Demon Accords 6: Forced Ascent

by John Conroe

  “Are you hungry? Want to feed?” I asked, more than a bit hopeful. Feeding Tanya is fun… really, really fun.

  She sighed, her breath tickling my neck. “I had a couple for pints warmed up in the microwave.”

  “Bah, why drink that crap when the good stuff is bubbling just under my skin?” I asked.

  “Because it would not be fair to the others. They are not allowed to hunt while we are hiding, so we must make do with our rations, so to speak. If I get to drink from you and they don’t, it would be very, very poor leadership on my part. And no one gets to drink from you but me.”

  “So how long do we stay in hiding—here—in nowhereville?”

  “I’m not sure, Chris. I think we need to watch for some sign of a portal or Brianna, then approach in disguise. I would like to make contact with your reporter and possibly Nathan Stewart. I think he’s not against us or his pet witches; his precog or his other psychics would be lending a hand with the hunt. I think we would have been found already if that was the case. So a day or two, possibly three. I mean, come on—how long can it be before Demonic DuClair kills some poor bastard?”

  “Yeah, I see what you mean. Any thoughts as to disguises?”

  “Oh yeah, just you wait and see.”

  She would tell me no more, no matter how I asked. Tickling didn’t help either, although it was the perfect segue for her to distract me from my line of thought.

  So we followed the same routine that night and the next day. Vampires awake and watching, werewolf and strange hybrid sleeping for the nighttime hours. At daybreak, reverse. The second day was much more boring, as I had pretty much taken care of the firewood problem in one day. Marnie fed Stacia and I breakfast again, her loaf of a husband sleeping in while his children got off to school.

  Apparently Jimmy had worked a few hours at a friend’s garage, heading to a bar afterward to spend his wages. Arkady had reported that he arrived home late and drunk. I could tell the security chief side of him was worried that Jimmy would talk out of school when he was elbow up at the bar. He had spent much of the evening listening to the family from his watch position, keeping tabs on their topics.

  I stacked the loose wood then watched television till I thought my eyes might explode. Blah, blah, blah. Bored out of my mind, I went looking for a distraction. Stacia was reading through a new batch of papers and that wasn’t my cup of tea, so I explored the barn. Lots of decaying old junk, some of which was familiar from my years on my grandfather’s farm, a lot of which was just crap. Then out behind the woodpile I found a fire pit, complete with grate, and I set about grilling some lunch.

  Part of our groceries was a whole twenty-pound turkey, but there was no way to cook it in the dungeon kitchen. The fire pit reminded me of one of Gramp’s old tricks. First I built a big fire and let it build up some coals. While that was happening, I retrieved a big industrial roll of aluminum foil I found in the milk room. A big square of that went on the ground with a foil-wrapped heavy stick poked into the ground like a spike. The bird got lowered onto the spike, a fairly new metal trashcan that I found got washed and lowered over the bird, and then I shoveled hot coals all around the can and on top of it. Another thought came to me and I went back inside to grab some potatoes, which I wrapped in aluminum foil and placed among the coals. After that, there was nothing to do but sit back and wait.

  Ten minutes later, I had a big wolf sitting next to me, hungrily watching the trashcan from which much hissing and dripping was happening. Ten minutes after that, I had a blonde wolf in human form sitting on a log nearby, reading a paper while occasionally eyeing the smoking can, which smelled better than any trashcan ever had before. Two hours later, I pulled the can off the bird and revealed a golden brown beauty, which was in immediate danger from the wolves, both four- and two-legged.

  Fighting them both off was more work than cooking, but ultimately I got it up on a log that was covered by another piece of aluminum foil and sliced off big chunks for the two carnivores crowding around me.

  The bird and potatoes disappeared rapidly, leaving the three of us full and drowsy. The afternoon sun was warm and we all found spots on the grass to lie back and digest. I heard the bus deliver the kids home, heard Jimmy’s truck, and soon after, the sounds of dinner. The sun sets early in late October and it was getting dark when I heard the sounds of a family argument. The teen girl, whose name was Taylor, was crying, Marnie sounded upset, and Jimmy was angry. But the deep, dangerous tones of Arkady’s accent brought me straight to my feet. He growled, the girl screamed, and Grim moved me into the house so fast that anyone standing by the door would probably have been killed.

  I was just suddenly standing between the giant vampire and the family. Jimmy, bless his lazy, good-for-nothing soul had put himself between the angry giant and his daughter, who seemed to be the cause of Arkady’s ire.

  “What the hell is going on?” Tanya asked from the broken doorway, arriving just behind me.

  Arkady did not take his eyes from me as he answered. “My Queen, the Keeper’s child has betrayed us.”

  “How?” I asked in Grim’s deep voice.

  Eyes narrowed, Arkady considered me for a moment. “I overheard them arguing. She spoke to her peers about you,” he answered.

  “Marnie, please explain,” Tanya ordered.

  “Taylor is on the cheer squad. The girls are… judgmental. She said something about guests to try to impress them. It got out of hand,” Marnie said, terrified.

