Soulguard (25 page)

              “I would have if he hadn’t screwed up and killed himself. Think about it, if he tied us from the Source and it was discovered, he’d face abuse of power charges. He had to dispose of us if he’d have succeeded. He couldn’t let either of us live after that. They had planned this from the start, I have no pity for him or the ones who helped him. I have no pity for the one responsible for the idiot’s actions and we both know who was behind it.”

              “He couldn’t be the one...”

              “He damn sure is the one who put the whole thing in motion. Because I stood up to him once. He trained Gavin to do the block and threw his son under the bus. He figured either he succeeds and I am gone or he fails and I am disgraced and tried for killing him. Either way I’m gone and he gets what he wants.”

              “But...”

              “His followers are doing the same thing, Salvador sent his son to California knowing the boy was a coward. Either he causes the problem that he did or he dies. Either way a good Guard Captain is removed.”

              “And don’t think for a minute that Graves didn’t have the same thing in mind with his son. He was sadly mistaken in the potential of that kid and we have a powerhouse to throw at the Demons now. The politics are getting harsh now,” I pointed to the Guards around us, “and we’re stuck in the middle of it all.”

              “It boils down to one simple fact,” I said, “Whoever controls the Guards, controls the Soulguard as a whole. I don’t know if it’s power or money or both that drives the man, but Archmage Price wants all of the people who defy him in any way removed.”

              “But, to send his son out to die for his vanity seems a bit much,” Sanders said.

              “I’ve seen into that man’s Soul, Will,” I stared at him, “He’s more than capable of doing just that.”

***

              As we entered the Guard base the secretary looked up and smiled our way.

              “Janet, get Sandy and Randy on the phone, please. I need to see them in my office, and tell them I need a list of contacts at each base if they can do it. We need to get some information out to the other bases and I think we’re being ignored.”

              “Yes sir.”

              I turned to find Sanders and Rictor both standing behind me, “You really think they’ve been ignoring your reports?” Sanders asked.

              “The odds are the other bases are getting the same type of reaction from the Demons, but if they aren’t yet, I want them fully aware of what’s been happening here. It could save some lives. They’ve figured out that if they take out the Mage, the Guard is much easier to take down without his support.”

Chapter 54

              “I’m really worried about how frequently we keep finding the bastards,” Ric said. We were sitting at a booth at Puello’s Grill.

              I nodded as I took another bite of the gumbo. It was really good and I had just gotten lucky to find it as the soup of the day.

              “Yeah, something feels off about things and I can’t seem to wrap my head around what it is. We need to do something and I’m not sure how to do it.”

              “What’s that?”

              “I want to capture a Wraith.”

              “Are you crazy?” he stopped with his hand outstretched toward a piece of bread, “Capture? A Wraith?”

              “I’m afraid a soldier won’t have enough information. I need a Wraith. It’s time we found out what the Hell is really going on.”

              “What makes you think you can find anything out from it? We don’t even know if they can talk our language.”

              “They can.”

              He looked at me for a moment, “And when did you have this conversation with a Demon?”

              “A long time ago, one of them talked to my real father. I saw it in Kharl’s memory. It laughed at them and said, ‘You’re too late man-things.’ It was while they were on a mission and the Demons massacred the New Mexico Guard post. It was the day I was born.”

              “Ok then,” he said, “Then all we got to do is work out the details. First we take more Guards, you’ll be busy catching a Wraith so we‘ll clean the nest out. Don’t look at me like that. Do you see any other crazy Soullords around? Nope. So you’re on your own with that one. We’ll keep the rest of em off you, though. When the nest is clean you can figure out how to make one of those big bastards talk, cause I got no idea.”

              “I really hate that they transferred our Mages back out of Knoxville. I was getting to like Sanders and the Kid was hell on wheels in a fight. This whole prospect would be easier if any of them were still here.”

              I guess the Council had figured out that the Kid wasn’t another Salvador and gave up on that plan. It was a great feeling when Kevin had come and thanked me for scaring the shit out of him. He said it showed him that he wasn’t a coward like he had always thought he was.

              “Yeah except the Kid probably would kill it before we could capture it anyway. I guess we’ll find out how to make it talk after we catch one of the big bastards.”

              “All right, from now on keep a forty man RRT on standby at all times. With the frequency of the incursions, it shouldn’t be too long before we get a nest. Hopefully it will have a Wraith in it.”

              “You got it, Boss.”

              “I just have a very bad feeling about how they’ve stepped up their game. We have to get some information.”

***

              I eased into the cave a bit behind the forty Guards, well actually thirty eight. I kept Jacobs, Lewis, and Holsey back with me as rear guard.

              “Do I even want to know why you’re bald and he has pink hair?” I asked Jacobs while pointing at Holsey. The two of them had been playing practical jokes on each other for nearly two years now.

              “Probably not,” He answered through clinched teeth.

              I chuckled, “All right, I won’t ask.”

              I was scanning the area in front of us and I could feel a good sized piece of that evil darkness off to the right behind the other guards.

              “To the right,” I said, “it’s a Wraith and some soldiers or its one of those damn Mages. You guys take the soldiers I’ll handle the Wraith.”

              Suddenly the Demons sprang from the alcove they were hiding in to ambush the group ahead of us. I opened my portal a tiny bit on the Wraith trap and moved it in front of the thing. It ran into the target area and I opened the portal all the way.

