“I couldn’t do anything but breathe,” DJ said. “And good thing for that too. I couldn’t even move my eyes! You got some skill, darling.”
Darling. I guess I should be OK with it since I almost slept with him, huh.
“That was impressive,” Carsis said. “The first time I learned this spell, it took me more than a few weeks for me to freeze someone entirely. As you get better, you will become more nuanced with your spells. You will learn to let them unfreeze, but only in certain parts, for whatever reason you wish. However, such technique will not be necessary and is more for self-enjoyment than anything else. In the meantime, I do need you to practice one more thing before we go back home. I want you to freeze DJ while he’s moving.”
My first thought was how hard could that be? If I’d already shown the capability of freezing someone of DJ’s size—over six feet tall, over 200 pounds—allowing him to move couldn’t be that difficult.
Until I contemplated it more, and realized that I’d done this spell with my eyes closed up to this point. I’d gotten good at this spell from a position that would not only be useless in battle, but self-detrimental, as leaving my eyes closed and my body stationary was an open invitation for demons to feast on me. I would have to get good at this quickly.
“Let’s do it,” I said.
Unlike with stationary freezing, I struggled to bind DJ as he moved. A couple of times, I would get some of DJ—at one point, hilariously, I only caught his trailing leg, and he faceplanted on the ground when the leg would not follow—but I could never pin him down entirely.
Brady’s still captive. You need to get this right here, or as close as you can.
I spent more energy concentrating. At times, I got frustrated, and swore more than once, using Yevon’s name with swears. I wondered if Carsis took offense to that. But the Power angel never showed any reaction. Maybe he understood the magnitude of the situation and knew that I was on his side. Maybe he knew that words didn’t matter nearly as much as my actions, which were to fight demons. Or maybe, for whatever reason, the words just didn’t carry as much sacrilege as some religious people swore it would.
It honestly didn’t matter, for it was nothing more than a train of thought. It didn’t help me, and within a few seconds, I’d discarded the thoughts entirely.
“Here,” Carsis said, putting my arms down. “Let’s take five minutes to just relax. You’re sweating and I don’t want you exhausted when the real thing is out there. Have another bar. DJ, take a break.”
DJ and I headed for the wall and slumped against it. Carsis was right, we were both sweating profusely, though I felt envious that DJ at least had a good excuse for sweating. I just felt silly, sweating while standing still. Someday, I was going to master all of these spells with ease and I wouldn’t have to sweat again. Teleportation, charging, and now immobilization. It was a pretty good trifecta to have.
And just think, it’s only the start.
“Thanks for being my mannequin,” I said, elbowing DJ on the side.
“I’m more like your sexy doll,” he said with a cocky smirk that left me both aggravated and laughing.
“A sex doll?” I said, my eyebrows raised. “DJ, sweetie, you already had your chance at that, and hell froze over.”
“Sexy doll. No, dear, I mean you control me while I’m running around, but you also find me attractive. I’m like Ken to your Barbie.”
He let out an enormous laugh following that and I got red in the face. There was just something about how he knew he was attractive to me, but didn’t rub it that hard in my face… I don’t know. It was hard to say. Most men who were hot but knew it were men I would look at from a distance but run back to a distance after talking to them for more than thirty seconds. DJ…
The bastard. The hot, sexy, beautiful bastard.
“Ready?” Carsis said, barely a minute having elapsed. “You look it.”
Thank Yevon. Yes, yes, please, let’s go.
DJ quickly rose, dusted himself off, and offered me a hand. I’m sure that because of what DJ had said, I displayed some sort of embarrassing expression of excitement. Fortunately, the only thing DJ did was give me one of his “you’re into me and I know it” smirks as he went and stood about fifteen feet from Carsis and I. God bless Carsis, he didn’t say anything. How he couldn’t after our quick conversation on the wall was beyond me. It was truly angelic, obviously the most compassionate thing he’d done since I’d known him.
