Demon Lord 3: Blue Star Priestess (35 page)

THIRTY-SIX

“Sometimes, you just have to march into

hell and kick the devil in the teeth.

Not that I’d want to live there.”

                                      —Caine Deathwalker

Izumi shoved me awake.  “Rise and shine.”

“A blowjob would help.”

“No time.  Get dressed.  Lauphram sent word.  He needs you now in the War Room.  Something bad has happened.”

I wondered if I could steal another ten minutes sleep.  “How bad?”

“It’s Julia.”

I don’t remember getting out of bed, I just did.  “Where are my clothes?”

Izumi shoved a bundle into my arms.  “Here, a fresh change.  I’ve got your Beretta PX4 Storms in a shoulder rig at the foot of the bed.  They’ve been cleaned and the clips are full of that special tungsten ammo you like.”

I dressed hurriedly and picked up the holstered guns.  They no longer smelled of dead mountain giant, a good thing.  I slipped the shoulder rig on and added a black coat that matched my pants.  She’d added my cell phone to a pants pocket, and I had spare ammo clips in the coat pocket. 

Izumi went from naked and silvery luscious to a raven-haired vixen in white-gold armor.  A fey silver sword hung at her side.  “I’m going with you.”

“Fine.”  We ran from the suite, the guards falling in a step behind us as we headed for the

War Room.  On the way, we passed a number of demons, all armored and ready for battle.  They stopped to give me right of way, bowing with respect I found strange.  With the change in command structure, and me having killed Kaden, this should have been expected.  Any other time, I’d have enjoyed coming into my own, but…

Julia. 

We hugged the wall of the Great Hall, heading for the back hallway.  Heavily armed, sporting no-nonsense attitudes, all the demons in the house had formed ranks behind their captains.  That suited the mood I was in.  We took the hallway to the War Room.  The outside guards came to attention, allowing us to pass.  Imari was there as the new First Sword, wearing armor of flame.  She held a sword made of fire, about one second away from slash-burning someone.  Lauphram stood between her and Red.  The Old Man held a small packaged in one hand.  His other hand gripped Red’s throat. 

The Old man’s eyes were lightning bright, his voice ocean deep.  “If you cannot control yourself, I will do it for you.”

Red stepped back and batted Lauphram’s well-muscled arm away.  “You think you can choke out a dragon?”

Lauphram remained calm.  “Julia needs you in control.  Cool down.”

“But that package smells like her.  What the hell is in it?”

“Red,” I said, “calm down and we’ll find out.”

Crossing his arms across his chest, he glared at me, but shut up.

Izumi and I walked up to Lauphram and Imari, who absorbed the flame of her sword, making it vanish.  Lauphram tore open the wrapping paper and pried open a cardboard box.   Those of us with heightened senses knew this was going to be bad; we could smell Julia’s blood.  We stared at what Lauphram held, a box stuffed with tissue paper, cushioning a little girl’s pinky.  It had been cleanly severed and mailed to us as a taunt.

Red pressed closer to the box.  A tear rolled down his cheek.  His voice went hoarse.  “I’ll kill them.  I’ll kill them all.” 

He turned away and screamed in fury causing all the demons in the room to stop their work and stare.  Red staggered a few steps, found himself near a large plasma screen.  I saw Gloria had been busy.  The geomantic pattern lay over the city, almost finished, the necromantic cross points hidden among markings of attacks by Lauphram’s wife and son.  Red’s fist lashed out, destroying the screen.  I was actually glad.  The pattern Gloria and I were creating was become too conspicuous.

I picked up a scrap of paper off the floor and held it up.  “Red!” I yelled his name, needing him to focus before the room suddenly grew crammed with a full-sized red dragon. 

“What?”  He turned, eyes ablaze with killing rage. 

I said, “There’s a return address on the package.”

He blinked.  “Really?”

Lauphram said, “An obvious a trap.”

“A very obvious trap,” Izumi added.
   

I
said, “I’m going anyway.” 

