Do the guards know what Tinlin does to the women he brings here? she asked Cadell through their link. Their auras look like they’re human, but they have to at least suspect what he’s doing.
They probably suspect something is going on, Cadell replied, but they don’t want to question the boss.
Blackwell pays very well, I’m told.
If they know what he’s doing, then they’re as guilty as he is! Evelyn fumed.
Maybe, Cadell said. But we can’t just kill them. Tinlin knows he’s working for a Nephilim, and he’s playing Redfield, hoping to be made into a Tainted, so he’s fair game. But the other human guards aren’t. Break as many of their bones as you want, but only kill them if you absolutely have to.
Tinlin stopped the car in front of the house’s large attached garage and entered a six-digit PIN number in a keypad attached to the top of a metal post. Evelyn watched him punch in the number out of the corners of her eye, again knowing that even if she didn’t remember it, the
Selkirks would see as well and write it down. He parked the Cougar next to one of Blackwell’s three remaining limousines and ordered Evelyn out. She watched him enter the same code into another keypad and open a door that led to a foyer and coat room. Remembering Cadell’s instructions, she stepped close enough to brush against him as the crossed the threshold, making sure his aura would mask hers from the house’s wards. Without looking directly at it, she noticed a camera hanging from the ceiling, trained on the door. Next, he led her through the hallways and toward his apartment.
As she had been told they would, the walls and floors were glowing with a magical light that fluctuated between indigo blue and a lavender/red color. The floor was made of dark-stained hardwood. Plants on porcelain planters were spaced at intervals along the walls. Oil paintings depicting scenes that Evelyn recognized as being from Dante’s Inferno were hung every few feet along the hallways, each in what looked to be handcrafted frames. Several servants deliberately turned their eyes away from Tinlin and Evelyn as they passed. They reminded Evelyn of dogs that had been beaten just for their owner’s amusement.
They reached Tinlin’s three-room suite and he locked the door behind them. “Stand there, face the wall, and don’t move,” he said, pointing at a spot on the carpeted floor as he removed his coat and suit-jacket along with a shoulder holster holding an automatic pistol in its left side and two spare magazines in its right. Evelyn complied, maintaining the appearance of being under his potion’s influence. “Take off your clothes,” was his next, predictable order. Evelyn heard his breath quicken as she disrobed. Clad now only in panties, she heard the crack of a whip as Tinlin snapped it in the air. “You can scream if you if you want, but don’t move unless I tell you to.”
Evelyn launched herself at Tinlin as he drew back to strike. Stunned by her sudden lack of obedience, he did nothing to stop or evade the palm of her right hand as she drove it into the bridge of his nose with all of the momentum of her charge behind it. He dropped the short whip and brought both hands to his face in an attempt to stop the streaming flow of blood from his crushed nose. Evelyn brought her knee up sharply into his groin, causing him to exhale an agonized, wheezing breath and bring his hands away from his nose in an attempt to protect his groin from further attack. Evelyn shot her thumbs into his eyes, feeling them ‘squish’ slightly. She wrapped both hands around his neck, kneed him again in the groin and then dragged his head down, unleashing a series of knee strikes to his face and chest. She dropped an elbow into the back of his neck, bending her hips and knees to put her body weight behind the blow and maximize its power. He fell onto his face and made no attempt to rise. His breath was coming only in gurgling gasps.
Kneeling atop him, she positioned her knee at the center of the spine and snatched his whip from where it had fallen. She wrapped it around his neck and pulled backward with all her strength and weight, bowing his back as she did so. She heard a sickening crunch as the vertebra in his back separated forcefully and felt the life leave his body. She became aware, for the first time, of the new beyond-human strength that had come with embracing her Blessing.
She dressed quickly, recovered her purse, and then searched Tinlin’s body, finding a Spyderco folding knife in one of his pockets and a black-steel knife similar to the swords the Tainted used strapped to his right ankle. She tucked the Spyderco into the belt of her dress but found the thought of even touching the demonic blade repulsive. She helped herself to Tinlin’s handgun, a SIG Sauer P-226, along with his spare ammunition, and stalked into the hallway. Okay, she thought to Cadell, Tinlin is dead and I’m armed. Get me to where I need to be.
