“I don’t have the power to keep this open for long,” Marcus shouted.
“Ladies first.” I pointed at the portal. April and Britta looked at each other. They joined hands and jumped into the swirling lights. I wasn’t going to leave my girls over there alone for long. “See you on the other side,” I shouted, and jumped into the portal. The familiar tug at my waist came, and then I was standing in a room that looked the exact same as the one I had been in moments before. My two girls were safe, and there was one dead demon on the ground.
Marcus came through the portal a moment later. “Any idea where we are?”
Britta pulled out her phone. “No signal.”
“Damn,” I said. “That would have been too easy. Let’s find Nitro and get the hell out of here.”
“Where do we start?” April asked.
“We need to sweep each floor together. No one separates from the group.”
“It would be faster if we went alone,” Britta said.
“And more dangerous. We stay together, and we go floor by floor until we find him.”
It was funny how it worked out like it was hardwired into our DNA or something. I moved to take point, and Marcus dropped back to guard the rear. We kept the women in between us. April still kicked my ass six times out of ten, so it was a pointless gesture, and probably one that would have pissed her off, but I did it anyway. Being our squad leader had a few benefits, though. One of them was taking the point.
It felt like clearing each floor was taking an eternity, but there was no way I was willing to separate the group. Whatever had opened that portal was powerful, and had already captured one of us. As much as I’d hate to think we missed our window because we moved too slowly, it would be worse if one of us was taken as well.
At least this building had furniture and the appearance of being used. The building we had just left wouldn’t have held up under a closer examination. Nothing we saw so far would even begin to indicate that Nitro was here or was even brought this way. There was absolutely nothing that screamed demon headquarters. If the demons just used this building as a jumping station, we were screwed. The only demon we had seen so far was dead. It wasn’t as if we could go back and ask him any questions.
When we opened the door to the ground floor, we found ourselves in a small room. There was a chair bolted to the floor and blood on the ground around it. At least now we had a sign that someone had been here and was tortured recently. “Be ready for anything.” We moved toward the chair, and then I moved past it. I stopped at the door and looked back. Marcus was examining the chair.
“He was definitely here, and not long ago.”
“Follow me.” I kicked open the door and moved into the lobby. It took me a moment to figure out what I was seeing. Nitro was there, and he had a sword in hand. He was screaming the names of his team members and swinging the sword around as if he were locked in a fierce battle. He moved around the room and fell. He slashed out and destroyed some of the furniture. He turned to the side, and I was surprised to see a gash appear on his arm.
“What the hell is happening here?”
“Bro, I’ve never seen magic like that before.”
“Can you stop it, Marcus?”
“I’ll try.”
He started to cast his spell, and I moved forward. April came up behind me. “We shouldn’t get too close,” she whispered.
“I agree.” As much as I wanted just to grab Nitro, pull him into a hug, and then run out of the building, that just wasn’t possible now. He was obviously seeing something that wasn’t there. The freaky part was that whatever it was could hurt him. We needed to figure out a way to stop it and get the hell out of here.
We stopped twenty feet away from Nitro, and he continued to babble about them coming to kill him. The spell broke, and Nitro looked around, his eyes going wild. He threw the sword down to the ground and fell to his knees. He started mumbling, “I’m so sorry,” over and over again.
“Nitro, we are here to take you home.”
His hand dashed out toward the hilt of the sword. As soon as he grabbed it, he was on his feet, facing us. “Who are you?” He wiped the sweat off of his face and blinked his eyes a few times. “Leave me alone. It’s too late for me.” He ran a hand through his matted hair, his eyes going frantic with panic.
“My name is Jackson. We’ve trained together at the arena. Put down the sword, and let’s get the hell out of here.” I started to move forward but had to jump back when he took a wild swing at me with his sword. “None of us are here to hurt you. In fact, we want to bring you home.” He took another swing with his sword. It was a wild swing meant to keep me away, and it worked. I closed half the distance but didn’t move any closer.
“It can’t be real. You’re here to kill me just like they were. I know it.” He swung the sword in a sloppy arc in front of him again. “Just leave me alone!” he screamed until his voice went hoarse.
“No one else is here, Nitro. They’ve been playing with your mind. Your team is back at the base, and all of them are worried about you.”
“That’s not true. They were here. They tried to kill me.” He looked around the room as if noticing for the first time that it was totally empty minus the four of us. “It can’t be real; it can’t all be fake. They’re waiting for Nitro to slip and make a mistake.”
I cast April a quick look, and she only shrugged. It was like his mind was broken. I had no idea how to fix that, and frankly, we didn’t have the time. “Marcus, can you knock him out?”
“Probably not, but I’ll see what I can do.” Marcus waved his hand, and Nitro fell to the ground. “He must not have been shielded at all.”
“Let’s grab him and get the hell out of here.” I started to move forward, and a man appeared from out of nowhere, stopping me from being able to reach Nitro.
“Now where is the fun in that?” he said, a smile breaking across his gaunt features.
“Nothing about this seems fun to me. I’m going to give you five seconds to turn around and go back to wherever you came from. That’s a gift considering what you’ve done to my friend.”
