by John Corwin
Enemies.
A white streak blazed across my field of vision as I slashed my right arm at the nearest dark blur. I heard a gurgle and the figure went down. Another explosion rocked me on my feet. My left hand flew up on instinct. A shield of ultraviolet sprang up and caught another exploding arrow. Two more indistinct figures slashed at me. I felt their knives hit the shield.
I blinked a few times, and the blurriness faded to clarity. I saw a man jamming more shafts into the crossbow.
Kill.
The shield and sword vanished. Orbs of malevolent energy filled my palms.
I saw the whites of my enemies' eyes as fear replaced certainty. I hungered for their blood. A guttural laugh emerged from my throat. "You are mine."
The Exorcists ran.
Before they were a dozen paces away, I clapped my hands together and sent a shockwave racing down the aisle. The energy blasted a column to rubble, burying two of my enemies. I raced after the survivors, leapt high, and pounced one of them.
"Die, puny mortal." Saliva drooled from my mouth and onto the face of the terrified man beneath me.
"Please, no!" he screamed.
Before he could utter another word, I picked him up by the neck and threw him high into the air. A beam of white energy speared from my hand and burnt a hole through his chest before his body hit the ground with a meaty smack. Movement caught the corner of my eye. I saw the familiar man running for the door. I sent a pinprick of Brilliance into his ankle, slashing his Achilles tendon.
He screamed and tumbled forward. I raced toward the downed figure. I smelled his burnt blood. Sensed his fear. His pain. I swept him off the floor with one hand and held him aloft by the neck. He squirmed in my grasp, his hands prying at mine. I squeezed his throat slowly. Felt his windpipe collapse. Heard the gurgle of his last breath as it wheezed through his constricted throat. I felt a smile spread my lips.
Death. Destruction. The world is ours now.
"Justin!" cried a familiar voice.
I turned in time to see a figure in black flip off the back of a pew and nail me in the face with a foot. The dead body fell from my grasp. Another kick to my chest sent me sprawling across the floor. I saw the Exorcist ninja's foot a third time as it slammed into my face.
The red in my vision cleared. I gasped, and rolled to the side to avoid a fourth kick.
"Try to take me in a fair fight, bitch!" Elyssa shouted as her body flashed before me in time to block another attack from the ninja.
Their arms and feet blurred with speed as they fought. My eyes locked onto the body of the man I'd just killed, and horror swept through me. What have I done? True, I'd really wanted to kick their asses, but I'd actually reveled in killing them. I sensed pleasure emanating from my demonic side. It had taken control after the bullets stunned me.
Swords clanged.
I sprang to my feet. Elyssa's sai blades caught a vicious blow from the ninja. My girlfriend's foot swept at her attacker's feet. The ninja flipped backward, avoiding the attack with ease, and threw a shuriken from a belt at her waist. Elyssa batted the projectile with a sword, sending it flashing right back at the attacker. The ninja ducked. The throwing star embedded itself into the stone wall behind her. Her masked head turned toward the star and back to Elyssa.
I imagined Elyssa's fierce grin crossing her face since I couldn't see it beneath the Nightingale armor mask. The ninja flicked her sword in a circle and assumed a defensive stance. Elyssa took a similar stance, and the two faced off.
Something exploded near the front of the church. I turned and saw Shelton and Adam exchanging fire with more Exorcists.
"I've got to help the others," I said.
"Go," Elyssa said. "I've got this."
I hesitated, unsure for an instant. The ninja sprang toward me. Elyssa's sword stopped the blow from taking off my nose.
"Go, Justin!" Elyssa growled. "You're only distracting me."
I streaked toward Shelton. Anger filled me as I thought about the Exorcist ninja. I had so much power but still couldn't beat her.
We are powerful, my demon side said. Turn and kill her.
I stopped in my tracks, watching as the ninja flipped through the air to avoid Elyssa's thrusts. I could use the same trick I'd used on the other man. I could cut her tendon. I could slice her in half. Anger built in me like a rising tide of lava.
Kill her.
