No demon dared approach a reckoner.
Ed tugged out his cell phone from an inner suit-coat pocket, and the small electronic light glowed about his face and tattooed neck. The thorns on his knuckles glinted like obsidian as he punched in a number. Im calling the troops in Paris. Well head to town. Certainly, will that seal hold?
For a while, the witch said. But Im not sure how it was opened in the first place. Had to be from within Daemonia. Which is not cool. Something wicked powerful opened it up.
The witch cast his gaze about the field. Dark shadows flitted through the sky, black on black, as the demons that had avoided Savins net dispersed. The cool, acrid taste of sulfur littered the air.
Savin thought he heard someone walking across the loose gravel back by his truck. He swung around, squinting his gaze. He didnt see motion. Could have been a demon. More likely a raccoon.
The energy out here is quieting, he stated. For the hum in his veins had settled. I think were good for now. But Ed will have to post a guard out here.
The corax demon nodded to Savin and gave him a thumbs-up even as he spoke on the phone to organize scouts.
Savin slapped a hand across Certainlys back. Good going, witch.
I can say the same for you. You took care of more than half of them. I dont know anyone capable of such a skill.
Wish I could be proud of that skill, but... Savin let that one hang as he strode back to the parked cars with the witch.
His system suddenly shivered. Savin did not panic. He knew it was the Other expressing her thanks. Or maybe it was resentment for what he had done tonight. Hed never mastered the art of interpreting her messages. So long as she kept quiet ninety percent of the time, he couldnt complain. Some days he felt as if he owed her for what she had done to help him. Other days he felt that debt had long been paid.
Im off, Ed said as he headed to his car. Ill post a guard out here day and night. Thanks, Savin. Ill get back to the both of you with whatever comes up in Paris. If my troops find any of the escapees, well gather them for a mass reckoning. Okay with you?
I love a good mass demon bash, Savin said. But his heart could not quite get behind his sarcasm. Check in with me when you need my help again. He fist-bumped Ed and the dark witch, then climbed into his truck and fired up the engine.
Alone and with the windows rolled up, Savin exhaled and closed his eyes. His muscles ached from scalp to shoulders and back, down to his calves and even the tops of his feet. It took a lot of energy to reckon a single demon back to Daemonia. What hed just done? Whew! He needed to get home, tilt back some whiskey, then crash. A renewal process that worked for him.
But first. His system would not stop shaking until he fed the demon within.
Reaching over in the dark quiet and opening the glove compartment, he drew out a small black tin. Inside on the red velvet lay a syringe and a vial of morphine that he kept stocked and always carried with him. He juiced up the syringe and, tightening his fist, injected the officious substance into his vein. A rush of heat dashed up his arm. A brilliance of colors flashed behind his eyelids. He released his fist and gritted his teeth.
And the shivers stopped.
Happy? he muttered to the demon inside him.
He always thought to hear a female chuckle after shooting up. He knew it wasnt real. She had no voice.
Thank the gods he no longer got high from this crap. The Other greedily sucked it all up before it could permeate his system. A strange thing to be thankful for, but he recognized a boon when he saw it.
Flicking on the radio, he nodded as Rob Zombies American Witch blasted through the speakers. Thrash metal. Appropriate for his mood.
Savin was the last of the threesome to pull out of the field. He turned left instead of right, as the other two had. Left would take him over the Seine and toward the left-bank suburbs of Paris. He lived near the multilaned Périphérique in the fourteenth arrondissement. Driving slowly down the loose gravel, he nodded to the thumping bass beat, hands slapping out a drum solo on the steering wheel.
When the trucks headlights flashed on something that moved alongside the road, Savin swore and slammed on the brakes.
What in all Beneath?
Was it a demon walking the grassy shoulder of the road? Hed felt more incorporeal demons move over him during the escape from the rift than actually witnessed real corporeal creatures with bodies. But anything was possible. And yet...
Savin turned down the radio volume. Leaning forward, he peered through the dusty windshield. The figure wasnt clawed or winged or even deformed. A woman?
