I took a deep, calm breath and focused, pressing my hand down on the cold stone floor of the tunnel. It began to vibrate, gently at first, but it became a violent earthquake in no time, shaking the ground below the demons and I. The ride didn’t have much effect on their attack, but that wasn’t why I had created the shockwaves.
Instead, I focused on the kinetic energy they were producing, pulling it into me, holding it around myself like an invisible singularity. I pulled it tighter and tighter, and as I felt the first hand grab my vulnerable neck, I released it. The energy crashed into the nightstalkers, throwing them away from me, slamming them into the sides of the tunnel or in both directions down the tube.
I rose to my feet as my body knitted itself back together and then ran towards three that had been thrown down the tunnel. They were stunned, and it made it easy to wrap my arms around their necks and rip off their heads.
Once that was done, I turned back around to check on Obi. He had pulled a blessed knife from somewhere on his body and was making quick work of the two nightstalkers that had been thrown his way. Divide and conquer, except the ones that had eaten the walls were recovering. I focused on my legs and threw myself forward, covering thirty feet in one powerful leap, landing just short of the former marine.
“There’s no point in sticking around to finish them,” I said. “They won’t follow us out of the tunnels.”
“Back this way,” Obi said. “I have to make sure my guys don’t come back down here.”
I raced over to where Kelsie’s body was lying and gently scooped it up into my arms. She had been such a pretty little girl. I wasn’t eager to share the news with Trish or Sarah. I looked back at the nightstalkers. They had regrouped, but they weren’t giving chase. They just stood there watching us leave.
“Something’s wrong,” I said, motioning back towards them with my head. “Why are they giving up?”
I hadn’t been paying attention. I turned my head back and saw Izak standing right in front of us, his eyes trained on Kelsie, his expression pure rage. He looked up at me, and I could see the fires of his anger dancing in his eyes. I was taken by the threat of his unspoken power, sizzling in the air around him.
Obi had his gun on the demon in a blink, only to have it ripped away by an unseen force. Izak turned it towards him, cocking the trigger with an invisible hand.
“Izak,” I shouted. “No.”
The demon looked at me, and the gun clattered on the stone. Obi bent down and picked it up, keeping his eyes trained on the fiend.
“Why don’t you ever warn me about the company you keep?” Obi cried.
I didn’t pay him any mind. I felt a desperate pressure on my soul.
“Sarah,” I said. Something was definitely wrong.
“Landon, help me.” She was scared and in pain. A moment later she was gone.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Sarah,” I shouted. The anger was real. I could feel the heat of it rising from my chest. I could see it echoed in Izak’s expression. “Goddamn it,” I yelled as loud as I could, the epithet echoing off the walls. I focused on the rock above us, pulling at the stone in desperation. I needed to get to the surface, to get back to Sarah. The earth crumbled beneath my will, dropping to the floor in huge clumps.
“Landon,” Obi said, grabbing me and throwing me to the ground. It broke my focus. “You’re going to kill us all, man. Tell me what the hell is going on and I’ll help you.”
“Sarah,“ I said again. “Something’s happened. I need to get to her.”
“Come on,” he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me up. He led me out of the tunnel, back to the subway platform and up onto the concourse. His patrolmen were there, and he ordered them to keep the civilians out of the tunnel, that a collapse had ruined the crime scene. They looked at me, but all they saw was a homeless man carrying a duffel.
His car was parked right outside the 34th Street entrance. We jumped in and he hit the gas, his siren blaring a path in the otherwise unforgiving crush of traffic. I directed him through the city streets, the car careening in a controlled wildness as he raced along.
I jumped out of the car before Obi could slam it to a stop, had the manhole cover thrown aside, and was underground before he got out of the door. I could sense him following behind, but I didn’t care. I had promised to protect Sarah, and now something had happened and I wasn’t there. I focused, powering my legs, propelling myself forward. I left Izak and Obi way behind.
