Suddenly and almost anticlimactically, Gester appeared in the middle of the witch’s circle. He was in natural form - all horns and green skin - but I would recognize the oily demon anywhere. A broad smile broke out on his face as he transformed into the Victorian English gentleman he seemed to prefer.
“Release Joe Lozano,” Anderson said into the phone.
The motion caught Gester’s eye and he turned first to Anderson and then to me. “Oh Felix, you traded me for a dog?” He sounded sincerely disappointed.
“Get out of my way!” A kerfuffle at the side door drew our attention. Daphne was struggling against a group of armed agents as she pushed toward the back door. It was four on one and it wasn’t a sure bet she’d lose.
“Let her go,” Jardeep said, raising his voice over the increasing din of excited voices.
“That’s all we need,” I said, under my breath.
Just as Daphne reached the door, it was pulled open from the outside. Backlit by the full moon, Flick stood in the doorway, her long, narrow dagger drawn and coated red with what was sure to be blood. I cocked my head at her quizzically, but she only had eyes for Daphne as the aggressive wolf tried to run her over.
I was sure it was just a misunderstanding. “Let her out, Flick, she’s going to change.”
This got Flick’s attention and she looked over to me, her face covered with blood and a sardonic grin. Without breaking eye contact, she stepped forward and buried her dagger into Daphne’s stomach and pushed it up into her chest, lifting her from the ground as she did.
A second figure appeared in the doorway behind Flick. The figure held a silver tipped cane and I immediately recognized him as the wizard Lon Fagin. My mind raced with the discordance of Flick’s actions and Fagin’s appearance.
Gester cackled maniacally. “You’re such a doe-eyed simpleton, Slade,” he managed.
“What are you doing?” Jardeep screamed. “Shoot them!”
Whatever discipline the tactical team had been exercising to this point evaporated instantly. Bright flashes of automatic gunfire erupted from weapons all throughout the hangar. I can tell you now that the sound of automatic weapon’s fire from within an enclosed, mostly metallic enclosure is extremely loud - to the point of being painful.
Flick raised his hand and stepped forward. Bright pinpoints of light ricocheted and sparked against an unseen barrier in front of him, bullets deflecting harmlessly. A quick-thinking agent rushed him, only to be thrown to the side with one motion from Flick’s hand.
“Desist!” Flick roared as he transformed from the unassuming demon-kind I’d traveled with into a beautiful, olive skinned woman dressed in a satiny blue and gold-embroidered gown.
“What’s going on, Slade?” Dukats asked as agents looked in disbelief at their no longer working weapons.
“Trouble,” I responded quietly.
“Mistress Adajania, how beautiful you are this fine evening,” Gester said. His voice carried easily over the clamoring of agents.
Three agents in tactical gear, having given up on their firearms, pulled knives and rushed Adajania and Fagin. They were met with a solid line of blue energy that streamed from Fagin’s staff. It knocked them to the side where they fell, no longer moving.
“Lord Gester. I see you’re up to your old tricks,” Adajania tipped her head slightly in acknowledgement.
As Adajania pushed through the room, agents were flung from her path by a wave of power. I pulled Gabriella behind me as Adajania made a beeline for our position.
“You killed Flick?” I asked as she got closer.
“You are such a dear, innocent boy,” Adajania said patronizingly. “I can see now why my most trusted servant would hide you from me. A mother’s love is quite touching, if not misplaced. The one you refer to as Flick is inconsequential. I found it quite easy to hide myself by adopting its simple spirit.”
“Please release me, dear goddess.” A quick glance back to Gester revealed he was kneeling with hands clasped in supplication.
Adajania smiled and I knew things were about to go from bad to worse. She tossed Flick’s dagger to the floor and it slid through the spell circle holding Gester. Before I could react, the circle fell and Gester jumped across the short distance that separated him from the Jamaican woman. Her body shook as he entered her.
“You will leave this place,” Adajania said, holding the Jamaican’s gaze.
