“Don’t blame me. I’m not the guy who decided to build a Whataburger beside a cemetery.” The Hellburn Memorial Cemetery stretched out in front of us, three acres of carefully manicured grass with countless weather-worn headstones and monuments laid out in neat rows. I was willing to bet there were more bodies buried here than Hellburn’s current population.
“Well, you certainly know how to show a dead girl a good time.”
“We can walk over there if you want. Maybe you’ll meet some new friends.”
“No thanks,” she grimaced. “I’d probably start screaming if I saw another ghost and that would be embarrassing.”
“The word you’re looking for is ironic.”
She just rolled her eyes as she drummed her fingers on the armrest. After a minute, she glanced over at me and cleared her throat. “Peter?” she asked thoughtfully.
“Hmm?”
“Does it bother you that your girlfriend is evil?”
I blinked at her in surprise. “What are you talking about? Melissa’s not evil.”
“Unbalanced and dark, isn’t that what Mrs. Kendricks said? That sounds evil to me.”
“She was talking about Melissa’s powers, not her.”
“It’s the same thing.”
“It is not! Power is just power, it’s what you do with it that’s good or evil.”
“She kills things with it,” she pointed out.
“She kills demons! Killing evil things is good!”
“Don’t demons kill other demons? Dara said they’re always stabbing each other in the back.”
“That doesn’t mean Melissa’s evil! Why are you bringing this up all of a sudden?”
Olivia looked out the passenger window, casually twisting a strand of hair around her finger. “No reason,” she said lightly. “I’m just making conversation.”
“You want me to dump Melissa and pick you as my new girlfriend,” I accused her.
“Peter!” She turned wide, innocent eyes on me. “I would never do anything to make you unhappy and Melissa’s a friend, sort of. Although,” she bit her lip winsomely, “hypothetically, if you two did break up –”
“Stop right there,” I warned her. “This isn’t the time to be fighting over girlfriends and boyfriends, okay? We’re in a lot of trouble right now and we have to work together as a team to get through it, right? Right?” I prompted when she didn’t respond.
“I guess,” she grumbled, slumping in her seat and glaring through the windshield.
“Go team,” I said, rolling my eyes. I munched down the remains of my taquito, chugged the last swallow of milk, and stuffed my trash into the orange-and-white-striped Whataburger bag sitting on the floor between us. “I guess we’ll go back to the house and wait for Agent Prescott to get back.”
I pulled out of the Whataburger parking lot behind a city bus and followed it all of two hundred feet before it stopped. It sat there for what seemed to be an extraordinarily long time but it finally roared off in a cloud of diesel fumes. I paused to let the smoke dissipate and Olivia suddenly turned and plastered her face against the passenger window.
“Peter!” she exclaimed breathlessly.
“What?”
“Back there, going into the cemetery! It’s Lilith!”
“You’re kidding.” I craned my neck and caught a glimpse of someone in a white blouse and black skirt walking across the cemetery’s parking lot towards the gated entrance. “Are you sure?” I asked doubtfully. The woman’s size and shape seemed about right but I didn’t see any hint of horns or a tail.
“I’m sure! Turn around!”
We were already past the entrance to the lot and the driver behind me laid on his horn to express his displeasure at our lack of forward progress. I sped ahead to the next light, waited impatiently for the light to change, and made a slightly-illegal U-turn. By the time I pulled into the lot, Lilith was nowhere to be seen.
“Where did she go?” I asked, puzzled. There weren’t a lot of places to hide, although some of the monuments and statues were fairly substantial. “You’re sure that wasn’t a ghost or something?”
“How would I know?” Olivia retorted.
“Because you’re a ghost?”
“I don’t know what ghosts look like, Peter,” she complained. “I can’t see myself in a mirror.”
“But you can see your arms and legs, right?”
She looked down at herself. “Well, yes, but I look perfectly normal to me.”
“You’re translucent,” I pointed out.
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. I can see right through you, more or less.”
“Well, that’s not what I see. Are we going to look for Lilith or not?”