"Son of a biscuit eating buffalo!" Shelton shouted. "We need help!"
I turned as another explosion sent chunks of stone raining down on his and Adam's position. My head cleared and the anger faded. I had to help Shelton.
Before I could take another step, two of the attackers sent blasts of energy at the ledge behind my friends. Chunks of heavy stone collapsed toward them.
"No!" I shouted. But I was too far away to stop it.
The stone slammed into an invisible barrier before it crushed my friends. I saw Mom straining, as if holding up a heavy weight. Dad showed his teeth and made a punching motion with his hand. The ground beneath the Exorcists trembled. A fiery hand reached from within the earth and gripped two of them, squeezing their bodies. Blood sizzled from their pores, and their eyes boiled in their sockets. Their awful screams of agony cut off within seconds.
The remaining attackers looked stunned. A fleeting second passed, and the Exorcists turned tail and ran.
I looked to the left and saw Mom make a swiping motion with her hand. The debris above Shelton and Adam slid to the side. A fierce smile came over Dad's face as he watched the remnants of the Exorcists flee for their lives.
"Who are you?" Elyssa yelled.
I spun and saw her and the ninja facing off, swords locked as each one tried to throw the other off balance.
"I am the one who guards the light!" the other woman cried out.
"Daelissa wants to rule the world," Elyssa said in a strained voice. "Don't do this. Join us."
"Lies!" the woman cried. "Lies!"
"The Exorcists have fled. We have you surrounded." Elyssa dodged back as the ninja aimed a kick at her feet. Sparks flew from their blades as the two women disengaged and leapt back from each other.
The woman shook her head. "I was abandoned by the Templars long ago. Thomas Borathen, my own father, left me and my brothers for dead when he could have saved us!"
Elyssa literally staggered beneath the weight of those words. "Your father?"
"I will never join you," the other woman said. With that, she threw something to the floor. Smoke exploded.
I raced to Elyssa's side where she stood staring at the dissipating smoke. The woman was gone.
Elyssa lowered her mask, revealing wide eyes and a pale face. She looked at me. "It can't be true."
I remembered Thomas Borathen once mentioning something about another family in one of his rare slips of the tongue. "Are you okay?"
She bit her lip, staring blankly.
I took her by the shoulders. "Elyssa, are you okay?"
Grim resolve melted the look of confusion. "After this is over, I'm having a long talk with my parents." She made a growling noise. "Can't think about it now. We need to complete the mission."
"Hey, Montjoy, want to come out and play?" Dad yelled.
There was no answer.
Elyssa's jaw tightened as she looked around the room at the debris and bodies scattered across it. "Montjoy knew we'd be coming back."
"He must have known who you are and assumed you'd be back with reinforcements," I said, taking a guess.
She slammed her swords into the sheaths across her back. "I wonder if this means Serena knows we're coming."
"We'll have to assume so," Dad said. Shelton, Adam, and Mom walked by his side. "I also don't think this was the last Exorcist attack."
"What do you mean?" Elyssa said.
Dad swept an arm around the church. "This isn't just some place they use on an occasional basis to purge demons. I'd bet it's their headquarters." He pointed at the ground. "Churches like this have crypts an
d all sorts of secret passages. We're probably standing right on top of an anthill."
I remembered Maximus's old hideout. It had once been a church. I'd learned more about the crypt beneath the place than I'd ever wanted to since the vampire had kidnapped Dad and held him prisoner down there.
"If you're right, we have less time than I thought," Elyssa said. "Montjoy might be on his way to warn Serena about us."
"Either her or Daelissa," Dad said. "There might even be an army of Synod Templars hiding below."
"This gets better and better," Shelton said, his dour expression heaping more sarcasm onto his words. "Is the mission a bust?"
"No." I shook my head. "It means we go into the Gloom with the expectation that the only way out will be through the Shadow Nexus."
"Can't you ever do things the easy way?" Shelton said with a groan.
I gripped his shoulder. "You and Adam need to leave. We'll take it from here."
