At the Behest of the Dead (17 page)

That hope we
nt like the grin on my face. The door didn’t exactly shatter. The flame that rushed through it burned the heavy wood to a cinder, and then kept going through the opposite wall. A howl flooded out of the room, and the demon came right after it. Smashed through the wall and took out another lab. He stumbled to a skidding halt and went over with thrashing limbs.

Guards flooded in the room with the demon and opened up with some serious firepower. They had silver nets, shock guns, and a priest. Christ, where did
he
come from? He dashed in the room with his hand raised, chanting words to bind the creature.

“Draw him
away. I’ll check the old man. Maybe he has something we can use against the thing. He was waving a staff around earlier.”

“
Balkir with a staff? Have you gone completely mental?” Glenda yelled over the pandemonium.

“Hey, they brought me here. I didn’t ask for this
shit!”

The demon screeched as the guards let loose with everything they had. It hit the ceiling and went th
rough. The men pursued, shooting into the hole it left behind. Wonderful, if it got behind us I was toast. I wished I had a mountain to hide behind, a gallon of saints’ blessed water to soak in, or a herd of Xhallix from the third ward to lay the bastard out.

Glenda took to the air and punched through the
hole. She spun and lighting arched across the ceiling.

The demon smashed through the floor at the other end of the hallway. He chased his tail in terror because it was coated in an icy substance and smokin
g, or misting. I wasn’t sure about the physics involved.

Glenda stood bravely to the side and pointed at the puddle of liquid. Flashes glimmered in the tiny pool and then pulled wisps of power from its surface.
She yanked her arm back with the little wand and then whipped it forward. The blue arc struck the demon and threw him across the hallway, then sent him smashing through the flimsy wall at the end, then the wall after that. Wires and tubes disgorged from the wounded plaster and then fizzled in the afterglow of the blast.

“Keep him busy!” I called
, in what I hoped was my best action hero voice. She stared at me like I was a mentally challenged dork and rolled her eyes.

I dashed into the room and located
Balkir. He lay in a heap of robes, forehead leaking blood into his eyes. It ran down his aristocratic hooked nose and onto lips that had sneered at me on more than one occasion.

I took in my remaining potions and pulled out a nasty black one. I held it away from my face as I broke the wax seal. A voice called in the room, pulled at my brain, made me want to scoop it out and show it to the teacher. But I tipped the thick fluid over the hurt
Balkir. It slipped out and fell onto his chin. Then it went to work, creating a web over his mouth that evaporated a second or two later. I was already muttering words, high black magic that I wasn’t supposed to know. Good thing I used to read a lot.

I hauled him into a sitting position and slapped him. He gazed at me with a dazed look, eyes rolling back into his head. He tried to mutter a spell but it didn’t come out
, thanks to the web. He’d be able to speak but I doubted the words would be friendly.

“Asshole. Tell me why you had a demon kill him!”

“So young. So very young in the ways of our kind. A few decades of life. What is that against the millennia I have lived?”

God I hated it when they start talking about the old days like they were part of some exclusive club of old farts.

“You can’t understand the draw of more power, more more more. And when he found the piece, I had to have it. But he was wily, that one. Oh, he was so smug about it. Said it was too much, so he hid it. But I knew he would be calling you back soon. He all but said you were the only one that would comprehend.”

A blast echoed out in the hallway, then a scream and an explosion that shook the building again. Why did I agree to come here in the first place?

“I don’t have until tomorrow to hear the end of this boring ass conversation. Get to the point! How do I stop the demon?”

“You can’t.” His head leaned forward and blood ran from his nose. It appeared that I had done damage after all.

Screams from the hallway then a howl as the demon fought. A shape sailed past the door. A human form that wasn’t doing so voluntarily. It smacked into a wall with a sickening thud. If that demon came in, I was tempted to either make for the roof and grab my fork, or jump out the window.

I was tired of being a nice guy. The carved ivory tusk was in my hand before I knew it and I press the tip against his shoulder, then harder until it broke skin. It sank in a half an inch before I twisted it. I had his compl
ete and undivided attention now. I could tell because he screamed in agony, eyes rolling around in wide open sockets. He looks like he was about to pass out so I slapped him again – harder this time.

“How do I stop him!
”

“You can’t!” His breath came out hot and fetid. Blood flecked spittle drooled down his paper white skin. His cheeks were a patchwork of wrinkles,
and grey whiskers poked out in every direction.

Then the tusk dug in again and hi
s eyes went livid. Words formed on his lips but nothing came out. The silence potion wouldn’t hold forever and I wondered if I would have to kill him before I got my answers. I was all too happy to drag the sharp blade across his throat and watch him bleed out before my eyes before the demon came back and consumed me.

Wait. The de
mon was enraged to begin with. He completed his task and was given a prize. It would have to be a good enough offering to get him to leave his comfortable world of magma and twisted creatures.

“What did you promise the demon for the contract?”

“This isn’t some silly movie where I reveal my plans simply because you have me at your mercy. Unless you intend to kill me in cold blood, me, the head of the league, I recommend you release the spell. It can’t have long to fade anyway. Few more moments, I should say.”

“Asshole.” Then I decked him.
A full from the shoulder punch that knocked his head to the side. His eyes rolled up into the back of his head and his mouth went slack. My hand and wrist howled in pain from the strike.

Balkir
fell to the side and spit blood and at least one tooth.

Son of a bitch, the demon wanted me and I gave him the
perfect catalyst. My life blood--was that all one of those things cost nowadays? The wretched soul of a tired warlock? And me, the fool for falling for such a trick. Ours were pathetic.

