The End of the World As I Know It (The Ghosts & Demons Series Book 2) (17 page)

The ringing in Mama’s ears seemed to have eased. “Kids! Now is not the time for
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
references!”

Trick smiled. “It’s always time for
Buffy
references, Mrs. Smythe.”

“That
did
sound very Xander,” Wil said. ’Stop it. Shut up.”

I took Mama’s arm. “Let’s go!”

Before we took three steps, we heard the roar of a big engine. A moment later, an armored vehicle lurched to a stop in front of the house. Its nose was spattered with black demon blood.

Red demons trailed in the machine’s wake. The monsters pounded down the middle of the street. They screeched angry words I didn’t know. I understood their meaning, though. Screams for vengeance are easy to translate.

There were a lot of demons racing up the street. I had a desperate urge to pee. Mama had the right ammo, but they would take her down as soon as she paused to reload. Mama’s best hope might be chucking snowballs and saying prayers.

I hadn’t run the experiment, but the rules as I understand them are these: Water is the easiest element to bless. It only takes one holy person to bless water and it takes the full charge immediately. It’s a strong conductor. Holy water is very dangerous to demons and ghosts, so why not holy ice crystals?

In contrast, holy ground requires rites of burial and religious devotion. That’s why churches and graveyards feel different, even to the Normies.

It takes the whispered prayers of many devotees to make stone dangerous to demons. However, sacred stones can hold the charge against demons for centuries.

The stones of the Keep soaked in the prayers of generations of congregations before they were useful as demon repellant. If those same stones hadn’t been so dangerous to Rory, he’d have been by my side, calling in the cavalry and filling in the gaps in our battle plans.

I didn’t have time to test my holy snowball theory. Mr. Chang emerged from a hatch in the roof of the machine. He threw me a glance and then turned the mounted gun on his pursuers. It was an MK-19 grenade launcher.

“Use the holy hand grenade of Antioch!” Trick yelled.

Lesson 141: Regular people who experienced the
Buffy
phenomenon loved it. Some dudes have a weird obsession with Monty Python jokes. When someone who is very attractive makes an obscure comedic reference you don’t really know, smile knowingly but say nothing until you can look it up on YouTube later.

Mr. Chang used the grenade launcher. The blast turned the red demons to black and crimson mash. When a second wave rushed through the snow and smoke, Mr. Chang waited for a moment until he was sure they were all in range. Then he obliterated them.

The MK-19 grenade launcher can behead bad guys as well as a blessed sword, but with less precision. In the midst of killing demons, Mr. Chang also knocked down a tree and set fire to Old Lady Robinson’s bungalow down the street.

“This is going to be a nightmare of insurance claims,” Mama said.

In a blink, Rory appeared at my side. “Get out of here, child.”

“Rory!”

He was weak. I saw the orange flames in his eye sockets, but that was about all. He was less a misty wistful and more a hint of a suggestion of a ghost. I saw through him easily. He was nearly invisible.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Nearly sent me Elsewhere. I’m hanging on to this world by a thread. Go! Get out of here! I’ll try to call for reinforcements.”

In another blink, Rory was gone. By Wil’s look, I knew she hadn’t seen our friendly ghost at all. “Iowa?
What?
”

“Rory says we have to get out of here.”

“That is the escape pod,” Trick said, running ahead of us. “Open the pod bay door, Hal!”

“Shut up, Xander,” I said. “Enough!”

“Just trying to lighten the mood.” Trick didn’t look at all cowed. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself.

Wil and I ran to the armored vehicle, hauling Mama between us.

I searched my memory. I came up with the armored vehicle’s name. Appropriately, it was called a Guardian.

The all-wheel drive vehicle, built to withstand explosives and small arms fire, is used by Military Police. Besides the grenade launcher, it had an
M-2 Browning machine gun and a M249 squad automatic weapon. In other words, it was a kick-ass war machine. The Guardian’s speed topped out around sixty-five miles per hour. That wasn’t nearly fast enough for my liking.

There were a couple of vehicles like this one parked under the Keep’s armory, ready and waiting, but only one here.

“The demons are here because Medicament is a soft target,” I said. “They know about the secret weapon. Obviously, they mean to stop us from getting to it.” I still had no idea what the secret weapon might be.