“No,” Lauphram said, “We’re all going.”

I stepped over to a relatively quiet corner where no one was likely to look over my shoulder.  I took out my phone and sent Gloria a text: KEEP WORKING ON THE PATTERN. I THINK WE’RE JUST ABOUT OUT OF TIME.  I sent a second message to Kinsey: HERE’S WHERE THEY HAVE THE LITTLE GIRL, AND THEY’RE EXPECTING US.  I added the address.  Surprisingly, it was on this very island, on the edge of Avalon City.  That made sense; if you wanted to raise tidal waves, you needed to be by the sea.  And this island housed Lauphram’s clan house, the heart of his territory.  How could it not be their first target?

I walked back to the others.  “Lauphram, you know once we leave, the enemy is going to come tearing in here to raze this place to the ground, right?”

He shrugged.  “Why do you think I’ve recalled all forces and have the house on full alert?”

Imari stepped in front of Lauphram.  “My Lord, you are far more experienced at commanding troops.  You should stay here and lead the battle.  I will go and safeguard The Heir.”

The Heir?  She makes me sound like “The Batman,” or “The Shadow.”

Lauphram put a hand on her shoulder.  Her flames squeezed up between his fingers.  He gave her an affectionate squeeze and let go as his finger started to smoke a little.  “I know it’s throwing you in the deep end of the ocean, little minnow, but I’ve known this day was coming for centuries.  I’m ready.  And the hell-bitch is my wife, so stopping her and my son is personal business.”  He walked around her, tossing me death-defying grin.  “Let’s go kick ass, son.  I guess it was stupid of me to want to protect you from reckless abandonment of common sense.”

I walked beside him out into the hall.  Izumi’s steps were quiet as she trailed along.  Red was stomping like there were cockroaches underfoot.

I couldn’t let the Old man’s comment go.  “You’re one to talk,
Young Man
.  I suppose you shaved that turquoise mop off your head after having your face bashed into Triton’s altar.”

“Yes.  I learn my lessons the first time, unlike you.  It was my weakness in that battle that prompted me to pump iron and seriously train in the martial arts over the following centuries.”

We approached the great hall, which was eerily silent for so many hundreds of demons to be gathered.  For a bunch of outcast mavericks from other clans, these guys could be hella disciplined when called on.

“One thing I want to know,” I said.  “What happened to you and Selene after the tidal waves and earthquakes hit.”

“How’d we survive?  Selene wanted to sit there and die, seeing only empty centuries ahead without you.  That girl has problems.”

We entered the Great hall, strolling generally toward the back of the throne.  “You’re telling me?” I said. 

He continued, “I pointed out how very disappointed you would be in her, how you’d need her in times to come, and how her failure to endure would most likely cost you dearly, and that you might even die cursing your love for her.”

I winced.  “How well did that go over?”

He laughed as we passed the throne dais and approached the assembled ranks.  “When I regained consciousness, she was a red dragon, I was gently gripped in her jaws, and we were flying full-bore-throttle-open-ass-to-the-wind ahead of the damned huge wave I have ever seen.  It had been years since she’d fully transformed, having remained human in the queen’s altered-space dungeon so that her dragon’s concentrated vitality could keep her healed from assorted abuses.  She told me a little about that before we parted ways and she made a legend of herself.”

Lauphram stopped to say a few words to the troops.

Izumi’s icy presence chilled the air as she caught up to me.  “Selene?  Someone else you’re fucking?”

“You know about her,” I said.  “That’s the name of the Red Lady.”

“Oh, that psych-bitch.”

Lauphram called out, “Imari speaks with my voice.  She is a season warrior with great heart.”

And tits, and ass,
I mentally added.

