by Mel Odom
“In for a penny, in for a pound, mate. If Leah’s in that thing, we’re bringing her out. When you’re ready, you just give the word.”
“Ready,” Simon said, thinking of Leah and everything she’d gone through.
“I was afraid you were going to say that.”
Simon kicked, fought, blasted, and shoved his way toward the door. When he arrived, he found it was more like an airtight hatch that would be found in the Templar Underground.
Before he could open the hatch, a woman dropped out of the shadows and landed beside him. The demon’s horns and the tail she wore marked her at once as a Cabalist. Tattoos covered every square inch of her skin. Her right hand glowed slightly, and when she hit Simon with it, he thought he’d been struck by a battering ram.
He reeled back against the gantry railing and barely hung on. Before he could recover, she twisted and kicked him in the face. He fell back against Nathan, throwing them both off balance for a moment.
“Get her,” Nathan growled, and shoved Simon forward.
FIFTY-ONE
A nger welled up in Warren when he saw the Cabalist that attacked the Templar on the gantry. He recognized her as the one whom Merihim had picked over him. She still wore the hand that Merihim had given her.
“Warren,” Naomi said.
“I see her,” Warren replied. He knocked aside the Darkspawn he’d been battling, leaving it for Naomi. She covered it in a pool of fire that clung to the creature as it scrambled madly back toward its fellows.
With a single jump, Warren reached the gantry twenty feet up. When he touched down on the metal landing, she looked over at him. Savage glee lighted her face.
“Hello, weakling,” she greeted.
Warren didn’t say anything. She threw a ball of fire at him. He blocked it with a shield, then launched a fireball of his own. It struck her and burned her in several places. She cried out in rage, but began instantly healing.
“You can’t hurt me,” she told him. “Merihim has taught me more than he ever taught you.” She hurled a lightning bolt at him.
Already in motion, Warren drew the obsidian spear and thrust the butt to the ground. The lightning strike hit the spear and went through it, grounding out against the gantry. Warren had already shielded himself from it, but he didn’t know if the Templar would be protected.
Before the woman recovered, Warren thrust the spear through her skull and killed her. He levered her body over the side into the milling masses of combatants.
Looking back, he saw that the two Templar had entered the machine. Warren glanced back over the side, found Naomi, and telekinetically moved her to the gantry.
“We’re going inside,” he told her.
“All right.”
Warren plunged through the doorway, thinking of the woman Leah.
Once inside the machine, Simon found that his comm no longer connected him to anyone outside. However, he could get in touch with Leah.
“Simon?” she asked, and the note of terror and doubt in her voice hurt him.
“I’m here.” Simon stared down long rows of cubicles that looked like sleeping compartments in Tokyo train stations. They were miniature coffins with barely enough room inside for an individual. He tracked her signal to one of the compartments, then broke the lock and pulled the cubicle out.
Leah lay inside, arms crossed over her chest. She looked ill, but her eyes were open and she was responsive.
“Where am I?” she asked.
“Still inside the machine.” Simon offered her his hand and she took it. Gently, he helped her to her feet. Thankfully, there were no demons in evidence, but the fighting continued outside. The noise of the battle echoed down the hallway.
When he turned to walk back out, a Cabalist blocked his way. He recognized him as the man he’d cut the hand off four years ago. The one that had been in league with the demon.
“Warren,” Leah said hoarsely.
“You know him?” Simon asked.
“Yes. I visited him in his dreams. He was one of those, like you, that I was able to communicate with.”
Simon held his defensive stance at the ready, standing in front of Leah to protect her. His sword glinted.
“Leah?” the Cabalist said.
“Yes,” Leah replied.
“You’re with the Templar?” Warren sounded as though he couldn’t believe it.
Simon respected the man’s spear. In the tight confines of the tunnel, the spear gave the Cabalist reach and speed.
“No,” Leah answered. “But Simon and I know each other.”
“I see.” Warren sounded disappointed. He focused on Simon. “Four years ago, you cut off my hand.”
“Four years ago, you were with a demon that was trying to kill us,” Simon replied. “I’ve heard you haven’t kept much better company since.”
“He is tonight,” Leah pointed out. “Maybe we could all have this discussion somewhere else. Where we might not get attacked by demons. And there are a lot of other people to get out of here.”
“We’ll talk later?” Simon asked.
Grudgingly, Warren nodded.
Then they started freeing the other people trapped in the machine.
For a moment, Warren thought they were free. Although the building still remained dangerous, the combined might of the Cabalists and Templar had driven the Darkspawn back.
The Templar took control of the people who’d been held captive in the machine. Only fourteen of them had been left alive. Seventeen other cubicles only held corpses of people who were only hours dead.
Simon Cross gave orders for the Templar to plant explosive charges on the machine. They worked quickly in tandem, slapping preshaped packages on the machine.
“Get your people clear,” Simon told Warren. “When this goes off, the building probably won’t be left standing.”
Warren gave the orders, but he didn’t leave the Templar. Naomi stayed with him.