  Tanya moved Arkady back with a touch of her hand and stepped closer to the family. Grim was watching and feeling her emotions through our bond.

  “Taylor, tell me what you said to your friends, please,” Tanya asked the girl. Brown hair and brown eyes looked back at my vampire and suddenly, another face superimposed itself over hers. A smaller, thinner, younger girl with dimming brown eyes and blood oozing from her neck, which was torn to shreds. The image waivered and Taylor’s rounder face swam back into focus.

  “Ttthey aaren’t my friends. Only Lori is. The others are all bitc… nasty. Lori asked if she could come over and I said no, that we had guests. Hannah Belore heard me and said our guests were probably a bunch of drunken retards. I… I got angry and said that she didn’t know what she was talking about… that our guests were beautiful,” she said, looking down at the ground.

  Tanya put her finger under the girl’s chin and lifted her head gently. “What else, Taylor?”

  “They laughed at me. I got angrier. I told them how gorgeous you were and the other lady,” she said, suddenly noticing Stacia by the doorway. Stacia just smiled and nodded and the girl went on. “And I may have described him,” she said with a quick nervous glance in my direction.

  “What happened next?”

  “They didn’t believe me. And then Luke came to get me.” Luke was her brother’s name, I remembered. He was nodding.

  “They were making fun of both of us as we left. They didn’t believe her at all,” Luke said.

  “So then, no real harm done,” Tanya said.

  “They should be punished my queen. It is a breach of the Keeper agreement,” Arkady argued.

  “Oh, Taylor will be punished. Tomorrow at school is going to be hell,” Stacia said. “The bitch girls on her squad will be merciless.”

  “Lisa is right. The ridicule of her school peers will be sufficient. Taylor, you must not defend us to them. If they say we are drunken autistic people, so be it. If they say foul and nasty things about us, it does not matter… to us and ultimately… to you. Do you understand?” Tanya said.

  “Yyes ma’am,” Taylor said.

  Stacia moved over next to her and pointed at me. “Look at him. Every time they say something horrible, you smile, nod your head, and remember the truth. Agree with them. Change their words in your head from ugly to whatever adjectives you prefer. It’ll drive them nuts and remove the sting from their attack. You know the truth. Trust me, high school is not forever. It’s gonna suck for the next few days, but y
ou have to let them have their snotty comments.”

  The girl nodded and Marnie was looking hopeful.

  “I still say she should be punished,” Arkady rumbled.

  “We don’t punish children like that, for two major reasons. First, it’s not who we are. Second, does he look like he’s going to allow any harm to the girl?” Tanya said, nodding at me. “Remember the last time a child was harmed in front of him?”

  Maybe that was the brown-haired girl from Grim’s memory.

  “Actually, someone tried to kill some kids in South Carolina. A were… I mean, in a warehouse. Anyway, that didn’t go so well for the man who tried that,” Stacia said, wincing a little.

  I didn’t remember that event, but I did remember being told about it after I woke up from getting shot. A girl named Jetta and her brother, Mack.

  “Okay, no more stories in school. No friends over. We’re a bunch of drunks, mean drunks. You’re ashamed to even have us here. You don’t want to talk about it. Got it?”

  “Yes ma’am,” both children chorused.

  “Okay we’re done here,” Tanya said, shooing everyone out and gently pulling me by my hand behind her.

  “I think Arkady is mad,” I said very softly to Tanya as we trailed the others into the darkness.

  “He is very old school. He lives and breathes our security, so he’s less inclined to let people have their mistakes if it endangers us. Also, Grim makes him afraid and like anyone, he hates to be afraid.”

  “Would he have killed the kids?” I asked, troubled by how little I knew about the people around me, how little I remembered.

  “I don’t know. In the old days, the whole family might have been killed for such a transgression.”

  I shuddered, thinking of the family lying torn and bloody. “Tanya, I can’t do stuff like that, or even allow it.”

  “I know, my Chosen. Well, do I know. If it makes you feel better, even born as I am, I too do not believe such things are warranted. Trust me, Christian, we will forge our path and still keep our personal honor,” she said, kissing me before pulling me deeper into the shadows of our temporary home.

  Chapter 15

  The next day was a repeat of the last, without the family drama. Stacia and I stood day watch, the vamp crew slept, and the family went about its business. We watched the news, ate steaks and cheeseburgers grilled in my newfound fire pit, and read the newspapers. The late sports bus brought the kids home from school and as I watched them trudge down the driveway, I could hear laughter and taunts follow them from inside the big yellow vehicle. I remembered taunts and jeers following me as I had walked in from the bus, too. Almost daily. At night, Tanya and the others woke and we filled them in. Later, Arkady and Trenton split the watch while Lydia and Tanya scoped out the news channels.

  The day after proved to be our last. I was just pulling the better part of three chickens from the old steel grill I had laid over the fire when I heard Stacia suck in a quick breath of air. She was in the barn and I was out back, but it still brought my head up. Quickly piling the chicken onto a platter, I pushed a hungry Awasos out of my way and moved in to where she was working over the borrowed netbook. Her head turned my way instantly.

  “It’s happened!”

  “What did you find?” I asked.

