Occult Assassin 4: Soul Jacker (11 page)

She studied the others in her group. They were spreading out across the mall, forming teams of two or three so as to not arouse unnecessary suspicion. Eventually the demons would become aware of their presence, but by then it would be too late. Yasmine knew that she would certainly fall in battle to the infidel’s bullets, but she planned to take a few of them with her.
 

Someone had to stand up to these monsters.
 

Someone had to try to save their people.

 
Hopefully her sacrifice would pave the way for a better future. She was ready to lay down her life in the name of her new master and his glorious vision. This was not merely an attack on the decadent West—it was the first salvo in a war.
 

With the confidence of a seasoned soldier, she released the safety of her AK-47 and steeled herself for the next phase of the plan.
 

Soon the blood of the demons would flow freely inside the
Forum des Halles
.
 

C
HAPTER
F
IFTEEN

SAMIA’S SCREAM ECHOED as the tentacle closed around her waist and pulled her up the elevator shaft. Talon reacted on pure instinct. He brought up his Glock but was unable to squeeze off a shot without risking hitting Samia. He let out a curse of frustration as the detective was pulled toward an open elevator door three floors above him and vanished from view.
 

More men barreled into the lift below him and started opening fire at the elevator roof. He had to go after Samia and get out of there before one of those fanatics managed a lucky shot. His eyes locked on the steel emergency ladder that ran up the length of the shaft.

Without hesitation he hurled himself toward the ladder and began to scale it, bullets whizzing past him. As he fought his way to the top floor, his mind was on fire. What sort of creature had snatched Samia in the darkness? Talon had faced mad cult leaders, demons, and even the spirits of the dead, but he’d never seen anything like the monster that had abducted Samia. What was he up against?
 

Casca would have an answer; the billionaire always did. There was always some archaic text he could reference that would make the miraculous feel mundane and the extraordinary ordinary. Based on the size of the tentacle, Talon concluded a beast of massive proportions lurked on the top floor. He had imagined the Jinn as a creature made of smoke or fire, but the nightmare waiting above him was all-too-solid—and a monstrosity of gargantuan size.
 

The last six months had exposed the vast gulf between myth and reality. How did Rakan control a creature of such proportions? Or maybe he was getting it all wrong here. Maybe Rakan was the servant and the beast the master. Whatever the case may be, it would be up to him to stop both man and beast, and he prayed his weapons would be adequate for the job.
 

Moving swiftly, he continued his ascent. Stray bullets pinged against steel cables, narrowly missing him. He refused to worry about Rakan’s followers below; all of his thoughts were focused on the primordial terror he was about to confront in battle.
 

He arrived at the top floor and slipped through the open elevator doors. The monster had pried them apart with enormous force and must’ve damaged the mechanism in the process.
 

As Talon stepped into the corridor, an overpowering stench of rotting fruit made him gag. His shoes smacked against the slippery floor, and he slowed his gait to avoid losing his footing on the slimy substance. After a few cautious steps—Glock in one hand, the demon slayer blade in the other—another insight hit him. The smell of decay came from the thick fluid blanketing the floor. It had to be the drug Rakan was distributing to his followers, but why had buckets of it been emptied out across the floor?

Eyes alert, nerves on edge, he advanced down the dark corridor. Adrenaline pumped furiously through his veins, his dread growing with each step. A monster lurked in these hallways, waiting to strike. He could have definitely used a pair of night-vision goggles, and an MP5 and a few grenades sure would’ve calmed his ragged nerves. The Glock and demon slayer blade felt ill-suited for battling the colossus that had snatched Samia.
 

Where was the detective? Had the creature devoured her?

A second later he received his answer as he nearly tripped over the prone figure splayed across the floor. Samia looked up at him, eyes shiny with terror and her clothes coated in slime. Her lips weakly whispered words that drove a chill up his spine: “We’re not alone.”

A sudden sound behind him made him whirl. A figure had appeared on the other end of the hallway. The powerfully built man cut an intimidating silhouette in the moonlight. It had to be Rakan.
 

