“Those foolish boys, when I am through with them—”
“They may be foolish, Hélène, but they are very much in danger of being possessed for the rest of forever. We cannot hesitate here. You must come with me to the source and be ready to close it the moment Peyton, Annalee and I return.”
“Come with...I’ve already told you I am not as strong as Eno—”
“I know that. I have the incantation she believes they used. Surely that’s enough. Hélène, this is your son we are talking about here. I need the Hanta back into Peyton first. Then I need the source closed before I take the Dybbuks from your boys. I need you there. No one else can perform this ritual.”
“You do not know what it is you are asking of me, Hunter.”
“Actually, I do, Hélène, so let me put it to you another way. You help me get the Hanta back and the portal closed or I’ll leave your boys to Peyton. We both know how that will turn out.”
Denny started back to the boat where her hired boatman waited. “I don’t have the luxury of time anymore. Brechtel Park. Midnight.”
“Do you know what happens to someone who does not keep their word with our people?”
Denny shrugged. “It won’t matter one way or another, Hélène, because if I don’t get that rift closed, we’re all fucked.”
***
Eleven-thirty saw Annalee, Denny and Valeria helping a sore and wincing Peyton through the park and to the source. It had been slow going with Peyton, and Denny wondered just how well she would handle herself in the rift. Did she have the strength for whatever was in there? It seemed as though Chick was the only reason she was willing to risk everything by going inside the source.
The source.
Denny had next to no experience entering a spirit world inhabited by demons and had no idea what to expect.
None. Nada. Niltch. Nil. The big fat goose egg.
What she did expect was a fight the likes of which she had never experienced. She was going into enemy territory with a wounded and pained hunter who may or may not really want her Hanta back. In short, a free-for-all.
“Okay. Just let me rest a minute.” Peyton’s shirt was soaked through. Perspiration dotted her forehead. So far, she had been a trooper, though Denny could tell she was in a lot of pain.
“Valeria, you stay with Peyton while Annalee and I do a quick recon.”
Denny and Annalee set Peyton on a fallen tree and walked a short distance up the crest of the hill overlooking the rift.
“I’m worried.” Annalee said. “She’s more of a liability in there, you know? She’s weak. I mean, what happens if the Hanta refuses. What if it fights? There’s not a damn thing she can do to aid us.”
“I do know, but I also know my own limitations and I’ve barely used Saugen. My inexperience could prove to be the greater liability here. Let’s face it. We’re screwed six ways to Sunday if this slides south on us.”
“A Saugen, eh? I’ve heard about them. Never seen one in action. Does it really pull a demon from a human?”
“Yep, but the problem is, I’ve never done the reverse.”
“Ever?”
“Never ever.”
Annalee ran her hand through her hair. “Well, crap.”
“We’ll get just one shot at it. If we fail, that Hanta will never get close enough to me again. We’ll have to close the rift with the Hanta inside it and hope Peyton can fight it off when it comes for her.”
“Then let’s not. So where is that cute little witch of yours, anyway? She should be done with the coven.”
Denny smiled. “She’s a fiery one, that girl. She’s busy making a case for us. Said she wouldn’t give up until she found a coven or someone willing to help.”
“And Hélène, that Queen of Mean? You think she’ll show?”
The moniker make Denny chuckle. “I do. We are the only hope for her exorcising the Dybbuk from her kid. Trust me, she’ll show.”
“Super screwy that she’s not really the Mambo Jambo. What the hell is that about?”
Denny shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. I may be gay, but that doesn’t mean I understand women any more than the next person.”
Annalee glanced behind her at Peyton. “It’s weird, you know? Thinking someone has their shit together when they’re really going to hell in a hand basket. Who’da thunk even Peyton Farquar needed a break?”
“No kidding. I was following her exploits like some fan girl.” Denny looked down at Annalee. “Do you? Ever want a break? You said you have your own life. What do you do to keep insanity at bay?”
Annalee gazed at Denny through the din. “I told you when we first met. I live life, Silver. I go to dinner with friends. I play golf. I go to the movies. I enjoy my life and in doing so, keep my sanity and keep my Hanta in its place. I’m driving the bus, not it. Never forget that Silver, because the moment you do, the Hanta will grab the wheel.”
