ARC: Cracked (15 page)

The three of us take off running, Jo in the rear as usual. I’m giddy, I’m going to escape – with a highly expendable escort to get me there. I’ll evacuate, disappear. True, I didn’t learn everything the Templars could teach me about my kind, actually my
kinds
, since I’m part Templar too. But I have a lead, and once I’m out I will hunt him down.

Luke Bergeron.

How I’ll track him down is a worry for later – after I escape the battlefield of Good versus Evil.

The building is shuddering in earnest now and cracks are appearing in the walls. I curse the school’s nonsensical construction, which means there’s no direct route back to the main box and stairs to the tunnels.

“Isn’t there a faster way?” I ask as we round another corner.

“No,” Chi says easily, not panting despite our pace. “Everything important is in the main building – the grimoires, the artifacts, the escape routes – so there are no direct routes to get there. Makes it easier to defend.”

Makes sense. Maybe I didn’t give the idiots enough credit. Of course, there’s one minor problem. “Um, the front door?” It leads directly into the main building.

Chi almost smiles. “It has a steel gate about a foot thick that’s been dropped by now. The demons could get through it eventually, but they’ll try the other entrances first. And we’ll be ready for them.” His grin is ugly in a sexy kind of way.

The headset crackles to life in my ear. “Squads, prepare to cover the retreating Crusaders. Crusaders, prepare for my order to fall back in ten… nine…” He continues to count down and Chi shoots a look at Jo and picks up his pace. I pretend to labor to keep up – now’s not the time to blow my cover.

The voice in my earpiece finishes, “…one! Retreat!”

I hear the bang of slamming doors in the distance. Then a boom rocks the building so hard, I lose my balance, and topple over sideways. Jo, behind me, tries to catch me and goes down with me instead. We fall in a tangle of legs and profanity. Crashes echo in the distance as parts of the building collapse, and there’s shouting. Chi staggers back towards us, his feet set wide, his messy, half-up hair grey with dust. Once the vibrations stop, he hauls us back to our feet, a veiny forearm for each of us.

What if the demons keep using magic? Why wouldn’t they just hammer the building – and us – to dust? I open my mouth to ask, but am answered by a howling cry outside. It’s a roar, but high-pitched, like a thousand squeals. It grates on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard and my hands itch to cover my ears.

Chi looks away, listening to the cry, then he and Jo exchange a look. Then he turns to me. “Battle cry,” he explains. “We have to hurry.”

No, really? I thought maybe we’d hang around.

He grabs my hand and starts running again, half pulling me. Jo brings up the rear, as usual. There’s a pounding, like drums, then screams as battles break out all over the school. Twice we hear fighting ahead of us and Chi changes our route, taking us up not one flight of stairs, but two, until we’re on the third floor. It’s longer this way, but all the fighting’s on the ground floor, at the entrances.

We run down the empty hall, then back down to the second floor. As we come out of the stairwell, we see a middle-aged man at the opposite end of the hallway – right where we need to go. His crisp black suit tells me he’s not on our side. Somehow at least one demon has breached the defenses. He turns when we enter and, with a feral grin, runs straight towards us, his dress shoes clicking on the linoleum. Chi grins just as nastily and runs straight towards him.

I wait sensibly with Jo.

They run at each other and I wonder if Chi plans on tackling the demon. But no, at the very last second, right before the two are about to make contact, Chi shoots his feet out in front of him and baseball-slides right past him. The demon’s arm whiffs over Chi’s head. As he slides past, Chi brings his sword across the back of the demon’s knees. The demon screams and falls, and Chi twists up to his knees and swings his sword with two hands, neatly chopping off the demon’s head. Blood splatters in an arch across the wall and the momentum makes the head spin a few times before it settles.

Chi looks at me, I guess to make sure I’m OK. His eyes widen.

My lips are curved into a fierce grin – oops. Not a Nice Girl reaction to decapitation. Is it too late to faint? It isn’t too late to find out. I roll my eyes and start to collapse, fighting the urge to break my fall – self-preservation has always been one of my faults.

Jo grabs my arm before I get very far. “Oh, knock it off, we don’t have time for that,” she snaps and I open my eyes. Chi’s attention is on a new demon rushing into the hall. I shrug and stand up. Chi dispatches the newcomer with a slick feint-and-dive and we continue on our way.