“Remember, Sonya, it’s not just a matter of hoping and believing that he is frozen. You have to know that he is immobilized. Your mind has to wrap around it as it works.”
I gave a thumbs up and closed my eyes.
“Go ahead, DJ,” Carsis instructed.
With that, I let my eyes flicker open to see his general direction, and shut them. In the span of maybe a single second, I saw where he was going, felt the warmth in my arms signaling the oncoming shot of magic, and knew I had frozen him. I had no proof, but I just knew.
I opened my eyes and sure enough, it had worked. Of course, because I stopped concentrating, DJ began moving again, but it was still awesome to see I’d managed to get him still. Perhaps I could actually do something with this magic.
“Well done,” Carsis applauded. “Now, we do it again. I want you to get comfortable with this. Soon, I am going to have to test you with demons. Don’t worry, it’ll be like last time. It’ll be with the easy kind in here.”
I nodded and quickly went back to work, not really caring what Carsis threw my way. He wouldn’t have given us what we couldn’t handle. Having done this once, freezing DJ became easy.
“Now, before I summon the demons, I want you to do this. I want you to freeze him and then teleport behind him, as if you’re going to get a quick strike in. OK?”
Easy enough, I thought, even though I knew each move would take up a level of energy that I wasn’t quite sure I could afford to expend. Nevertheless, I prepared myself as DJ moved in a run, trying to dodge my spell. The look on his face said that he was loving this. Maybe he couldn’t use magic, but he could help, and he could help in the real battles as a dragon.
The first couple of times, once again, I struggled. I couldn’t teleport in time, and DJ would have moved by the time I shifted. Carsis was encouraging, though, and I knew that it wouldn’t be long before I had mastered the spell.
That moment came when I realized I didn’t have to drop the freezing spell just because I had shifted positions. When I knew that DJ was frozen, I imagined teleporting behind him, but while he was still stuck. Magic, it was occurring to me, wasn’t a physical act so much as a mental one—as long as I knew the magic worked, which it always did, especially in the spiritual realm, then it would work. It became something of a self-fulfilling thought.
Sure enough, when I thought this, I had him frozen, I teleported, and then I put an arm around his neck, his body immobilized.
“Do this later, I dare you,” DJ said, causing me to tighten the arm around his neck.
“Well done, well done! You’ve demonstrated that you have the ability to fight demons. So…”
Aww, not even gonna get to relish choking this cocky mofo out.
Seconds later, at the far end of the room, a single demon appeared. He looked like every other small demon that I’d encountered thus far—dark, blood red in skin color, with an angry face that looked something like the Hulk upon seeing the enemy that stole his girlfriend, a single horn, and muscles that would have made Schwarzenneger look fat.
But, also, a lack of skill, a complete lack of intelligence, and a level of emotion that made him susceptible to traps.
He charged me and I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly.
“Like giving Babe Ruth a little league pitch,” I said.
I froze him, teleported, and snapped his neck in the span of about two seconds. The demon crumpled to the ground and turned to dust seconds later.
“So the trick is to remember that this spell that I’ve taught yo
u is typically best done with a teammate. Ideally, the freeze-teleport-kill trifecta is done out of necessity, not out of desire, since if you freeze someone you can more easily have someone else dispatch of them. That’s why we’re here to help, and, once you get him, your brother can assist. But as we always do, we must hope for the best but prepare for the worst.”
This time, two such demons appeared. I quickly froze one and teleported, but before I could attack, the other demon rammed me with his shoulder, driving me to the ground.
“Remember, Sonya, it does you no good to teleport into the enemy’s foxhole. You must find a way to attack them effectively as individuals.”
I’m pretty sure you didn’t need to point that out, I thought, unable to vocalize my thoughts with the wind knocked out of me. I teleported back for some literal breathing room and looked at each demon, their eyes intent on killing me. I had to separate them somehow.
