A Despair of Demons (Travelers, Book 1)

by Cassy Campbell

  He tried a hold, but she slipped through his grasp and squared off again.

  “I thought you were going to be roasted for sure,” he said lightly. He wasn’t even breathing hard, the bastard.

  “Well,” she said between pants, “that’s the thing about having a team. Backup and all.” She dipped her head to him, and he smiled.

  “Glad I could help. I’m glad you’re okay, Liv.”

  She furrowed her brows at his sincere expression. “This isn’t a very good distraction technique.”

  He dropped his ready stance. “It wasn’t meant to be. My distraction technique would be more like, ‘Do you believe in demons now? Why do you think they attacked Necropolis if they don’t have weaponry?’”

  “Of course I believe in demons. I’ve seen them haven’t I? And who says they don’t have—hey!” She jumped his sudden leg sweep, landing a glancing blow on his shoulder as he rose. They skirmished for a couple of minutes, and then he kicked out to drive her back.

  She dodged and captured his leg in her hands. She spun his ankle. His own momentum took him down, but he somehow hooked his other leg behind her back and took her with him.

  They landed on the mat in a panting tangle of arms and legs, Liv half on top of Jordan. She looked up at his face to gauge his next move and the scent of him hit her: warm clean man and spicy cologne. She felt him panting under her, felt his heart pounding in his chest, felt the heat of him against her belly and legs, felt his muscles tense as he prepared for her next move. His eyes were the wild blue of burning selenium, and Lord, he was sexy. How had she never noticed before?

  Then he smiled, warming her from the inside out. “Do you yield?”

  She abruptly realized she was practically lying on top of him, staring into his flame-blue eyes like a fawning puppy. What the hell is this? Mortified, she leapt to her feet and mumbled some excuse about showers.

  She fled the room and didn’t look back.

  * * *

  Back in the briefing room, Jordan acted as if nothing unusual had happened, and Liv breathed a sigh of relief.

  She was chatting with Gin about a techno Beethoven mix she wanted Liv to hear when Ben walked in and announced, “I’m fine, just like I said.”

  Jordan asked, “Do you have bandages?”

  Liv grinned at him. “Or antibiotics?”

  Gin said, “Did they slather something on the wounds?”

  Trent’s black eyes creased. “Did they stitch anything?”

  “How about pain meds?” Connor’s glacial green eyes warmed when he smiled.

  Ben scowled. “Okay, yes, they did all of that, but I’m fine. I didn’t need all of that crap.”

  Liv said, “Bet it feels better now, though, doesn’t it?”

  Ben mumbled something incoherent as General Mace arrived and strode to his chair. “Lieutenant?”

  “I’m good, sir. All patched up.”

  The general turned to Connor as everyone else took their seats. “Commander?”

  Connor began the report. “We arrived in Blue Beach and, with no immediate danger in the vicinity, proceeded to Ganja.”

  As Connor continued, the others added details when necessary. Trent brought up the damage to the buildings. “It looked like frag grenades, sir.”

  General Mace turned to Jordan. “Is that possible?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t run across stories of demons blowing things up, but I admittedly only started studying demon culture three days ago. Trent?”

  “I’ve never heard of them carrying weapons at all.”

  “They hardly need them with their claws and fire breath.”

  “Fire breath?” General Mace stared at Jordan.

  Connor said, “I’m getting to that.”

  He finished the report, and General Mace said, “We need to find out if they’ve got weapons.”

  Connor nodded. “We shouldn’t have any problem testing the wreckage. There were plenty of powder burns.”

  Liv grinned. She’d been wanting to test the new portable mass spectrometer in the field, but nothing had come up yet.

  General Mace nodded. “We’ll have to postpone your trip to L-634S today. The five of you go back to Blue Beach with whatever equipment you think you’ll need.”

  Connor said, “Yes, sir,” but Ben reared back in his chair. “‘The five of you?’ What exactly does that mean?”

  “Sorry, Lieutenant, you won’t be joining them today,” the general said.

