Speak of the Devil - 05

by Tony Richards

  The good news was that we were starting to see stars and, for a change, not the kind inside your head. Now that the Portal was gone, the heavy cloud cover had started to break up. The low dark mush was thinning out and separating – we could make out portions of the sparkling firmament again.

  There was a late-night diner on O’Connell that I used to visit regularly, back when I’d been a patrol cop. The place was nothing fancy, but the food was good, the coffee was top notch, and the welcome was always a warm one. It was called Dutch’s Place, after its original owner. But these days it was the guy’s son, Olly Kirkland, who ran it.

  He was a tall and rather roundish feller, with spectacles and a perpetual friendly grin plastered across his face. He was alone behind the counter, so his wife had to be looking after both their kids this evening. But the place was empty otherwise. The wattage of his smile increased when I strolled in.

  “Mr. Devries! Long time, no see!”

  Now that I no longer had a beat, I didn’t have the opportunity to drop in here as often as I used to. But he seemed to understand that.

  “Great to see you!” he barked. “Who’s the lovely lady?”

  “A friend, Olly.”

  “Boy, I wish I had friends like that.”

  But he wasn’t being impolite, just joshing us. He came bustling out and pulled back a chair for Lauren. She took that old-fashioned gallantry in her stride, although a small crease appeared on the bridge of her nose again. Then Olly produced a pad and a pencil segment from his back pants pocket. I ordered the homemade pizza. Lauren had the chicken salad.

  “So, what are we going to do?” she asked me, once the fellow had gone trundling off.

  “You heard the doc. As soon as they’ve figured something out, they’ll let us know.”

  “But if those things are going to destroy the town, shouldn’t it be going up in flames right now?”

  “Eastlake also told me that they’re very patient,” I shrugged. “And Willets intimated that they can be subtle. There’s more than one way, I’d imagine, to attack this place. We’re simply going to have to wait and find out what they’re up to.”

  Our food turned up and we were forced back into normal conversation. But my thoughts kept humming over as I ate. Twice now, Eastlake senior had shown himself to me in his true form. And then he’d simply disappeared both times. But where did he keep going to? If he and Ryan were working hand-in-hand, then the Deth House was still an option.

  Maybe I should pay a visit to the Little Girl. Perhaps she could tell me where that old frat house had vanished to. We finished off our meal with undue haste and then I slapped some money on the table.

  “Going so soon?” Olly asked us.

  “Sorry, friend. Got business to attend to.”

  He nodded, his smile returning.

  “Well, don’t leave it so long next time.”

  We were in my car and heading off in less than another minute. But – since I didn’t want to go near Salem Lawns again so soon – I took a less direct route, which meant heading for the center first.

  My gaze was going warily around, and Lauren’s was doing the same. A few other cars were thrumming past. And there were pedestrians out on the sidewalk, more than usual for this time of year. When we drove through Union Square, crowds of people were emerging from the theatre on the south side. A performance of George Bernard Shaw’s St. Joan had recently ended. Folks were lingering in the milder weather that had fallen over this place, discussing the play – I’d imagine – wholly unaware of what else had been going on. Some had stopped beside their parked cars to converse, while others still were making their way home on foot, still talking.

  And any of them could have been a devil. That kept striking at me with the force of a large hammer. Any one of them might suddenly transmute and start the hellfire raining down.

  It was plain exhausting, simply trying to get your head around that. And by the gaunt, strained look on Lauren’s face, she was same.

  As soon as I turned off the square, the obelisk-like bulk of Raine General came into view, every surface filled with gleaming windows. And I was thinking about Cassie, when my cell phone went off in my pocket.

  “Ross?” It was Saul. “We’ve finally gotten a break. That second corpse we found? We’ve managed to identify it on a partial dental.”

  So I asked him who it was.

  “Never heard of this guy,” he said.

  “Try me.”

  “Oliver …”

  Something tightened sharply in my gut as I listened to him straightening out a sheet of paper.

  “Kirkland.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

  “What’s going on?” Lauren yelled out as I swung the Caddy round in a sharp U-turn.

  “Think we might have found one of our devils.”

  Once that we were pointing the right way, I floored the gas. Some of the faces in the theatre-going crowd swiveled around to gawk at us when we went hurtling through Union Square again. Then we were back on O’Connell, squealing to a noisy halt. Which meant that Olly Kirkland heard us. He stared out at us vacantly through his spotless plate-glass window.

  I was out of the car in another instant, my revolver already in my hand, hurrying across the sidewalk with Lauren backing me up.

  “Mr. Devries?” Olly stepped out from behind his counter. “Back so soon? Did you forget something?”

  But then he saw that I had taken aim at him. His big round face went white. I’ll never forget the look in his eyes – like those of a little kid who knows he’s being blamed for something, but can’t figure what.

  The pitch of his voice went up several notches. “Mr. Devries? Oh my God, what’s wrong?”

  Could a devil even use the Lord’s name? I didn’t know the answer to that. But I held my pistol double-handed, pointing it directly at his face. And it was obvious what I had to do. While this demon was still mimicking Olly, while it still had on a human mask, then I could hurt it. And that ought to send it back to the domain where it had come from.