Clive says to go to the right. The house has a big central foyer with two curving staircases leading to the upper floors, Cadell informed her as he climbed into Cai’s SUV. Passing on Clive’s further instructions, he continued to guide her. Under the left staircase, there’s a door leading to the basement. That’s the most likely place to find the focal point of the wards.
Great, Evelyn replied. I’m going into the basement of a demon’s house. That works out so well in movies.
“Is there any activity by security?” Cadell asked from his place in the back of the SUV.
“No,” Clive responded without looking away from the screen of his computer. “No alarms and no cellular activity to police or the alarm service.”
Cai tuned to face Cadell. “When we go in, you and Josh find Evelyn. I’ll go after the scrolls,” he instructed. “Colm, Christian and Callum are in the rear; they’ll go through the back door and cover us. Helen will stay with their car until we’ve cleared it.”
“Right,” Josh said from his seat beside Cadell. “We grab Evelyn and the scrolls and run like hell, right?” “Yes,” Cai agreed. “But if we get a chance to kill Blackwell, then we take it.”
“Evelyn has something,” Cadell said, interrupting the men’s conversation.
I don’t have to go down to the basement, Evelyn announced. I’ve found the focal point. She was standing in front of the main foyer entrance and gazing up at a large statue of Aetius Blackwell. It’s in the big foyer, right in front of the main entrance; a huge statue of Blackwell. It has to be twelve feet tall. What an ego.
Bring the wards down and take that ego down a peg, Cadell told her.
She took the amulet Helen had given her from her purse and suspended it around her neck. Ready, she thought to Cadell.
Okay, he replied. You’ll feel mom and Helen’s power touch you in few seconds, he added, seeing that Cai was already on his cell phone informing their mother that they were in position. When you do, just concentrate on the statue. Mom and Helen will channel their power through you and the amulet. Just relax into it.
Evelyn felt it first in the center of her forehead. At first it was like a pinprick, sharp and sudden. Then the magic spread through her body like a jolting chill. She held the amulet in front of her with both hands. A ball of pure white light shot from the amulet and struck the statue, producing a flash that seemed to Evelyn to be like a hundred old-style flashbulbs going off all at once. Her vision was filled with colored spots and the power coursing through her made her feel at once exhilarated and dizzy, but she kept the amulet pointed at the statue and maintained a laser-like mental focus. A constant stream of white/blue light had followed the initial ball of magic and was burning its way through the protective magic around the statue. The whole foyer was flooded with the light of opposing magical powers.
It’s starting to burn! Evelyn shouted, mentally.
Hold on! Cadell encouraged. The wards are almost down. We can see them breaking! He looked at the house and his Truesight showed it covered in a cascade of lights streaked with lightning-like sparks as the wards were attacked. The dark purple glow of the house’s wards was fading.
It hurts, Cadell, Evelyn screamed into his mind.
Just a few more seconds, he implored. You’re doing great! Then the purple/violet light around the house flashed and was gone.
&nb
sp; They’re down! Cadell told her. We’re on our way!
The flow of magic into her body stopped and Evelyn fell to her knees, gasping. The amulet Helen had given here had partially melted; the magical etchings on it were now distorted and useless. Her Truesight was at full intensity and the glow of the magically-saturated house, combined with the residue of the wards, still swirling with the remnants of the power she had channeled from Astrid and Helen, formed a vertigo-inducing display of psychedelic colors. She fought to calm herself and bring her Truesight under control. She had just begun to succeed in this when she heard Blackwell’s voice and footsteps coming down one of the staircases.
“Blessed bitch!” the voice hissed. “More of you are rushing into the house now, no doubt.”
