The Order of Brigid's Cross - The Wild Hunt (Book 1): The Wild Hunt (14 page)

Sean’s unmarked police car sailed past
Damen
Avenue and then slowed as it moved parallel to the large, city park.
 
The park totaled about 70 acres and featured
a large lagoon in the center.
 
Trees on
the outskirts of the property hid the center of the park from the street view, making
it a popular place for gangs.

“Are you going to call in some backup?” Pete asked.

Shaking his head, Sean sent an apologetic glance to his
friend. “Sorry, I can’t,” he said. “I don’t know who the good guys are yet, and
I can’t risk Jamal’s safety.”

Pete glanced over his shoulder to see Jamal cowering in the
back seat, his eyes transfixed on the cloud.

“Then maybe we ought to give up the chase and just take
Jamal to wherever we started to go in the first place,” Pete suggested, turning
back to Sean.

“Yeah, that would seem to be the safest way to handle it,”
Sean said. “But I’ve got a feeling that the more people that witness what’s
going down, the safer Jamal is going to be.”

Sean turned onto an access road leading into the park as the
cloud dipped below the tree line. “I think it’s dropping over by the baseball
diamonds,” he said, passing by the lagoon on the right and following the twisting
path through a forested area.
 
“I’ll park
behind the fieldhouse.”

The parking lot was deserted, and Sean drove the car to the
edge of the lot, pulling up onto the grass.
 
The sky was now dark and opaque, and Sean flipped on his high beams to
see into the baseball fields. Suddenly, debris started slamming up against the
side of the car.

Pete looked up at the cloud lowering itself towards the
ground. “Is
this what
Jamal was telling me about?” he
asked. “Like something out of a slasher movie?”

 
“Yeah, exactly,” he
said. “And if we have a couple more witnesses…”

“It makes it harder to shut us up,” Pete finished and then
added, “Not impossible…”

Sean
nodded,
his face grim. “But
harder.”

Jamal whimpered and clapped his hands over his ears, sliding
lower into the back seat.
 
Sean looked
out the window and his stomach twisted. Bodies, more than a hundred bodies, lay
scattered in the grass less than fifty yards away, and even from this distance,
Sean could see they had been brutally dismembered.

Sean felt a tug on his shirt and turned to see Pete pointing
to a rise just beyond the bodies. Sean followed Pete’s direction, and his heart
stopped for a moment. He’d never seen anything like them. Tall, skeletal and
fierce, they moved with long, gangly gaits, their arms like tree limbs scraping
against the ground. Their backs were slightly rounded and their heads bowed as
they followed their leader across the field, blood shimmering on their weapons.
As the leader, mounted on a white horse, reached the top of the rise, he stopped
and turned. The horse reared, its mighty hooves slashed the air, and its mane
whipped in the wind, demonstrating its supremacy.
  
But the actions of the horse did not affect
the leader who had turned in his saddle and now stared back at Sean and Pete
with blood-red glowing eyes.

“Holy shit,” Pete
whispered,
his
mouth dry. “What the hell have you gotten me into this time?”

Jamal sobbed. “It’s them again,” he cried. “They gonna kill
everyone.”

Sean ripped his seatbelt off and grabbed hold of the door, Pete’s
hand on his arm staying him for a moment. “Are you crazy?” Pete asked.

Sean shook his head. “I’ve got to go,” he said. “It’s my
job.”

He paused and lowered his voice. “You stay in here with
Jamal,” he said. “If I’m not back in five minutes, you take the radio and call
for backup.
 
Then call my friend Ian and
have him come and get you.
 
His number is
on my phone.”

Pete nodded. “Don’t be stupid, Sean,” he said.

Sean took a deep breath.
“Yeah, good
advice.”

The wind nearly threw him back against the car when he got
out.
 
It blew the door shut with a slam, and
Sean was nearly doubled over as he pushed against the wind, his weapon drawn, and
moved towards the murky mist before him.
 
Up ahead, he could hear screams filled with horror and pain, and he
rushed forward.

The gray, swirling cloud was right in front of him.
 
Sean took a deep breath and then stepped
inside, tiny bits of dirt hammering his face felt like a sandblaster against
his skin.
 
He lifted one arm, protecting
himself from the larger pieces, batting his arm against the newspapers, soda
cans, and bottles, and muscled his way forward.
 
A few more steps and he stepped out of the wind into the dim twilight of
the park. He could hear the screams again, but this time they were nearer. His
stomach twisted as he watched the horror unfold before him.

Creatures.
Monsters.
He didn’t know what to call them, but they were still at the other end of the
field.
 
They were huge, at least twelve
to fourteen feet tall. They looked like…trees…but not trees.
 
