More than anything, I was befuddled. Was what I felt in the club, my physical attraction to him, something I actually wanted? I kept telling myself the heat of the moment pushed me there, and that in quiet times, I would just keep him at arm’s length.
But…
Well, that wasn’t happening.
Before I let my thoughts get to me, I dashed around and headed for the bathroom. I would face the issue someday with DJ, but not on the day when my brother’s life and the lives of millions of people in this city was at stake.
At this rate, though, someday means tomorrow.
I shut the door behind me and froze. I should have left the door open. Otherwise, Tyrus would crash my early wakeup party.
I went for the door and opened it just a crack, relieved I’d made it before Tyrus appeared. I turned on the sink and washed my face, cleaned myself up, brushed my teeth, and did everything else I normally did in the morning. I took a whiff of myself and decided a shower was necessary—but a quick one at that.
I jumped in and finished the whole cleansing in less than five minutes, a miraculous move that certainly involved cutting some corners to make it happen. Fortunately, though, Tyrus never appeared, though I kept peeking around the corner of the shower curtain every few seconds to make sure I wasn’t about to get ambushed.
When I finished, I came into the bedroom and saw DJ waking up, glancing at his phone. I only had my towel around me and, well, temptation was there.
“This is a fine way to wake up,” he said, still giving the appearance of texting. I knew what he was really looking at, though. “Did you sleep well?”
“Well enough,” I lied as I grabbed my clothes. “And don’t get your hopes up. We got a battle to fight.”
“Oh, I’m well aware,” DJ said. “But that doesn’t mean something else isn’t up. And you said hopes. That means it’s not impossible.”
I looked at him in amused disbelief. He knew how to push buttons and boundaries in a seductive, charming way. With my towel still on, I went over to him, sat on the edge of the bed, and gave thought to doing something. DJ took that as an invitation and pulled me close, causing the towel to come untucked.
“DJ, DJ—no, not right now,” I said, but I was laughing as I said it as I quickly grabbed my towel. “Look, I told you before, I’m not in a position to do anything, but…”
I spoke too much. DJ’s eyes perked up. What I had tried to stop myself from saying was “But if ever there was an exception, with enough time, maybe it’s you.” Unfortunately, even just “but” gave him all he needed to know.
“It’s just with you so beautiful, so sweet, so smart, so strong, how can I not think about having you?” DJ asked with faux innocence.
“You should. Because I’m certainly thinking it right now,” I said, deciding there was no point in lying about it. “But no. If you must, think of it as building pent up energy to take out on the demons.”
DJ smiled and stood up, wearing nothing but boxers.
“Then go get dressed and let’s get ready. I take it as soon as we’re fed we bring the battle to the demons?”
“No later,” I said.
DJ gave an affirmative nod as I took my clothes to the bathroom to change. Underwear. Black pants. White shirt. Black leather jacket. Combat boots. Glasses. I had them all ready.
Then the mirror began to fog up. I looked left and cursed myself out when I realized I’d shut the door behind me again. Can’t fuck that up!
“DJ! DJ!” I yelled, but DJ didn’t come. I had a feeling he couldn’t even hear me, given the demon’s ability to produce different sensations for different people. I grabbed Ebony and Ivory from the countertop and held them to the side.
“Really, Sonya, don’t you think that after your experience near the Berlin Wall, you would learn not to shoot me with your guns?”
Slowly, coming from a puff of dark smoke, Tyrus formed before me, adjusting his tie and his red suit with that awful smug grin on his face.
“Just because it didn’t work the first time doesn’t mean it won’t work the second time.”
“Is that not the definition of insanity?” Tyrus said.
When I didn’t respond, he gave a throaty laugh, his mouth closed and the laugh echoing in the bathroom obnoxiously.
“Don’t you think it’s rather rude to come to me when I’m changing?”
“Changing? It would seem to me that you are fully dressed, Sonya. I don’t recall appearing and seeing you on without clothing that you should’ve had on.”
I hated that he was right. I hated that I couldn’t retort back at him. So I instead holstered my guns, crossed my arms, and leaned against the sink, waiting for him to speak.
“By now, it should come as no surprise to you why I am here.”
“Yeah, you want me to surrender to you so you can take me to Mundus, you’ll promise me things, blah blah blah. Tyrus, really, this is old hat by now.”
“Is it so,” he said. “The offer may be, I shall admit. But that is because the offer is so fundamental to our relationship that there is no reason to change it.”
“Relationship?” I sneered.
“Why yes, relationship. Don’t you think we’ve established something of a rapport over the last couple of days?”
“I think you have a creepy way of visiting me in the bathroom. That’s not very nice of you. I don’t have rapports with people who are rude to me.”
“Do you really think a demon would take things like creepiness into consideration?”
He got to me. I had nothing in response. Once again, Tyrus had me verbally pinned. Beating me at my own game.