We make it to the west stair, which Chi and I came up earlier. We race down it, blessedly hearing no fighting. We hit the ground floor and blast through the doors, one more hallway to the main box, then the basement stair and my freedom.

Chi comes to a complete stop. I slam into his back and Jo hits me, making a bruised-Meda sandwich. Filled with foreboding, I peek around Chi and the reason we didn’t hear any fighting becomes clear.

The demons have already won this fight.

They’ve taken the hallway. Three men who could be accountants and a woman with the soft figure of an overeater stand over a mixed pile of student Templars and dissolving demons. Blood splatters the demons – red splashes on white skin and sensible, professional shirts. On their suits as well, no doubt, but it doesn’t show against the black. Our entry did not go unnoticed and they all turn, in sync, to stare at us, their heads twisting smoothly on their necks like snakes’.

Chi just stands there. Frozen. His curved sword hangs loose in his hand and his eyes are fixed on the bodies. He knew theoretically that students could die, but I don’t think he really understood what that meant. Friends’ bodies still on the linoleum, blank stares and gore on teenage T-shirts. After all, as far as he knew, his last demon fight had gone perfectly.

I’m not so naive and dive for a nearby classroom. Jo isn’t either and shoves Chi out of the way just as one of the males leaps at them.

The wall gives Chi a wake-up slap and he whirls with catlike grace. Jo’s not nearly as graceful, but her dive was more controlled so she manages to stand only a second after he does. I cower safely in my classroom waiting for them to clear our way.

Chi has another curved sword hooked into his waistband and he pulls it free so he has one in each hand. Jo also has a sword in addition to the knife I got to know earlier. They stand, back to back, and face-off with the demons. The demons spread out, surrounding them. The demons and Chi take a couple of feints at the other, trying to get a feel for the other’s ability. Finally the pudgy woman dives in, faster than I would have thought her capable of, and the fight begins in earnest.

Death is my art form – when I fight, I’m a ballerina. Graceful. Chi lacks my grace, but makes up for it in energy and enthusiasm. His fighting style is like breakdancing – strong and frenetic with some really sweet moves. Jo’s is… the Macarena. Ugly, but it gets the job done. They’re outnumbered two to one, but are holding their own.

But then a fifth demon comes sneaking down the hall, a burly black man in a pinstripe suit. Crap. I don’t want them to die. Not now, anyway. The demon is intent on the battle and doesn’t notice where I crouch in the darkness. I wait until he’s between my door and the empty door directly across from mine. In a move like lightning, I dive and shove him into the classroom across the way where I twist his head off with a wet pop. His black soul pours from his body, inky compared to the silvery grey of a normal human’s. I’m full, but I step back quickly anyway. I don’t know if I can eat demon souls and now’s not the time to risk experimenting.

This happens three more times, back and forth, back and forth, as more demons seep in. Dive, squish, pop. When there aren’t new targets sneaking down the hallway, I vicariously fight through Chi and Jo, which may involve the tiniest bit of shadow-boxing. Occasionally I hear updates crackle through my earbud. We’re not winning, but we are holding our own.

Finally, with a blindingly fast spin move, Chi takes out one demon, then adds his attack to one of Jo’s. She takes advantage of the momentary distraction and smashes a holy-water globe into her other demon’s face. Chi skewers a third and I do a fist pump.

But that was a mistake. I was so caught up in the fighting that I failed to notice the new demons creeping down the hall.

They do not fail to notice me.

My fist is still in the air when I catch their arrival out of the corner of my eye. I turn my head. Eight of them, four men, four women, all eyes on me. One of them smiles, white teeth bright against too-red lips.

I jump back into the classroom and slam the door, but it’s pointless. It explodes off its hinges as the demons stomp through. Not one, not two, but three have come after me – two men and Red Lips. That leaves five plus the one still alive to attack Jo and Chi. Not that I’m worried about them – I clearly have my own problems.

I back to the wall and shoot a quick glance out of the window, but there are only hordes more demons outside. There’s no escape; I’m going to have to fight.

So be it
.

Just because I’m going to die is no reason not to enjoy inflicting as much damage as possible. What can I say? I’m a glass-half-full kind of girl.

