* * *
My heart rate picked up as we bounced up the hill to the cabin Zola and I had spent so much time at.
“What about Sam?” I said.
“Leave her in the car for now. We must work quickly.”
We emptied the wooden shack to the east. Once the lawnmowers, shovels, and toolboxes were out, I opened Vicky’s trunk and we dragged three potato sacks and a crate into the shack. The sacks began squirming, accompanied by the sounds of gagged screams.
Azzazoth was coming.
“You understand what to do, boy?” Zola had a tight grip on the shack’s flimsy door.
I nodded. “Yeah, let’s hope so. It’s a bit late for doubts now.” I opened the crate and glanced at the little red light. I slid the small garage door opener out and put it in my pocket. One deep breath and I flipped the switch beside the light. It turned green and beeped once. I closed the lid and leaned the three potato sacks against the crate.
Vampires and TNT. My thirteen-year-old self would be very happy with the future in store for it.
I pulled the door closed and left the shack unlocked. Sam was still sitting in Vicky, so I gently pulled her out and walked her over by the shack. I was worried about her being so close to the TNT to start with, but Zola thought it was necessary.
“You sure about this?” I said again.
“Yes, Devon is still alive. The demon will call Sam to him through their link. He won’t go near the shack because it’s blessed.”
“The shack with the lawnmowers?” I said as I raised my eyebrows. “Is blessed?” I sighed and shook my head. “Why would … never mind, I don’t want to know. Let’s get ready.”
Zola followed me to the monstrous oak tree some seventy feet away in the middle of the field. It sat on the largest ley line within ten miles of the cabin. Zola held the book we’d found in Pilot Knob between her hands. Her thumb rubbed over the gilt Latin on the cover.
I closed my eyes and extended my aura, which in turn extended a thin ring of power out in all directions over the lines. I took a slow breath and pulled more power into the ring, pushing it through the cabin and the shack, down to the pond, and back the other way along the gravel road.
My breathing slowed as I listened to the land around us. Death was everywhere at our little home. Zola had buried things here, deer, bears, groundhogs, vampires, people. The ribbons of dead auras flared as my power rolled over them, lending more strength to the thin disc around me, twining my necromancy with the ley lines.
Relief flowed through me when I found a small cluster of Fae auras on the other side of the pond. Foster, Aideen, and Cara were ready. I let the power go. The thin casting pulled back toward my aura and returned the powers of the dead to their rightful places. Just before the disc dissipated, I felt another presence simply appear behind the cabin.
Zola sucked in a breath and turned to look at me.
I nodded once. “He’s here.”
There was a flash of sickly purple and gray light from behind the old cabin, and an unnatural breeze blew through the field. A putrid smell of skunk, rot, and decay clung to the air. I fought not to gag as it stuck it my throat.
An old man hobbled out from behind the cabin. His back was bent at a thirty-degree angle and a thin cane supported him as the breeze blew his sparse, shoulder-length white hair around in a flurry. He’d come from the left, beside the well, though I’d been watching a shadow on the right side of the house the whole time.
The fingers of my left hand tightened on the demon staff while my right thumb caressed the butt of the pepperbox on my right thigh. As the old man grew closer, I could see he was more than old; he was long, long, dead. His flesh looked mummified and dry, something even the maggots would shy away from. He turned his face toward us and there were no eyes amid the ruined flesh. Only a dim purple glow glimmered deep within the sockets.
“Adannaya,” boomed a gravelly voice, entirely wrong coming from the frail, dead body.
Zola laughed and threw her head back. “Your old host can’t protect you now, demon.”
A chunk of flesh fell from the dead man’s neck as his head cocked to one side. “I need no protection.”
The shadow I’d been watching earlier flowed out of the ground and coalesced into a stout man with a black crew cut. He grinned and fangs flashed out.
I jerked in surprise. The resemblance to the rogue vampire threw me off, but, on closer inspection, he was too tall to be the same vampire.
Zola harrumphed and pointed at the newcomer. “And what is he, if not protection?”
