Echoes of the Past (Demon Squad) (23 page)

“No more than usual, I imagine.” I thought back and couldn’t remember having done anything that would cause her to shut me out. Then again, pushing for her to stay home with daddy when she was more powerful than me was probably a kick to the parts for her. “Shit…maybe.”

Katon rolled his eyes. “Maybe she and Scarlett are off vacationing, lounging around the pool and bitching about how frustrating you are.” He cracked the tiniest of smiles. Even he didn’t believe that.

As much as it stung, though, it was entirely possible. I turned back to CB. “We’ve got to go check something out. Keep trying to reach
Karra
. We’ll be back soon.” With everything going on, I couldn’t worry about
Karra
, too. Scarlett was a pit bull, capable of tearing a guy apart limb by limb, but she was gullible, naïve in a way that made her vulnerable because she wanted to believe in the goodness of people.

Karra
was none of that. She wore her paranoia on her sleeve and didn’t walk down a dark alley without nuking it from orbit first. Besides, she had Longinus camped out in her house, and he sure as hell wouldn’t let anything happen to her. I’d take the Anti-Christ against any of the muck-a-mucks present in our universe right now. No alien slime ball would dare to stick anything even remotely probe-like near
Karra
without her father snapping it off and shoving it someplace horribly uncomfortable and quite indecent.

“Let’s go,” I told Katon, doing my best to block out my anxiety.

He nodded and told me the coordinates Rachelle had provided. I felt bad involving her only a few days into her mourning, but the world was an inconsiderate place. Bad things still happened, and they didn’t care much for your state of mind. That didn’t make me feel any better about it, but it sounded good. At least it was Katon that hit her up for the info, and not me. He wouldn’t rile her up any.

Once I knew our destination, we went to the gate and plugged it in, and off we went. It was a place far across Hell; a ghetto so to speak. It had been largely abandoned after Lucifer moved on, free will and open portals to exotic locales pretty much taking a toll on the population of the down under. Outside of a few folks who believed the rest of the world to be a greater Hell than the real one, and the wandering dread fiends heading to and from the fields in their endless drudgery, it was a pretty deserted area. We wouldn’t have to worry about our hubcaps being jacked. That wasn’t necessarily the case before, but now, we were pretty safe; all things relative.

I made sure my gun was loaded and secured the extra clips, and we hit the gate running. Rather than land right on top of anyone, I chose a portal that was a little further away. It took us a few minutes to get there, but it made more sense than popping in without knowing what we were getting into. We made our way through Hell, doing our best to stay out of sight. It seemed to work pretty well. There was no one along the path I’d chosen. After a few minutes, we were just around the corner from the location Rachelle had pinged.

As we drew closer, I could smell the tangy scent of charred wood and a hint of burnt hair. Katon leaned against the wall and peered around the corner. He turned and looked at me with widened eyes.

“The place has been bombed,” he whispered.

I shrugged. “That would be me. I gave Mihheer a going away gift as he hightailed it into the portal.”

Katon shook his head and looked back around the corner. “I don’t hear or smell anything alive in there.” He drew his sword, a replacement for the one he had crafted out of the Spear of Longinus, and let it hang loose in his hand. Katon didn’t wait for me. He slipped around the corner, silent as a shadow, and made for the room.

I followed after. The hallway was filled with rubble and bits of smoking char. Wisps of black ash fluttered in the air by the entrance, and the wall across from the room was covered in blackened soot and pitted and scarred by flying debris. Rubble littered the floor. I’d made a mess.

For a few seconds, I felt pretty good about the wreckage I was seeing, and then it hit me: Scarlett could have been in there. I hadn’t given it a thought when I’d chucked the fireball behind Mihheer. I guessed he was heading to his master, but it didn’t click until right now that I could have killed my cousin. A cold chill settled over as I walked at Katon’s back. I certainly didn’t want to tell him what I was thinking. If Scarlett was dead in the room, I’d probably just turn my gun on myself before Katon had the chance to kill me. That’d be my luck. I’d save her from Gorath by taking her out myself.