There was the master, but where was the Jinn? Talon’s eyes roved the dim corridor, and at last he caught a glimpse of shadowy motion another twenty feet behind Samia. A gargantuan worm oozed from the darkness and filled the hallway with its impressive bulk. Talon swallowed hard, atavistic fear taking hold of him. The creature slithered toward Samia with preternatural speed, leaving a trail of slime in its wake. Talon’s stomach lurched, the truth hitting him in a wave of revulsion. Rakan’s drug was a byproduct of this giant worm.
 

Talon doubted bullets would be effective against a beast of that size, but old habits died hard. He reflexively emptied a whole magazine into the incoming creature, the slugs digging deep into the translucent skin. The gelatinous mass of the monster’s body absorbed the projectiles without sustaining any damage. Blood twitched and pulsed under the glassy skin, but the monster didn’t slow its inexorable approach. If anything, the bullets seemed to just be pissing it off.

Two tentacles shot out from the teeth-ringed jaw, unfurling down the hallway with lightning speed. Before they could snatch the detective and add her to its list of victims, Talon was beside her, demon slayer blade in hand. The knife cut a wide arc and found its target: the first incoming tentacle. The blessed steel managed to bite into the creature’s flesh, drawing blood where the bullets had been useless. A roar shook the walls of the corridor as the tentacle withdrew as if struck by lightning. It whipped back into the wormlike body, vanishing momentarily from view.

Talon wondered where this abomination had come from. Had some ancient ritual or some other form of infernal magic given birth to it? Or had it always dwelled amongst humanity, lurking in the shadows?
 

Didn’t matter. Casca might care to speculate at length about the Jinn’s origins, but Talon was more interested in how to defeat it.
 

Another cry of pain joined the monster’s roar. Talon whirled toward the beast’s human master closing in from the other end of the corridor. Rakan was screaming, a large gash running across his arm.
 

Somehow attacking the beast had hurt the man.

The Jinn, the drug, Rakan—the three were all linked. Together, they chained the residents of the tenement in a nightmare of enslavement and addiction. It would be up to Talon to cast off those shackles and break the hold Rakan’s drug exerted on the poor people of this neighborhood.
 

“Watch out!” Samia screamed as two more of the wounded beast’s tentacles rippled toward him. This time around one of the tendrils wrapped around him before he could launch a counter-attack with the magical blade. The creature’s wet flesh pressed with inhuman force, and he dropped the demon slayer blade with a scream of pain. Steel thumped against the wet floor.
 

The Jinn pulled him thirty feet down the hallway toward its wide-open maw, eight-inch teeth gleaming with the same strange substance that blanketed the floor.
 

Talon was helpless. Nothing would stop the beast now, unless…
 

The pentacle burned painfully against his chest, igniting in response to the approaching darkness. It made him wonder—could the amulet be a weapon as well as an early warning system?
 

There was only one way to find out!

Fueled by a rush of newfound hope, he snatched his amulet with his one free hand, every muscle in his body screaming with agony. Seconds before the teeth of the waiting maw could tear him open, he pressed the amulet against the monster’s glistening, see-through flesh.
 

The contact was electric, the results immediate. The Jinn released him from its steely grip mere seconds before those razor-sharp teeth would’ve ripped off his face.
 

The tentacles violently reared back, and Talon was sent tumbling down the corridor.
 

He hit the wet floor face first. Desperately, he pressed his lips together, refusing to allow any of the horrible, addictive substance into his mouth. Barely clinging to consciousness, he knew he had to get back to his feet.Tapping into a last reserve of strength, he stumbled erect, but it was too late. Rakan’s massive shadow eclipsed the wall before him. One meaty arm closed around his throat in a brutal headlock.
 

Talon clenched his jaw; he had to get out of the submission hold before it was too late. Instincts taking over, he twisted his head to prevent Rakan from choking him. In the same instant, he brought up his middle fingers under the man’s nose. He pushed up and back. Rakan’s grip loosened, giving Talon enough leeway to make his next move. He put all his weight into his enemy, slamming him against the wall.
 