Evelyn looked up and with her Truesight unrestrained, she saw Blackwell’s true demonic appearance. Instead of the roguishly handsome human, he was a cloven-hoofed, six-armed creature with a horned lizard-like head on the end of a neck that resembled the body of an earthworm. Hundreds of small insectoid parasites crawled over a body covered with long, matted moss-like hair. Four eyes looked down at Evelyn from the creature’s scale-covered face. She screamed and could not stop screaming.
A hand struck her hard across the face. “Evelyn!” a voice said, penetrating her terror. “Come on,” the voice urged.
“Let’s go!”
“Josh?” she asked, stammering.
“Yes, it’s Josh!” the voice confirmed, “and we’ve got to go.”
Evelyn was recovering her senses enough to realize that Josh was all but dragging her toward the house’s main entrance, but behind her, she heard the sounds of fighting.
She planted her feet and pulled her arm out of Josh’s hands, turning away from the door. “No!” she shouted. “Cadell!” she yelled.
Cadell was fighting the thing that was Aetius Blackwell. His broadsword was a blur of constant motion as he parried not only the hand holding Blackwell’s scimitar-like sword but his other five arms and the horns on his head as well. Evelyn saw the broadsword slice into the demon’s wormlike neck, but the demon fought on. One of the demon’s six hands back-fisted Cadell in the jaw and sent him into an airborne spin that ended with him smashing into a wall. She remembered the gun in her belt. The bullets from the SIG-Sauer formed a tight pattern just under the first of the Blackwell beast’s right arms. The bullets didn’t seem to harm the demon, but they did cause it to turn away from Cadell. Evelyn kept firing, expending the rest of her magazine at the demon’s head. It charged at Evelyn and tackled her to floor. She was flat on her back, the monster standing over her with its sword raised, then the beast hissed in pain as Josh slashed it deeply with the rune-covered seax Cadell had given him. Evelyn shot to her feet and ran to where Cadell had fallen. She reached him as he was rising to his knees. She helped him to his feet and, as had happened before, their auras flared and they shared each other’s strength.
“Josh!” Cadell shouted as he saw his friend slashed across the abdomen and drop slowly to the floor. He launched himself at the demon, taking his rune-engraved Randal fighting knife from its belt-sheath and tossing it at Evelyn’s feet as he moved. She snatched it up and followed Cadell back into the fight. The demon turned its attention back to Cadell and Josh crawled away, leaving a trail of his own blood behind him.
Cadell’s blade was flashing and clashing with the demon’s scimitar again. Evelyn used its fixation on Cadell to circle it. Darting in from the monster’s right, she drove the knife into its side, between its ribs. What would have been a fatal wound to a human seemed to merely annoy the Blackwell thing. It tried to strike Evelyn with one of its right arms, but she shuffled away from the blow and slashed the attacking limb’s wrist.
Cadell had moved to the left, hoping to keep the demon between himself and Evelyn. He and Evelyn coordinated their attacks, each instinctively sensing the other’s intentions and tactics. Cadell thrust his sword and pierced the demon’s belly. It lurched backward in an attempt to un-impale itself, and seeing an opening, Evelyn reversed her grip on the knife and stabbed it, two-handed, into the demon’s right thigh. She forced the blade forward with both hands and cut off a foot-long chunk of muscle and skin, crippling that leg.
As the demon dropped to one knee and let out an agonized wail, Cadell’s sword arched into the side of its elongated neck and bit inches deep into the flesh. He reversed his cut and slashed upward into the neck, cutting almost completely through it. The Blackwell-thing fell to all fours but still flailed about defensively with its six arms. Cadell raised his sword from a final, killing blow. Two bullets missed his head by inches.
One of Blackwell’s security guards, believing his human employer to be under attack, had fired in his defense. Cadell rushed at the guard, his trueblade spinning in front of him and deflecting several of the guard’s gunshots. Cadell swept the guard’s gun aside with his left hand and smashed his sword’s basket hilt into the guard’s face. The guard crumpled, dazed, to the floor and Cadell kicked him in the head, sending him the rest of the way into unconsciousness.
