Demon Driven (21 page)

I straightened, turning to check the leader.
He was circling against the far cage wall. I moved steadily toward
him, shifting back and forth to match his turns, narrowing the arc
of his path. Finally, he stopped his pacing and faced me full-on,
heavy body crouched low to the floor, ears back, nightmare teeth
bared. He lifted his head and howled a long hair-lifting, primal
cry. The call of the apex predator, facing the end. Without any
pause, his howl turned to a rage-filled snarl. A deep evil laugh
met his battle cry, and I realized it had come from me.

His charge was the fastest he had moved yet,
straight for my throat, oversized jaws wide as death’s door. He
expected a dodge, jump or evasion, his yellow eyes watching for any
shift in my posture. I didn’t budge, my body Posted, waiting till
those slavering teeth were almost to my face and then jammed my
flattened upright hand into his mouth. Feeling contact he bit down
with thousands of pounds of force, driving the mono edge on my
thumb right through his own pallet, effectively bisecting his own
skull. My left hand caught his dense chest and stopped the impact
of his charge cold, the heavy chest bones crushing under his own
momentum.

I dropped the body and looked around the
cage. Blood pooled and glistened in the florescent light, bits of
fur floating in the air and sticking like dandelion fluff, caught
in red glue. I turned, my rage free and unchecked.

I bounded to the door and struck it once with
my right hand, hard. The heavy metal tore and the door slammed open
as I rounded through it onto the were bear and cougar.

“Next!” I said, my voice unrecognizable even
to myself. Everyone near me scrambled backwards, the Loki members
showing terror on their faces. “No? No more claims on the girl?
Pity!”

Several hundred faces showed almost uniform
expressions of shock and, on some, horror. The rage wanted more,
but a heavy weight on my chest and neck made itself known. The Tear
of God seemed to weigh as much as a pickup truck, hanging on my
neck. It had been weightless mere moments ago. My hand touched it,
to ease the weight, and instantly, my rage turned to sorrow. Loss.
Sadness. Resolve.

Faced with each wave of emotion, the beast
sought shelter in its own cage, shuttering itself in and returning
me to myself. The aural mono edges dissolved, leaving a tingling
feeling on the skin of each hand.

No one said a word for a moment, while I came
back to myself. Then Brett stepped forward.

“Dude! You’re a mess! Let’s get you cleaned
up!”
The kid had balls. I looked down and had to agree. My torso and
hands were spattered with blood, gore and bits of fur, and I could
feel something hot and wet dripping through my hair and down the
right side of my head.

He led me to a locker room, the crowd
evaporating in front of us like water on an Arizona pavement. A
dark cloud of self-loathing was creeping over me, and when I looked
behind me at the bloody footprints I was leaving, I saw Stacia’s
horror-stricken face, matched by her mother’s, next to the wide
shocked eyes of Afina and Kelly. Well, so much for her little
crush!

* * *

Brett sent someone up to the store for some
Powerbars while I scrubbed myself raw in the shower. I wasn’t sorry
for killing the Spawn members, but I detested myself for enjoying
it so.

Forty minutes later, I was dressed and above
ground, standing in the hiking supply section of the headquarters
store. Brett had stayed near me the whole time, and now he
straightened upright as his parents headed toward us. A pile of
crumpled ration bar wrappers lay on the counter next to us, and the
next victim, a squeeze tube of chocolate GU was just about
finished. One of the store clerks was watching us from the corner
of his eyes, a little shocked at my feeding frenzy. Brett’s calm,
slightly amused presence kept the employees at bay.

“Chris, are you alright?” Afina asked as they
drew closer. I got the impression she wasn’t asking about my
physical health.

I nodded, swallowing the last of the GU,
before answering.

“I’m okay. Just didn’t want to disturb the
party any further,” I said.

Brock was frowning slightly, but he nodded at
my words.

“Hey Brett, did you manage to place any
bets?” I asked while opening the wrapper of a Cliff bar. The hiking
stuff tastes alright, but it’s low in fat and I’m a huge fan of
fat. Saturated, unsaturated, poly whatever, bring it on.

