“I might let you go, kid. Out of respect for your dad. These three, however…”
“You’re a coward.”
“I’m a coward? You killed a sleeping berserker in his tent. You didn’t give him a chance to fight. I’ll at least give your friends a chance.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’ll each get to fight a berserker. If they win, they get to fight another berserker. If they win, they get to fight another berserker. And on and on… until they fight me. I doubt any of them will make it that far though.”
“None of them will make it that far, Muan, because I’m here to kill you.”
Muan turned around and saw Weapon walking towards him with an axe. Several berserkers lay decapitated behind him.
CHAPTER 7
“So we can just teleport to any nephilim in trouble with our nephilim gloves now? You’re sure the upgrade will work?”
Reaper nodded.
“My dad reverse-engineered the technology from Shadow’s dual-bladed scythe, Damnation.”
Lucia shivered.
“That weapon still gives me the creeps. Dad told us never to touch it. He’s still afraid it’ll hurt us.”
“Isn’t Shade the same brand of reject that his dad was? I’m sure he’d be fine if he touched it. It’s in his blood.”
“What the fuck is your problem with my brother?”
Reaper sighed.
“Lucia, he isn’t your brother. He’s a stray that your family took in and he creeps everyone out, just like Shadow did.”
“How would you know? You’ve never met Shadow.”
“I’ve heard stories.”
“Right… because you weren’t there.”
“Look... I don’t wanna…”
Reaper’s and Lucia’s gloves started glowing. Reaper grinned.
“Cool. It really works. Now we just clap our hands three times and it should take us to them.”
Lucia nodded.
“Fine. You go first. If it doesn’t work… you’ll be the only one who blows up.”
Reaper walked up to Lucia and wrapped his arms around her.
“I’ll go first, but we can blow up together if it fails.”
“I could get out of this if I…”
“Not before I clap three times.”
Reaper clapped his arms together behind Lucia’s back three times and he was gone.
“He’s such an asshole sometimes. Looks like it worked, though. Steam actually figured out the early stages of teleportation.”
Lucia clapped three times and was transported to the origin of the cry for help. She saw Reaper with his hands in the air and realized that they were surrounded by berserkers. The nephilim that had called for them were dead, in too many pieces to count. Lucia looked at Reaper and he nodded. He crossed his arms and turned to stone while Lucia began to heat up.
“Your boyfriend abandoned you. I guess that means we get to do what we want with you.”
“Not gonna happen. I’m Lucia Lightbringer and you’re pissing me off.”
The berserker cowered in mock fear and the others laughed. Lucia got even angrier and flames started to shoot out of her arms. One of the berserkers sniffed the contents of his small back of chemicals and tried to stab Lucia in the back with a spear. She spun and grabbed the weapon with her hand. Then she smiled.
“Thank you. That should put me over the limit.”
The spear heated to the point that the berserker could no longer hold it. He dropped it and it disintegrated in the heat coming from Lucia. The berserkers all started backing away.
“It’s time for some cleansing fire.”
Lucia closed her eyes and focused her flames outward. Her flames caught all of the berserkers and she fell to the ground, breathing heavily. Reaper changed back from his rock form, drew his sword, and started cutting off berserker heads. When they were all either dead or had ran away, Reaper helped Lucia to her feet.
“Gotta say it, babe. That was really hot.”
He winked and Lucia rolled her eyes.
“That was mildly amusing the first time you said it. Not so much a hundred times later.”
“It’s a classic. Classics never go out of style.”
“Help me find their nephilim gloves so we can take them back.”
Lucia and Reaper found three of the four gloves fairly easily, but they couldn’t see the fourth glove anywhere. Without warning, a three-headed dog jumped out of the bushes and knocked Reaper over. Two of the heads growled down at him and the other spit a bloody nephilim glove in his face.
“Oh gross!”
Lucia whistled and Cerberus got off Reaper, two of his heads still growling at him.
