Sensational Six: Action and Adventure in Sci Fi, Fantasy and Paranormal Romance

by Sasha White

  Merc nodded and grabbed another ham. “He can probably clean this off before we go in.”

  “Go in?” I hoped my burp at the end of that short sentence had been discreet enough to be missed.

  “Into the Little Church,” L.K. called from the driver’s seat. “Because that’s where we are and Ralph’s stopped, but only because they aren’t allowing pets.”

  “Hilarious.”

  “No, really. There’s a sign and everything.”

  I trotted to the front of the Bus. Sure enough, they had their huge parking lot cordoned off and there were a variety of signs, one of which clearly stated that no pets were allowed.

  Merc opened the door and Ralph scrambled in, grabbing the ham in his jaws on the way. Yeah, he was hungry, if how fast he ate it was any indication. He also had strong jaws, possibly stronger than mine, because he crunched through the ham bone like it was a banana.

  “He went into the Church,” Ralph said as he finished in record time and we gathered back in what, for want of a better term, I considered the Bus’ living room. “I figured I’d better wait for you.”

  “Why was he able to beat you up here?” Ghouls weren’t normally considered faster than werewolves.

  “No idea, but I’d guess he had warlock help.” Ralph looked and sounded exceptionally irritated. “Just how did he get away? I thought Wagner here was supposed to be watching him.”

  “He was surrounded by four of us,” Jack replied. “Sorry, I guess I assumed your werewolf senses would have noticed when our prisoner took off.”

  “We don’t have time for internal bickering,” I interrupted. I didn’t want to go back to wondering if Ralph, or anyone else, was a mole and so had somehow let Nero escape. We had too much trouble right in front of us. “We’re likely to be facing at least one major minion, probably a whole lot more than one. We need to work together or we’re all going to be dusted.”

  “Good point,” Jack said. “What is our plan?”

  “Call for backup,” L.K. said quietly from the driver’s seat.

  “What? Our team’s out, it’s just us.”

  “I don’t think we’re going to care about that, Vic.” L.K.’s voice was measured but tense.

  I went back to the front, the others trailing after me. It was a big driver and shotgun area, so we all fit, though it was a bit tight. Jack was on one side of me and Ralph was shoved up against the other. I was about to mention that this was a tad too cozy when Sexy Cindy pointed at what I realized L.K. was already looking at.

  “What’s going on?” Her voice shook, but then she hadn’t spent most of her life performing. At least, not on stage and for large audiences.

  Not that I could fault Sexy Cindy for sounding like she was about to lose it. Because I had a feeling fear and horror were the right reactions here.

  The suns – both the one for the human plane and the one for Necropolis – were different. They were blood red for starters, and it was like they were much closer, because we could see the eruptions and solar flares and the like. It looked like death throes.

  A black disc was covering each sun. Normally, you’d think this meant we were in for an eclipse. But one wasn’t scheduled for either plane and the discs weren’t moons.

  I tapped the code into my wrist-com without looking. Some things they trained us to do from the first day on Enforcement payroll, and this was the number one thing.

  “All being alert, all being alert. We have the start of Armageddon. Repeat, we have the start of Armageddon.”

  Chapter 52

  I didn’t wait for replies. “Let’s get everything out of the trunk and get in there.”

  L.K. opened the door and we piled out. I popped the S-Class’ trunk and started handing paraphernalia to the rest of the team. Ralph didn’t even argue about the bullet-proof K-9 vest. Too much.

  “It hinders me,” he muttered as I strapped it around him.

  “You want to go to human, then you can wear the other one.”

  “No, thanks. What’s the plan?”

  “We storm in and kill anything that looks, smells, or acts like minion.”

  “Doesn’t that mean innocent people could get killed?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah, it does. Here’s a news flash – if they bring about Armageddon, all the innocent people will be dead. You pick.”

  “There’s one positive,” Merc said quietly.

  “What’s that? I’d love a positive.” I felt completely out of my depth. Stopping the evil bad guys was my job, on both planes, but stopping Armageddon once it was begun? That wasn’t exactly in the Agent’s Handbook.