Azzazoth laughed. It was dark and gravelly, and utterly unnerving. “Death.” He nodded toward the demon vampire and the purple orbs in Azzazoth’s eye sockets flared brighter. I caught a glimpse of pale wings in the corner of my vision as one of the fairies came down on the demon vampire.
Foster’s sword split his skull in a diagonal slash while Aideen thrust her blade up from the back and through the chest. There was a spray of blood and a wet smack as the body crumpled to the ground. Cara stepped onto the back of the still-twitching body and rammed her sword through its heart.
She looked up and smiled. “Can’t be too careful.” She nodded once and all three fairies blipped out of existence.
Azzazoth roared and twisted his face back to us.
What he found was me, about ten feet away, with my finger on the second trigger of my trusty pepperbox. “I guess that’s round one.” I pulled the trigger and the upper half of Azzazoth’s host vaporized in a fiery storm of gunpowder and gray mist.
The body collapsed in a heap, leaving a pale purple haze above it. The glowing lights, which had inhabited eye sockets ten seconds ago, were the only recognizable part of Azzazoth.
“What now, demon?” Zola said as she pulled my dagger from the sheath at her waist.
Azzazoth growled and the haze thickened. Tendrils of smoke lashed out in several directions, only to curl back into his body. It sent my mind back to the gravemaker and I had to stifle a shiver.
“You, Adannaya? How is it you bear a key of the dead?” He gestured slowly with his fingers, motioning toward the dagger. “Give me the key and I’ll leave you for last as I destroy this land.”
One of his tendrils struck out toward Sam. It didn’t touch her, but she took a step toward the demon. I ground my teeth, but this was part of the plan. Sam needed to get away from the shack.
When she was standing just before the front steps of the cabin, Azzazoth flowed over and around her. I focused my Sight and, as the skin of the world peeled back, I wanted to run screaming. Azzazoth’s true form was hideous. He was still a biped, but his muscles were overdeveloped to a ridiculous degree, his body hunched forward like a gorilla. He had clothing, of a sort. It consisted of over a dozen severed heads tied to a thin rope belt by their hair. All of the heads swung from long hair, leaving their faces to dangle around Azzazoth’s knees. They shifted and bounced off one another as the demon moved. His skin was oil on black water, constantly shifting with faint colors and a slight iridescence.
He had eyes in his true form; vertical slits formed black pupils within a swirling mass where oranges warred with red flames and yellow flares until his eyes looked like the sun’s corona. They were impossible to ignore.
Azzazoth reached out a hand to Sam’s heart, but a flash of light repelled his touch. I let the vision fade with a shudder and looked at Zola.
“We want that thing in the flesh?” I hissed.
Considering our imminent, and likely painful, demise, she flashed me an entirely inappropriate grin.
The mist around Sam darkened and flowed around her. Everywhere the smoky tendrils brushed her, a flash of light rejected Azzazoth’s efforts. Sam stared forward without any reaction as Azzazoth came at her again and again.
He screamed in frustration and the dim purple eyes swirled through the mist, locking onto Zola once again. “What have you done!?”
“You won’t possess her, demon,” Zola whispered.
“I will do as I choose, mortal.” Azzazoth’s voice rose in pitch and thundered through the field around us. Purple light welled up from the center of the mist cloud as it drifted over Sam once more, only to be rejected again with a violent burst of light.
The mist flowed to the other side of Sam and took on a distinct human form. The demon stared at Sam for a moment with a frown. “Where are my other followers, servant? I summoned them here. I know they wait for me.”
My breath caught.
“Behind you, lord,” Sam said.
I cringed at my sister’s lifeless voice and utter subservience.
Zola took that moment to grab the key of the dead by the blade and hurl it at Azzazoth. He laughed outright and easily dodged the blade. He opened his mouth to say something as a flash of white light exploded behind him.
Foster stepped from the light, wings flared, behind the shadow of the demon. He plucked the spinning dagger from the air as casually as he breathed, and jammed it through Azzazoth’s head with a grunt.
Zola raised her staff and snarled the words, “Inferi corpulentus.”
Foster backed through Cara’s portal and disappeared.