“Have you ever wanted yours gone?”
“Sure I have. We all have. It’s a tough gig for everyone. Would I have gone to the lengths Farquar did? Hell no. Witches are one thing...Vodouisants? I draw the line at their scary ass dark and creepy magic. I mean, Jesus, look at your face. Who does that? Like I said, drive the bus. Live a real life. That will balance the scales of good and evil.”
Denny felt the Hanta awaken and whirled to see who was coming. “Speaking of dark magic, look who came to the party.”
Annalee glanced over her shoulder at Hélène. “Gotta say I’m a little surprised.”
Denny and Annalee walked back to Peyton just as Hélène and four female Vodouisants approached. “Where is my son?”
“Thank you for coming, Hélène. He’s not here, but I doubt he’s far. I think the Dybbuks are supposed to protect the source.”
Her colorful garb swirled around her like it had a mind of its own. “Then let’s proceed.”
“We’re waiting for Peyton to catch her breath.”
Hélène walked over to Peyton before regarding Valeria. It was like watching a pit bull and a Rottweiler sizing each other up.
“Two alphas,” Annalee muttered. “Think they’ll scratch each other’s eyes out when they’re done sniffing asses?”
Denny brought everyone together and outlined the plan once more.
“Where is your witch?” Hélène interrupted.
“She’ll be here. Now remember, only once we are all clear of the rift, do you close it. Do not hesitate.”
“Understood, Hunter. We anxiously await your return.”
Valeria took both of Denny’s hands in hers. “You listen to me, Golden. I will not return to Savannah to tell your mother bad news. You get in, get out, and let’s be done with this whole sordid affair.”
Peyton nodded. “Valeria...”
“Hush, Peyton Farquar. Apologies help no one right now. Just go get your demon and be done with it.”
Denny pulled Saugen from her vest. “That’s the plan.”
As Denny, Annalee, and Peyton started for the rift, Valeria called out to Denny. “Oh, and Golden? The answer to your question is yes.”
“Yes?”
Valeria nodded, her eyes filling with tears. “Yes, she is in love with me. Has been for a very long time.”
Denny started to reply, then chose not to and continued toward the rift.
“Who was in love with her? Annalee asked.
“My mother.”
Annalee stopped walking. “No shit? Your mom was schtupping Valeria?”
“Lucky mom,” Peyton said softly. “I think Valeria is a very beautiful woman.”
“She is, but my mother wasn’t...umm...well...I’m not at all sure what my mother was or
wasn’t doing. I suppose I’ll have to live through this to find out.”
“She gonna be your stepmom?” Annalee kidded. “Maybe you call her Auntie V?”
“Very funny.”
When they reached the source, Peyton straightened herself up and pulled out her weapon. “I want to thank you
both for coming to help me. Rookie, I know what a jackass I’ve been, and I hope you can accept my apology. I’ve never been...helpless before and didn’t really know how to accept your aid.”
“Apology accepted. No worries. We both get why you needed a break.”
“Only it doesn’t really work that way, does it?” Annalee added. “It is why they call it a
legacy.”
Peyton shook her head. “I’m just sorry I pulled you all into my drama. I feel so stupid.”
“Buy us a drink at the Voodoo Lounge.”
“I can top that. Dinner at Emil’s.”
“Done.”
When they were twenty feet from the glowing rift, Denny and Annalee pulled out their weapons.
Three black-leather-clad demon hunters preparing to enter the source. It might have been fun had Denny not been so nervous. This was the truly super of the supernatural world, and she had no clue if she would make it out of there alive. Suddenly, she wished she had called her siblings to tell them goodbye. “If I don’t make it back, would you guys please tell my brother and sisters that I died doing what our mother would have wanted me to do?”
“Nobody’s dying on my watch,” Annalee replied. “But yeah, I’ll tell them. I plan on living through this. I just met this hot guy who wants to be my boyfriend. I’ve got a whole slew of reasons to live.”