"My spell cracker took down the barrier blocking the Gloom arch," Adam said. "You're good to go."
Elyssa looked grimly around the room. "Someone needs to look for Templar survivors and get them out of here ASAP."
"We'll inform your people outside," Shelton said.
She nodded. "Make sure you give them the details of the engagement and—"
Shelton waved her off. "Don't worry. You don't have time to waste telling me what to do. Now go!"
The four of us raced toward the large silver circle surrounding the arches near the apse. Shelton and Adam broke off from the group and headed toward the corridor leading to the rear exit. Dad shoved a large chunk of stone away from the Gloom arch. Mom waved a hand, and a breeze cleared the dust from the silver ring. Elyssa jogged to the door and returned with a bundle of rolled-up flying carpets.
"Ready," she said, and stepped inside the circle.
Mom and Dad joined us. I knelt, jabbed a thumb against the silver circle and willed it closed. I looked at the Gloom arch and willed it to activate. With a slight hum, a portal flickered on within the arch showing a foggy mirror image of the church. I stepped through first. Elyssa followed close on my heels.
"Hang on," Dad said. "Are there any Templar reinforcements coming to guard our backs?"
"Yes," Elyssa said. "The plan is to completely take over the church, but my father said he was finishing an operation against the Synod and couldn't spare enough men." She took out her phone and sent a quick text. "I just let him know to expect a lot more resistance than the Exorcists." She looked up. For now, our flank will be wide open. There's no way around it."
An amused smile spread Dad's lips. He nodded. "Nothing spices life like knowing you're gonna die."
"David," Mom said in a disapproving tone.
He held up his hands in surrender. "Just making an observation."
Elyssa looked at me. "Close the portal."
I willed the portal closed. It vanished.
My girlfriend gasped and drooped.
I touched her shoulder. "You're cut off from your supernatural talents."
She flexed her fingers and stared at her hand. "I don't feel right."
"I know the feeling." Even though my newfound abilities granted me more power in the Gloom, the dampening effect was profoundly noticeable.
"Oh, by the way, I got you something," Dad said. He tossed me a clear plastic bag.
I caught it and looked at the contents. "My phone!" I said. "Where did you find it?"
"Storage room near the entrance of the church," he said.
I grabbed my wallet, eighty-two cents in loose change, and my beloved phone, Nookli, from the bag. "I may be stuck in the Gloom, but at least I can tell the time."
Elyssa wrinkled her forehead and looked around. "I didn't realize how dense the fog was. Piloting the carpets is going to be a nightmare."
We made our way outside to the back parking lot. I noticed a hole in the iron fence where the Templars had cut one in the real world. I checked the time on my phone. We still had three hours until the fog cleared, assuming the Gloom kept to the same schedule. That was a lot of time to be flying blind, especially when we might have Montjoy and his people close on our heels.
Elyssa seemed frustrated. "I didn't account for crappy visibility." She huffed an angry breath and stared into the foggy surroundings. "This was a huge mistake on my part."
"It's not your fault," I said. "I should have emphasized just how bad vision is in here during the day, but it didn't even occur to me."
Mom made a fanning motion with her hand. The fog cleared in all directions by about twenty feet. She stopped fanning, and the fog rolled back in. "I don't think this will help much while we're flying."
"All we need to do is fly in the direction of the quarry," Dad said, aiming a finger in the general direction. "If we take the carpets high enough we won't have to worry about running into trees."
"What about buildings?" Elyssa asked.
"We'll need to fly high enough to avoid them as well," he said.
"How will we know if we're high enough?" she asked. "We can't see the ground."
I fiddled with my phone. "The GPS works. Maybe I can use 3D mode to help us avoid buildings."
Elyssa nodded. "That might work."
An even better idea occurred to me. Minder Justin, I need you, buddy. I concentrated on instant messaging my shade using brainwaves and hoped for the best.
Elyssa gasped. "I feel strong again."
"Oh, crap," Dad said.
A surge of strength flowed into me. I opened my eyes. "What's going on?"
