Chapter Nine
Jackson, Present
Sleep hadn’t come as easily as I would have liked. It was unfortunate, but I didn’t trust these people. I’d seen too much to take anyone at their word. So my sleep had been light, and I woke up more than once to sounds from outside of the tin shanty I was in. After a quick meal, I planned to be on my way. I had a meeting with a Phenex; he just didn’t know it yet.
There was a knock at the tin door. “Come in.”
The elder walked in with Cass at her side. “I trust you slept well?”
“As good as can be expected under the circumstances.”
She looked slightly taken aback. “No harm will ever come to you here. You have our offer of sanctuary.”
I stood up from the low chair. “It’s appreciated, but I plan on being gone before the day is done.”
“Gone. Where will you go, Redeemer?”
“I’m going to see a demon about sending me home.” For the first time since I had entered the room, she looked uncertain.
“And where does that leave us?”
I hadn’t really thought of them while I had been resting. As much as I wanted to help them, I didn’t know if I could. Getting back to April was more important to me than anything else, but could I really leave them to suffer? Not much of a redeemer if you are willing to leave others twisting in the wind. But what could I do? It wasn’t as if I could stay here forever and fight their battles one at a time.
“I’m not exactly sure,” I said, running a hand through my hair.
The elder walked around the room slowly, as if trying to think of what to ask. Cass just stared at me with a smile on her face. Her faith in me was complete. It shouldn’t have been, but it was.
“I’ll be heading out soon to confront Phenex. What will happen here if I leave and he isn’t dead?”
The elder stopped pacing and turned her faded blue eyes in my direction. “Life will continue for us much as it always has. We will lose more people to the demons than we can save, and eventually all of us will either be enslaved or killed.”
Well, that wasn’t a very optimistic picture, and not really something to look forward to. “What would you need me to do to make things easier for you?” Cass beamed at me. I wasn’t sure how her smile could have gotten any brighter or bigger, but it had. I still wasn’t sure I could risk helping them, but I needed all of the facts first.
“There are three main hubs where the demons congregate. If there was a way to destroy all three locations, we might have a chance, that and the death of Phenex.”
“I need the prince alive. He is the only being who can send me where I need to go, unless you know of another way?”
“Have you encountered the one who walks between worlds?”
She must mean the man in the hood. He seemed to be in charge of the demons and had somehow stranded me here. “I believe that I have. But if I’m here, I doubt he will be making another appearance.”
She started to pace again. “Killing the rest of the demons means nothing if the prince still lives. Any plan we make that doesn’t culminate with his death is pointless.”
“I’m not saying that I’m willing to do this yet.” Both of the women turned toward me. “But what if I could injure the prince enough to get what I need—would your people be able to handle the rest?” The elder started pacing again, and Cass was watching her now, awaiting her decision.
She stopped and turned toward me. “It might just work. It's risky. Demons heal fast, and Phenex even faster than most. But it’s possible that could work, if we were in a position to execute the plan quickly. It would be much easier if you were willing to change your mind and kill the prince outright.”
“I can’t do that and still accomplish my goal. Not unless the one who walks between worlds shows his face. He didn’t like the outcome of our last run-in, so he probably won’t show up here.”
“Then it is settled.” She smiled. “You will do what you can, and we will attempt to finish it.”
I guess it really was settled. Both of them had known I wouldn’t feel right about leaving them without helping, and they knew that I wasn’t willing to budge on killing the prince. That meant from here on out, it was all about getting the details of what was going to happen right, and then executing the plan as close to perfectly as possible. Hopefully, when all of this was over, they would be in a better place.
Erik walked into the room, carrying a huge tray of meat and a bowl of mashed potatoes. “Should we get down to business?”
Cass fetched bowls for all of us, and then Erik started to serve the food. “Do you always eat this well?”
“Only when it might be our last meal.”
Damn, they really had me figured out from the second I walked into their stronghold. This was what I was made for, to fight demons, to make sure they never wanted to step foot in our world again. What I had never expected was to be liberating the humans who lived in hell. This wasn’t like the stories from the Bible. These people hadn’t done anything wrong. They just needed help.
As soon as we started to eat, Erik and the Elder started to fill me in on the situation and what they thought could be done about it. This planning was going to take a while, but that was ok. The beast inside of me never stopped getting hungry, and they had plenty of food.
The first target we had was a massive brick building. Erik told me that the building also housed a massive underground complex. The demons preferred to be above ground. The more powerful and wealthy the demon, the closer to the top floor they lived. When he said that, I let out a chuckle. It reminded me a little too much of home. Our goal was to bring the building down and kill as many of the demons as possible. Unlike in the real world, these buildings didn’t have security, and there wasn’t any chance the cops would show up and stop us.
Humans moved in and out of the building, all of them on some errand for their masters. They had to use a door to the side of the building. No demon wanted to be bothered by having to talk with one of our kind. That made it easy for us to slip into the building unseen.
