by Bali Rai
‘Make me move,’ Aron said defiantly, eyeing the ape-demon.
The patrollers growled as their supervisor told them to hold still.
‘But, Lord Saarl . . .’ one of the canine monsters protested.
Saarl smiled at Aron. Oscar, on hearing the demon’s name, shuddered. He was one of the most vicious of all Valefor’s underlords, second only to a sadistic brute named Mias. Oscar remembered seeing Saarl in action and had no wish to repeat the experience.
‘You are a foolish animal,’ said the demon, his emerald eyes seeming to grow larger as the already tiny pupils shrank further.
‘I’m not the animal,’ snapped Aron.
Lord Saarl let out a high-pitched cackle. All around him vapour rose through the rainfall, white and hazy.
‘We’re all animals,’ he replied. ‘Some are born to hunt and others . . .’
The underlord flexed his murderous fingers and changed stance slightly, ready to pounce. Aron, caught up in his own stupidity, failed to notice.
Oscar didn’t. ‘Aron!’ he cautioned, drawing closer to his friend.
‘I would heed your friend,’ warned Saarl, cocking his head to one side. Like his fellow demons, he had an elongated jaw with rows of saw-like teeth.
‘If I was you,’ replied Aron, ‘I’d possess something less ugly. I bet you’ve never had a girlfriend.’
Saarl pounced before Aron’s words had finished resonating; a glancing backhand that sent him sprawling. Aron landed on his back in the road, winded.
The demon turned to Oscar. ‘If he speaks again, he will die.’
Oscar nodded his understanding before seeing to Aron. His friend was dazed, a livid welt across his right cheekbone, his already shaggy blond hair even messier. Oscar knew that Aron was lucky. Another underlord would have torn him to pieces.
‘What the—’
‘Ssh!’ ordered Oscar. ‘If you say another word I’ll kill you myself!’
The sound of a car’s brakes screeched through the air. Heavy doors were opened and slammed shut again.
‘Lord Saarl!’
Oscar turned to see Stone glaring at him. Beside him was the Mayor. It was his voice Oscar had heard. Oscar looked away, not wanting to give Stone any excuses to react. The mercenary was as dangerous as any demon.
‘Lord Mayor,’ he heard Saarl reply. ‘What brings you out in this delightful weather?’
The Mayor replied, but the sound of an explosion drowned out his words.
‘What the hell was that?’ asked Aron, sitting up and rubbing his wound.
‘Not thunder, that’s for sure,’ said Oscar. ‘Sounded more like a bomb.’
They watched as various patrol units came running. Lord Saarl was listening to the Mayor when he cried out suddenly. He grabbed the Mayor by his collar and pulled him close. Another explosion reverberated through the night.
‘Where are all the people?’ asked Aron.
‘I don’t know,’ Oscar replied with impatience.
He was too busy watching the Mayor turn cherry red and hyperventilate, his double chin wobbling visibly. Saarl seemed to be spitting words at him, each one making the human flinch. Then, just as suddenly, Saarl let him go. He turned to his troops and barked an order before loping off into the night. His minions followed quickly. The Mayor straightened his clothes, trying in vain to regain some dignity.
‘Stone!’ he shouted.
His right-hand man moved to him slowly, hands in pockets. Chunky wraparound sunglasses obscured his cold blue eyes. His shaven head glistened with water.
‘Clear the streets. Now!’
As the Mayor stomped back to his car, Stone approached Oscar and Aron. ‘I’d run and hide if I was you,’ he said with a smirk.
Aron got to his feet and told the mercenary to shove his advice up his arse. Oscar fought away the urge to punch his friend on the jaw, and asked Stone why they should take cover.
‘Because someone fought and hurt Mias,’ replied Stone.
‘Huh?’ both boys said in unison, their eyes wide with shock. No one attacked an underlord. No one would dare.
‘There’s a stranger in town,’ said Stone. ‘Someone I need to find. There’s a large reward for information.’ The last part was stretching the truth but Stone cared little. ‘Dark hair, dark eyes, dressed in black,’ continued the mercenary. ‘He carries strange weapons too.’