  My finger got a few shades tighter on the trigger. But my grip had started shaking. Because Olly had raised both his hands and, behind his spectacles, his eyes were filling up with glimmering damp.

  “Mr. Devries, I don’t understand. What do you think I’ve done?”

  Shoot him, a voice inside my head kept saying. Shoot him now!

  But Saul had said it was a ‘partial’ dental match. And what if they had got it wrong?

  I knew Olly’s wife, a friendly, pretty woman who just doted on her husband. I had never met his two kids, but he’d told me a great deal about them. The boy was crazy about soccer, and the daughter had a lovely singing voice.

  Shoot him!

  That’s easy to do when it’s a monster like the Dralleg. But I was staring into the wide eyes of what appeared to be a human being. And I could see not a single thing that gave me any cause to doubt that. Olly looked the way he’d always done, not the tiniest detail out of place. So could Saul be mistaken?

  “Is this some kind of joke?” he was asking me. His voice was quavering and teardrops had started spilling down his face. “Because if it is, then I don’t think it’s very funny.”

  And when that failed to make me lower my gun, he begged me, “Please, Mr. Devries, you’re scaring me, you really are. Put that thing away.”

  Lauren, who was standing right behind me, whispered, “Ross?” uneasily.

  I tried to squeeze the trigger again and my hand just spasmed. My teeth were clenched, air hissing through them. Heavy perspiration dribbled down my brow.

  And then a little of it leaked into the corners of my eyes. Instinctively, I squeezed them shut to get it out.

  Barely for a second. All it had been was the briefest blink.

  But in that split second, I’d removed my gaze from Olly’s face. And Lauren must have looked away as well.

  And Olly Kirkland – when he swam back into view – was already transforming.

  His glas
ses dropped off as his features swelled – they went spinning to the floor and smashed. And his mouth vanished altogether, giving way to an enormous pair of mandibles.

  Then he began to tower above me, his whole body shooting up. The top of his head thumped against the ceiling. But that didn’t stop him growing, he just doubled over.

  I finally started firing. Should have done that all along. I pounded lead into the huge figure at point blank range. But I could hear the bullets bouncing off, whining as they ricocheted around the diner.

  I had left it far too late. The soft outer veneer of Olly’s skin had already been replaced by a glossy exoskeleton, dark ochre in color.

  Two arms were now protruding from each of his shoulders. They were like the arms of some vast mantis, narrow but armored, with barbs along their lower edge. And they terminated at a pair of large, sharp pincers. Several of them began clacking down.

  I tried shooting through one of those, but my gun was already empty.

  “Ross!”

  Lauren grabbed me by my coat and started hauling me back through the door. And none too soon. One claw came lashing straight across and snapped through the air where my neck had been.

  We stumbled out onto the street. The demon followed, crashing through the plate glass window. Then it stood to its full height, some thirty feet. And it looked mostly like a giant bug, although it still had human eyes. The head was a triangular shape. There was a tail section with paler bands of chitin round it, and a stinger at the tip. The central section of its body, though, was even weirder.

  It was made up of a fully exposed ribcage and a spine. No flesh across it and no organs underneath. And the structure had a dull gray gleam. It didn’t look like bone. It looked like iron.

  I was aware of frantic motion all around me. People were emerging from the bars and restaurants along this block. They’d heard the shots and other racket. Most of them took one look at the creature and then started running. But I stood my ground.

  The thing’s eyes kept on blinking as I struggled to reload. But they were no longer Olly’s eyes. They’d turned a luminous green.

  And when the devil opened its wide jaws, something like a long, translucent tongue came snaking out, writhing wildly against the night air before withdrawing. An awful rotting stench accompanied that.

  The thing seemed to forget about me for a little while, its head turning full circle as it took in its surroundings. And then its face came back to true, its green gaze slanting down at me.

  I fired at it several more times, but it simply took no notice. It took another swipe at me, and sliced through the roof of a parked car instead.

  A voice came skirling from between its clacking jaws, and it was still Olly Kirkland’s voice.

  “Please, Mr. Devries. You’re scaring me … you really are.”

  And then it laughed.

  A fury overcame me and I started blasting away again, but with no more effect than I had had the last time. Lauren wasn’t even bothering to do the same. She’d begun hauling me back again, trying to get us out of range.

  And it turned out that was absolutely the right move. Because when the creature’s jaws swung open this time, massive gouts of flame came spurting out.

  They were almost white, their heat unbearably intense. I swung my face off to the side. And when I managed to look back, the asphalt in front of me had melted and was bubbling.

  The devil turned its back on us. And its next volley of flame was aimed directly at the restaurant.

  The entire place went up in seconds. The counter, the white tabletops, the walls, the chairs. I’d eaten there for years but watched the whole place disappear like tissue paper on a bonfire.

  The last few people nearby us were scrambling away. And none too soon, because the next gout of white heat went belching out across the best part of an entire block and every roof that it touched started blazing.