The earth shook and groaned, wanting none of the demon in its realm. An overwhelming whirlwind of power tore through the field and the forest beyond. The purple mist of Azzazoth’s body blackened and solidified. The demon screamed as his body was sucked out of the ether to smash into our plane of existence.
Pieces of him bubbled up and filled out: his right arm, then part of his torso, part of his skull. It was like a gorilla-shaped sausage being stuffed before our eyes, only infinitely more terrifying.
I drew my pistol out of reflex more than anything else. We leaned into the wind as it flattened the grass around us. Acorns sprayed from the branches of the oak tree behind us. Everything was being pulled into Azzazoth. I watched the severed heads swell up around his waist as his torso filled out. The last things to come through were his eyes. They were horrifying when he was incorporeal, but in the flesh the damned orbs actually smoldered. Smoke curled up past his bald head and lingered in the air.
“Why, hello mister corporeal,” I said.
“You are a fool, deathspeaker, as is your master.” Azzazoth glared at me; all nine feet of him. “You think to challenge me?” He pounded his scaled chest with his right fist. “I am free. I am invincible in your world.”
I leaned the staff into the crook of my left arm, jammed a speed loader into the pepperbox, and snapped the gun closed. “Maybe. Guess we’ll find out soon.” I holstered the pepperbox and held up my staff. His eyes tracked the staff and I took the opportunity to slide the garage door opener out of my pocket. Such a simple misdirection.
Zola was already running at Sam full speed, she grabbed my staff as she went by and stayed just outside Azzazoth’s reach. His eyes followed her as her feet whispered across the field.
“Hey, monkey boy!”
The beast turned his head back toward me and grinned; it was unnerving at best. “You’re going to die badly, deathspeaker.”
“I get that a lot,” I said. “Catch.” I lobbed Foster’s dark bottle at the demon and he caught it; a small reflex that set an ungodly plan of destruction in motion.
Sam seemed more aware of things when Azzazoth was around. Her head turned and her eyes shifted without the demon commanding her to do so.
I held the detonator out in front of my body. My sister’s eyes trailed down to it while the demon beside her glared at me. My eyes shifted to the small shack with the tiny muffled screams coming out of it. Her eyes followed my gaze, then shot back to me. As she met my eyes again, hers went wide. Her mouth opened and I’m sure she would have warned Azzazoth something was up.
She didn’t have a chance as Zola tackled her to the ground. I saw a flash of light around the staff and Sam was immobilized. Go Zola.
“Minas Opprimotto!” The dark bottle shattered in Azzazoth’s hands. His own blood red aura, tied to the imprisoned soul inside, blasted a hole through his heart chakra like a cannon shot. I smiled and pushed the button.
Holy carnage.
I felt the splinters cut into my face as the blast knocked me down. Azzazoth flew ass over head from the force of the explosion behind him. I knew it wouldn’t hurt him, but it would be one hell of a distraction. Looking back on it, I’m probably lucky I’m not blind. Fire, smoke, dirt, debris, and chunks of vampire screamed a hundred feet into the air on a massive fireball. Tied up in the flames were the auras of the dead vamps, all intertwined with Azzazoth’s own.
The auras didn’t escape. I called them to me.
Angry, powerful, blood-red auras screamed at me as I pulled them in. My hands shook as I strangled each in turn, with as much power as I could handle. I wrapped a pulsing blue veil of raw line energy around each of them and groaned as I tore away a piece of my own soul to bind the entire group. I smashed and kneaded and quickly crushed them into a glowing red sphere the size of a baseball. The soulart shielded me from the shock of knowing my victims, but it was dangerous as hell. The demon could kill me in an instant if it latched onto my soul. I pulled all the power and the auras down between the palms of my hands. It felt like I’d plugged my body into a wall socket as heat and tremors tore through my limbs. Sweat broke from my face and my arms shook with the physical and mental effort of holding three pissed off auras between my outstretched palms in an aural ball.
“Stop him!” Azzazoth screamed at Sam.