Their arms were like long branches and their
bodies were moss covered. Their faces were long and fierce, their eyes devoid
of humanity.

They welded long swords and swept them back in forth in a
scything movement, decapitating and dismembering the horror-struck gang members
before them.
 
Sean pulled his gun from
his waistband and ran forward.

“Stop!” he yelled.
“Police!”

The creatures paid no attention, moving forward like
harvesters reaping a field with giant, brutal swings.
 

Sean stopped, anchored himself and fired at the monster
closest to him, fifteen yards away.
 
It
paused and turned, glaring at Sean with glowing red eyes. Sean swallowed.
“Stop!” he forced himself to yell again.
“Police!”

The creature turned and whipped its sword around, cutting
off the screams of yet another human being.

Sean could smell the metallic tang of blood; he could taste
it in his mouth.
 
The creatures had cut a
wide swath through the gangs and had left body parts strewn all around the
baseball field in pools of the victims’ own blood.
 
Moving forward, Sean stepped around the
bodies and the blood and pursued the creatures as they made their way forward,
increasing the carnage on the field.

Why the hell weren’t these kids running?

Then he realized it.
 
They
were so frightened, they were in shock.

“Run!” Sean yelled. “Run to the lagoon!”

The gang members, frozen in fear, finally started to move.

“Now!”
Sean screamed. “Run like
hell!”

There were only a few dozen left, but almost as one they
started to run beyond the field and towards the lagoon.
 
Sean watched as they pushed through the wall
of wind, slapping at the dirt and debris, and disappeared from his sight. The
sigh of relief caught in his throat when he turned back to see the creatures
were now facing him.

“Shit.”

He brought his gun forward and pointed it at them. For a
brief, hysterical moment, he thought about telling them they were all under
arrest, and then he took a deep breath, wondering what it felt like to die.

The wall of creatures parted in military precision, and the rider
on the white horse appeared from the rear of the group and galloped towards
him.
 
He was like the other creatures,
but he wore the skull and antlers of an elk on his head.

So this is what the Elk King looks like, Sean thought. At
least I’ll get taken down by royalty.

Sean fired a warning shot above its head.
“Stop!
Police!” he yelled, pleased with himself that he still could use his voice.

The Elk King came closer and lifted its long, sinewy arm,
the silver blade of the sword glistening in the dim light.
 
Everything seems to be happening in slow
motion, Sean thought.
 
He could hear the
pounding of the horse’s hooves on the sod, could actually see the dirt being
ripped up from the ground and flying into the air.
 
He could feel the ground trembling beneath
him and smell the combination of primeval forest and death in the air.
 
He widened his stance, held his arms out in
front of him and emptied his gun into the oncoming creature. The bullets did
nothing and his enemy continued forward.

The Elk King pulled his arm back, cocking it as you would a
gun, ready for the release.
 
For one
moment, Sean pictured his family and hoped they would understand that he died
doing his job.
 
The sword started to move
forward. Sean could almost hear the blade cutting the air before him.
 
He didn’t close his eyes.
 
He had made that decision when he was twelve
years old. He wasn’t going to meet death with his eyes closed.

The sword arched and Sean took a deep breath.

Clang!

It took him a moment to realize that was not the sound he
was supposed to hear. He turned to see Em, her sword before her, parrying her
sword against the Elk King.
 
Even though
she was at a disadvantage because she was on her feet, she was engaging him
stroke for stroke.
 
But how long would
she be able to do hold on?

Em had moved to the left, causing the Elk King to swing to
his right, over the side of his horse.
 
There was only one thing Sean could think of doing. He ran forward and
punched the horse in the face with all his might. Faltering, the horse slipped sideways
on the bloodied ground, and the Elk King lost concentration for a moment.
 
But that was all Em needed.
 
Swinging her sword, she brought it down on
his wrist.

Sean heard a sound, like an ax cutting wood, and a moment
later the hand and the sword of the Elk King lay on the ground.

The Elk King stared at Em for a moment, lifted his head and
screamed. A long, blood-curdling wail echoed in the park. Urging his horse into
action, he galloped back to his army, and in a moment, they were enveloped by
the whirling cloud and disappeared into the sky.

Sean turned to Em.
 
“Who the hell are you? Batman?” he asked.

“Who?” she responded.

Shaking his head, he stepped forward but tripped on
something lying in the grass.
 
Looking
down, he recoiled when he saw a decapitated head, eyes staring up at him. He
stumbled backwards, landing upright against a tree, and gagged.

“Sean, what’s wrong?” Em asked, the darkness of the night
covering the head.

He wanted to reply, wanted to say something pithy, but his
body decided to finally react to the carnage all around him. He held up his
hand, then turned around and lost all of his dinner on the roots of the tree.

