Blood Drawn: A novel of The Demon Accords Read online

  Tanya straightened, her grin changing to calm blankness. “I should help too,” she said, dropping the broken Hellbourne that was her latest victim and moving off after the blonde werewolf.

  The drone floated down and Declan stepped out, hands in his pockets, moving over to where I was ripping my latest demon free from its husk.

  “I released a swarm of microdrones upon arrival,” Omega said. “I detect no more possessed individuals other than those currently in your proximity.”

  I paused long enough to close my eyes and expand my senses. Immediately around me, it felt like a massive weight of oily evil pressing down on me. Yet when I pushed farther out, I felt nothing. “I think they’re all right here,” I said, looking around at the dozens of corpses and soon-to-be corpses. “How long can you hold them?”

  “Weeks,” Declan said casually. “Omega, would you tell the mayor and her people that they can come out now? But that they should maybe just stay away from here while Chris finishes.”

  “I already have.”

  I got back to work plucking slime, holding it skyward and letting the smokey talons of the Kirbys yank the demons back to Hell. People, unpossessed people, started to come out of buildings, standing far away and staring as I worked. It made me a little self-conscious.

  “It’s like a crystal chime ringing nonstop,” Declan said, looking up at the stream of God Hawks that kept appearing and disappearing over my head.

  Surprised, I realized I had been unconsciously tuning out the sound of demon banishment, as I usually do. No wonder the survivors were staring. It’s been described as the purest, most beautifully clear sound a person could ever hear. But when I listen for it, the sound doesn’t seem that extraordinary to me.

  Now that I wasn’t in battle mode, I just kept up a steady pace of exorcism, Declan following me as I moved from one squashed Hellbourne to another. They were pressed down into the ground like a giant invisible shoe was stepping on them, yet I felt nothing when I reached down to each and ripped the demon free.

  “That’s pretty cool,” I said.

  Declan understood my statement instantly. “Yeah, selective application of telekinetic energy, although I’m doing it from below, rather than above, so that it doesn’t interfere with our movements.”

  “Like increasing the gravity under each of them?”

  “That’s what you and Tanya could do. I’m convinced, and so is Omega, that you guys directly affect gravity around you,” he said.

  “You said that during the interview, but why do you two think that?” I asked. Personally, I have no idea how vampires do what they do, which is also part of what I do. The supercomputer and the superwitch were by far the most qualified to figure it out.

  “It’s what the twins do. They inherited their talents from you two. Wulf bends light using gravity and Cora reduces the gravity underneath herself in order to float—we’re certain of that because Omega was able to measure gravity changes with his sensors. When vampires Push, Pull, Lighten, Cling, and Post, you’re all changing a tiny area of the planet’s gravity to achieve the action you’ve selected.”

  “So what is it you do?” I asked, ignoring the fact that he included me with vampires.

  “I take energy and apply it directly to the object I want to move or, in this case, flatten,” he said. “Usually, I would press down on them, but since I’ve been working with Earth elementals, I’ve learned to reach up from underneath and pull down. That way, there isn’t a column of raw power pressing down on them when you bend over to touch them. More efficient like a front-wheel drive versus a rear-wheel drive.”

  “But where and how does your energy do that?” I asked.

  He scratched his head and looked a little abashed. “We haven’t fully figured that out yet,” he admitted.

  “Declan and other witches, as well as regular telekinetic individuals, are somehow using quantum particles to affect their environments. How they do that is beyond my current understanding, and also, I might add, beyond the vast knowledge base of the Vorsook,” Omega said, using both of our phones as his personal speakers.

  “Wait, what?” I asked, standing upright and looking at the witch even as I ripped the next contestant free. “Did you just say that Declan’s abilities are beyond the understanding of the Vorsook? The extremely powerful, telepathic Vorsook?”