Merihim appeared in a blasting wind that knocked everyone down. Even the Templar fell and skidded across the floor.
The demon stood eight feet tall before adding in the horns. He was massive and muscular. Red scales covered his body. His harsh, blunt face always reminded Warren of a lizard. Merihim wore blue-green armor and carried a green metal trident.
“Well, worm,” Merihim addressed Warren, “I see you’ve decided to try your luck.”
Heart pounding, fear filling him, Warren stood on shaking knees. He thought about heroes and how they were always witty during battles like this. But that wasn’t him. He wasn’t a hero or brave or witty.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” Merihim said. He drew back his trident and drove it toward Warren’s chest.
A sword knocked the trident aside. Then Simon stepped in front of Warren. The Templar held his sword in both hands.
“If you want to kill him,” Simon declared, “you’re going to have to go through me.”
Merihim smiled. “Very well.” He gestured and Simon lifted from the ground, held in an invisible grip.
The Templar grabbed his Spike Bolter with his free hand and opened fire. Wounds opened up on the demon. Merihim growled angrily.
In the next moment, two more Templar attacked the demon from behind. Merihim flailed at them with his trident. Warren blocked the swing with a shield he summoned.
Simon fought the power that held him and finally won. He didn’t know if his freedom was caused by his own efforts or through that of Nathan, Danielle, Leah, and the Cabalists who had remained behind.
As soon as his feet hit the ground, Simon gripped his sword in both hands and ran forward. He never broke stride as he lunged to attack. The demon tried to bring his trident back around, but Warren blocked his efforts again with his shield.
With the demon’s wide-open chest as a target, Simon sank his sword into Merihim’s flesh. The palladium-edged blade sank deeply into the demon’s body and grated off bone. Simon’s weight and momentum knocked Merihim backward off his feet. He cras
hed to the floor and started struggling immediately. Simon held the sword fast, but the floor pushed it back at him.
“Watch him!” a woman’s voice yelled. “He’ll try to escape this place with his magic.”
From the corner of his eye, Simon saw a beautiful, black-haired woman standing only a few feet away. He didn’t know where she’d come from.
In the next minute, Warren shoved an obsidian spear through the demon’s head. Merihim quivered and shook. With his dying last gasp he cursed them all.
“I’ll see you again,” the demon promised as his strength left him. “When I climb back out of the Well of Midnight, I’ll come looking for you.”
The black-haired woman walked over to Merihim and placed her hands on each side of his head. She mouthed words that Simon couldn’t understand. Blue haze drifted up from Merihim, and she breathed it all in. When she finished, she showed a huge grin, then Merihim’s body burst into flames.
Simon gave the orders to plant the charges one more time, and they got out of the building. He watched from across the street as the detonations occurred and shook the building down to the ground.
By then, more demons started to gather. They had no choice but to flee. Maybe the machine was destroyed, as was the demon that had midwifed it, but the Hellgate remained open and the Burn continued changing all of London.
EPILOGUE
W hat are you going to do now?” Leah asked.
Simon stood with her atop one of the hills near the redoubt. The sun was setting in the west, and a beautiful panorama of color spread up from it.
“We’re going to have to leave,” he said. “There’s no choice. The demons are spreading out from London. Sooner or later they’ll find us.”
“But you have the Node technology now.”
“No. We have some of the Node technology. We don’t know if it’ll ever be strong enough to protect whole cities. Or even the survivors we’ve gathered. Until then, we’re going to have to look out for ourselves and try to find other ways to defeat the demons.”
“With the Truths the Goetia manuscript mentions?”
Simon nodded. “We’re still working on those. This is still a battle we can win. It’s just not going to happen overnight. We’ll learn more about them. The demons have been fighting, doing the same things over and over again for millennia. We’ve just started, really.” He looked at her. “What about you?”
“Lyra is interested in what you’ve found out about the Goetia manuscript. I expect I’ll be helping teams sift through all the information out there that we can recover. Old books. Old manuscripts. And, occasionally, demons we can interrogate. If these so-called Truths are out there, we’ll find them.”
Simon took her shoulders in his big hands. “I’m going to miss you.”
She smiled up at him. “You’re not gone yet. And it’s not like you’re going to be at the other end of the world. I can make the trip, and you’ll probably still need to talk to the Templar here from time to time.”
He gathered her into his arms and kissed her. For a moment he let himself believe that the world was just the two of them, and that none of the problems they faced existed.
The illusion didn’t last long. The Hellgate still stood proudly over London.
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mel Odom lives in Moore, Oklahoma, with his wife and children. He’s written dozens of books, original as well as tie-ins to games, shows, and movies such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Blade, and received the Alex Award for his novel The Rover. His novel Apocalypse Dawn was runner-up for the Christie Award.
He also coaches Little League baseball and basketball, teaches writing classes, and writes reviews of movies, DVDs, books, and video games.
His Web page is www.melodom.com, but he blogs at www.melodom.blogspot.com. He can be reached at [email protected].
