Demon's Play

by David McBride

  “No doubt they were smuggled in by some nefarious super villain vegetarian.” She pulled a knife from the counter and began chopping the tomatoes.

  Stirring the beef in a pan, I gave her a sidelong look. “Now I know you’re lying.”

  “How’s that?” she asked innocently. She even batted her eyelashes for effect.

  “All super villains are strictly carnivores. No vegetarians allowed. Just think of how embarrassed the guy—this hypothetical vegetarian evildoer of ours—would be at the monthly meeting if he asked the waiter for a veggie burger.”

  Terri laughed, but quickly covered it with a cough and composed herself. “Monthly meeting?” she asked with a sparkle in her eyes.

  “Oh yeah, they hold it at the local union meeting hall. That’s where all the evil for the upcoming month is planned out.” Terri was chewing on her knuckle, the corner of her mouth struggling not to turn upward. I continued on. “Now imagine our bad guy goes there intent on convincing the assembled masses of his brilliant new plan to do…something.”

  “That is evil,” Terri interjected.

  Rolling my eyes, I said, “It’s not important. He’s going to train cows to eat farmers or some such thing.”

  “I’ll bet the farmers would think that was important.”

  I waved her interruption away. “Anyway, he’s going to unveil his master plan. He’s been practicing his big speech on his pet goldfish and he’s all set to go. But he’s been eating nothing but zucchini for three weeks straight now. So you tell me, who’s going to be intimidated or inspired by the guy whose ribs are visible through his t-shirt and has breath that smells like rotting leaves?”

  “You’re right,” she said nodding. “He’s nothing compared to the awe-inspiring visage of an Inquisitor who feasts on tacos.”

  “Damn right,” I replied sagely.

  We gave in and laughed together. Moments like this had been few and far between ever since Terri became my apprentice. They were something that I had learned to hold on to, no matter how brief, how fleeting, like the last rays of sun upon my face.

  “Hey, Frank,” she said, mixing the last bits of the assembled salad in the bowl. “About before…” She hesitated then, shaking her head. “I was wrong. I jumped to conclusions that I shouldn’t have. I think that spell might have frayed my brain.” She gave me a weak smile. “Anyway, I never meant to hurt your feelings. You know we’ll always be friends, right?”

  And just like that the moment was gone, replaced by that shame that I had tried to bury along with everything else I didn’t want to think about. It all surged up like a knife thrust through my guts. Forcing a smile I didn’t feel, I said, “Yeah, I know, Terri.” The scent of cooking meat filled the air and I knew that from now on I would connect that smell with this feeling. I would never be able to eat tacos again. Damn. I liked tacos.

  “We’re going to need an extra chair for the table.”

  Scooping the meat out into a bowl, I said, “There’s one in the spare room if you want to grab it.”

  “Sure.” She grabbed up the salad bowl, walked over to me, and kissed me on the cheek. Without another word she turned and strode from the room, announcing that dinner was ready.

  My head swimming from that simple kiss, I forgot about putting on oven mitts, grabbed the pan off the stove and gave myself third degree burns. Swearing under my breath I turned on the tap and thrust my hands into the cool water.

  That girl, I thought wryly, would be the death of me sooner or later.

  * * *

  Taking a deep breath, Lily had exclaimed, “This smells like the rivers of my home. Without the rot, of course.”

  With the exception of that lovely sentiment, dinner went well. We gulped down the food like starving wolves, unmindful of the mess the salsa left on lips and fingers. Lily, especially, seemed to be trying to consume her body weight in meat, ignoring the salad completely. Simon leaned on the counter looking out the window and sipping on a soda. He had seemed distracted for most of the night and had barely said anything since the meeting with Jae Kwon. The confident swaggering vampire I had known had been replaced by this brooding shell, seemingly lost in introspection and…something else. Knowing him as well as I did, it seemed impossible that he would be having such pedestrian emotions, but I saw it in the way his shoulders slumped, in his unfocused eyes that scanned the horizon. It was doubt. He didn’t think he was up to facing the necromancer, or the Demon that would find Lily sooner or later. And it would be sooner rather than later if we didn’t get out of this house. If only I could talk to Simon, give him a slap on the shoulder and tell him everything would be fine. But I couldn’t do that. First, because no matter what I said to him this was something he would have to prove to himself, no helpful words would ease his mind. And second, because I was plagued by the exact same doubts. We weren’t ready, and if the spell that Ben and Terri were whipping up didn’t work then we were up zombie creek without a shotgun.

