, o Bringer of Pestilence,” Fulaghar taunted. “You’re in this place without sanction. You have no business here.”
“The business I have is my own.”
“Wrong.” Fulaghar’s face turned angry. “Everything you do affects what we’re doing here. Unfettered and unsanctioned, you are a danger to us in this place.”
Warren’s thoughts spun. He knew that the Cabalists had summoned Merihim to London and that the demon hadn’t come through the Hellgate like all the others had. From everything he had seen, Warren knew that the invasion was a carefully orchestrated maneuver. It was surprising to learn that the demons didn’t want if an interloper even if he was one of their own kind.
And what did unsanctioned and mean? Obviously the other demons would destroy Merihim if they have the opportunity. The question was, why?
Merihim laughed at Fulaghar’s assessment. “I’m no danger to any except those who trespass me or have what I want.”
“What you seek isn’t in this world,” Fulaghar stated.
Again, the horrific smile spread across Merihim’s coarse features. “You’re a demon. How can I trust you?”
“You would be a fool if you did.” Fulaghar smiled. “Then again, I might lie to you by telling you the truth and lets you search endlessly for that which you seek.”
“I have one of the Books of Qhazimog,” Merihim said.
The smile drained from Fulaghar’s borrowed face. “You can’t have one of those books.”
“Then…I’m lying and I don’t have one.”
Fulaghar hesitated. Warren saw indecision and fear in the bloody face.
“How did you find it?”
“Because I know what I’m looking for here. I know what was lost all those years ago, and I know where it can be found.”
Warren listened to the demon’s words carefully, but he couldn’t separate lie and truth. His thoughts turn immediately to the book back in his sanctuary. If the book was so important—especially if all of demonkind was searching for it, or at least demons as powerful as Fulaghar—why had Merihim left it with him?
Fulaghar’s voice took on a more serious note. “Those books are dangerous. Even to you, Merihim. Or have you forgotten?”
Dangerous? Warren’s heart beat a little faster. In all of his studies of Merihim during the last four years, he had read no mention of the Books of Qhazimog, or of anything that might threaten the demon’s life or existence in this world.
“I’ve forgotten nothing,” Merihim snarled. “I haven’t forgotten the Books or the fact that I was betrayed.”
“You were betrayed for just cause.”
“I had every right to seize the territory I wanted.”
“If you had the right to those territories, no one would have challenged you. Now you’re in this place—again where you don’t belong—and you’ll be dealt with. There will be no simple banishment this time. This time they will end you.”
“I choose not to be ended,” Merihim growled. “And you can tell all those who try that I will deliver unto them permanent death.”
“You give voice only to empty threats,” Fulaghar scoffed. “You’ll never be strong enough—”
Without another word, Merihim wrapped his large hand around the dead man’s head to cover the demonic features of Fulaghar. The other demon’s voice became muffled. When Merihim squeezed, the tattered flesh and broken bones turned to bloody pulp. They head ripped from the neck and he threw it against the nearest wall.
Naomi shuddered as the head bounced away only a few feet from her. Blood splattered over her. Tears tracked her face. She shivered in fright.
Merihim stood, then breathed flames over his bloody hand. It was the same hand that he had sacrificed for Warren, then grew back in minutes. The blood tu
rned to ash and fell away from the scales.
“Go away from this place,” the demon ordered. “I want you to find Fulaghar, or his minions, and I want you to destroy them when you do.”
New fear filled Warren. He couldn’t imagine how he was supposed to destroy a demon as powerful as Fulaghar was. If it had been that easy, why hadn’t Merihim done it while he was talking to him?
Instead, Warren chose to say nothing. He didn’t even ask how he was supposed to find the demons he had been charged with destroying.
Without another word, Merihim walked back to the table and lay his hand up on the mirror. Almost at his touch, his body turned to smoke and he was drawn back into the reflective surface. In less than a moment, except for the headless dead man on the floor, it was as if he had never been there.
