Risen: The Demontouched Saga (Book 6) (6 page)

She doesn’t flinch when my hand touches her head, even remaining perfectly still until she is gone.

After taking the woman’s knives, I turn my attention to the duo fighting across the lot. Az and Alastor are going back and forth with neither gaining any ground. Every time one would make a strong push, the other would return the favor shortly after.

I watch the path they are taking for a moment while I come up with a plan of attack. If I knew what powers Alastor had, the decision would be a lot easier. As it stands, I’m looking for a way to end this without any fuss.

The opening I’m looking for comes when the fight moves down one of the circular exit ramps on the north side of the parking garage. At one time these ramps would be fairly busy handing traffic to and from the Arch. It’s almost sad to think that they are probably the first things to go down the ramp in years.

I reach the top of the ramp when Alastor is on the offensive, the incline of the ramp giving him an edge. Alastor swings his blade relentlessly, forcing Az into a series of blocks. I jump in during one of these assaults, kicking him off balance after a particularly nasty swing.

“Look who decided to play?” Alastor says, keeping the pair of us in front of him.

“Playtime’s over,” I say, squaring up against him.

“Good,” he says. “I haven’t had a good fight in centuries.”

Az walks up getting ahead of me. “Go,” he says. “There are two other demons leading this charge. We don’t have the time to double up on one.”

I shake my head taking my spot at his side. “No, we do this together.”

“The truck is already being unloaded,” Azrael says. “I can handle him.”

Glancing to the side, I see he is right. Not only is the truck being unloaded, they are nearly done.

Reluctantly, I take a few steps back before placing the sword in its hilt. I hate leaving Az here to handle this by himself, but he is right. There is a chance I can stop them, but only if I leave now.

“Kick his ass for me,” I say, running back up the ramp to the park. I’m nearly to the top when I feel the flame.

- 8 -

My clothes ignite before I reach the top of the ramp, setting my natural instincts in motion. Most people would immediately go back to that saying we learned as early as kindergarten. Stop, drop, and roll. My instincts work a little differently than that, forcing me to run in a circle frantically hoping the wind will put out the fire for me. It isn’t until Az shouts at me to roll that I even consider it.

Finally on the ground, I work the my arms out of my sleeves allowing me to toss the jacket off to the side. My pants are another matter entirely. Being the modest type, shedding them in the same manner I did my jacket is firmly out of the question. Thankfully, I’m able to put the fires on my pants out by patting them with my hand.

When I finally get to my feet, I notice the demons lifting the final piece into the air.

“Damn it!” I yell, knowing I missed my chance to keep them from raising the final piece. I know it wasn’t a great shot to begin with, but it doesn’t make me feel any better.

Turning my attention back down the ramp I see Az backed up against the railing, surrounded by a four foot tall wall of flame. He takes a look over the side only to jump back with another wall of flame appears on the other side. Without a line of escape, it is only a matter of time before the angel is killed.

“Someone’s a little obsessed with fire,” I say, walking down the ramp.

“I see you decided to come back and play,” he laughs. “I was hoping I would be able to kill you personally.” He snaps his finger, creating a ring of fire all around me. “You are going to have to wait your turn.”

Sweat pours from my face as the heat slowly intensifies. The concrete around the flames pops and cracks as it continues to be exposed to the flame.

Alastor walks close to the flame surrounding Az. When he pulls his arm back for a death blow, I make my move.

Tossing the knives I got from the woman, I use my power to maneuver them towards his head. The first knife finds its target when he swings his arm. The force of the blow sends him off balance, forcing him to miss Az by a mile.

As he recovers from the first hit, the second knife moves in and slices his throat. Alastor drops his sword to stem the flow of blood pouring from his neck. The flames around Az and me dissipate, leaving nothing between us and the demon.

Azrael doesn’t even give me a chance to react, using his sword to remove the rest of the demon’s head with one quick slice.