‘Sounds like your ideal man,’ replied Aron.
Oscar cursed silently at the change in Stone’s expression. He had been expecting them to cower and run away. Yet Aron was cracking bad jokes and Stone had grown suspicious.
‘We have to go,’ Oscar said.
‘You sure you haven’t seen him?’
Oscar shook his head quickly. ‘We’ve just finished our shift,’ he explained. ‘Haven’t seen anyone but other workers.’
‘What about you, smart mouth?’ Stone asked Aron. ‘Have you seen him?’
‘I don’t talk to collaborators,’ Aron snapped in reply. ‘Even if I had seen this . . . person, I’d cut out my own tongue before I told you.’
Stone removed his sunglasses and put them in the pocket of his fatigued combats. He clenched his fists, the knuckles cracking. His stare was unblinking.
‘I’m going to ignore that remark,’ he said softly. ‘But next time we meet, you will talk to me . . .’
‘What’s happening in the protected zone – the explosions?’ Oscar cut in, before Aron talked himself into an early grave.
‘What do you think?’ asked Stone. ‘Valefor is pissed off at what happened to Mias. I think they’re like demon best buddies or something. All sounds a bit gay to me.’ He looked at Oscar with a smirk.
‘We’d better leave, then,’ said Oscar, looking down at his feet.
Stone nodded. ‘I would,’ he advised. ‘Tonight this city will earn its name . . .’
18
AN HOUR LATER, I sat in the Haven and listened to my aunt describe the chaos in Fire City. May had only just arrived, bringing a few terrified residents with her. The hideaway was full already and they had been the last to gain entry. Now Oscar and Raj were up at ground level, guarding the entrances. Our sanctuary was too important to lose, even if that meant turning people away.
‘Every street, every alleyway,’ she told me, her grey eyes wide. ‘Saarl is killing everyone he can find. Half the buildings are on fire and you can’t see the sky for the smoke.’
I rarely look at Aunt May without pining for my mother. She talks, walks and acts just like her and sometimes, if I close my eyes, it’s like my mother’s still with me and the world will be OK. The feeling only ever lasts a few seconds before reality slams me in the face with its fist. As May continued to explain what she’d seen, I felt my stomach turning somersaults.
‘What’s he doing about it?’ I asked my aunt.
‘You mean the Mayor?’ replied May, pulling a face. ‘What can he do, Martha? He’s a puppet and a coward. That animal Stone and his cohorts are warning people but it’s too late.’
‘I wish Mum was here,’ I said without thinking, causing Aunt May to furrow her brow.
‘We all do,’ she replied. ‘What made you think of Maria?’
I shrugged. ‘Just stuff,’ I said, thinking how my feelings for Jonah were so new, so different. Inwardly, I was longing to be able to talk to my mum about them.
‘You know,’ said Aunt May, putting her arm on mine, ‘you can always talk to me about things.’
‘I know that,’ I replied with a nod. ‘I’m still feeling a bit down after what happened to Samuel last week.’
‘And the other thing?’ she whispered, allowing for Aron’s presence in the same room.
We were in one of the old changing rooms, slumped in moth-eaten armchairs that were musty and damp. A broken mirror ran along one wall with a worktop attached below. Mace and Aron were leaning against it, their expressions sour. I nodded again as my aunt glanced at Aron.
‘We’ll talk later,’ I said in a low voice.
>
Mace asked us what we were whispering about.
‘Girl stuff,’ replied Aunt May. ‘Nothing to worry your pretty big head about, Mace.’
‘You know this is all his fault,’ said Aron out of the blue. ‘Jonah, I mean.’
I glared at him and shook my head in disbelief. ‘He’s not to blame,’ I snapped. ‘No more than anyone else is. This is our life, Aron.’
‘He attacked an underlord,’ Aron countered. ‘It was bound to cause trouble. I told you something isn’t right about him.’
Mace told us to shut up as I recalled what I’d seen in Jonah’s eyes. The flames dancing around his irises, like circles of fire. A little part of me wondered whether Aron was right, but only for a split second. My mother had always taught me to judge people by their actions, not their words, and Jonah had proved he was with us, even if there was something odd about him.
