by Daley, Lysa
I scurried toward the warehouse. As I got closer to the entrance, I slowed to see if anyone was watching me. I saw nothing. It was as this area was devoid of life. There were no animals, or birds, or even bugs around.
I felt like the only living thing in some weird dead zone.
Focusing my thoughts, I downsized my rodent status even further into a tiny dark gray mole. The light immediately hurt my eyes and my vision blurred. I had the urge to burrow myself into a nice dark tunnel.
Rooting along with exterior wall, I could actually smell the depth of the soil beneath my feet. I stopped about a yard away from the door where the earth smelled shallow.
I burrowed into the ground. The digging felt similar to swimming in water. I tunneled through the soil and only had to descend about eight inches until I found the base of the aluminum wall. I shimmied under and began my ascent.
But something wasn’t right. Moles were very sensitive to light. On my way back up, the light from above ground should have been seeping in. But there was nothing. Just darkness
Finally, I could dig no more.
I’d hit concrete. There was no way I could push through the flat slab of floor above.
Chapter Twenty-Four
How stupid had I been thinking I could burrow through?
My little paws pushed up against the cold hard cement. It was immovable.
Great, now what was I going to do?
Stryker was waiting outside. He’d get impatient and kick down the door if it took me too long. Which would trigger the wards and cause all sorts of complications.
I spun my little body over in the somersault to get back to the other side of the wall. Using my shovel-like feet, I hadn’t gone more than two inches when I sensed a small patch of light off to my right. Even though I was nearly blind, my whiskers were super sensitive. It was almost as if I could almost smell the light waves.
I instinctively made the decision to head towards it. Perhaps it was a break in the concrete floor. Working as fast, I tunneled over to the light and found that indeed there was a slight crack above my head. It wasn’t big enough for me to be able to push my way through.
At least not yet.
Using all my strength, I pressed upward, while scratching at the crack. Slowly, the granules of cement crumbled inward. Once the fissure was large enough, I used my flat head to break all the way through, pulling my tiny body out onto the cold concrete warehouse floor.
I shook myself off. I couldn’t see more than a few blurry inches in front of me. Even with my terrible eyesight, I could sense movement in the distance.
What was it? Who was it?
I couldn't tell.
From outside the walls the sound of Stryker’s voice filtered in, “Lacey! Where are you?”
I had to make a decision. Any second now, he’d come crashing through that door if I didn't get it open, and we’d lose the element of surprise. Of course, the old element of surprise may have gone out the window when Stryker started yelling at me from outside.
I closed my eyes, hoped for the best, and shifted back into my natural form. Because of my terrible vision, I had no idea who I would find around me. For all I knew, Bernardo would be standing five feet away from me. Instantly, I put a hand over my shoulder, pulling the crossbow in front of me.
But I didn't need it. Bernardo was nowhere in sight.
Three teenagers - two girls, one boy - bound at the wrist and ankle, and barely conscious, lay nearby on tattered cots. Real blood slaves. They were so young this couldn’t be legal. You had to be 21-years-old to consent to being a blood slave.
The inside of this warehouse almost literally pulsed with dark energy. Whatever was going on here was some bad shit.
I hurried to the front entrance. There were no wards preventing me from opening it. Quietly as possible, I twisted an industrial deadbolt and cracked the large metal door open.
“What took so damn long?” Stryker’s impatient face glared back at me. He’d been pacing. “I was worried about you.”
“I'm fine,” I said as he slipped inside. I pointed to the bodies on the cots. “I think we’re in the right place.”
He marched over and picked up one of the limp arms, checking their pulse. I followed, gazing down at the fresh-faced boy with sandy brown hair on the last cot. All three had needles in their arms to slowly drain their blood. It was like a never-ending blood donation center, without the juice or donuts at the end.
“Are they dead?” I asked, fearing that they’d suffered the same fate as Sam, and at any moment they would be turned into rising vampires sworn to defeat us
He shook his head. “They’re alive. No good to him dead.”
“What do we do?”
“We'll deal with them later.”
I couldn’t just leave them there like that. I quickly pulled the needles from their arms. That was the least I could do. As I turned to walk away, the sandy-haired boy grabbed my arm and tried to sit up. I let out a little scream and yanked my arm away.
“Stop… him,” he said, barely above a whisper.
“Bernardo?” Stryker asked.
“Demon. The demon is inside him.” The weak and terrified boy managed to raise a shaky finger, pointing toward the back of the warehouse.
Stryker muttered, “Dammit. That's what I was afraid of.”
“We should call for backup?” I suggested now that the situation was worse than we had expected.
He shook his head. “No time. Get that shiny crossbow out.” Stryker marched in the direction the boy had pointed. “Looks like it's showtime.”
Clutching my crossbow with shaky hands, I followed closely behind him.
The boy had pointed toward a door in a dark corner at the back of the warehouse that had been propped open with the cinderblock. It led into a shadowy hallway. From where we stood, it appeared to open up to a smaller chamber at the end of the hall.
The low sound of chanting drifted out toward us. Stryker looked at me, and I nodded. We both knew what it was.
Bernardo was summoning his demon.
