by Sam Cheever
The renewed vigor of Raoul’s chanting caused the spirits in that clearing to roil and twist and push against the dark celebrants. Robed figures in the circle jerked and pantomimed distress as they became only slightly willing vessels for the frantic spirits.
One by one they dropped to the ground and fell upon one another.
I was startled into taking a step forward, thinking that they were going to harm each other and realizing that Raoul would have to live with those results for the rest of his life.
Somehow I felt responsible for his current state of mind. Maybe I had pushed him too hard. Maybe my insistence that he spy on the coven for me was to blame. Whatever had brought him to this low point, I felt it was my duty as his friend to help him get beyond it.
I quickly realized though that the writhing figures on the ground were not trying to kill each other. When the first pair of robes hit the dirt...minus the witches who had been wearing them...my face turned a blazing shade of red and I started to turn away. I would wait for Raoul in the woods. No reason I needed to watch a bunch of horny spirits party hearty using the flesh of a bunch of willing witches.
But before I could take three steps toward the woods the air pulsed once in a sort of sonic boom and a backwash of electrically charged air that smelled of the deepest kind of evil blew outward. It swept away from the center of the clearing and hit the line of trees that surrounded the space, causing them to bend backward almost to the breaking point.
I thought at first that it had been an explosion of some kind. But no one in the clearing moved. No one ran away. In fact all activity had stopped and everyone watched. Waiting in eerie silence.
Like a herd of deer caught in an open field that was surrounded by hunters, the dark celebrants seemed rooted to the spot in helpless horror.
Finally, a scream erupted from the center of the crowd and my head jerked in that direction. The celebrants fell away and I could finally see what had entered the epicenter of that sexual tornado.
The first scream was quickly followed by several more as the naked young woman who lay tethered to a large, flat stone realized what was about to join her on the altar.
It was bent almost double at the base of the large rock. Its long, wormlike body was outlined against the dusky fog of the clearing with a double row of thick, sharp spikes, which reached from the top of its head to the tip of a thick, short tail that waved frantically, beating celebrants away from the altar. The tail ended in a deadly looking fork.
The demon’s head was wider than its body and sported long, curved horns that rode the sides of its head, just above slitted, glassy eyes. As it slowly unfolded itself into an upright position, its arms, long and banded with tight, lean muscle, rose toward the screaming woman, who was now being held down by a couple of her fellow witches as she tried to struggle free from the thick ropes that bound her.
I realized the woman was a witch and was therefore probably a willing participant of the ritual, but my relief at that fact was quickly replaced by dread at what she and I both just realized was about to happen to her.
The demon who was about to mount the altar and the witch sported a terrifying erection. The thing looked to be over a foot long and it was covered in stiff, glossy spikes. The tethered witch’s screams became more terrified as she spotted it, no doubt realizing being mounted by that demon would be much more than painful. It was almost a surety that she’d die from the experience.
I reached into one of my soft, knee high boots for a knife.
Straightening, I reached back for Emo. He grasped my hand and shuffled my mental drawers. I’m with you boss. Any idea how we’re gonna vanquish a fire demon?
I threw him a mental shrug and said, No clue. As usual, we’ll be winging it.
Frunkin’ wonderful.
The first thing I had to do was get its attention. I strode quickly into the robed crowd, urging the witches who were still on their feet out of my way by showing them my knife and nudging the ones writhing on the ground with my boot to encourage them to move out of the way.
As I neared the demon, whose spiked back was still turned to me as it started climbing onto the altar, I flicked out with my power and gave the scary, jutting member on the front of its body a painful electric noogie.
The thing screamed like a girl and whirled around, falling off the altar and landing on its feet.
I almost screamed like a girl too when I got a look at its face.
It had a scaly purple brow with spiky hairs growing out from a V at the center, pointing toward its horns. The eyes were narrow and red, currently sizzling with angry sparks. The lower half of its face was all snout and teeth. Hundreds of long, razor sharp teeth fought for space in a cavernous mouth that constantly leaked saliva. The fire demon flung up its head and roared as I neared, flinging spit in a wide arc around its raging form. It seemed to take offense to the fact that I intended to kill it.
Go figure.
My mental drawers shifted. Way to go, boss, now you’ve pissed it off.
Thanks for your ongoing support and admiration, Emo. It means a lot to me.
Hey, no problem. Now what?
Well, the good news is that it is no longer focused on the witch.
And the bad news?
I think you know what that is, my friend. You might want to dredge up some of those royal powers you’re usually so stingy with.
I felt him take mental offence and smiled. You know, part devil, I can’t seem to help myself.
I am not stingy with my powers, Astra. Don’t you think I’d like to use them? I haven’t had them for a while you know. I’m a little rusty that’s all.
Now’s the time to practice, partner.
No, Astra, the time to practice is in the privacy of the office, when there isn’t a demon from the fires of Hell spitting on my brand new silk shirt. That’s the time to practice.
I turned and grinned at him and he sighed.
