Dark Calling (3 page)

These minor demons—easy pickings for stronger members of the Demonata—won’t provide us with any clues. We’re wasting our time,
as we’ve wasted it on so many worlds. We’ll torture them, kill a few, then move on, no wiser than when we stepped through
the window and set off in chase of the howling beasts.

As we close in on the flock, I sense a throbbing in the air nearby and draw to a halt.

“Come on!” Beranabus shouts. “Don’t stop now. We—”

“A window’s opening,” I tell him, and excitement instantly gives way to panic.

“Start opening one of your own,” Beranabus commands and steps in front of me, to protect me. The tall, muscular Grubbs joins
him. They think a demon is after us. But I know better. I’ve come to understand the lights more intimately than ever since
I built my new pair of eyes. This is a window of human origin.

“Wait,” I tell Beranabus. “It’s not a demon. We have company.”

Seconds later a window of orange light opens and two of Beranabus’s Disciples step through. One’s a beautiful, fiery woman
called Meera Flame. I know the other one better, and shout his name with unconcealed joy. “Shark!”

“Been a long time, kid,” the ex-soldier grins, shaking my hand as Grubbs and Meera hug close by. Beranabus is squinting at
the newcomers suspiciously. He doesn’t like surprises.

“What are you doing here?” I gasp.

“Came to catch the sun,” Shark laughs, then casts his gaze over my bald, caramel-colored head. “There’s something different
about your eyes.”

“It’s a long story.” I smile broadly, still clutching him. We’ve spent long months in this foul universe, and Beranabus and
Grubbs are poor company. The unwelcome flames of loneliness have been burning hot inside me recently. I’m overjoyed to see
my old friend, to escape the dark feelings for a few minutes. I know Shark must be the bearer of bad news, that he and Meera
wouldn’t have come unless things were serious, but for a few moments I block that out and pretend this is a social visit.

“Hi, Shark,” Grubbs says.

Shark frowns. “Do I know you?”

“Grubbs Grady. We…” He pauses. “Dervish told me about you. I’m Grubbs, his nephew.”

Shark nods. “I can see a bit of him in you. But you’ve got more hair. You’re a lot taller too—what’s Beranabus been feeding
you?”

“Enough of the prattle,” Beranabus snaps. “What’s wrong?”

“We were attacked,” Meera says. “I was at Dervish’s. We—”

“Was it Lord Loss?” Beranabus barks. “Is Bec all right?”

“She’s fine,” Shark says.

“But Dervish…” Meera pauses, glancing nervously at Grubbs.

“He was alive when we left,” Shark says as Grubbs freezes with fear.

“But in bad shape,” Meera adds. “He had a heart attack.”

“We have to go back,” Grubbs says, darting for the window.

Shark stops him. “Hold on. We didn’t come here directly. That leads to another demon world.”

“Besides,” I chip in, “if the demons are still at the house…”

“We weren’t attacked by demons,” Meera says. “They were…
werewolves.
”

That throws me. Does she mean werewolf-shaped demons? Then I recall the curse of the Gradys. Lots of teenagers in Grubbs’s
family turn into mindless, savage, wolf-like beasts.

Grubbs starts to tremble. Without waiting to be told, I turn, flex my fingers, and focus, thinking of Dervish. Lights pulse
around me—that means the ex-punk is still alive. I begin to open a window that will take us to him. Then, on second thought,
I focus on Bec instead. As much as I like Dervish, the girl is more important. She’s probably with him, but if not, she must
take priority. Dervish is only human. Bec, like me and Grubbs, is so much more.

  When a window of amber light opens, Beranabus rushes through, swiftly followed by Grubbs. “There are demons,” I tell Shark
and Meera, sensing their presence in the vibrations of the lights. “Are you guys ready to fight?”

“Always,” Shark grins, cracking his knuckles.

Meera gulps, then grinds her teeth together and nods fiercely.

We cross.

I find myself in a hospital ward. Bec is lying on the floor. She looks like any normal girl, a bit smaller than most, but
otherwise unremarkable. You could never guess from looking at her that she’d been dead for sixteen hundred years, or that
this body wasn’t originally hers.

Two demons are backing away from Bec. One is some sort of lizard hybrid. The other looks like an anteater with several snouts.
One of its eyes is missing, blood and goo surrounding the empty socket. I suppress a shudder as Beranabus growls at the demons,
“What do the pickings look like now?”

They turn and run. Shark bolts after them. Meera and I follow, leaving Beranabus and Grubbs to help Bec back to her feet.
I wonder about Dervish, if he’s still alive, but I’ve no time to dwell on that. Another window is open and the hospital has
been flooded with magical energy, but I’m still nowhere near as strong here as I am in the demon universe. My power will dwindle.
We need to deal with these monsters swiftly, and we have to be cautious. It’s much easier to die on this world.

I spot the remains of a few babies as we pursue the demons. My stomach churns and I tear my gaze away from the tiny corpses.
Even so, thoughts of Art flash through my mind. I fill with sorrow, then rage. They shouldn’t have gone after the newborns.
That was too cruel. I’m going to make them pay.

The demons burst out of the maternity ward and scuttle towards the stairs. Shark crouches, then propels himself forward, shooting
through the air as if fired from a canon. He knocks the pair of demons aside and they crash into the wall on either side of
the staircase. As they yelp with surprise and pain, Meera and I fall upon them. I take the lizard, leaving Meera to deal with
the anteater.

It’s a slimy little beast. It slithers around and lashes at me with a forked tongue. Drops of poison hit my eyes and sizzle.
I use magic to transform the drops into water, then grab the demon’s tongue and yank hard. It utters a choked scream. The
tongue slips through my fingers. I follow it back into the demon’s mouth, jamming my hand halfway down the lizard’s throat.
Taking a firmer hold of the tongue, I rip it loose and toss it away. Black blood gushes from the demon’s mouth and its beady
eyes roll wildly.