Eight minutes. That’s how long it had taken me to get from Penn to Sarah’s shanty town. It was eight minutes too late. The tents, tarps, cardboard, and plastic had been shredded and thrown around the cavernous room as though a tornado had somehow managed to form below the surface. Cookware, electronics, clothing; all of the Awake resident’s worldly possessions lay scattered on the cement. The vagrants themselves hadn’t fared much better. The bodies that hadn’t been taken were tossed around like discarded old dolls, fresh blood still pooling around them, leaking from gaping wounds and missing appendages.
In the center of the carnage was Sarah’s tent. It was the only thing still standing, pristine and innocent, as if it were immune to the reality of the world outside of it. The flap of the tent was drawn closed, and I didn’t sense anything inside. Whatever had done this, it was gone.
“Sarah,” I shouted. I knew it was useless, but I did it anyway. If she were okay, she would have kept the connection. I looked at the tent with apprehension. I had to know, but I didn’t want to.
Pounding feet alerted me that Obi and Izak had finally caught up. They came to a quick stop behind me, Izak falling to his knees and doubling over with his hands over his face.
“Oh my god,” Obi said, his breath catching.
“If it was, I’m going to kill Him,” I said. So many feelings bubbling up, strange sensations that I had lost the understanding for. It was violent, calm, and cold. The tent. I started walking towards it. Obi scrambled to catch up, leaving Izak on the ground in despair.
The smell of death inside the tent was unmistakable, and it grew stronger as I approached. One body, a woman. There was another smell too, Sarah’s perfume. She had started wearing it a few months ago in an effort to get the attention of a boy in school. Her efforts had gone unrewarded, victim to another immature male that could admire her physical endowments, but couldn’t overlook her physical shortcomings.
I stopped at the flap of the tent and glanced over at Obi. My face must have been betraying my feelings.
“I can look for you,” he said. Despite our disagreements, he was still there when I needed him.
“No,” I said. “Stay out here.”
I took a deep breath and focused, pushing the nylon aside without touching it. The inside of the tent was dark, but I could see it clearly in black and white. My eyes traced along the floor, hesitant to make contact with the body that I knew was there. When they did, I breathed out heavily.
It was Trish.
I only had a second to feel the relief. My Sight exploded with heat and pressure, and the back corner lit up in a circle of flame. A Hell rift. I didn’t have time to react before I was thrown backwards out the tent by an unseen force. I slammed to the ground twenty feet away, sliding along the blood slicked floor.
I saw Obi turn to watch my flight, and then he dove towards the side of the tent just in time to avoid the attention of the demon that burst out of it. It was a monster I had never seen before, a mass of liquid darkness that undulated and flowed like oil around a black, skeletal face. The undulations molded and changed as it moved, becoming a foot, an arm, a claw, pushing off the floor at an impossible speed, propelling it towards me.
I focused, making myself stronger, spun my body and launched myself off the floor towards the creature, the force of the maneuver pressing the cement down into the earth. I hurtled towards the demon like a bullet, holding out my hand to grab onto the face. Its body changed in response, moving aside, the head disappearing behind the liquid flow. It slammed m
e with a monstrous fist as I barreled by, changing my direction and sending me crunching into the wall. Pain blossomed through dozens of broken bones, and I sucked in a weak breath. I focused again, knitting myself back together with as much speed as I was able.
The demon was flowing towards me, closing the distance in no time. I rolled away just in time to avoid a blade that formed in its chest and stabbed out at me. Its face surfaced from the mass and leered, enjoying my mad scramble.
Gunshots echoed through the room, passing harmlessly through the demon to put deep chips in the wall behind us. The creature turned its head to look at Obi, then dismissed him. It rounded on me and lashed out with multiple new appendages. I avoided the blade, but a clawed hand scraped across my chest, ripping open my skin. I grunted in pain and backed away from the demon.
I heard a soft rustle, and then Izak was between the demon and I, a sword in his hand, lit up in hellfire. He had shed the heavy coats, revealing a perfectly chiseled upper body coated in demonic runes. The wraith stabbed out at him with multiple blades, but the fiend was faster than I had realized. He circled around the blades, bringing his sword down on one of the appendages. The hellfire burned right through it, and the dismembered end vanished in a haze of black smoke.
