A Despair of Demons (Travelers, Book 1)

by Cassy Campbell

  “I think you have to pulverize the bone before you can use a knife,” she said as she wiped the blade on the demon’s arm. “The bones of their spine are way too thick otherwise.”

  Jordan ripped his knife free from the first demon, still swaying in place. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  He shot the demon point blank in the back of the neck as Liv had, then sliced through the remainder of its neck.

  They turned as one and raced through the lab door to help Connor and Trent. One demon was already down and headless, and the others were wounded.

  Liv’s radio clicked twice, but she was in no position to answer it. Hopefully, it meant that Gin and Ben had finished with the lobby, and they could start looking for stolen data, find the missing employees, and get the hell out of Dodge.

  Liv and Jordan each took a demon, aiming for the spine at the back of the neck. Liv’s shots missed the mark, but Jordan’s demon fell to the ground.

  Trent sliced off its head while Connor focused fire on the other one. It, too, fell to the ground. As Jordan reached for its throat with his knife, it reached up and clamped a hand around his neck instead.

  His gun clattered to the floor, and he whipped both hands up to the unbreakable hold around his neck. He sank his knife into the demon’s arm as its claws sank into the soft flesh above his collarbone. Blood streamed from its arm but its grip didn’t falter, and Jordan’s blood trickled down to soak his shirt collar black. Jordan tried to force his knife through the demon’s arm and sever its tendons, but his grip slipped in blood.

  Liv, Connor, and Trent couldn’t risk shooting the thing in case they hit Jordan—he was practically on top of it, sunfishing to try and break its grip—and its other arm was still free to defend itself against their comparatively puny knives.

  They shared a glance as Jordan’s legs kicked ineffectually.

  Connor indicated that he would go in first, but the demon rose to its feet and he fell back. Now Jordan’s feet kicked a foot off the ground. He released his knife to bring both hands to his throat. The demon’s grip on his neck tightened, releasing a fresh flow of blood. It held him in front of it like a shield.

  Liv’s heart was in her throat but her head was amazingly clear. She shouted, “Jordan, stay still, and stay here!”

  He couldn’t acknowledge that he understood. She’d just have to trust him. His feet stopped kicking, but now he hung like something already dead. She squashed that thought immediately.

  Connor’s eyes widened as he saw what she planned, and he shouted, “Liv, no!”

  “Do you see another option?” That talon couldn’t be half an inch from his carotid.

  “No.”

  Liv lobbed the wildfyre grenade at the demon’s feet, the only place not shielded by Jordan’s body. The grenade hit with the whumpf of a gas stove burner lighting, and the fyre exploded up the demon’s body, so fast it looked like time-lapse photography.

  Liv stood just out of the demon’s reach to grab Jordan the instant it let him go. The widlfyre had now completely engulfed the demon’s body, crawling slowly up the arm holding Jordan. The demon screamed in its pig-squeal voice, but it didn’t let go and it didn’t Travel away: Jordan was anchoring himself here so it couldn’t leave without dropping him.

  Jordan’s skill distantly impressed her amidst her terror and her involuntary pinpoint focus on his bleeding neck. She wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be conscious; his face was now a horrible shade of purple.

  Suddenly Jordan gave a tremendous heave like a fish on a hook. He got his legs up between him and the demon and kicked off of the demon’s body with all his strength. It was enough to pull out of the demon’s grip, but he put his feet in the wildfyre to do it.

  His shoes and pants went up in a blaze as he dropped to the ground on his back. He just lay there, ignoring his merrily burning clothes. Liv leapt toward him and was on her knees with his head cradled in her lap before she realized she had moved.

  “Jordan, come with me now! Do you hear me?”

  He didn’t answer but she felt him becoming less there, preparing to Travel.

  She dissolved into the whirlwind with him, and they reappeared instantly in a warehouse room in Hell.

  Jordan lay still in her arms, and the wildfyre was gone.

