“You’ve never actually killed before, have you? And you know her.” Shimon’s voice took on a consoling tone, yet her eyes brightened as if in surprise. “You love her!”
Shimone eased the blade from Tom’s hands. He stood staring stupidly at her. “How could I ever have asked you to do something like that?”
She took the blade in hand and positioned it over Tom’s heart. He never seemed to notice.
“But it’s really quite simple.”
She shoved. Tom’s eyes widened in surprise, then closed forever as he slumped to the floor. “You just didn’t love me enough.”
Shimone’s gaze rested for only a moment on Tom’s body, then rose to meet Salina’s again. Her eyes narrowed and one side of her mouth quirked up in a wicked half-smile. With a shrug, she turned to face Stanton and Frale.
“Do you want me to do it?” Frale’s eyes burned with eagerness.
A chill raced up Salina’s spine. The demon lord would have no reservations about dispatching her. There was no power for magic, and she couldn’t even wiggle in the tight ropes that bound her.
“Don’t be a fool,” Shimone answered. “We need her alive, at least for now.” The ice in her voice told Salina the goddess wasn’t being merciful.
Frale seemed confused. “Do we dare let her live…with what she’s holding? What about the Arcanists and the Templars? They have to be looking for her.”
“The Arcanists and Templars are powerless fools. I have already defeated them. No, I need her alive to draw out my real foe. Haven’t you heard? Nathan Gray has returned.”
Both Stanton and Frale took a step back, their voices ringing out in unison. “Nathan Gray?”
“He’s the only one to ever defeat me.” Shimone’s teeth were clenched. Anger dripped from her tone. “I want him. And now I have the perfect bait to draw him out of hiding. Without the power of Gaia and the High Lord behind him, he will be powerless.”
Assaulted from without. Betrayed from within. Many only discover the true force against them when it is far too late. – Templar Truths by Sir Walter Donovan, 1764
Chapter 15
“If you had the power, could you do it?” Ryan paced the chamber.
The young girl seated in front of him squirmed under his gaze.
“What does it matter?” She burst into tears. “There isn’t any power.”
He hadn’t meant to come down on the girl, but ever since the loss of the power pools, most of the Arcanists had been completely distraught.
Anna Hughes came to his rescue. “Kimmy, please, you have to settle down. This is important. Important to Salina. Could you do it?”
Joyce had suggested bringing Kim Wakefield into their secret alliance. The girl only sixteen years old, but Joyce had been adamant she was the most experienced Arcanists in the compound in the use of Salina’s crystal ball.
Anna handed Kim a tissue, and the girl dried her eyes and blew her nose. “I don’t know. We’d barely covered this.”
Ryan decided to play his trump card. He pulled a few strands of the precious power from Salina’s room and expelled the energy. The tendrils floated in the air in front of Kim’s face, the girl’s eyes widened in wonder. “How?”
The group had decided to keep the power a secret for now. It was the only power source left to them, and because of the dual nature of the energy, neither Arcanists nor Templars could sense it.
“Use it, Kim.” Ryan tried to keep his voice low and calm. “Try to find Salina.”
Kim pulled in the power. She sighed. It must have been like a drink of cool water after a week in the parching desert.
Ryan understood. They’d all been used to being able to pull almost unlimited power. Things had changed so drastically.
Kim bent over the crystal ball resting on an ornate stand before her. It was Salina’s crystal ball, and quite an ancient artifact. Ryan had been told Salina was considered the most powerful scryer in the Arcanists’ organization. Kim had been working with Salina for the past two years. She’d learned the skills needed to control the crystal.
Clouds of mist swirled within the ball. Sweat beaded on Kim’s brow as she attempted to bring the artifact under her control. The clouds cleared and a vision crystallized in the sphere. He saw Salina, in the storeroom, trying to reassemble the pieces of the shattered shimmer. Then Tom Johnson came up behind her.