I let the demon drop, then pin it to the floor with one knee. I start tearing off scales, working my fingertips into the gaps,
using magic to torment the demon. For a long time I didn’t understand how Beranabus could butcher so nastily. As evil as demons
are… as much as I accept the need to kill them… I couldn’t condone torture. But my attitude has changed over the years. I’ve
seen too many corpses. Too many murdered babies. These monsters deserve all the agony we can put them through, and a whole
lot more on top.

Shark helps Meera finish off the anteater, then studies me as I work on the lizard.

“Need a hand, kid?”

“No,” I pant.

The ex-soldier squats beside me and waits for me to look at him. “I know where you’re coming from,” he says quietly, “but
we don’t have time. There are others on the loose. They’re still killing.”

I sigh, then shoot a burst of magic into the lizard. It slumps and I rise. “Sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” Shark says. “Another time and place, I’d have joined in and we’d have had hours of fun.”

“Fun?”
Meera barks.

“Sure,” Shark smiles. “You’ve got to get a buzz out of fighting. It’d be a hell of a life if you devoted your time to battle
and didn’t enjoy it.”

“Anyone ever tell you you’re a sicko?” Meera snorts.

“We’re all the same,” Shark protests. “I’m just more open about it. Killing demons is noble and necessary, blah blah blah.
But it’s a blast too. Right, Kernel?”

“Come on,” I mutter, not wanting to engage in the debate, afraid I’d come down on Shark’s side and not liking what that says
about me. “Let’s kill the rest of them before they slaughter more babies.”

That sobers Shark and saps Meera of her indignation. Turning our backs on the dead demons, we go into killing mode and set
off in search of monsters viler and more vicious than ourselves.

  We kill three more demons, then the mage who is keeping their window open. He’s a thin, balding, middle-aged man in a cheap
suit. He doesn’t look evil. Most people who work for the Demonata don’t. He shuts his eyes as we close in on him, and he doesn’t
cry out when Shark grabs his throat and crushes it. The nearby demons escape through the window to their own universe before
it closes. We let them flee and get stuck into those left behind. Demons don’t last long once a window shuts. Their bodies
fall apart after a few minutes and they crumble away to dust. But they can still kill a lot of people during that time, so
we afford them no mercy.

When the hospital’s clean, we join the others on the roof. Bec, Dervish, and Sharmila are there. Sharmila’s legs have been
cut off. Beranabus is working hard to patch her up. Dervish is sitting on a gurney, looking close to death. Meera goes to
him immediately, to check that he’s OK.

“I’ll guard the staircase,” Shark says. “Make sure we aren’t taken by surprise.”

“But the demons are gone,” I frown.

“We have humans to worry about too,” he snorts, then nods at Bec. “She’ll tell you all about it.”

And she does, swiftly and clearly. It’s a disturbing story. First I learn that an old enemy—once a friend—has returned from
beyond the grave. Juni Swan, who I first knew as Nadia Moore, has come back to life in a new, mutated form.

I’m always torn when I think of Nadia / Juni. She was a bitter but kind young woman when we first met. She saved my life in
Lord Loss’s realm when I fell into a river of lava. She told me then to be wary of her if we ever met again, that she served
the demon master now and I should think of her as a foe. But I find it hard to hate her. She’s a person who lost her way.
She didn’t seek out evil—she got sucked into it. I pity her as much as I fear and mistrust her.

Bec describes the attack on Dervish’s home in Carcery Vale. Werewolves broke in, supported by humans with guns. She tells
us she has a curious gift—she can absorb the memories of anyone she touches. One of the werewolves was a Grady. Its parents
turned it over to the Lambs—family executioners—to dispose of. But the Lambs kept the beast alive, and they or some other
group subsequently used it as a weapon.

We discuss this troubling turn of events. Grubbs is more worked up than the rest of us—he hates the thought of his relatives
being manipulated. Bec thinks Lord Loss masterminded the attack, that he knows she’s part of the Kah-Gash. Beranabus agrees,
then tells me to open a window. Dervish and Sharmila won’t last long in this universe. They need magic to survive.

I’m glad to set to work on the window because I need magic too. My eyes are burning. It was bad as soon as I set foot on this
world, but since the demons’ window closed, the pain has increased sharply and my vision has started to blur. My new eyes
are the work of magic. They can’t function normally here. As much as I despise the universe of the Demonata, I’m a slave of
it now.

As I’m working on the window, I hear the whispers from the mysterious small lights. I glance around and spot several pulsing
rapidly. But the whispers don’t seem to be directed at me this time. And they’re not repeating a single word. There’s a steady
stream of phrases, none of which I can make sense of.

Behind me, Dervish and Beranabus are arguing. Dervish wants to stay and find out more about the werewolves. Beranabus says
we can’t waste time on them. Meera sides with Dervish. There have been lots of crossings recently and the Disciples are struggling
to cope. She’s afraid the werewolves might be used to target members of the secret group. If they killed a large number of
the mages, demons could cross freely.

Even though I’m not paying a huge amount of attention to the argument, I find myself pausing. “It might be related,” I say.

“Related to what?” Bec asks. Beranabus waves her silent and frowns at me.

“This could be part of the Shadow’s plan,” I tell him, the words tumbling out by themselves. The whispers from the lights
have increased. I have to concentrate hard to drown them out. “It could be trying to create scores of windows so that its
army of demons can break through at once. We’ll need the Disciples if that’s the case—we can’t be everywhere at the same time
to stop them all.”