Hell Is Coming (The Watcher's Series Book 1)

by N. P. Martin

  I scowled at his cynicism. “Is that what all this to you?” Weariness deadened my voice. “Just a game?”

  “In a way. But that doesn’t mean I don’t take it seriously. You’ll understand what I mean when you’ve been doing it for a while.”

  “Well, that’s the thing.” I gulped more of the whiskey, despite the foul taste. “I’m not sure I want to be a part of this anymore, despite my desire for some kind of vengeance or whatever. It’s too much, I can’t handle it. Josh is lost to me now anyway.” Tears welled in my eyes and threatened to spill over but I’d cried so much over the last week or so I didn’t think I had any more tears left in me.

  “Come on now,” he said in as tender a voice as I’d ever heard him use. “It’s not over yet. The battle hasn’t even begun. Trust me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Frank downed his whiskey and then poured another, offering to put more in my glass too before I stopped him and he shrugged. “Okay, so we know this demon is creating an army out of Nephilim children,” he said. “He’s turning them into demons, which means he’s probably feeding them his blood—that’s how it’s done, the more blood they take the farther gone they get. To turn them back you have to stop giving them the blood. They’re like addicts, you need to force them into cold turkey, dry them out. That’s the theory anyway, whether it will actually work is another matter.”

  “Are you saying Josh might be saved?” I allowed myself a glimmer of hope for the first time since I’d learned my brother’s fate.

  “There’re never any guarantees with this stuff, but I think there’s a good chance we can save him and the others, if we can get to them that is, and get to them in time. At a certain point there is no turning back and they’ll remain demons forever. That’s a possible reality you have to be brave enough to face.”

  “Alright. So how do we find them?”

  “I called Eva, she’s working on it now. She has a plan—she’ll be here soon.”

  “So what’s the plan?”

  “A summoning. We’re going to summon your brother here, tonight.”

  Eva arrived sometime after dark. She wore a long dark overcoat and black knee high boots, looking like some kind of sexy witch. I was glad to see her again and she gave me a comforting smile when she saw me. She asked me if I was ready and I nodded and even though I wasn’t sure if I was. Sensing my dread she put a maternal arm around me as the three of us went down into the cellar.

  Frank and Eva got to work, while I looked on, feeling like a spare part. I’d had no experience in these rituals, except the ones I had tried to conduct myself over the years, but those were all nonsense, based on information I’d found online and in dubious books on the occult. That was wrong information from people who didn’t know any better, for people who didn’t know any better, like teenage girls who’d seen The Craft too many times wanting to indulge their fantasies of being a “wicca”. My motivations were different, wanting to contact supernatural forces so I could find out about my parents. Given what I know now about demons and the like, I’m glad none of my bedroom rituals ever worked; they could have ended in disaster without the proper guidance.

  Frank drew magic symbols of some kind with paint around each point of the pentagram on the cellar floor. “If we’re successful in summoning Josh here, he won’t be able to move outside of the circle,” he said.

  As Frank painted sigils on the floor, Eva mixed various ingredients in a large wooden mixing bowl, crushing things with her hands and pouring various liquids from bottles that looked the same as the ones I’d seen back at her house. “There are certain ingredients needed for different spells,” she said. “For this to work we’ll need some sort of physical representation of your brother, like a photo.”

  I went to my room and got the sketch I had drawn of Josh while I was in the woods that day. “Will this do?”

  Eva took the sketch and put it inside the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Frank placed lit candles around the points of the pentagram. More sigils were etched into each of the candles. The whole thing reminded me of some sort of black magic ritual, which when I thought about it, it was. We were summoning a demon after all, even if it was my brother.

  “All done,” Frank said standing beside Eva. “You ready?”

  Eva nodded, her eyes dark focused. They both looked at me.

  “I’m ready,” I said. I tried to sound like I was calm but I wasn’t. I’d no doubt they heard the nervousness in my voice, but they didn’t comment on it. I didn’t know what to expect. All I knew was if the spell worked, then my brother would appear before us in the room. I also knew that if he did appear, that would mean that he was in fact a demon.