“In any case, our relationship does not matter here, at least not at the moment. What matters is that you be aware of why you should take the offer. You see, when humans battle, a legion might consist of a few thousand troops. A significant number in warfare circles, to be sure, but probably not enough to take over a city of this size. At best, they could make guerrilla warfare a nightmare for the police and armed forces in Berlin, but then they wouldn’t be accomplishing a takeover of the city so much as they would just be an immovable thorn in their sides. But Mundus has the souls of thousands of years of humanity at his disposal. And if there’s anything I’ve learned in my time in hell with the Dark Lord, it’s that more people are damned than are saved. Most people, shall we say, have their demons. There’s a reason the phrase ‘skeletons in the closet’ exist but not ‘angels in the closet.’”
That was frightening to think about. I hated how, despite being a smug asshole that reminded me of the worst types of men, Tyrus was so acutely accurate.
“The end result is that if Mundus wants to give the demon that has the form of Paul Stephens—”
“Huh?”
“—a legion, then he will give him not thousands, but hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of souls to do so. Berlin will literally be crushed by the weight of the demons he sends. And, I should add, that does not include some of the monsters that the Dark Lord has at his disposal. Cerberuses. Arachtars. Dragons. Amphibious monsters. Other horrifying things you have not yet encountered but which will give you nightmares.”
“So… wait,” I said, caught off guard by what Tyrus had said moments ago. “What you’re saying is—”
“That you have no hope and should surrender? Something to that effect, mmm, yes, quite,” Tyrus said, augmenting his dripping condescending attitude. “Even in your training in the CIA, surely you would have noticed that one person cannot do it all. And when one person tries to do it all, they usually wind up six feet under and head into the spiritual realm.”
“Anyone who has read any book that’s not ridiculous fantasy would know that.”
“So then tell me, Sonya, what exactly do you hope to accomplish today? To rescue your brother?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
I hated this line of questioning. I felt like Tyrus was guiding me down a path filled with bad news, and at the end
of that bad news would be the revelation that my brother was dead or—I was about to think demon, but we were already half-demon. There was nothing that hell could do to us to take away our demonic side.
“What’s your point, Tyrus?” I snapped.
“My point, Sonya, is to realize that rescuing your brother is an insurmountable task for you. Come with me and Mundus will give—”
I wasn’t going to waste any more bullets, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to put up with this shit. Before he could continue, I swung my right fist toward his face.
But with shocking agility, he blocked my fist and turned his hand in, grabbing my wrist. My arm felt like it was on fire, a burning sensation resembling the heat of the thickest flames I’d ever gotten too close to touch. I howled in pain before Tyrus shoved me back, my lower back colliding with the sink.
“May I suggest you try not to attack me in any fashion, Sonya,” Tyrus said, adjusting his suit. “After all, have I ever attacked you?”
“Yeah, you did, at the Skylounge, asshole,” I said.
Tyrus paused, put his finger on his chin, and chuckled.
“Forgive me, I thought I needed to be more demonstrative,” he said. “Suffice to say, I do not plan on attacking you again. For now.”
“I’m so grateful,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Can you let me go now?”
Tyrus sighed, but it was more of the “I’m better than you and showing my impatience” sigh than an exasperated sigh.
“I’m disappointed in you, Sonya. You will not succeed today. I know that you will fail. And when that happens, Mundus will punish you before he molds you into one of his.”
My eyes raged with fury as my entire body felt on fire. No one told me what I would do. No one ever told me I would fail. And it was I who would punish Mundus before finishing him off for good. If ever someone could unlock the demon side in me…
“Farewell, Sonya. See you in hell.”
With a demonic laugh, Tyrus vanished into smoke.
I looked at my wrist. Strangely, there was no marks, bruises, or burns from what Tyrus had done. That seemed impossible, but then again, wasn’t this whole thing just an exercise in the absurdity?
I left the bathroom and came back to the room to see DJ dressed and ready to go. He was standing at the window, looking out. He was curling and uncurling his fingers, seemingly more of a tic than an act of preparation. I walked over to him, sure he could hear my footsteps. He glanced back at me, then turned his attention back to the window.
“I’m ready to fight for you and give you whatever you need, Sonya,” he said. “Anything.”
I understood the implications of his statement. We said something similar to each other in the CIA before we’d go on critical missions. Paul had said it to me before we began, and now I wanted to make sure that the next person to make that pledge to me would not have to fulfill it.
I wrapped my hand into his and we both glanced at the storm over Berlin. Unlike the one in Amsterdam, which looked like what an apocalyptic storm would be, this storm was more natural. It was raining and thundering, yes, but the sky was still a gray-blue hue, not completely black, and the thunder seemed gentle, not like the forces of hell banging the universe’s largest drum. It gave me a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, we could defeat Paul before the forces of hell came to Earth.
Or the demon in the shape of Paul… what did that mean? Another mindfuck of Tyrus’?
A knock came from behind. I said to come in and Carsis strove forward. By now, I paid no attention to his sudden arrivals and departures. Spiritual beings played by different rules.
“We have to move, now. They’re preparing to send the dragon to the human realm.”
Chapter 16
It was moments like these where I was grateful for one of the best personality traits I had as a CIA agent. The more potentially violent a situation got, the calmer and more in control I became. It was only in moments of silence and peace when the emotions of my job or life could overwhelm me.
