Shadow of the Apocalypse

by D. L. Harrison

  She sighed, “I don’t know, maybe I’m reaching for shit at this point, but does a demon and a self-isolated human hating person go to sporting events? It just doesn’t fit at all with what we know.”

  Meri smirked, and tossed a CD off the shelf and onto the bed, “She is an evil demon, she listens to Abba.”

  She giggled.

  Jacob said in a loud voice, “Did you say hockey tickets? AT&T arena?”

  She replied, “Yes, why?” as her and Meri walked back to Jenna’s room.

  Jacob put the journal back where it was on the shelf, and then put away his phone before he answered the question.

  “Well, I said I wouldn’t tell you about her wishful plans, but it seems I was wrong. One of them of course was to destroy humanity, start the apocalypse. That’s a fairly common theme with warlocks, it’s part of hell’s corruption and what Samael created them for and wants most of all.”

  Meri smirked, “What does hockey have to do with the Apocalypse?”

  Jacob shook his head in annoyance, “Not a true Apocalypse, more like a shadow of one, the world is simply too big and populous for one person to destroy in a single plan. One of her plans was to sacrifice all the lives in an arena, and to summon demons for each death by opening a huge gate. That arena holds more than eighteen thousand people. If she plans to do that in two nights, she could wipe San Antonio off the map, and quite likely about half of Texas.”

  Meri snorted, “She’d never be able to control that many.”

  Jacob shook his head, “She doesn’t have to control them, she just needs to summon them and let nature take its course. With her little trick, she could portal out so they couldn’t turn on her, she doesn’t even have to bother to try to control them with her will, just hold on to the twelve she has now. The demons would eventually be banished without a follow up sacrifice, but those eighteen thousand could do a hell of a lot of damage with hellfire over a week of time. She really hates humanity and wants revenge for what they let happen to her. My guess is those tickets tell us exactly what her plan was in summoning those demons.”

  She sighed, “Alright, but to be considered a sacrifice, doesn’t she personally need to kill them all, what’s the purpose of the twelve demons?”

  Jacob said, “My guess is the other eleven are there to protect her and Celia from the response of the other supernatural beings, especially the shifters. If it works, she’ll go to another city and do it again. The idea is horrific in scope. As for the sacrifice question, to be a sacrifice only requires a death at her hand, and one not cleaned up after. It doesn’t have to be an altar, or done with a sacrificial knife, no more than soul eaters are vampires that burn in the sun. That’s just human fictional bullshit. Unfortunately, she doesn’t say in here exactly how she plans to murder eighteen thousand humans. Maybe…”

  He snatched the book back quickly, and then started to flip through the pages again.

  Jacob said, “She has a few military people in here, as well as chemists. I bet it wouldn’t be too hard for them to whip up a deadly airborne toxin if they’re her puppets. As long as she’s the one to release it, and doesn’t use hellfire on the bodies, that counts as sacrificed. There are probably other options as well.”

  She frowned, “Maybe, but where the hell will she get the power to summon eighteen thousand demons at once?”

  Jacob shook his head, “I already said that, the portal maker demon will make a huge portal to let the summoned over on this side. Let’s assume she’ll dedicate most of the deaths to her plan and an out of control army of demons, but she could dedicate a couple of hundred to feed her core team of twelve a hell of a lot of life force and power. More than enough power to open a vast portal and keep it up long enough for the forces of hell to come through. We need to find and stop her before that game, we have just over two days.”

  Right. Two days… and a few hours.

  Jacob said, “Not just to stop the horrific plan and deaths, but also to stop her from revealing the supernatural world. If this happens, even if we stop her after that, the humans will hunt us all down.”

  Yeah, that made the stakes a bit higher, but the first reason was more than reason enough to stop Jenna. It just seemed… crazy. But then, Jenna was crazy, and powerful. She was also a warlock, and those were corrupted towards destroying humanity and releasing hell on Earth. It all made sense, it just seemed way too big to really fully comprehend.