“Why is Cerberus here? I thought he went with…”
Lucia’s eyes went wide.
“Oh shit. We have a problem. Get up. We have to find Shade and Lucia. They went after the berserkers, too.”
“They didn’t call for help, so we can’t help them.”
“Fuck the rules. We just saw first-hand what the berserkers can do to nephilim. Your brothers probably went after the berserkers, too. Should we really wait for them to call out for help?”
Reaper considered their options.
“Ok. We find the four of them. If they’re not in trouble, we sneak away and don’t let them see us. We can’t be caught giving preferential treatment. Deal?”
Cerberus took off deeper into the woods and Lucia followed without answering Reaper’s question. Reaper sighed and jogged after her.
CHAPTER 8
“Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m Weapon, one of the nephilim council. I’m also the nephilim that’s going to kill you for what you did to my half-sister.”
“I can’t keep track of all the things I’ve killed. Who was your sister?”
“A demoness named Nissa. You killed her to take over the berserker army.”
Muan grinned.
“I take it back. That’s a kill I’ll always remember. So you’re the mixed-breed brother, huh? Didn’t even know she had one.”
“You also have my daughter, the son of Shadow, and two sons of Steam. You definitely know how to piss off a lot of very powerful nephilim.”
“So what? I don’t even need to dirty my hands with your blood. You walked into the middle of my scouting party. You’re surrounded by dozens of berserkers.”
“Then I’ll take the challenge you offered to them. I’ll take on your army one at a time until you get tired of watching me kill them and challenge me yourself… or we could just skip the part where you act like a coward while I kill your berserkers.”
“Take him down and put him in chains.”
Three berserkers grabbed Weapon and twisted his arms behind his back. He dropped the axe he had been carrying. Muan noticed that Shade’s eyes were starting to glow white and he held up a hand.
“Stop. I’ve changed my mind. He can fight the three of you, one at a time, and then fight me if he wins. Is that acceptable, half-breed?”
Weapon nodded and the berserkers released him from his chains. Weapon rubbed his wrists briefly and put both of his hands inside his trench coat. He grinned.
“You’re welcome to make the first move… unless you’re scared.”
The first berserker snorted some white powder from a line on his arm and attacked. Weapon side-stepped the charging demon and wrapped a wire around his neck. The berserker clutched at his neck, but Weapon used it efficiently as a garrote, stepping on the demon’s back with one foot and pulling backwards until the berserker’s head slid cleanly off of his neck.
“Round one goes to Weapon. Decapitation by dental floss. Which one of you is next?”
The two remaining berserkers attacked together, but Weapon didn’t protest. He pulled the motorcycle from his trench coat and drove directly at them. Right before they impacted with his bike, he turned it sideways so it hit both berserkers in their heads. The demons were left bleeding from their ears and noses on the ground. Weapon picked up the axe h
e had dropped earlier and cut off their heads. He dropped the axe, reached inside his trench coat with one hand, and flipped off Muan with the other.
Muan drew his scythe and tapped a small amount of white powder onto the end of it from a small bag on his belt. He snorted it, closed his eyes, and smiled before turning into a jaguar. Within seconds, he had closed the distance between himself and Weapon and was lunging at his face.
Weapon pulled a large mallet from one of his inside coat pockets and clobbered the lunging jaguar on the side of the head. The jaguar turned briefly back into Muan and shook his head several times before turning into an elephant. The elephant hit Weapon hard with its trunk and Weapon went flying backwards. Weapon turned in the air and floated to the ground, landing on his feet. The trench coat seemed to have helped him glide briefly. He reached into one of his pockets and removed his rocket launcher. He fired on Muan and the rocket exploded right where Muan had been standing. Weapon looked over the area, but didn’t see a corpse. It was then that he saw a crow, flying slightly above the smoke.