“I thought I told you to stop the cranes,” he says, looking over at their progress.

“Was planning on it, but someone let Alastor light me on fire.”

He sighs. “So that’s what he was doing.”

“Besides,” I say. “It looked like you needed the help.”

“I appreciate it,” he says. “I guess we need to head back to the command post. There isn’t much time to stop them from finishing.”

- 9 -

“One Azrael, signed sealed and delivered,” I say when I enter the new command shack. Unlike the last one, Nal has this one set up across the street on Memorial. There is nothing fancy about this setup. A dozen tents are set up on each side of the road. Some of them are being used to triage patients as they are rescued from under the bridge, others by soldiers taking a break between skirmishes.

“I knew you could get him,” Uriel says, looking up from her spot at the table next to Nal.

“You look a little…crispy,” Nal says.

“Had a run in with Alastor,” Azrael says. “He decided he wanted a side of barbecued Mitch.”

I twirl around to show off the burn holes in my jacket. Sara won’t be pleased when she sees it, but there isn’t anything I can do.

“They have the last piece in the air,” I say when I’m done with my twirls. “You have anything up your sleeve for this one?”

Nal shakes his head. “I sent a unit down to Fort Leonard Wood to see if they had anything we could use. Tanks, planes, anything. I hoped they would be here by now.”

“We could do a heavy push against one of the cranes,” I say. “Taking out one should be enough.”

“I don’t know. Every time we push hard on them, they end up pushing us back. I just wish we had another way to bring it down.”

“Have you tried focusing fire on one of the steel braids holding them up?”

Nal nods. “First thing we tried.”

I scratch my head, looking for another option. Looking at the people wounded or resting, they wouldn’t give us enough to make a huge move. If we hadn’t lost so many to the bridge explosions, things would’ve been different.

“I say we take everything we have and just blitz the middle,” Az says. “It beats letting them kill us all once they finish.”

I look over at Uriel, confused. “Will the portal open the moment the final piece is in place?”

“No,” she says. “They will also need to do a ritual to activate the runes.”

“So we still have a little time,” I add. “Is Abaddon the only one who can do this ritual?”

“He and Samael.”

“Let me guess. The one Nancy is handling?”

Nal nods. “Must have been a lot nastier than I thought he was.”

“He and Alastor were both right under Abaddon,” Uriel says. “He only answers to one other.”

She doesn’t name who that is, but she doesn’t have to. It is the one that will be released from hell the moment the portal opens. I can’t imagine he is going to be the happiest being if he finally gets out.

Azrael takes a seat next to Uriel and looks her in the eyes. “Tell me how Tamiel blew up the portal last time.”

“Tam had a power that most angels do not. He was able to invert his power to turn himself into a large bomb.”

Az’s head droops when he hears the news. I’m not a fan of watching him sacrifice himself for us, but it might have been nice to have the option.

“So it comes down to us,” Nal says. “We have to stop this, or die trying.”

“Any sign of Abaddon?” I say. “If we can take her down, then we may not need to worry about the portal.”

“She is too powerful for any of us to handle,” Uriel says. “The only being she fears has had his route cut off.”

I crack my knuckles. “I’ve taken her out before so I can do it again.”

“She’s right,” Azrael says, putting his hand on my shoulder. “If you killed Abaddon before, you got lucky.”

I shrug my shoulders. “She went down like the rest of them.”

“So all we have to do is wait for you to get your ass kicked and then stab her in the back,” Nal says, laughing.

“I’m game.”

To tell the truth, I’m for anything that allows us to live another day. We spend the next few minutes throwing around a few ideas that all get swatted down. It isn’t that we aren’t willing to try, but our resources are highly limited. There just aren’t enough people to split our focus in more than one or two places.

Then behind us, I hear our salvation.

“I think you have your delivery,” I say, pointing to a purple tractor trailer approaching from the south.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Nal says, eyes widening in surprise. “Wonder what they found.”

