Homeward Bound (Journeyman Book 1) (30 page)

As she did, Gage turned and kissed her on her head. He had an arm wrapped firmly around her, never planning to let go from this day forward. At last, something in this crazy ass world they lived in went right. Neither were now alone, their separate journeys becoming one and the same. Soon he found himself strolling into slumber land a happy man, the most content he had been in ages.

THE HOMESTEAD SAT QUIETLY
amidst the picturesque scene of country heaven. The moon loomed large overhead, marking midnight across the sparse clouds and bathing the landscape in a cool blue hue.

Bang!

The sudden sound pierced the tranquil night and rumbled over the country hills, echoing far into the distance as the bleating of spooked livestock rose to join it in chorus.

Gage was jolted out of his restful sleep and rose with a start. By instinct he reached over to the nightstand to grab his gun, racking the slide without the slightest trace of hesitation.

Bang! Bang!

The sound of heavy metal beating hard against wood continued to fill the house with each strike. Whatever it was, wanted inside, badly.

“Adrienne,” he said, prodding her with an elbow to her still sleeping shoulder. “Get up. Now.”

She opened her groggy eyes, struggling to hold onto the luscious dream she was having.

“What is it, baby?” she whispered, still partially under the sandman’s spell.

The loud strikes continued, joined now by the distinct chittering and cracking of wood.

“We have company.”

With those three words, underscored with another loud boom, she snapped out of her lethargic trance and within a few seconds they were both up on their feet.

“Already?” she asked as she pulled on some underwear and an oversized nightshirt. “I expected us to be on the road before any trouble showed up.”

“Seems so,” he replied, donning a pair of sweatpants. “They must’ve had assets pretty close by. Dammit.” He took in a long breath to calm his nerves. “So, you ready to check this out?

She bent down and snagged her silver dagger off of her belt, giving him a nod.

“Let’s go.”

Gage carefully led the way out of the bedroom and down the upstairs hall. Immediately, they were assaulted by the oppressive smell of sulfur which unrelentingly bore down upon their senses. Undeterred, they continued toward the top of the stairwell with arms folded across their noses. There Madeline joined them, shimmering into view.

“Demons I gather?” Gage asked her, knowing full well what the foul odor meant.

“Yes,” she replied. “They've taken male hosts; probably possessed some of the neighbors from up the street. By the looks of them, it’s the Donnellys. I never much cared for them, always so weird and untoward. So, it’s no surprise seeing they’ve willingly let demons inside.”

“How many are there. A lot?” he asked, hoping the answer was small.

“No, not yet anyway. I saw three - the two Donnelly boys are the ones banging away at the front door and Lawrence, their father, is sneaking around the back.”

Gage shot Adrienne a confident look as he rubbed the back of his neck with his spare hand. “Sounds like nothing we haven't been able to handle before.” As he rubbed, he noted that he was still abnormally hot, the brief time spent rubbing causing his palms to sweat.

She brandished her blade, its embossed sigils catching the dim light as she passed him a wink. “Yup.”

Madeline was so pleased by what she saw. She longed for the day that Gage, ever the loner, broke down the walls he had built up around himself. It seemed that day had finally arrived. It was enough to warm this mother’s heart, if it were still beating of course. How times had certainly changed for the Crosse family.

“You two take care,” she said lovingly, “and I'll see you downstairs shortly.”

She vanished in an instant while the two of them pressed on and crept downstairs together.

The crashing grew more frequent with each step they descended, reaching near deafening levels by the time they reached the living room. The front door bowed and cracked each time, threatening to yield to the forces assailing it.

Gage and Adrienne readied themselves as the entryway finally gave way.

The door flew open and two young men rushed inside, their eyes rimmed with a fire that shined in the darkened room. Blake, older of the two brothers, was the first one through the door. He was moving his hefty, corn-fed body surprisingly fast.

Gage wasted no time firing several rounds his way, landing a strike into his broad chest and another straight to his head, knocking him to the ground in an incapacitated heap as the wounds flickered with a faint purple light.

“Shit!” he exclaimed, realizing the UV rounds were still chambered.

Before Gage could change the magazine or take two steps to finish off Blake, his younger brother Preston was upon him. Just as large as the two of them, he landed a solid blow to Gage's chin, knocking him back.

He could taste the metallic hotness of a bloodied lip, wiping the bulk of it away with his wrist. Flinging the sticky liquid to the ground, he swirled the rest around in his mouth and spit at Preston’s feet.

“Mother fucker,” Gage said before rushing in to knock the shit out of Preston’s smirking face. His temperature was feverish, but he channeled that energy into his attacks. He got in double the amount of pain and punishment on that demon’s ass before signaling to Adrienne. He moved himself behind the demon and locked his large arms like a vice.

Adrienne came around in no time, positioning herself in front of Preston. Blade ready in hand, she dove in while he struggled to free himself of Gage's powerful hold. The silver shard sunk in deep and a golden hue erupted from the lacerated flesh.

Preston wailed as the shadow within the host, his true self, was vaporized into the nothingness that awaited it.

“Good job,” Gage said as he dropped the lifeless body.

“You know it,” she replied, wiping the dagger on her shirt.

While they were fighting, Blake had awakened from his short radioactive coma and broke away from the scuffle. He charged toward the back door, planning to let his father in for reinforcement.

He was halted by Madeline, who materialized in the kitchen and blocked the way. She waved a hand as if to toss him aside like a piece of trash, but before she was able to finish the motion, he pulled out a dark powder from his front pockets and blew it all around her. They were iron filings and they were as razors to her. They sparked and hissed vigorously as they punctured her, causing her to glitch as if she were being short circuited.