“I go to face the shadows behind our enemies.  While I am gone, you will be fighting for all we have: our common home, our dreams, our lives, our place in this world, our territory, and our sacred honor!  You fight as much for yourselves as me.  Whatever remains when I return, will be your gift back to me after having been taken in.  They’ve called you outcast and outlaw, demon scum and bitter dregs, but we are Lauphram Clan, and this is our city, and we are the hell you must pay when you touch what is ours.”  The Old Man paused to gauge the room, then added a last thought.  “Have fun, guys and girls.”

The warriors erupted in yells, screams, and whistles, stomping their feet, beating leathery wings, slapping tentacles in some cases.  Swords were slapped against shields.  I think I even heard a whip being cracked.  No guns though.  Lauphram had a rule against unnecessary shooting in the house.  The House A.I. was programmed to take drastic action at such times.

Through the sonic hash, Lauphram lead our little group out into the main hallway, and through the wing I lived in.  At the end of the building, a door opened onto a brick courtyard.  We went across to the sprawling garage, entered, and looked over a sea of assorted vehicles. 

“The package’s address is roughly two miles as the crow flies.  We’ll off-road it,” the Old Man decided.  “C’mon, Red.”  Lauphram led the red dragon over to a dull, black Land Rover LR2.  They piled in, while I led Izumi to for a bright blue Jeep Wrangler. 

“I’ll drive,” Izumi said.

“Not after last time,” I said.  “I don’t want to die before getting to battle.”

“That wasn’t my fault.  I’m a fairy princess; I’m supposed to always have right-of-way.”

“There are Rules of the Road, and none of them take royalty into account.  I’ll drive.  You just sit next to me and look pretty.”  I buckled in and started up the engine.  Once Izumi was settled, our doors slammed shut, I shifted gear and spun the wheel, sending us out behind the Land Rover.  I slipped an earbud in and heard Lauphram’s voice.

“…You hear me?”

“I’m online,” I said, “connection is good.”  The microphones in the earpieces let us talk without tying up our hands.  “And I’m calling in a scout.”  I sent out a mental summons.  “Quig!”

He came wafting in, a teal ball of light that embedded itself halfway through the windshield, making driving a good deal more difficult.  His thoughts touched mine. 
You called, beloved master?

“Yeah, haul your incandescent ass east of here and find the enemy, somewhere around St. Catherine’s Way and
Playa Azul Road.  I want to know about ambushes long before they’re sprung.” 

To hear is to obey, grateful for the privilege.

I glared at his sarcasm.  “Yeah, right, go!”

I following Lauphram around the garage, to the back of the hill we were on
.  We jounced along a rutted dirt track, past markers etched with magic runes that would have hidden the way for any driver not of our clan.  Still, we had to be careful.  I knew from experience that spells and barriers can be broken with enough power. 

Quig shot off like a rocket, speeding past the Land Rover.  Our vehicles rambled over sage-covered hills, passing oak and the occasional ironwood tree with its shredded red-gray bark an omen of disaster.  We passed a few bison who stared at us with grave disinterest, and once
spooked an island fox, half the size of most others hiding in the lacy-white St. Catherine bushes.  The fox vanished in a flash of reddish brown, having too much sense to buy into our troubles. 

Closer to Avalon City, the trees thickened.  We had to slow a lot.  And still, Quig hadn’t returned with word of an enemy sighting.  If her were playing games again, I’d feed him to my demon blade in a heartbeat.

Our two vehicles jounced around a lot more, until I thought I was one of my own blender concoctions with not enough alcohol.  At last, we reached the streets we wanted and found a big blackened patch in the middle of the road.  The Old Man pulled up near it and got out.  His voice came to me over the earbud.  “This used to be a summoning circle.  It stinks of Atlantean dark magic.  Something was caught here and killed.”

I had a sudden suspicion.  I sent out a mental command. 
Quig, come here, now! 

What came wasn’t Quig.  This will-o-the-wisp pulsed a soft rose color, pulling into a tight circular orbit over the hood of my vehicle.  I stepped out onto the asphalt and waved the ball of light over.  “Your turn came early because Quig got careless and the enemy killed him.”  I pointed at the blackened spot on the road.   “That’s where he died.”