Demon Hunt (35 page)

“
Is that where it’s been?” Manius patted Katie’s curls as he descended the stairs. “I should have known. You were always such a Puritan. Shall we go down?”

* * * *

The lines etched across the gate on the back wall of the tomb blazed into brightness when they reached the base of the stairs.

“
Want to pay your respects?” Manius asked with a smirk.

“
I would’ve thought you wouldn’t fall for such an easy line.” Rhi rolled her eyes. “I guess I overestimated you. Now can I get to work or would you like to miss the moonrise?” She walked with a slight swagger past the coffin, allowing the wretched knight to observe a woman covering her terror with false audacity. Let him believe she was frightened and weak.

Heck, she
was
frightened. But she couldn’t afford weakness.

Holding the book under her arm, Rhi placed her hands on each side of the gate over the top of the gold filigree representing the locks.

“‘
Like the dew on the mountain, like the foam on the river, like the bubble on the fountain, Thou art gone, and forever!’ ”
Rhi spoke the stolen words and stepped back. The wall faded, leaving only a jeweled gate, which swung open, revealing a large tunnel roughly the same diameter as the tomb. A staircase, lit by an unsourced red glow, led downwards.

“
That didn’t sound like an ancient incantation,” Pam remarked from behind her.

“
This gate was built by my - by Blackthorne after Raven died.” Rhi stepped forward, trying not to think about the man who stood waiting outside the tomb. She hadn’t told him goodbye out of fear that he would see what lay in her heart and mind. “It‘s a quote from Sir Walter Scott. I used to like his writing. I used to like a lot of things. This
,
” she indicated the tunnel in front of them, “used to be a hole in the ground with a big rock sealing it off. Shall we go down?”

“
Ladies first,” Manius said with a nod of his head.

Pam and Rhi hesitated for a moment as Pearl passed them with Ellie Mae at her side to begin the decent. She paused on the stairway. Even the eerie glow of the tunnel beautifully lit her features.

“
Coming, girls?”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Outside the tomb, the snow was like bee stings when the ice particles hit bare skin. Bobby Wayne and the chief took turns with the night vision goggles, watching the motionless man on the hill. In the growing darkness of the coming night, Blackthorne was made of stone, surrounded by a creeping fog. The crowd of advancing demons, creeping closer to where the knight stood, made Bobby Wayne nervous. There was no sign of Blackthorne’s brother knights or Bobby Wayne’s men.

He turned to the chief. “How long do we have to wait?”

“
When they get close enough to bite him on the ass or when Rhi gives the signal to attack, I suppose,” the chief replied with a shrug.

“
She never said what the signal would be - but I suppose with her being a woman, it will be something obvious.”

The dragon took to the air. The beast spit a great stream of fire from its jaws, setting the hill ablaze before swirling towards the dimly lit little town below. There was a collective gasp and the gathering of demons surged forward to fall upon the knight. His sword blazed blue and his brothers rose from the earth and darted out of the sky to stand beside him. Their swords threw crackles of blue sparks into the storm.

Bobby’s Wayne’s truck roared to life. He mashed the pedal to the floor as he tore through a field to get to the fence of the graveyard.

At the same moment, several four-wheel drive vehicles full of locals, armed to the teeth, burst through the garage doors of the houses close to the bottom of the hill.

Several of the locals rode in the beds of the pickups, equipped with a variety of armaments, cocked and ready. The trucks lined up beside Bobby Wayne in a spoke pattern behind the fence separating Cripple Creek from the cemetery. A number of halogen spotlights powered up for better accuracy and to make the demon hordes uncomfortable. Then they waited.

In the cab of the truck, Bobby Wayne reached for his switchboard. The chief threw open the door.

“
Looks like it’s time to party! See you at Little Round Top,” Boyd yelled over his shoulder. Pearl’s great-grandson pulled a sword out of the bed of the truck and gave the weapon a rather competent looking swish before slamming the door shut. He climbed into the bed of the truck, popped open the toolbox and picked up one of the M-16s hidden inside and banged on the roof of the cab.

