Horde of the Demon Priest (Demona Book 3) (4 page)

“Now, Kerrick, do you have the artifact?” Molony asked.

Kerrick reached into his pocket and pulled out an item that was wrapped in a dingy white cloth. He unwrapped the cloth and held the triangular, dark copper toned object slightly outward from his body to show the group that he did in fact have the artifact. Ezekiel reached for the object and gripped it. Kerrick kept a firm grip on it before reluctantly releasing it to Ezekiel.

“I promise you will have it back when we’re finished. You’re welcome to sit with us as we study the object,” Ezekiel said.

Kerrick nodded stiffly. “It is best that it stay within my sight.”

Ezekiel and Molony spent the remainder of the morning hovered over the artifact. They poked and prodded the strange object. They flipped through ancient documents and manuscripts for a way to possibly activate its power. They even sang hymns over it in the hopes that the words or tune would trigger some type of response.

“Mona, are you certain that neither Fotos nor
Aleph
gave any indication of how to operate the artifact?” Molony asked.

Demona quickly turned her head from her conversation with Rowena and Hannah in response to Molony’s question. “No. The only thing that was required or asked was that we make a sacrifice in order to take the artifact from the Tomb of Beginning.”

“What if it won’t work, because you don’t have anything to test it on?” Kerrick offered.

Molony and Ezekiel exchanged glances as they so often did when they realized something at the same time. Demona often wondered if the two friends had some kind of telepathic communication method.

Ezekiel peered over his glasses at Kerrick. “It’s possible. Maybe we should consider using it on a test subject?”

Molony’s eyes lit up. “We could have the defenders bring us a possessed and see if it would activate. Maybe the artifact, as an object of light, needs some kind of darkness to trigger the need for a response. Maybe the presence of a demonically possessed being will bring it to life in order to do good works,” Molony offered.

Sounds pretty farfetched, but who knows.

“It’s worth a try,” Kaleb said from across the room. “I’ll go out with the next team and help them acquire a possessed being.”

Hannah perked her head up at Kaleb’s response. Demona knew what her best friend was thinking, she was afraid for Kaleb to be out in town. Hannah tugged on a strand of her blond curly hair subconsciously. Demona echoed her sentiment every time Felix was out doing the same. Being in Melville these days was far too dangerous.

Demona patted her friend’s hand. “Don’t worry; he’ll be out there with a team.”

Hannah nodded in response, but Demona saw the glistening of tears beginning to form in her eyes. Rowena threw an arm around Hannah’s shoulders. “I know you feel helpless. I do too. Trust me, if my omni-linguistic skills allowed me to speak demon, apparently the only language I don’t understand, I’d be out there with them. I’d be ordering every demon to dissipate instantly. But you know
Aleph
apparently had other plans in store for me.”

Hannah gave a slight smile in response to Rowena’s comment. “I know. He’ll be alright. I just worry, you know.”

Demona and Rowena both nodded. Each felt the same about Felix when he went out into a dangerous situation. Demona looked into Rowena’s eyes that matched the dreamy bright blue eyes of her brother’s. They both knew that if anything happened to Felix they would be devastated. Demona recalled how almost losing Felix in Dissium had made her realize just how much he meant to her.

Chapter 4:

New Acquaintances

Demona and Felix knocked on the door of the quaint little house and waited for a response. The flowers in the garden had all been cared for in preparation for the upcoming winter season. A few bird feeders hung about where Blue Jays sifted through the seed, looking for their favorite kind. Demona noted that the hummingbird feeders that hung about the last time she was there had been taken down.
They must’ve migrated south. It must be nice to pick up and fly away without a care in the world. The promise of warmer climate and an abundant supply of food for the winter was quite a nice thought.

The door opened and Demona found the little grey haired man she had once visited on Darius’ orders months before. He was a Demonologist, the first to provide TGHC with clues about what the demon priest was: an afreet djinn demon. The man’s eyes popped open with recognition when they scanned over Demona. He briefly looked at Felix, but without knowing him he returned his attention to Demona.

“I remember you, you were the assistant of that author fellow, friend of Darius’,” Bartholomew Jacobs said.

Demona nodded. “Kerrick Balen.”

“You two asked about the djinn demon; the one that has the ability to make right or wrong choices. Wasn’t it the afreet you were particularly interested in? They are a particularly interesting race of djinn, since they have chosen the path of evil. Yes, that was it. Forgive me dear, what was your name?”