“Oh yeah! About that….I got about half of it
bet,” he said while digging a wad of cash out of his pocket.
“Here’s the part I couldn’t get to. Things went to hell kinda fast,
but don’t worry, I’ll collect the … er ... rest of it,” he
said.

I stuffed the cash in my pocket and finished
off my energy bar.

“Yeah, that’s cool. You still interested in
the farm up north?” I wasn’t at all sure he would be. Every were in
the building was watching me like a rabid animal, but careful not
to give offense. Ya know, ya chop three experienced adult weres
into chunks the size of a kitchen garbage bag and people start to
treat you different. Go figure.

“Hell yeah! Dad can we go up tomorrow?”

Brock paused before answering, his eyes
flicking to me and then back to his son.

“Tomorrow looks bad, but maybe the day after.
Excuse me a moment,” he said, moving off to speak with a threesome
of weres leaving the luncheon. They watched me from the corner of
their eyes as they spoke with their Alpha.

“Chris, please forgive my husband. Your …
fight rather shocked him. I’ll admit that despite what Lydia and
Gina have told me, even I wasn’t prepared for that!” she said,
touching my arm as she spoke.

There is something oddly comforting about
women who casually touch during conversations. Nothing sexual, just
calming. Some men even can get away without it seeming effeminate,
you know, the guy that gives you a manly shoulder smack. But with
women it tends to be kind of grounding.

“Yeah, I’m actually more of a laugh at kids’
parties. Not so much the adult, fighting and bloodshed kinda of
parties,” I replied, my tone trying for light.

She smiled and Brett snorted, so I must have
gotten part of the tone right.

“Listen, I’m gonna get going. Brett, let me
know when you want to go north. My schedule is pretty much wide
open these days. Oh, and whatever my winnings are, take half and
use it to get Stacia and her mother set up, okay?”

He nodded, and Afina crossed her arms and
gave me a smile.

I stepped out the front doors, put my hands
in my pockets and started to walk.

That’s when the helicopter swooped down
overhead and the black SUV’s slammed into every intersection, men
in black SWAT gear boiling out like ants.

Chapter 22

Duclair! It had her written all over it. My
brain raced, multiple options flooding through it. I rejected
almost all of them. They all had a common thread, federal agents
injured or dead. A dozen green laser dots danced on my chest (green
lasers are easier for the human eye to see, they’re all the rage
with tactical types), and the Bell helicopter circling twenty-five
feet over my head had a sharpshooter on each side, belted in, feet
on the skids. I had heard the helicopter some time ago, but there
is always a copter or two fluttering around the city, particularly
Manhattan, so I hadn’t thought much about it.

Tac teams continued to swarm, but one large
figure held a megaphone instead of a rifle.

“HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD, GORDON!” Adler’s
voice boomed over the sirens and rotor wash.

I complied, slowly, struggling to control the
beast inside. It was screaming for blood and death.

“KNEEL AND CROSS YOUR ANKLES!”

Footsteps pounded across the pavement at me
from two separate directions, the battle schematic in my head
showing two very large football player types charging my position
from behind. I ignored them, wrestling myself, the cage door almost
undone.

My face mashed into the pavement as a
combined five hundred pounds slammed into and drove me down. I
almost lost it then. Almost tore them apart. But by luck or chance,
my face ended up looking back at the Lupine building, where people
crowded the windows of the second-floor party room and the first
floor store. I saw Brett, Brock, and Afina on the ground floor, and
above them, Stacia, her mother, Kelly and young Bryce, all staring
as the federal storm troopers took me into custody. That alone gave
me the strength to close the cage and chain it shut.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, I was sitting in the
federal building that housed the Department of Homeland Security,
about fifteen stories up, locked in a standard federal issue
interrogation room. Metal chair, metal table, big one-way mirror
window, just like the movies. My arms were bound behind me with at
least three flex-cuffs. The only addition to the room were the four
tactical team members standing in each corner of the room, M4
rifles slung across their chests. Books, Splitter, Data and old
Rattler himself, Agent Simmons.

They had searched my pockets, relieving me of
my cell, cash, wallet and pocket knife (I still carry one, mostly
out of habit, despite the mono-edge thing), but they completely
missed the Tear of God necklace. My cell phone had been going
crazy, even as they pulled it out.