Inhaling deeply, Denny nodded. “I have no clue what’s in there, ladies, but according to Ames, your Hanta will make a beeline to you to kill you. We’ll have one shot at getting it into Saugen. Just one. As soon as that happens, I’ll need you to get to me pronto. We have thirty seconds before it busts out of Saugen, where it will, most likely, try to kill every single one of us. Don’t let that happen, Peyton. Get to me. I’ll shove it in your ear and when I do, when you regain control, we’ll need to get the hell out of the rift so Hélène can close it.”
“My ear. Gotcha. Once we retrieve my Hanta, we’re outta there.”
“Yeah. Whatever demons come through, we’ll mop up after.”
“And the Vodouisants?”
“If I’m still alive, I believe I can Saugen them out as well. We cannot afford to kill those kids. If we do, Hélène will most assuredly finish the job the demons couldn’t.”
“Sounds good. Everyone good to go?”
They all stood there a moment, waiting to see who would go first.
“Good luck to you both. I’ll meet you on the other side.”
And with that, Denny entered the rift.
***
She didn’t know what she was expecting, inside the tree was like outer space. Stars blinked by the millions and Saturn looked so close, she felt like she could reach out and touch it. It was a space outside of time, and it took her a moment to gain her equilibrium.
Looking at her feet, it appeared she was standing on the moon. The ground was dusty and grayish, pock-marked like mud that a football team had run through before it hardened and dried like that. “This is beautiful,” Denny muttered, her palms already sweaty against the cold metal of her cylinders.
“I like the poppies best,” Peyton said.
Denny glanced around the planet or moon or whatever she was standing on. She saw no poppies, not one.
Annalee stood next to her. “I don’t see any poppies, but I do see the white sandy beach. I’ve only seen water that color in Jamaica.”
Denny and Peyton turned to look at Annalee.
“What?”
“We’re looking at three different scenarios,” Denny explained.
“Mind games,” Peyton grumbled. “We see what calms us. What warms our hearts puts us at ease and dulls our sharpness. Stay sharp, kids. God damn, evil is stupid. Like we’d fall into a comfort zone? I’m itching to kill me some demons even without a Hanta.”
“Down girl. No Hanta. No killing. You just wait here at the entrance until we get your demon back home. Once we do that, feel free to pillage and plunder as many demons as you can.” Denny held up her hand. “Did you guys hear that?”
Annalee nodded. “They’re coming.”
Denny swallowed her trepidation. Two hunters versus however many demons were coming down the pipeline were horrific odds. Suddenly, she wished Rush was here. If for nothing else, so she could say goodbye. “Don’t expect her Hanta to be in the first wave. It might very well try to sneak in under the radar. Peyton, stay close at hand.”
“I can feel them,” Annalee said in her Hanta voice.
“There they are! Okay, Silver, show me whatcha got!”
Denny’s two weapons crackled to life, but she kept Saugen in her waistband until she needed it.
The first “wave” was a handful of mid-level demons who came through a tunnel. Like monkeys on the loose, they crawled along the sides and the ceiling as they ran toward them, more animal than spirit, more creature than human. They were everywhere, sprouting their Latin gibberish.
Denny felt Peyton ease in behind her to avoid being hit by Epée or Fouet.
“Five bogeys to your right,” Annalee called out.
Denny snapped Fouet, which bit off three legs on the first pass and an arm and head on the return.
“Shit,” Annalee muttered as she watched Denny work. “Why does she keep calling you Rookie? You’re a natural.”
“Three more coming your way, Annalee.”
Fiocina was humming like an electrical line when Annalee twirled it over her head like a baton. She caved in the skull of the first demon, cut the head off the second and buried the staff half way into the chest of the third—all in under ten seconds.
“Rookies,” Annalee growled, her Hanta in full bloom. “Amateurs, Silver. Don’t be fooled. They are merely trying to tire us.”
The second wave ended much like the first, with demons being beheaded, torn apart, cut in two and rendered limb from limb. It was a blood bath inside that tunnel.
For her part, Peyton stayed back, acting as eyes and ears for Denny and Annalee by calling out numbers and positions.