Erik had worked in construction before he found himself in hell. He had a background in demolitions, but with the amount of explosives he had brought with him, I almost didn’t think it mattered where we put them. Our crew moved through the building and into the basement. From there, we split up, and each of us moved toward our designated area. This was the riskiest part of the whole plan. Erik assured me there wasn’t surveillance, but you could never be sure.
I finished planting my explosives and started to head back toward the stairs. Just as I entered the stairwell, I heard a loud crack. It was the sound of flesh on flesh. I had heard it often enough when April kicked the crap out of me during training. Catching the door, I stepped back out into the garage. The sound came again, and I started running.
Walking around a corner, I saw a man standing over a woman on her knees. She reached up toward him, and he pushed her hand to the side before slapping her again. “Hey, what is going on here?”
The man turned toward me, and I took a surprised step back. While he had looked normal from the side, now that he was facing me, I could see that he had two little tusks that poked out of his lower lips, and two small horns on his forehead. The horns curved back over his head, almost seamlessly blending with his hair.
“Oh, is this your friend? The one you snuck down here with?” She didn’t speak. “Answer me, you bitch.” He struck her again. I started forward, and he turned to me. “Don’t worry, you’re next.”
He must have been used to dealing with humans who had already been cowed. That wasn’t me, not by a long shot. He raised his hand to strike her again, and I caught it before it could come down. He turned toward me, a look of outrage on his face. His expression asked me how I dared to touch him, let alone try and stop him. It quickly turned to surprise when my sword found its way into his belly. I twisted the blade, making sure the wound would be fatal, before stabbing him again.
&nbs
p; He fell to his knees, and I kicked him onto his back. I stabbed him one more time through where his heart should be, and then pushed his body under the broken-down SUV. The woman was already on her feet when I turned around. Her cheek was swollen, and her right eye was black.
“Redeemer,” she whispered.
“Come with me.” I took her hand and led her toward the stairs. We had to get out of here. It wouldn’t be too much longer before we brought this place down. As we ran through the parking garage to the stairwell, I wondered just how she knew who I was. Someone in this building knew enough about me that one of their servants could spot me on sight. That meant I might need to find something to hide my face going forward.
The woman followed me out of the building and back to where our group had gathered. When everyone was in place, Erik pulled out his controls for the bombs. I watched a group of people head inside, and it occurred to me that we didn’t have a plan to get them out. “Erik, we have to find another way. We can’t kill all of those innocent people.”
“We can’t stop now, and believe me when I tell you every human in that building would gladly give their life to bring it down on top of the demons’ heads.”
“If that is true, why haven’t you destroyed it before now?”
“We didn’t have you before now. After we do this, there is no going back. It will be us versus them. Before you were here, that meant all of us would die. None of us wanted to give up our lives for nothing.”
“I still don’t feel right about it.”
“Let’s ask your new friend.” He turned to the woman I had rescued. “If you knew every demon in that building was going to die right now, but it would cost you your life, would you gladly give it up?”
Her voice came out hoarse and cracked. “I would.”
All I could do was nod. Today I was going to kill a lot of demons, but I would also be responsible for the loss of human life. It didn’t sit well with me, but this was their world. That made it their choice. “Do it.”
Erik looked at me and hit the button. All of us turned to watch the building. At first, I thought nothing had happened, and then a plume of dirt shot up around one corner, quickly followed by the other three. By the time the sound reached our ears, the building was already collapsing in on itself. I’d never seen anything like it before. It was horrible and beautiful at the same time. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it.
Erik reached out and tapped my shoulder. “Time to go.”
He was right; we had two more buildings to hit. Would the demons even notice that this building had been destroyed before we took out the next one? There didn’t seem to be any news here except word of mouth. Before I could worry too much about it, we were running toward our next target.
The second building had gone just as easily as the first, but now we were at the third building, and it was guarded. Two hulking demons that looked like they might have been covered in armor made out of plates of rock guarded the door. The two demons glared at every human who walked past them. One woman looked back for too long, and the demons beat her until she had to crawl away, leaving a trail of blood on the concrete.
As it happened, I started to rush forward, but Erik pulled me back. “If you do that now, more of us will die needlessly.”
I gave him the glare that I had previously focused on the demons, and he quickly took his hand off of my shoulder. I turned, looking at the demons again before turning back to him. “If I make a big enough distraction, do you think you will be able to get in and out of the building?”
“If you can keep them busy, we will plant the bombs or die trying.”
“I’ll give you a couple of minutes to get into position.” Erik flashed me a grin, and I could see why Cass liked him. When he wasn’t being a muscle-bound asshole, he seemed to like to have fun. That is, if blowing up buildings full of demons was your thing.
Erik and his team took off running to get into position, and I sat back for a moment, thinking about today’s events. The prince was going to be on high alert when I made it to the palace. That was if he was even there anymore. His kingdom was under attack. Was it possible that he went to get help or was even now heading here to stop us? Would another demon even help him, or would they strike out, sensing his weakness?