“Yes.” I pulled into a parking slot and hopped out. There were no other cars in the lot and no other people in sight, other than the patrons of the Whataburger next door. Olivia watched me through the window until I opened the door for her. “We don’t really have time for this,” I reminded her tersely. “If that really was Lilith –”
“It was,” she insisted.
“Just keep your eyes open. This might be our only chance to catch her by surprise. Let’s go.”
We scurried across the pavement and passed through the ornate wrought iron gate that marked the boundary between the land of the living and the domain of the dead. Narrow gravel paths spidered out in several directions and I chose the one leading towards a cluster of marble columns bearing weeping angels. They looked big enough for Lilixandriel to play hide-and-seek in, although I couldn’t imagine why she would.
“Peter!” I felt something cold pass through me as Olivia tried to grab my arm. She was pointing off to the side but I didn’t see anyone standing there. Then a small black shape darted between two headstones.
“Crap, is that an imp?” I glanced around and spotted another yellow-eyed cat peering at us from behind a granite effigy. “Uh-oh.”
“It’s a trap!” Olivia breathed.
“They must have spotted us at the Whataburger and told Lilith.” I looked around but there was no sign of our nemesis. That observation did nothing to keep my heart from thumping loudly in my chest. “Let’s get out of here.”
I turned to match actions to words and stopped. I couldn’t see the van or the gate or anything else in that direction. A thick, roiling gray fog surrounded us, reducing our world to a patch of cemetery maybe a hundred feet across.
“This is bad.” I raised my left hand to activate my damage spells but I couldn’t see anything to fry, freeze, or zap. Even the imps had disappeared.
“Peter, do something!” Olivia hid behind me, although if I were a demon lord intent on killing an enchanter, I’d sneak up from that direction. I didn’t tell her that, though.
“I’m open to suggestions.” I swept my targeting reticle across the fog but nothing lit up. I thought about trying to dispel the mist with Whirlwind, until I remembered that Melissa replaced it with Blizzard and I didn’t feel like freezing to death today.
“Put your arms around me,” I told her and a chill encircled my waist. “I’m going to teleport us out of here.” I wasn’t actually sure it would work on ghosts but she wasn’t in any real danger anyway. I fixed an image of my bedroom in my mind and reached for Teleportal. Then I realized that Mom might be in there collecting the laundry so I switched to Melissa’s bedroom instead. “If we get separated, head for Melissa’s house.”
“What?” Olivia asked in alarm but I tapped the icon, gritting my teeth in anticipation for another bout of dizziness. Nothing happened. “What do you mean, if we get separated? Are you leaving me behind?”
I tapped again, harder this time, but there was no response. I peered at my spell bar and several of the icons were grayed out, as if I’d used them recently and they were still on cooldown. Or if they’re being blocked, I thought uneasily. Whoever or whatever created this fog was making sure we couldn’t leave.
“Okay, that didn’t work, so here’s Plan B.”
Unfortunately, I didn’t actually have a Plan B. I looked around, searching for an escape route, and froze as a heavy metallic rattle came from somewhere. It sounded like a chain being pulled across stone, accompanied by a hollow clatter than I couldn’t place. “Did you hear that?” I whispered.
“There!” Olivia’s shaky finger pointed to my right, where the fog was a bit darker. A vaguely humanoid shape emerged and we stared at it as the mist thinned around it. “Oh my God!” she squeaked.
The creature – Lilixandriel’s newest demon lord, no doubt – was unnaturally tall and thin, with disproportionately long and spindly limbs. Its flesh was dark and mottled, wreathed in the tattered remnants of a tunic or shroud, and its head hung low on its chest with hollowed eyesockets and a gaping mouth. Crudely-forged chains were manacled to its wrists and ankles, trailing behind it over the headstones as it stepped forward ponderously, and skulls dangled from the links like gruesome charms. Most of them were human; quite a few weren’t.
It paused in its relentless approach, raising its head, but I didn’t wait to hear whatever it had to say. I locked my reticle on it, highlighting it in white, and hit Flame Lance. Blazing fire shot out from my right hand and engulfed it from head to toe. It didn’t move or scream or try to protect itself from the inferno. Instead, it just stood there silently and when the flames finally flickered out, it continued its advance, absolutely unharmed.