  “General. I’ve been cleared. I’m perfectly—”

  “Not today.” General Mace repeated himself without raising his voice but with an air of finality. Ben’s ingrained military obedience froze any further protests in his throat. He slumped back in his chair.

  Liv privately sighed in relief. She knew Ben had to be hurting, and they’d already been attacked by demons once today on that beach.

  General Mace turned back to Connor. “So, were you the target or just in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

  Jordan answered. “They’d been ordered to that specific place to look for the Singularity.”

  Liv turned her mind from Ben to Elachai. If she could find him again, find out what he’d done to her, maybe she could find some way to stop him, make herself immune. Or correct the damage. She wanted her memory back.

  General Mace said, “But nobody saw Elachai in Ganja.”

  The general’s statement wasn’t exactly a question, but Connor answered him. “Not as far as we know.”

  “Sir,” Liv said, “it looks like they’re searching for Elachai pretty single-mindedly. We need to know more about the demons, their world, and their leader.”

  “And put a stop to their raids,” Jordan added.

  General Mace looked around the table. “Any ideas who he might be?”

  “Head Demon, probably,” Connor said.

  “Great, we’re fighting Satan,” Ben said.

  “We shouldn’t assume he’s a demon,” Jordan said. “There are certainly other forms of life in Hell.”

  “Intelligent ones?” Liv asked.

  Jordan shrugged.

  “What, something worse than demons?” Ben asked.

  “Apparently.”

  “So we go to Hell,” Gin said.

  General Mace said, “Absolutely not. Hell is off-limits.”

  Connor opened his mouth to protest, but closed it when the general said, “Period.”

  Instead he said, “They’re searching for a Singularity.”

  “Which may not even exist,” Liv pointed out.

  General Mace asked, “Why would they want a Singularity?”

  “I don’t know,” Liv admitted. “I never conceived that such a thing would be possible. Everybody has Mirrors, hundreds or thousands of them. In all the infinite worlds, how can he be the only one? How could circumstances conspire to make sure there was only one world where he came into existence? It’s inconceivable.” Regardless, she couldn’t ignore the implications of a Singularity’s existence.

  “But possible?” Jordan asked.

  “She just said it was inconceivable,” Ben said.

  “Sure, but not impossible,” Liv said. “Infinity means infinite possibilities. If he is Singular, he’s truly unique, in all the multiverse. Of course Raul wants him. We know he pushes people. Who knows what else he can do? If they figure out how he does what he does...”

  “What if we figure out how he does what he does?” Jordan asked.

  Liv opened her mouth to give him a snarky answer, but realized he wasn’t joking. “Yeah, I’d love to. Let’s just ask him to erase my brain a few more times in the name of science.”

  “Until you find him again,” General Mace said, “we need all the information we can get. Get to Blue Beach and get me some answers.”

  * * *

  Liv stood in front of the blasted building in Ganja, holding the mass spec. “It’s definitely explosive residue, Connor. Nitroamines, trinitrotoluene.”

  “TNT,” Trent said.
/>
  “Yes.”

  “What kind of nitroamines?” Connor asked her.

  “Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine. Also steel fragments.”

  “It was a grenade.”

  “Looks that way. But there’s something else weird. A lot of dinitrotoluene.”

  Connor gave her a look. “TNT breaks down if it’s stored at high temperatures. Dinitrotoluene is one of the main isomers.”

  Jordan, reading the scanner screen over Liv’s shoulder, said, “Judging by the demons’ nonreaction to burning sand, Hell might be pretty hot.”

  Connor stared at the burns on the wall. “Let’s get back to base and let General Mace know.”

  * * *

  That night, Liv had a hard time falling asleep, and when she finally did, she almost wished she hadn’t. It was the same old nightmare. A part of her knew it, but that just made it worse. She couldn’t change anything and she couldn’t wake up. She could only lay helplessly while it happened all over again.

  She lay on the thick quilted blanket next to Leslie, who was blessedly free of her children this visit. Not that Liv didn’t love her nieces and nephew, but she got so little alone-time with her sister.

