by Jamie Davis
“Dean,” Ashley whispered. “I told you not to come.”
“Yeah, because you knew I’d listen to you,” Dean answered her with a wry laugh. “We’ll get you out of here as soon as we finish off the revenant and his goons.”
“You found Jaswinder Errington and the Wiccan girl, I take it?” Ashley asked.
“You know about them?” Dean asked. “How?”
“I have been tied to the Erringtons for a long time,” she replied. “After some time spent with you, I knew that you would be tied to them, too.”
Dean had too many questions to be answered here and now. He needed to do something to stabilize his patient and get her ready to move out of here. Looking up from where he was crouched in front of the portal he saw Jaz still battling with the revenant, their blades moving more quickly than he could see. Jo was circling a pair of wounded demons in the tan robes. He could see scaled skin on their arms and clawed hands that ended in wicked-looking talons. The teen had drawn her Bowie knife in her left hand and held out her hand in a palm out gesture that showed a glowing white light beginning there.
A rustling sound behind him caused him to turn and then scramble backwards as the demon that Jaz had shot, but not killed, crawled toward him. He kicked out at its scaled, flat face with its mouth full of fangs. The creature snapped at him and he kept going backward until he remembered his sword. Reaching back with one hand, he drew the blade and jabbed it forward in the direction of the advancing demon. It shrieked and drew backward, eyeing the blade warily.
He knew they were in a standoff right now. Jaz and the revenant were still battling around the room. One of them was going to make a mistake and lose this battle and Dean was not sure what to do if it was Jaz. Jo had drawn her remaining adversary away from where he was located, but he couldn’t get to Ashley and carry her to safety until he took care of the demon nearest him. He got to his feet, and keeping the sword in front of him, walked toward the demon where crawled on the floor. Its legs must be paralyzed by the bullet wounds but who knew how long that would last. He suspected the creatures would regenerate quickly from anything but a fatal wound. He did not have much time.
It swiped at his ankles with a clawed arm and he skipped backward out of the way. He was not a fighter and was not sure he could do this. The alternative, however, was to let Ashley and the others die here in the cavern with more demons coming out of that portal in the future. He moved forward again, and when the demon took a swing at him with its other arm, the paramedic stomped down with his booted foot to crush the clawed hand beneath it. Moving quickly, Dean lunged forward and plunged the heavenly blade into the exposed face of the demon. Black blood fountained out of the wound where it cleaved through the nose and roof of the mouth, then the creature began to shake as if in a seizure and the area around the sword blade began to sizzle. The skin nearest the blade turned black, the charred color spreading outward until the whole head was a blackened, cracked mess.
Dean pulled the blade free and saw the charring of the flesh spread to the exposed arms and clawed hands. Then the beast was still and he was left standing without an adversary. He heard a hissing sound close by and saw the black blood coating the end of the blade smoke, char and flake away, leaving the pristine silvery metal in its place once more.
A flash of white light from behind him caused him to spin around. Jo must have fired off another blast of her sun-fire spell. The demon dodged the ball of solar plasma and took that opportunity to charge at her from the side. He shouted a warning. It plowed into her, grabbing her outstretched arm in a clawed hand and biting down across her forearm. The teen screamed in agony and brought her other hand around clutching the broad bladed knife, and jammed it into the creature’s neck.
The two of them fell to the ground and rolled over and over several times. Dean watched in horror, holding his sword out but unable to lend a hand, knowing he’d just as likely stab the girl as the demon while they fought on the floor like that. The struggling stopped with the brown-robed figure atop the girl. There was a screeching sound and then the brown robes were empty, as the body disappeared in a puff of red mist. Jo levered herself up on one elbow, still clutching the Bowie knife in her left hand. There were rips in her black body suit where the demon’s claws had scraped her and she was clutching her other arm to her side. She got up and came over to him.
“How’s Ashley?” Jo asked, her shoulders heaving as she struggled to catch her breath.
Dean looked her over and then moved back to where he had left Ashley on the floor while he battled the demon. “I think she’ll be all right if we can get her out of here. I’ve got her patched up as best as I can for now.” He reached out to look at the ragged wound on Jo’s forearm where she had been bitten. It was bleeding and the skin was torn in multiple places. He needed to get a dressing on that wound, too. “Come over here and talk with Ashley to keep her awake while I wrap up that arm.”
The clash of metal on metal across the cavern drew their attention as Jaz continued to battle the revenant. They were off in the darkness somewhere at this point and Dean couldn’t even see them. “Jo, can you make out what is going on?”
“Mom and that revenant are still battling,” Jo said. “That thing is good. I need to get over there and help her.”
“Stay here and let me bandage that arm,” Dean said. “There’s got to be a way to distract it or weaken it.”
“The sword,” Ashley croaked from nearby.
“What?” Dean asked.
“My blade, Dean. It can close the portal,” the Eldara said. “That will weaken the revenant. He’s too strong for the hunter to beat right now.”
“Aunt Ashley, the blade is tied to you, won’t that pull you from the earthly plane?” Joanna said.