I swore under my breath and hit the next icon. Immobilize, thankfully, did what it was supposed to, stopping it in its tracks, but my sigh of relief was cut off when it raised its arm and the dangling chain whipped through the air like an iron tentacle, aiming straight for my head. I ducked and cast Iron Hide on myself, just before another chain hit me from behind like a runaway train, sending me tumbling across the graves. I wasn’t hurt but it knocked the wind out of me and I lay there gasping, staring at Olivia who was staring back at me. The chain had passed through her like she wasn’t there.
“Peter!” she screamed, but I already heard the slither of chains and I stumbled to my feet. Two of them came at me from opposite directions and I tried to hit one with Frost Lance but it was moving too quickly. It tangled itself around my legs, knocking me down again, and the other encircled my right arm, yanking it backwards at a painful angle. I couldn’t aim my hand at the demon but I could target myself and I hit Arcane Shield.
Bright sparks crackled all around me and the chains loosened just enough to let me wriggle free but the other two chains looped in and tried to lasso me. My shield kept them from getting a grip on me but it wasn’t going to last much longer.
Mind Shock seemed to give the demon pause but it shook it off quickly. Crush staggered it but it gathered itself and threw its chains at me again, brushing aside my second try at Frost Lance like it was swatting away an annoying insect. The faint shimmering glow of my shield sputtered and vanished as the chains pulled me forward onto my hands and knees. The scrape of the rough edges of the chain against my skin told me Iron Hide had worn off as well.
A sharp pain stabbed through my arm and I saw to my horror that one of the skulls had latched onto my forearm and was already drawing blood. I smashed it against the nearest gravestone, trying to dislodge then, but that only caused it to bite down harder. The other skulls gnashed their jaws, trying to reach me.
One of the chains wrapped itself around my chest, squeezing hard, and another looped itself around my neck, strangling me as it bent me backwards. I scrabbled at it with my free hand, trying to pull it away, but I wasn’t strong enough.
“Olivia!” I croaked. “Don’t let it take the Stone! Bring it to Mrs. Kendricks!” I tried to reach under my shirt to pull it out but the demon’s chains were too tight and my vision was starting to blur around the edges. Another skull bit my hand and I couldn’t shake it off.
“Peter!” Olivia grabbed one of the chains to pull it off of me but her hands slipped right through. “Leave him alone!” She punched the skull on my arm, to no avail.
“Get the Stone!” I begged her, barely able to get the words out. “Get out of here!”
“No, I’m not leaving you! Let him go!” she shouted, turning on the demon. It ignored her as its chains dragged me closer, wrapping me up tightly like a chainmail cocoon. The demon loomed over me, still absolutely silent, and reached down with its spidery fingers to take the Philosopher’s Stone from my soon-to-be-dead body.
“Don’t touch him!” Olivia shrieked. She jumped on the demon’s back, wrapping her arms around its neck, and it reared back in surprise, no doubt feeling the icy chill of her touch. It reached back over its head but its grasping hands encountered nothing solid.
Olivia tried to punch the demon in the back but her hand plunged deep into its body. The demon staggered and flailed its limbs like it had been electrocuted and the chains loosened ever so slightly, letting me suck in a sweet lungful of air.
“Do that again!” I croaked.
“Ew, there’s something pulsing in there,” she grimaced, shaking her hand like it was covered in slime.
“That’s its heart! Grab it and –” The chains locked around my throat again and I couldn’t breathe anymore.
“Ew,” she moaned but she stuck her hand inside again, clamping her eyes closed.
The demon shook itself violently and two of its chains released me, whipping around and slashing at its own back as it tried to dislodge whatever was attacking it. It stumbled around and fell heavily to its knees, scrabbling at its chest as its eyes and mouth gaped wider than I would have thought possible. All of the skulls clattered and chattered and the two chains holding me spasmed, tightening like vises. Something cracked in my chest and everything started going dark. The last thing I saw before my eyes fluttered closed was Olivia standing over the demon with both hands stuck into its back and her teeth bared in squeamish concentration.