“What the hell is he doing?” The swear word slipped out, and Ryan had to hold back a few more as the scene unfolded. Rage boiled inside him as he watched Tom Johnson carry Salina through a mystic portal and disappear from the room.
“Follow her, Kim,” Joyce said, laying a hand on the girl’s shoulder.
Ryan moved closer to the crystal ball, mesmerized by the scenes it displayed. The view shifted toward the portal, aiming directly into it. Colors swirled in the crystal and Ryan felt his stomach lurch. Then it was flying over a wooded area, a vast body of water to the right. Ahead, a mansion stood on a hilltop along the lakefront.
“North along the lakefront, near Manitowoc,” Kim said. How she knew was a mystery to Ryan.
Jack Hughes pushed in, rubbing shoulders with Ryan as he stared into the crystal. “That’s Richard Frale’s summer home. I’ve been doing research on him since we added him to our list of known demon lords.”
The view seemed to fast-forward as it moved closer to the mansion. Through one of the upper windows it homed in on Salina, tied securely to a heavy wooden chair.
“She’s alive!” Kim sighed. Bending the crystal ball to her will had really taxed the young girl.
Joyce began to pace. “It’s too far away from our only power source. My people would be useless there.”
Anna Hughes banged her fist on the table. “Power, or no power, I’m going after Salina.”
Jack moved toward his wife, catching her eyes and nodding.
Confusion and conflict emanated from Kelly Grant. She gazed down at the sleeping baby in her arms, then up at Nathan. “Nathan?”
Nathan’s eyes glazed as if he were lost in thought. Long seconds ticked by before he moved. “It must be done,” he said finally. “We will take every precaution possible, but it must be done.”
The old Templar waved his hand and instantly the room radiated with power. The tendrils weren’t white or green, or even the light green of the new power Salina and Ryan had created. This power was blue.
“I had hoped to keep it secret—protected—but it is needed.” Nathan seemed to shrink a bit.
Joyce stood in wonder, fingering the power tendrils as they floated past. “With this much power available, I can bring a full strike force.”
“I’ll call in every Templar available,” Ryan added. He’d need to get a message to Benjamin as soon as he could. They’d need a big force. Richard Frale’s mansion would be crawling with demons.
“Kim,” Joyce said to the young girl, “I want you to stay behind and take care of the babies.” The portly sorceress then turned toward Anna and Kelly. “I’ll need both of you, if you think you can handle it.”
Anna instantly handed little Callista to Kim and reached out her hand to grab Jack’s. “We’re in.”
Kelly looked at Geoffrey le Court. “Of course, we’re in too, but…”
Nathan cleared his throat, drawing attention to himself. “Grant will be going with us.”
Ryan couldn’t believe his ears. “Are you crazy? We can’t intentionally bring a newborn baby into a battle with demons.”
“It is a risk we must take.” Nathan’s voice quavered a bit. Ryan could feel the old man’s trepidation. “Without the babe, we cannot go. You see, Grant is the power source.”
* * *
It took insufferably long to organize the raid on Richard Frale’s estate, but Ryan had to admit, there was a new feeling in the air as the Templars began to filter into the Arcanists’ headquarters. There was a distinctly new level of cooperation and understanding as the groups learned to recognize and use this new power pulsing from Kelly Grant’
s child.
Maybe it was because they were now using the same energy, or maybe it was that both groups now understood what the world would be like if the demons won and there was no energy at all.
The energy had a different feel—fresher, cleaner, purer—much like the power he’d created with Salina, yet still different. It was like the difference between lemonade and iced tea. Both were refreshing in their own way.
But as refreshing as the iced tea was, he found himself longing for the sweetness of the lemonade…of Salina. She’d become intricately entangled around his heart.
And the connection he felt to her, called him. She was in trouble. She needed him.
“Nathan, we need to go…now!”
The old Templar gazed deep into Ryan’s eyes. “Yes, we do. The future stands poised on a razor’s edge.”
The group coalesced around Nathan. Templar and Arcanist intermingled, ready to fight as one for their world. “Remember, Salina must be found and protected at all cost…all cost!”