  Frantically, she felt his neck and found a pulse. She laid her head on his, pulled him close, and tried to stop the trembling of every part of her. For a moment, a world, a future, without Jordan opened up in front of her. Jordan had almost died, and she wasn’t sure what she would have done if he had.

  Taking a deep breath, she kept her hand on his neck, holding the bleeding wound, and tried to see how badly his legs were burned. His arms came around her and held her where she was.

  She lifted her hand to look at his neck, at the two deep punctures just lateral to his jugular. They had torn some when he pulled away from the demon, and were still bleeding freely. She dipped her hand into a pocket, pulled out some bandage material and pushed it against his neck. He hissed in pain.

  “Sorry. Are you okay?”

  He didn’t answer so she pulled him up, holding his upper body against her so she could see his face. “You okay?” she repeated.

  He nodded, eyes still closed, and then forced them open. He winced when he saw her expression, and she tried to erase the naked fear from her face.

  “You smell really good,” he rasped in a broken whisper, and pulled her close again.

  She laughed—a crazy jagged laugh, but still a laugh. “God, you scared me.” She squeezed him tighter.

  He laughed too, but without sound. “You scared me too.”

  “How?”

  He lifted his head to look her in the eye. “You threw wildfyre at me.”

  She grinned. “It worked, didn’t it?”

  He grinned back. Then he kissed her.

  She brought her free hand up behind his head, pulling him toward her so she could deepen the kiss, breathe him in and prove he was alive. When she finally pulled away, she kept her hand on his cheek and stared into his stormy eyes.

  His expression was dazed, and his voice had upgraded from a rasp to a whisper. “Wow! I did not expect that.”

  She smiled. “Sorry I didn’t meet your expectations.”

  He shook his head. “Far exceeded. Very, very good.”

  “Ready to go back?” she asked. He shook his head and pulled her close again, breathing deep.

  “You’re insane. There’s no possible way I could smell good now, unless you like burning demon and sweat.”

  He pulled his feet closer to curl around her and she could finally inspect his legs. The bottoms of his pants had burned off, and the smell of singed polyester was overpowering, but his skin looked fine. He was lucky wildfyre burned so completely or it might have melted the fabric to his skin.

  “How do your feet feel?” she asked as she eyed the scorched leather of his boots.

  “Fine.” His voice was starting to take on sound.

  “’Kay.” She pushed him back. “I need to get a bandage on this. Stay still.” She placed the bandage and wound gauze around his neck. “Too tight?”

  His eyes met hers. “No, it’s good.”

  “Can you stand?”

  “I’m fine.”

  She gave him a hand and helped him to his feet. He seemed all right.

  A distant sound made her jerk her head to the right. They were near a stack of fallen boxes, and nothing was moving, but the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. It felt like someone was watching.

  “We need to get back,” he rasped.

  “Not here. The lab will be burning by now.”

  They trotted down a few aisles between stacks of boxes until they reached an exterior wall. Liv looked around and said, “This should be safe.”

  “Unless we end up in an elevator shaft.”

  “Well, make sure you’re ready to come right back. We’d only fall a floor.”

  Another noise sounded from her left, and Li
v whipped her head that way as she recognized the approach of footsteps. She pulled her sidearm as Jordan did the same. Connor appeared around a stack of boxes.

  “There you are!”

  He reached to his radio and said, “Trent, I found them. Uh, northwest corner, north-northwest wall.”

  “You okay?” Connor asked as he turned to Jordan.

  “Fine. Thankfully, Liv’s got good aim.”

  “We needed to get out of the range of the fyre,” Liv said to explain why they hadn’t immediately returned.

  “Yeah, wildfyre is, apparently, wild,” Jordan said.

  “Don’t tell me. But we have no other distance weapons against demons. A little fyre is nothing compared to a bloody death by demon claws.”

  “Hear hear.” Jordan touched his bandaged neck. “So what now?”

  “Turns out Ben and Gin have a little demon problem in the lobby. We’ll get back over there and pitch in.”

