Fierce Lessons (Ghosts & Demons Series Book 3)

by Chute, Robert Chazz

  I rolled the demon to its back, ready to strike again to make sure it was unconscious. I shouldn’t have paused. Its wide green eyes popped open. I smelled sandalwood.

  Minneapolis threw herself at the hideous beast and swung her morning star at its head.

  Too late.

  If the magical vegan couple had had enough energy left for one more time displacement wave, I might have saved more lives. Instead, the demon mage muttered a spell.

  “Ach exuntiolorahnium.”

  I thought any spell he’d use on us would leave us confused. If we failed, I thought he’d leave us wondering who the poor professor was, or who we were. I thought he’d leave us in this muddled state until the Circle of Knives slit our throats.

  Instead, the air shattered around us. The force of the explosion left Minnie’s armor intact. Only her head bounced down the driveway.

  Lesson 179: There are many ways to die. There are many deaths. You will contemplate your own many times before it arrives. But another’s death? The death you might have stopped if you’d been faster or braver or smarter or stronger? That one will haunt you for the rest of your life, certainly. Maybe into the next life.

  I’m so sorry Minnie. Truly I am.

  Merlin was wrong. I should have listened to my demon blood. I should have killed Chronos and be done with it. I should have got the box that would hold the demon mage and stuck Merlin in it. I hadn’t thought to do that to the blackmailing coward and traitor. If I hadn’t thought Merlin was the only way to get rid of my horns, I might have considered that alternative. Selfishness blinded me and killed the courageous young woman who fought for Minneapolis.

  The explosion made me fly, as well. I wasn’t thinking at that moment where I might land. I was thinking I should have found a way to murder or hold Merlin and I should have killed Chronos.

  Lesson 180: Lots of things can seem like a good idea at the time. The very best ideas arrive a little too late.

  21

  It was as if a giant hand had swept me away from Chronos. I flew backward through the air and Excelsior spun away, far from my grasp. I landed on the Barracuda’s hood. Only briefly, though.

  Chronos spoke again and the sound was like being inside a thunderclap. The giant hand struck me in the chest and I fell backward through the car’s windshield.

  My ears rang and I struggled to breathe. I felt like I was drowning again. Dazed and struggling to get out, I pulled on the steering wheel long enough to peer out at the carnage.

  Manny, Wilmington and Malta were all down. The shirtless bodyguards sat up slowly and pulled the barbed darts from their chests, ripping chunks of skin as they did so, heedless of pain and blood.

  The guard with the pistol who had leered at us as we entered had somehow survived our attack and the explosions. I could not say what exploded. It seemed that the air itself was a living thing. It was not merely wind. The air was an irresistible force.

  The demon mage stared at me with it’s huge green eyes.

  I’m about to be murdered by a toad, I thought.

  The air changed again, as if it was howling down a long tunnel. The remaining three guards in the Circle of Knives were lifted and pulled to Chronos, forming a shield to almost any attack we might make.

  The demon retreated back up the broken steps, pulling the Circle of Knives with him. Not one of the men’s feet touched the ground as he made for his shattered front door.

  Wilmington had worn the most armor under her baggy clothes. It was she who saved Manhattan and Malta. She struggled to her feet and seized both sword singers under one arm to run for cover behind the car.

  Keen readers will note that I said the demon mage was invulnerable to almost any attack. How does one capture an immortal as powerful as Chronos without killing him and his human shields?

  It was time for Plan B, what Devin Anguloora called, “The louder alternative.”

  The archer raised his weapon, but it was not a mere bow and arrow this time. This time, he aimed a rocket propelled grenade at our enemy.

  The RPG roared. I watched its flight in horror and fascination. How do you get the demon mage without killing his human shields? You don’t. It happened fast, of course, but not so fast I couldn’t detect the shredding of the Circle of Knives.

  How do you avoid killing the demon mage, too? Don’t use a blessed rocket propelled grenade. Unblessed ordnance was right for the job. As the explosion ripped through the night and turned Chronos’s bodyguards to mash, no demon spell could save them.

