Jack Templar and the Lord of the Demons (The Jack Templar Chronicles Book 5) (17 page)

T
hey were Il Cento monks
, the missing ones Master Adem had told us about. They stood stone-faced, their eyes vacant as they looked into the distance beyond us. Why members of this ancient brotherhood, men whose only purpose in life was to contain Shaitan and his demonic hoard from escaping the Underworld, would be serving the Lord of the Demons was beyond me. But it looked like that was exactly what they were doing.

They were the same monks whose frozen bodies I’d seen in the lake, their mouths gaping in terrible open-mouthed screams, their arms clawing for the surface and their capes billowing behind them. Somehow, they had survived the lake, survived their own deaths as Master Adem would have put it, and made their way past the Gatekeeper and into the Underworld. But apparently they were working for Shaitan now.

“You’re wondering what they are doing here,” Shaitan stated.

I doubted he needed any special powers to figure out the puzzled look on my face. “The question had crossed my mind.”

He waved a hand toward them. “These are heroes,” he said. “They had the intelligence to see that what I offered them was far better than their existence as Adem’s guard dogs. Then they had the courage to come to me and ask to join my world. At first I didn’t believe them and punished them for lying. Show them what happens to those who lie to me,” he said to the monks.

The three opened their mouths and I grimaced at the sight. Each of their tongues had been cut out.

“But over the centuries, they proved their obedience to me and I came to believe them. They now have a place of honor at my side.” He leaned toward us. “You all could do the same. Join me. I can give you eternal life. Power beyond imagination. All I ask for is your allegiance.”

I felt a strange pull inside my chest, as if the icy hand was back and had reached inside of me to wrap long bony fingers around my heart. My brain hated everything Shaitan was saying, but I had an impulse to accept his offer. I fought against it, looking at the others for help.

But they were having their own struggles. Xavier and T-Rex were actually nodding their heads and had taken a step forward. Their eyes had the same distant stare as the Il Cento monks had.

Will fought harder, shaking his head and holding his hands to his ears to block out Shaitan’s smooth voice.

“Join me,” the Lord of the Demons purred. “I will reunite you with all those you’ve lost. I will take away all your pain. All of your suffering.”

My muscles tightened, almost as if an electrical current was passing through me. Will dropped to a knee, stayed there for a few seconds, and then slowly rose, the distant stare in his eyes.

“Will!” I gasped, barely able to get the words out.

In horror, I watched as he, T-Rex, and Xavier walked forward and took places next to the Il Cento monks.

I twisted to see Eva still resisting. She stood with her arms at her sides, feet together, but with her chest heaving from taking rapid, shallow breaths.

“Come, Eva, the Hand of Death,” Shaitan said, stretching out his hands and then curling them back like a magician. “Here you can be your true self. I’ll protect you. I’ll let you see your parents. Your brother and sister. They are here. You can be a family again. Isn’t that what you always wanted?”

“Don’t listen to him, Eva,” I cried out. “Remember what he is. It’s all lies.”

I thought of the offer in the weird dream-state when we first arrived in the Underworld. The same choice had been given to me, and I guessed it’d been given to all of us. To stay in the dream and live a fake but perfect life without all the anguish and pain. Eva had barely made it out of there. Daniel had remained. I didn’t know whether Eva could resist the temptation a second time.

“Your parents are dead, Eva,” I called out. “They’re not here. Not really.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, young hunter,” Shaitan said in his silky voice. “They are here. They all end up here. Look.”

He pointed to a crater of lava near us. Slowly a body rose from the depths until it was standing on the surface. The glowing red lava dripped away, revealing a beautiful woman with a kind, sad face holding her hands out toward me.

It was my mother.

“Jack, stay with me,” she said.

A great, choking sob burst out, and tears sprang to my eyes. I’d seen my mom only as an apparition before, but I knew this was her. In the Underworld. Impossible.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Eva walk past me, the glazed over look in her eyes now too. She took her place with the others.

Shaitan smirked and gave me a shrug.

“You’re all alone now,” he said. “But you don’t need to be. You can join me too. And if you do, you can save yourself. You can save your friends. You can save her.”

As he pointed to my mom, she grabbed her stomach and bent over in pain, crying out.

“Jack!” she screamed. “Help me. Please. It hurts.”

“Mom!” I cried. I spun around toward Shaitan. “Stop it! What are you doing to her?”

Shaitan shrugged. “Her own guilt causes the pain. But if you join me, I can make it stop. You said yourself, my power is immense in my realm. Let me use it to help your mother. Join me.”

He reached out his hand and everything in me told me to walk over and take it. Almost everything. Deep down, there was a small flame burning inside of me, an idea that was small but so powerful that even Shaitan’s power couldn’t put it out.