“What is it with you Gifted? You never have any manners. I’m going to have to fix that.”
He rushed forward, his suit coat flapping in the air behind him. His fist lashed out, and I barely blocked it. He moved faster than any demon I had seen before. I called on my gift to enhance my speed and strength. His next blow seemed to come at a more reasonable pace. I knocked it aside and landed a hit to his stomach. The air rushed out of him, and I followed it up with a knee to his forehead, sending him sprawling onto the floor. Blood gushed from his nose, and he started to laugh. He stood up, and all of the blood disappeared, and his clothes smoothed themselves out as if they had just come from the cleaners.
He smiled at me. “Oh, I haven’t had this much fun in centuries.”
“Who in the hell are you?”
“Ah, so now you want to use your manners.” He brushed and invisible speck of dust off his lapel. “Very well, then. My name is Langston, Ryan Langston.”
“Ah, Jackson,” Marcus said with just a hint of fear creeping into his voice.
“Yeah, buddy?”
“We’re totally fucked.”
That didn’t make any sense. One of us could take a room full of demons by ourselves. This was just a guy who could do a cool trick with his suit. “What are you talking about? It’s just one guy.”
“He’s an archfiend.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“It would if you ever paid attention in class. You know it’s like basic demon hierarchy. This guy is like one or two steps down from the princes of hell.”
“Princes of hell?”
“Jesus, bro, do you not even look at what they give you to read?”
“I’ve been kind of busy.”
“You know, Greed, Sloth, Lust. Those guys.”
Well, that wasn’t good, but I had to believe that we still had a
chance to take him. There was no way I was laying down my life just because this asshole had a flashy title.
“Are you going to tell me your name like a good boy, or do I have to beg?”
“It’s Jackson Fairfield.”
“Ah, John’s son, the destroyer.”
Well, that was something I didn’t expect. He knew who I was, and about the prophecy. There was no way I would ever be the destroyer. “I’d prefer to think that I fall on the other side of the line.”
“Well, Jackson, son of John, it’s your lucky day,” he said. His smile never faltered.
“Oh, really? I’m not feeling all that lucky right about now.” In fact, this was probably worse than the worst case scenario I had imagined.
“Well, you see, I’m under strict orders not to interfere with you. It seems one of the princes has plans for you. So you are free to go.” He stepped to the side, making room for me to pass him.
“Marcus, get Nitro, and let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Oh, my, my,” he said, wiggling a finger back and forth in front of my face. “You misunderstand me. You are free to go, but your friends are going to have to stay.”
If he thought that was an option, he didn’t understand us very well. “I’m not leaving unless I get everyone out.”
“So noble of you to put yourself on the sacrificial table with your friends. But I can’t have that; at least, not yet. I’ll let you take one of them with you, and no one will have to know that you left the others here to die.” He walked a few steps back and then slowly circled Nitro while keeping an eye on me. “Choose wisely.”
“Screw that, you son of a bitch. We all go home, or we all stay. That’s how it works.” I felt my team move up beside me. We would go down swinging if we had to, but there was no way I was letting this guy torture Nitro anymore. I wasn’t willing to leave any of my friends behind to suffer the same fate.
“Well, I gave you a chance. That seems more than sporting of me. It’s an offer that most people would never get. Since you have decided to spurn my offered friendship, then I guess I’ll just have to suffer whatever the punishment is for killing you. What’s another couple hundred years in the box when I’ve spent centuries there already?”
He rushed forward, this time faster than before. I managed to knock aside three of his punches before the fourth broke through my guard, sending me flying. As I hit the wall, I heard Britta scream, and her guns roared to life. I looked up in time to see the bullets had stopped inches in front of the archfiend. He held them in the air for a moment, letting us witness his power. He looked almost amused that she had tried to shoot him. A moment later, I knew the reason why.
He sent the bullets flying back at Britta. She managed to dive out of the way as the bullets exploded into the cement wall behind her. Marcus stepped forward and lashed out with spells of fire and ice simultaneously. That was something I hadn’t seen before and showed just how much control he had over his magic. Using two elements simultaneously was no easy task.
Ryan batted Marcus’s spells aside easily and then lashed out with a wave of power of his own. Marcus flew backward, smashing into a wall nearly twenty feet away. His shield would have absorbed some of the blow, but his body hadn’t moved since he hit the ground. He lay there in a crumpled heap as Britta rushed to his side.
April pulled her twin blades and ran forward. Seeing her in harm’s way gave me the strength I needed to push myself back to my feet. One of my ribs groaned in protest as I rushed toward the battle. April was holding her own against the fiend. Somehow she was deflecting his magic while pressing closer with her blades. When one of her strikes got too close, he used an arm to block it. It cut through the fabric of his suit, and few drops of black blood fell to the floor.
The fiend didn’t even react to the wound, but if he bled, then he could die. I moved in from the opposite side while April kept pressing closer. My first thrust missed completely as Ryan spun away and threw April into the path of the blade. Somehow I managed to turn, ducking around her, and brought my second blade in an arc across the fiend’s chest. He screamed as my blade tore through him, and the amount of blood pouring from the wound told me I had dealt a serious blow.