  Then the devil began wandering up Meadows, doing the same to the tall houses there.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  It was a nightmare that just wouldn’t seem to stop. A whole army of cops turned up. So many shots were fired that the air around us turned a powdery blue and smelled like cherry bombs. But all that furious effort got no more of a result than I’d had with my Smith & Wesson.

  No adepts at all turned up. They still couldn’t get a grip on how to deal with this, apparently. And so the ordinary people of Raine’s Landing … they were left to face the music on their own.

  People’s homes and businesses were going up around me, the reward for all their labors being devoured in flame. And the only thing that I could do was follow at a safe distance and watch.

  The demon could have gone on like that the entire night, I guess. It could have possibly gone on forever. But these things seemed to have a pretty nasty sense of humor, a desire to taunt and drag things out. So – once that it had torched a good part of the downtown district – it came to a halt, drawing itself to its full height. It turned to me, its green eyes flashing.

  “Merely a foretaste of what’s to come,” it told me, in a low, harsh rumble that was filled with mocking laughter.

  It was standing past a row of shorter buildings when it did that, its legs planted in the next street across. And when it began dwindling in size, I started running for the nearest intersection. If it was turning back into its human form, then I might get a second shot at injuring it.

  I turned left, then swiftly left again. But the street it had been standing in was now entirely empty. It had already made its escape. I cursed when I saw that.

  Had it turned back into Olly, or adopted some different form? I didn’t even know how this stuff worked. There was a light breeze blowing and it changed direction, pushing the smoke of numerous fires toward me. But by the sounds of it, the fire crews were swinging into action.

  There weren’t nearly enough of them, however. Half a dozen city blocks at least were burning. And so everybody who was still around, or who had come back once the beast was gone, was left with no choice but to help.

  I wound up as part of a human chain, passing water buckets forward. Lauren was right there beside me. We could hear the sizzling of steam up ahead of us, and that kept us going.

  Only – every time I screwed my eyes up – I could still see Olly’s face. I could have stopped this whole disaster, just by pulling on that trigger when I’d had the chance.

  That was not an error I was going to make twice.

  A few minutes later, we managed to get a partial break. An even stronger wind sprang up, parting the blanket of smoke off to our west. And when you peered across, you could make out the top of Sycamore Hill, the blackened outline of Raine Manor at its apex.

  A thick, dark cloud – a new one – was forming above it faster than it ought to, spreading out like some gigantic pool of ink, then drifting in toward us. And at first, I was concerned the Portal might be back in action. But it wasn’t that.

  It stopped directly overheard. A thunderclap sounded, and then dense, crystalline sheets of rain came sloping down.

  Well, at least one of our adepts wasn’t out of this completely. Woody was now living up to his family’s name. Which brought a gentle smile to my tired face, but only temporarily.

  The fire on the roofs was quickly doused, but we still had the insides of most buildings to contend with. A great deal of work left to do, and none of it enjoyable.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  We had the final fire out by dawn. A load more people had shown up to help us in the last couple of hours, but the gray, filtered light still found us in a sorry state, filthy, exhausted, and drenched right through.

  Water was pooled round us like the ground itself had sprung a leak. There was a layer of black cinders over everything. Some buildings were still upright, but only their bare shells. Others had collapsed to steaming rubble.

  “I’m going to sit down, I reckon,” Lauren mumbled.

  And she sat down in a puddle, but she didn’t even notice.


  Me … I was as tired as I had ever felt, but couldn’t seem to rest.

  I started heading back the way I’d first come, stepping over fallen bits of masonry. The houses to either side of me were devastated. To my right, before much longer, was the small alley where Quinn Maycott used to live. The little homes in there were made of wood, and most of them were gone.

  And the stench was simply dreadful. Leather had been burned, and people’s clothing. Then I came back out onto O’Connell Street. And if I’d been believing I couldn’t feel any worse, it turned out I was wrong.

  Two whole blocks had been razed to the ground, and two more badly damaged, mostly eateries and bars. O’Connell – which had one time been a seedy place – had gone sharply upmarket in the course of the past year. It was the venue people came to when they wanted to chill out and spend some prime time with their friends

  And this … it was like the smile had been ripped from our town’s face. It genuinely broke my heart to see it.

  Then I spotted a hunched figure sitting on a fire hydrant. A woman, quite compact and slim, with multi-colored hair. This was another of Cassie’s friends, Nadine, and she was perched in front of the basement bar she owned and ran.

  Or at least used to. One glance down the blackened stairwell told you that it had been gutted. She had her hands in her lap and was staring at them hollowly, partway lost in shock and unsure how to act.

  I wanted to go over to her and say something. But I tried to think what, and came up blank.

  So I finally turned my head away, feeling this was my fault too.

  Cass was stood at the next corner down.

  I headed off in her direction. This was no place for someone in her state. I was concerned for her, not angry.

  She was still in her blue gown, but with somebody else’s heavy, fleece-lined coat pulled over it, the collar up. The bottoms of her legs were bare, and she was wearing hospital issue white slippers. Discolored water had seeped up through them, staining them a light brown.