It would have been better for me if we could have blown up all three buildings at once. But the resistance here was too small. They only had the manpower to hit each building individually. That meant Phenex was going to be receiving a nice heads-up before I got there. I’d waited long enough. The thought of what those two demons had done to that woman filled me with rage. I let it boil to the surface and fester there. They had no idea what they were in for.
I walked toward the front door as if I owned the place. I could already see my bravado had caught their attention. One of them flexed its muscles, and the other cracked its knuckles. Little pebbles fell to the ground as he did so. I could still see the woman’s blood on his knuckles. Bad move to draw my attention to the dried blood, as if I didn’t have enough reason to hate all of you fucking bastards.
The demon on the right spoke. “Look at this, we have a tough guy on our hands.” His words came out sounding almost like two rocks grinding together.
His partner responded, “Let me get this one. You had almost all of the fun last time.”
The other demon just nodded to his partner. I continued to walk forward, and the demon came out to meet me. Thirty feet away, I pulled out my swords and broke into a jog.
“Look, he has toothpicks,” the demon said with a laugh as he started running toward me.
Had that motherfucker just called my swords toothpicks? These swords had been forged by the Brotherhood and passed down to me by my father. They weren’t toothpicks. The swords were modeled after Roman gladiolus blades and gave off a faint golden glow from the magic they were imbued with. This demon was going to find out firsthand what it meant to screw with one of the Gifted.
The ground shook as he drew closer, and I wondered if my swords would actually break through his rocky hide. I had to be prepared in case they didn’t. If the blades bounced off his rocky exterior, I’d just have to use my magic. Killing them a little more quietly seemed appealing. The last thing I needed was for demons to start streaming out of the building trying to kill me.
The demon’s arm moved back as he telegraphed his punch. He probably wasn’t expecting too much from me. My wolf lent me some of its strength, and I darted to the side as the demon’s arm came forward. Both blades came down onto the limb, severing it cleanly. The demon continued forward, unable to slow his bulk even as a gravelly scream tore from his throat.
His partner started to charge forward from the building, but I only had eyes for the rock monster in front of me. He finally managed to turn his eyes burning with rage. Black blood squirted from the stump where his arm had been. I started to run toward him, and he was forced to meet my charge. It was the demon’s mistake not to have any weapons, counting on his rocky hide to save his ass.
As we were about to meet, I pivoted around the stump of his arm and stabbed out at his side. The demon grunted but turned with superhuman speed. I managed to duck under his arm, but just barely. My hair was still moving from its passing when I slammed both blades into the demon’s back. The blades came out like a hot knife through butter, allowing me to stab him in both legs before turning to meet his partner.
I had to give the second demon some credit; he didn’t hesitate to come to his partner’s aid. I didn’t know too many people who would have that same level of fearlessness. Looking at their friend being turned into a one-armed bleeding mess was normally a pretty good deterrent. This demon didn’t have any weapons. The only thing he had going for him was he knew just how deadly I was. Before he reached me, he lifted one leg in the air and then slammed the foot down onto the concrete. The wave of power it generated sent me sliding backward. My sneakers slipped in the dying demon's blood, and I hit the ground hard.
Before I cou
ld move or roll out of the way, the demon had closed the distance and was already bringing that foot down to stomp me into paste. There was nothing left for me to do but call on my magic. There wasn’t a shield I could make that would stop that blow, so instead I called on my air magic. As the leg continued down, I hit him with everything I had.
It might have been a tad overkill, as the giant demon flew almost a hundred feet backward and hit the ground hard. His momentum didn’t slow when he hit the ground, and he crashed through the front doors to the building. Hopefully the lobby wasn’t packed with demons. The last thing I wanted was for any of them to escape. Even if they weren’t in the lobby, that sound wouldn’t go unnoticed for long. The only question was, would they care enough to come to help one of their own?
I had a feeling the answer to that question was no. Turning away from the building, I picked up my swords. The hilts were slick with blood, but my grip still felt firm enough to finish what I needed to do. The rock demon might have already been dead, but I wanted to make sure he would never be able to regenerate. The body didn’t move as I walked forward. I hacked off the creature’s head and tossed it back toward the building.
A scream of rage issued from the front of the building as the other demon saw what I did. The fact that the demon was still able to function was damned impressive. Being covered in armor from head to toe obviously had its benefits. Trying to ignore the charging demon, I walked over to the fountain we had been hiding around before our assault started. I jumped into the water and cleaned my blades and my arms. I fell backward into the bubbling water, hoping some of the dark ichor would wash off my clothes. When my head broke the surface, the demon was just passing his decapitated friend. I twirled one of my swords and then threw it forward, pushing it even faster with the help of some air magic.
Redemption (Ascendancy Legacy 6) Page 8