“Whoa …would you look at her!!” Splitter
said, showing the others the photo of Tanya that comes up when she
calls me.

“Maybe when we’re done with you, we’ll go see
her!” Simmons leered.

I laughed in his face.

They didn’t know it, but if I didn’t leave in
the near future, she would come to them. My guess is that they
wouldn’t enjoy it.

I knew I could leave at any time, but again I
didn’t want to hurt anyone. Plus I was interested in where this was
going. So I waited, amusing myself by sending aura bursts in ever
expanding spheres to transmute the ammo in their guns. I couldn’t
be sure, but there was a real solid chance that not a single gun on
that floor would fire, and probably the floors above and below as
well.

The door to the observation room behind the
mirror opened and I heard voices through the wall.

“-he was actually kind of a letdown! Not a
single squawk or problem when we took him,” Duclair’s voice
said.

“Took him? Brianna, what have you done….oh
no!” I hadn’t expected Inspector Roma’s voice. “Are you insane? I
told you to
ask
him to come, not use a takedown!” he said,
real worry in his voice.

“Inspector, much as I hate to admit it,
Duclair did get him here without a scratch on her agents.” That
voice was deep and gravelly, completely unfamiliar.

“How long ago did you grab him?” Roma asked,
his voice urgent.

“About twenty-five, thirty minutes ago,”
Duclair said.

“Chris, I’m sorry, this is so not my idea!”
he said. The sonic picture in my head showed him looking at me
through the glass as he said this.

“What are you doing? He can’t hear you, the
microphone is off and these walls are sound…” Duclair was speaking
when I interrupted.

“That’s okay, Inspector, it was classic
Duclair,” I said staring right at his position behind the one-way
mirror.

“Shut up clown!” Simmons said. He couldn’t
hear the others in the observation booth.

“He heard you?” the deep unknown voice
asked.

“Of course! General, if you’re not going to
listen to anything I tell you about him and his…companions, then I
would like to leave. Now!” Roma said.

“Settle down, Inspector. So he can hear us,
what’s the issue?” the ‘general’ asked.

“How much time do we have, Chris?” Roma asked
me instead of answering.

“It’s hard to tell, Inspector. I won’t know
’til
she
is closer. I don’t have her range. But she’s only
half the problem,” I answered

“Oh no! The D.T.?” He was really scared now.
D.T. was the team’s nickname for Okwari. I didn’t love the name,
short for Damnedthing, which Okwari wasn’t anymore.

“Yeah, he’s getting impatient. I’ve been
waiting for you guys to show up. A few minutes more and all Hell
would have broken lose.”

“Inspector, what the hell are you two talking
about?” the ‘general’ asked, getting impatient.

Simmons moved to smack me, but the intercom
came before he could.

“Belay that, mister! He’s talking with us,
now get back to your station!” the ‘general’s voice snapped.

Roma spoke as soon as the general was
done.

“Sir, as soon as Brianna grabbed him,
his…ah…girlfriend knew. She’ll be coming for him if we don’t let
him call her. The more immediate problem is the elemental class
entity that I told you about.”

“The bear thing or damn thing or what have
you? And it’s broad daylight! How is the vampire girl gonna get
here?” the general’s voice said.

“Sir, again, you need to listen to
me
about this stuff. The older ones can move about in daylight if they
choose. She will come. But the D.T. will have long since destroyed
the building and everyone in it if we don’t let Chris go. Speaking
of which, Chris, why did you let yourself get nabbed?”

“Well, I figured we might as well get this
out of the way. Although, honestly, I was expecting more of a job
pitch than a snatch and grab. When that went down, I figured you
would be taking me to some underground high security lab. I’m a
little offended that this is all you think of me,” I said, waiving
my arms around to indicate the room and guards. Pieces of plastic
flex cuff fell around my suddenly free arms. I must be getting
stronger, ‘cause the cuffs broke easier than I had expected.

Briana’s men started at my unbound arms and
immediately pointed their useless carbines at me.

“Sir, if you want your men here to survive
the next few moments, you’ll want to tell them to stand down. I’ve
about had enough for one day,” I said.