The monster recoiled, and then expanded and rose up, liquid legs stretching to allow it to tower over us. Its face rose to the surface and howled, sharp edges sprouting along its entire length. Izak stabbed his sword into the cement and dropped into a prayer squat, putting his hands together. He threw them wide as the demon collapsed onto us, the air above us exploding in flame. The creature shrieked and fell back, the edges of it singed and smoking.
Izak looked back at me with death in his eyes, and pointed over at Sarah’s tent. I nodded, focusing my will on the nylon structure and hurling it at the black mass. The demon was recovering, and a pointed limb launched towards Izak like a harpoon. The fiend saw it coming and smacked it away with his sword. A moment later the tent slammed into the hellspawn, covering it in nylon, wrapping it up like a net. Izak looked at me.
“Do it,” I said.
He put his hands together again, then spread them out and forward toward the tent. The demon was struggling below it, and tendrils of black were beginning to snake out from underneath. It was too late. The hellfire lit up the nylon in an instant, giving the creature little time to scream before enveloping it as well.
Izak walked over to the smoldering pile of ash that was left behind, and then knelt down and spit on it. I stood there, stunned. I knew so little about the demon that had raised Sarah. I had always imagined he was a minor fiend, a standard underling to a much more powerful archfiend. I should have known better; Josette’s brother hadn’t cut out his tongue for nothing. Still, the display of power had been shocking. Reyzl had exhibited only a fraction of the control over hellfire that Izak had, and he had done his fair share of damage to me with it.
After being burned by the stuff, I had learned as much about it as I could. It was pulled into the mortal world directly from the fires of Hell, not completely unlike the way angels were able to conjure their swords. It was difficult to create, difficult to control, and extremely powerful; not something that could be mastered by any old hellspawn. I could heal from it, but not quickly, and not without staying completely motionless and focusing on the affected area. Generating the holy water had been a one-off, a gift from Josette. I had never been able to do it again.
“What the heck was that thing?” Obi asked. He had been the odd man out in the dance, but now he rushed over to stand with me.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
His face darkened and he looked over to where the tent used to be. “Sarah?”
I shook my head. “She wasn’t in there.”
Izak had gotten back to his feet, and he walked over to where we were standing. His eyes still blazed red, and his bare chest was coated in a sheen of sweat. As soon as he reached us, he held out his arm, offering me his sword.
“Keep it,” I said. “Gervais?”
The demon looked around the room, taking in the destruction. He shrugged.
Someone had taken Sarah, and not only that had left a surprise for whomever returned to find her gone. Josette’s brother had every motive in the world to re-abduct his daughter, and to spring something nasty on his former minion. He also would have known the fiend’s power, and what type of creature he would have to summon to be a match for him.
“Landon?” Obi reached out and put his hand on my shoulder.
My hand snapped up and I pulled it away, the force causing the former marine to take a few steps back. My mind echoed with anger and rage, so unfamiliar and yet coming on so strong. I wanted to hurt, to kill. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to steady myself.
“Hey, man,” Obi said. “I’m sorry.”
I opened my eyes and looked at him. It was like seeing him for the first time in years. He didn’t look a day older than he had when I had pushed some of my power into him, giving him some of the strength of the Divine. He had aged though, I could see it in his eyes.
“No,” I said. “I’m sorry. This isn’t your fault. I appreciate you getting involved like this, but I think you may be in over your head.”
He replied with a huge smile. “Man, when am I not in over my head? At least when you’re concerned. We might not always see eye to eye, but that’s not just a human quality, that’s a life quality. It doesn’t mean I’m not with you when the crap hits the fan.”
“I appreciate that, but I have a feeling the crap hasn’t even hit the fan yet,” I said. “If Gervais found Sarah and made his move to reclaim her, he has to have plans for her. Archfiends are always scheming, but when they put the wheels in motion... that isn’t good for anybody.”