  “The suns’ light will be blocked. Meaning that we can have vampiric help.”

  That was a good thing. “Sadly, though, that means any turned vampire they have can show up, too.”

  “All are called to serve in the great war,” L.K. said quietly.

  “Yeah, I know, per you, no one gets out of here alive.”

  “But many have and can still enjoy a vibrant afterlife,” Merc said. “If we don’t panic, that is.”

  It was odd getting calming platitudes from one of the gods of rock, but I let any comebacks pass. “I’m not panicking. I’m managing my stress in a commanding manner.”

  “Wow, you really must have done well on the verbal tests,” L.K. said. “Don’t worry, babe. It’ll all work out. It’s not time for everything to end yet.”

  “Glad you feel so confident.” I looked around. Jack had a bulletproof vest on. Sure, it was made for humans and human bullets, but I had to hope it was going to work. The others could go to mist – I heard Merc giving Sexy Cindy a fast lecture on how – and Freddy, being a zombie, was reasonably safe as long as they weren’t shooting rock salt at him. “Freddy, put on a vest.”

  He did as asked. “Victoria, if I may, what is your plan?”

  “I have no plan other than storming in and shooting things. I don’t know what they’re doing, but spells of this magnitude can be disrupted by the tiniest things. I’m hoping we can all disrupt in more than a tiny way.”

  “But, if you’re right and we’re facing Hitler, then he’s going to be thinking in a military fashion.” Freddy looked around. “You know….”

  I waited, but he didn’t add on anything to that. “I know what? Right now, I don’t feel all that knowing.”

  “Tanks.”

  That was it. Apparently when he was under duress, Freddy went monosyllabic.

  “Yes? Tanks? We have the Tour Bus.”

  “There are all these cars here.” Freddy walked towards the nearest. “And this is the Estates. ‘Safe enough to leave your keys in the car.’ I wonder….” He pulled on the door handle and the driver’s door opened. “Sure enough.”

  “Wow, people are really easily influenced. And, seriously, did you just memorize their advertising?”

  Freddy shook his head. “I told you, Jerry quoted it. Not just these lines, every line about the Estates.”

  A thought crawled up from the back of my mind. “Merc, L.K.”

  They came over. “Nice car,” Merc said. “We borrowing?”

  “Yeah, I think so, credit Freddy with our becoming a tank unit.”

  “I see lots of big ones,” L.K. said. “Several Hummers and similar.”

  “We’ll take those if we can. But I want you both to listen to Freddy recite every bit of Estates advertising propaganda he can remember.”

  All three of them spoke as one. “Why?”

  I headed off for the nearest Hummer. “Because I think they’re part of Hitler’s spell.” And while they weren’t warlocks, they were both musicians and undead proof that the right lyrics had magic in them.

  Sexy Cindy caught up with me. “You want each of us driving?”

  I considered. “If we can, yeah. Ralph needs to ride with someone, though.”

  “I’ll take him with me,” she offered.

  I almost said no, that I wanted him with Jack. But reality reared its head. Jack was a trained policeman, and
Sexy Cindy wasn’t. “Sounds good. Ralph!”

  He raced over. “You want me to go in first?”

  “Bad dog. No, I want you to ride with Cindy.”

  He glared. “Why is that?”

  I opened the Hummer. Nice, keys were in it. How in the world anyone in the Estates kept a car longer than five minutes was beyond me, but I had a suspicion it was because this place was under a heavy spell we’d all missed for far too long. “I want you with Cindy because she’s new and I don’t want my only trained Enforcer shot down in the first wave.”

  “You’re in charge.” Ralph and Cindy trotted off towards another humongous SUV. I hoped she could reach the pedals, but figured if she couldn’t, Ralph could do the highly trained pet thing and push them for her.

  Jack grabbed me and pulled me into his arms. “Be careful.”

  I leaned against his shoulder. “I’ll do my best.”

  He kissed me. It was deep and urgent and far more arousing than the situation should have allowed. “You’re mine, I’m yours, no one in between – right?”