  The sand molded itself to cradle her, the sun was a warm glow on her back, and the occasional breeze placed a cool kiss at her neck. The distant unimportant sounds of children splashing and adults yelling were buried beneath the slow ebb and roar of the waves. A small cooler sat at the corner of the blanket, just at the edge of Liv’s vision, and she contemplated whether it would be worth moving to get a drink.

  A roar echoed through the air, and several people screamed. Liv bolted to her knees, whipping around to scan the area. “That was a gunshot!”

  One woman’s screams continued after everyone else’s quieted. “My baby, no, my baby, oh no, my baby!”

  Liv blocked pity and terror as she popped into a crouch, shading her eyes with her hand and systematically searching the beach. A group of people huddled around a small still form at the water’s edge.

  “Oh, God.” Leslie’s tone held barely-contained horror.

  Another shot rang out and a child playing in the sand with a plastic bucket and shovel fell forward into her sandcastle. Liv was looking right at her.

  She grabbed Leslie’s arm to drag her along, studying the angles as she ran crouching to the tall grass at the edge of the beach. The shooter must be in the old ‘store,’ a little wooden shack with a shutter that swung open for the vendor to display his wares. It had been empty since the vendor quit and moved to Florida.

  Liv held out a hand to Leslie. “Stay down. He’s in the store. I have to get my gun.” She threw a glance at the store, then darted in a crouch toward the parking lot, where she’d left her gun in the car. Stupid.

  Another shot rang out as she reached the ticket booth at the entry gate. More screams. Ruthlessly, she forced down helplessness and put on a burst of speed.

  She reached the car and grabbed her Rogue, a smaller version of the Sentinel she carried at the DEPOT. Another shot as she reached her car, another as she grabbed the gun, and one more as she slammed the car door. She raced back to the beach, oblivious to the debris on the pavement cutting her bare feet, although she’d barely be able to walk the next day.

  She reached the gate and sped over to the store in a crouch. She froze behind it, back to the wall, trying to breathe silently. If he heard her out here, he’d blast her right through the flimsy plywood. She crept toward the door and grasped the handle.

  She threw the door open and leapt through with her gun sweeping to cover the room. “Freeze!”

  She’d been holding her breath, and sucked in air as she saw only empty shadows. He had fled.

  Liv heaved out of sleep gasping. The dark and empty store morphed into her dark and empty bedroom, dragging her off the beach and back into reality. Four children had died that day, and two more had been severely wounded. She hadn’t been able to stop him, all because she’d left her stupid purse in the car. And they hadn’t caught him that day.

  Her permits to carry were all in order, and although the police were flummoxed as to why a neuroscientist would carry a concealed weapon, they could find nothing with which to charge her and eventually allowed her to go home. Leslie had waited the entire time in the precinct lobby in her beach shirt, sarong, and sandals. When they finally released Liv, Leslie drove her home and put her to bed.

  That was the first night she’d had the nightmare, but it hadn’t been the last. Not even close.

  Friday the same week. One of earliest explored parallel worlds, DEPOT designation M-998A, codename Mai Tai, corresponding Nevada.

  Chapter 6

  Mai Tai was famed for its beautiful beach sunsets, and so far this one lived up to the rep. Liv leaned back in her chaise lounge and sipped her drink, enjoying the ocean view.

  The lounge chair sat on a wooden deck at one of the Huma Huka’s best tables. Ben and Liv had just finished a fabulous dinner and looked forward to a casual Friday evening with their friends Winnie and Markle.

  Liv took a deep breath, inhaling the tangy ocean breeze and the fruity aroma of her drink. The air here was so clear she could almost smell the sun hitting the ocean. They had banned fossil-fuel burning back in 1972, but only after a marked greenhouse effect had melted the polar ice caps and flooded the world’s lowlands with ocean water. Nevada in Home World was the beach of the inland sea here in Mai Tai.

  “We don’t even have names for the colors in this sky,” Liv said dreamily; she was on her third Grassfruit Gala, and felt like she was floating in her chair.

  “I can’t believe she dumped me over that,” Ben complained again.