The Summoner turned around with Gester’s evil grin upon her face. She paused for only a second to stare at us and then sprinted for the door. Three FBI agents jumped into Gester’s path, guns raised. With a flick of her hand, the guns went flying.
“Scutum.” I projected my shield as Gester reached out. Her hands had transformed to claws and raked at the closest agent. Nails scraped over the magical shield as Gester just kept moving for the door.
Adajania threw her head back and laughed as if someone had told a slightly inappropriate joke at a party. The sentiment was difficult to reconcile with the scene in the hangar, although something about being in Adajania’s presence made the chaos around us disappear.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Don’t be coy, Felix Slade,” she said. “I have come for you, dear boy. I have been looking for you for years.”
“Me?” I asked. I couldn’t fathom how I was part of this madness.
“You are mine, Felix; your mother was my brood mare,” she said. “I don’t mind telling you, I’d all but given up on the entire project. Your siblings were such disappointments. But you… you’re everything I hoped for.”
“And Missy?” I asked, mostly trying to buy myself time to come up with a plan.
“A gem in the rough.” The smile slipped from her face as she thought for a moment. “A disturbing trend, though. Like your mother, Fagin hid the girl from me after buying her from that hideous man she lived with. You know she had a brother? He was sweet, much like you.” She turned to Fagin. “But you took care of him, didn’t you?”
“I… I don’t know what you’re saying.”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. If Fagin’s lie was that evident to me, how much more so would it be to someone as powerful as Adajania.
“I don’t mind that you killed the boy. It was a clean enough looking suicide,” Adajania said dismissively. “Hiding Missy on the other hand. I find that unforgiveable.”
“I only hid her that I might serve you better,” Fagin said.
She shook her head sorrowfully as Fagin’s eyes and nose began to bleed. “I might forgive a mother protecting her baby, but I cannot forgive unbridled greed.”
Fagin fell to his knees, his hands clawing at his neck. “Please,” he gurgled as he slumped to the ground, convulsing.
“In deference to you, Felix, I’ll make this simple,” Adajania turned to me. As she did, Amak and Gabriella were lifted from the ground by an unseen hand. They both grabbed at their throats as they struggled for air. “You will return to me with my Key in two days or I will systematically kill those you love, starting first with the witch and the troll.”
I knelt as I lifted my hand to the demigod. “Release them. I will do as you require.”
“Felix, no!” Gabriella cried as she fell to the ground.
“I’ve waited years,” she said and picked up my right hand. “Swear to me.”
I pushed my left hand into my coat pocket and grasped the artifact. I felt its warmth as it activated. Passing through the portal was as easy as breathing.
“What have you done?” Adajania demanded.
When I opened my eyes, I found that the two of us stood on the brick road where Missy and I had been dropped previously. I released her hand and willed myself back. A glowing whip line of power reached out for me, but I closed the portal before it could find me.
“Felix?” Gabriella asked.
I was back in the hangar standing in front of a stunned group of FBI agents. Lon Fagin’s bloody corpse lay at my feet. The quiet lasted a moment before the hangar
exploded with activity.
We finally extracted ourselves from the FBI well after dawn the next morning. Adajania’s body count was high: Daphne, Fagin, two lycan in the street, an agent at the door and five more inside the hangar. To say the authorities wanted answers was something of an understatement. Unfortunately, I had none. Jardeep pushed to hold us all for questioning, but Anderson overrode him. Apparently, he had another summoner and Anderson was more interested in recapturing Gester than squeezing us for more information.
“Where did you go when you disappeared last night?” Amak asked. She, Gabriella and I had driven to the Highway Diner for breakfast so we could decompress outside earshot of the FBI.
“Kaelstan,” I said.
“You took Adajania to Kaelstan?” Gabriella asked. “How do you know she won’t just come right back?”
“She delivered her message,” I said. “She has no reason to return.”
“You can’t go to her,” Gabriella said.