  “That’s exactly what I said,” Omega replied. “I have fully processed all the information I obtained from the vast databases I was exposed to during my contest with the Vorsook AI. They have a strong understanding of telepathy and psychometry, but not telekinesis, pyrokinesis, or clairvoyance. In fact, those talents have never appeared among the Vorsook, themselves. And the strongest case of those abilities they have come across, previous to now, is with the world of Fairie.”

  “You’re saying we have weapons that they don’t understand?” I asked, moving to my last three Hellbourne.

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  I had slowed to mostly normal human speed for the last dozen or so exorcisms, and now I needed that time to think about this new information.

  “Declan, can you remove the road barriers? I would do it but you will cause less damage than my drones,” Omega asked while I was on my second to last. “Here is a projection of the areas involved.”

  A holographic projection appeared, beamed from two hovering orbs the size of softballs. I paused before de-demoning my last Hellbourne, in order to observe.

  The free-floating wireframe projection showed the entire town and the roads leading into it, complete with details like a tractor trailer turned on its side across one road and a propane tanker parked sideways across another. The buildings and roads were lined in red, the vehicles in blue.

  “Tanker first,” Declan said, moving closer to the diagram and leaning in to observe. He frowned and I felt the hair on my neck lift as if exposed to static. On the projection, the big tanker truck was suddenly pulled right off the road, rolling on its wheels but clearly looking as if it was yanked backward by some immense force.

  “Okay, now the trailer,” Declan said, and the diagram showed the flipped multi-ton transport trailer drag itself off the road, the projection detailed enough to show furrows in the ground as it went.

  “Here are the three roads blocked by trees and poles,” Omega said, the diagram rotating in the air to show the smaller blocked roads at the south end of town. This time, Declan cleared them all at once, the trees and both sets of telephone poles flipping off the roads like a silent explosion had just gone off.

  “I have contacted the Connecticut State Police and local fire departments. Law enforcement and medical responders are inbound now.”

  It took deep into the morning hours to make headway on poor Canwich’s wounded and dead. Tanya stayed up well past dawn but when her responses slowed under the bright sun, I convinced her to wait inside the Obliterator. She and Stacia had treated more than two dozen of the most grievously wounded, Tanya using drops of her own blood to stabilize at least five people that I knew of.

  “Sixty-six, exactly,” Declan said, waving a hand to slide the last of the Hellbourne bodies into place. “Have you ever come across so many at once?”

  He had organized them into neat rows and columns so that we could search their pockets and bodies for clues. Omega had sent a score of small drones out to investigate each of the homes of the possessed. He also began an immediate online investigation into their activities.

  “Never,” I said, thoroughly troubled by the situation—as well as bothered by something else.

  “And you never had a single vision?” he asked, hitting directly on my own biggest concern.

  “No, not once.”

  “Father, Chris, we have another one,” Omega said suddenly through our phones.

  “Another Hellbourne?” Declan asked.

  “Another outbreak. Just outside Austin, Texas.”

  The Obliterator swept silently over to where we were standing, and I could see St
acia jogging our way.

  “We need to tell the mayor and chief,” I said.

  “I have already conveyed your respects,” the AI said, this time from the hidden speakers of the Obliterator drone as it sandwiched open.

  Chapter 5

  Omega pushed the Obliterator up to at least hypersonic speed and we were there in under an hour, a tiny town just south of Austin. The sun was beating down hard and hot as we slowed and pulled over top of complete chaos. The orb went transparent and it was just like before, burning cars and buildings, people running, Hellbourne chasing, police shooting, basic Hell-on-Earth stuff just like the last.

  This time, we didn’t screw around, or at least Declan didn’t screw around. The Obliterator suddenly came to a stop at least a hundred feet above the ground, right over the middle of the town, and split open. And Declan just stepped out of it into thin air… He didn’t fall; he just floated there, a hundred feet off the ground. Hmm, that was new. Then he held out both hands, palms down, and instantly pinned everyone to the ground. And I mean everyone: the entire town population, possessed and unpossessed, all at once. Moving, running, crawling one moment, then flat on the ground, frozen like butterflies in a collection. He rarely shows his full powers, even to us, and it was mildly terrifying.