Rakan grunted, releasing his hold with a pain-filled curse.
 

The beast on the other end of the corridor echoed his irritation with a renewed roar.
Interesting
, Talon thought. Apparently the link between man and monster worked both ways.
 

Talon spun around just as Rakan’s fist blasted out at him. The drug dealer’s paw connected with his ribs, cracking bone. Talon exhaled agony and stumbled away from the mountain of a man, who outweighed him by at least fifty pounds.

He’d defeated bigger men, but Rakan’s punches were fueled by the supernatural power of the Jinn.

Talon’s bleary eyes turned toward Samia. She had scooped up his demon slayer blade and now bravely faced the fast approaching monster. Even armed with the magical weapon, she didn’t stand a chance. The Jinn’s weight and momentum would flatten her.

Death was closing in from both sides of the corridor. The Jinn on one end, Rakan on the other. Struck by sudden inspiration, Talon’s gaze locked on Samia.

“Throw me the knife!”

The detective looked at him with disbelief yet did as she was told. She slid the blade across the floor and Talon caught the magical weapon before it slid to a stop. Blade in hand, he swung around at Rakan. To hurt the beast, he would have to harm the man. Talon drew the knife across Rakan’s face, drawing a deep gash across the man’s eyes.

Blinded, Rakan staggered back with a scream.

On the other end, the Jinn bellowed, and slowed its advance, blood gushing from its cyclopean eye.
 

The maneuver had bought Talon and Samia precious seconds.

Talon toyed with the idea of going after Rakan, but even without his sight, the drug dealer made a formidable opponent. Besides, the Jinn would be upon him before Talon could subdue Rakan.

There was only one way to defeat both enemies—turn them on each other. He would have to pit master against servant and trust that he and the detective could escape in the melee. Talon surged toward Samia and pointed at the open elevator door. Understanding filled her features and she nodded. Just before Talon flung himself through the door, he shouted, “Hey, come and get me, you slimy bastard!”
 

Before either Rakan or the Jinn could reach them, Talon and Samia jumped into the dark elevator shaft. Their hands clasped the emergency ladder while the enraged Jinn barreled down the corridor, its bulk shooting past the open elevator doors. In its blinded state, the monster was unaware that its real prey had fled. Driven by rage, it kept spiraling down the corridor, headed straight for the nearest human.

Rakan.
 

A heartbeat later, the massive beast opened its mouth wide and engulfed the man in its path. As the servant disappeared inside the translucent form of his master, the spiritual link between them shattered. The giant worm reared and bucked but kept moving, completely out of control. Unable to slow its forward momentum, the Jinn burst through the window at the end of the corridor and disappeared in a rain of shattering glass, plunging to the wet streets below.
 

***

Yasmine was about to whip out the AK-47 from under her long coat when the world around her shifted. For the first time in days, her thoughts were clear and her mind once again her own. One moment the notion of mowing down the demonic Parisians in the small café before her seemed like a sacred calling. Now she felt sickened by what she’d almost done. It felt like she was waking from a terrible nightmare. She spotted five other banlieue residents in the surging crowds, terrified eyes in ashen brown faces, mirroring her own shock and fear.
 

Yasmine was all too aware of the machine gun under her coat and the phalanx of security personnel milling around the mall. Somehow, she had to flee the shopping center and get rid of the weapon without being caught. If she was arrested or killed, then who would take care of Granny.

Her heart skipped a beat. She vaguely recalled returning to her apartment only to find Granny missing. That’s when the punks had grabbed her. They’d forced her to take the drug, and afterwards, there had been only darkness. She’d been convinced that she lived in a world where demons ruled Paris and were to blame for every misfortune that had befallen her people.

Moving as swiftly as she could without drawing attention to herself, she fled the underground shopping center. She was driven by one single thought: she had to get home. As soon as she reached the parking structure, she pulled the machine gun from under her coat and let it drop behind a trash bin. It clattered against the concrete floor and she picked up her pace, using her hijab to keep her features obscured from the security cameras placed intermittently around the parking structure.