I closed my eyes and held up a hand, concentrating on opening a portal to the spiritual realm as best I could. I could feel the warmth forming in my arm, rising, and then exploding out, a shot of blue-white energy forming a portal seconds later. I stepped forward before a firm hand stopped me.
“Your guns. They’re in your purse.”
OK, maybe I need to slow down just a tad.
I grabbed Ebony and Ivory, realized I’d have to keep them in my hands the whole time, and just shrugged. It would make it far more fun to kill some motherfuckers. We both stepped through the portal, and though the room was the same, the feel was distinctly different. It just felt… creepier. For one, the lighting was much worse, and—
BAM!
An ugly bat, much like the one in Nuforsa’s lair, slammed against the window glass, trying to break in.
“Time to go,” DJ said, and I didn’t need to be told twice. Holding my guns out and running in heels, we shoved open the door. The tank was still there, but the water had taken on a dark, ugly, polluted green look. Though visibility was much lower, what I could see looked like something out of a bottom-of-the-ocean catalog, with detachable jaws, jaws the size of beach balls, and probably Jaws himself.
“Jump,” DJ said, and he leaped over the railing, landing without a hitch. I gulped, but the sound of shattering glass behind me compelled me. I concentrated my magic on landing softly, and even in a slutty dress with heels on, I landed without falling over or injury.
“The sexiest fall there ever was,” DJ said, but the sound of demons screaming from behind the desk got our attention. I lined up Ebony and Ivory and took out all of the visible demons. We sprinted outside and DJ paused.
“OK, time to take you for a ride,” he said.
“You better hope you get another chance to say that in the human world,” I said. “By the way, how do you shift into a dragon? Like what—”
DJ turned to me, a knowing smirk on his face.
“I have to release the sexual frustration somehow, you know.”
Then he turned, unleashing what started out as a loud human cry and gradually morphed into a dragon’s roar. His face extended, a sharp, spiked tail formed on his back, massive black wings sprouted from his back, and he went from being a little over six feet tall to probably closer to thirty feet or so. He turned to me, nodded his head toward his back, and I hopped on his black-scaled back. DJ let out a mighty roar, and we soared to the sky as a horde of demons attacked.
Chapter 5
“Nice to see we get a warmup before the main event,” I said as demonic bats, eagles, ravens, and other hellish looking creatures flew to the sky in pursuit.
Having already fought these bastards once, the challenge was nil. I lined up Ebony and Ivory and took them all out, anticipating my targets’ path and shooting them down with ease. I even made it a challenge to myself, crossing arms so that Ivory in my right hand shot to my left side and Ebony vice versa. Still, the flying demons were no problem, and whatever ones I missed, DJ took out with a breath of heavy fire. Besides, I knew the challenge was not going to be the first round of demons, but whatever we faced at the nightclub.
Or, as it turned out, outside of the nightclub.
About a half kilometer away, soaring up from the club came another dragon, this one black and red—the red so dark it might as well have been black—and laughing as it approached.
“A half-blood slutty demon and a weak shifter, that’s the best the human realm can offer,” it said, its voice like so many other demons, deep and twisted, although with its size, this one had much more volume as well. “Yevon has become lazy in fighting our forces. You should have known coming here would result in death.”
“Damn straight,” I yelled as I lined up my guns. “Yours.”
I fired at the laughing beast, unleashing a volley of blue energy shots toward the dragon. Aside from a few grunts, it seemed unaffected as it continued its way toward us. When it came near, I knew DJ would have to take some evasive maneuvers, so I dropped my targeting and hugged DJ’s back as tightly as I could. At the last second, DJ dove to the ground, creating the frightening feeling of free fall. But I trusted DJ to not betray me, and he did not disappoint when he pulled up about ten feet off the ground. I collected myself just in time to see a demon teleporting from the entrance of the club. I anticipated him teleporting behind me, and I held Ebony over my shoulder. Without even turning, once I felt DJ’s body give me firm ground, I fired the gun. I only looked right so I could see the demon falling and turning to dust.