“It must be done,” Ashley said. “We can close this portal forever but we have to do it now, while the revenant is distracted. He doesn’t know you have it here. Do it. Now.”
Dean looked into the darkness, hearing the clash of swords there. He had to help, but he also had to save Ashley. He looked back at the Eldara lying on the cavern floor. He could still get her some help. A medevac helicopter could get her to the trauma center in time to save her.
“Dean, you saved me,” Ashley said. “You already did it by coming here, and by keeping them from using my life force to open the portal permanently. I’m only going to go away for a while. It will only be a few years, ten or twenty at the most, I promise. I’ll find a way to come back. I have too much to accomplish here with young Joanna.” She looked him in the eyes and reached out to squeeze his hand. “Do it, before it is too late.”
Dean felt lost. He had come all this way to rescue her and now he had to let her go again. Everyone who was important in his life was being torn away from him. He looked down at the blade in his hand. The silvery metal gleamed with a light all its own. It was a pure light, unlike the sickly purple light coming from the pulsing portal.
He stood up, letting Ashley’s hand slip from his grasp. Walking over to stand directly in front of the portal, he looked back at the Eldara where she lay on the floor nearby. Her eyes met his and she smiled at him. His heart melted under that smile. She nodded to him in encouragement. Dean held up the blade and wondered how he should do this? Did he just throw it into the portal to the netherworld? No, that wouldn’t be right. Instead he shifted his grip on the blade, and with two hands gripping it over his head, he stabbed it forward into the center of the swirling mass. He half expected to fall into the pulsing maw of the opening between worlds but the blade struck home and wedged up to the hilt inside the inter-dimensional doorway.
There was a roar of agony in the darkness behind him that was choked off with a shriek. Then the blade disappeared from his hands. One minute it was there and the next it was gone. Gone as well was the purple light illuminating this end of the cavern. It plunged him into total darkness for a moment. He turned and struggled through the inky blackness to get back to where Ashley lay on the cavern floor. As
he was making his way back, the golden glow of a pool of light was lit nearby. It was Jo. She pulled her hand down from above her head, but the small ball of soft yellow-golden light remained in the air above her and Ashley. He rushed over, surprised that she was still there.
“Ashley, you’re all right, you’re here.” Dean said as he knelt next to her.
“I wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye,” she said with a smile. “Besides we don’t have much time and you need to tell the hunter something important.”
“Okay,” Dean said. “I’ll tell her whatever you want, just don’t go.”
“I have to go and I can’t hold on too much longer. Listen to me. Tell her that Artur Torrence is behind this. Tell her that the Errington Adversary lured me here. It was all part of an attempt to destroy her family once and for all.” Ashley squeezed his hand. “Do you have that? Jo, you too. Remember it. It is important.”
Both Dean and Joanna nodded. They had heard her.
“Dean, I have to go now,” Ashley said. She looked into his eyes and gave him a smile. “We will see each other again. I promise. In the meantime, you must live your life and fulfill your destiny. You are so much more than the person I thought you were in the beginning. You will figure in many changes coming to this world. Enjoy the time you have and the people around you. Trust in that, and continue to show the good that is within you to the others around you. Promise?”
He nodded, his eyes welling with tears that clouded his vision. He couldn’t see her clearly anymore.
“Goodbye, Dean.”
He blinked his eyes to clear away his tears, eventually using his hands to wipe them away. When he did so, she was gone.
26
Jaz watched as the revenant’s form burst into the familiar red mist in front of her as she pulled her blade from its heart. She had never taken on a greater demon before on her own and she had barely survived this one. She had always had a full attack team backing her up and they had worked together to terminate the target. If this was under other circumstances, she would have swelled with pride and dialed up her father to tell him what she had done. But she could not do that, ever again. She paused, sheathed her sword, and scrubbed at her damned leaking eyes with the heel of her left hand. Her right hand was hanging limp at her side, blood dripping from her fingertips to the floor from a long gash high on her shoulder.
The hunter craned her neck to try to get a look at the wound. The revenant had almost finished her with that attack. She had been forced back under a flurry of cuts and slashes that had ended with that slashing blow to her arm. Only by luck did she duck under the follow-up to the attack that would have sliced her head from her shoulders. She had used it to her advantage, though. She started favoring her right side. It wasn’t hard to do. It hurt like hell. It created a pattern the revenant started trying to take advantage of, and when the demon went to complete an attack where that pattern said she should be, Jaz launched her own final, desperate attack. Then just as she was spent, her energy waning, the creature shrieked aloud. It stood up straight and turned to look back across the cavern to the portal. Using the sudden opening in the revenant’s guard, she was able to finish it with a single, almost anticlimactic thrust to the heart.
She looked back to the other end of the cavern, hoping against hope that Dean and Jo survived, or at least fought there so that she could lend aid to them in time. She saw that the ugly purple glow of the portal was gone from the far end of the room. There was also the soft yellow glow of witch light hovering over two figures seated on the ground. She saw no others so she hoped that they had been successful in defeating all their foes. Stumbling along, the loss of blood and fatigue starting to take over control of her body, Jaz worked her way back across the broad cavern to the welcoming pool of light at the other end.