I closed my eyes, fighting, and tried to focus on that feeling. Tried to give it more power.

“Jack, please,” my mom pleaded. When I didn’t answer, her tone suddenly turned nasty. “You selfish little brat. After all I’ve sacrificed for you, you dare defy me?”

Even though the words came out in my mom’s voice, I knew they weren’t hers. The small flame in me swelled and grew, filling me. When I opened my eyes, all desire to cave-in to Shaitan was gone. I looked to where my mom stood on the lava.

“You’re not my mother,” I said plainly.

Immediately, the being transformed from my mom into a winged creature with a long beak and glowing red eyes.

“And you’re not going to help me,” I said to Shaitan. “You just want to enslave me like you did the others.” I raised my sword. Even as I did it, I knew it might be one of the last things I ever did. But I couldn’t be a slave to him. That was a fate worse than death. “You’re nothing but a liar.”

“And were you really going to help me escape from the Underworld?” Shaitan said. “I think not. So, we are both liars. We are more alike that you care to admit.”

“I guess,” I said, “Except I was trying to save the world, not rule over it.” After I said it, I realized I was already talking about myself in the past tense. Will, T-Rex, Xavier, and Eva stood blank faced next to the Il Cento monks. There was nothing I could do to save them or myself.

All I could do was die bravely.

“Oh, Jack, you’re just a pawn in a larger game that you don’t even know you’re playing,” Shaitan said. “It’s almost pathetic that you never discovered the truth.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. Even facing down death, my curiosity surged. “What larger game?”

Shaitan shook his head as he stood from his throne, pulling a sword from his side. “It’s sad, really. But it doesn’t matter anymore. Because I’m ending the game now.”

I readied myself for battle. “Try your best, you creach scum. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Shaitan roared as he launched himself at me.

As he did, a black shape flew through the air from my left and slammed into Shaitan. The air filled with snarls and cries of surprise from the demon.

It was a werewolf. And not just any werewolf.

It was Daniel.

I looked down at the ground at my feet. Rolling around the rock and coming to a rest against my boot was the Templar Ring.

I reached for it and slid it onto my finger.

Instantly, the world flared in bright color, and I gasped at the energy pouring into me. My sword burned with a weird blue fire I’d never seen before. I wasn’t about to second-guess it or even stop to think. I ran to where Daniel and the Lord of the Demons rolled on the ground. Daniel’s werewolf form barked and snarled, clawed and gnashed his teeth.

Still, it only took a couple of seconds for Shaitan to get his bearings and get over the initial surprise of the ferocious attack. With hardly any effort, Shaitan heaved Daniel through the air as if he weighed barely anything. Daniel’s snarls turned to yelps as he smashed into a stone column and sagged to the ground, turning back into his human form.

Yes, he was out of commission, but he’d done the job.

When Shaitan got to his feet to face me, I was no longer Jack the easy prey who was about to die with honor.

I was Jack Templar, Monster Hunter. And I was ready for battle.

“
Y
ou can’t win
, Jack,” Shaitan said, carefully stepping around me, sword in front of him.

“Then why do you suddenly look so cautious?” I asked.

Shaitan eyed the Templar Ring on my hand and the blue fire on my blade. He was calculating, making a decision.

“Don’t you want to know the truth?” he asked. “Don’t you want to know what’s really going on? Why your mother died? Why Aquinas carries such guilt?”

The rapid-fire questions caught me off-guard. It was exactly what Shaitan wanted. He lunged forward, swinging his sword at my head.

I raise my sword to block, expecting a mighty clang of steel on steel. But in the exact time there should have been contact, there was only air. On instinct, I swung my guard down and met his sword on its way to my stomach, blocking it at the last second.

I jumped backward. He’d moved faster than anything I’d seen before.

But judging by the expression on Shaitan’s face, so had I.

“Impossible,” he whispered. “You can’t be that fast.”

I gripped my sword tight. “Let’s find out.”

I charged, pressing the fiercest attack I could muster. Shaitan met each thrust in a blur of motion, getting in his own counterattacks along the way. I felt like I was outside of my body, working from pure instinct and adrenaline. My sword moved so quickly I could hardly see it.

After a minute, we separated, walking around one another like animals in a cage. I didn’t even breathe hard. Not only that, but the blue fire covering my sword shone even brighter now, bathing the entire area in light.

“Tell me about my mother,” I demanded. “Tell me about this game I’m supposedly involved in.”

Shaitan pulled back his lips in a snarl, showing the spiked teeth in his skeleton head. “Never. I’d rather you die knowing you’ve been played for a fool and spend eternity wondering how.”

With a yell, he charged at me and we locked again in battle. I purposefully stepped backward on my heels, drawing him in. It worked, and Shaitan pressed the attack harder. I pretended to stumble on a rock, and Shaitan overcorrected to take advantage.