An idea came to mind that flashed so quick I just took it on instinct. I immobilized one of the enemies… and then just waited. I could tell the other demon, having seen me teleport once, expected me to do the same, but also knew he couldn’t leave his friend. I treated this like a real battle, keeping my eyes fluttering to make sure that no ambushes were coming. Finally, the free demon raised his hand to launch a spell.
The second of free time was all I needed. I teleported, snapped the neck of the frozen demon, and then delivered a solid Muay Thai kick to the other demon’s stomach. The crunch of broken bones echoed through the room, and I finished him with a single shot of Ivory as he doubled over. Carsis’ claps filled the room.
“Impressive, most impressive.”
Only matters in our next battle.
“So here’s the question, then,” I said as I holstered Ivory. “Are you absolutely sure that this will work on the big dragon?”
“One can never be absolutely sure of anything. Mundus started as a seraphim for Yevon, after all. But on the scale of certainty, controlling the dragon’s neck would be pretty high up there for me. Yes, it’s size will affect you, but what is of greater concern is its form. As long as it doesn’t surprise us and turn into a liquid or gas or plasma, you should be able to control it. Especially since we’re focusing on its neck, which all things considered is just barely bigger than the demons here.”
You don’t need to destroy an entire building at once. Just one steel beam removed can topple the whole thing.
“Good,” I said. “Then let’s go.”
We left the church in a hurry, leaving the spiritual realm with Carsis’ Latin, ignoring the complete silence in the main sanctum of the church. I also noticed that the stained glass window over the altar, which was showing a scene from the crucifixion, now creepily showed a cross… but with no one on it.
“Carsis,” I said very carefully and measuredly. “Are you sure we are no longer in the spiritual realm?”
“Positive, I can feel it. Why?”
I nodded to the stained glass window, keeping my hands on my guns, preparing to fire at any moment.
“The murals are different.”
Carsis looked up, grimaced, and muttered some swears.
“The demons are preparing for their attack tomorrow,” he said. “This is a symbolic warning. That God will not be here to save you. This is bad, Sonya. The demons are raising the stakes. They really are going to lay waste to this city if we don’t take care of things by tomorrow evening.”
Chapter 14
It really didn’t help matters, either, that once we exited the church, the darkness of the evening enveloped us. Natural darkness of the night sure beat the hell out of some creepy demon darkness, but still. Just because I wasn’t afraid of the dark didn’t mean I wasn’t more cautious within it. In my state, the last thing I needed was another encounter with Paul Stephens.
Paul. My brother…
“Carsis, we should go now,” I said. “Go get my brother. I’m trained. I’m ready.”
But to my surprise, Carsis vigorously shook his head.
“The demons are stronger at night. It’s why they love the nightclubs, because all of the humans pack in there and make it easy to attack. You may have noticed that the most vicious attack directed at you came on the first evening.”
That was certainly true.
“But the attack today—”
“Disturbing, yes, but one that you easily dispatched of, and relatively small. Even with the dragon, that was not them at their strongest.”
I said and did nothing other than keep my hands near my hips. I hated our inertia. I hated the dragon. I hated what hell had done to Paul.
And yet I would hate failure most of all, something Carsis seemed sure would happen if we attacked the dragon now.
We reached the house without incident. I went mostly mute after Carsis denied my request to attack, frustrated at the inaction. DJ and Carsis had enough sense not to say anything.
But that ended as soon as I noticed the police car that was supposed to be watching our house was empty. Fuck. They just put it there for show? Janet should know better. She should really know better. But then again, how could Janet really expect to sit in a car and watch a house all day without getting called in to something else that seemed much more important? Or maybe she was inside and watching everyone from within.
And if there was a problem, we were back. My anxiety levels dropped.
I casually jogged up the three steps to the front door and had my hand on the handle when DJ said stop.
“What?” I said, but I did not turn the handle.