April caught her balance and swung both blades down at the archfiend. He lifted his arms to block the strikes, and her blades bounced away almost harmlessly. While he was distracted, I lashed out again and managed to just catch his leg with the edge of my blade, sending Ryan crashing to the ground. He looked at me, his eyes burning with hatred. Blood poured from his chest, dripping onto the floor.
“It seems you have won this day, son of John. The next time we meet, you won’t find me so unprepared.”
With a flash, he was gone. I looked over at April, and she just shrugged and sheathed her blades. My blades found their way back into the harness on my back as I walked over to check on Nitro. A quick glance told me that he was still deep asleep and had been unharmed during our battle.
Turning around, I could see Marcus getting to his feet. Britta was helping him up. She wrapped an arm around his waist, and he leaned heavily against her. So far it looked as if we were getting out of here scathed, but none of our injuries were life-threatening. All we would need was a few days, and we could get back into the field. I’d count this mission as a win.
“I’m not sure what you did there, Jackson, but thank God it worked,” Marcus said.
“I didn’t do anything special. It’s just another case of my father’s swords’ incredible enchantments. Adam told me they were special, but I never really believed him.”
“Considering the fact that my swords just bounced off of him, I’d say special is an understatement,” April said, looking at the blades. I could tell she was already trying to figure out how she could get a pair of her own.
“We can worry about the why later. Help me grab Nitro, and let’s get the hell out of here.”
April and I somehow managed to get a sleeping Nitro wedged between us. We shuffled to the door. We stepped out into the cold night and looked for something we could use as a landmark. Nothing jumped out as readily available, but then Britta pointed out a sign. I couldn’t make out the lettering, but it wasn’t in English.
“Looks like we’re not in Kansas anymore,” I said.
“We were never in Kansas, bro.”
“It’s just a saying from a movie.”
“Whatever, dude.”
“Any ideas on how we get the hell out of here?”
“Just follow me,” Marcus said, and then started limping down the street. He found a building where a door had been broken off its hinges. He put his hand against the frame, and I felt his power go into the door. “Adam’s been teaching me how to open the doorways. This should get us back home.”
The image on the other side of the door started to waver, so I knew that the portal had been completed. “We need to go through together.” April only grunted, struggling against the weight of our unconscious burden. “You had better be right behind us,” I said, and then stepped through the gate.
It felt good to be home. I couldn’t wait to lie down in my bed and go to sleep. Sometimes this hero stuff was just simply exhausting. We laid Nitro down against the wall as Britta came through the door. Marcus stepped through a moment later, and then the portal closed. All of us looked at each other for a moment; it was as if we were all thinking the same thing. Thank God we survived. We had been underprepared for the threat, and that almost never ended without heartbreak.
“I’ll go and fetch one of the healers,” Britta said, and started walking away.
“Thanks, Britta.”
“Hey, at least I can do something useful now. Out there, I was just a waste of space.”
“You weren’t the only one,” Marcus said, limping along behind her.
Once they were gone, I pulled April into a hug and kissed the top of her forehead. “That was a little too close.”
“Yeah, but we came out on top. We always do,” she sai
d, pulling away just enough that she could look into my eyes.
“After they pick up Nitro, want to join me at my place?”
“There isn’t anything in the world that I would like more right now.”
I pulled her against me again, this time just relishing the feel of her body against mine. Just being able to touch her seemed to calm my swirling emotions. We almost lost everything out there today. I needed to speak with Adam and find out if there was any way for us to get a few more weapons like my swords. I wasn’t losing any of my friends because we didn’t have the right tools for the job.
Two healers walked into view, pushing a stretcher between them. Britta was with them, but Marcus was gone. A quick look of hurt flashed across her eyes at the sight of April and me standing so close together. My first instinct was to pull away, but instead, I pulled April just a little bit closer. I wasn’t ashamed of my feelings for her, and I wanted to make sure that April knew how I felt.
The two men loaded Nitro onto the cart. One of them looked at me and asked, “Can you tell us anything about what happened to him?”
“He’s under a sleeping spell right now. When we found him, he was fighting imaginary foes. People who he thought were his teammates trying to kill him. I would suggest keeping them away from him for now, no matter how badly they want to see him. It was some kind of psychological torture. Based on the blood we saw by the chair, there was physical torture as well.”
“Thanks for the information,” the man said gruffly, and they left, pushing the cart back down the hallway.
Britta lingered for a moment and then said, “So I guess I’ll see you guys later.”
I was about to say something when April spoke first. “You did well out there today.” Britta just gave her a look that said yeah right. “I mean it.”
“Thanks, I guess,” Britta said.
“Don’t forget we all need to get together and iron some stuff out. Maybe we can do it tomorrow.”
“Sure thing, Jackson,” she said, turning and walking away.
CHAPTER 8
JACKSON
Demon Stone (Ascendancy Legacy 4) Page 6