The attack also left Blake injured and he pulled back his own burning hands and grimaced. With his ghostly foe momentarily distracted, he continued to the doorway. Grasping the handle with a blistering palm, he gritted his teeth and turned.

The door creaked open and Lawrence stepped through, one squalid shoe at a time. He didn't hang back however, charging straight away on the offense and swiping at Madeline with an oversized wrench. The weight of the weapon was unwieldy and caused him to swing slowly. He missed while she weaved herself out of the way.

Lawrence had always been a small man and because of that he was agile. Being possessed by a demon amplified those characteristics and made him that much more dangerous as he continued to bring his weapon to bear. Mercilessly he swung at her multiple times in succession yet Madeline, who was equally agile, was able to tactfully keep him at bay.

Riled by his lack of success, he grasped the handle with both hands and flung it at her with all his strength like a hammer throw; the momentum he had built causing him to tumble forward.

Madeline ducked as the wrench whooshed by her head and impaled itself in the wall. Quickly she held out a hand as he started to regain balance and with a flick of her wrist, he was launched hard into the breakfast area where the furniture broke beneath him as he landed.

Blake then came at her swinging with his own iron bar, which she managed to dodge just as easily as before. Like his father though,  he did not give up and did it again and again until he finally lucked up and made contact with her. The bar slid through like butter, the path it traced vaporizing in a cloud of coral smoke.

She gasped in pain as she floated in tatters, grasping at the long shear in her body while waiting another inevitable strike.

“Bye, you spectral bitch!” Blake said with unabashed hatred, but the next move did not come from him.

Madeline heard Lawrence shuffling around behind her, the sounds of damaged furniture snapping beneath his feet. She spun around to face him and what she saw worried her.

He stood there in the ruins holding a small stone between two fingers and thumb. It was emblazoned with interconnecting white runes across its dull surface.

“
Spiritum Ejicio!
” he shouted joyously. The symbols flared up with an intense light that spiraled out toward her, striking her abdomen before binding her body as if with chains.

Incapable of escaping the magical prison, she was ejected from the house as the spell flung itself through the roof, knocking a gaping hole clear through to the outside.

“Mom, no!” Gage bit at his sore lip as his new magazine slid into place.

Both demons snarled back at him, baring their heavily plaque-ridden teeth. Scraps of tinder gently rained down.

“You…” said Gage, taunting with a finger pointed sternly at Lawrence,  “are gonna suffer for that.”

Blake crowed as Lawrence took a step forward.

“Oh really, Mister Crosse?” he said without fear of the reputed demon-slayer’s response. “You have no idea the fate that awaits slayer scum like you. In fact, I think tonight I'll have the pleasure of finally seeing you suffer the same fate as your cunt mother and bastard father.”

Adrienne felt vastly uneasy.

“Easy now,” Gage replied, heat building in the very pit of his stomach. “Those are my parents you're talking about.”

“Duh,” he replied. “I know them well. In fact, I might have gotten to know them
really
well back in the day before they were… extinguished like a weak candle flame.” He made a puffing noise and stretched his fingers out wide like an explosion.

Gage felt his blood pressure rising, hand tightening around the grip of the MK23.
This fucker was there!?

“So were you the one that did it?” he asked in a low, near indecipherable tone.

“Did what?” Lawrence asked sneeringly, shrugging his shoulders and raising his palms upward in a mocking fashion.

Blake erupted in a fit of derisive laughter.

Gage raised his weapon, pointed it at Blake, and pulled the trigger. A shining bullet emerged from the barrel and struck him directly in the previous head wound. He spasmed for a moment as if being electrocuted before slumping on the floor, lifeless.

Adrienne looked to Gage and his expression was alarming, as if he himself were possessed by something dreadful. “Did what?!” he yelled. “Take my parents’ lives just like I took your fucking demon brother’s.”

Lawrence cackled garishly and clapped his grubby hands.

“So, I ask you again, did you do it?” asked Gage, his stare barren.

Lawrence’s lips spread garishly wide, curving upward into a sick smile. “Yes.”

With that Gage leapt at him, grabbing him by the collar. He lifted him clear off the floor and bashed him into the window frame a couple of times. He then lowered his feet back to the ground in order to batter him relentlessly with more powerful blows across his face and stomach.

Lawrence wasn't putting up much of a fight. In fact, he wasn’t fighting at all, instead standing there like a mannequin. Had Gage released his grip, he would likely collapse.

“Gage,” Adrienne interrupted, looking past the two of them out the window. She sensed something off in the distance beyond the tree line. “He’s baiting you. I think something else is on its way.”

Gage paid her no mind and continued his assault, nearly in tears. “I'm gonna beat the fucking smoke out of you!”

His foe stayed eerily quiet, those roughened teeth smiling at him through a thick coat of fresh blood.

“Gage!” shouted Adrienne. “Enough! Just finish him!”

Without a word back to her, Gage held out a hand, the other firmly around Lawrence’s throat as he secured him against the wall.

Adrienne looked anxiously at his quivering palm and then up to his still barren stare, fixed on the demon’s face. She slowly placed her blade in his hand and his fingers closed around the handle.

Gage leaned in extremely close to his foe’s face, so close that their noses nearly touched. A bead of sweat was able to exchange between the two of them before dripping to the floor.

Lawrence’s demonic eyes had shifted back to a more human looking shade of blue.

“I know you’re in there smoky,” Gage said as he teased the knife edge on Lawrence’s neck. He pricked it and blood flowed out along the blade. “Let’s talk… eye to eye.”

“It’s too late, you arrogant prick. They are coming for you and those two magnificent treasures around your filthy neck.”

“I’ll deal with ‘them’ when they get here,” said Gage confidently. “Right now it’s our party. Just you…” he flicked the knife again, “and me.”