Weapon pulled a bow and a quiver of arrows from his trench coat and began firing at the crow. The crow dodged expertly as it flew towards Weapon. As it closed it, Weapon pulled a baseball bat from his trench coat and took a swing at the crow. The blow connected, but Muan immediately changed into a hippo and felt straight to the ground, landing on Weapon’s foot. Weapon felt the bones in his foot crunch and felt a searing pain. He cried out. Muan turned into a moose and ran away before taking his demon form again. He removed his scythe from his belt and started walking back towards Weapon. Weapon tried to limp away, but Muan throw a dart at him that stuck in his calf muscle. Paralysis shot up Weapon’s leg and he fell over. Muan turned to look at his four nephilim prisoners. He pointed at Nissa.
“Let this be a lesson to you. All the nephilim will be put to death. You are an abomination.”
Nissa looked on helplessly as Muan raised his scythe over his head with both hands. She screamed as the blade cut through the air and straight into the ground, cutting her father’s head from his body.
“That’s an interesting trench coat. I’m sure Murmur will want it. I wonder what he’d be willing to trade for…”
“Muan!”
Muan looked back at his nephilim prisoners and he saw Shade’s eyes glowing white. The berserkers around him backed away. Muan laughed.
“Definitely Shadow’s son. Are you gonna throw some icicles at me, little boy?”
Shade touched the ground with both hands and the ground froze solid. Stalagmites shot up from the ice and impaled all of the berserkers in Muan’s scouting party. Stalagmites also shot up and broke the chains of Nissa, Fade, and Backlash. Fade and Backlash turned in the direction they thought was Necropolis and ran. They didn’t look back. Shade fell to his knees and Nissa rushed to catch him before he fell over. He clutched at his head with both hands.
“I had no idea you could do that.”
“I had no idea I could do that. I’ve always sucked at sorcery and I’ve never been able to summon ice. I’ve never understood how it came so easily to my father.”
“Well you did a great job, but…”
Nissa looked over at the corpse of her father.
“Are you gonna be alright? I need to…”
“I’ll be fine. I’m sorry I wasn’t quicker. Go to him. Take your time.”
“I don’t… I don’t want to go down there alone.”
“I’ll go with you. Just help me walk down there. My head is still killing me.”
Shade and Nissa made their way slowly down to Weapon’s corpse. Nissa fell to her knees in front of him and started sobbing. Shade sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulder.
“Your dad was a great nephilim. Everywhere I’ve ever gone I haven’t really felt like I belong. Everywhere, but Weapon’s house. You guys were always like family to me and I’ll…”
Nissa turned and cried into Shade’s shoulder. He put his arms around her.
“…I’ll never forget him.”
CHAPTER 9
“Stop!”
Steam looked up and saw a small demon in a tree pointing a gun at him.
“I get to tell them to stop! It’s my turn! You promised!”
The first demon rolled his eyes.
“Go ahead then.”
The second demon looked down from the tree and pointed his gun at Steam.
“Freeze!”
“Happy?”
“No… not really. It didn’t feel natural enough.”
The second demon lowered his gun and addressed Steam.
“Can you leave and come back? I want to try my line again and see if we can get it to work better.”
“Do the two of you work for Bumalin?”
The first demon nodded.
“I’m Coconut and this is my brother, Monkey.”
“I’m Steam, the nephilim sorcerer of the council of nephilim. I’m here on orders from King Leech.”
Monkey’s mouth fell open.
“You’re a magician?”
“No… I’m a sorcerer.”
Coconut scratched his head.
“Those words mean the exact same thing.”
Steam was already starting to lose his patience with the brothers.
“Look… I don’t have much time to play games with you guys. I need to talk to…”
Monkey grinned.
“You’ll make time for us if you want to see Bumalin.”
Coconut jumped down from the tree.
“Monkey’s right. You have some time if you want to see the boss. I’m a pretty big deal when it comes to poker, so I’d like to see a card trick, magician.”
“Anything I do wouldn’t actually be a trick. I can alter the dimensional state of the cards and…”
Monkey hopped down from the tree.
“Less talk, more card tricks.”
Steam decided to roll with it.