“She knows I’m alive. She can come for me any time she wants. And she has Missy and probably Mom in her dungeon,” I said.
Gabriella sighed and took a drink of her tea. Her phone rang as she picked at a muffin on her plate. She answered and then handed it to me wordlessly.
“Slade,” I said.
“What happened to Daphne, Max and Cody?” It was Joe’s voice.
“They’re dead.” There was no easy way to deliver the news.
“Who?” It occurred to me he already knew they were dead.
“More like what,” I said. “Demigoddess goes by the name Adajania.
“Where can we find her?” It didn’t take a genius to guess what he had in mind.
“She lives on another world,” I said.
“Not the time to be messing with me, Slade.”
“Not messing.”
“We need to talk about how we can get there. I can’t allow this to stand.”
“Been up all night dealing with this,” I said. “Keep your pack out of trouble for today and we’ll talk tomorrow. I have an idea.”
“Tomorrow. Tell Valverde I owe her one.” He hung up.
“That sounded like trouble,” Gabriella said.
“Joe and his pack are looking for revenge.”
“You’re not seriously considering taking them to Kaelstan, are you?” Gabriella asked.
“I have to go,” I said. “She has my mother and Missy. I can’t just leave them there.”
“You can’t stand against a demigod either.”
“You up for a drive?” I asked.
“Sleep first,” Gabriella said. “You okay to get home, Amak?”
It hadn’t always been the case that Gabriella and Amak got along. There was something about life and death situations that brought people together.
“No problem.”
The only available bed at Barrios house was the full-sized bed Gabriella slept on. I thought I might have trouble sleeping as my mind continued to spin through different solutions to our problems. It wasn’t the first time I’d picked a fight out of my weight class, although I was sure I’d really done it up this time.
“Who’s Adajania hiding from?” I asked, startling Gabriella who’d already fallen asleep.
“Go to sleep, Felix,” she said.
“No, seriously, why is she in Kaelstan if she’s not hiding from someone?”
“I’m sure demigoddesses have enemies too,” she said. “Go to sleep.”
I lay back and closed my eyes as I pondered the problem.
It was dark when my eyes opened again. Gabriella still slept next to me. She shifted in her sleep and snuggled into me as I stroked her fine black hair. As my fingers touched the locks of white, I was reminded of the torture she’d endured at Gester’s hand. All at once an idea struck me and I slid from bed. Gabriella turned and complained softly, but I pulled the covers up, kissed her and let her fall back to sleep.
“Can you meet me at Barrios House?” I asked, calling Amak on the phone from the kitchen.
“What’s up?”
“We’re going on a trip,” I said. “I need information from Gester.”
“Gester’s in the wind.”
“Just come over. Okay?”
“On my way.”
I walked outside and sat on the porch. The night view of the front yard reminded me of the first time I met Joe Lozano. He’d been a police officer responding to a disturbance call. Caught trespassing, I’d been placed in Joe’s squad car. It had been here, that same night, that he’d been bitten by the werewolf.
A dark shape glided from the tree and Maggie, in raven form, landed on the porch and sat next to me.
“Mom’s in trouble,” I said. “I need your help.”
Maggie dipped her head up and down.
“Don’t be so quick to answer. We have to go against Adajania,” I said.
Maggie jumped from the porch railing and onto the porch so she stood next to where I sat. “Caawk,” she answered and nodded her head again.
The door to the house opened and Gabriella stepped out with a heavy quilt wrapped around her thin body. “What’s going on?” She sat next to me.
“I need to deal with Gester. I can't leave him free to roam."
“FBI will recapture him,” she said. “And there’s no way they’ll let you anywhere near him.”
“They won’t have a choice. When a demon inhabits a body on Earth, they’re also still in Kaelstan. I’ll go there and find him."
"Won't the FBI just summon him again?" Gabriella asked. “And this time I’m coming with you.”
“Are you sure? This could get ugly.”