Or when a demon like Tyrus or Nuforsa appears. But you’ll get better.
The second that Carsis said that the dragon would soon enter the human realm, I didn’t panic. My heart beat didn’t rise. If anything, it probably decreased. Finally. No more waiting for this to go down. Let’s go fight. Let’s rescue Brady.
DJ, though, seemed caught off-guard.
“I thought that they were going to launch tonight?” he said, his voice a mix of confusion and anger.
“You’re dealing with demons. You think you’re going to get a fair shake on anything they say?”
I know that all too well. Tyrus, asshole.
“In any case, they’re going to launch from the Berlin Wall once more. The dragon isn’t as strong as before, but it’s still got its size.”
That was all I needed to hear. The odds, though perhaps still not in our favor, had moved in our favor.
“And what, exactly, does it intend to do?” DJ asked.
It doesn’t matter what it intends to do. What matters is that we leave now and go fight.
“Destroy Berlin. Create chaos. Chaos which will make it easier for the demons to amass an army,” Carsis said as I tugged DJ forward and the three of us flew down the stairs.
“Janet! Watch this house! No one else leaves here!”
Whether or not anyone heard, I didn’t care. Whether Janet was even awake, I didn’t care. She had enough intuition as a cop to know that if I had left with DJ and Carsis, something had gone down. She wouldn’t let anyone leave until I returned.
And if she did, well, my gut was wrong for one of the first times regarding people’s level of competence.
I barely slowed down to open the door as DJ and Carsis hurriedly walked outside. I didn’t bother to shut the door behind me as I saw Carsis approaching an already-running black BMW on the side of the road.
“Isn’t that the same car that was stolen from us?” I asked as I got into the front seat and did a quick systems check on Ebony and Ivory.
“Yeah, had to have a talk with the demon who thought he was being cute,” Carsis said. “But I took care of business.”
DJ got in the back, and before anyone had buckled up, Carsis slammed his foot on the accelerator. Even with the hurried, illegally speeding pace we assumed, we still had about ten minutes of driving ahead of us before the Berlin Wall.
In that time, I began to wonder what Carsis meant. “Have a talk?” I could picture Carsis cursing the demon out, landing some blows, and “sending a message” as many gangsters often did. It didn’t seem too angelic.
But, on the other hand, religion was full of stories involving angels and demons fighting. Hell, they didn’t call them guardian angels because they were passive pacifists. Besides, I had to remind myself that the rules of religion as established by our cultures did not necessarily reflect the reality of the spiritual realm. Maybe angels got in the dirt more. Maybe they acted more like gangsters. Carsis, as an angel, certainly swore more. I hadn’t seen him inflict any violence beyond battle support, but what more could I possibly want? To see him torture a demon?
The constant honking of cars around us put me back in the present. Though no one drove aggressively back at us, Carsis certainly didn’t follow any country’s standard of safe driving. Well, maybe by Boston standards he did.
“Are we using the portal from before?” DJ asked.
“Afraid so, DJ,” Carsis shouted, never taking his eyes off the road—and a good thing too, with the way he was driving. “It’s going to create some questions when three people make it over the wall and just disappear, but I’d rather have those questions than a question of why a dragon the size of a small theme park is destroying Berlin.”
I snickered at that image. It almost seemed too absurd to be true. It sounded like the kind of thing you’d see in a terrible Michael Bay film.
Unfortunately, I knew with my own eyes that if such a thing ever made the screen, it wasn’t going to be a blockbuster film,
but a documentary of the day Berlin fell.
When we reached the wall, Carsis parked the car on the side of the road, ignoring the strange looks and shouts that greeted us. Quickly, we made our way over the wall.
“No time, guys, they won’t find us, let’s go,” Carsis said at the top.
But when we dropped down, I only had one word.
“Fuck!”
The portal was not there. It looked like a normal section of the Berlin Wall.
So make one, dummy.
But Carsis already had the idea in mind. He raised his right hand and a beam of energy shot out, opening a portal to the other side. The vision was blurry and difficult to see, but it was not hard to make out the shape of a very large dragon on the other side, stomping and shaking with anticipation. Figures which looked like demons surrounded it. I grabbed DJ’s hand and nodded to him.
He gave me a quick kiss, one which he tried to pull away from, but, well, this being the moment of truth, I held on for a split second longer. Neither of us said anything, but we didn’t have to—I could’ve gone deaf or they could’ve torn out his vocal cords and we still would have understood each other just fine.
I brought out Ebony and Ivory, DJ clenched his fists, and we leaped through the portal.
As I raised my guns, I took stock of what surrounded me. The massive dragon, roaring, angry, furious, probably hungry, in front of me. Contrary to what Carsis had said en route, I swore it was smaller in size than before, but that only meant it went from maybe four hundred feet high to two hundred and fifty feet high. A group of a dozen demons surrounded it, their arms up, as if trying to corral and tame the monster.
Magic Revenge: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Spirit War Chronicles Book 2) Page 17