  Eva stood at the edge of the circle and spoke some sort of spell in what I thought was Latin. My eyes were glued to the inside of the circle. The wait was agonizing as I stood beside Frank, who yawned at one point like the whole situation was boring him. He had probably done this a hundred times or more already.

  “Attenro bendum Eos, ad consiendrum, ad ligandum Eos, potiterer solvendum, et ad, congregontumeos, 'coram me….”

  As Eva recited the spell I recited my own words to myself: Oh God, oh God, oh God…although I’m sure God wasn’t listening. Even if He was still in control of this mad house called the universe, I doubted he would help me in any way. That was okay. I never wanted His help, not since my parents got killed.

  Eva finished the incantation. She stepped back from the circle.

  The room was a bastion of silence and I could almost feel the electricity in the air.

  I was afraid to breathe as I continued to wait in tortured suspense until finally I couldn’t help myself. “He’s not coming…”

  No sooner had the words left my mouth when my brother appeared before our eyes inside the circle. My jaw went slack and my eyes widened as I stared in disbelief.

  It actually worked.

  “Hello, Sis,” Josh said to me. “Nice of you to call.”

  Chapter 16

  “Josh!”

  Without thinking I ran to him. All the emotion that had been churning in me like a tidal wave since his disappearance rose to the surface. I wanted to hold my brother again, but Eva gripped my arm and held me back.

  “Wait!” she said. “No!”

  I struggled as she grabbed both my arms, preventing me from moving with surprising ease. She was a lot stronger than she looked. “Let me go!” I said writhing in her iron grip. Eva said nothing, just continued to restrain me like I was an out of control child.

  “I see you’ve made some new friends, Sis,” Josh said from inside the circle.

  Sis? He never calls me that. He knows I hate it.

  “That’s good, so have I. In fact, my mentor wants to meet you. He wants you on the team actually.”

  The more he spoke the more I realized it wasn’t my brother standing there in the room with us. I stopped my struggling and Eva let go of my arms. “You’re not Josh,” I said, choking back tears. Josh had unmistakable warmth to him that wasn’t present in the person standing before me. The Josh in the circle had an air of coldness about him that the real Josh never had.

  “But I am Josh,” Demon Josh said. “I’m still your brother, Leia. I’m just new and improved.”

  “You mean you’re a demon,” Eva said. Her voice held disdain. She obviously had as much love for demons as Frank did.

  Demon Josh threw Eva a scornful look before switching his gaze to me again. “Who’s this bitch?” he said. “What are you doing with these people, Leia? You don’t belong here, you belong with me and the others, at Abigor’s side.”

  “I don’t think so.” I was trying hard to keep my voice level and not break down like the hysterical sister I was on the inside. All I wanted to do was plead with Josh to come back to me but I knew it wouldn’t be good to show such weakness so I tensed up and straightened my back, and made a fist as I battled to keep myself under control.

  “Abigor gave me the lowdown on my Neph
ilim background,” Demon Josh went on. “He showed me how strong I was, showed me how to be stronger, more powerful…more fucking badass.” He paced around inside the circle like a lion that hadn’t eaten in days, barely able to restrain himself. “Stronger than any of you will ever be!” His eyes rolled into black, a predatory smile on his face. The complete change in him broke my heart. He held out his hand. “Come back with me, Leia. Come back with me and we can be together.”

  I looked at his outstretched hand. It was hard not to just step forward and take it, even though I knew if I did there’d be no going back and I’d end up as bad as him. I swallowed hard. “No.”

  He snorted. “You really think you have to stay here and fight the good fight or some bullshit? You think you can find a way to save me, is that it?” He laughed, a mirthless laugh I’ve never heard from him before. It chilled me to the core. “Let me state the facts for you, Sis. For all of you,” he said his horrible black eyes burning holes in us. “There’s no escaping what’s coming. The world as you know it is going to end. Only the strong will survive and the strong are on our side, not on your side. You’ll all be wiped out, squashed like bugs under the real power.”