  “Right.”

  “Promise me. No matter what happens, we’re together forever.” He looked worried and possessive and very masculine.

  “Well, forever’s a long time.” I didn’t want to mention that if we failed, forever wasn’t going to last too long for any of us. And he was a human, meaning that even if we won, his forever and mine weren’t necessarily going to mesh.

  Jack shook his head. “I don’t care. I’ll figure out how to last forever, okay? I just want to know that you’ll be with me, when I do.”

  “I will be.” I leaned up and kissed him. “I promise.”

  He hugged me tightly, kissed me one more time, then headed off for a nearby Suburban.

  The others ran for similar vehicles and we started off. It wasn’t too hard to maneuver, the parking lot was huge and orderly. As I barreled towards the front of the Little Church worry flashed a fang. What if I was wrong? What if they weren’t in here at all? What if I blasted in only to find nothing but nice, churchgoing, normal people?

  There are times for prayer. I decided this was one of them. “Yahweh, could I have a sign that I’m doing the right thing?”

  I waited, pedal to the metal, for some sort of clue that this wasn’t going to be a really bad idea. Just as I hit the front steps and worry that I was completely wrong washed over me, a bolt of lightning hit the doors, blasting them open.

  “Thanks,” I murmured as I plowed through, the others right behind me.

  Chapter 53

  The first thing I noticed was that there were no people inside the building. That was nice in that I wasn’t going to run some innocent down. What wasn’t nice was likely to be the answer to the question of where all the people actually were.

  The church wasn’t empty, however. There were a variety of beings there. I recognized most of them. I had no idea if being hit by a big Hummer would cause any of the major minions damage, but I was willing to give it the old college try.

  I aimed for Hitler. He was unmistakable – short, military garb, ridiculous little moustache, funky-ugly haircut, overbearing and supercilious attitude. Not only did he look exactly like he had when he’d been running the Nazi Party, but he was in the center of the dais, pretty much on the exact spot where I figured Johnson did his preaching.

  Hitler had an eerie glow around him and he was waving his hands about. I was pretty sure he was in the middle of casting a huge spell. I wasn’t sure if it was part of the spell already cast or a new one, but decided not to care.

  The Hummer rolled over the comfy stadium-type chairs this place had instead of pews. It was a bumpy ride, but I was sort of high on adrenaline, so I didn’t notice all that much. I took in the rest of the scene, though, just in case.

  Apollyon and Abaddon were flanking Hitler. They looked similar – huge no-longer-angelic wings, meaning they looked more bat-like than feathered. Their faces were beautiful, but distorted by eons of hatred and evil, so they were both compelling and repulsive at the same time. They stood a good ten feet high, and they glowed an ugly, dark red. Apollyon held a flaming sword while Abaddon had a Hellfired crossbow.

  Abaddon took aim, but not towards me. I realized he was shooting towards the car Jack was driving. Well, that wasn’t acceptable.

  I spun the Hummer so it skidded towards the three minions on the dais. It had the double advantage of clearly causing Hitler to stumble and messing up Abaddon’s aim. It had the disadvantage of landing my door right next to Apollyon, who took the opportunity to slice through the metal like it was butter.

  Some things are instinctive, and some beings react more instinctively than others. As far as undeads go, you don’t get more instinct-heavy than a werewolf. Even daemon cats and hellhounds had more instinctive control, though not much. I was in danger, and I did the thing I knew kept me most unalive. I shifted into wolf form – and attacked.

  Apollyon and I went tumbling, mass of claws, wings, and teeth, snarling up a storm. He gave as good as he got, which was a pity. I didn’t feel so great after a few minutes of this, but the positive was he wasn’t doing anything to anyone else.

  I caught Ralph and Abaddon in a similar roll around and kill each other situation. So, we were fighting the big guys. But there were plenty more here who needed distracting, if killing wasn’t going to work.