Stryker again took the lead as we crept to the end of the passageway. A totally black room opened up before us.
A hooded figure stood with his back to us, arms raised, and chanting in what could only be ancient Sumerian, the language of ancient magic. On the black floor, a large pentacle had been drawn out in blood.
Bernardo was summoning a demon into the pentacle, where this monster from the lower world would be a bound prisoner in this realm until his master Bernardo instructed him to leave.
“The good news is he hasn't raised the demon yet,” Stryker whispered to me. “The bad news is, this isn't the first time he's called this demon into our realm.”
“How do you know that?”
“That blood on the floor looks old, like it's been here for a while. Once you establish a summoning pentacle, you can’t change it. We need to stop before he finishes or else…“ He trailed off.
I didn’t exactly know what the or else was, but I figured I didn’t need to know. I’m sure it was horrible.
Black smoke that smelled like sulfur filtered up from the ground. The smoke was strange and otherworldly, roiling almost like boiling water.
Brimstone.
Into the center of it, formed a massive phantom. The hellish energy of this terrible creature hit me as a wave of despair and hopelessness filled me. So much dark magic filled the space. I had the sense that my life force was being sucked out of me.
Stryker advised me. “Armor yourself, Lacey. Don't let that thing have any control over you. A creature of darkness has no power over you unless you give it to him. Do not give it to him.”
He was right. That's what we’d always been taught. But now that I was here, so close to something so evil, it seemed much harder to fight.
I filled myself with light. Armoured myself with white magic.
It must've worked because Stryker nodded affirmatively. “Thatta girl.”
“Why is he
doing something so dangerous?” I asked.
“For power,” Stryker answered. “That’s the only reason anyone would summon a demon. He probably wants this hellish thing to help him destroy Santina and her crew. Maybe he thinks he can take over the coven.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Totally insane,” Stryker agreed. “Especially since the demon may take control of Bernardo before Bernardo can take control of him. Every time the demon is summoned, it gains strength in this realm.”
“The risk sure doesn’t seem worth the reward,” I murmured.
Stryker was forming a plan. “Okay, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to hold off the demon, and you're going to kill that vampire.”
“Wait. Me? You want me to kill it? I thought I was here to help YOU kill it.”
“It’s too late. They’re both here now. Would you prefer to deal with the demon, and I'll kill the vampire?”
“No,” I understood. He was giving me the easier of two impossible tasks.
“Can you do it?”
I thought about Sam. Thought about what would happen to him if I failed. I’d been here before and failed. Big time. Now there was no room for hesitation. “I can do it. I can kill the vampire.”
“Okay,” he said, moving out into the open. I thought I saw a look of doubt on his face. “Be ready.”
While he was inside the pentacle, the demon, still a fiery vaporous mist, swirling and terrible, grew taller and stronger. The demon saw Stryker and locked his eyes on him. His hellish laugh sent a terrifying shiver down from my head to my toes.
While inside the pentacle, the demon could hold his natural demon form. A form that allowed him to travel from one plane of existence to another. What planes those were none of us living knew for sure.
Eventually, we would all crossover the veil of death and get that answer.
Unfortunately, at the moment, Bernardo, who also realized we were there, had ordered the demon to throw scorching balls of fire at us.
“Get out of the way!” Stryker yelled, pushing me out of the path of one of the deadly brimstone projectiles. We both tumbled to the hard concrete floor.
I quickly sprang up to a squatting position. “What's your plan? How are you going to get them out of the pentacle?”
“I’m going to break the pentacle.”
Once a pentacle was formed it became impenetrable from the inside. If the pentacle was broken, the demon can take any earthly form it chooses. At that point, he would be most dangerous and most vulnerable.
“But you’ll have to get past the vampire to get to the demon. No offense, you may be strong, but you’re not stronger than a vampire and a demon,” I said.
“Oh yeah?” He winked, pulling a badass looking gun from his jacket. “Watch this.”
Before I could reply, Stryker surged toward the pentacle.
Vampires were easily twice as strong as humans. You’d have to be the dumbest human ever to pick a fight with a vampire. But there Stryker was, flying through the air, arms outstretched, ready to take on Bernardo.
The vampire seemed surprised to find Stryker hurtling his body towards him but quickly adjusted. At close range, Stryker fired. Amazingly, the vampire easily dodged the bullet.
At first the fight was pretty one-sided. Bernardo lazily reached up and grabbed Stryker, throwing him into the ground. He marched over and gave him a good swift kick in the gut, then kicked the gun away.
I raised my crossbow and tried to take aim. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a clear shot.
What was Stryker thinking? Was there a strategy to this? I thought the plan was for me to go after the vampire and Stryker to deal with the demon? If Stryker was getting his ass handed to him by Bernardo, there was no way I could defeat him.
Meanwhile, this little break was allowing the demon to grow in strength and size. He seemed to be enjoying watching Bernardo pound on Stryker.
I started looking for the exit. If they killed Stryker, I would most certainly be next. I could barely watch as Stryker got pummeled.
But then the most unexpected thing happened.