  Winnie and Markle laughed, used to his ups and downs with women. This had been the first world Ben had brought Liv to when they discovered their mutual ability to Travel at age ten, and Winnie and Markle had been their first best friends.

  Liv said, “It’s good to find out now, though, isn’t it, before y’all get seriously involved? You’re better off, if she couldn’t handle it.”

  “I would have liked to get a little more seriously involved first. Just because I came home with a demon swipe across my back and said it was classified when she asked what happened, she stormed out of the house and said if I couldn’t trust her, I never needed to call her again! I thought a demon swipe would get me sympathy, not get me dumped.”

  Markle laughed again, but Winnie said, “Ben, honestly, you can’t be with a woman who can’t understand the demands of your job. She has to accept certain things without question. She should be glad you couldn’t tell her you were attacked by demons.” She shuddered. “I almost wish I didn’t know. You could have been killed!”

  “Oh, come on Ben, you hardly even dated her. Three dates,” Liv chided. “Get over it, and find someone better next time. Maybe the size of her boobs shouldn’t be the first standard you judge by.”

  “What about dating someone in the same profession?” Winnie asked with an overly obvious suggestive glance at Liv.

  Ben followed her gaze, and he grimaced as his eyes met Liv’s. “No offense, sis, but Winnie, no way in Hell!”

  Liv laughed at the look on Ben’s face. “Yeah, that would be totally incest.”

  “Dating coworkers is so not a good idea,” Ben continued. “Imagine if I had to see Brittany again at work every day. Awkward!”

  Jordan’s face flashed through Liv’s mind: fantastic smile, gorgeous eyes. “I see your point,” she said to Winnie. “You could talk about what you do, which, let’s face it, you can hardly tell anyone, and she would already understand what you go through every day. That would be great.” But she’d had that with Nathan. The alcohol must be loosening her mind. Ben was right. Dating someone you worked with just meant disaster when the relationship failed. Which it always did.

  Her mind closed off the thought of Nathan before it could fully form, and she deliberately tuned back into the conversation.

  “You guys are just scared of com
mitment, because you can’t just walk out and never see her again,” Winnie said.

  “Damn straight,” Markle said.

  Ben stared at Liv. “What’s going on in your head, Olivia Jane? Got somebody all picked out?”

  Liv’s stomach swooped painfully. All she needed was for him to find out about her newfound fascination with Jordan and start trying to play matchmaker. “No I don’t have someone picked out, Benjamin Bartholomew.” Ben looked scandalized at the use of his middle name. “And don’t call me Olivia. Olivia is a fat girl. My name is Liv.” She stood abruptly. “I’m going to use the ladies’.”

  Ben waved her off and Liv headed into the crowded tavern.

  She had just stepped out of the bathroom when she bumped into a man in the narrow hallway.

  “Sorry,” she said automatically, then froze as she got a look at his face. Although she still didn’t remember him, she recognized Connor’s description: black hair, blue streak, dark eyes, narrow face, pale skin.

  “You!” she cried. “What are you doing here?”

  His eyes opened wide as he recognized her as well. “I just cannot stay out of your way, can I?” he said, more to himself than Liv. “I hate to do this to you again.”

  “Who are you? Are you really Singular? Who’s Raul?”

  He looked even more startled, but said only, “I must not be found here. I was not here. Forget you saw me.”

  Liv caught her balance as some rude bastard shoved past her on the way to the men’s room.

  “Excuse you!” she said to his retreating back. She didn’t expect an answer, which was good because she didn’t get one.

  She continued on into the crowded bar, where she literally ran into someone she knew.

  “Jennifer? What are you doing here?”

  Jennifer looked chagrined to be caught in another world by one of her former classmates. Her two companions, both men, looked positively mortified.

  Jennifer hiked a smile onto her face. It looked as fake as her cheery voice sounded. “Liv! It’s been too long. What are you doing here?”

  “Just having a drink with some friends.” The two men stood together two feet away and looked around as if they couldn’t hear Liv or Jennifer. Actually, they seemed to be looking for someone. Something nagged the back of Liv’s brain, but she couldn’t quite get a grip on it. What had she been thinking about?