              The Wraith slammed into the inside of my shield and halted. There were ten soldiers with it and they turned immediately toward us and my three Guards went to meet them.

              I had left a hole where the Demon’s stream led to the portal so I wouldn’t kill it. I wasn’t sure whether a shield would sever its Soulstream or not, but we needed it alive.

              I looked forward and every Demon in the whole cavern seemed to be looking at me. They tried to charge toward me but there were two stacks of Guards in our formation and they couldn’t get through.

              Were they telepathic? It’s possible, that would explain how every Demon in Little Rock had known the moment I killed the Demonmage.

              The Wraith kept pounding on my shield and I shrank it tight around it, immobilizing it.

              “You be still.”

              It stared at me with hate and rage rolling through its aura.

              “You,” It hissed as it seemed to realize who I was, “You are the reason we are here.”

              Its voice was a mix of hiss and growl, but the words could be made out.

              I looked into its hate filled eyes, “And you are the reason I’m here.”

              It just stared at me as my Guards killed the rest of the Demons in the cavern.

              “I want some answers, and I think you’ll give them to me,” I said standing inches from the thing.

              It began laughing, or I think it was laughing. It sounded much like a growl and a cough.

              “Not Kresh. Not to do your bidding.”

              “What’s Kresh?”

              It looked and motioned with it’s head toward a corpse of a lesser demon. It nodded toward a soldier, “Kresh’far.”

              “I Kresh’sor’an, I Master. No fear of you, Man-thing.”

              I Pulled and sent Soulfire coursing through the shield that was tight against the Demon. It screamed.

              When I stopped it looked back at me and bared its teeth, maybe it was smiling, “Like pain. Do it again.”

              There was no fear in its aura and I didn’t see a lie there either. Maybe the bastard really likes pain. The way it had said Kresh gave me an idea. It had said it with disgust or something like it anyway. I’m working with best guess as to what they feel. It looked like disgust would have in a human.

              The lesser Demons have a Soulstream of about three inches, a soldier has a five or six inch stream and this Wraith had close to a ten inch stream. Where the Stream passed through the hole in my shield, I began pressing closed. Its Stream was shrinking on the inside of the shield and I was watching the intelligence fade from its eyes.

              It screamed in pure fury but it couldn’t budge. As I expanded the hole back up I could see fear in its aura, now.

              I pointed at its chest, “Talk or you remain Kresh.”

              I actually saw the resignation pass across its aura. If there was one thing it was afraid of, it was being reduced to that.

              “I talk if you kill me. No Kresh, death.”

              “That I can do," I said.

              “You kill Kresh’ma’nar four cycles ago. Whole world in uproar. Only one hundred fifty-seven Kresh’ma’nar in whole world. Now five hundred clans, as you Man-things say, come here to destroy all Man-things and start over. Each Kresh’ma’nar have five hundred clans. Now one has one thousand, he come here with five hundred.”

              My stomach felt ill. There had been thousands of Demons in the clan my father had destroyed so long ago and now five hundred of those clans were coming here.

              “When?”

              “Two of your days from now first wave come.”

              “Dear God,” Ramirez mumbled from behind me.

              “Where?”

              “Only seven gates can take many at same time. Coming in place Man-things call Kansas, first. Only one gate can be open at time.”

              “Why do you come and kill us?”

              “Always done, Makers create, we slaves. Makers defeated and we eat. Never be slaves again to Makers, now Makers slaves to us. Now time for you to do what promised. Kill me.”

              I looked at it for a moment and my sword flamed. My shield trap left its head uncovered and my blade severed its head cleanly.

              “We have to go,” I turned to see all three Guards behind me with pale faces. They had heard exactly what I had, “Now.”

              “Damn right we do, we gotta warn everyone,” Jacobs answered.

              “Friggin Kansas,” Holsey muttered, “Right in the middle of the US. How the hell do we stop five hundred thousand Demons?”

              “We kill em all,” I answered, “There are close to a thousand Guards in the US and nearly a hundred Mages. We all go to Kansas and we kill every Demon that sets foot on our planet. It’s the only thing we can do.”

***

              “I know you don’t have any use for me, Price,” I said into the phone, “But this goes way beyond us. We didn’t have time to send this up the chain of command. In two days time there is going to be a massive invasion. The Demons have decided that we’ve hurt them too much and they’re going to clean house.”

              “Just how would you know this?” He asked without emotion in his voice.

              “We just captured and interrogated a Wraith. They plan to destroy the human race and start again with a select few humans as breeding stock. We’re just cattle to them.”

              “And you believed this Wraith?”

              “I was very persuasive in getting it to talk. We need to mobilize everyone, I’m getting the Knoxville post geared and ready for transport to Kansas.”

              “They’re invading Kansas?”

              “It said there are only seven of their gateways big enough for armies. It said the first wave was hitting Kansas in two days. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of Demons.”

              “I’ll place the calls and get everything moving,” Archmage Price said and hung up the phone.

              I turned to Rictor, “Looks like things are underway, let’s get our boys geared up and ready for action.”

              We spent the next few hours getting our armor and swords set and calling in all the off duty Guards who were scattered across Knoxville.

              I tried to call in to Greg and see how things were going but the lines must have been busy, I didn’t get any answer. The switchboard must have been swamped, as the Guard began a full mobilization. I’d get Greg later.