Katon crept to the entryway and glanced inside. My breath stuck in my lungs. I let it loose when he waved me forward and didn’t turn and try to take my head off.

Inside, the room looked a ton worse than the hallway. There was carnage everywhere, rubble scattered across the room and tiny flash fires still burning in what I presumed had been bookshelves before I dropped the bomb on them. The walls, ceiling, and floor were scorched obsidian except for an area about thirty feet around. Katon pointed at it and I nodded.

“Shield,” I said unnecessarily. Gorath or Mihheer had blocked the blast well enough that the floor hadn’t been scored by it. That meant they hadn’t been either. I sighed as we went deeper into the massive room to find it dead-ended. The air thick with a rank odor, I looked back to Katon. “Why do I smell French-fried-dog?”

“Because your effort to end my servant’s life injured a few of my newfound associates,” a deep voice spoke from the doorway.

Katon and I spun about, our weapons raised. There stood Mihheer alongside another fellow I could only presume to be Gorath. Piled balls deep behind them were a gaggle of werewolves and a number of the shadowy black vampire soldiers that had made the run at Heaven. My pulse masquerading as a techno beat, I looked to Gorath and let my senses loose. He didn’t strike me as a world-beater, but I knew better than to judge him by his current state. Besides, he’d come with an army of fangs and fur. That alone was a big enough threat.

I was surprised to see he didn’t look as alien as
Hasstor
, or even Mihheer. In fact, he looked a lot more human than I expected. He was tall, easily close to seven feet, and built wiry. He wore black robes with no markings of any kind, and his wild, jet black hair hung damn near to his knees as it spilled over his shoulders. Only his eyes and skin marked him as inhuman. Mottled green with gray spots kind of like a radioactive Dalmatian, he’d look right at home in a plague ward or a zombie flick. His eyes shimmered with a bright yellow-orange, just like
Mihheer’s
. They were probably related in a cousin-brother-uncle-sheep kind of way.

“Where’s Scarlett?” Katon asked, straight to the point as always.

Gorath grinned. Obsidian teeth made his mouth look as though it were a black hole, a wiggling yellow slug in its midst. “Ah, is that what she is called?” He laughed, the tone setting the hairs of my arms on edge. “She wasn’t conscious long enough to tell us her name.”

Katon advanced and the mass of werewolves and vampires stepped past Gorath to block the way. Even with all of them filing into the room, the hallway was still full. Unconsciously, I started counting the bullets I had. I didn’t have anywhere near enough. Even Katon hesitated. As much as both of us wanted to put a fork in Gorath, it didn’t look all that likely.

“Let her go,” I told Gorath.

“Why, demon? We know well enough that Lucifer no longer resides in your universe, and we know where he is.” His grin grew wider as more of the critters piled in. “You’ve proven to be more trouble than you’re worth. Scarlett, however, went down without a fight. She’ll prove much better inducement to draw Lucifer out when I am prepared.”

“Lucifer doesn’t—“

I cut Katon off with a hard stare. We both knew Lucifer didn’t care about Scarlett, as she’d pledged her heart to Heaven, but as long as Gorath thought she was useful, he would keep her alive. We’d have a chance to rescue her. The second he felt she was expendable, like me, he would kill her. Unfortunately, judging by the wall of
furries
and fangs bunching up, if he settled for Scarlett, Katon and I were gonna die. Katon must have caught on to what I was thinking because he let his statement fade incomplete.

“Release her to my partner here, and I’ll surrender to you,” I offered. Gorath didn’t want little old me, he wanted Daddy Devil. If there was a chance Lucifer was gonna ride in on his black horse and rescue someone’s ass, it’d have to be mine, now that I knew who I was supposed to be. “I’m Lucifer’s son, not some distant relative like Scarlett. Take me instead.”

Katon didn’t even look sideways at me, probably figuring I was just baiting the hook. Gorath only waggled a finger. “I think not, demon.” He gestured to the
weres
and vamps. “I’d suggest you take advantage of this opportunity and die. Should you survive, I will slay your Scarlett and spread her pieces across the universe for Lucifer to find. I will have my vengeance…one way or another.” He turned to Mihheer. “Stay behind and see that it is done.” With a flicker of yellowish-orange energy, he disappeared.

