Good Intentions 3: Personal Demons (51 page)

The main floor outside the office lay quiet and dark. Drew took the doorway carefully, using a little common sense before simply running out into the unknown. Mostly he saw cubicles and a couple sets of big file cabinets. Some of those cubicles bore holes from shots that kept on going through the office wall.

Nothing worse than a punctured water cooler stood in his path. A dimly glowing exit sign hung from the ceiling tiles. With no danger in sight, Drew hustled through the shadows.

He made it around the corner of the cubicle farm before he ran into trouble. The pair moved almost without a sound, rushing in from another hall with shadows shifting to cover their path. In the darkness, Drew couldn’t make out much of their features, but their hunter’s clothes and rifles marked them as probable enemies. One of them reached out with an empty hand. Drew brought up his gun and fired.

Nothing happened. The revolver went off, but then Drew couldn’t pull the trigger a second time. He couldn’t jump back behind cover, either. He couldn’t move at all.

“Fucker would’a hit me, too,” said the one with her hand outstretched. “You see that? He had that gun up quick.”

“I’m more worried ‘bout the fact he’s up and movin’ at all,” said her companion. He brought his shotgun up to his hip, pointing it right at the immobilized young man. “I got a bad feelin’ about the others. Can you hold him here, or should we put him down and move on?”

“This spell only works while I’ve got my eye on whoever I’m holding,” replied the first.

“Then let’s not stop for questions. Sucks to be him, I—
ghurk
!”

They both jerked forward at once. The man with the shotgun twisted and fell to the floor with the handle of a knife embedded in the back of his neck. The woman spun to meet the threat, revealing a matching knife handle sticking out of her upper back. Drew came free from her spell as soon as she turned, but the fight was over before he got involved. A resounding blow hit her under the jaw with an audible, bone-snapping crack. The hit lifted her at least an inch off of her feet, sending her sprawling backward on the floor.

Where she stood, Drew first saw a boot and a leg in dark jeans at full extension for a high kick. Both came down as Sierra produced another knife from her jacket and flung it into the fallen woman.

“That one is Bill,” Sierra explained, “and this one’s Loretta. Think they’re the whole back-up team here. I followed them from the street.”

Drew lowered his pistol. Sierra gave a shrug. “It’s the dumbest thing,” she went on. “These wizard guys all cast spells and make charms to protect themselves from guns. They don’t even worry about the rest. ‘
Who’s gonna come at me with a knife
?’ y’know? It’s crazy.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ve heard that, too,” he huffed. “Thanks. Are the elevators that way?”

“Yes.” She turned to join him as he rushed past. “C’mon, you aren’t even a little surprised to see me?”

“Hell, no. People been jumpin’ out at me all night. At this point I’m just rollin’ with it.”

As he’d hoped, the elevator doors opened as soon as he slapped the call button. He moved inside with Sierra and hit the button for the ground floor. She said nothing, waiting for him to speak first.

“Did you follow us here from the gun store?” Drew asked.

“Sort of. I followed Bill, actually. He’s the one who followed you from the gun shop. I only spotted him as you took off in your buddy’s truck. Turns out I don’t have your cell number or I would’ve called. All I could do was watch and wait.”

“So you saw everything going on out there?”

“Everything I could see from the street, anyway. I had to hide when all the bad guys arrived, so mostly all I could do was text a warning to my own people and then keep track of Bill. He and Loretta got nervous as soon as you went flying across the street, but they didn’t move in until the demons dropped down on your friends from the roof. I couldn’t do much about that, so I followed those two instead. Plus I knew you were here.”

“Right,” Drew exhaled. The elevator provided only the briefest respite. He glanced at the digital display over the doors. They’d be on the ground in seconds. “Are your people gonna come help?”

“I don’t know. They can’t get here in time, anyway. They might call Jin and hope his guys get involved, but even those guys won’t get here before this is all over. It doesn’t really matter. I haven’t looked at my phone.”

“Wait, so you ran in here without anyone telling you whether or not to get involved?”

“Pretty much.”

“So are we cool now?” he asked. “Do you see who is on whose side here, and who the real bad guys are?”

“I guess. Maybe.” A small grin played at her lips. “I felt kinda bad about being shitty to you earlier. Plus I didn’t know when I’d get another chance to get your phone number.”

His jaw dropped. Apparently he could still be surprised tonight. “I got…wow.” The elevator came to a halt. Its bell rang as the doors opened. “At least two of my friends are hurt right now and I don’t know how this shit ends. This might not be the best time.”

“That’s fine. I’ll stick by you until you’ve got a moment.”

“Cool.”

No trouble awaited in the lobby. Apart from the broken glass scattered on the sidewalk outside like snow and Aaron’s body on the sidewalk, the street seemed almost peaceful and clear. “You gonna be cool with all my friends, too?” Drew asked.

“I dunno. I’ll try, I guess? They seem kinda sketchy. Look at the shit they get you into.”

He let out a sigh. “That’s fair.”

* * *

Molly saw everything she needed most when Rachel rolled Onyx onto the floor. Onyx moved under her own power, even if it was only a dreary, confused wave of her hand. Though her clothes were torn and soaked with blood, Molly saw no open wounds. She knew from direct observation what Rachel could do for a wounded person. The angel surely wouldn’t have abandoned Onyx without at least stabilizing her.

The love of Molly’s life now lay on the floor in front of her, dazed and hurt but still alive.

Rachel pushed the demons back. Wade and Taylor fought on. Jason looked as if he might not make it, but his friends defended him. Amber blasted another demon with her shotgun and turned away to reload. Molly stood beside her to cover the foyer and the door.

They hung on by a thread. Half of a two-front battle finally saw progress. Molly turned her attention to the door and the hallway beyond, where the wind told her four foes still waited for an opportunity to attack. She had them off-balance after pulling away all the air, even if only for a few seconds.