I crouch down and let the hot joy of an impending slaughter fill me. The inner monster, whom I kept on a tight leash while the others got to play, dances in delight. I grin and it’s all teeth. They crouch, ridiculous in suits. She’s even in heels.

I remember my hard-learnt lesson the last time I fought demons and decide to start with the feint this time. I spring right for the girl, then, at the last second, twist and come down on the man in the middle. He screams as I rake his face. My hand closes on his scalp as he jerks, twisting away from me. I come away with a fistful of hair. Without pausing, I spin and dive at the woman, slamming her into the wall. I wrap my hand around her throat as the third one rips me off her. Her throat comes with me.

One down, two to go, but unfortunately it’s all downhill after that. I twist like a wild thing in the arms of the man who grabbed me and manage to take a piece of his hand with my teeth. He releases me abruptly and I stumble backwards, off balance. The other man dives at me from behind, catching me around the waist and slamming me into the wall hard enough for it, and possibly my skull, to crack. I see the flickering candles of the Templar shrine – stars.

I blink back into reality and they each have an arm. I tense, preparing to be ripped in half. The taller of the two, the one with a new bald spot courtesy of me, growls in my face. I focus on the blood running down the side of his bulbous nose.

“You’re lucky we’re not supposed to kill the girls.”

They’re not? I perk up. I’ve never been quite so happy to be a girl before.

He grins nastily and it’s almost funny, that expression on such an unremarkable, middle-aged face. “At least, we aren’t supposed to
yet
.”

Ah well, where there’s life there’s hope. I’ll take what I can get.

They haul me, one on each arm, to the hallway where the battle continues. I hope for rescue, but am disappointed. Jo is captive like me but thrashing wildly. I don’t bother wasting the energy. They’re stronger than me, so I wait for an opportunity.

Chi’s facing three alone. His hair is stuck to his face with sweat and his once-white T-shirt is a red-and-pink tie-dye. From the way he’s starting to flag, I think a lot of the blood is his. He’s not a girl, so there’s no reason to leave him alive. Once they kill him, there will be no hope of rescue. We’re dead, we’re all dead.

And the demons know they’ve won. They’re cackling and squealing, taunting Chi with dancing steps and giggles. A male lunges for Chi’s side. Chi lowers his left blade to block him, while swinging his other one around blindly to block any right-side attack. Another demon, a red-haired woman, weaves in and then dances out of the way as Chi thrusts. While he’s distracted, the first demon dives back towards Chi’s side and this time manages to claw him across the ribs. Chi grunts and Jo screams, struggling even more madly. Chi swings his blade around to protect himself, but, in his exhaustion, is thrown off balance. He over-corrects, pulling himself backwards, but has to wheel his arms for balance.

He’s done and he knows it. His eyes jump to Jo’s.

A demon lunges for Chi’s exposed throat. Jo screams.

I do, too.

Then the demons all freeze.

All of them. Just. Freeze.

The leaping one falls mid-lunge; my captors might as well be cardboard cut-outs. The look on Chi’s face is priceless and I imagine mine matches his. I twist – Jo’s certainly does. Victorious shouts echo throughout the building. The demons everywhere are frozen, we won! Somehow, someone managed to freeze the demons.

Jo jerks from her demon’s hold and with two big steps, throws herself into Chi’s arms. I think that shocks him more than the demons suddenly freezing. He looks as stiff as they do, his eyebrows up near his hairline and his mouth in a mystified “O”. He just starts to wrap his arms around Jo when she realizes what she’s doing and jerks out of his arms, turning away and, if I’m not mistaken, rubbing her eyes.

Then, her gaze lands on the demons. With a ferocious snarl, she snatches her sword from the floor and cuts off one of her captors’ heads.

That’s more like the Jo I know. She then kills the other captor and both of mine.

Chi’s had too many shocks in the last couple of minutes and it takes him a moment to process what’s going on. When he does, he protests. “Jo, what are you doing? They can’t fight back.”

She just looks at him, her chest heaving and a crazy wildness in her eyes. Her hand flexes on the hilt of her sword. It occurs to me that Jo really,
really
hates demons. Not in an enemy-combatant kind of way, but in a no-holds-barred-rip-them-to-pieces-and-dance-on-the-corpse kind of way.