The air around us changed and Emo grunted a bit with the effort. Despite the effort required to initiate his power, however, it grew quickly once it hit the already power-drenched air of the clearing and I felt Emo’s surprise in my mind.
I pulled my own power forward and let it join Emo’s. The result was impressive, if I do say so myself.
The circle quickly cleared of celebrants. They moved beyond the light to hover on the perimeter of the clearing, away from the raging demon and us. Apparently nobody wanted to be there when we unleashed all that power on the very pissed off demon with the droopy pee pee.
The only ones still left in the clearing were Raoul, who stood completely still, with head bowed and hands clasped in front of his robed body, as if he were in a trance, and the unfortunate hostess of the evening’s festivities on the altar, who also seemed to be less than conscious.
The demon opened its spit filled maw and spoke in an impossibly deep, gravelly voice that pounded through the clearing and made the trees all around the edge dance a manic samba. “You dare to disturb the dark purpose!”
I stood up straighter and adjusted my expression from “Oh shit” to “Aren’t I a badass”. “I do.”
The demon stood for a beat staring at me as if it thought I’d lost my tiny frunkin’ mind.
I think maybe I had.
Then it raised its snout into the air and screamed.
The clearing exploded with the sound of human suffering. Beyond the light, I could just see the dark celebrants curled into fetal balls on the ground, clasping their ears and shrieking as if in exquisite torture. The spirits that had inhabited their bodies fled the human bonds to get relief from the ripping pain the demon’s voice was causing.
Emo and I covered our ears and looked at each other. Let’s get this jerk! Emo thought at me and I nodded.
We turned as one and focused our power on the demon. The wall of power roared across the clearing and hit him, sending him flying into the thick trunk of a tree that was probably a few centuries old. He hit the tree and skidded down until he l
anded in a purple pile on the ground.
The trunk of the tree where he touched it burst into flame and the tree went up like a torch, all one hundred feet of it consumed in about three seconds.
Emo and I gulped. The power we’d thrown out died with a pop and we stood there naked to the world, magically speaking, as the demon picked itself up and started moving toward us.
As he did I became aware of a series of whooshes behind the demon, which heralded the appearance of several more of its kind. I realized with a start that the demon hadn’t simply been throwing a temper tantrum when it had screamed but had apparently been calling for backup.
Aside from being a little bit impressed with myself over the fact that a demon from the fires of Hell thought it needed backup to deal with me, I was just about ready to pee my pants over the reality of not one but eight of the things lurching toward me.
Dimly I became aware of Raoul, who apparently had come out of his trance and was chanting again.
Too little, my friend and too late I think. “Get the Hades out of here, Raoul!” I screamed.
No response. The chanting continued.
The original demon continued toward us and as he drew near he burst into flame. I realized with a start that he was going to stay that way and my fear of our predicament climbed another few notches.
Emo, get out of here. Now!
Not gonna happen, boss.
Do it or you’re fired.
You’d better come up with something fast or we’re both gonna get fired.
I shook my head at his bad joke and shifted my mental drawers. Dialle! Emo and I are about to become demon toasties, do you think you could spare me a few minutes of your time and maybe a few bazillion jolts of your power?
The air shifted and Prince Dialle was standing beside me. My heart—and other parts—warmed at the sight of him. But before I could tell him how happy I was to see him the demons attacked.
Flame-encased arms wrapped around me and I screamed as my skin start to melt. The fire demon squeezed me in its deadly embrace and opened its nasty mouth to bite my face. I threw my power out, joined by an additional burst that had Dialle written all over it. Thankfully the demon shot away from me and hit the rock altar. Then I shot him again and held him with the power while I took physical inventory. My arms and shoulders where the demon had grabbed me were bright red and looked like they would blister and peel. I suspected my face looked pretty much the same. My clothes were still smoking and hung in tatters from huge burned out spaces where the demon’s arms had clutched me. But I was happy to report to the Astra Q Phelps medical assessment team of one—that’s me—that I would live.
That was when I remembered to take friend and lover inventory as well. Emo was barely holding his own against a demon that didn’t, thankfully appear able to flame out. He was basically just holding him away with a power bubble but I could tell from the look of strain on his face that he wasn’t going to be able to hold out much longer. Dialle had managed to take out three of the nasty things and was fighting two more, even while giving me a power boost.
Now that just pissed me off.
He couldn’t be that much more powerful than I was. I let the anger fuel my power and refocused it on the demon that was even now trying to regain its feet and come back at me. I managed to throw him back to the ground but he didn’t blow up into millions of tiny little pieces and disappear like I wanted. Shit!
Movement above the clearing caught my eye and I looked up at the hundreds of spirits that hovered just above the action at the edge of the clearing, watching the festivities with happy spirit faces. Their hovering presence gave me an excellent idea.
I decided it was time they joined the fun, on the side of the good guys. Well, the good guys as compared to what we were fighting.
It’s all relative you know.
Reaching upward with my power, I used it to gather up the spirits and draw them in. At first I felt resistance but then they came to me almost eagerly, as if they finally realized that I was going to let them join the fun.