She glanced toward the truck. The headlights beamed over her bedraggled condition. Long, dark, tangled hair and palest skin. She clutched her dirtied hands against her chest as if to hold on to the thin black fabric that barely covered her limbs from breasts to above her knees. Her legs were dirty and her feet almost black.
She couldnt be a resident from the area. Out for a midnight walk looking like that? Or had she been attacked? Savin hadnt passed any cars in the area, which ruled out a date-gone-bad scenario. That left one other possibility. She had come from Daemonia. Maybe? Corporeal demons could wear a human sheen, making them virtually undetectable to the common man.
But not to Savins demon radar.
Shifting into Park, Savin spoke a protective spell that would cover him from head to toe. He was no witch, but any human could invoke protection with the proper mind-set. The demon within him shivered but did not protest, thanks to the morphine. He shoved open the door and jumped out. His boots crushed the gravel as he stalked around to the other side of the hood.
Where in hell did you come from? he called. Daemonia wasnt hell, but it was damned close.
The womans body trembled. Her dark eyes searched his. They were not red. Tears spilled down her cheeks. She looked as though shed been attacked or ravaged. But demons were tricky and knew how to put on a convincing act of humanity. And yet Savin didnt sense any demonic vibes from her. He could pick a demon out from a crowd milling in the Louvre at fifty paces. Even the ones who had cloaked themselves with a sheen.
He stepped forward. The woman cringed. Savin put up his hands in placation. With the sigils on his forearms exposed, he advertised what he was to her. Just in case she was demon. She didnt flee. Nor did she hiss or spew vile threats at him.
Now Savin wondered if she had been hurt. And perhaps it had nothing to do with what had just gone down in the lavender field. Had she been assaulted and fled, or had some asshole abandoned her far from the city?
Its okay, he said firmly. Im not going to hurt you. My names Savin Thorne. Do you need help?
S-Savin? The womans mouth quivered. She dropped her hands to her sides. Is it... Is it really you?
He narrowed his gaze on her. She...knew him?
Savin? She began to bawl and dropped to her knees. Savin, its me. Jett.
Savin swallowed roughly. His heart plunged to his gut. By all the dark and demonic gods, this was not possible.
Chapter 2
Twenty years earlier
Chapter 2
Twenty years earlier
Savin grabbed Jetts hand and together they raced across the field behind their parents houses. The lavender grew high and wild, sweetening the air. Butterflies dotted the flower tops with spots of orange and blue.
Jetts laughter suddenly abbreviated. She stopped, gripping her gut as she bent over.
Wait! she called as Savin ran ahead. Im getting a bellyache. Mammas cherry pie is sitting right here. She slapped a hand to her stomach. I shouldnt have eaten that third piece!
Savin laughed and walked backward toward the edge of the field where the forest began. The dark, creepy forest that they always teased each other to venture into alone. Neither had done it. Yet.
Today hed challenged her to creep up to the edge and touch the foreboding black tree that grew bent like a crippled man and thrust out its branches as if they were wicked fingers. If she did, hed give her his Asterix comic collection. Fortunately, he knew she wouldnt do it. Jett was a chicken. And he teased her now by chanting just that.
I am not! she announced as she approached him, still clutching her gut. Her long black hair hid what he guessed was a barely contained smile.
You cant use that excuse to get out of it this time. Savin planted his walking stick in the ground near his sneaker. The stick was one hed found in the spring and had been whittling at for a month. Hed tried to carve a dragon on the top of it, but it looked more like a snake. Girls are always chicken!
Am not. Jett stepped out of the lavender field and stopped beside him to stare into the forest that loomed thirty paces away.
The trees were close and the trunks looked black from this distance. Savin nudged Jetts arm and she jumped away from him and stuck out her tongue.
I dont need your comic books, she said. Anyway, Ill get them all when we get married someday.
Jett was the one to always remind him that theyd get married. Someday. When they were grown-up and didnt care about things like comic books and creepy forests. Which was fine with Savin. Except he thought maybe he should kiss her before that happened. And actually love her. Jett was a girl with whom he raced home from school, ran through the fields and played video games. They spent every day with each other. But love? Right now that sounded as creepy as the forest.
Whatever. He stubbed the toe of his sneaker against the walking stick.