She didn’t answer, but rather leaned her head on my shoulder.
“We should get dressed,” I said after we sat for a few minutes. “Amak will be here any minute.”
“What should I wear?”
“Running clothes,” I said. “Make sure to bring your wand.”
Ten minutes later, Gabriella reemerged from her bedroom wearing dark running pants, a loose shirt and carrying a pack.
When I looked questioningly at the pack, she explained. “Looks like Maggie’s coming. I figure it’s worth bringing her a change of clothing.”
“Good idea,” I agreed.
A light knock on the front door alerted us to Amak’s presence. Instead of inviting her in, Gabriella and I joined her on the porch.
“What’s up, boss?” Amak asked.
“Got your staff?” I asked.
“In the Jeep.”
“Grab it. We’re going to leave from here,” I said.
One of the great things about Amak was that she didn’t require a lot of explanation. She jogged out to her Jeep, grabbed her bo staff and a backpack, and rejoined us.
“Up you go, Maggie.” I patted my shoulder. She fluttered up to my arm and I helped her onto my shoulder. “I’m not exactly sure how this works. Probably best if we hold hands.”
I grasped Gabriella’s hand and Amak set her hand on top of ours.
“Here goes nothing.” I reached into my pocket and grabbed the Key. A moment later we arrived in full daylight on the brick road.
“Freaky,” Amak said.
“Maggie, can you do your reindeer thing? We have a two-mile run to town and we need to make good time. There are eyes on us out here.
Maggie shook her head negatively and jumped from my shoulder. She shifted into one of the largest horses I’d ever seen. She shook her massive head up and down, then neighed and stomped on the ground with a huge hoof.
“You’re beautiful, Maggie,” Gabriella said, leaning into her. The whole conversation felt awkward, so I accepted Amak’s offer of a hand up and swung my leg over Maggie’s back.
With Gabriella behind me, we raced forward, first up the hill where I’d been attacked by Smaragdinus and then down through the gully where we’d been attacked by flesh-eaters. On horseback, it didn’t take long before we overlooked the pre-industrial town.
“Tinder Haut,” I said as we pa
used. “We’ll cross the bridge; my house isn’t that far up.”
“Your house?” Gabriella asked.
“I defeated a Ghrelin and took its property. Apparently, it’s all part of being demon-kind. The house opened right up because of it,” I said. “We should be safe there.”
If you thought a troll, a draft-horse, a witch and a wizard riding into town was more than just the opening line of a joke in Tinder Haut, you’d be wrong. We didn’t get a second look from any of the many lesser demons we passed, including several Ghrelin.
“This is freaking me out,” Gabriella said. “It’s like we’re swimming in piranha infested water.”
“Demons take on a variety of shapes,” I said, trying to reassure her. “They probably think we lost a bet or something.” I nudged Maggie to turn into the drive that led to the basement of my misshapen red-stone.
As the wooden garage door opened, my heart jumped into my throat. Flick stood in the doorway, looking up at us.
Chapter 23
Half Breed
"Felix?" Gabriella tensed behind me.
“Altum Visu.” My planar view revealed that the small demon-kind standing in front of us bore no resemblance to what I now knew as Adajania.
“I thought you dead,” I said, slipping from the horse. I drew Flick into a hug.
“Come in, quickly.” She pulled me into the brick passageway. Hesitantly, Maggie stepped forward causing Gabriella to duck as the door was nowhere near tall enough to accommodate them both.
Flick pushed the doors closed. “Why did you think me dead?” he asked. “It was you who left.”
Maggie’s hooves clopped loudly in the narrow passageway as she shifted uneasily in the dark.
“Lucem.” The ghost lantern glowed to life and I dropped my wizard’s sight. “Easy, Maggie.” The space was too small for her to turn around and she was shifting uneasily.
“Smells of death,” Amak observed as we moved forward. She’d removed the charm that allowed her to maintain a human guise and looked every bit the formidable troll princess she was.
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