  Fire lit the first floor of the house as I pulled myself from the Barracuda. Malta and Manny rose from behind the truck, dazed but intact.

  Behind us, Austin crashed the back end of his van through the gate. A moment later, Paul and Polly leapt from the back of the van and hauled out what looked like a black coffin.

  I ran forward, scooping up Excelsior on the way. I didn’t look long at Minnie’s body. It was just a thing now, a sad, headless sack of meat and bone and emptied potential.

  Once again, sorry Minneapolis. And thank you for your service.

  Paul and Polly jogged up behind me, dragging the empty box. It was the dampener Merlin had promised. The couple looked haggard but they managed to drop the box at Chronos’s feet before collapsing to the ground panting.

  They had delivered on their promise. I’d failed to complete the play, but they did their jobs. It was at that moment I resolved to stop thinking of them as, ‘the vegans’ and start thinking of them as valuable warriors, integral to winning the war. (If they stopped lying about the terrible taste of tofu dogs, I might even keep that resolution.)

  I didn’t wait for anyone to help me. The demon mage had been knocked senseless by the concussion of the RPG’s explosion, but he was still breathing. I reached under the big demon and, pushing my revulsion aside, picked him up and dumped him into the box. He landed with a rag doll’s thump, if the rag doll weighed three hundred pounds. (Yay, demon muscles.)

  A series of wheels and locks hidden in the lid spun as deadbolts slid home. Chronos was locked in tight with one small hole to breathe through. The properties of the box acted like lead holding in radiation. Even with the small hole delivering air, any spell the demon mage might utter would have no effect as long as he was trapped.

  Sirens wailed in the distance as I dragged the box back to the van. The fire climbed higher behind me, lighting my way. Neighbors came out on nearby lawns, yelling and pointing. We had to get out of there before local law enforcement and the fire department showed up asking a lot of uncomfortable questions.

  Doing the next-to-impossible is one thing. Keeping it off of YouTube in the age of the smartphone is much closer to impossible.

  I shoved the box in the back and slammed the van door shut. I turned back, wondering what was keeping Manny and Malta and Wil.

  Manny and Malta crouched behind the Barracuda’s rear bumper. Wilmington lay motionless on the ground.

  Lesson 181: Wil saved Manny and Malta from the explosion, but shrapnel does not play fair.

  Things can go wrong so quickly. I was walking down the driveway singing Christmas carols…what? Less than three minutes ago?

  22

  Manny cried out to me, “We have a problem here!” She was crying and, for a moment, I didn’t know what to do. Though Malta tried to hide behind her stoicism, by her quivering lip I could see how fragile that mask was.

  Dallas and Spider drove through the open gate and screeched to a halt beside me. Dallas jumped out of the vehicle before it had come to a complete stop. He didn’t see that Wil was down. I’m sure of it because he ran straight to me to report that the remaining guards in the Circle of Knives were trapped in their house.

  “Even if they get out,” he said, “I laid down so many caltrops, they’ll get a spike through their feet as soon as they get out a door.”

  “What if they leave by a window?” I asked.

  His face got long and his eyes went wide. “We should go.”

  Spid
er got out of the van and ambled up behind Dallas. “I dropped a bag of those caltrop things across the road at the bottom of the hill. The cops will be hoofing it up here any minute.”

  “I don’t care,” I said. I went to Wil. She was alive but her breathing was shallow. She’d lost a lot of blood. Her armor had protected her body but two deep gashes cut her neck and her forehead.

  “Wasn’t supposed to be this way,” she said. “I had…I had other plans.”

  “Save your strength,” Manny said.

  “Sorry, Iowa,” Wil said. “Looks like…Wilmington, Vermont falls tonight.”

  We heard a moan from the front of the car.

  Spider and Dallas hurried to investigate. “You better come see this, girl,” the old holy man said.

  “Now?”

  “Especially now,” Spider said.

  “What about the cops?” Malta asked. “Shouldn’t we load Wil up and get out of here? We’ve got what we came for. Let’s go get medical.”

