Demon Hunt (36 page)

Manius drew his sword. The hiss of the metal rattled down Rhi’s backbone. “Give it to me!” he snapped, grabbing at the relic awkwardly.

Why was he being so clumsy? As suspicion formed in Rhi’s mind, she managed to scuttle out of the way. Ellie Mae leaped between them, viciously barking. He drew back his sword to strike but was knocked halfway across the room by another powerful blue flash as the guardian of the skull arrived.

The heavens only knew what the tiny dragon Raven called upon a hundred years before had been dining on in the other plane the creature had been sent to with the skull. The newest dragon to grace the Rocky Mountains was covered with emerald green scales and was roughly the same size as Manius’ pet … or the size of a tractor-trailer. Released from Manius’ service, the dragon was now colored in alternating waves of deep green. Its jeweled green gaze stared coldly down at the man who lay sprawled on the floor.

“
Kill the kid if it moves!” Manius screamed at Troy, who stood, terrified and clutching a now fully awake Katie in his arms.

Pam and Pearl were in motion. Pearl snatched a sword from the skeletal hand of one of the dead in mid sprint.

“
Give me Mommy!” the little girl screamed, kicking and wriggling violently. Pam snatched her child from the man’s arms and hid the girl’s face against her chest. Pearl, close behind, ran her ancient sword through Troy’s ribcage in one smooth motion.

Startled, he gaped at the sight of the protruding sword for a moment before falling backwards into a large pile of bones, joining the other dead before the gate.

“
Pam, get on the dragon,” Rhi screamed as she ran for the gate. “Do it now! Get her out of here and bring me what I need!”

Pam scrambled onto the dragon’s neck with Katie under one arm while Pearl joined Rhi and Ellie Mae at the gate, another dead man’s sword in her hand.

“
That
was your plan?”

“
Go!” Rhi shrieked at the beast. It stared down at Manius longingly and took to the air. A fireball worked its way up the throat of the dragon and exploded against the ceiling of the cavern. The glob of liquid fire fell towards where Manius lay stunned but the treacherous knight managed to shield himself at the last moment in glowing red light.

“
Well,
that
might have saved us some trouble,” remarked Pearl.

The dragon flew up through the falling stone and earth, shouldering aside boulders the size of houses and pickup trucks. Its passengers were well protected by the glowing nimbus projected over them by Rhi from her place in front of the Gate. The dragon fought its way free of the earth, ripping open the pit, exposing everyone to the falling snow and night sky. In a trick of space and time, the rim of the pit was now fifty feet above them, the steep steps a part of the enchantment to hide the gate. Rhi could hear the battle above but had no time to think about it as Manius got to his feet, sword in hand, the hatred on his face pulsating.

“
Come to me!” he screamed to the sky as he sprinted for the gate.

“
You have to hold them off!” Rhi called to Pearl as she turned and ran her hands over the gate, searching for an unseen niche.

“
What the
hell
are you doing?” Pearl demanded as she deftly cut the head off the first demon to leap into the pit directly in front of them.

“
To destroy the gate, it’s got to be opened!” There! The niche was under her fingertips, disguised in the ornate carvings of the gate. The skull would be a perfect fit.

“
Do you
know
what’s on the other side of that thing?” Pearl screamed, as she stood at Rhi’s back in a defensive stance. “You know I haven’t got a chance against the rush of Manius Black, one of the greatest knights ever trained by the Brotherhood? I knew that I should have taken more fencing lessons.”

“
Trust me!”

Ellie Mae leaped at Manius’ face as Pearl parried his first blow and her sword shattered. The man brushed aside the dog with a contemptuous wave of his hand, the red sparks from his movement singeing the animal’s fur. The hound flew across the room and hit the wall with a yelp of pain. She collapsed to the floor, stunned.

Chapter Thirty-Six

The greatest madam west of the Mississippi stood weaponless between Manius Black and his prey. Rhi heard her dog’s yelp of pain but didn’t dare look back. She read the runes inscribed on the skull, watching the crystal begin to glow a sullen red.

As demons poured over the sides of the newly opened pit like cockroaches, Manius raised his sword above the auburn haired woman to strike. “Pearl, you have no idea how much this is going to hurt me. But like sister, like sister!”

Pearl braced herself for the blow, knowing her power might be enough to stop a bullet but not enough to stop the spelled blade. She gathered her essence up anyway, balling her energies into her heart and glowing blue eyes. The explosion from her death might not fry the bastard but it would at least sauté him a bit.

A deafening clang forced her to glance up.

Above her head, Blackthorne’s great sword had caught the deathblow. He shoved his brother away with a surge of power that threw the other man across the room.

“
You left this,” he told her gruffly. Pearl’s ornate sword dropped onto the ground beside her. “Take care of Rhi for me.” He glanced back at the girl, who stood with her back to him, oblivious to everyone and everything but the skull in her hands.

In a crouch, Manius awaited his brother’s charge. Behind him, the knights of the brotherhood dropped into the pit to engage the demons, swords flashing. “Is it finally time for you to kill me, Blackie? Did you get permission,” he taunted. His body burned red as he rose into the air to surge forward. Blackthorne rose as well, his sword flaming to blue.

Roaring, with the mindless fury born hatred between those who share blood, the brothers slammed together in the center of the pit in a shower of sparks. They hacked at each other with the blinding speed of those who have tasted the blood of a demon.

* * * *

In front of the gate, Pearl held back the tide, joined by Molay and two of his knights. Rhi could hear the clash of their blades but could do nothing. The green dragon dove into the pit with Pam on its back, armed to the teeth. Landing in a fury of gunfire, she destroyed a dozen of the smaller fiends climbing down the wall as she landed. She leaped off of the dragon to join Rhi at the door and dumped the backpack and the saber beside her friend.

