A volcano of power surged through David, and he lunged from his slumped position to his feet. He scooped the minigun up into his arms and braced it against the wall. The sound of metal thumping on plaster caught the demon noble’s attention, and David saw him begin to turn.
The cop never let Ekhmez finish the motion. He pulled the trigger on the minigun and let recoil press it against the wall as he used his prodigious strength to hold the stream of silver on the demon.
No bullet, not even silver, not even the high-velocity minigun rounds, could penetrate the defenses of a high court demon. But not even a high court demon could withstand the kinetic force of so many bullets. The bloodsword slipped from Ekhmez’s grip as the minigun’s last hundred or so rounds picked the monster up and flung him across the room.
David moved before the demon even hit the floor, leaving the gun half-embedded in the wall as he snatched the bloodsword from the ground and charged the creature that had left so many corpses in its wake.
Ekhmez rose from the ground with lightning speed, nearly a match for David’s own. The ONSET Commander met the demon’s eyes and knew that if he missed, he was dead.
The demon parried with its arms, but the sword sang with willing power and sliced clean through the ichor-forged flesh. David held the monster’s eyes for an eternity, and then the demon’s head toppled from its shoulders as its body collapsed into black goo.
Epilogue
Vanessa Loring waited in the back corner of the tiny New York café—on the opposite end of Manhattan from OSPI HQ—wondering when her Omicron contact was going to show up. Charles had told her that someone would meet her in this place, and the time was less than a minute away.
The café was an imitation French affair, with umbrella-topped circular tables separated by low patio fencing. The effect was slightly spoiled by the fact that it was late November and the entire café was inside of an office-building atrium.
The hacker had found herself nervously doing her hair and nails before coming there, something she hadn’t bothered with in years. She suspected she knew who Charles would send to meet her. The Omicron personnel had interrogated her about how she’d penetrated their systems, and both her use of David’s email to break through and her attempt to blackmail him had come up.
Her suspicion was confirmed when the door to the café swung open at exactly two twenty-five and a stocky man in a long navy blue duster belted tight against the winter chill stepped in. He was dark-haired and unscarred but moved with a grace that sent shivers of fear and desire down Vanessa’s spine.
The familiar man stepped over to her table and looked down at her, his eyes unreadable.
“Ms. Loring?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” she replied. “You are?” she asked, though she was almost sure she knew.
“Commander David White, ONSET,” the stocky agent said firmly. “May I join you?”
“Certainly,” she agreed, gesturing to the chair opposite her. “I presume you are my jailer?”
Vanessa had no illusions about her ability to escape this meeting. While White was her contact, at least two other people in the café were his support, and she was reasonably sure she’d spotted a sniper outside.
“No,” the Omicron man told her, his voice drawing out the single syllable. “I am here to discuss the terms of your freedom.”
“And they are?” she asked carefully, wondering what the organization that she suspected now knew everything about her past would want.
“You saved lives with your warning,” White said gently. “One of them was mine. Any personal debt between us is clear.”
The hacker known as Majestic nodded in silence. That was far more than she’d ever hoped for.
“And with your employers?” she asked.
“As of this morning,” he told her quietly, “your file with the FBI was deactivated. No one will be hunting you. No one will be chasing you. It is a closed book.”
“A pardon?”
“No,” the government agent told her, his eyes watching her. It was an uncomfortable feeling to have him watch her. She was sure he was seeing more than she wanted him to. “A chance. If you return to your old ways, the file will reopen, and Omicron will lend our considerable aid to the FBI in tracking you down.”
Vanessa stared at him. On the one hand, they were offering a clean slate. On the other, they were threatening to destroy her entire life and livelihood.
“It is our opinion,” White said, his voice still ever so soft, “that you are perfectly capable of finding a legitimate employment for your talents. While the decision has been made at a higher level that you are too much of a loose cannon for us to hire you, Charles said to suggest working as a security consultant—and to expect him to call you from time to time.”
The hacker leaned back in her chair and regarded the cop. They were suggesting she turn white hat—protect the very systems she’d once taken so much pleasure in breaking. Take on the other side of the battle of wits she’d always enjoyed. The side that didn’t hurt people.
Oddly enough, the thought had never seriously occurred to her, and she nodded slowly as she regarded the supernatural sitting across the table from her. David White looked like a normal if heavily built human being. She knew better. She’d watched him walk into a fortified bunker and clear it alone. More, Charles had allowed her to see an edited version of the footage from his assault on OSPI HQ.
“Did they let you keep the sword?” she asked softly to buy herself time. At David’s questioning look, she shrugged and smiled. “Charles felt I had the right to find out how things had ended.”
He nodded slowly and twitched the long coat back. A thick hilt protruded from his belt, but the scabbard looked far too short to be for a sword.
“That looks like a knife,” she observed, and he twitched a smile. White quickly glanced around the room to be sure no one was watching, and slid the sword partially out of its sheath. In a moment, there was more steel visible than the scabbard had looked like it could hold. Vanessa could make out some sort of lettering on the blade.
“The scabbard is a pocket dimension,” White told her. “The pun is horrible, but I got lost when they tried to explain it beyond that. The blade is Elsewhere until I draw it.”
“What does the writing say?” she asked as he resheathed the sword, more curious than buying time now.
“Memoria,” David said simply. “Latin for ‘remembered.’ The rest is the names of the men and women Ekhmez killed to forge it. To make sure I never forget.” He shrugged. “We couldn’t seriously damage the blade or unmake its magic, but we could at least laser-etch it.
“Now,” he said firmly, his gaze meeting hers. “We are here to talk about you. Do you have an answer to our offer?”
Vanessa Loring looked at the man across the table. This man had walked out of a normal life and into something extraordinary. He’d fought and killed a demon lord. Everything he did was to protect people. That desire gave him strength, and she found herself wanting to share it. To, like him, take her gifts and use them to protect others.
“Yes,” she said firmly. “I’ll take your offer. And Charles’s suggestion. Maybe it’s time I tried to some good in the world.”
“That’s all we try for,” David White told her. “To do some good. To serve and protect.”
###
If you enjoyed the novel, please leave a review!
To be notified of future releases, join my mailing list or visit my website at http://www.faolanspen.com
Other books by Glynn Stewart
ONSET
ONSET: To Serve and Protect
ONSET: My Enemy’s Enemy (upcoming, see www.faolanspen.com for latest estimated launch date)
Duchy of Terra
The Terran Privateer
Duchess of Terra (upcoming, see www.faolanspen.com for latest estimated launch date)
Castle Federation
Space Carrier Avalon
Stellar Fox
Batt
le Group Avalon
Q-Ship Chameleon (upcoming, see www.faolanspen.com for latest estimated launch date)
Starship’s Mage
Starship’s Mage: Omnibus
Hand of Mars
Voice of Mars
Alien Arcana (upcoming, see www.faolanspen.com for latest estimated launch date)
Stand Alone Novels
Children of Prophecy
City in the Sky
ONSET: To Serve and Protect Page 38