  “We’re not leaving with everyone we came with,” I said. “Maybe Victor could smooth things out with local law enforcement. Minnie’s armor sure will go big on the news.” I sighed. “And the horns, of course.”

  “But the Normies…” It was Wil, whispering and fading fast, but still brave. “This won’t sweep up so easily, Tamara. You have to go.”

  Devin Anguloora trotted up. “My van is loaded with the ordnance I used. You have Professor Devil. Why are you still here?”

  He glanced over his shoulder. A crowd of elderly neighbors, some clad in bathrobes, had gathered at the gate to watch the mansion burn. Some were using their cell phone cameras. Others talked frantically into their phones. I thought I’d convinced Austin to keep the police away to cover our escape, but none of us were going to shoot up the neighborhood to keep the demon war a secret.

  “I knew it would get out,” I said. “I hoped it wouldn’t be me who spilled the beans. Maybe it’s about time we made world news.”

  Victor had predicted that, if the world knew the truth, economies would collapse, harsh theocracies would rise and more people would die from the panic than by demon teeth. At least, at first. Then everybody else would die by demon teeth.

  Unless…I prayed. I don’t do that, generally. However, it was more of a question than a prayer. Maybe that’s what all prayers really are.

  “Rory? Are you watching and listening? Are you on your way?”

  Psymon was in the van with Austin, parked in the street. Apparently, that was still close enough to hear my thoughts. It was the mind reader who answered my prayer.

  The bluetooth earbud in my left ear clicked and Psymon’s voice came through. “Rory’s leading the way, Tam. He just popped in and popped out. He didn’t say how long he’ll take.”

  “We’ll wait for him,” I said.

  “Iowa!” Spider yelled. “Now! I need you here now!”

  I went to Spider. At his feet, the driver of the Barracuda lay on his side. He’d pulled the arrow from his neck. Dallas stood on the man’s hand. The bodyguard’s pistol lay a few inches away.

  I knelt. Devin Anguloora hadn’t missed but the bodyguard’s neck wound was already closing. A wound that should have killed, or at least taken surgery and many stitches, was knitting all on its own before our eyes.

  “We heard the Circle of Knives was only kind of immortal,” I said.

  The guard’s long greasy hair had fallen across his eyes. “Kind of, bitch. You’ll find out. We’re hard to kill. Took a rocket to kill my buddies,” he croaked. “I got more buddies on the way. If I don’t get you, the boss will. He’s a wise man. He’s got ways.”

  Spider bent at the waist and peered down. “How many guys do you know who all wear the same jewelry?”

  “Dog tags?” Dallas suggested.

  “The Tree of Life,” Spider said. “Its roots are found across cultures and religions around the world. The Tree of Knowledge is what God didn’t want us to have. That’s how we lost the Tree of Life.”

  “Speak plain,” I said. “Are you saying the demon could heal Wilmington?”

  Spider shrugged. “He could but you’d have to let him out of Pandora’s box.”

  “Oh, shit! That’s what that coffin thing really is?” Dallas was bug-eyed. “Pandora’s box?”

  I spotted a flash of green at the guard’s throat. “The Tree of Life connects the demon world and heaven, right?”

  “So some say,” Spider said. The old man bent again and reached for the necklace. It was identical to the necklaces the shirtless bodyguards had worn.

  Spider pointed to the tiny green leaf and the knot of wood from which it sprung. “Tree of Life. Not Circle of Knives. Not dog tags. Tree of Life!”

  The guard recoiled and whipped his hair out of his eyes. I could see the whites all the way around his pupils. “Don’t touch that! That’s mine! Without that I’ll age, like you.”

  “No, son,” Spider said. “I think, right now, in the shape you’re in, you’ll die without that demon gift. With it, no aging, no disease, and nothing short of a truly mortal wound — like getting blown up or crushed to bits — would kill you.”

  Spider held the necklace in his palm, his face full of wonder. “Imagine that. What wonders there are yet to behold.”

  The guard froze in terror. “Okay, okay. It’s true. Take it from me now and I die. It’s murder. Let go of it — ”

  “Oh, no, boy,” Spider said. He let go of the necklace and it fell back to the young man’s chest. “You’ve got us all wrong. I wouldn’t dream of taking that lifesaving device from you. That would be inhuman.”