Em lifted her sword and it started to glow, casting a soft
light around them. She gasped softly when she realized what had happened. “This
is what the boy saw?” Em asked.

Sean nodded. “Yes,” he whispered, taking a deep breath.
“Yeah, I think this is exactly what he saw.”

“It was the Elk King and the Wild Hunt.”

“I kind of thought it might be,” he replied, turning and meeting
her eyes. “I would have died...”

She shrugged. “You need to get a sword,” she interrupted him
and bent down to retrieve the sword the Elk King had left behind. “This is
Chrysaor.”

He shook his head. “I won’t use that,” he said.

“Chrysaor is the sword of the Knight of Justice,” she
replied, walking to him with the sword lying on her outstretched hands. “It is
the right sword for you.”

“No, it still has their blood on it,” he replied.

“What better reminder of the lives you must avenge?” she
asked, lifting her eyebrows in question. “What better reminder of the heartless
creatures you fight against?”

Tentatively he reached forward and took the hilt in his
hand.
 
He could feel a jolt of power
surge through him when he touched it. “I can feel it,” he whispered.

She nodded. “Then you can control it,” she said. “It will be
a good partner for you.”

He lifted the sword from her hands and held it against his
side. “No, the only partner I want right now is you,” he said, and then he
hefted the sword, testing its weight and balance. “But this will be an
excellent tool. Thank you again.”

“It was my honor,” she replied, “Partner.”

“Pete and Jamal, I’d like you to meet Em,” Sean said as he
opened the back door and helped her slide inside, placing his sword on the
floor in the back seat.

 
“She’s a good guy,”
Sean added. “She’s on our side.”

Jamal slowly nodded his head, still too traumatized to
speak.

Once Sean had settled into the driver’s seat, Pete turned to
him. “So, do you want to explain what happened?” Pete asked.

Sean shook his head. “Let’s wait until we get back to the
church,” he said. “Then we can have a long conversation.”

On a hunch, he flicked on his radio scanner and listened to
the dispatcher’s calls.
 
At first they
were regular calls, accident reports and a domestic violence call. But a few
moments later, a call went out to all available cars and named their park.

“That’s my signal to go,” he said, putting the car into
reverse and pulling out of the parking lot onto the street. He continued down
Pershing Road in silence until his cell phone rang, startling all of them. Sean
picked it up and put it through the car’s speaker system.

“O’Reilly.”

“Hey, Sean, it’s Adrian. I think we’ve got another call like
last night,” he said. “Do you want in?”

Closing his eyes for just a moment, Sean shook his head
slowly. “Hey, thanks, but my case load is too heavy right now,” Sean said, his
voice feigning lightness. “Besides, I’m heading home to Tiny, and you know how
he gets when dinner is late.”

Adrian chuckled. “Yeah, your cat is worse than a wife,” he
replied.

“So, was anyone hurt this time?” Sean asked.

“No one that matters,” Adrian said chuckling, “just a bunch
of gang-bangers. This keeps up and we’ll have Chicago cleaned up in no time.”

“Yeah, but then they’ll transfer you to Animal Control,”
Sean joked, though his stomach was twisting in his gut.

“Just one group of animals to another,” Adrian replied.
“Well,
gotta
go. Oh, wait, your report from last
night never did come through.”

Sean met Em’s eyes through the rearview mirror.
 
“I’ll send it again once I get home,” Sean
said.

“Great, just trying to tie up all the loose ends,” Adrian
said. “Thanks.”

The connection on the other end died. Sean picked up his
phone and turned it
off,
just to be sure there was no
way their conversation could be heard.

“The call just came through from dispatch,” Pete said.
“There’s no way he could have known the incident tonight was like the one from
last night.”

“No way unless he knew what was going to happen before it
happened,” Sean said.

“Could a detective—” Pete began.

Sean shook his head, cutting him off. “No, he couldn’t do
this on his own, but who the hell he’s working with is a good question.”

“We don’t know who they have,” Em interjected. “We just know
it’s above district level.”

“Someone from headquarters?”
Pete
asked.

“Or someone who has a hold over someone from headquarters,”
Sean surmised.

“Yes, exactly,” Em said. “We just know that strings have
been pulled in the past to stop our investigations from getting too close.”

“So what is this all about?” Pete asked. “What does this
mean?”

Sean pulled into the parking lot of the church and pulled
around to the back, hiding the car behind a cinderblock wall.
 
He turned off the car and turned to his
friend. “I would like to say that all of your questions will be answered once
we get inside,” he said. “But I’m afraid that you’re going to have even more
questions once you get the first ones answered.”