  Trent trotted around the corner, breaking into a smile when he saw Jordan.

  “Home World,” Connor commanded.

  Blessedly, they didn’t end up in an elevator shaft, although the elevator doors were nearby. They were at the end of the hallway with a window at their backs. Smoke was just starting to drift into the air.

  “Y’all shut the lab door?” Liv asked.

  Connor nodded.

  “Wonder how long that’ll last.”

  Jordan said, “Let’s get done quick and get out before the building comes down on our heads.”

  Liv pulled out her radio, clicked twice.

  Ben answered, “Go ahead.”

  “Ben?”

  “Liv, thank God you’re okay. Is Jordan all right?”

  “Yeah, he’s fine. Connor and Trent are also here. Where are you?”

  “We’re on level one, heading down to the lobby. We need to take care of the demons and get those missing people found.”

  “Roger, we’re on our way.”

  Ben’s voice broke in. “Uh, little problem. I don’t think guns are going to be an option.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Well, we’ve got some friends outside.”

  She took the few steps to the window and saw the media circus far below. She counted at least twenty cop cars and about ten newsvans.

  Ben continued, “We could really use a distraction. Why don’t you call one of the elevators and send it down to the lobby? Then book it down the stairs to help us when they come to check it out.”

  “Hell no.” Liv wasn’t going to let Ben sacrifice them to the demons. They couldn’t light them on fyre in the lobby. But gunfire would alert the cops and they’d be lucky to avoid being shot on sight when SWAT poured in.

  She tried to think. Something glimmered in the back of her mind and she reached for it. They had to behead the demons, but without first pulverizing the spine with gunfire.

  The glimmer clicked into a memory, and Liv turned to Connor. “Connor, I think we should bring something to even the odds.”

  “What kind of something?”

  “Something that might help remove some heads.”

  Connor looked at her with a quizzical expression. “You found something like that?”

  “No, but I just remembered a research project from a while back, and the guy was on the employee list. If what I’ve heard is true, it’d be just the thing.”

  “All right. We’ll head down and scope out the situation. One click when you’re ready.”

  Liv nodded and clicked her radio back on. “Ben, sit tight. We’re going to look for something to improve the odds a little.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  “We’ll try to be quick.”

  “Roger.”

  Liv turned to Jordan with a grin. “Let’s go. His lab was listed on fourteen.”

  “Who?” Jordan asked as they hit the stairs.

  “Dr. Takiguchi. Laser optics.”

  Chapter 27

  Takiguchi’s lock was better than the one in the storage lab a floor above, but Jordan still made short work of it.

  He and Liv entered the lab and looked around.

  “He works with laser-based technology,” Liv explained. “His initial work was in stealth weaponry. He made a laser drill, for lack of a better word, that bored completely silently through lock mechanisms, screws, or clasps.”

  “That’s hardly going to help us,” Jordan pointed out.

  “I know.” She pored through computer research logs that were password protected but not encrypted, and not even locked at the moment. He must have left in a hurry. “But I heard two years ago he was contracted by the Defense Department. I hope the demons haven’t copied any of this…oh, here we go.”

  She’d found plans for a prototype weapon. Jordan read the screen over her shoulder.

  “Wow. He’s adding bayonets to P90s?”

  “Yeah,” Liv grinned. “Laser bayonets.”

  They found the storage locker, and once again, Jordan broke in.

  There were four weapons there, but only two had the block with a glowing red dot that Liv assumed was the laser attachment.

  She took one, pointed it away from Jordan, and pushed the button.

  A red beam shot out. She jerked the gun up slightly in surprise and slipped her finger off the button. She stared at the table in front of her, a ribbon of smoke trailing from the now-missing corner of heavy slate countertop, and then at the black smoking line on the wall across from her.

  “I guess he hasn’t worked out all the kinks yet,” she said.

  “I think that was operator error,” Jordan said dubiously as he took the other one. He pointed it the other way and depressed the button with identical results, except that he only burned through the cabinet hanging on the wall since he didn’t jerk in surprise.