  Meri said, “We’re with you boss, what’s the next step?”

  He frowned, “I emailed the pictures of the pages to the rest of the team, and the analysts in Montana. Hopefully they’ll find another lead that will lead us to our target. If not, we’ll have to stop her at the arena, before she releases the toxin, or whatever else it might be to kill everyone inside.”

  She nodded, “So, we’re on hold then? For more leads?”

  Jacob replied, “I don’t like it either, but the list of names is our only lead, and it’ll take time for them to research it. We should hopefully have places to look by tomorrow.”

  Meri nodded, “The big questions remain boss. If we do find her, how do we stop her from simply retreating again through a portal, assuming she’d rather not risk dying in a direct fight before she can try to end the world. Oh, and if we can get her to stay, how do we get past her hellfire and magical shield?”

  Jacob waved that away, “It’s a problem, and I’ve got people working on that too. Worse come to worst, we’ll get our hands on some assault rifles, and overwhelm her shield with five of us emptying out our clips in a few seconds. I’d like to have a few options to try as well, explosives and the like, even if we can’t get one of those sonic weapons. We have time. Let’s go back to the hotel and try and relax a bit while we wait on answers.”

  Meri and Lily shared a look, he hadn’t even attempted to address the first question. They’d just have to attack her hard and fast, and hopefully take Jenna out before a portal could form.

  Easier said than done. She was undeniably nervous for her team, they had far more questions than answers, and even the hockey arena massacre was a guess based on Jenna’s hateful daydreams. They had no way to kill her, even if they caught her. Yes, Jacob was working on that she knew, but what if she attacked them again before they were able to prepare?

  What if their preparations weren’t enough?

  She wasn’t naturally a pessimist, but for the first time since she’d learned the truth about the world, and her powers had come alive, she truly felt out of her depth. Even when Emil had her tied down, drugged, and helpless, she hadn’t felt like this.

  She didn’t mention it to anyone, but if it came down to it, she’d risk it all to save her team, and the man she admired and was coming to care for very much, even if they hadn’t even kissed yet. If it was between embracing hellfire or watching her and her team die, well that wasn’t a choice at all, was it.

  The most disturbing thing of all was it all felt familiar to her, like she’d been in a similar situation before. There had to be an answer, if there wasn’t she’d have been dead a long time ago. Of course, that answer was buried deep in her memories.

  Chapter Eleven

  Dinner was mostly quiet as they sat in the hotel’s restaurant and finished up their meal. They hadn’t heard anything new, but they weren’t really expecting to quite yet. She knew Jacob was expecting more news and information by the morning. The list of names in Jenna’s journal was rather long, and it would take time to do research on each one.

  They were also quiet since they were in public, and because of the rule not to talk about business at the dinner table. It was a strange thing to her, because shifters were brave to the point of stupidity, it was how they were built, but she could tell she wasn’t the only one nervous about this hunt. Though, none of them were selfishly nervous, she was worried about all of them, Jace was nervous about Cinna, and so on.

  She took a deep breath, and then tried to relax as she took another bite of her swiss and mushroom burger.
She’d ordered two, with the usual sides. It was delicious, but she wasn’t eating at her usual speed. She knew she was being too hard on herself, she’d been buried for thousands of years, barely subsisting on life force stolen over the life-web, and then starved out of her mind when she got out to the point she killed a lot of people. That kind of thing wouldn’t be easy to get over, and her memories would come back when they were ready to.

  She thought, or at least hoped that would be soon, but she needed them right then.

  They all got up and she was taken by surprise when Jacob put his hand on the small of her back, a light touch.

  His voice rumbled, “Take a walk?”

  Her mouth went dry, butterflies exploded at his touch and voice, and she felt a little nervous, despite the fact she was pretty sure he wasn’t making any kind of move on her.

  Unfortunately.

  She smiled, “Sure.”