The four of us walk down the street to the truck parked going the wrong way on 44.

“About time, Bill,” Nal says. “You almost missed the fun.”

“We weren’t going to miss that for the world,” Bill says, walking to the back of the truck. “Besides. We bought the fireworks.”

Bill opens the back of the truck revealing a few dozen wooden boxes. He hops in the back, grabbing a crowbar sitting along the side, before stopping at the first. He doesn’t wait for us to get up before busting into the first.

“Look at that,” Nal says, once the lid is open. He walks close and leans into the box.

“Is that what I think it is?” I say when he finally pulls his head out while holding a rocket launcher in one hand.

“This should work,” Nal says with a large grin on his face. “You get any more of these?”

Bill shakes his head. “Just the one. We found it in an overturned Hummer not far from the base.”

“As long as you tell me we have ammo, we are in business.”

Bill reaches into the box, digging for a moment before pulling one out.

“You have one shot,” he says. “So it needs to count. The good news is you get that shot with a Javelin. As long as you get a lock, and everything else stays out of the way, a hit is almost guaranteed.”

I look up at the three cranes lifting the final piece into the air. While they are moving slow for now, it is only a matter of time before they get it into place.

“We can’t afford to use it on a crane,” Azrael adds. “They could still manage this with two.”

“What do you suggest?” Nal says.

“Take out the piece. If they sent everything they had up here to make sure these final pieces were put into place, then we need to destroy it. By the time they make another one and send it up here, we can have the whole thing torn down.”

It sounds like a huge risk, but it has a large reward. When you consider the options, the decision is simple.

“How much time do we have?” I say.

“A few hours,” Nal says. “This piece is smaller. It shouldn’t take as much time.”

“Should be enough. Do you know how to use this thing?” I ask Bill.

He nods. “Was assigned one in Afghanistan. Never got a chance to use it in combat though.”

“Then here’s what we do.” I point over at the old KMOV building. “I take Bill and someone else to the roof. From up there we should have a clear shot.”

“Not sure well that’s going to work,” Nal says. “We had two snipers in the building at first. Haven’t seen them doing a thing for hours.”

“We can handle whatever they have in there, Nal,” Bill adds.

“Then I’ll take everything we have and make a push at the middle,” Az says. “With any luck, we can keep anyone else from following you up.”

“Sounds like the best plan we have,” Nal says.

I nod. “I don’t mean to be pushy, but we are on the clock.”

“Take Spencer,” Nal says. “The rest can go with Az.” He looks at me, showing the bags under his eyes. “Make it count.”

“We will.”

- 10 -

“I didn’t realize the door would be out in the open,” I say, peeking around the corner onto Market. Ahead of me there is a clear view of the battle under the portal, not a single tree or vehicle is blocking our view. Most of the demonic forces are still settled around the three cranes though there is a small group of them moving some some large stones into the center.

I smile when I hear a rumble of thunder off to the west. From the look of the sky, we are in for a storm in the next hour. For the first time in my life, I’m praying for strong storm.

Hail.

Strong winds.

Hell, I’d even welcome a tornado if it would rip the beams of the portal to the ground. At the least, the winds of the gust front should make it difficult on them for the next few hours.

I’ll take any bit of luck I can.

“Once we turn around this corner, we need to haul ass to the entrance,” I say. “We’ll be out in the open a lot longer than I would like.”

The two men nod and ready their weapons for the run ahead leaving me to handle the bulky rocket launcher. On the count of three, Bill and Spencer lead the charge with me trailing right behind them.

By the time we reach the shattered glass doors into the TV station, my legs and back ache. Out of all the running I’ve had to do in my life, I have to rank that as one of the worst. If we get out of this in one piece, I’m never going to run again.

I enter the lobby, careful not to slip on the shattered glass and paper scattered across the room. Much like the other buildings in the area, there isn’t a lick of furniture to be found. Like everything else around, if it wasn’t bolted down, someone probably took it.