  “Frank,” Ben said to me as we tossed out the remnants of dinner. “I need a cigar. Care to join me outside for a minute?”

  I nodded and led the way out the front door onto the porch. He lit up without using a lighter, the end sparking to life as he inhaled. Closing his eyes and visibly relaxing, he let the oily blue smoke roll from his mouth before blowing the rest out in a gust. The cold night breeze whipped at us, shredding the plumes of smoke and turning the burning tip of the cigar incandescent.

  “Terri’s taking care of the tracking spell,” he said, squinting into the wind. “It will point us to Christian’s familiar just like a compass needle points to true north. It won’t take us long after that.”

  “Good,” I said nodding. “You sure you’re not pushing too much on her at once, Ben? Doesn’t she need time to recuperate after the last spell?”

  Ben shook his head and smiled. “That’s one of the things I’ve been meaning to talk to you about, Frank. She’s your apprentice, not a porcelain doll for God’s sake. When you accepted my idea of making her your backup I didn’t think you’d actually try harder to keep her away from danger. She has a lot of power, and doesn’t need you coddling her. In fact that will just make things worse, because when there finally comes a time when you can’t be there to help her—and believe me that time comes to us all—she’ll find that she doesn’t have the experience necessary to survive.” His eyes were murky pools that captured my gaze and held it. “I had hoped that the two of you would complement each other; your training and experience and her raw power. But maybe I was mistaken.” He looked away, taking another puff and letting the smoke roll out of his nostrils like a dragon’s breath. “Perhaps it was all a mistake,” he murmured.

  I mentally shook myself and looked away. “Fine, after the necromancer is handled I’ll get her more involved. But you have to understand why I did it. You have to know that I only meant to help her. I know how powerful she is. She’s baled me out of more than one tight spot. It’s not her ability that I’m worried about, it’s her psyche.” Ben studied me in the dark and I looked away. “With all the things we have to see.” I shook my head, momentarily unable to continue. Clearing my thoughts, I went on. “Do you remember what it’s like the first time you see a dead child, Ben?” Even in the dark I could see him pale. “I remember. In fact, I can’t forget, and Lord knows I’ve tried. It comes back to me in my nightmares every now and then, and that’s only one of many. Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat and screaming? Half the time I don’t even remember what it was I was dreaming about, and when I do I wish that I didn’t.” I felt my face set like marble, still and emotionless. “Do you really think she’s ready for that?”

  We stood motionless, exhausted, wearily studying each other in the moonlight for what seemed like an eternity. When Ben finally spoke it was slowly, cautiously, as if he were afraid to break the stillness of the night. “What I think on that is irrelevant. Either she’s ready or she’s not, and we need to find out which one it is. Theref
ore, once she’s finished with the tracking spell, Terri and I will hunt the necromancer down and finish this. In the course of events I expect Terri to prove that she is indeed capable of what we expect from her.”

  “Are you insane?” I blurted out. “Simon and I—”

  “Are not ready for this,” he cut in. “You are still obsessing over the fact that he got away from you before, and Simon’s confidence is as fragile as fine china right now. He might hesitate at a crucial moment and get you both killed. Not to mention the fact that as a vampire he is particularly vulnerable to necromancy. No, the way to fight this…man is with a higher order of magic.” He nodded, as if to confirm his own theory.

  “I’m sure the Shadowcaster squad that he annihilated thought the same thing.” My hands were tight on the wooden railing of the porch. A splinter had dug into one of my fingers, but it was a dull far away pain. Not at all like the pain of having my command stripped from me. That was much more real.