  “I guess that was operator error too?”

  Jordan smiled an apology. “Guess we’d better be careful who we’re pointing at.”

  Liv nodded and followed him back to the elevator.

  When the elevator doors opened, she jumped back in surprise as clouds of acrid smoke billowed out. The walls and floor burned merrily, green and orange flames surrounding a charred lump in the center of the car that must have once been a demon. The fyre hadn’t eaten through the steel yet, but it probably wouldn’t take much longer.

  Liv coughed. “I guess we’ll catch another one.”

  Jordan nodded. “Why don’t we send this one to the lobby? It ought to provide a decent distraction.”

  They rode another elevator to level one and called the burning elevator again.

  Its doors dinged open, and Liv asked, “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  Liv clicked her radio to let the others know they were coming. She felt like a kid pulling a prank as she leaned around the corner to push the button for the lobby, pulled herself back out of the baking inferno, and dashed for the stairs with Jordan beside her.

  At the lobby entrance, they darted through the door and into a pandemonium of roaring demons, billowing clouds of black smoke, and monstrous shadows thrown by the wildfyre from the elevator they’d sent down.

  At least they had plenty of cover.

  A hulking giant stumbled out of the smoke right in front of her. She pointed the P90 up at the ceiling, clicked the laser button, and took off its head as it ran by.

  Two more demons had cornered someone in one of the recessed elevator doors, and she attacked from behind, taking both out in a single swipe. “Stay down!” she shouted to Gin as the demons between them fell.

  Liv turned and saw Jordan taking a swipe at a demon trapping someone in another corner, who turned out to be Connor when the headless demon fell.

  Three more demons came at her out of the gloom, and she sliced at the first, missing the neck but cleaving off the wing tip and leaving a deep valley in its chest.

  Her next swipe took its head.

  The second demon forced her to duck and dodge to cancel her opponent’s superi
or reach, keeping the laser aimed up and cutting at whatever appendage was closest. She took off an arm when it swiped toward her. The other demon attacked her from the side, but Trent whipped two throwing stars into its face to temporarily distract it. The first demon swiped at her with its remaining arm, and roared in her face when the offending limb landed at her feet. She lifted the laser above her to take off the head, and caught the second demon on her back swing.

  She looked around to see Jordan finishing up the last of the two that had attacked him.

  The last demon stood exposed between them, Connor’s knife bristling from its eye. It swirled into nothingness and the knife clattered to the floor. Connor yelled, “Liv! Jordan! Hell on mark!”

  He ran for the knife as he counted at top speed. Liv dropped her P90—it was too big to Travel with them—and pulled her gun.

  They dissolved into Hell, where they caught a glimpse of the demon running for the door.

  Jordan shouted, “Hey!” and threw his knife in a perfect spinning arc. The demon turned its head to gauge how close they were, and the knife struck it in the right eye. It spun down to the dirt floor.

  Liv raced forward and shot it in the back of the neck, and Connor sliced off its head before it could rise. Jordan walked up and retrieved his knife.

  They met each other’s eyes and grinned like fools.

  “Well done,” Connor said. “Let’s leave this one here for now and make sure we’re secure on the other side.”

  Back in Home World, they found the others dragging the demon bodies out of sight of the lobby windows.

  Connor said, “Search them for any evidence of corporate espionage. Then we need to get these bodies under cover and figure out how to find our missing Innerstellar employees.”

  Gin said, “I’m on the security system.”

  Connor nodded and grabbed a demon arm. She slipped around the main lobby desk to the computer console while the others dragged the bodies and heads into the burning elevator.

  “None of these have any places to hold discs,” Trent reported.

  “Maintenance is going to love us in the morning.” Ben threw one of the demon heads in on top of the pile of bodies, surveying the blood splashed in liberal swathes across the hallway walls and floor, and the scorch marks that graffitied the walls and ceiling.