“I’m with you on that one. Look, you have my cell right?” I nodded. “I’ve got to call this in, get these bodies identified. People might have thought they were crazy, but they still had families, and maybe somebody has missed them.”
“What are you going to tell them?” I asked.
He looked around, his face blanching at the scene. “Gas leak, explosion, whatever I tell them is what they’ll believe. The mojo is funny that way. The good news, if you can call it that, is a bunch of vagrants die like this, we’ll identify the bodies, and we’ll contact next of kin, but that’ll probably be the end of it. The media isn’t interested in stuff like this, so it should be easy enough to make it go away.”
“Maybe for them,” I replied. Sarah was gone. I needed to get her back. “There’s a USB drive at my place at the Belmont. It’s got a lot of transaction data on it, money in and out. I think the numbers make a pattern, and the pattern makes a message. If you want to help me, look at the data and see what you can find. Just wedge the door again when you leave.”
Obi pursed his lips, considering my request. I knew he would do it. Like he had said, when times got rough he was nothing if not loyal. “Got it,” he said. “What are you going to do?”
I looked over at Izak. “I’ve got to get Sarah back before Gervais can do whatever it is he aims to do with her. My fiend and I are going to take a trip to the City of Light.”
CHAPTER FIVE
I didn’t waste any time getting topside, running back through the tunnels and up through the manhole, onto the street next to Obi’s squad car. Izak was following behind me, a little bit further back because he had stopped to grab his shirt and coats. As soon as I reached the surface I pulled the smartphone from my pocket and swiped over to my contact list. I scrolled down to Rachel’s name and hit the call icon.
It rang six times before her answering service picked up. “Rachel,” I said, after the beep, “can you arrange two tickets from JFK to Paris, France for me, and call me back with the flight number?” I hung up.
Izak pulled himself to the surface, one hand still gripping the sword. He had only put one of his grimy down jackets back on, and had lost the snow ca
p. He was going to have to do better than that.
“Izak,” I said. “Homeless time is over. I can’t take you on an airplane like that.” I could have glamoured him to the mortals, but it was going to be tricky enough to get through the airport without having to worry about that detail. Not when the demon could take care of it himself.
Izak grinned at me. His eyes danced with fire, and his appearance shifted like sand until the person standing in front of me no longer resembled the meek vagrant the fiend had been hiding behind. Instead, I was confronted with a middle-aged, wealthy playboy, with slicked back salt-and-pepper hair and a neatly trimmed mustache and beard. He was dressed in a fine Italian suit under a long wool trench, which he used to hide his blade.
“Better,” I said, focusing and changing my own dress to better match the fiend’s. It was like a bizarro Rain Man. I pointed to Obi’s car. “Let’s go.”
I had just slid in behind the wheel when Obi climbed up out of the sewer. When he saw Izak sitting shotgun, his face fell.
“Come on, man,” he cried, staring at us.
“It’ll be at JFK,” I shouted. “Tell them it was stolen.”
He shook his head. “It is stolen,” he shouted back. “Have you ever even driven before?”
“I’ll be careful,” I replied, swinging the shifter to drive and pulling away a little bit roughly. Growing up in the city, I hadn’t had much need to drive, but I had played games at the local bowling alley. How different could it be?
I watched Obi in the rearview mirror as he pulled out his portable radio and called for backup. I knew he wouldn’t mention his missing car until later.
“How could Gervais have found her?” I asked Izak while we drove. He shook his head in reply.
She had been safe because she believed she was safe. She had insisted she would be able to sense her father coming from miles away, and would be able to either hide or summon me way before he could ever snatch her. I had believed her, I had no reason not to; not after the other things I had seen her do. But something had changed. There was a vampire running around killing children, a vampire who had taken an Awake child, and they had never known he was there. A vampire that didn’t give off a Divine signature. I knew the trick, but it couldn’t be done without having access to both angel and demon sources of power. Or could it?
Betrayal (The Divine, Book Two) Page 4