  Spider looked to me. “But — ”

  I didn’t give him a chance to finish the thought. I clawed the necklace from the guards neck and the gold chain broke with a snap.

  The man’s eyes widened and his face collapsed into a riot of wrinkles. His hair became a shock of white as it fell out. His skin mottled and his hands were instantly covered with liver spots. In the span of three breaths, his skin began to rot and liquify before our eyes.

  “He was one of Chronos’s guards for a long time,” Spider said.

  I have way too sensitive a nose to hang around to watch the bodyguard’s accelerated decay. “Freaky,” I said. “And he died just as the cell phones are getting really good. Okay, bigger fish frying.” The leaf began to brown as I raced to tie the chain and the relic from the Tree of Life around Wilmington’s neck.

  Her slowing heartbeat rose to a strong thrum again as the Tree of Life amulet flowered bright green on her neck. I heard her heart race again. Wilmington looked up at me and smiled and Manny kissed her forehead.

  I smiled back. You’re supposed to feel bad about murder. The truth is, I didn’t. If someone tries to kill you and your friends, it’s probably still a normal human reaction to express regret about the necessary death of your enemies. But I wasn’t the girl from Iowa, anymore. Evil forces — human and demon — had done terrible things to me and mine. Evil had wiped out my town and killed people close to me. When I looked for mercy or regret, all I found was an empty place in my heart.

  Malta tapped my shoulder. She didn’t have to tell me. The fire engines must have blown all their tires but the cops had finally arrived. There were cruisers, too, so they came from another direction or had driven up on someone’s lawn. We were out of time.

  The crowd of neighbors parted to let the police through. There were eight cops, all with their guns drawn and pointed at us.

  “What do we do?” Malta asked. For the first time since we’d met, her voice was that of a little girl. She must have been embarrassed because she cleared her throat and asked with more force, “What are your orders, Iowa?”

  I stepped in front of my crew as bright red, white and blue lights strobed over me. A spotlight found me and one of the cops screamed at me to drop Excelsior.

  I spoke in a low tone only my people could hear. “Choir, we are about to find out if Victor is right about what happens when the Normies get a
taste of the truth.”

  Manhattan and Malta helped Wilmington to her feet and held her between them. “Come what may,” Wil said, “I’ll face it on my feet.”

  “We’re all going to get arrested!” Spider said. “Shit. What’s the statute of limitations in California?”

  “For what?” Dallas asked.

  “A little bit of everything,” Spider said. “You don’t get to be as holy as I am now without a lot of motivation from some…er…youthful indiscretions.”

  The command came again. “Drop the sword!”

  I whipped off my Santa hat and beamed a big smile. Surprise rippled through the crowd and everyone but the cops seemed to be trying to get a good picture with their cell phones in the dark at eighty feet.

  “Take a good look, boys!” I yelled.

  One voice rung out above the others. It was the cop closest to me. “Drop that sword, kid! Drop it and identify yourself!”

  I tore my shirt open to reveal my armor. The gold breastplate shone in the spotlight. I held my weapon high. “This is Excelsior and yes, those are horns growing out of my head! Stay back! I’m mean, I’m annoyed and I have daddy issues! I…am…Chaos!”

  Okay, that was a little cartoony, but this is a weird paranormal adventure packed with ghosts and demons and jokes and swords and sorcery. Excuse me, but what the hell did you expect?

  The cops thought my defiant little speech was a bit over the top, too. They began to laugh at me. I even heard Spider chortling behind me. I assumed Anguloora was five kinds of pissed off and had already disappeared over the fence.

  Still, I stood there in my best heroine takes on the world sort of stance with red, white and blue lights glittering down my blade. I did not budge and I did not lower my weapon.

  Sure, laugh it up, assholes. It’s all great fun until the neighborhood erupts in terrified screams.

  Which it did.

  Lesson 182: It’s not deus ex machina. It’s called planning ahead. Try planning ahead and you could save yourself from whatever your issues are, too.