As if he could read my revelation
, the wall near the doorway exploded inward and I was thrown to the ground. The demon rose up on two front legs. His frog like head darted back and forth, a tongue that was split along the middle rolled out and tested the air. The smell the demon emitted was terrible, like old garbage left to rot in the sun.

“Destroy him!”
Balkir screamed through broken teeth. I wanted to spin and kick him.

Glenda came in behind the creature and loosed another blast of witch fire. It arc
hed into the room and slammed into the demon full force, shoving it across the area and out the window. He wore a look of shock as it fell. His feet scrambled for the window, but they only touched shattered glass and it fell into the night.

“Glenda, here!”

She rushed to my side, concern etched on her face, and I almost felt a moment of gratitude. She really was lovely, with dark hair whisking about her face. She looked almost ethereal with that ageless skin and luminous blue eyes that had made me stop in my tracks more than once. For a moment I thought she was going to hug me, but she went to the old man instead. She stroked his face and whispered his name.

Oh.

“He’s the killer, Glenda!”

“What?”

“The demon killed Salazar for him and he offered me as a prize.”

“That’s absurd.”

The demon’s howl from below made us both look up. The building shook again and I could only imagine what it was doing to the ground floor as it tore its way back inside. I hoped there weren’t any people down there to get in its way. Car alarms
screamed in the night. I should’ve gotten on my pitchfork and run, but I couldn’t leave these people alone.

Then again
, what good was I? I was exhausted, I’d used most of my powerful potions, and I didn’t have any last minute spells up my sleeve. I was afraid that Balkir was going to win. So I should’ve killed him then, denied him the satisfaction of seeing me scream as the demon devoured my flesh and took my soul. Maybe I could’ve disguised the old man as me, switched clothes. I almost laughed at the absurdity, then my head snapped up and I locked eyes with Glenda.

“All those times you threatened to turn me into a snake or a frog, were you just kidding?”

“Sort of. I mean, I could transfer your essence to an animal and let you live like that for a short time, but the spell is just an old trick from when I was a kid. Most witches and warlocks – it doesn’t work on them.”

The floor rattled beneath me.

“So you could transfer me into the old fart here if I wanted to.”

“Yes, but he wo
uld just fight it off. He only need say a word and you would …”

“I silenced him.”

“Do not listen to his lies!” Balkir roared. He rolled to the side and came up with the staff. He aimed in my direction and managed to utter a single word, but he could not complete it.

“Does he look sane?” I tried to reason.

“He looks mad, and I would be too if I were to be silence. Balkir is the head of the league now!”

Balkir
tried again to utter a spell. His eyes were livid, and when nothing came out of his mouth he threw the stick at me. I leaned to the side then threw my arms up in the air while looking pointedly at Glenda. She wasn’t impressed.

“I don’t know why
, but he wants me dead! Glenda, would I lie to you? Come on. Why in the world would I come back now and try to kill Balkir? Does it make any sense?” She stared at me then shook her head, as if she were trying to make up her mind.

“Lies from a charlatan!”
Balkir roared and tried to get to his feet.

Boards
rattled as the demon, presumably tired of the ground floor, made his way back toward us.

“Think about it
, Glenda. What else would he kill Salazar like that? Did you see his body? His chest was ripped open and his heart was gone! What can do something like that?”

“Not a demon. Salazar was too strong.”

“This one is different. Blood, it’s after blood. It had Salazar’s and now it has mine.”

She stared at me and I saw something click.

“What’s the plan to stop the demon?” The wind outside the broken window picked up and Glenda had to shout to be heard.

Collin, the head
of security, barged in between them holding a giant oak wand in his hand. He looked pissed. I hoped he wasn’t about to turn the thing on me after he saw the bodies on the floor. I had the urge to jump up and down and point at the old man in front of me and yell: “It was him!”

“I should
arrest him now.” Collin spat.

“Phineas claims it wasn’t him,
” Glenda said, but her voice still rang with doubt. A broken light fixture fell to the floor at that moment and the bulbs shattered with a resounding crash.

“Oh
, I know it wasn’t Phineas. He loved Salazar like a father, but that’s not how I know. Balkir reeks of blood magic.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I sensed it last night as well. We ran a finding spell and traced it to this room.”

The building shook again. We had seconds.

“We don’t have time for this Mickey Mouse bullshit! Glenda, can you transfer my essence?”

“Yes, but there’s a price! You may not survive
, and if you do you’ll be sick for a few days. Not the flu sick, but more like the worst hangover of your life sick.”

“I already feel like that. N
ow do it and let’s get this over with. When the demon goes for him I want you to put me back.”

“What if I can’t?”

I stared at her as the roof started to shake again. The demon was close; it reeked of brimstone, ash, and my blood. I wanted to jump on my pitchfork and set my sights on somewhere tropical. Then what? Run for the rest of my life? The son of a bitch would track me down and it wouldn’t take long. Meanwhile a lot of people would get hurt or killed.

It sucked to have a conscience.

“Just get it over with.”

Glenda’s eyes blaze
d. She stared back into mine and I felt like she was genuinely fearful for me. She thought I had just come in fresh. She didn’t know that just a few hours ago I had been fighting a changer. Or that just a day ago I had squared off against another demon.

It was too late. T
he room exploded around us, but she was already moving. A potion went into her mouth and then her lips were on mine. Before I could back away, I was sucked out of my body and into a swirling vortex of pain and blackness.