Nobody else needs to get hurt in this mess
, she thought.
At least not any more of my friends. I dragged them into this. The only one who should be at risk is me
.

Four enemies. At least one Practitioner, probably more, and definitely some guns between them. Amber hustled to reload, though she had to help cover the window, too. Only a few seconds to spare.

Molly stuck to the basics. By now, she hardly needed the motions or the words for her cat’s eyes spell. It had been one of the first enchantments she’d ever learned. With a hiss and a shake of her head, she altered her sight. Ancient words for “shadow” came easily to her lips after years of practice, too, plunging the hallway outside into darkness.

She’d learned those simple spells before coming to Seattle, well before meeting Onyx or even Elizabeth. Her departed mentor was of a different Practice, and couldn’t have taught her to summon the winds through the hallways again to fling debris everywhere. Instead, Elizabeth taught her techniques and secrets that held true from one Practice to the next.

For one thing, Elizabeth taught her it didn’t matter which hand held the wand. Molly passed the verawood shaft to her left hand as she strode up to the door. It gave her the chance to fill her right hand with something much less elegant.

“Molly, what are—?” Amber hissed, still slotting another shell into her weapon.

She didn’t answer. The shifting currents of the wind warned Molly of the imminent recovery of the enemies in the hallway. Two were almost up now. A third, farthest from the door, was already up again. There wouldn’t be a better time than this.

Molly stepped into the windy, darkened hall, jabbing the man to the left of the doorway with her wand. She couldn’t bring an actual blast of lightning through here without preparation, nor would that be safe for those on her side, but she could at least discharge a good jolt on solid contact. The witch shifted away from him almost before her wand delivered its incapacitating effect with a flash of white light.

Her second opponent pushed himself up along the wall, bleeding from his nose and his ears but able to wreath his hands in flames. Thankfully, Molly got in the first punch. Rather than calling on magic like her target, Molly relied upon her trusty brass knuckles to tip the odds in her favor. The electric pop of her spell preceded the ugly, bone-crunching thump of her fist, but her foes dropped almost simultaneously.

A third man in a camouflage hunter’s coat lay crumpled along the side of the hallway. Molly spared him nothing more than a glance. Movement down at the end of the hall drew her attention and her alarm. The witch swung her wand toward the man at the corner wielding a shotgun, hurling every bit of wind she could muster at him before he fired. Her other arm came up in front of her heart and her face in a reflex that would have been futile but for the power of her magic.

The sudden gust of wind sent the gunner’s aim off to the right. The worst of his blast tore into the wall beside her. Molly paid for her survival in blood and pain, still catching bits of shot along her arm and shoulder. With even a second or two of warning, Molly might have turned back the blast entirely. She’d managed it before. This time, she counted herself lucky to keep herself alive. More importantly, the gunner ran. Molly fought back the pain to chase after him, whipping up more air at her side at every hurried step.

Concentrating the power of the wind cost her the sensory input it once provided. Molly saw the debris in her way thanks to the cat’s eye spell, but she could no longer sense the man around the corner up ahead. The shadows didn’t make for complete darkness, either. He’d seen her well enough to shoot before. He could be halfway to the elevator or he might lurk right around the bend. She wouldn’t know until she got there.

Her concerns flashed through her mind in the course of only a few steps. The hall wasn’t that long. Molly had enough time to realize the danger, and less than two seconds to think of a way to counter it.

Though her arm hurt like hell, it still worked. She doubted she’d be throwing punches with it again tonight. Molly flung her brass knuckles into the wall past the corner. It struck with a thump against the drywall, immediately followed by another boom from a shotgun. Bits of drywall flew from both walls as the buckshot spread out through the corridor.

“You’re not getting me, bitch!” the man wailed before the shotgun went off again. “I’ve had enough of this shit.”

The witch paused at the corner and focused more wind, swirling it around in a building spiral of power. “Fine,” she said, and then cringed as even that single word provoked yet another boom of his gun. Molly ducked low as she rounded the corner, swinging her wand and all the air at her command along with one more word: “
Leave
.”

She saw him at the end of the hall with one hand on the stairwell door. Her forceful gust of wind pushed him away before he could turn the handle. A cry of terror escaped his throat as her spell picked him up off his feet.

The window at the far end of the hall had already been shattered during the fight. That made it even easier for Molly to show him out.

Her shoulders sagged as soon as her opponent fell away into the night. The wind died off while the pain in her right arm and shoulder came to life. Molly used the wall for support to push herself up. She didn’t hear gunfire from inside the apartment anymore, but that didn’t mean the fight was over. For all she knew, they still had more demons to deal with. Nor had she seen Leon in the mix with the bad guys.

Sudden, intense pressure inside her chest stole the breath from her lungs. Molly fought to breathe as a sharp pain ran up her spine. She thought she might vomit, or suffocate, or black out. Her injured right arm and shoulder felt like the least of her problems. The redhead staggered back into the far wall of the hallway junction in search of some support.

The man she’d passed over on her way out the door stood in her path with his black wand pointed at her. She recognized Leon mostly from his mustache and his lean features. The aviator sunglasses and ball cap were gone now, revealing eyes gone red from burst blood vessels and a hateful glare.

“You’re still alive?” Leon grunted. He seemed exhausted and hurt, though clearly in far better shape than Molly. “This spell was enough for that old bitch you worked for.”

Her next breath came out as a desperate gasp and sob. Leon mistook her struggle to breathe for emotional turmoil. His mustache couldn’t hide his sneer. “Evelyn helped us make sure no one ever knew. Dunno where she is now.” He reached down with his free hand, fumbling for the gun that finally came into his grasp. “Guess I’ll finish this on my—my—hhhk!”