The demon was too late. He didn’t know Devon had been in the shed. His bond to my sister had shattered when the shack went up. Now I held the demon’s death in my hands, and Azzazoth’s own aura was damaged beyond anything he could repair quickly. It was better than we’d hoped. Azzazoth was crippled, or he would have vanished by now.
Another surge of adrenaline pumped through my body and I almost giggled as I ran at the nine-foot monstrosity. He pulled back his right arm to flatten me, but at the same moment I jumped at the beast. The ball of force would have been enough to destroy an apartment building. I pushed my palms flat against the scaly chest as the ball hit it and crossed into Azzazoth’s body through the gaping hole in his aura. His oily skin swirled around the penetration point of the aural ball. The instant the ball vanished I screamed, “Infernus phocanen!”
Azzazoth went rigid as my hold on the three auras lifted. The demon clawed at his chest as small bulges formed around his torso. Auras don’t like to be sealed. I threw myself over Zola and my sister in a swirl of dirt, grass, and wood. I shielded them as best I could with my body, turned, and screamed, “Impadda!” The shield sprang up around us.
“No, boy. Drop it,” Zola said.
Against my instincts, I dropped the shield and glanced at my master. She grinned and pushed her staff out to a little circle carved into the dirt. I hadn’t noticed it before. “Orbis tego!” A dome slammed shut over our heads and the world disappeared behind a flowing, glassy shield.
Agony … the demon screamed so loud I was waiting for blood to spray from my ears. I stared and watched as the auras tore out of their prison. Oh man, it was gross. The demon’s mouth snapped shut, his corona-like slit eyes bulged, and a moment later pieces of scaly flesh thundered away from his body in every direction as the scream suddenly vanished from existence. Unmentionable stuff splattered on the shield and dripped and smashed through a cabin window as pieces rained down from the sky for a few more seconds. The insects resumed their evening serenade when the demon fell. I caught a glimpse of a bobcat lurking at the edge of the woods, tentatively crossing to the pond and flicking its tufted ears at every sound.
Some crazy bastard was laughing. Oh, right, that was me.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Sam?” I stared at my sister; still laying on her back in the grass, black hair randomly stuck in every direction, and sat down beside her. She wasn’t moving, but she did have the slow-motion breathing of a vampire. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to find Cara.
She sm
iled, squeezed, and let go. “Sam will be fine. Her body is adjusting. Having a bond destroyed so … creatively will take some time to recover from.” She paused and nodded. “Well done, boy. Well done.”
“Fairy!” Zola said. “Don’t tell him that. It will go straight to his head.”
“Nah,” Foster said, “It’ll just go straight through his head.” He laughed as Aideen slapped him. He grinned and kicked a chunk of demon across the yard. It made a wet splat as it caught the old oak tree.
“Now pick that up,” Zola said.
“What?” Foster said as he cocked an eyebrow and flared his wings.
“Start gathering up the pieces,” Zola said. “We’ll bury the demon here.” She looked around and pointed. “Actually, there, under the fire pit. There’s still a dead aura around him we can use.” She glanced at me and smiled. “Sam will be okay if we leave her there for a few minutes.”
I picked Sam up and laid her gently on the wooden porch. I don’t know if vampires have issues with snake bites, but southern Missouri has a lot of copperheads, and I really didn’t want to find out. After Sam was settled, I leaned over, kissed her hairline, and stood up. “You know, this place is in the middle of nowhere. You really think we need to bury more dead things here?”
Zola cleared her throat and pointed at the pile of demon guts near the smoking remains of the shack.
“Right. We did just kill a demon here, didn’t we? Might need to do that again some day.”
“You always were a good student.”
I laughed and grabbed the wheelbarrow we’d moved out of the shack before we turned it into a crater. Foster helped me load up a few pieces before Zola pushed me away.
“You two dig the hole. Cara and Ah are just old women and we need Aideen to keep up our morale.”
“Speak for yourself!” Cara said with a smile.
Foster walked over to the side of the cabin, picked up a shovel, and tossed it to me. I caught it as he grabbed another.
“Don’t you have a spell for this or something?” he said.
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