Cadell ducked as another guard fired at him. The bullet passed over his head and Cadell snatched the unconscious guard’s gun from where it fallen and fired, striking the second guard in his right knee. Cadell closed the distance to the second guard and struck him on the back of his head with his sword’s pommel.
His ears still ringing painfully from the cracks of the gunshots, Cadell turned and saw that the Blackwell demon had regained its feet, staggered out of the foyer and was fleeing into the east wing of the house. Evelyn was engaged with four Tainteds that were preventing her from pursuing. Going to her aid, he made a rushing attack at the Tainted farthest to the left. Batting away an attempted parry, Cadell made a clean, diagonal cut that split the
Tainted’s head in half. Another Tainted thrust his sword sideways at Cadell’s midsection, attempting to slide the blade through the ribs into a lung. Cadell countered the thrust by arching his sword downward and to the right while stepping back and to the left. He smashed his left arm into the Tainted’s sword arm while it was still extended for the thrust and knocked the blade out of his enemy’s hand.
His next cut took the demon’s head from its body.
Evelyn dodged beneath a backhanded sword swipe and went to one knee in front of her opponent. She slashed the Randal rapidly into both thighs, slicing deeply into the muscles and severing the femoral arteries. As she stood, she jammed her knife upward with both hands under the sternum into the Tainted’s heart. The last of the four Tainteds fell when Cadell cut it deeply across both thighs from behind and Evelyn used the opening that created to cut its throat.
Turning to find Blackwell, they saw only an empty corridor with the shimmering remnants of portal floating in the air. “Shit!” Cadell said, “he’s gone!” He moved to pursue the fleeing demon when Evelyn caught his arm and pointed back into the foyer where Josh lay unmoving.
Cadell knelt by his friend and examined his wound.
“It didn’t get into the aorta,” Cadell said as Evelyn joined him at Josh’s side. He took a small plastic vial from his pocket and poured the contents into Josh’s wound. “This will stop the bleeding, but we’ve got to get him home.” Cadell turned toward the staircases. The sound of sword hitting sword could be heard on the second floor. “Stay with him,” he told Evelyn. “I have to help my brothers.” Climbing the stairs, he found the bodies of three Tainteds at the top. He saw an open door and heard the sound of more fighting coming from it. Rushing into the open doorway, he found Cai fighting four more Tainteds in a large room that was being used as an office. Cadell cut down one of the Tainteds before it became aware of his presence. The second turned and tried to deliver an overhead cut straight down on Cadell’s head. Cadell blocked the cut by raising his sword, crossing the Tainted’s blade and stepping closer to his foe. He swept the Tainted’s blade to the right and used his left hand to grab the Tainted at the elbow, forcing it to twist its torso to the right an
d disrupting its balance. He turned his sword hand over, bringing its point in line with his opponent’s throat, and drove the point home and it emerged from the back of the demon’s neck after severing its spine.
“Josh is wounded,” Cadell informed Cai. “Evelyn is with him, but we need to get him to mom. Blackwell got away. He’s wounded pretty badly, too, though. We had him dead to rights when some of his human guards came in shooting.”
“What about the scrolls?” Cai asked.
Cadell shook his head, fighting to hear his brother through still-ringing ears. “I haven’t seen them,” he replied.
“Blackwell wasn’t carrying anything when he left.” Cadell wiped the blood off his sword with one of the curtains that covered the office’s window. “Where are Chris and the others?” he inquired.
“In the basement,” Cai said, moving toward the door. “Most of Blackwell’s Tainteds were down there when the wards went down. After they dealt with the other human guards, I told them to try to hold the Tainteds in the basement while you found Evelyn and I located the scrolls.”
Cadell fell into step beside Cai as the two moved down the stairs. When they reached the foyer, they found Christian, Callum, and Colm watching over Evelyn and Helen as they tended to the stricken Josh. They were as blood-drenched as Cai and Cadell. “Did you find the scrolls?” Cai asked as Cadell returned to Josh’s side.
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