“None of the lights are on,” he said. “That’s… that’s not right. Sarah and Caitlin always hated the dark.”
“As kids, maybe, they’re…”
But I knew better than anyone not to rationalize away gut fears. So I let go of the door handle and stepped to the side.
“What do you think we should do?” I said, though the answer came to mind before DJ affirmed it.
“Open the door as if we’re conducting a raid,” DJ said. “Honestly, they’re probably just out to dinner and we’ll get a good laugh when Nicholas and Richard explain that they’re just trying to nap. But just to be safe—”
As if on cue, a loud scream of a girl came from downstairs. Well, it’s gone from raid to rescue. I stepped back, preparing to kick the door down.
“Be careful,” Carsis warned as he and DJ took the left side of the door and I, with time to think, took the right. Kicking the door down would announce our presence—better to move quietly if possible. I put my hand back on the handle and removed Ebony from my left hip, holding it out, ready to fire. I pushed the door handle open and paused, waiting for something to rush out of the door, perhaps strike at us. But nothing came.
“Whose scream was that?” I whispered loudly to DJ.
“Sounded like Caitlin’s.”
That was worse. She was easily the quieter of the two and less likely to scream. If that happened…
“Hold on, I’ll flip on the lights,” I said, but when I reached for the button to press it, nothing happened. I cursed at it, frustrated, and still nothing happened as I jiggled it some more.
“It’s demon’s magic,” Carsis said. “They’re preventing electrical power from entering this house.”
“Lovely,” I said. “Janet was probably on patrol, saw the power go out, and decided to enter. Unfortunately for her, she’s not dealing with a basic robbery.”
“Just a robbery from a demon,” DJ said.
“A robbery of souls,” I said, trying to lighten the mood but only feeling my joke turn into a serious reality.
I walked silently as I could, sliding my feet on the ground with each step, careful not to run into the stairs and fall. With the screams coming from downstairs, I felt the first step and gently walked down. Thankfully, the overly creaky wooden stairs cliche did not rear its ugly head here.
“Can’t we have any light?” I said.
“I’ll give us a small flicker,” Carsis said.
Seconds later, he held up his hand, and tiny flames danced on his fingers. They provided a very small amount of glow, just barely enough to see, but it was a hell of an improvement over complete darkness.
“Can’t go any brighter?” DJ asked.
“I’ll burn down the place if it gets any stronger,” Carsis said. “Fire is not exactly a skill I’ve mastered. The magic of hell isn’t something I practice often.”
We said nothing more as we reached three doors in the basement. My heart was beating fast as I swore I heard a low growl, like a tiger preparing to launch. If there was a demon down here, then we were certainly spotted and had lost the element of surprise. But on the other hand, remembering what Paul and Carsis had said, if there was a demon here, it was likely the work of a single demon, meaning whatever battle we encountered would not have the same difficulty as normal.
Still, I really didn’t appreciate being in a horror movie. At least we didn’t have a token hot girl to kill off immediately.
Unless, because I’m the only girl, I’m the hot girl.
Well, that got morbid really fast.
At the first door, I tried to remember what this led to. I looked to DJ, mouthed the word “bathroom?” and he nodded yes. Using the same entering technique that we’d used to get in the house, I pushed open the door, waited a beat, and advanced. No one was inside. Carsis looked all over and felt no demonic presence.
But, grossly enough, on the wall, blood streaked. There weren’t any words, but the message could not have been any clearer. The demons knew we were here, and they were coming to bring hell.
I shut the door behind me. I now had two more, both directly across from each other. I went to the one to my right, and we did the same thing.
It was a storage closet, about four feet deep, and filled with all sorts of things. Equipment, photos, files, masks for Halloween…
Masks?!?
Goddamn, it really is horror movie shit.
“OK guys, because life has a sick sense of humor, I need you all to grab all the masks to make sure none of these are real monsters,” I said.
Magic Revenge: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Spirit War Chronicles Book 2) Page 15