‘No!’ Aron shouted at Mace. ‘Why should I shut up? He’s only been here for just over a week and the city is being destroyed.’
‘And it was perfect before he came, wasn’t it?’ said Aunt May, shaking her head. ‘Things were wonderful?’
Aron snorted and I fought back the urge to slap him. What was wrong with him?
‘Things were bad,’ he admitted, ‘but not like this. Valefor and his demons are going to kill everyone.’
‘No,’ said Mace. ‘No, they won’t. They can’t afford to kill everyone because the factories won’t run. Valefor isn’t stupid – he has a chain of command to worry about.’
Aron looked incredulous. ‘You mean the government? Like they can control the demons.’
Mace sighed and shook his head. ‘Not them,’ he explained. ‘The other demons. Valefor might be an ancient, but he’s not in charge. Otherwise he’d be in Babylon City – not stuck out here.’
‘There’s a ruling council of demons,’ said Aunt May, adding to Mace’s explanation. ‘Valefor isn’t on it. He can’t be if he’s in Fire City. Whoever calls the shots is going to stop this . . .’
‘But not before Saarl and Valefor gain some satisfaction,’ continued Mace. ‘Until then, we just have to hope that people find good hiding places.’
‘Hope?’ asked Aron. ‘What happened to helping our people? We should be out there, like during the Hunt. Rescuing our own from them!’
I watched Mace and my aunt exchange knowing looks. They were old enough to remember the War and everything that had happened since. They knew that the demons weren’t stupid enough to annihilate every human. In the world before the demons, the human race had been at the top of the food chain. Now the demons had taken their place. For a food chain to exist at all, though, there had to be balance. Mace had taught me that.
‘Why do you think they have breeding centres?’ I asked Aron, even though the thought made me wince inside.
‘To create more prey,’ he replied in a sullen voice. ‘I’m not stupid.’
‘Not just prey,’ I told him. ‘Workers too. The Wanted need clothes and food and all those other things, and the Unwanted make them. That’s how this world we live in works. The demons rule, the Wanted come next, and then there’s everyone else.’
Aron shrugged. ‘Dunno what this has to do with Jonah,’ he replied. ‘We were talking about him.’
‘No,’ I told him forcefully. ‘You were talking about him.’
Aron refused to back down. I could see that touch of defiance and arrogance in his eyes – something that I’d always found annoying, but more so recently.
‘He’s trouble,’ he insisted. ‘I think we should just tell him to go.’
‘Tell who to go?’ came Tyrell’s deep voice from the doorway.
I dismissed Aron with a wave of my hand and turned to Tyrell. We had more important things to think about.
‘How is Jonah?’ I asked.
‘OK, I suppose. He’s up and about but his wounds are bad. Faith sutured a few of the deepest ones but he says he’s fine.’
‘I’ll go and talk to him,’ I said, a sense of relief washing over me, touched too by a little excitement.
‘But we were talking!’ Aron wailed.
I shook my head at him and felt myself getting angry. ‘No, Aron,’ I told him. ‘You were moaning and the rest of us were getting annoyed. It’s not the same as talking.’
‘I’m coming with you,’ said Aunt May. ‘Make sure there’s nothing else Jonah needs.’
Aron’s expression made me even angrier. His sulking meant that any sense of sympathy I had for him was beginning to dry up. Mace seemed to feel the same thing and he told Aron to grow up.
‘We need Jonah,’ he said, almost in exasperation. ‘I don’t know how, but he managed to hurt Mias. That’s reason enough to thank him. Can’t you see that he’s an asset, Aron? Are you that blinded by—’
‘Thank him?’ asked Aron. ‘What about all the people who are going to die because of what he’s done? And what am I being blinded by anyway? What the hell do you know about me, old man?’
I watched Tyrell put a meaty hand on Aron’s shoulder – a little warning about upsetting Mace. He was calmer than me after Aron’s last jibe. Mace had brought us all up, wiped our arses and taught us everything we know. For Aron to question his love for us was more than just wrong. It was nasty.