“Peter? Peter!” Olivia’s voice came from somewhere far away. “Oh my God, Peter!” Something or someone pulled at the chains coiled around me and they loosened enough to let me breathe again. I just lay there, wincing at the stabbing pain in my chest but grateful that I was still alive enough to feel pain.
Slowly, I lifted my hand and felt around my chest, searching for the Philosopher’s Stone. For an awful moment, I thought the demon had somehow taken it, but I found it trapped under my other arm and pressed it against my skin. Moments later, its soothing warmth rushed through me and washed away my injuries, leaving me weak but whole again.
I opened my eyes and found Olivia’s anxious eyes just inches from mine. “Oh my God, Peter, are you okay? You’re bleeding! Or you were, just a minute ago,” she frowned. “What happened?”
I struggled to sit up and slowly unwound the chains from my neck and chest, throwing them aside. The skulls lay motionless, as did the demon, sprawled on its back and gaping sightlessly up at the sky. The encircling fog was gone and I saw a small crowd in the Whataburger parking lot looking in our direction and pointing.
“We have to get out of here,” I said hoarsely, pushing myself to my feet. My hand and arm were covered in blood – my blood, I realized – and my jeans had a huge bite-shaped tear in them. “We don’t want to end up on someone’s Facebook page.”
“But what about that thing?” Olivia asked, pointing at the demon’s corpse. “We can’t just leave it here, can we?”
I glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to see what I was doing and used Decay. The demon’s body and its collection of skulls slumped into dust, while the chains corroded into rust. I didn’t have an unobtrusive way to disperse the evidence so the groundskeepers were going to have a bit of a mystery on their hands the next time they came by.
“Let’s take the scenic route back to the van,” I told Olivia. “Maybe no one will think we had anything to do with this.” I continued along the gravel path towards the columns, trying not to look over my shoulder to see if anyone was coming to see what might have caused that fog. “Thanks, by the way.”
“For wha
t?”
I glanced at her in surprise. “For saving my life. You just killed a demon lord with your bare hands, remember?”
She stopped in her tracks and stared at me. “Oh my God,” she breathed. “I did, didn’t I?” She looked down at her hands and then hastily scrubbed them on her nightgown. “Ew, I’m going to have to take a bath when we get home. It was all squishy and pulsing and – yuck!” She shuddered and hunched her shoulders.
“Well, I appreciate your sacrifice,” I told her wryly. “The others are going to be sorry they missed out. Which reminds me.” I pulled out my phone, thankfully undamaged by my ordeal. “I need to tell Mrs. Kendricks about this.”
My phone chose that moment to ring. I half-expected it to be Mrs. Kendricks, belatedly warning me about another pending demon attack, but it wasn’t her number. It was Lilixandriel’s. I swallowed my heart back into my chest and answered it. “Hello?”
“I have underestimated thee, Peter Simon Collins,” she said mildly, as if she was commenting on the weather. “Thou hast bested my champion all on thy own, without any of thy troublesome companions to aid thee.”
She doesn’t know Olivia’s with me. “Give it up, Lilith,” I told her with as much confidence as I could muster. “You can’t beat us. You’ll never get the Stone.”
“This is but the opening act of our little play,” she said dismissively. “Bellaxragor, Sadraximbril, and Uxbranidorn were but tests for thee, to gauge thy skill and fortitude. I have thy measure now and mightier lords than these await my summons. Thou shalt find thyself sorely outmatched when comes the climax of our show.”
“Don’t count on it. We have reinforcements coming too.”
Lilixandriel laughed. “Dost thou refer to Agent Prescott and his little band of hunters? They have chased me for years and have naught to show for it. Nay, thou dost strew more lives in the path of thy inevitable destruction. Surrender to me now and spare them their agonizing deaths.”
“I can’t do that, Lilith.”
“Then their fates are sealed, as is thine. Look closely at the headstones at thy feet, Peter Simon Collins, for thine will soon be placed among them.”
Necessary Evil Page 18