One thing I’d learned about spirits is that they resent the inability to use their personal power more than anything. I was about to give the spirits in that clearing not only a pathway to use their own power but I was also going to give them access to more power than they had ever experienced in their before and after lives.
The first spirits hit me with a painful jolt and I gritted my teeth against the onslaught. But as they started to accumulate and my power sucked up their collective energy, I no longer felt them as they climbed into my body and surrendered their power to me.
The energy in my body grew until I felt like I was getting taller, bigger, larger than life. Then I noticed the demon had unfurled itself from the ground at the base of the scorched tree and was looking at me as if, for a change, it wasn’t sure it wanted to tackle me. I laughed and the sound shook the trees around the clearing.
I realized I should have been startled by this but somehow I wasn’t. My cells had literally swollen with power and it felt as if the power belonged to me. I had incorporated it into my body and it had become a part of me.
Somewhere outside my consciousness I realized that everything around me had stopped and appeared to be in waiting mode.
I turned to the demon that moved toward me and smiled. Wisps of spirit flowed from my eyes and my mouth as I did. I looked down at the ground and realized that yes, I was larger than life. The ground was farther away than it should have been.
I flung a wave of sizzling energy toward the monster. The demon jerked back from the strength of my power and flew upward, dangling from my upraised hand by an invisible thread of power. I made it dance for a moment, laughing as its horrible spiky limbs performed a jerky pantomime of dance in the air. Then I remembered there were other of its kind in that clearing and decided to finish it off. The demon’s mouth opened and it screamed again as its body started to pull apart, ion by ion until it finally exploded outward into a million, tiny little purple pieces.
Oh yeah. I was juiced.
I turned to the remaining demons and they disappeared with a pop. The look of horror on their ugly demon faces was the only impression they left behind as they fled my power.
I looked at Dialle and my face must have shown my regret because he laughed. “Let the spirits go, Astra. You can’t keep them.”
I scowled but relented. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and concentrated on letting the power ease away from me. As the energy ebbed, the spirits drifted upward and disappeared with a long, low hiss, like air leaving a balloon.
The first thing I realized when I opened my eyes was that I was small again. The second thing was that Raoul stood before me, the hood of his robes lying flat on his back and his face a mixture of anger and shame.
Then Dialle moved to stand with me and all I was aware of was how good he smelled and how yummy he looked in those tight pants.
Damn! Flattened by the horn dog express again.
Raoul scowled at me but seemed unwilling to meet my eyes. It was an interesting combo of emotional emissions and I just watched him, waiting to see how he would explain the night’s events.
I didn’t expect the first salvo.
“Astra, you had no right to come here tonight.”
Dialle chuckled but I decided to ignore him. I could only deal with one beady little brain at a time.
I glared at Raoul and poked him in his black robed chest. “Are you frunkin’ crazy? The woman on that altar would have been killed. What were you thinking calling a fire demon to join your little party?”
The errant witch placed his hand on his chest where I’d poked him as if it hurt. Maybe it did, I didn’t think I’d released all of my power yet. Then he sighed and looked away, shame taking precedence on his face for the moment. “I had no choice. I would have stopped it...somehow...before it killed her.”
The angry retort that rested on my lips fell off into the dirt at my feet. Shock made me nearly speechles
s. Nearly. “What do you mean you had no choice?” Suddenly I was overcome with a feeling of hurt self-righteousness. I planted my fists on my hips and leaned toward him, really pissed. “You berated me for even suggesting that black magic was being used in your coven! You abused me over it. And here you are using sexual energy to call the worst type of demons into this world. How dare you stand there now and tell me you had no choice!”
Raoul looked at me with a mixture of rage and pity in his chocolate-brown eyes. “You’ll understand some day, Astra.”
I waited for him to go on with his explanation. He just stood there looking at me like a whipped puppy.
“That’s it? That’s all you’re gonna say to me?”
When he continued to stand there mute I lost it. Throwing my hands into the air I turned away and stalked toward the woods. I didn’t even realize Emo and Dialle were with me until I felt Dialle’s hand on the small of my back and Emo’s shoulder brushed mine. I turned to Dialle as I stalked toward the edge of the clearing. “You were doing pretty well for yourself out there, pal. How’d you manage to take out so many of them?”
Dialle smiled. “I only vanquished one.”
I turned to Emo, raising an eyebrow in question. He shook his head.
I stopped and turned to the lone figure standing in the center of the clearing. A visual of him standing on that rock platform chanting as we fought off the demons played itself out in my mind. As my eyes found Raoul the clouds cleared from the fat moon and a trail of light beamed down to illuminate him. He was watching me. His face was obscured but his body language spoke volumes.
We stared at each other for several seconds and then, shaking my head, I turned away and headed for the Viper.
I felt immeasurably sad. I was pretty sure a long and treasured friendship had died in that clearing. And I had no idea what I was going to do about that.
CHAPTER NINE
Misplaced Blame