  “That’s a nice speech,” Frank said. He moved in front of Josh so he was standing just two feet away. “Did your mentor write those lines for you? Bit clichéd, don’t you think?”

  Josh’s face darkened, his black eyes smouldering. “You can make your little jokes. It doesn’t matter anyway; you’re all on borrowed time. And for the record, Abigor is more than just my mentor—he’s my creator. He opened my eyes to the truth.”

  “And what’s the truth?” Frank said. “You going to take over the world, is that it? Or is your master just using you all as cannon fodder in a war that he plans to start?”

  Demon Josh smiled like he was above everything Frank was saying. “You’ll see soon enough, asshole.”

  “Josh,” I said, approaching the perimeter of the demon trap like I was about to try and calm down a dangerous animal. “If there is any humanity left in you at all, please use it to fight this and come back to me. Please, Josh, I need you here with me. Dad, Mom, they wouldn’t want this for you.”

  Josh looked at me with his own eyes for a moment, the black demon eyes gone. For a second I thought I had somehow gotten through to him, but then that cold and mirthless laugh came out of his mouth again. “You dumb bitch, you haven’t a clue, have you?” He laughed again like he’d just heard some sick joke. “You don’t know do you, what our so-called Mom did?”

  “Actually, I do.”

  He wasn’t expecting that. The smile left his face. “Well then, you know where dear old mom lives these days. She’s a resident of Hell now, being tortured in ways you will never know.” His black eyes glared at me as I did my best to keep from falling apart right there in front of him. “I’ve been down there. Being a demon now, I get to go there whenever I want. It’s an amazing place really, more interesting than this shitty world could ever hope to be. I get to watch our mother in her endless torment. Best of all, she gets to see me watch. She gets to see me revel in her pain and misery, every fucking ounce of which she deserves by the way. You know that, don’t you, Leia? You know what she did, how she was. The bitch screwed us.”

  “No…”

  “Yes! She fucked us! She deserves everything she gets!” He stood in a rage, his fists balled, his neck muscles straining.

  “No! Fuck you! You’re just a fucking demon prick, you’re not my brother!”

  “That’s it! Let the hate out! Feel the power of it! Revel in it, Leia, revel in it!”

  “Eva!” Frank shouted. “Get rid of him!”

  “Don’t bother, bitches. I’ll go on my own.” Demon Josh looked at me one final time. “There’s a place for you, Leia, remember that. This world is going to end; you should be on the winning side with me. It’s either that or you die along with the other pathetic humans. Your choice.” His eyes bored into me for another second and then he was gone, vanishing just as suddenly as when he’d first appeared.

  I ran out of the cellar knowing only one thing: I had to get out of the cabin, to get away. I needed to be alone.

  I bolted through the front door. Eva chased after me, calling my name and telling me to stop, but I didn’t listen. I hardly heard her and only stopped when she pulled my arm from behind.

  “Leave me alone!” I said to her, pulling my arm out of her grip.

  “Okay, okay,” she said, raising her hands in a submissive gesture. “I’m just making sure you’re alright. I know how crazy that must have been for you.”

  “Crazy?” I said mocking her. “My brother’s a fucking demon! There’s nothing more to say.” With that I opened the front door and walked out toward the Mustang.

  “Leia, where are you going?”

  “Away from here.” I pulled open the car door and got in.

  “You don’t have to run,” she shouted after me, but I stopped listening to her. I started up the Mustang and sped off down the dirt mountain road, the back wheels spinning out dust and dirt in my wake. I turned the car right when I got to the bottom and started along the main road, nothing on either side of me but forest and the occasional car passing me by.

  I didn’t know where I was going. I just drove, not caring where I ended up. Being around Frank and Eva in that cabin wasn’t an option. Listening to their platitudes would drive me crazy. I’d had enough.