Nathan opened a mystic portal and the entire group jumped through.
Alone, abandoned, afraid. Wrap yourself in faith – Ancient Arcanist saying, author unknown.
Chapter 16
Richard Frale paced the room. His human illusion was that of a short, thin, balding man in his mid-fifties.
Salina knew better than to trust her eyes. This was a powerful demon lord.
“I don’t see why this all has to take place on my turf.” Frale confronted the goddess. He didn’t appear at all frightened or in awe of her.
“Because it’s convenient and you’re wishes aren’t important.” Shimone wasn’t pulling her punches. She still retained her youthful, seductive human form, but her aura radiated pure evil.
Salina kept her head down, feigning sleep, but doubted Shimone was fooled. Salina was still trying to figure out why she was so important to the goddess. There was something about her that would draw Nathan Gray here…into a trap.
But Nathan had been missing ever since Kelly and Geoffrey had passed over to the other side. Had bringing them back, somehow drawn the old man out of hiding? And if so, that still didn’t explain what Salina had to do with any of this?
“I still think we should kill her now and get it over with. It’s dangerous keeping her alive.” Frale had come back to that point a number of times. Even to Salina it was getting old.
Fuck it.
She raised her head and stopped pretending to sleep. “Yes, why the hell don’t you kill me? Or is your plan to bore me to death?”
The goddess turned. A wicked grin broke across her face. “Oh no, little one. I’m not done with you yet. The next nine months will be anything but boring for you.”
Again with the nine months. They kept talking in circles without saying a damned thing. They made it sound like she was pregnant or something. Fat chance of that.
“What if they attack in force?” Frale continued to complain and drew Shimone’s attention.
“That is what I’m counting on.” Fire leapt in the goddess’s eyes. “Damn it, Frale, you have an army of over five hundred lessers stalking your grounds and mansion. What chance does a powerless band of rabble stand of getting through that? All the Arcanists and Templars together couldn’t rescue her now…not without any power.”
Frale stood his ground. “The Arcanists, the Templars… and Nathan Gray!”
He stammered, then sputtered, “He…he wasn’t even supposed to be here. He was trapped over there. How did he get back?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Shimone turned her back on Frale. “He’s as powerless here as they are.”
The tremor of a distant explosion drew Salina’s attention. Gunfire resounded as demonic footsteps pounded in the hallways of the mansion.
“At last!” Shimone shouted above the din. She swept from the room, heels clicking on the marble flooring. Frale threw Salina one last, angry look as he followed Shimone through the large double doorway, slamming the doors as he left.
Salina struggled again with the ropes that bound her to the chair, but she could not get them to loosen. If only she could find a little bit of mystic energy.
The gunfire and explosions got louder…nearer. She felt the gradual change in the air. She almost missed the translucent blue wisps that drifted into the room through the open windows.
Blue energy? She’d never seen anything like it before. Did she dare to actually use it?
Duh.
She’d use whatever she could get her hands on. She was desperate.
Pulling in some of the strange energy, she tested it. It felt like taking a breath of cool, fresh air. The power surged through her. She used it to cast a simple spell to unravel the ropes around her wrists. Her hands tingled as blood began to flow freely through them again.
She untied her feet manually. She wasn’t about to waste any of the precious magical energy. There were only a few thin strands floating in the room and she had a feeling she would need all of it.
Making her way to the window, she peered out. On the front lawn of the estate an all-out war had erupted. Arcanists and Templars mixed, firing bullets and spells into a hoard of demons that poured from the mansion and raced toward them. Power sizzled in the air—more of that strange blue energy, but too far away for Salina to pull.
Explosions rocked the grounds as Salina scanned the group, identifying familiar faces. There were too many—friends putting their lives on the line…for her?
Behind her, the door burst open.
“I knew you’d escape.” Richard Frale stood in the doorway. The Ballor demon had a crazed look in his eyes. “It’s all going wrong. She said they wouldn’t have any power. My army is paying the price.”