Why dont you go in there? she cooed in that cotton-candy voice she always used when she wanted him to do something.
It made Savins ears burn and his heart feel like bug wings were fluttering inside.
Maybe I will. He took a step forward and planted the stick again.
Looking over the forest, he thought for a moment he saw the air waver before him. Did something flash silver? Of course, a haunted forest might be like that. He didnt dare say maybe not. So he took another step, and then another.
And he heard Jetts gasp behind him. Savin, wait
He turned to see Jetts brown eyes widen. She pointed over his shoulder. When he swung around to face the forest, Savin didnt have time to scream.
Sucked forward through the air, arms flailing and legs stretched out behind him, he dropped the walking stick. Cold, icy air entered his lungs, swallowing his scream. Yet beside him he heard Jetts scream like the worst nightmare. The world turned blacker than the cellar without the lights on. And the strange smell of rotting eggs made him gag.
Of a sudden his body dropped, seeming to fall endlessly. Until he landed on his back with a crunch of bones and a cry of pain.
He lay there, silenced by the strangeness of what had happened. Had a tornado swept him off his feet and into the depths of the dark forest? Had the sky opened like a crack in the wall and sucked him inside? What was he lying on? It felt...squishy and thick, and it smelled like the worst garbage.
Savin?
Jett was with him. He sat up, looking about. The landscape was brown and gray, and a deep streak of red painted what must be the black sky. His fingers curled into the mud he lay on, and he felt things inside it squirm.
Jett?
Over here. Wh-what happened? What is that!
An insectile whine preceded the approach of a creature that looked like something out of one of those nasty video games his parents had forbid him to play. Jett scrambled over to Savin. He clutched her hand and they both backed away from the thing that walked on three legs and looked like half a spider...with a human face.
Run! Savin yelled.
* * *
They ran for days, it seemed. They encountered...things. Monsters. Creatures. Demons. Evil. They were no longer anywhere near home. This was not the outer countryside surrounding Paris. There was no lush lavender field to run through. Or even grass. Savin wasnt sure where they were or how theyd gotten here, but it was not a place in which he wanted to stay.
Jett cried as often as she wandered in silence and with a drawn expression. She was hungry and had taken on many cuts and bruises from the rough, sharp landscape and the strange molten rocks. Every time something moved, she screamed. Which was often.
This had to be hell. But Savin honestly didnt know why they were here. Had they died? They hadnt encountered people. But they did see humanlike beings. Strange creatures with faces and appendages that morphed and twisted, and some even had wings. None had spoken to them in a language they could understand.
I want to go home, Jett said on a tearful plea.
Savin hugged her close, as much to comfort her as for his own reassurance. He wanted to go home, too. And he wanted to cry. But he was trying to be brave. Hed hand over all his Asterix comics right now if only they could be home in their own beds.
Well get out of here, he murmured, and then clutched Jett even tighter. I promise.
* * *
They tried to drink from the stream that flowed with orange water, but it burned their throats. Jetts tears permanently streaked her dirtied face. Her eyes were red and swollen. Her hands were rough and darkened with the gray dust that covered the landscape, and her jeans were tattered.
Savin had torn up his shirt to wrap a bandage about her ankle after shed cut it on what had looked like barbed wire. But after shed screamed, that strange wire had unfurled and slunk away.
They sat on a vast plateau of flat gray stone that tended to crack without warning, much like thin ice on a lake. No other creatures seemed to want to walk on it, so they felt safe. For the moment.
Savin had fashioned a weapon out of a branch from a tree that had appeared to be made of wood, until hed broken off the branch and inspected it. It was metal. That he could break. But the point was sharp. That was all that mattered. Hed already killed something with it. An insect the size of a dog, with snapping mandibles and so many legs he hadnt wanted to count them.
Do you hear that? Jett said in a weary whisper.
Savin followed the direction she looked. An inhale drew in the air. For some reason it smelled like summer. Fresh and...almost like water. Curious.
I miss my mama and papa, Jett whispered. She shivered. She shook constantly. They hadnt eaten for days. And Savins stomach growled relentlessly. If I die, promise me you wont let one of those monsters eat me.