  Meri and Cinna gave her teasing looks Jacob couldn’t see and she rolled her eyes as she turned away, and the two of them headed for the door. To both her relief and disappointment, Jacob didn’t put his hand back on her after he opened the door for her.

  It was a warm night, and there was a very light breeze as they walked down to the river walk, and they started down the path. So far, he’d been silent, and she was very aware of his nearness. They walked closely together, their shoulders brushing often, and it was killing her.

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  He said, “This is a dangerous mission, but my team and I have been on dangerous hunts before. Outside of Emil, you really haven’t been. Oh, they’re all dangerous of course, but only if we let down our guard and screw up, this hunt is the kind we can still lose, even if we do everything right. I wanted to check up on you and see how you were holding up, especially given what I told you two nights ago. I also…”

  He hesitated a moment, then said, “I also want you to promise me something.”

  She frowned, “I think I’m okay. Honestly, it still feels a little surreal to me. Being the first woman, what happened during my long life. I suspect part of that is because the legends aren’t quite right, and the other part of that is because it’s just too big. I’m okay though. What promise?” she asked the last a little reluctantly.

  Jacob surprised her again, when he slowed and took her hand. His hands were large, calloused, and warm as his fingers entwined with hers.

  Her heart skipped, if the man was teasing her she’d kick his ass.

  “Afraid I’ll run?”

  He laughed, “Not quite. I’m sorry I’ve been sending you mixed signals, and for holding you at arm’s length. It isn’t easy for me either. Especially lately, as I get to know you better. Still, I think its best we wait until you recover your memories. I’d feel like I was taking advantage of you if we didn’t, and my instincts tell me I need to wait.”

  She squeezed his hand, “So why this?”

  He smirked down at her, and her breath caught in her throat at the look.

  “Couldn’t help myself. It’s beautiful out here isn’t it?”

  It really was, the sky was bright with stars and the moon with the earlier cloud cover gone. She just nodded, she knew she should let go of his hand, it couldn’t go anywhere yet, but she didn’t want to. She was conflicted. Hand holding should feel innocent, but in that moment it felt anything but. There was an intimacy in it that was taking her breath away and making her body tingle. It didn’t help, that she felt how much he enjoyed it in his emotions as well.

  “The promise?”

  He chuckled, “Just taking a moment to relax, the whole team is stressed, especially you. I was thinking earlier, given Jenna’s immunity to what we brought to the table earlier, that if I were you I’d be tempted to put the bitch down with hellfire. Fight fire with fire so to speak. I want you to promise me you won’t try, it would consume you, forgive the pun.”

  Shit. That’s what she’d been afraid of.

  “I can promise it will be the last thing, and I won’t use it at all if any other approach will work. But, if it’s the difference between this city burning to the ground, I’ll do what I have to. We’ll make sure all the other weapon options and ideas fail first.”

  He sighed, “It will corrupt you, it’s the nature of warlock magic.”

  “Better that than the team dying, and the lower half of the state of Texas destroyed.”

  He frowned, “You’re stubborn, I guess I’ll just have to make sure our new weapons work.”

  She laughed, “Would you do it any differently? We can’t let her succeed, no matter the cost.”

  He grunted, “There’s no guarantee that would work either, and if you were corrupted you could be a hundred times worse and more effective than Jenna.”

  She sighed, “No, there isn’t. But it’s one more chance, a last option. That’s all I’m willing to promise. I won’t jump the gun and do anything stupid just to spare the team a little danger while we try out the other options. That’s the best you’re going to get.”

  He snorted, “Stubborn woman.”

  She turned her head and grinned up at him, “Damned right. Get used to it.”

  He asked, “Anything else you want to talk about?”

  She almost told him she didn’t want to wait for her damned memories, she wanted to feel his arms around her and his lips on hers, but she didn’t. It would just make her feel foolish, and it’d put more pressure on him. Plus, she wanted to be chased and caught, not to throw herself at the man. Holding hands was a little frustrating, but also nice, and she supposed it would be enough for now. At least he’d finally stated his intentions, not that there’d been any doubts, she could read his emotions and vibes after all.