As he advanced toward Salina, Frale dropped his illusion, changing into his true form. Great leathery wings burst from his back; orange scales covered his body. He shot up to well over eight feet tall as the demonic visage of a Ballor demon’s horned and fanged visage pushed out of the human features.
Her back was to the wall as the demon charged her. “I don’t care what she says,” Frale screamed. “You die now! They can never be allowed to come back!”
There was no escape. Salina pulled in all the power she could find, knowing it wouldn’t be enough to stop a charging Ballor. But she planned to inflict as much damage on the creature as she could before he took her down.
Most of those who stand at the world’s end will not have seen it coming – Apocalypse Today by Ralph Johnson, 2015
Chapter 17
Ryan called forth the sword of truth as he leapt into the fray. The casting, which had been impossible just weeks ago, came easily to him. Sword in one hand, a Beretta 93R semi-automatic pistol in the other, he threw caution to the wind as he fought his way through the horde of demons issuing from the mansion to oppose them.
Nathan Gray stayed at his right and Jack Hughes, in Whargan form, protected his left. Geoffrey le Court had stayed to the back with Anna Hughes to protect Kelly Grant and the baby. The power had come with them, flowing from the babe in thin blue strands. It wasn’t a lot, but it would have to be enough.
“Attack,” he shouted. This was Ryan’s fight to lead. His heart would direct him to Salina. He could already feel her above him in the mansion…alone and surrounded by danger.
Fear lent strength to his arms as he hacked and shot his way through the demons. His templar troops thinned the horde with fire from automatic weapons while Arcanists, standing at their shoulders, wove a wall of protection around the force.
“Have you found her?” Nathan asked as they approached the front entrance to Richard Frale’s immense estate home. Beams of blue energy shot from his eyes and the three demons in front of them vaporized.
“Above us.” Ryan hacked at a Kolthas demon, severing the tail that threatened to sting him. “Second or third floor.”
Jack made a jump for the wall and started to climb. “I’ll see if I can find a short cut.” His voice was always gruffer when he was in
the demon form. He wore blue jeans to help distinguish him from the other Whargan demons.
“Be careful Jack.” Ryan cleared a path to the doorway of the mansion, sweeping his great sword back and forth, then kicked open the door. Inside the grand foyer, a large group of demons stood ready to defend the mansion.
“I fear there is no time to be careful,” Nathan said. “We must hurry.”
The old man sent an exploding ball of fire through the doorway into the front room of the house, clearing the area in seconds.
“Subtle,” Ryan said in approval. He had never imagined the old Templar was so powerful.
But Nathan wasn’t holding anything back now. He destroyed any demon that came close.
Ryan entered the fire-blackened front room with Nathan at his side. The sounds of the fighting outside were suddenly dull and distant. An eerie silence filled the charred room that was littered with dead demons. The lower steps were ablaze on what was once a grand staircase, but Ryan jumped the flames and pounded up the steps.
Salina was up there somewhere.
The top floor of the mansion boasted ten-foot ceilings, plush design and rich furnishings. Everything you would expect from a modern billionaire like Richard Frale. But there was a largeness about the place, as if everything was sized for a very big man…or a Ballor demon. This had to be Frale’s private apartments. The opulence was almost blinding.
An explosion followed by a loud thump rumbled from down a hallway. Ryan could feel Salina’s pain. She was close and hurt badly.
Nathan caught up with Ryan. “Which way?” The old man had an urgency in his voice that raised goose flesh on Ryan’s arms.
“Here.” Ryan pointed down the hallway. A set of ornate double doors stood closed at the other end, and Ryan dashed toward them.
As he sprinted down the hallway the doors in front of him shattered to splinters. Through the wreckage, Salina’s limp body hurled toward him. He lunged forward to catch her, praying she was still alive. Blood seeped from a ragged tear across her stomach, soaking her tattered blouse. She lay limp in his arms.
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