“Demona Brennan and this is Felix Fulbright.” She brushed her long wavy hair out of her face and tucked a few strands behind her ears.

“Oh visitors!” a voice from inside the house said with enthusiasm. Demona heard the words rings from behind Bartholomew. His wife Anne disappeared as quickly as she had appeared.

“Don’t mind her; she’ll be busy making tea for you now. She is always a wonderful hostess. I suppose you are here for a specific reason. Please, come in,” he said.

Demona smiled at the older man. “Thanks, Mr. Jacobs.”

“None of that.” He waved a hand at them. “Call me Barty.” Barty showed them into the parlor.

After the three of them had settled into their chairs Bartholomew waited eagerly for the two visitors to begin. Demona scanned the animal figurines that lined the shelf above the TV stand and noticed a few additions to Anne’s collection. Nothing else had changed in the outdated pink and green colored room.

Demona was instantly serious and ready to get down to business. “Mister…Barty, I have a few things I’d like to discuss with you.”

“Of course, has Balen sent you for further research?” Barty asked.

Demona looked hesitantly away from Barty.
Please, let this work, we will need him.
“No… I’m here about a completely different matter,” Demona said, “one that requires your expertise. I’m afraid there’s no easy way tell you this...”

Barty seemed to slide to the edge of his seat as he excitedly waited the answer as to why Demona and Felix were visiting him. He clearly felt that the visit was for a very important reason. Demona thought he would fall off of the tacky flowered print sofa before she could get another word out. He was a very curious man.

Now I see why Darius was afraid he’d figure things out if we said too much about demons.

“I used to work for Darius Grier, as I’m sure you know, since he had arranged for our meeting the first time. Darius had mentioned that you had certain suspicions about the existence of beings other than demons. He advised me to be careful about what information we brought up on our visit, becau—”

“Hello,” Anne Jacobs entered the room carrying a tray of tea cups and a tea pot. She sat the tray on the coffee table and invited them to each take a cup. Demona grabbed one of the delicious cookies she had had before.

“Quiet Anne!” Barty barked.

Demona shoved the whole cookie into her mouth as she watched the awkward situation. The little woman in a plaid buttoned-up dress, clearly not used to her husband scolding her, promptly sat in one of the chairs and clasped her hands tightly in her lap. She quickly regained a calm composure as if his words had not stung at all, but Demona noticed her fluster on the way to her seat. Anne self-consciously tucked a loose strand of hair back into the tight bun on top of her head.

“Please, continue,” Barty said.

Demona quickly finished chewing the cookie, which seemed to take forever. She swallowed a large clump and it went down her esophagus difficultly. “He wanted us to be careful, because he didn’t want your suspicions to become reality…”

It took a few moments for Barty to catch on to what Demona was saying. “You’re telling me that there are other beings in this world? Beings other than humans? Other than demons?”

Demona nodded.

“I knew it! What are they? Or where are they? ” Barty quickly realized that he was getting ahead of himself. His excitement had taken full control, but now he fought to quell his curiosity.

“Where to begin… There are many different beings and different sides to those beings. You see, Darius is the head of a corporation and pseudo-leader of an underground city, where dark and sometimes neutral beings live and work.”

“Dark…neutral. I suppose there is a light side to this as well? And these dark beings, they are evil?” Barty asked.

“Not entirely, they’re of a more evil nature, but not necessarily entirely evil like demons. I’m not really here to discuss the different beings, so much as the demons,” Demona said. “Barty, we’re at war, or as close to a war as there can be.”

Barty’s eyebrows rose. “The light and dark?”

“No. The dark, neutral, and light beings against the demons. One demon in particular has become a leader and has drawn in many demons to form an army.”
Though, I’m not entirely sure there isn’t a war with the dark beings going on too… below the surface
. Demona was still uncertain what Darius’ motive has been over the past several years. Clearly he had been planning something for quite a while; otherwise she would never have been in the situation she now faced.

Realization shone on Barty’s face. “I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. It makes sense now. The violence and sickness that’s spreading through town, this is the work of this demon leader and his army, isn’t it?”

Demona looked to Felix. “The violence and sickness that you see is from the demons wreaking havoc in town. We have a number of problems taking place at once. We need someone of your expertise to help us identify the demons and know how to properly deal with and exorcise them before they cause any more damage.”

Anne gasped. “That poor family across the street. Barty, you don’t think that their deaths were because of demons do you?” Anne asked.