  As I drove along a mountain road, something caught my eye by the passenger side window and knocked me out of my reverie. It was a black shape—no more than a shadow—that disappeared almost as soon as I looked. I focused out the window, wondering what the hell I had just seen. There had definitely been something there, but I wasn’t sure if it was just a shadow from a tree I had passed or something else. I kept looking towards the window as I drove, but I saw nothing more unusual.

  Until I looked in the rear-view mirror and noticed two glowing orbs a few feet behind the car. I looked harder and just made out a black shape in the darkness. The shape moved closer to the car and I realized what was behind me.

  A demon.

  A flying demon.

  Motherfucker.

  I was driving at nearly sixty-miles-per-hour; the winged demon was having no trouble keeping up with me, its molten red eyes glaring in through the rear window.

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” I said gripping the steering wheel tight.

  What the hell is this? A hijack attempt?

  The flying demon cruised along behind me, maintaining a steady speed, effortlessly turning corners along with the car. In the rear-view I could just make out its face. It was an ugly son of a bitch that had no nose, just two holes in the center of its face and a huge lipless mouth containing sharp, permanently bared teeth.

  The demon kept up with the car as it stared in at me. Rather than wait for it to make its move, I took pre-emptive action. Keeping my gaze fixed on its red eyes I slammed on the brakes so the demon would go crashing into the car. The plan was to ground the demon and reverse over the top of it. It wasn’t a great plan, but I couldn’t think of anything else to do. I wasn’t about to let the thing run me off the road, especially since there was a steep decline on the left side that led down to a deep ravine. I wasn’t keen on ending up down there, exploding into a fireball in the darkness.

  I hit the brakes but the demon merely sailed over the top of the car, ending up in front of me, hovering in mid air about twenty yards in front, its huge bat-like wings flapping either side of it.

  “Fuck!” I immediately put the car in gear again and lurched forward, heading straight towards the hovering demon, which shot up into the air to avoid me.

  The damn thing was too agile to hit with the car. It was like trying to hit a wasp by throwing a brick at it. My only option was to try and outrun it, to keep driving until I got to the city where I hoped the creature would stop chasing me.

  I kept wondering as I drove what it wanted. If it wanted me dead or to k
idnap me it would have made its move by now, I figured. Since it hadn’t, I could only assume it was messing with me. Frank had said demons like to do that, mess with people for no reason. I still remained convinced the thing was a minion of Abigor’s though. I kept looking but I could see no sign of the demon, in front or behind and for a minute I thought it had gone.

  A loud thud on the roof of the car told me otherwise. Too close for comfort. “What the fuck do you want?” I shouted through the roof, not expecting an answer but needing to vent my frustration and growing anger. I almost slammed on the brakes intending to get out and confront it when its face suddenly appeared upside down right in front of me on the other side of the windshield, molten eyes mocking me, its grotesque mouth stuck in a rictus grin.

  “Jesus!” The shock of seeing that ugly assed face nearly caused me to swerve the car into the crash barrier. Adrenaline shot through me as I fought to gain back control of the car, the demon’s face inches away on the other side of the glass, obstructing my view. It’s kind of hard to drive when you have a demon on the windshield gawking in at you.

  My heart pounding like a jackhammer, I managed to wrestle back control of the car. “Fuck you!” I said to the grinning demon and I banged on the brakes as hard as I could. The car screeched to a halt and I shot forward in my seat, seatbelt digging painfully into my shoulder and chest. The demon whipped off the car, tumbling back on the asphalt like a ragdoll with wings before coming to a halt and lying motionless in the middle of the road.

  I didn’t hesitate.

  Shaking, I put the car in gear and floored the accelerator, the tires screaming on the asphalt as I drove towards the grounded demon as fast as the car would allow, which being a Mustang, was pretty fast.

  “Screw you, motherfucker!” I said, the car racing towards the downed demon, its head raised, helpless to do anything as the big car sped towards it like a black metal angel of death. The car ran over the ugly bastard with a satisfying thumping sound.