As Jaz got closer, she realized that she could not see the Eldara with Dean and Joanna and fear welled up in her. She had undertaken this journey in order to fulfill the clan’s duty, and honor their debt to the Eldara Ashley Moore. She had never even met the angelic messenger, but had heard the stories of how she had helped the Errington’s on many occasions over the previous two centuries. Had she, Jaswinder Errington, the last of her clan, failed in the quest to save her? She struggled to speed up her pace to get back to where she saw her companions clustered together in the pool of light.
Dean looked up at her as she approached, his eyes red-rimmed with tears. The sword was gone from the scabbard at his back and was nowhere to be seen. Neither was the Eldara. Had she been consumed in the portal? She looked to Joanna. Jaz still couldn’t bring herself to think of the witch girl as her daughter.
“Jo, where is Ashley?” the hunter asked.
“She’s gone. Her injuries were severe, and Dean and I were not able to save her,” Jo answered through her tears. “Her sword might have been used to help her draw on healing energy to save herself, but she had Dean use the blade to seal the portal so that you could defeat the revenant. She said it would kill you otherwise.”
“So we failed?” Jaz asked. She looked up and stared at the cavern’s jagged ceiling far above them.
“No,” Dean’s voice cracked as he answered. “We did not fail. Ashley was saved and then she chose to have me save you.”
Jaz thought she sensed a hint of anger in his tone. Of course that made sense. She was his girlfriend, even though that relationship was destined to end someday.
“We need to get out of here, then,” Jaz said. “I know you are upset about having to leave without Ashley, but we need to go before any surviving Oni demons from the cabin attack return. They will sense the closing of the portal, as well as their master’s demise. My guess is they will return here.”
“You’re hurt,” Dean said, looking up at her arm. “Sit down here and let me get a dressing on that wound. While I do that we have a message to give you from Ashley.”
Dean had her sit down next to him as he set to work on bandaging her arm. The initial gauze he put on turned warm as soon as it soaked with her blood. She knew the quick-clot formula impregnated in the gauze he used was responsible for the heat she was feeling. When her paramedic companion had finished securing a pressure bandage on her shoulder, he set to creating a sling for her arm to support it while they got moving. His hands were gentle, and she watched him working. He was careful and watched her for signs of pain and avoided moving her arm unnecessarily. When he was done, he pulled out a pre-filled morphine syringe and looked at her with a question in his eyes.
“How’s your pain level?” Dean asked. “Do you think you need this?”
She thought about it. They had a long way to walk to get back to the cabin and she was going to need to be clear-headed. On the other hand, her arm throbbed. The pain was a little better now that he had bandaged it, but it hurt like hell.
“Can you just give me enough to take the edge off?” she asked.
“I’ll give you half now and if you need more, make sure you tell me, all right?” Dean said.
She nodded in reply and watched as he checked the dose. Then he gave her an injection in her opposite shoulder. He asked Jo to massage the injection site gently for her since she couldn’t do it for herself with her arm in a sling. The teen leaned forward to rub her shoulder muscle with her fingertips. Jaz noticed her hands were trembling.
“You did well, Jo,” Jaz said. “Is this your first time in a battle like this, other than the fight at the dryad cabin?”
“Is it that obvious?” Jo asked, looking away. The hunter realized she was ashamed.
“Don’t look away, Joanna,” Jaz said. “I was a complete wreck after my first firefight. I understand what you are feeling, I really do.”
“It’s different than at the cabin,” the teen choked through the tears. “I didn’t have a chance to do much thinking before that happened. It was so sudden. Here, I thought I was better prepared, but Ashley’s loss and your injury has me realizing how close of a call this was. We almost lost.”
“Yes, but we didn’t lose,” Jaz responded. “Hold on to that. That will help for now. Later, we will have a talk about how to deal with the stress of an event like this. It’s the same chat my father had with me, once upon a time. It will help you, I promise.”
The hunter looked around the room, seeing little of the aftermath you would ordinarily see in such a desperate battle. That was the way it was with fighting demons and other netherworlders. You destroyed them, sure, but you often had no bodies on the battlefield to mark your success. In those situations there was nothing to show but your own wounds and exhaustion.
“You had a message for me from the Eldara?”
“She told me to tell you that Artur Torrence is behind this attack on you and your family,” Dean said, spitting out the words like venom. “I assume that means something to you? It means something to me. Now I have an additional score to settle with Mr. Torrence.”
Jaz stiffened at the mention of the hunter clan’s hereditary adversary’s name. Artur Torrence was the reason behind why the Erringtons had long ago become a clan of hunters. Legend had it that they had been nothing more than peaceful farmers, coming from somewhere in what was now the Middle East. Artur Torrence had come upon their farm and almost succeeded in wiping out their simple farming family before he tired of his sport and moved on. Her surviving ancestors followed, seeking vengeance. Over the intervening years, the family legends say they came close to catching up with him many times. Often they were able to foil his sinister plans, but always missed out on finishing him off.
“Mom,” The teen’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Artur has never come after the family before like this, has he?”