“
Don’t you know about any other guns, old man?”

“
Wonder who taught him how to do that with a sword?” Bobby Wayne muttered, ignoring the question as he fiddled with his control board. He waited until the largest demon he could spot, one roughly the size and shape of a rhinoceros, thundered down the hill. Flipping a switch, Bobby Wayne let loose the wrath of God in the form of blessed and holy explosives.

He watched the being as it disintegrated in the light thrown up by the explosion. “Amen.” He began flipping switches in earnest.

The parts of the demonic herd turned from the hill by the explosions and awesome power of the knights ran full tilt towards the iron fence surrounding the cemetery, straight for the town.

A barrage of automatic weapons fire cut down the first few that made it to the fence. The volunteers fired at will from the dubious protection of their vehicles and smoking bodies piled up at the boundary. The ammunition had a drawback, however. It killed smaller demons instantly. But the larger, more human appearing demons were wounded but still able to advance. Like a burst dam, the crowd surged around them and slipped through their positions.

Bobby Wayne picked up his radio as he continued to destroy a significant part of the graveyard.

“
They’re coming, Betty. Get to work,” he said calmly.

* * * *

For Rhi, the stairs went on forever. The wide flight of steps twisted and turned downwards into the heart of the mountains. Her mind could feel the mineshafts running along the pit, never encroaching upon the barriers set by the Gates’ creators so long ago. There were no side tunnels as mentioned in the Spanish monk’s account, that particular enchantment seemed to have been lifted by the Gate’s guardian. She winced at the thought of Blackthorne and gripped the Bible so hard her fingers began to go numb.

The temperature quickly shot up. The three women dropped their coats on the stairs, out of the way of Manius, who followed them with Katie in his arms. His face was flushed with concentration and the beads of sweat on his forehead glistened in the unnatural glow of the tunnel. Rhi couldn’t help but wonder what kind of orders he was directing to his demons on the surface.

In one moment the ground shook and a dart of dirt dislodged from the roof of the tunnel, exploding in a cloud of red dust. She shot a glance at Manius, who smirked. He had already betrayed them and didn’t care if she knew. Bobby Wayne was blowing up the surface of the graveyard above because of a demon attack. She reached out a hand to run it along the wall as she made her way down the steps. The enchantment that kept gold miners from tunneling into the cavern would hopefully hold the walls and cavern up against the charges going off above. Hopefully.

Ellie Mae stayed at her side. The dog’s long tongue almost touched the steps as she panted in the heat. Rhi reached out to touch the golden fur and took a moment of comfort. If God could send her Ellie Mae, maybe He was a little bit on her side in this mess.

The bottom of the staircase appeared. The group stood in a large cavern, the size and shape of an amphitheatre. On one side stood a larger version of the golden gates Rhi had opened in the tomb. Twenty-four feet at their zenith and again as wide, the beauty and artifice of the precious metals and jewels the portal had been formed from dazzled from across the wide room.

“
My God,” Pam breathed.

“
Pretty gaudy, don’t you think?” Rhi asked her conversationally.

“
I’m not talking about the gates, Rhi. I’m talking about the floor.” The woman pointed at the dusty shapes on the ground that escaped Rhi’s attention while she was bemused by the gates. The bones of at least two hundred men lay scattered across the floor of the cavern, their hands clutching their swords and the jewels they had probably thought to steal at one time or another. Many wore the armor of the Spanish conquistadors, while the remainder wore a variety of dress. The skeletons were clothed in everything from the rotted hides worn by the Ute Indians to a six-shooter and spurs worn by an unlucky intruder from the gold rush days. It seemed many had been lured to the gates only to die before them, by the hand of the gate’s guardian.