"Someone opened the Gloom arch." Dad looked behind us. "We're not alone anymore."
Chapter 34
"Montjoy is sending in the troops," I said.
"We don't know for sure," Elyssa said. Something whistled through the air. Her hand blurred and caught an arrow inches from her face. Her eyes went wide. "Then again, maybe we do."
Another arrow whistled inches from my head and clanged off the iron fence. I ducked. "How can they see us through the fog?"
"With the portal open I'm at full power," Mom said. "Maybe I can do something." She made a sweeping motion with her hands. A gust of wind cleared the parking lot all the way to the door where a group of figures in gray uniforms were aiming more arrows our way. Each wore what looked like glowing spectacles.
"Magic glasses." Elyssa made a frustrated noise. "Why didn't I think of that?" She slid through the hole in the fence. "We've got to get out of here."
Another volley of arrows deflected from an invisible barrier Mom had apparently thrown up. She looked at Dad. "David, go through the fence while I hold them off."
Dad shook his head. "I'm not—"
"Go!" she said in her parent voice.
He climbed through the hole after me.
Mom backed up as more arrows bounced off the shield. I heard one of the uniformed soldiers shout a command. Mom turned, and dove through the hole. Once outside of the fence, we didn't dare run. There were trees everywhere and fog concealed them all. We hadn't gone more than a few paces when I felt my strength dissipate.
"They shut down the Gloom arch," Dad growled. "Looks like we're back to being normal."
We reached the other side of the trees and found a clearing. Elyssa unrolled the bundle beneath her arm, and tossed two flying carpets on the ground. "No choice. We have to fly." Her eyes went to me. "You still have the coordinates on GPS?"
I nodded. "We'll need to fly the carpets close to each other. If we lose sight, it'll be tough to find each other."
Mom and Dad hopped on one of the carpets while Elyssa and I took the other. Using a nearby tree to judge our height, we floated up until we lost sight of the top.
"Going high!" someone shouted from below. Arrows whistled past. One punched through the bottom of our carpet. The tip barely missed nailing my rear end.
I willed the carpet forward at a modest pace. The GPS showed buildings ahead, but I didn't know how high we were in relation to them.
"I can't bel
ieve I didn't think of magic glasses," Elyssa said. "We wouldn't be running blind like this."
"You can't think of everything" I said, peering intently into the fog for any obstacles. "I didn't think they'd be following us so soon after we kicked their butts."
"They must have realized we didn't have reinforcements." Her eyes went wide. "Watch out!"
I swerved left and barely missed hitting the tip of an antenna atop the roof of a building hidden in the fog below. "Whoa, that was close."
"Justin?" Mom called from somewhere in the fog.
"Over here," I shouted back.
We called back and forth a few times before finally drawing close to my parents.
"Distance?" Dad asked.
I checked the phone. "A few miles." I blew out a frustrated breath. "It's going to take forever at this rate."
"Let's go higher," Elyssa suggested. A shadowy shape flitted past. "What was that?"
I shook my head. "I didn't get a good look."
"I think it was a minder," Dad said.
I pointed up. "We're going higher."
He nodded. "Good idea."
Our carpets rose a distance made undeterminable by the thick fog. I'd decided to keep going up for at least another minute to be certain we were above any nearby buildings, but a shout of alarm from Elyssa caused me to halt.
"Look," she said, pointing straight up.
Even through the fog I saw lightning streaking in horizontal bursts across the billowing fog close overhead.
"Reminds me of the aether storms," Dad said, his carpet holding steady next to mine. "I think we're as high as we're gonna get."
It was hard to judge the distance to the lightning storm, but given the dense aether fog, it had to be close. I imagined a bolt of magical lightning frying the spells on the flying carpets and sending us plummeting to our deaths. "Hopefully we're high enough to avoid any buildings," I said. I didn't feel terribly confident about my statement since so much construction on the west side of town involved high-rise condominiums.
A crowd of minders flew past our position without a sound except for our collective gasps. I looked up and saw shadows appear in the fog with every lightning strike.