But my celebratory dance ended as the demonic dragon roared at us.
“Die!” the dragon up above shouted.
This time, rather than shooting a stream of bullets, I focused on charging my guns with as much force as I could, much as I had with the Arachtar. I hoped that knowing what to expect would give me more endurance after I’d laid waste to this demon giving dragons a bad name, because I had a strong feeling that what we were witnessing out here was far from the worst.
“Go under him!” I yelled to DJ, hoping to get a shot at the creature’s neck. DJ grunted, smoke coming from his nostrils, and charged the dark red dragon.
“Suicide!” the dragon shouted, laughing maniacally as if what he was saying was truly funny. “I had not expected this method of surrender! I give you both props for this! The Dark Lord will not expect this outcome!”
The dragon slowly reared its head back, collecting energy for a fiery blast of green magic. This actually worked to our advantage, since while firing it would be immobilized.
“On my cue,” I said, squeezing my legs tightly.
The ball of energy within the monster’s mouth was glowing brighter and getting larger. I had to time this right. If we ducked too late, we died. If we ducked too early, the dragon could just refocus his aim and incinerate us. I had to time it so that he began firing, but we’d have time to avoid it. My best guess was I had a second, may—
I saw a hitch that confirmed it.
“Duck!” I screamed.
The dragon unleashed a furious flare of magic on us that whipped by over our heads, nearly burning my hair.
“Asshole.”
But I also had an open shot. I unleashed the charged magic upon the dragon, hitting it square in the neck.
Immediately, the green flare of magic from the demon dragon stopped. A single grunt came, followed by blood dripping and skin tearing. Moments later, the head of the demon dragon fell from the neck, and the body followed. The entirety of the monster turned to dust before it hit the ground.
I could not celebrate, though. Instead, we had to continue our momentum to the club.
“Break through!” I yelled, looking at the massive entrance.
I had no idea how this was going to work. If they had gone anywhere but the first floor, we were going to have a hell of a time trying to find the group. If they were smart, they would’ve remained on the first floor. I was also counting on Brady to anticipate the pandemonium and come to the spiritual realm, where we would more easily transport everyone, but I knew that was an awfully big hope.
Besides, I saw how smart I’d been in the club. How could I trust anyone in that group to be better?
I braced myself as DJ picked up speed. I was probably going to fall off, but I accepted it. DJ’s wings went back and covered me up. He ducked his head, and I ducked mine. I closed my eyes as I prepared for the—
The violent impact felt like driving a sports car on the highway and slamming into a Greyhound bus at over a hundred miles per hour. DJ skidded across the ground as I held on for dear life—well, I say that, but really, the cover of his wings was the only thing that prevented me from turning into a blood mural on the wall.
Hey, on the plus side, his momentum squashed hundreds of demons and got us inside. So maybe now I’d get to taste more of the black bean soup that demons bled out.
Slowly, the dragon sat back up as I hopped off it. I heard music playing, some weird, twisted form
of the EDM music I heard in the human realm, but that abruptly halted as all eyes shifted to us.
I had to laugh. I had never pictured hundreds of demons and vampires making out and dancing, but what I saw was exactly that.
“Hi everybody!” I said, waving my hand. “Don’t mind us, we just heard you guys threw a great party in this realm. I even heard humans were invited, so I brought—”
“Kill the bitch!” the demon in the DJ booth said, his voice sounding as if from a microphone.
OK, hey, that’s no way to treat a VIP guest.
“DJ, shall we show them how humans party?”
DJ grunted.
“Oh, right, sorry. A half-demon and a dragon shifter party?”
That got DJ to bellow, and the two of us went to work, cleaning up the demons on this first floor. DJ unleashed bursts of fire from his throat at demons near and far, and I fired Ebony and Ivory at any demon that sneaked under the flames of my trusted dragon. A few of the vampires tried to fly from above, but I took them out with ease.
“Wheeeee, hey demon DJ, blare that tune!”