Chumele yanked the side door open a crack and peered out to make sure it was safe. She beckoned us into the Guardian.

“What about the house?” Mama asked. “All the stuff and supplies are in there and the door isn’t even closed.”

“Let them have the portable toilet seat,” Trick said. “We’ve got a mission.”

Mama looked to Mr. Chang.

“We’ve got to go, Ellen,” he said.

“But I’ve got a casserole in the oven!”

I pushed her by the butt to get her inside to safety. The rest of us boarded the Guardian. Chumele slammed the door with a clang. A moment later, Mr. Chang climbed behind the wheel and we roared off.

“Mr. Chang! Where did you get this thing?”

“In the barn. I’ve always kept it at my place.”

“How long have you been planning for this?”

“Since five months before you were born, Iowa.”

“Oh, my God!” Mama said. “I only took one box of shotgun shells with me. I left the rest by the TV chair.”

“It’s okay, Mama,” I said. “We’re safe in here.”

“Not for long,” Mr. Chang said. “We have work to do. But you can drive this thing, right, Ellen? If need be?”

“Of course, Kevin.” Mama handed Trick her shotgun and went forward to climb into the seat beside Mr. Chang.

“Can’t see much from back here,” Trick said.

“We can see,” Mama said. “You don’t want to see what I see.”

“What is it?” Wil asked.

“Disembowelments. Dismemberments,” Mr. Chang said. “People who can’t run fast. Demons who can. The worst of the first attack wave is over. People are hiding now.”

“Still…a lot of red snow,” Mama said.

Chumele sat on one of the benches that stretched along each side of the rear of the Guardian. She put her hands over her face and wept. “These people have no idea how to fight them. How could they?”

Wil looked to me. “You were out there for a while without me. What did you see?”

“Dinnertime,” I said.

Despite the roar of the engine, I could hear the screams of the victims compete with the rise and fall of the town’s civil defense siren.

“What’s the plan, Kevin?” Mama asked.

Mr. Chang turned the wheel hard and accelerated. “Hold on to something, please.”

A moment later, we hit something in the road and I saw a flash of yellow and red. Black blood covered the windshield. Mr. Chang turned on the windshield wipers.

A moment later, Mr. Chang cleared his throat. “I’ll drive us to our destination on the edge of town. After we get out, you keep driving, Ellen. Keep going until you get to a working phone. Call Victor and let him know what’s going on.”

“He knows,” I said. “Rory popped in.”

Mr. Chang tossed me a glance. “Are you sure he contacted Victor?”

“He contacted me. Surely he would get to Victor.”

“You didn’t see what the stones of the Keep did to the ghost,” Trick said. “He might not have been able to return there. Given what happened, I wouldn’t if I were him.”

I looked to Chumele. “Can you work some witchy spell? Send up a telepathic flare to the Choir or something?”

Chumele gazed back at me. Tears still slid down her cheeks but I could tell she was angry with me, too.

“That’s not how it works,” Chumele said. “And I wish you people would stop using the word ‘witch.’ I’m of the Wicca. I’m a wiccan from a long tradition and ancestry. I’m the Preceptor of the Spellcasters Brigade.”

I gritted my teeth, took a breath and tried again. “Can you warn the Choir?”

“No. I tap into the vast ocean of energy that is the universe. I’m not a human cell phone.”

“Then what good are you?” Trick asked.

“Stop it,” Mr. Chang said. “Chumele’s powers will become apparent soon. We get out in five minutes. Gather what supplies we have in the back and be ready. We haven’t much time.”

Mama leaned close to Mr. Chang. “What are you going to do with my daughter, Kevin?”

“What you always knew it would come to, Ellen. We’re going to unlock the secret weapon and even out this fight.”

“What exactly are we going to do?” Wil demanded.

Mama looked back. “The demons are bred to attack and destroy. It’s in you to save the world. That’s exactly what we’re going to do. If you fail, everything we’ve ever accomplished and everything we ever might have done will be erased by the Ra.”

Mama leaned forward from her chair and kissed Mr. Chang on the mouth. “I’ll stay with you, Kev.”

“It’s not safe,” Mr. Chang replied.

“It’s never been safe. If it’s the end of the world, we should be together. All of us.” Mama put her head on his shoulder. “No arguments, Kevin. I’m staying to the bitter end. I’m not leaving you or Tam.”