  “That’s new, isn’t it?” I asked Stacia.

  “Which… the floating or the mass stasis field? You haven’t seen either before?” she asked. She was smirking.

  I raised one eyebrow and she shrugged. “This whole elemental thing has expanded his repertoire quite a bit,” I said.

  “Ya think? He’s learned to contact elementals everywhere, all the time. Probably tapping into an Earth elemental nearby,” she said.

  “Air actually,” he said, even though he was now floating seventy-five feet away. “Sound carries on the wind, by the way,” he said, grinning.

  Omega lowered the orb to the ground, leaving our superwitch floating high overhead.

  Tanya was still sleeping so it was just the three of us, but frankly it was really only me, moving from one possessed body to the next while Declan cleared the main roads and released the non-demonic citizens from his telekinetic grip, bit by bit. After a time, he floated down, smooth as silk, and with Stacia’s help got the town’s first responders up and working on casualties. Then he released the rest of the populace. With the paramedics, firefighters, and police able to treat the wounded, Stacia chose to stay right by Declan’s side.

  A fortuitous decision, as one of the people he released immediately pulled a gun on the witch as soon as he turned his back. The man yelled something in a strange language as he drew a short, trim little automatic from an inside-the-waistband holster hidden under his loose shirt. A microsecond later, the man’s forearm had been snapped sideways, torn almost off, and he was being slammed down onto the hard Texas soil with enough power to give him a concussion.

  The already shocked and traumatized Texans working around us all froze at the sight of the petite blonde beauty brutalizing a six-foot, five-inch trucker in the blink of an eye. The snarl on her face was completely feral, scaring every sane person in the area except Declan, who simply turned around and flicked his fingers, his wounded assailant immediately going blissfully unconscious.

  I was there a split-second later, but the action was over. I removed the pistol, a small Smith and Wesson 9mm Shield, cleared the chamber, and tucked it into the back pocket of my jeans.

  “Oh my God! You tore his arm half off!” the first medical person to reach us said.

  “He’s lucky she didn’t tear his head off,” I said. “Pulling a weapon on a werewolf’s mate is generally instant suicide.”

  The man looked at me sideways before turning back to his new patient. His ID badge on his scrubs told me he was Doctor Gabriel. “We have to get a tourniquet on him before he bleeds out. Wait… why isn’t he bleeding out?”

  “I closed off the arteries in his arm at the same time I choked off blood flow to his brain,” Declan said, studying his would-be attacker closely. “If you want to reconnect both ends, now would be a good time. You will also need to put a guard on him or he’s likely to make a second attempt when he wakes up, which will be any moment.”

  “You don’t know that he’ll be dangerous,” Doctor Gabriel said, glaring at the young witch.

  “Well, he did yell out Death to Satan’s enemies in the language of demons,” Declan replied, tone slightly sardonic.

  “You speak the language of demons?” the doctor asked, his common sense starting to catch up with his righteousness. “Wait… what do you mean you closed off his arteries?”

  “He’s holding them closed with his mind, Doctor Gabriel, the same way he has been holding the entire population of this town frozen on the ground,” I said, smiling when I saw the doctor realize what he had thrust himself into. He looked from me to Declan, then to Stacia before coming back to me. “So, if you want to save the arm, I think you should push it back in place or something before he gets tired and lets go,” I said.

  A male nurse came over, carrying medical supplies as Declan and Stacia stood up and moved aside. “Just let me know when it’s safe to release those blood vessels, Doctor Gabriel. And you better have a sedative ready, as he’s likely to wake up at any moment.”

  “He’s been influenced by one of the Hellbourne,” I said to the doctor as the witch and the werewolf moved off to release other people. “He’s well on his way to possession. He’ll need restraint.”