Warren’s legs quivered and threatened to give way. He remained standing with effort. His mouth was dry with fear.
Naomi looked up at him. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know.” Warren looked over his shoulder at the dead man’s body stretched out across the floor. “Anything to keep from ending up like that.”
“But to kill a demon…” Naomi left the rest unsaid.
“It’s too late to run.” Warren knew he was telling himself that more than her. He turned to the zombies and brought them to heel. They moved around him and remained waiting his orders. “Demons have been killed before. They all fear it. I’ll just have to find a way to kill this one.” He looked at her. “What about you?”
“What do you mean?” Naomi stared at him. “This has nothing to do with me.”
“Will you be safe here?” Warren nodded toward the shadows clustered around both the doors where Cabalists hid and stared at them.
Naomi glanced at the shadows, then turned back to him. Her face turned hard. “Do you care?”
Warren chose to ignore the immediate scathing response he had in mind. “I asked,” he reminded.
“Will I be any safer with you than here?”
“They’re going to blame you for the First Seer’s death.”
“He asked me to bring you here. This isn’t my fault.”
“All right.” Warren turned to go.
“Wait.”
When Warren turned back to her, she was struggling to inch up the wall to a standing position. He offered his hand, the human one. For a moment she hesitated, then she took his hand and allowed him to help her to her feet.
Together, surrounded by the zombies, they walked back out of the building and into the night. Warren didn’t even think of asking the Cabalists for a night’s shelter. They would have better luck sleeping among the monsters that prowl the darkness along the way.
Even if he survived the return trip, he didn’t know how he was supposed to survive assassinating a demon as powerful as Fulaghar.
FIFTEEN
S imon spotted the demons on his HUD only a second before the suit’s AI called his attention to them.
“Warning,” the feminine voice announced. “There are hostiles in the area that are converging on your position.”
As he leaned forward to take a fresh position in the seat, Simon opened the frequency they were using between the ATVs. Suit-to-suit communication was strong, but all data exchanged between the two vehicles needed to be instantly absorbed and calibrated by the onboard ATV AIs.
“Do you see them, Nathan?” Simon asked.
“I do,” Nathan responded.
“Autopilot disengaged,” the suit AI relayed. “Human driver has control of this vehicle.”
The slight shift of control as Nathan took over was small but Simon felt it. The ride became less smooth and more directed. The AI’s reaction time was faster, but its interpretive skill regarding dangers and opportunity lagged a little in comparison. Plus, hands-on steering provided a degree of unpredictability.
“Weapons?” Simon called.
“All systems green,” Danielle replied. Her voice held an edge.
Tension filled Simon. During the last four years, he’d gotten some experience with engagements from inside the ATV. Although the vehicle was well armed and armored, he preferred to be in the open and standing on his own two feet with a sword and pistol in hand. That was how Templar were most taught to fight.
Armored vehicle engagements on the simulators were a low protocol. But they had practiced them for times when rapid deployment was needed, or for quick supply runs. He had practiced with the ATVs—every Templar had that had access to them—and had thought they were totally cool at the time.
It’s different when you’re laying your life on the line in one of them.
Simon glanced at the corner of the HUD to see behind him and make sure the rest of the Templar were aware of the situation. All of the warriors shifted in their sling-seats as they checked weapons and readied themselves. Leah was in motion also.
“Billy,” Simon said, “give Leah her rifle.”
One of the Templar reached back and brought out the Cluster Rifle. He handed it over to Leah, who gave him a nod of thanks.
Simon turned his attention back to the HUD. The demons were less than a mile away now. They had been picked up by the long-range sensor drones that were tied into the comm array.
The sensor drones were something the British military hadn’t gotten access to. The Templar had wanted to keep that surprise to themselves. Generally, each ATV carried six units that operated in threes to provide adequate triangulation. They referenced GPS satellites in deep space in low earth orbit for spatial recognition.