  “Just came up on the MSN news. Three cops got mangled in Baltimore during a traffic stop. The dash cam from the first responding cruiser shows a big gray van, which was reported stolen. Single cop. Two more Baltimore officers came to back him up and all three got slaughtered. Mauled and mangled, one apparently stomped flat. Baltimore PD is in an uproar.”

  “Sounds like what we’ve been looking for. Let’s get the packing done so that we can leave when the others wake,” I said.

  “I’ll start, but you need to read this,” she said, spinning the computer around so that I could see a blog page she had up.

  The Cryptic News was the banner and the headline was Hammer of God, part 2.

  It’s been a few days, dear readers, since I wrote part 1. And what a couple of days it’s been. The power company turned off my electricity without warning, claiming I was past due on my bill. I wasn’t, but it took an entire morning to get that straightened out. The IRS sent me a notice that I’m to be audited and someone hacked my website, but trusty Brian had built-in backups so that I could get up and running again. Sense a pattern here? I sure do, but that’s just the beginning.

  My normally quiet street has been home these last few days to a black sedan filled with men wearing black suits and wearing black sunglasses. The same sedan seems to appear wherever I happen to be in the city.

  I also have other watchers. There’s a white van driven by two Asian men who seem entirely too interested in my life, and at least two more nondescript vehicles that cling to me like glue. I hesitate to pin an ethnicity on either of these, but both appear to be foreigners. They all seem to shop at the same sunglass store. That’s just the daytime crew. At night, it gets real interesting.

  Another set of watchers comes out after dark. They don’t use cars and I can’t pick them out the way I can the others. They just appear out of nowhere. Exceptionally pale, inexplicably attractive, they are silent and fast, showing up in my favorite coffee shop, local bar, and the deli I live above. There appear to be two factions: one that seems hostile and the other protective. Every time a hostile stranger catches me alone in the back of a store or in the ladies room of a restaurant, another one appears. The second set seems intent on keeping the hostile ones away. They rarely speak, just a nod to me and then a glower at whoever is acting unpleasant.

  What does all this mean? It’s obvious… I’m on the right track. I’ve found the truth of the matter and it all lies with him and his team. Powerful forces have taken an interest in my investigation. Our oh-so-benevolent government is undoubtedly one of the players, but unless I’m mistaken, there are several other global interests involved as well. And then the others, the ones that remind me most of that beautiful woman in the Youtube video. You know… the girl with the fangs, the fantastic figure, and the sword who seemingly pounds a military vehicle into scrap. The one who is always with him.

  Here’s what I think: There are beings among us, beings of power who have always been among us. Now that we’ve upset the balance of things, disrupted our own etheric world with our technology, these beings are stepping out, at least some of them. Others are not so happy about that, and neither is old Uncle Sam. The plot is afoot. Stay tuned.

  “Kinda short this time,” I noted. “Looks like Brystol stepped in it deep.”

  “What’s your take on the nighttime watchers—the two factions?” Stacia asked.

  “The Coven wants to talk to her. Non-Coven want to prevent that,” I said.

  “What non-Coven?”

  “Our gang. Maybe Nika’s having her protected,” I said.

  “Would Nika be in charge if Tanya, Arkady, Lydia, and you are all gone?”

  “Yeah, I think. And she knew about Brystol, so it makes sense,” I answered, grabbing up the unneeded papers to burn. Stacia was organizing the stuff she’d found in today’s batch and I headed down below to pack our few belongings and supplies. The blood went into the bottom of our four big coolers, the perishable food on top, with bags of ice to cool it all down. We had few changes of clothes so I just picked up the place, swept it, and burned the sweepings. No sense leaving hair around for any witchy types to use.

  Most of the work done, I divvied up the chicken and gave Stacia her plateful. ‘Sos was already half done with his and occasionally peeking at mine so I chowed down, checking the time while I did so. Mid-afternoon. Our vamps were several hours from waking up. Marnie’s kids would be almost done with football and cheer practice. Thinking of the kids brought to mind the awful two days Taylor must have had and how awful high school could be in general.

  A thought crossed my mind and then re-crossed it, quickly becoming a full-blown idea. I finished my chicken, cleaned my face and ha
nds, and started toward the Accord. It was older but sportier looking than the Subaru.

  “Hold on, hot shot. I’m coming with you. Put this on and let’s go,” Stacia said, appearing from the basement and tossing me a white t-shirt. It was a stretchy performance tee that belonged to Trenton.

  “It’s Trenton’s and it’ll be too tight,” I protested.

  “Nah, just right,” she said with a grin, “if you’re doing what I think you’re doing.”

  I noticed she was wearing yoga pants and a crop top shirt that showed her defined abs and highlighted her other assets.

  “How do you know what I’m doing?”

  “Because it’s who you are. It’s what you are. Come on, we’re wasting time.”

  Twenty or so minutes later, we were pulling up to the high school athletic fields, being careful to avoid cameras mounted on the school buildings. Our timing was close to perfect, as by the time we parked near the bleacher section of the football field, cheer practice was winding down and the first of the football players were emerging from the locker rooms.