  He shrugged. “Well, we know what we’re up against at least. I’m sorry, Frank, but my mind is made up. Get some rest while we’re gone, and then find a new hiding place for Lily. I know you must be eager to get the little hell spawn out of your place.” He smiled tightly. Sighing, he added, “Frank, you’re pushing yourself too hard. Get some sleep, that’s an order.”

  The door behind us opened and Terri stepped out, a tiny black feather tied to a bone in her hand. “It’s all set. Are we ready?”

  “Yes,” Ben said turning to her. “We’ll take my car. I’ll be there in a minute.” She nodded and moved off. To me he said, “I know you don’t agree with me right now, Frank, but you’re going to have to trust me. And in turn I trust you to come up with a solution to our other problem.” With that, he turned and walked down to the car where Terri waited.

  “Good luck,” I ground out, trying not to sound as mad-as-hell as I felt.

  “Don’t sweat it, Frank,” Terri called back to me. Ben nodded and mouthed the word sleep to me. I felt magic curl around me and wrap me in a blanket of warmth. The snakes on my stomach stirred, tasting the air with flickering tongues. They recognized Ben’s magic, and his superior rank, and promptly went back to sleep, allowing the spell to envelop me. My eyelids got heavier and it was a struggle just to get inside and sit down on the couch before all of my strength evaporated like mist in the sun. I barely had time for one final thought before the darkness dragged me down to its sweet embrace.

  Damn wizard.

  20

  As I dozed fitfully on my couch the world failed to stop turning, as I thought it should when I wasn’t conscious or otherwise able to participate. The events that unfolded were later relayed to me by Ben. And the details he left out were caught on tape by a college student with more ambition than common sense and were replayed over and over again for the entire world to see.

  This is what happened after Terri and Ben left my house.

  Ben drove east as Terri sat in the passenger seat, willing power into the small raven feather as she held the bone it was attached to loosely between her thumb and forefinger. They kept the windows of the car closed so no wind would disturb the delicate spell. Slowly the feather rose and pointed them in a direction. Unfortunately, magic tracking spells are only as accurate as the wielder is powerful. Since Terri was the one weaving the magic, and because they were tracking a bird which is prone to change positions rapidly, Ben found himself exiting the merge into the human zone and then doubling back.

  By the time they arrived the trap was set.

  Because Ben had been driving slowly to get a better fix on the location of their prey, he was able to brake in time when the man shambled out in front of his car. The man, dressed in ragged clothes and a soiled red hooded sweatshirt, kept on walking in the middle of the street even as Ben honked the horn and flashed his brights. Ben put the car in reverse only to see another man standing directly behind them, his hands on the bumper.

  Across the street at a local coffee shop that was open twenty-four hours a day, a college student took out his video camera and started recording, hoping to catch some late night Second City violence on tape. In the merge it was just as likely to have been humans as paras, but he wasn’t particular. Just so long as he had something to brag to his friends about when he told them he had been in the merge after midnight.

  The feather in Terri’s hand was pointing straight up.

  “Hang on!” Ben bellowed, hitting the gas and attempting to maneuver around the man in front of them.

  A shape emerged from the darkness across the street and barreled into the front end of the car. It hit with enough force to buckle the front fender and spin the car ninety degrees. The airbags deployed, the force like a heavy-gloved punch. Dust and powder and broken glass flew through the air like a shaken snow globe. Smoke poured from the ruined motor as the half-seen shape bounded back into the darkness.

  “Terri,” Ben croaked. They had both been wearing their seatbelts, but they were groggy from the force of the impact. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” she replied, rubbing her head and unbuckling her seatbelt. “What happened?”

  “It’s a trap. Can you fight?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Not really.” Ben struggled with his own belt before finally getting it loose. He twisted in his seat to retrieve his staff from the back, wincing at the lancing pain in his ribs.

  Both car doors were opened simultaneously by the men who had been standing in the road. Terri screamed as one pulled her from the car and threw her to the ground. A thin trickle of blood ran down her arm where she scraped it on the pavement.