‘People are going to die,’ Tyrell pointed out as I whispered ‘I love you’ at a visibly upset Mace. ‘Don’t matter if it’s tonight, tomorrow or next week. Unless we try to fight back, these bastards will kill us all anyway.’
‘But we had our system,’ Aron whined. ‘Jonah’s messed it up!’
‘Aron, please!’ Mace pleaded. ‘Our system is useless. Rescuing a handful of people from the Hunt and watching ten times as many perish. Losing our family and friends, and fearing discovery every day. Maybe the time has come to retaliate more openly?’
‘But we’re not ready for that – you said so yourself.’
‘Aye,’ replied Mace. ‘I did and we’re not – not yet. But with Jonah’s help—’
‘We don’t need his help!’
Tyrell’s grip on Aron tightened. ‘You sound like a child,’ he told him. ‘We need all the help we can get.’
Aron’s sullen, defiant expression told me that we were wasting our time. Suddenly he snapped. He shoved past Tyrell and walked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.
‘This is all about you,’ Tyrell said to me. ‘He’s worried that you’ll take to Jonah. He’s jealous.’
I shook my head. ‘It’s not about me,’ I replied. ‘None of this is about me. He’s losing his mind – I can feel it. We need to watch him, help him if we can.’
‘If he’ll let us help,’ said Aunt May, shaking her head in sorrow. ‘I’ve seen too many end up like Aron. The pressure gets to them – this shitty life that we lead.’
‘I know, I know,’ said Tyrell. ‘No need to say it.’
Mace took out his flask and chugged down some booze. ‘I can’t believe he said that to me, though,’ he whispered. ‘He’s as much a son to me as Samuel was.’
‘Don’t get upset,’ I replied. ‘He didn’t mean it, Mace. He was just angry.’
Mace considered me for a moment, shook his head and took another swig.
‘Come on,’ Aunt May ordered. ‘Let’s go and see Jonah.’
19
STONE COUGHED AS the fumes from yet another burning building poisoned his lungs. He was guarding the hotel, part of him relishing a confrontation with some patrollers. Not that it would happen. Saarl, crazed as he was at Mias’ humiliation, would think twice before attacking the Mayor’s property, even if the owner was cowering in his mansion, surrounded by armed guards.
‘No one comes in!’ he told one of his men.
The soldier nodded silently and held more tightly to his machine gun. His acne-scarred face was flushed and sweating, the thick black monobrow above his eyes twitching. ‘No problem, boss,’ he replied.
‘I’ll be back in a minute,’ Stone added. ‘Got something to finish
in my office.’
He took the stairs two at a time and, once inside, bolted the office door. He turned on his phone, dialled and waited for a reply.
‘Tell!’ demanded the person on the other end.
‘I’ve found him.’
‘Good, good,’ came the reply. ‘Is he in your custody?’
‘No, sir. I haven’t yet—’
‘Then why are you calling, Stone? I thought I’d made my position explicitly clear during our previous conversation?’
‘You did, sir, but there’s a little local difficulty preventing any action.’
Stone heard his controller sigh before speaking again. ‘Difficulty, you say?’
‘The city’s in flames,’ explained Stone. ‘Valefor and his underlords are wreaking havoc.’
‘Why?’
‘Because of the boy; he nearly killed an underlord named Mias.’
‘You saw this?’
Stone sensed the excitement in his controller’s question. ‘With my own eyes,’ he said, ‘and I have to say that—’
‘Silence!’
‘But, sir, I—’
‘You saw nothing, Stone – is that understood? You saw nothing and you tell no one. That is a direct order!’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Discretion is a virtue that I admire, Stone. Having said that, it is splendid news. I wish you to proceed immediately in capturing the youth.’
‘But, sir, the demons are—’
‘I’ll take care of that, Stone.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Can you get to the boy?’
Stone thought about what he’d seen and how it would help his plan. He decided to run it by his master. ‘I’ve been thinking about how, sir.’
‘Consideration is always useful, Stone. Impatience leads to defeat in every case and patience to victory. There’s an old saying about donkeys and patient men but I won’t bore you with it. What have you been thinking?’