The threesome worked like a well-oiled demon hunting machine, and the third wave saw the first of the higher level demons with their own weapons. Still, nothing Annalee and Denny couldn’t handle.
Annalee took a throwing knife to her side. She yanked it out, looked at it and drove it into the chest of the thrower.
“You okay?”
“Merely a flesh wound.”
Denny stared at her. “Monty Python? Really?”
Annalee smiled the grin of a demon. “What can I say? He likes British humor.”
And then they felt it.
The ground rumbled. The walls of the tunnel began to shake.
Coming through the tunnel, larger than life, was Peyton’s Hanta, and it was everything mythical Denny had ever read about demons.
At first, Denny couldn’t believe her eyes. It was huge, nearly seven feet tall, with cloven hooves, the head of a minotaur and a ripped body. Various tattoos ran the length of its arms.
“Holy crap, that’s one ugly mother.”
“Here it comes. Ready to rock?”
“More than ready. You know the drill. Be on your toes, Peyton.”
“Hideous fellow,” Annalee remarked. “Simply disgusting.”
The Hanta crashed through the small tunnel opening, breaking it wide open. Rocks and debris flew everywhere. Denny and Annalee stood side by side, weapons at the ready, waiting for the inevitable attack.
“Stay alive, Annalee.”
“You do the same, Golden Silver.”
“Its size is meant to intimidate us,” Peyton said. “They are neither that big nor do they really look like that.”
“I’m intimidated,” Denny said, raising Saugen over her head. “Ready for this?”
Before Annalee could answer, the Hanta took a swipe at Denny who ducked. Annalee was not so lucky. She was lifted off the ground and slammed against the wall, Fiocina clattering to the ground and disappearing into the cylinder.
The Hanta made a move toward Annalee s
o Denny jumped in between them, Saugen, held over her head. “Uh-uh, motherfucker. That’s so not how this is going down.”
Her demon was all business now. Survival being its main objective, it was not about to allow another Hanta the privilege of ending its life.
The Hanta swung a backhand at Denny, who dropped to the ground to perform a leg sweep, knocking it back on its ass with a thud.
Whirling around, Denny reached down and jerked Annalee to her feet.
As she landed, she grabbed Fiocina and held her weapon in front of her, at the ready. “Come on, dick-licker,” Annalee growled. “Come to mama.”
As the Hanta snarled at Annalee and leapt toward her, Denny reached out as far as she could to touch Saugen to the Hanta. In midair, it swiped at her and knocked Saugen out of her hands before landing back on its feet.
It was fifteen feet from Peyton now, its eyes fixed upon its target.
“Fucking A,” Denny said, her right hand bearing four claw marks bleeding profusely. She eyed the distance between Saugen and her, and the Hanta and Peyton, and knew she had but one choice.
Denny dove for Saugen.
The Hanta was upon Peyton in two long strides. It towered over her, glaring its red eyes. Peyton lowered her weapon to her side. “Come home, Hanta, I was wrong to—”
The demon picked her up by the throat and would have likely killed her had Annalee not struck it with Fiocina on the back of its hamstring, slicing it wide open.
The Hanta went down on one knee, Peyton still in its grasp.
“Let her go motherfucker,” Denny commanded. As she reached Saugen, a dozen other demons started through the vortex.
“Silver, behind you!”
Denny pulled Epée out as she turned, and cut down the first three demons trying to exit the tunnel.
“Get the Hanta, Silver! I’ll take care of these!” Annalee leapt into the fray, Fiocina whirling over her head like a propeller, demon guts flying everywhere. “Do it!”
With Epée in one hand and Saugen in the other, Denny returned her attention to Peyton’s Hanta, who was squeezing the life out of the defenseless hunter.
Retracting Epée, she grabbed Saugen with both hands. “That’s enough, asshole,” Denny said in the voice of her demon. “Let her go.” Denny pressed Saugen to the Hanta’s back, and then held onto the handle with all her might as Saugen began sucking the demon into it.
Blood of the Demon (The Silver Legacy Book 3) Page 20
