Demon Singer (13 page)

12 SEVEN EASY PAYMENTS

Cadence led the way as they followed the river south out of Sta Catoe in search of the Prophet Man.

"Oof!"

That's the sound made by one full-grown man when he is hit in the gut by one-half of a tree.  There probably would have been more said but Lyric was preoccupied with flying through the air.  He saw Cadence turn, knives in hand, right before he fell into the river.

Lyric's head submerged and he swallowed a good amount of river water and what he hoped was just a tadpole.  Finding the bottom with his feet, he launched himself toward the surface only to find himself face to snout with an enormous crocodile.  

Crocodile?  This was Louisiana, this must be a gator.

Looking into its eyes, he was shocked to see human not reptilian eyes looking back at him.   The enormous maw opened wide.  In Lyric's opinion, it looked wide enough to swallow a house.   Lyric considered the size of the beast and the pointed snout and decided it was definitely a crocodile...

The croc stood up on back legs that were far too long and reached for him with arms that did not at all resemble crocodile legs.

Okay, it’s a crocodile man
Lyric thought swimming backward in a hurry.  Thankfully, water was a comfortable environment for him.  The majority of his third measure was spent in the water trying to get up the nerve to make bad choices with Morgan.  During their flirting, he spent a lot of time learning how to manipulate water with his voice.

Lyric sang, loud and hard.  The water swirled around him and four-foot waves began to build, slamming into the giant beast.  It held on for a moment but the waves grew.  It sank into the water and tried to swim against the fierce current Lyric was producing.  Lyric was familiar with this trick and switched his song, creating a powerful undertow that lifted the croc back to the surface and sent it splashing backwards.  As it turns out giant crocodile men cannot do much about thousands of pounds of water hammering them into submission.

Lyric made his way to the shore to see Cadence locked in combat with a huge brute of a man.  Ogre, Lyric thought immediately, easily identified by his enormous size, small head and the fact he had moss growing on his skin in several places...  She moved fast as lightning, but her knives were barely scratching the tough hide.  As she danced away from a ponderous but powerful blow, she dropped the knives and drew her sword.  Standing still she waited, sword ready.  The huge club the creature carried crashed downward and she leapt aside at the last moment and delivered an incredible two-handed blow, which severed the ogre's hand at the wrist.  The club smashed into the ground and the ogre howled in pain.  Reaching for the club with his other hand Cadence stepped on his reaching hand and placed the sword gently against his wrist.  The ogre looked into her eyes and she shook her head.  Wailing, the stupid brute turned and lumbered off into the trees.

Cadence turned to look for Lyric.  Upon seeing him and without the slightest change of expression she whipped a large throwing knife from beneath her shirt and in one fluid motion hurled it at Lyric.  It happened so fast he didn't even have time to blink.  A wet thud sounded close behind him and a roar of pain startled him forward several steps to turn and see the crocodile man had returned and the hilt of Cadence's knife protruded from its right eye socket.

Snarling the monster rushed past Lyric on all fours, heading for Cadence, who was obviously the immediate threat.  The small warrior met the crocodile's charge with one of her long knives in hand.  Cadence exhibited a complete lack of concern as the beast crashed into her.  She went slack and allowed herself to be borne to the ground.  The inertia created by the monster's weight and speed coupled with the slickness of its wet skin carried it over the top of her prone body.  At that moment, a twist of her wrist brought the knife straight up and into the croc's exposed throat and underbelly.  The sharp knife sliced it open from top to bottom.  Before it realized what had happened the giant reptile leapt to its feet and gravity finished Cadence's job.  Lyric watch in horrible fascination as the Crocodile's insides became its outsides.

The angry monster snarled at them with hate and what Lyric would have sworn was relief before it succumbed to its injuries and collapsed in death.

"I'm back," said a familiar weary voice.  Lyric and Cadence turned to see Acheron stepping out of the trees.  The beautiful demoness was shredded, bruises, cuts, scrapes covered her body from head to toe.

"What the hell happened?" Lyric asked.

"Awww, Lover, you almost sound worried."  A glimpse of her dazzling smile shone through her split lip and swollen jaw.  Cadence turned away from the demoness and began collecting her fallen weapons.

"I
am
worried.  Every time you take off on your own, you come back beat to hell, not an impressive record for one of the most powerful demons in existence.  Plus, I feel like this is partly my fault."

"Umm, this is
completely
your fault."

"I'm sorry," Lyric said, sincerely regretting his foolish words at the inn.

"I wouldn't have received such a complete ass kicking if we weren't apart like that."  Acheron said as she approached him and her wounds began healing.

“I thought you said distance didn’t matter for us.”

“If our tie was friendly, it wouldn’t matter.  The tie has to be in harmony for it to operate the way it is supposed to.  After what you did to me during our sparring session, I'm leaning closer to the "I want to kill you" voice.  Besides, you have so much innate resistance to me that it hampers the flow of our power.  What should be a flood is a trickle, and unfortunately as long as you resist your attraction and affection for me it won’t be what it should be.”

Lyric thought carefully about how to respond to that.

“You are very beautiful and I cannot help the physical attraction I feel for you.  But it doesn’t mean I am attracted to you, Acheron.  And I do not feel any affection for you whatsoever.  I am repelled by your very nature.  The fact that you are so seductive is part of what makes me hate you and it outweighs any desire on my part.  If this is impacting our tie I don’t know how to fix it, as I cannot embrace any aspect of our relationship as positive.”

“Well then, it seems we’ll simply have to stay close to one another, Lover.  I can’t leave you without one or both of us getting our asses handed to us.”

Lyric felt a surge of power as she drew nearer and in a matter of moments, she was again flawless, except for the issue of her being a minion of Hell.  Cadence returned from cleaning her knives and sword on the grass and stood near Lyric.