  I landed a really good chomp on Apollyon’s neck, and risked a look around. Interestingly, Sexy Cindy and Freddy were attacking Hitler and seemed to be making progress. Merc and L.K. were dealing with some of the other minions hanging around. But I didn’t see Jack or the Adversary, nor could I spot Nero. However, what I could see was the fact that I’d been wrong earlier – there were indeed humans here, they were just floating up against the ceiling. I couldn’t tell if they were alive, dead, held in suspended animation, or worse. But I knew without asking that once the spell holding them was broken, they were going to tumble down the four stories and splat onto the floor.

  Apollyon used my temporary distraction grab my stomach and start that horrible insides burning thing the fallen liked to do. It was boil like a cabbage or let him toss me off. I picked flying through the air, landed and scrambled to my paws. Apollyon had his sword in hand again, but he was backing away.

  I would have congratulated myself on being totally badass, but I knew he’d hurt me more than I’d hurt him. I also spotted Abaddon backing away from Ralph. I risked a look around. Our troops were arriving.

  The momentary relief washed away as I looked around some more. The minions were still backing away – all of them, Hitler included. But they didn’t look worried or defeated. They looked smug.

  Smug minions is never a good thing. Risking a look upward, I saw a variety of angels covering the floating humans. Okay, so it wasn’t that. I looked behind again. Nope, our guys were filling the Little Church right up. So, why the happy looks on our enemies’ faces? Something was wrong, and I had to figure it out fast.

  A fact reared up. The Adversary was nowhere around. If this was the big battle, then the Adversary was supposed to lead it. If he wasn’t with us, then what was really going on?

  The base of my tail wanted a word. Just one word. It shared the word and I knew it was right. “It’s a trap!” I bellowed. “All Enforcement personnel clear out!”

  Sadly, this didn’t have the effect I was hoping for. The minions continued to smirk and my side didn’t turn and run. Nothing for it.

  I leaped and landed on the podium where the microphone was. “Clear out! That’s an order!”

  The mic was on and I’d been shouting at the top of my lungs. Anyone who missed that was deaf, because I was loud enough to raise the dead. Some of the Enforcement side started to do as they were told.

  The angels, in particular, didn’t. I knew they were trying to save the humans. But a thought occurred. “They’re an illusion,” I broadcast. “All the humans are tucked away in their homes, waiting for whatever automaton orders may be coming. Bu
t those aren’t real.”

  Jack made it over to me. “Are you crazy? Retreat? We can stop them.”

  “It’s a trap. We need everyone out.”

  “How so?” Ralph and the others were with us now.

  “Illusion. It’s all illusion, like the Hellfire was. It’s not the start of Armageddon. It’s a trap to get rid of all of us.”

  I heard a horrible rumbling sound, like the depths of Hell were coming out through the bowels of the Earth. The doors that had been blasted off the front of the church reappeared and slammed shut. I reminded myself that the bad guys knew how to fake a being into thinking they were getting Godly assistance when they really weren’t. The windows and glass all went black. I didn’t need to ask if they were covered with something we couldn’t get through. I heard a great deal of slamming, indicating that any and all exits were now firmly shut.

  As I was wondering just what was coming next, a voice I knew well but sure didn’t want to spoke up.

  “You were always too smart for these creatures.”

  I turned around. Sure enough, there he was, in all his so-called glory. Twelve feet tall, looking like some sort of cross of every horrible, icky thing in all the planes of existence. Dear old Dad. And, lucky me, there was the Mother of the Ages, standing with him. Family reunion time. I couldn’t wait.

  Chapter 54

  The Adversary shifted – now there was what looked like a man in front of me. It always interested me that, when using human form, the Adversary went for a Big Harp likeness more often than Little. By all accounts, they looked enough alike that it probably didn’t matter, but I figured he liked being larger because it was more intimidating.

  My mother beamed. “Eudora, time to come home.” She took the Adversary’s hand like they were normal beings. “Your father’s been very patient with you, but you must stop this foolishness.”

  “He’s not my father, and you’re not my mother.”

  She shook her head. “You know that’s not true.”

  The Adversary patted her hand. “Now, dear, you know how stubborn our little girl is.”