Mihheer showed us his pointy whites and shrugged. “So it shall be.” He waved the critters forward and stepped back into their frantic midst.

Katon gave me his
Oh Shit
look and set his stance to wait. I just started capping dogs. It’s not like I could miss with them piled up so closely. As gunshots echoed in my ears, I raised my free hand and willed fire to it. With a quick sweep of the floor before us, I set out a wall of searing flames between us and the horde. It slowed the wolves down a bit, but the vampires just walked right through it.

Katon put his sword to work and met the first vampire to cross the fiery line. It fell away in pieces, as did the second. The third managed to get a step closer before I put a bullet in its ugly face. Katon followed up by taking its head off, and kicking it back through the flames. Against humans, brutal tactics like that might have dissuaded them, but we weren’t dealing with humans. They just kept coming.

Blue lights flickered on the other side of the wall and the flames vanished. Werewolves charged toward us, their growls drowning the room in a locomotive rumble. Nowhere to go, we stood our ground and fought. Between Katon’s sword, my bullets and magic, we’d built a pyramid of bodies in front of us that would make any serial killer proud. It just wasn’t enough.

I pulled back a few steps to reload and saw a werewolf latch onto Katon’s sword arm. That was all it took. He slowed for just an instant and went down under a pile of furry claws and teeth. Sickness churned inside me as I watched him swallowed up by the horde. I slammed the clip home and tried to clear them off, but it took me away from the ones nearest me. A vampire crashed into my arm and sent my gun flying. Werewolves dove in right after. The smell of their rancid breath filled my nose, and then there was the coppery tang of blood; mine, mostly. I managed to toss a few critters aside, but the rest bore me down. I felt the sting of every claw that ripped through my flesh and tore a piece away; every bite that filled my blood with the sickening burn of lycanthropy.

My vision went white as the disease seared through my veins, the beasts tearing me apart, bite by bite. I crumpled to the ground as my legs lost their strength and buckled. Even though I still fought, it wouldn’t be long before I lost my life, as well. My thoughts drifted to
Karra
and how I’d let her down. We’d found each other again only for it to end so soon. A flutter of anger welled up inside. It wasn’t enough what we had. I needed more.

Buried under a sea of
weres
, I rolled and tucked my arms beneath me, digging my hand into my pocket. I found the vials waiting. Unsure if I was just opting for suicide rather than being murdered, I pulled both of them out, and popped the stoppers. Before I could talk myself out of it, or the mutts could knock them from my hand, I swallowed the contents of both.

No longer defending, one of the wolves latched onto my throat and clamped down. I could feel the rest of them tearing at me somewhere deep down in the muddled haze of numbed sensory feedback. It felt like they were eating me whole. I only hoped I gave them the shits.

My vision tunneled as the werewolf chomped down harder on my carotid artery and the blood stopped flowing to my head. I could hear them grunting and slavering over top of me. My heart fluttered in my chest, but I couldn’t feel Lucifer’s claret kicking in. In a pool of crimson, my last thought was that his blood had spilled out of me just the same as my own. Like a cartoon character shot full of holes drinking a cup of water, I pictured my last hope squirting from me as though I were a fountain.

I heard one last grunt as the bastards took my ear off, and then I heard nothing.

~

The lights came back on with a mule’s kick. My eyes popped open and I met the startled, red gaze of a werewolf who’d apparently been leaning into take a bite. It paused and let out a surprised grumble. I smiled.

Daddy had come through again.

Lucifer’s blood ran through me as if I’d been corn-holed by a volcano. My veins shrieked with the searing agony of its touch, the claret healing me faster than I’d ever healed before. Flesh and bone knitted together and drew back into form; tendons and muscle were strung and stretched back in place quicker than the werewolves could gnaw them away. The wolf in front of me stared wide-eyed, and a few of the others started to notice their meal was filling back out. The pain of being a werewolf chew toy was dialed down to zero as the blood flushed away all but its own incendiary touch.