  The man in the hooded sweatshirt grabbed Ben from behind and pulled him from his seat. The staff lay forgotten in the backseat. Ben twisted to meet his attacker, gathering his power to him. The man hissed through his ruined mouth as Ben tried to push away. Ben had briefly wondered when he first saw the man in the road, why his hood was up. The night was a bit cold for Oakland, but not too bad, and not very windy. Now he knew the reason. It looked to him as if the man had taken an axe blow to the side of his face. Part of his left cheek had fallen away exposing chipped and blackened teeth and a tongue the color of month-old meat. The rest of his flesh was rot-ravaged and putrefying. Maggots fell out of his sleeves as he brought Ben closer with shaking arms.

  Putting his palms on the zombie, Ben snarled a word into its dead face. Power rushed through his hands and into the corpse in a blue-green swirl, tossing the creature a good twenty feet before it tumbled to a halt. Ben looked down to see one of its arms still hanging on to his shirt. He uncurled the fingers and tossed it away, a look of utter disgust plastered across his face and bile rising in his throat.

  “Ben!” Terri shouted.

  Regaining his wits, Ben rushed around the ruined car to find Terri pinned beneath the other zombie. Her feet were out in front of her trying to push the weight off of her as the creature leaned in to snap at her face. Its arms had pinned hers at her sides. Terri was only a witch, not a wizard; she needed space and a focus in order to channel her powers. With her hands immobilized and a zombie on top of her she had neither. Ben, with his decades of experience, needed neither. Palms open and held low in front of him, Ben channeled magic between them. With another word he sent the coiled force down, as if it would strike the ground right next to Terri, but at the last moment it curved upward and smashed into the zombie’s shoulder, pushing it off and spinning it through the air as if it were a rag doll. Terri screamed as the fingernails that had been sunk into her arms raked at her before being thrown clear.

  Ben offered his hand to Terri. She looked up at him with an ashen face that was covered with bits of charred clothing and worse things. Absently she reached out with her blood spattered hand and allowed him to help her to her feet.

  “Make us a shield,” Ben said quickly.

  “What?” she asked. “I can’t. I don’t…I don’t have my…” She looked at the ground around her feet.

  Ben gra
bbed her by the shoulders and gave her a gentle shake. “Terri, snap out of it! We don’t have time for you to go into shock.” She looked at him with uncertain eyes and blinked rapidly. It seemed to help. Her eyes focused and her shaking calmed. “Here, take mine.” He took a bracelet of beads off his left wrist and handed it to her. “We need a shield. Now!” He slapped her lightly on the shoulder, a reassurance that every good soldier needs once in a while.

  She nodded quickly, closed her eyes, and began chanting. She pushed the beads through her fingers one by one, the dark purple crystals glowing brighter with every word she spoke.

  Ben fished around in his pocket and brought out three small black rocks. Fingers squeezing closed on the cool stones, he brought them up to his mouth and whispered into his hand.

  Figures began emerging from the darkness around them. Two I recognized as Christian’s acolytes. Each of them was accompanied by a ghoul that loped along on hands and feet at their sides. The two zombies that Ben had thrown aside were on their feet now and were joined by four more. They circled around Ben and Terri and the ruined car that sat steaming and useless in the middle of the street. One of the acolytes put his hand out tentatively until it found the edge of Terri’s barrier. Purple energy shimmered in front of his fingertips and spread out to show the dome that surrounded the two.

  “Lower your shield and we will make it quick, wizard,” the man rasped.

  “You think we will be so easy to kill?” Ben asked.

  “It’s ten against two. Easy or not the results will be the same.” The man smiled.

  Still holding the stones in his right hand, Ben placed his left hand on his chest and murmured a spell. Tendrils of energy ran along his ripped and singed shirt. The air in front of him suddenly seemed to congeal, becoming thicker and darker than the surrounding space. It quickly took on a shape and solidified in front of Ben. The beast looked like a black panther, but it had two heads that jutted out on overlong necks and two barbed tails that swung lazily behind it. A low growl permeated the air like the passing of a plane.