Rhi, not breaking the flow of her chanting, reached down to retrieve the backpack and slid its heavy weight onto a shoulder. She completed the spell, slid the skull into place with a click and reached down for her sword.

“
Pam, get the hell out of here - and get my dog,” she snapped at her friend as an ominous creak rattled through the nerves of all of the humans and semi humans in the pit. A hairpin crack appeared in the gate.

“
I’m not leaving you!” The other woman screamed into the hot wind blowing over them.

“
I’m no longer human, I can take the fire. You can’t!” Pulling the skull from its slot and stuffing it in the backpack, Rhi grabbed Pearl by the arm and pulled her back. “Pearl, get Pam and everyone you can out of here!”

The realization that the gate was opening rolled over all those present. Understanding the danger immediately, Pearl grabbed Pam and pushed her onto the back of the dragon, climbing up behind her.

“
I’m not leaving!”

“
She has her dragon to slay and we have ours,” Pearl said grimly as the dragon took to the sky.

Only after they flew out of the pit did Pam remember that she had not grabbed Ellie Mae. But by then it was too late.

Below, Molay and his knights held off the encroaching demons, their backs to the heat of the opening gate.

“
This is madness but whatever you are going to do, girl, do it quickly before the Gate is fully opened,” Molay called.

Rhi waited for the gate to open wide enough to allow her to squeeze through. Reddened hands and faces appeared in the crack and she shuddered at the possibility of their touch.

The Blackthorne brothers circled each other in the center of the pit, both men beaten, cut and bruised.

“
You’re rusty,” Blackthorne spat, holding his sword in a defensive position.

“
It’s this age, I’m afraid,” replied Manius. “Channel surfing does make one’s behind a bit soft.” He stepped into his brother’s boundaries, unleashing a series of strokes, biting into the other man in several places between the plates of his modern armor.

A flaming demon flew past them, having squeezed its way out of the gate. It flew over Rhi and the knights guarding her.

“
What’s she doing?” It was agony for him to not turn and see what Rhi was doing. He finally succumbed for a split second and turned his head.

“
She’s doing exactly what I want, Blackie,” screamed his brother in triumph as he rushed at him.

Blackthorne was hit with a sudden, biting pain in his shoulder from behind. He released his sword and dropped to his knees. “Damn,” he commented to nobody in particular as he fell onto his side. Behind him, one of the huge, horned man-demons fought its way past the other knights, kicked the sword free of his body and raised the weapon to strike.

“
No! I want him to see this!” Manius crouched beside his brother and clutched his arm. “Watch her, Jack. She’ll open the gate for me and, after the skull is infused with the power of Hell itself, I’ll take it. And being the noble little girl we know and love, she’ll close the door for me, Jack, locking herself in Hell and away from you forever.”

Blackthorne turned his head towards the gate. He had a clear view of Rhi fighting her way into the entrance.

“
No!” He tried to call to her but his words were a hoarse whisper.

“
That’s my girl!” Manius yelled triumphantly. He looked down at Blackthorne, who lay in a growing pond of blood in the floor.

“
Who’s the winner now?” He turned his back on his brother to run towards the gate, the huge demon at his side.

The pit was filled with various pitched battles between the knights and the demons Manius called up from the earth. But the only battle that mattered was at the gate, where Jacques De Molay and two of his men protected Rhiannon Brennan’s back. Manius called his creatures to him as he sprinted across the floor and tore into the knights in a flash of red light and steel.

The ferocity of Manius’ attack on Rhi’s protectors and the fall of Blackthorne enabled him to get behind their line. He made a beeline towards Rhi, who had shouldered her way inside the gate, past hordes of panicked demons and sprits of the damned. The escaped demonic horde poured out of the widening crack and up the walls of the cavern like a mobile fungus. Manius beat and battled his way towards her as she fought to slip inside.

The plans of Manius Black were about to come to completion. For decades he had learned, spied, planned and plotted. Roaming the world in spirit form, he gathered enough knowledge of the skull to know how to empower the relic and open the gate himself. He just didn’t fancy closing it from the other side.

* * * *

From above, the light of the streetlamps illuminated the streets enough for Pam to see the battle for the town was not going well. Manius’ black dragon, wings tattered, strafed the buildings, succeeding in catching the rooftops on fire. Pam grinned. In the rebuilding of Cripple Creek after the Great Fire, fireproof brick had been the rule of the day.

“
Got any ideas?” Pearl shouted in her ear.

“
Yes, I do,” she yelled and patted the gun hanging over her shoulder. “The thing’s been hit a few times, maybe I’ll get lucky. I’m gonna let you off to make hay in the street while I take a shot. Is that sword of yours sharp and magically endowed? I’m going to try something I saw in a movie.”

“
Rhi’s right, you are crazy. Are you thinking of the movie I think you are thinking of?”

The other woman nodded.

Pearl grimaced and handed her the sword. “You watch too many movies.”

Their dragon made a turn above the top of the far end of Bennett Avenue, close enough for Pearl to leap to the ground with her gun in hand. She shouted orders at the Cripple Creek regulars battling demons in the street as Pam and her mount took once more to the sky.

“
Crap, I’m cold. Okay, big guy. Let’s show this big bastard what you can do,” Pam whispered into the wind as they rose into the air. Clinging to a gap between her own dragon’s scales with one gloved hand, she took three useless shots at the other beast with her pistol. The bullets sparked off of the dragon’s scales. “Come on, you pussy!”

Using her knees as guides, Pam instinctively steered her dragon like a horse towards the empty reaches of the upper regions of Pike’s Peak. Enraged by the bullets and seeming to understand the insult, the other dragon roared and followed them.