“You saved me again, thank you.”  He said to her.

Cadence smiled and secreted her weapons about her person.

“I wonder why they attacked us.”  Lyric said before thinking, Acheron and Cadence both looked at him as if he was simple and finally Cadence pointed at him.

“Of course, bounty on the demon singer.”  Lyric joked humorlessly.  “This sucks.  Demons, contracts, hellhounds, vampires, missing towns, goblins, yetis, ogres and crocodile men.  It's as if the entire supernatural world is gunning for me."  Acheron had walked over to the dead croco-man and was looking it over.

“She’s not a crocodile.”

“It's a she?  What is she?”

Acheron pulled open the beast’s eye with her thumb.  

"She’s been shapeshifted.  See the eye?  She’s naturally a human, someone has been playing mad scientist with her.  If she was an actual shifter, she’d have shifted fully, and possess the musculature of an actual crocodile.  Look at her legs and arms.  Human muscles, only much bigger.  She must be eighteen feet from nose to tail.  Shifters can’t change mass.  This was done
to
her.  By someone who didn’t like her much either.  This kind of manipulation had to be extremely painful.”  Acheron sounded impressed.  
Probably professional respect
Lyric thought sourly.

“Do you think it’s the same hellion that sent the hell hounds?”

“It’s possible,” Acheron admitted, “maybe your Prophet Man can tell us.”

"So what happened, where did you go?"  Lyric asked as he picked up his backpack from where it had fallen among the reeds.  They followed Cadence as she again headed east.

"I went to stop that little bastard Race Widoc.  He set a trap for me, but I caught up to him on the Verge and flattened him."  Lyric felt a surge of hope at that news.  "Don't get excited, Lover, you already accepted responsibility for me, payment's due.  Even I can't do anything about that.  I just needed to take my rage out on something and I really don't like Race."

"If he's dead, doesn't that nullify the deal?"

"No, for two reasons.  One, you can't kill a demon, we're immortal.  I pounded him deep in Hell and sank him beneath my waves.  It'll take him a long time to get out on his own.

“Reason two, Race is an Authority on contracts.  He makes them, sells them and seals them.  Once it's done, the contract is ironclad, I can abuse Race for a thousand years, but all of his contracts remain.  The only one besides Trytohn with the juice to break one of Race's contracts is the Power of Bondage."

"Who's that?"

"I don't say her name.  It tends to draw her attention and we really don't get along.  She makes me look like a gem of purity and devotion."

“Her name?  The Power of Bondage is female?”

“She’s whatever she wants to be, but yes, generally she’s female.”

“When he was talking to me, Race said ‘
she
didn’t tell him I was a singer’ then before you broke through he said ‘regardless of that bitch's promises.’"

Acheron considered this.

“It’s very possible, even likely that the Power of Bondage is our pursuer.  She tends to send others to do her dirty work.  She has as much juice as me if not more and she’s one of Trytohn’s favorites.  She’d love to see me in the Pit.”  The demoness chewed her lower lip with her perfect teeth.  

Stop it!  
Lyric yelled at himself.  For once, Acheron did not seem to notice his inner conflict.

"That would also explain the trap Race led me into.  I've never seen that many ogres in one place, and there's no way that little chicken shit would run through them without some kind of protection."  Acheron talked to herself seeming to have forgotten Lyric and Cadence were even there.

"We were attacked by an ogre."  Lyric told her.  Acheron looked at Lyric, then Cadence, who nodded confirmation.

"An ogre and a half shifted human?  That is definitely on purpose.  Ogres only hunt with other ogres.   They are
extremely
racist.  I could see her sending an ogre, but the shifter?  That doesn't make sense.  She's mean enough, but shifting humans isn't her style."

"So we still don't know who's hounding us and I'm still on the hook for your contracts."

"Yup, there's no way out of it short of infernal intervention.  Considering the plans they're making for you down there right now I don't see that as a possibility."

"What kind of plans are they making?"

"Who knows?  Bad ones."

"Super."

They stopped short as a handsome man with a short goatee appeared on their path.  Cadence assumed an attack position. The man gave her a disdainful glance before dismissing her and turning his attention to Lyric.

"Keylac." Acheron said with a sniff, "who sent you?

Keylac smiled at the demoness.

"The owner of your Singer's contract of course."

"Which is?"

Keylac's smile broadened.

"Acheron, you are lovely and terrifying as always, but you know I can't divulge that information without permission."

"Get on with it you pathetic lackey.  What's your master want?"

"Simple," Keylac produced a small stone.  "As promised, small, simple favors.  This is number one.  As soon as you meet the Prophet Man, drop this stone on the ground.  That's all and debt number one is paid in full."

"What is it?" Lyric asked skeptically.

Keylac stared blankly at him and spoke slowly as though he were addressing a slow child.

"It's a stone; I want you to put it on the ground when you meet the Prophet Man."

Lyric reluctantly accepted the stone and immediately Keylac vanished in a puff of smoke that stank of frightened dog.

"Who does Keylac usually serve?"

"Everyone, Keylac isn't a name it's a title.  You can always identify a Keylac by its scent.  They're the bitches of Hell."

"He smelled like a scared mutt," Lyric said.

Acheron looked at him in surprise.

"Most humans can't discern the scent of a hellion."  She considered him thoughtfully.  "It must be the tie; it heightens so many of your abilities, that must be one.”  She held her hand out for the stone.  “There’s no real way of telling the purpose of this thing.  Trytohn is the Prince of Lies, everything about Hell is deceptive, the only thing you can count on is that this isn’t a stone.”  She handed it back to him.  “Regardless, you don’t have much of a choice, you’re stuck with the bargain you made, I’d just drop the stone and forget about it.”