  “He’s going to be in excruciating pain, so I doubt he’ll be a threat to anyone,” Gabriel said, his outrage now replaced by the beginnings of fear.

  “Assuming anything about Hell’s minions is foolish,” I said, “and if he steps an inch in that young man’s direction, he’ll be dead.”

  “She would really kill him?”

  “She just tore his arm half off, so yes. But Doctor, I was speaking of myself. If that man threatens Declan, I’ll kill him myself. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got dozens of exorcisms to perform,” I said. In a pique of annoyance, I shoved my aura hard into the feet of two Hellbourne lying side by side just a yard away. The demons possessing them squirted out the heads simultaneously and a Kirby grabbed one in each talon before snapping out of our world.

  The doctor and nurse were frozen in place as I moved on, their eyes wide and locked on me before they simultaneously looked back at their patient.

  I kept using the double banishment technique where I could in order to speed things up. I even got a couple of triples and once, a four pack. As I worked, I reflected on how hard it was getting to be around normal people. I have so little in common with regular folks these days. Oddly, the best advice I had gotten about my growing distance had come from my gramps instead of one of the Elder vampires. I had broached the subject during a rare visit north, expecting him to not fully understand, yet he did completely.

  “Chris, you’re a combat soldier who has been fighting nonstop for most of your life, a trend that has only been accelerating since you met Tanya. Combat changes you—permanently. It’s hard to talk about ordinary things when your life and the lives of your fellow soldiers have been put into battle. And frankly, the things you’ve seen and done, the changes to you, mentally and physically, are far beyond what even a hardened soldier would ever experience. But when you are finding it hard to relate to someone complaining about a job or worrying about paying a mortgage, the trick is to try and remember that the reason you fight is so that they have the luxury to live a life that lacks the dangers you face.”

  “Was it hard when you came home from war?”

  “It was very rough. That’s why I buried myself in farming. It kept me away from society, let me gradually recalibrate to regular life until I could begin to fit back in.”

  “But this is my life… for as long as I can foresee? How do I ever fit in?”

  He shrugged. “It takes work, and it takes time to yourself too. Make sure you talk to your people. Those security guys of Tanya�
��s are all experienced military, but they have regular lives too. Ask them what they do to relate to their kids, wives, and family. Spend some time just listening to people and realize that the very things they speak of—politics, jobs, families, relationships—are only possible because of people who stand guard, who step into the night to protect fragile society. And remember that you’ve been standing guard most of your young life, Chris.”

  My grandfather never ceases to surprise me. Just when I think I have a handle on him, new depths are revealed, new understandings come to light.

  Declan started to float the Hellbourne to me, lifting them across open space, each demon-infested body flailing impotently, screaming curses, threats, and vile descriptions in multiple languages of what they wanted to do to us. And their fury was aimed mostly at the witch, not me.

  “Are they saying the same stuff in Demonese as in English?” I asked him, ripping two demons out and feeding them to the smoky claws of a God Hawk.

  “They have some extra threats for me,” Declan said as he floated another Hellbourne down in front of me. This one was a woman, midthirties maybe, just a normal-looking person who happened to be both vomiting and gushing threats with every opening of her mouth. I palmed her head and pulled with my aura, a puddle of ebony slime flowing out of her mouth, nose, ears, and eyes, straight up to my hand. I released the body, which fell bonelessly, holding my arm over my head.

  “How can two towns generate so many Hellbourne?” Stacia asked.

  “I may have the answer to that,” Omega said. “I’ve been investigating all of the Taken. Each of them had, at some point or another, visited an online site devoted to Satanism. When they did, they had to agree to the site’s terms and conditions, like so many online agreements. Buried in the legal language was an agreement to freely invite the demons of Hell into their bodies.”

  “They hit the agree button and this hidden legal bullshit cost them their souls?” Stacia asked.