Covered in palladium armor, the drones were designed to be hard to destroy. They were wedge shaped with wide wings and a low profile that presented an almost nonexistent radar signature. Powered by nanospring technology, the sensor drones offered an operation life of four-hour shifts. They only had to return to the ATV for thirty minutes on a charger to return to full readiness. As one came in, another went out to take its place in rotation.
The sensors operated on a wide video and audio spectrum. With access to databases on board the ATVs, they could quickly sort out potential enemy targets.
There was no mistaking the demon forces lying in wait.
The question was whether the demon patrol was random or there by design? Simon knew every Templar warrior was asking himself or herself the same question.
And he didn’t have an answer.
“Can we take evasive action?” Simon asked. He looked at the maps of the area available to him through the HUD.
The area was overgrown with trees and brush. They had stayed off the main roads intentionally, in hopes of lessening the chances of encountering demons. From the reports that had reached them, Simon knew demons still patrolled many of the main thoroughfares and the coastal areas.
Demon numbers had steadily increased over the last four years while human population in the area had decreased. Simon didn’t know for sure how was in the rest of the world, but he was pretty certain that everyone else was suffering the same problems.
“We can try,” Nathan said. “But you’re looking at a lot of broken countryside out there. Rocks, fallen trees, and dense brush. If we veer from the track we’ve laid out, we’re going to be out in no man’s land.”
The caravan was operating on recent information from Templar groups who had made recent pilgrimages to the coast of in hopes of finding rescue ships for survivors they had pulled from the city. During the last four years, the countryside had grown up and become more volatile.
In addition to the demons, several strange beasts had come through the Hellgate as well. They had flourished in the wild and rendered most of the local wildlife extinct through constant hunting. All of those creatures, like the demons, were carnivorous and lived to hunt.
“Can we backtrack and take another route?” Simon asked.
The HUD indicator showed less than a half a mile to the encounter point. The red numerals flickering onscreen quickly dwindled.
“We could try,” Nathan said, “but th
ey could overtake us. If we’ve sensed them, you can bet they sensed us. We’ll only be putting off the inevitable.”
“Leah,” Simon said, “can you talk to your people from here?”
She answered instantly. “No.”
“Are they out of range or can you not hail them?” If the people holding Macomber were already dead, chances were good that Macomber was already dead too. Pursuing the matter would have been foolish.
“Even if they were there,” Leah said, demonstrating that she knew exactly what Simon was thinking, “they wouldn’t answer. I’m not supposed to be along on this little jaunt.”
It’s not exactly a little jaunt when we’re racing headlong into a demon ambush, Simon thought unkindly. He took a deep breath and released it.
The distance remaining was less than a quarter-mile. They were fast approaching the point of no return.
“Well,” Nathan asked calmly, as if they were out for a lark and not about to get bloody, “what’s your druthers, mate?”
“We meet them on their chosen territory and kick their bloody arses,” Danielle said softly.
Despite their predicament, Simon couldn’t help smiling. The attitude was pure Danielle.
“We meet them there,” Simon said.
“Do we stick around to introduce ourselves properly?” Nathan asked. “Or do we just barrel on through without so much as a by-your-leave?”
“We came for Macomber,” Simon said. “We take as many of them out as we can now, and maybe hope they’re still hanging around when we come back this way.”
Only the muted rumbling of the tires across the broken terrain cracked the strained silence inside the ATV’s command center. The nanofluid suspension kept the interior practically floating motionless. For all intents and purposes, the personnel carrier was a separate unit from the drive and the base vehicle. Electrical connections carried through the nanofluid.
Simon sat forward in his seat. His elbows rested on his knees as he watched the activity on his HUD. The land outside the ATV was thick with brush and covered in loose soil and rock. The large ATV tires churned through it.
The blips on the screen that identified the demons separated into dozens of targets as they neared. As Simon watched, the suit’s AI sorted the information gathered by the sensor drones and translated it into real data he could use.