  Their attraction to each other had been painfully obvious from the first time they’d met, and it’d only grown deeper the last few weeks. She had no doubt her scent had clued him in on her feelings as well.

  She said, “No, I suppose we could head back?”

  He shrugged, “We could, if you want to. Or we could enjoy the night, and the walk.”

  She bit her lip, but she didn’t object.

  “I’m curious about a few things.”

  He asked, “Shoot.”

  “Cinna said she was staying with us, is that typical for cross species mating in the supernatural world? What about kids his age, and stuff like that.”

  He replied, “Yes, it’s typical. It’s a shifter retirement community, where we raise our kids, and the base of our research. Normally witches or soul eaters who mate with one of us will have the children and raise them with the team. Even the opposite way, a female shifter in a mixed mating would stay with the team, so the father could be involved in it. The other races aren’t really comfortable in our community, not even the ones that have to work with us closely and are on our teams.

  “As for kids his age, he or she will have human friends, once they’re old enough to understand the need to keep the secret. We tend to homeschool until junior high, or high school. There will also be visits of course, and times they’ll visit the community, which helps.”

  She smiled, “Thanks for this. I do feel more relaxed, at least about the mission.”

  He chuckled again, that low alluring chuckle that made her stomach to flips.

  “Glad to hear it.”

  She asked, “How long is Jace’s training under you?”

  She was curious, mostly because she knew she’d lose Cinna too when it was time for him to run a team on his own.

  He replied, “There’s no hard and fast rule. Maybe five or ten years?”

  She nodded thoughtfully.

  “What happens then, is there a soul eater waiting list to serve on teams or something. Do you do interviews, hold raffles.”

  That last she said in a teasing voice.

  He snickered, “You’d think, right? No, we put the word out, and see if anyone bites. The small city communities are all connected to a certain extent. Not all teams have a soul eater trainer, most do,
but not all. It isn’t often when a soul eater has a conscience, and mostly only for ones that are born and manage to escape from their evil parent before they’re corrupted. Most blood-turned soul eaters are guaranteed to be evil, simply because the parent chooses evil humans for the change. They’re very rare, no more than a handful in each city banded together for protection. The ones that feel a call to serve are even more rare.”

  She nodded thoughtfully, “Cinna’s a gem.”

  He grinned, “She is. She’s also truly ancient, we’re lucky to have her. She was my trainer’s mate, when I was Jace’s age. When he passed, she stayed with me, and mourned for a long time until Jace came along and swept her off her feet.”

  “I see, and umm…” she trailed off.

  He laughed, “Don’t be shy, I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

  “How old are you?” she asked.

  He grinned, “Don’t worry, I like older women.”

  She slapped his arm playfully.

  He relented, “I’m relatively young, just a hundred and ninety.”

  That was sort of a relief, at least they’d have eight centuries together, if she got her memories back. It was a disturbing thought, was she really that sure of him after just two weeks? Even then, they were in a dangerous line of work, and there were no guarantees in life. Just because she’d managed to live for untold millennia, didn’t mean she wouldn’t or couldn’t be killed tomorrow.

  He said, “Meri and Carl are both older, the latter not by much. Generally, when a new team is formed they’re all close to the same age. The only turnover I’ve had in my team are the witches of course who only live a couple of centuries.”

  “Meri?”

  He replied, “Just over four hundred. She was looking for a new team, and mine got an opening about thirty years ago when Carl’s mate was killed during a hunt.”

  Wow, he’d been grieving for thirty years?

  “Umm, witch turnover?”

  He nodded, “Most witches serve sixty years or so, a third of their lives, then start another stage of their life. Most teams just have one, except those in transition. Allison will take over fully when her advanced training is done, and Caroline will retire. In general, witches don’t learn all they’re capable of, but the ones that join teams do, that’s what the training period is for.”