I stood, opened my mouth and then closed it, not knowing what to say. I stared at the back of Mama’s head. We went over a bump and I lost my balance. I would have fallen to the floor, but Trick caught me and sat me on the bench beside him.

“You okay?” Trick asked.

“Um.”

“You didn’t know about your mother and Mr. Chang, I take it?”

“Um.”

“Ah.”

Chapter 30

Medicament isn’t a big town. Within a few minutes we were at its edge. A few minutes later, the white light coming in through the windshield disappeared. Mr. Chang brought us to a shuddering stop.

“Welcome to my home. The house is up the hill. We’re not going to the house. We need to get through the woods to the quarry. I’d give you the tour, but we don’t have much time.”

As we exited the Guardian, I was surprised to discover we stood in a barn.

“You never struck me as the farmer type, Mr. Chang,” I said, “but I’m learning all sorts of surprising things on this mission.”

“I’m no farmer,” he said. “I grow warriors, not corn. But the accounting business paid for thirty acres.”

The wind picked up and snow blew in through the open doors behind us.

“The vehicle must not be seen from the road,” Mr. Chang said. “Close those doors.”

Wil and Trick rushed to comply. I stepped close to Mama. “When were you going to tell me about you and Mr. Chang?”

“At the right time.”

“When will that be?”

“I don’t know,” Mama said. “This isn’t it.”

“Mama!”

“You aren’t happy for me?”

“I guess. But why did you keep it a secret?”

“If you could see the look on your face right now, you wouldn’t have to ask.”

“I guess, after Dad, I thought you’d given up on men.”

“Nope. When you were a little girl, I thought you were too young to be told.”

“When I was a little girl? How long has this been going on?”

“Calm down and lower your voice. You’re embarrassing me.”

We both looked to Mr. Chang. He was speaking in low tones to Chumele while Trick and Wil stood on either side of the barn door, on guard and staring out at the rising storm through one-way glass. Mr. Chang flicked a glance our way and we both turned to examine our boots.

“Mama! How could you keep this secret for so long? He’s been my hapkido teacher since I was eleven, for god’s sake.”

“Kevin felt that if we got together in public, you might see him differently. If he stepped in as your stepfather, it could ruin the master/student dynamic. We didn’t want to risk interfering with your training.”

“But — wait a minute! You wanted to keep me
out
of the Choir. You did everything you could to keep me out of the war.”

“I was always afraid you would join the war, yes. I wanted to keep you out of it, yes. However, Peter said it was inevitable. All the seers said you would join the fight. Seems they were right. Either way, I wanted you strong so you could defend yourself, come what may.”

“Why didn’t you trust me enough to tell me all this?”

“When was a good time, Tam? When you were a kid you would have told all your classmates. When you were a young teenager, I wanted you to enjoy those years as much as possible without worrying about the future and how short it might be.”

“And when I started seeing ghosts and you put me in a mental hospital?”

“I was in a panic. I just wanted you safe. The mental hospital was supposed to be more sane than getting you into interdimensional warfare.”

I leaned against the Guardian’s nose and got more demon blood on my coat. I stepped away quickly and cursed. “If you wanted to keep me out of the Choir, why let Mr. Chang train me?”

“If you’ll recall, I discouraged you from training. But Kevin changed my mind.”

“I thought
I
changed your mind.”

“Kevin said that if the seers were right, the training would give you a head start.”

“And it did,” Mr. Chang said. He stepped close. “If we survive today, we can argue about all this over Thanksgiving dinner like a normal family. Right now, we need to get to Grove Quarry.”

At that moment, two Asian women walked into the back of the barn. The younger woman wore full plate armor, heavy and pure white. She carried a spear in her hands and a bow with a quiver of arrows on a rig strapped to her back. The older woman was a misty wistful.

Mr. Chang gave them both a nod. “Ladies and gentleman. Allow me to introduce Malta and Taeko. Malta is my daughter. Her birth name is Sasha. Taeko is my late wife.”

Mr. Chang stepped close to his daughter. I heard him say, “We’re under attack,” before they switched to a quick exchange in Chinese.

“That’s the other wrinkle that has made things awkward,” Mama whispered.

“You can
see
his ghost wife?”