Against a normal opponent, the move would have been too small, the opening gone too fast to make a difference. But at that moment, there was no such thing as normal. Shaitan’s mistake, measured in hundredths of an inch, was all I needed.

I twisted and plunged my sword past his defense, through the armor he wore, and into his chest.

The second I did, he flew backward through the air as if pulled by a rope. He slammed into his throne in a seated position, his hands firmly clamped on the armrests.

“What have you done?” he cried.

I stood unsteadily, the blue light from my sword quickly fading. Panic flooded me as the light completely disappeared along with the sense of power flowing from the Templar Ring. Aunt Sophie had warned that I needed to strike him in the heart. I couldn’t be sure the point of my sword had reached that far into his chest. I’d struck a blow to the demon, but surely not enough to destroy him.

Even so, as I watched, something odd began to happen. Shaitan looked wet, as if he’d just been dunked in a barrel of water.

“How is this possible?” he rasped, his voice garbled.

The surface of his armor glistened, its wet surface reflecting the red glow of the lava. I noticed movement next to me. It was Eva, Will, T-Rex, Xavier, and even the Il Cento monks coming to, looking around as if waking from a dream. Eva recovered faster than the others and crossed over to stand beside me, staring at Shaitan.

“What’s happening to him?” she whispered.

I shook my head. Impossibly, a thin coat of ice had formed across the surface of the demon lord’s armor and skin. It grew thicker as we watched, encasing his body. Only his face was free of ice. And this was only because he kept shaking it, breaking sheets of ice off like layers of porcelain.

“This won’t stand, Templar,” he roared. “Nothing is powerful enough to last for long in my own realm. When I’m free you’re going to wish … that … you’re going to … wish ….”

The ice crawled up his neck and covered his mouth, nose, and then his entire head. Thicker and thicker, until the entire throne was a solid ball of ice.

I stared at my sword and the Templar Ring on my finger. Its mysterious powers never ceased to amaze me. But the decision not to give in to Shaitan had been my own, not the ring’s. I wondered whether it was the ring’s reward for a brave deed. All I knew was that if it hadn’t been for Daniel, I would be dead.

The others gathered around me, but none of us celebrated. Not only did we all know how close we’d come to losing everything, but we knew we were a long way from safety.

“What do you say we get out of here?” Will said.

I turned to the Il Cento monks. “Master Adem told me of your mission. Are you ready to complete it?” I crossed over to the throne, nervous to be so close to Shaitan. I’d seen too many horror movies where the bad guy miraculously came back alive for one last attack. I just hoped the ice was strong enough to hold the demon back.

I circled the throne, looking for the Jerusalem Stone. On one side of the stone base, visible through the ice, was what looked like a handle. I raised my sword and prepared to hack away at the ice.

“Jack!” Xavier called out. “What are you doing?”

“What if the whole thing breaks?” Will said. “If he gets out, we’re all dead.”

I stopped. “The Jerusalem Stone is under the throne somewhere.”

“How do you know?” Eva asked.

“My Aunt Sophie told me. I saw her,” I said.

T-Rex nodded. “I saw my grandma too. She was the way she acted before she got sick. But it wasn’t real.”

Will put a hand on my shoulder. “And I saw my mom and dad before things got bad between them. We were a family again. I could have stayed there and been part of it, but I knew it wasn’t real. What I’m trying to say is, how do you know what Aunt Sophie told you really came from her?”

“The difference is that Aunt Sophie was of this place. She was a devil-werewolf, born in the Underworld and returned to it,” I said. “I know it was her. I swear.”

They all looked uncertain. We hadn’t gotten this far by me giving orders or taking risks with my friends’ lives without their consent.

“We’ve come this far. But if we leave without the Jerusalem Stone, then it’s all for nothing,” I said. “I know it was my Aunt Sophie. I could see it in her eyes. I could hear it in her voice when she … when she …” My voice choked up with emotion. “When she allowed me to forgive myself for not helping her.” I looked at them each in turn. “I’m asking you to trust me.”

There was a brief silence when no one moved. Then, almost in unison, they pulled their swords and strode to me, raising them up to help me break the ice.

I turned, raised my sword and counted down.

“3 … 2 … 1 …”

Together we struck the ice. It was hard as stone, but we chipped away at it piece by piece. The second we did, the exterior shell of ice changed. Instead of being ice so solid it looked like glass, it began to glisten with a thin layer of water. It was melting.

“Faster,” I cried.

We hacked away at it, finally exposing the small handle on the base. I dropped to my knees and used the tip of my sword to clear the outline of a small drawer. Grabbing the handle, I pulled. It stuck at first, but then broke open.

I reached inside, and my heart sank.

The drawer was empty.