“Fine. I’m guessing one of you has a deck of cards.”
Coconut pulled a fresh deck of cards from his back pocket and handed it over to Steam. Steam conjured a table and spread out the cards.
“Pick a card, each of you.”
The brothers each grabbed a card. Steam shuffled the deck.
“Now put your cards back at any place in the deck.”
Coconut put his card in the middle of the shuffled deck. Monkey shook his head.
“If I give you my card, you’ll try to pull something. I want to hold on to it.”
“I already told you that I’m a sorcerer. The only way I can do tricks is by using actual magic. This isn’t a trick.”
“I think you’re just saying that to try to trick me.”
Steam rolled his eyes. Monkey was going to be stubborn. Steam snapped his fingers and Monkey’s card rose out of his hand, sailed through the air, and floated into the shuffled deck. Monkey looked awestruck.
“That was amazing! Show me how to do that!”
“Honestly, I doubt you have a brain capable of learning something like that. Now shut up and watch.”
Steam shuffled the deck again before throwing all 52 cards into the air. He studied them for a moment before throwing a knife into the air at an angle. The knife pierced two cards and embedded itself in a nearby tree stump. Coconut retrieved the knife and set it down on the table. He applauded politely after pulling his card off the knife. Monkey removed the other card and grinned.
“This isn’t my card.”
Steam looked slightly surprised.
“I’m positive that’s your card. I performed the spell perfectly.”
“You said pick a card. The one I picked wasn’t the one I put in my hand.”
“Pick a card means take one from the deck. The one you take is your card.”
“Nope. My card was the joker.”
“I removed the jokers before I did the trick.”
“That’s why I picked it.”
Steam chuckled and snapped his fingers.
&nbs
p; “Fine. Take another look at your card.”
Monkey looked down and saw that he was now holding a joker. His mouth fell open.
“Can I see Bumalin now?”
“Hold on. We’ll tell him you’re coming.”
Coconut turned to Monkey. Monkey was frozen, staring at the joker with his mouth open. Coconut rolled his eyes.
“I guess I’ll tell him you’re coming. If my brother snaps out of it, please punch him in the face and tell him where I went. He’ll probably think you made me disappear.”
Coconut ran off to find Bumalin. Monkey was frozen for another few seconds.
“How the hell did you do that?”
Monkey looked around.
“Where’s my brother? Did you make him disappear, magician?”
“He ran off to get Bumalin. He told me to give you a message, though.”
“What’s that?”
Steam punched Monkey hard across the face. Monkey fell to the ground, clutching at his cheek. A large demon walked towards Steam and Monkey, the ground trembling under his feet. Steam stood and was about to run when the demon scooped him up in one of his massive fists.
“Why did you punch Monkey in the face?”
“Coconut told me to.”
“Oh. Well it must be ok if Coconut told you to. My name is Razorburn. I’m here to take you to Bumalin. I’m his guardian. I also guard Lexi and their son. I’m the kid’s godfather.”
Razorburn beamed when he announced that he was a godfather.
“That’s wonderful. I’m not here to hurt any of them. Can you take me to Bumalin?”
“Monkey, we’re going to see the boss. You coming?”
Monkey climbed Razorburn’s back and stood on one of his shoulders. He started clutching his cheek again. Bumalin was deep in the jungle, a couple of miles from where Steam showed the brothers a card trick. Razorburn covered the distance quickly with his long stride, even though he moved slowly. When they arrived, Razorburn dropped Steam and Steam cast a spell so he would glide slowly to the ground. Coconut was standing in front of his boss.
“Steam, the magician, meet Bumalin, the memory thief.”
CHAPTER 10
Cerberus barreled into Shade, completely oblivious to the fact that something tragic had happened. The hound’s three heads licked at his face until Shade shoved him off. Lucia and Reaper arrived shortly after. Reaper looked over the frozen berserker scouting party.
Minor Nephilim (Angels and Demons Book 4) Page 3