Instead, I got the combined roar of hundreds of demons, working themselves into a frenzy. I mean, I guess it kind of works. It’s like a chorus, right? I aimed my guns at a horde to the right—
“Come to the fourth floor, Sonya,” a voice said, a male voice… one that sounded awfully familiar but that I couldn’t place. “I have been waiting for you for quite some time. I am desperate to see you.”
It wasn’t the voice of anyone that I’d heard since I’d come to Europe, nor was it anyone I could remember speaking to in the last few months. Was it an old teacher? A trick of Mundus? A distant cousin?
My father?
Had he ever spoken to me, implanting his voice in my subconscious?
I honestly couldn’t remember, but if I was going to ignore it, I sure couldn’t when a portal appeared in front of me. The portal showed Brady with his pistols out, firing at something out of view, protecting the Brits and DJ’s childhood friends. The Brits were standing, as if preparing to fight with their fists, but I knew they would lose to the weakest of demons in the spiritual realm.
“Hurry up. Otherwise, I might have to take your brother’s life. The way that your actions took mine.”
What?
The roar of the larger, angrier demons put me back in the moment. These demons carried knives and swords, and I had to lurch to the side when one chucked a dagger at me with the speed of a major league fastball.
“OK, the party here sucks,” I said. “DJ! Fly to the top! These guys aren’t cool enough for us to party with!”
I held off the onslaught of demons for a couple more seconds as DJ did as commanded, dropping to the ground, coiling his feet and tail. I wrapped my arms around his neck just seconds before DJ fired up, creating the sensation of multiple g-forces straining my body as he rose. He launched through multiple floors, past multiple hordes of demons. Unfortunately, he did his job too well, as DJ soared to the sky, going through the ceiling of the fourth floor of the nightclub, allowing demons from above to crawl in.
“Men, causing too much collateral damage,” I said as I continued firing Ebony and Ivory. “Come on! Give me a hand, err, claw up!”
DJ descended to the fourth floor, pausing to breath fire at a variety of flying demons along the way. When he came close enough, I dropped from his neck and grabbed his right talon with my left hand. It made for an awkward position, holding Ivory in my right hand and both Ebony and DJ’s claw in my left. But he was slow, smooth, and calm, and I managed to hold off the demons long enough with Ivory that I could safely drop to the fourth floor.
It didn’t take long to locate my friends. They were where all of the humanoid demons had crowded, eager to get their hands on some fresh human meat—or to bait me, I wasn’t sure. Like the difference would’ve affected my actions.
“Hey, assholes!” I yelled as literally every demon on the fourth floor turned to me. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own type?”
The demons hissed, howled, and attacked but went down surprisingly easily. A single shot dropped them, none got closer than ten feet, and they didn’t try and gain up on me. Maybe it was because whoever led this charge didn’t think it was necessary to waste the most powerful demons on a bunch of unprotected humans, but that explanation didn’t sit right with me.
“Are you OK?” I said.
“Fine, everyone else is too,” Brady said.
“Good, cuz I’m gonna kill you myself for what you interrupted.”
“Wha—”
But I instead opened a portal. I was surprised to find that I still had a great deal of energy—perhaps knowing what to expect had made a difference. I made sure the portal opened to the front porch of the home we had just come from and yelled at everyone to run through it. Sarah and Caitlin ran through in record time.
“Poor girls aren’t ever going to look at you the same,” I said to DJ as he shifted back into human form.
I pointed to the Brits and motioned for them to go.
“We want to fight!” Nicholas said. “For the human lads!”
“Are you fucking mad?” I yelled. “First, there’s no one here left. Second, Brady, would you?”
“We’ll teach you later, go!”
Richard and Nicholas begrudgingly went through the portal, leaving just the three of us.
“I swear, of all the people whom I figured would cause me trouble… DJ, go,” I said, glancing at the fresh scars adorning his human body. “You’re injured. You need attention and rest first.”
“But—”
“Go, or what almost happened tonight will never happen.”