“
He killed all of them?” she asked Pearl, her trembling hand again wrapped in the fur on Ellie Mae’s back. The madam steadily returned her look. The perfection of her features radiated a cold calm.

“
Of course he killed them, Rhiannon,” Manius answered for the madam, who began to pick her way through the carnage towards the gate. “My brother’s a killer. Like me. Now go.”

* * * *

On the roof of the Palace Hotel, Earl and Clay had set up two lawn chairs and anchored a large beach pavilion down with ropes to keep the worst of the snow off of their heads. Protected by plastic sheeting, a pile of weapons lay between the two chairs the men had hauled up to the roof earlier in the day.

“
I can’t hear shit in this snow except the damned wind howling,” Earl complained as he kept watch on the roads into town with his night vision goggles.

Clay arose from his chair to lean on the brick pediment of the roof, his shotgun in hand. “What’d you expect? I knew that asshole Bedford would hog all of the glory over in the graveyard while we sit on our butts down here. Man, it’s cold tonight! I think I’m gonna go home, crank up the heat and forget about this crap. We’ve got our trophy.” He indicated a bag lying ominously motionless nearby, “But I think you might have cracked it on the head a bit hard, Earl - Earl?”

The other man had lowered his goggles and stared into the black, snow filled sky in amazement.

“
Clay, you might not have to wait for heat,” he whispered. “Now hand me the elephant gun. And call the taxidermist. I’m getting this thing’s head stuffed for sure.”

The sky was abruptly filled with a giant glob of liquid flame belched out by the dragon that soared over the men’s heads. The fire flew past the Palace and into the upper story of the Brass Ass Casino. Flames shot into the sky as bewildered casino employees and patrons filed into the street. The satin running suits of the gamblers shone in the street lamps through the falling snow. They were like fat, shiny sausages on display.

“
Screw the gun, Clay. Grab my rocket launcher over there before this thing eats those idiots wandering around down there in the street,” Earl grumbled as he turned to take the launcher. “This had better not ruin my trophy.”

* * * *

“
You’d think he’d come down here and clean them out once in a while,” Pearl muttered as she picked her way through the crumpled piles of death. Impatiently, she kicked aside bones to clear a path for those behind her. Pam gave the other woman a look and got a shrug in reply. “We haven’t got all night.”

Following Pearl’s cleared path through the minefield of bones, Rhi stood before the gate with the Bible in her hand. Manius crowded behind her, Katie still snug in his arms. The girl’s tiny arms were trustingly wrapped around his neck.

Ellie Mae softly growled. Pam and Pearl stood nearby, the madam posed in a leisurely stance. As Rhi leaned over the book, a movement caught her eye. She glanced up at the silent gate, realizing the red material between the bars was opaque, like the crystal. She leaned forward to examine the material at close range only to step back in horror as an agonized face appeared on the other side, screaming and burning in silence.

The terrible truth hit.

“
You can see through to the other side from here,” Rhi gasped in wonder, running a hand down the obscenely warm crystal window. A red, scorched hand appeared on the other side to scratch at the pane. The entire surface of the
gate was a window of crystal with the screaming masses of the damned looking in from the other side. For a moment Rhi fancied she could hear their screams.

Pam spoke up. “Before you do anything, give me my baby and let me out of here.”

Manius replied through gritted teeth, his concentration on the battle above absolute. “When I have the skull in hand.” He handed Katie and the dagger off to Troy, who limped down the stairs behind them, his sullen fear tangible.

Rhi gave Pam a warning glance and stared down at the worn book in her hands. She opened the volume’s front cover and stared at the picture, careful to keep the artwork from Manius’ line of sight.

“
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.”
She spoke and reached with her mind into the book, calling both the skull and her chosen guardian forth. A brilliant blue flash blinded the group and the skull was in her hand, the Bible gone. Roughly the same size as a human skull, the relic had been formed of quartz crystal of a strange green shade and mottled with red streaks, which gave the skull the appearance of crying bloody tears.