Stryker, weak and bloody, began to change. The shirt on his back ripped in half, the buttons popping off as his body grew larger, easily tripling in size. Fur sprouted everywhere and his face turned into that of a wild beast.
“Oh my God,” I muttered under my breath. “He’s a werebear.”
Stryker was a wizard and a werebear. It was almost unheard of for something like this to happen. His leather jacket hung in tatters off his shoulders. How many jackets had he gone through?
One of the differences between being a were-creature and an animagus was that when animagi shifted, all of our belongings—be it clothes, jewelry, bags, weapons—changed with us and were completely untouched. The real difference was control. Weres had none. If we were skilled, animagi had all the control in the world.
Bernardo looked wildly around, ready to make a break for it. Even a crazy strong vampire wasn’t stupid enough to take on an angry adult male werebear.
But it was too late. Stryker strode forward, picked him up over his head, then swung him around and tossed him. Bernardo rolled across the floor toward the demon’s pentacle. The blood outline of the five point star smeared, just a tiny bit. But it was enough to break its impenetrable interior.
The ethereal hellish demon instantly transformed into an earthly beast. He shrunk in size but was still ferocious. Taller than the werebear but not as bulky.
Seizing the opportunity, the werebear lunged at the demon, pushing him fully out of the pentacle. Even with his greater size and strength, I still wasn't sure that Stryker could defeat a lesser demon.
The demon stepped forward and backhanded Stryker, sending him airborne and slamming the huge beast into the floor fifteen feet away. Stryker couldn’t hold him for long. The freed demon was after him.
To my left, Bernardo rolled to his side then slowly dragged himself to his feet. Limping, he headed toward the exit.
I hesitated, knowing that I was supposed to go after him. I clutched the crossbow even more tightly. I was afraid. I was a scholar. Not a vampire hunter.
From the ground, Stryker saw my hesitation, and let out a roar. Werebear speak for: what are you waiting for?
I swallowed my fear. Now or never.
Bernardo dragged himself into the hallway heading for the front exit—a good forty yards across the warehouse.
I followed, stopping at the end of the passageway.
He was already a third of the way there. I wasn't sure how good my aim would be with the crossbow. I only had three arrows with me, so I had to make the most of them.
“Bernardo!” I yelled, taking aim.
He didn't stop, but he glanced over his shoulder. His hesitation was enough for me to release the arrow.
I held my breath, hoping that my aim would be true and the arrow would find its mark.
But Bernardo saw it coming and dodged to the left at the last instant, allowing the arrow to skid past.
Dammit!
I marched forward, pulling the second arrow from my quiver. It was trickier to load the crossbow than I expected, but my fumbling fingers finally snapped the arrow into place.
As I raised the bow a second time, Bernardo arrived at the front door. If he got outside, I was screwed. I took aim, ready to fire.
He pushed the door. But it didn’t budge. The exit was now blocked with fresh wards all around the door. He let out a low, angry growl.
Stryker must have secured it with his own wards when we arrived.
An instant before I pulled the trigger, Bernardo darted towards a dark metal stairwell in the corner.
As he climbed, I tried to aim, but didn't have a clear shot. That meant I had to follow him up into darkness. Two arrows remained.
Still, because of the close quarters, I slung the crossbow over my shoulder and followed him up the narrow industrial stairway that led to rafters.
If he attacked me from close range, I cer
tainly couldn’t get a shot off with a crossbow. I’d need something more appropriate for hand-to-hand combat.
I reached into my bag and pulled out an old-fashioned wooden stake. But with a wooden stake, I’d have to get in really close to be able to use it. And that was the last thing I wanted to do.
Not that I had much of a choice.
Chapter Twenty-Five
It had gotten too quiet in this part of the warehouse. Behind me, I could hear booms and crashes and the intermittent scream of what must be the battle between Stryker and the demon. By the sounds of it, Stryker was losing.
Before I reached the bottom of the metal stairs, I heard the clomping of feet climbing higher. Now I heard nothing. The building’s odd creaks and moans felt like some sort of warning.
I clutched the stake tightly in my sweaty hand feeling like, at any second, I was going to be ambushed by Bernardo. I slowly mounted the stairs, step by step, in near total darkness.
Around the first narrow landing, something flashed above. I stopped and stood frozen. A little wave of panic bubbled up in my throat. Instinctively, I raised the stake overhead, ready to plunge it down into his already cold dead heart.
But the movement was only a shadow. A flickering of light.
Catching my breath, I cautiously continued my ascent, knowing that the vampire was somewhere ahead of me in the dark.
Finally, I turned up the final flight of stairs, arriving in a long narrow space that served as some sort of utility area with a tangle of vents and pipes sprouting in every direction.
The hot, uncomfortable air felt toxic up here.
At first, I didn’t see Bernardo.
I glanced over the edge of a metal railing to the concrete floor two stories below. I inched my way forward, sliding the wooden stake into one of the belt hooks in my jeans, and pulled the crossbow back in front of me.
It was quiet. Too quiet.
Each step took me closer to the corner of the building, and a blind turn. Tiptoeing, I crept to the corner and cautiously peered around.
There was Bernardo. His back to me. Not ten yards away, moving toward something unseen in the distance.