Of course, as soon as I said that, DJ not only went through the portal, he sprinted and dived through it.
“Do I want to know what almost happened?” Brady asked.
“You will if you keep up your German fetish,” I said teasingly. “C’mon, let’s get out of hell—”
But then the room went impossibly dark. The sound of demons vanished. Even the spiritual world sky went dark. I couldn’t see the holes in the ground DJ had created, and I even lost sight of Brady.
“Brady?”
“I’m here. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I sure as hell don’t like it.”
I followed his voice and found him moments later, visible only from a couple feet away. I grabbed his arm as I raised my arm to make another portal—
I heard a gunshot, a very distinct gunshot like in the human realm, followed by the screams of a man, the kind begging for mercy. The screams sounded… oh, no.
“Quiet, infidel,” an Arabic voice barked. “They are not coming to save you.”
“She always comes!” a desperate voice said.
My eyes went wide and my breathing quickened. I grabbed Brady tightly when I realized what I was hearing.
The last moments of the man I left for dead. My CIA mentor.
“Not this time,” the angry voice said, and the violent screams continued.
I still did not have a visual for what was going on, which made it only worse—imagining what was happening, based on the screams, the cries, the instructions, was far worse. I’d read reports of what I was hearing—I didn’t want to imagine it or see it.
“Sonya, we need to go,” Brady said. He knew what was happening. “Sonya!”
I shook my head, doing my best to ignore the torture sounds, but I could not muster the concentration to get past the screams. I heard my name called repeatedly, as if I could make a difference. If I hadn’t been a coward. If I had listened to my gut. If I’d done all those things…
Instead, I had to live with the guilt that I’d let a man die because of my cowardice. I’d managed to put it aside, out of my mind, ever since the incident so far… but now, the illusion of peace of mind was replaced by this living nightmare. Tyrus and Carsis were right. This was so much worse than Nuforsa. I could handle my own demons. I couldn’t handle that I had inflicted demons
upon others.
“Sonya, please,” Brady said with terror in his voice.
“You are just as responsible for this predicament as she is, Brady Ferguson,” the voice said. “You will suffer just as she has.”
From the darkness, in a corner on the other side of the room, I heard footsteps of a man in dress shoes. I quickly turned my guns to the sound to see a darkened figure approaching. Certain features of his were brightening, and almost certainly not by accident. I saw his white button down shirt, tattered and torn, the last shirt I’d seen him in. I saw the worn out pants. I saw the name tag for the CIA, with the name erased and glowing red symbols replacing it. My tattoo burned as he came closer.
And then I saw him.
Paul Stephens, one of the first friends I’d made in the CIA. A man who taught me almost everything he knew during his time with me.
And a man whose death I was responsible for.
His face bore the marks of numerous scars. He had cuts over his eyes, which were bloodshot red. His lips were swollen. His hair was burned. He held up his hands, which were without fingernails and laced with scars.
“Sonya Ferguson,” he said, his voice normal and not in my head. “Do you remember me?”
“Of course I do, Paul,” I said, sympathy in my voice. Why had he become a demon? Why did Paul Stephens, a man who was married with a child, a wonderful man whose death was among the most tragic the CIA had ever seen, become a demon? What did he do in his life to earn this horrible afterlife? “I’m sorry.”
“Hah,” Paul said, his voice heavy. “Sorry. I’m sure you were thinking sorry as I was tortured for military secrets, weren’t you?”
I could say nothing. And even if I did, it didn’t feel right.
“And Brady Ferguson, the big brother of Sonya, the one who encouraged her to join the CIA. Do you remember me?”
“Yes,” Brady said, but his voice seemed stronger. “I never forget a comrade in arms.”
I realized Brady’s voice wasn’t naturally stronger. He was forcing it to be stronger. He and Paul had to have gone back much further than I realized.
“And yet you didn’t come to my funeral,” he said.
Magic Revenge: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Spirit War Chronicles Book 2) Page 6