Barty looked downward and slowly nodded. “Yes, my dear. I should have realized that something was strange, especially after that young man said he thought he saw one of the family members die and then later walk out of the house. I just thought he was in shock from finding the rest of the family as they were.”

Anne placed her hand on her chest. “Dear Lord.” She took a deep breath and tried to steady herself. A tear rolled down her cheek and she dabbed it away with her handkerchief.

“We should be thankful that the demons didn’t choose our home…Tell me about the demons, why are there so many strange things happening in town? Some of those things don’t seem like normal demonic possessions,” Barty said.

Felix sat up straight, ready to provide him with an answer. “We’ve been able to identify three sources of the chaos. The first of course are demons, these have taken either their mist-like or non-corporeal form, but will occasionally solidify.”

“Just yesterday we faced an iya demon that transformed into a giant ugly baby. It sounds funny, but trust me it wasn’t. We weren’t able to deal with the demon, since none of us really know how,” Demona said.

“An iya! They come from Native American mythology, I’ve never heard of one ever being seen, at least not in modern times. I would even have to consult my books for a way to destroy it. That is if there has even been an exorcism account written down, unfortunately most Native American cultures never developed a written language,” Barty said.

“The second thing that we have identified is those possessed by the demons, which come in two forms. The first are those where a possession has successfully taken place, these can be exercised and potentially survive,” Felix said. “The worst is when the possession takes hold after a person has died as the result of the attempted possession. You might as well call these guys zombies, though I don’t think they eat brains or anything like you see in movies.”

“I would imagine that each type poses a problem when you deal with them,” Barty said.

Demona rested her forearms on her legs, folded her hands, and leaned forward. “We do have one other type. That demon leader I spoke of. Well I don’t know if you remember that the last time that I was here we discussed the afreet demon? That is what we believe possessed a priest, he’s what we call a demon priest. The demon named itself Abd al-Malik. The reason why this demon is so powerful is somewhat difficult to explain,” Demona said.

“We light beings are deeply religious,” Felix added.

Barty’s eyes lit up when Felix mentioned he was a light being. Demona could tell that Barty had many questions to ask, but refrained from doing so given the nature of the conversation. She made it a point to make sure that Barty would direct his questions to Felix, since he knew so much more about the supernatural world around them.

“God, who we call
Aleph
, the one true God, has a special connection with our religious leaders. Our ordained religious leaders have a bond, which connects them directly to
Aleph
’s energy. Unfortunately, the priest that this afreet possessed, was ordained of
Aleph
, which means that because the possession succeeded the demon can access the power of a god,” Felix explained.

Demona continued where Felix left off. “He doesn’t need human energy to sustain himself, since he has an unlimited energy supply. He’s growing more and more powerful all the time. He’s even begun calling all demons to him; possibly creating what we think is an army. We don’t know exactly what his purpose is, but it sure seems like it’s to take control of every living being in town.”

Barty looked pale. “This is grave news. I have never heard of such a thing happening.”

“Neither have we. It’s the first in recorded history, though it was prophesied a long time ago that something of this nature could occur. The dark and light beings are working together for a solution on how best to deal with the demon priest situation. It’s you that we need to help us destroy his army before it can overrun this town. Will you please help us?” Felix asked.

Barty glanced at his wife who sat quietly. She seemed nervous, but gave a single nod to her husband. The silent communication between the two gave Demona hope. Her heart leapt with the possibility that she may have actually acquired a useful ally to help GLC against the demon army.

“We’ll do whatever we can to help,” Barty replied.

Demona stood and grabbed Barty’s hand and vigorously shook it. “We can’t thank you enough. I think it would be best if you and your wife came to stay at our headquarters,” She said. “I think you’d be safer and this way we would have access to your expertise when problems pop up.”

“This headquarters is it dark and light beings?” Anne asked.

Demona shook her head. “No. It’s the headquarters of the light beings.” She thought of the best way to describe the GLC headquarters. “There are a few neutral allies and refugees that live among us, but the majority are light beings. It’s outside of town, which makes it a little safer than here at this time.” She chewed on her bottom lip hoping that this would be alright with the Jacobs’.

“Living conditions aren’t ideal, but we’re doing the best we can with the flood of newcomers,” Demona said. “You’d be given a private tent, food, and cots to sleep on, our perimeters are secure and we have guards constantly patrolling our borders. There are many good people among us; I think you’ll feel comfortable there.”