Demon Singer (20 page)

It didn't take long to get Lyric shirtless, washed, and covered.  The nurse started him on an IV and was barking orders that Lyric found he could not comprehend.  Feeling disoriented and slow, Lyric tried to examine the severe looking woman who was obviously in charge, and tried to figure out why she looked familiar.  Unconsciously he began to hum, a common tendency when he found himself confused or nerved up.  Immediately the nurse clapped a hand over his mouth and hissed.

"Don't you dare, Singer."  Even through the haze of pain and confusion, Lyric had the presence of mind to be startled.  "I'd know a Singer anywhere, you glow different than anyone else, though I've got to say yours is stranger still.  Now I'll do my best to get you fixed up, but you keep your mouth shut, clear?"

Lyric nodded silently, his brief span of lucidity quickly slipping away.  Soon he was looking at the nurse in wonder, as she sprouted gray, disheveled wings that no one else seemed to notice.  Despite her bedraggled and tired appearance, she had a certain vitality about her that set her apart from everyone else in the room.  An air of being more "alive" than everyone else.  It struck a familiar chord from a half-forgotten dream.  She turned back around to inject the contents of a syringe into his IV and Lyric saw her face, though still quite severe her expression could not mask her stunning beauty.

"Are you an angel?"  Lyric asked in wonder.

The woman just grunted and turned away as the meds took hold and wrested Lyric past the boundaries of wakefulness, plunging him into peaceful darkness.

* * *

Lyric woke up in a dark room.  Looking down he saw his wound was dressed and hardly hurt at all.  To his left and wide-awake sat Cadence, watching over him.

"Have I been out long?" Lyric asked.  

Cadence held up two fingers.

"Two hours?"  

She shook her head.

"Two days?!"

This time she nodded.  Panicked, Lyric sat halfway up in the bed ignoring the spasm in his side.

"What about the car?"

Cadence pushed him back down shaking her head, which gave him a sense of déjà vu.  She pointed a thumb at herself and mimed holding a steering wheel.

"You delivered it?"

She nodded.  Grateful, Lyric closed his eyes and focused on his tie.  

Acheron?

Glad to see you're back among the living,
came the weak reply.  
You had some seriously messed up dreams.

I can barely hear you,
Lyric thought at her.

I'm saving my strength.  This spell isn't a stopper, it's more of a compactor.  It's trying to send me down the chute to hell.  No pressure,
she laughed merrily at her pun,
but are you ready to find that mute?

I don't know where to look.

Yes you do, you grew up with one.  Think back to something that bothered you enough in your childhood to send you running to your Aunt Bea.  Remember exactly how that felt, then go out and start walking, mutes are always within walking distance.

Lyric opened his eyes at a touch on his arm.  He looked up at the severe gray haired nurse who cared for him when he came in.

"I'm not sure who you're talking to, though I fear I have an idea, but you need to get out of here."  She checked his vitals while talking.

"I'm not talking to anybody," Lyric protested.

"Singers make terrible liars, young man, don't bother.  I don't know who or what you are but you're marked with Notation's seal, which means I have to help you regardless of your identity.  There are detectives outside waiting for you to wake up so they can question you; I'm assuming we need to get you past them."

"Detectives? Why? What's a notation seal? Who are you? How do you know what I am?"

"Hospital protocol.  Anyone who comes into ER with wounds sustained from violence is reported to the authorities.  I couldn't do anything about it.  Besides, I normally agree with the system.  Nevertheless,
you
must remain free.  Notation is the angel charged with transcribing the Score, and he has marked you for protection, though I don't know why.  The beacon he put on you is so bright I saw you coming and rushed back to the hospital so I could watch over you.  Any of us who've stood in the presence of the Composer will defend you against harm as long as you bear that Mark.  Now I've healed you as best as I can. The foxglove and blood loss were causing some hallucinations but were no problem.  The infection was nasty and would have killed you within a few days if you didn't get attention.  The problem is there's a sickness infecting you that I can't fix.  You need to get yourself completely healed."

"You're an angel."  Lyric said in wonder.

"Yes, I'm guardian of this hospital.  The staff here calls me the gray angel," she almost smiled.  "They have no idea."

"I thought guardian angels were huge with flaming swords."

"It’s with my other set of scrubs."  She seemed so serious Lyric wondered if she was telling the truth.  "Let's figure out where you are going to find a healer to handle that ugly bit of business inside you."

"A friend of mine said I need to find a mute."  Lyric began dressing.  The nurse looked up from the papers she was filling out.

"Who are you?" She demanded.

"My name is Lyric.  You said you already know I'm a Singer, what more is there to know?"

"Singers are educated thoroughly and carefully, but mutes aren't part of that education.  Very few creatures in creation know about them, how do you?"

"My friend told me about them."

The nurse looked at Cadence.

"Vergers don't know about them either."

"She's not a verger, nor is she the friend I was talking about.  What's the problem?"

"Where's your verger?"

"Sick, because of that magical infection you can't see.  Will you please tell me where the mute is so I can help her?"

"The biggest protection mutes have is their secrecy and the fact they can't be traced or found.  You shouldn't know they exist.  Even if I was inclined to tell you I'm not able to, that's part of their protection.  I can't even talk about them without feeling guilty of indiscretion.  Only the highest ranks of the Composer's court can divulge their secrets. Now here you are talking about mutes, but exhibiting no sense of propriety, blithely demanding a location that, if you were taught about mutes correctly, you would know I can't give you.  So who's your friend?  My protection does not require my ignorance."

"I think you'll be happier not knowing.  If you could get us out of here that'd be splendid."

The nurse fixed Lyric with her penetrating gaze and he felt very much like a child being scolded for lying.  Abruptly understanding dawned on her face.

"You're the Demon Singer." She said quietly, "you poor child," sadness softened her severe expression.  "Wait three minutes after I leave the room then go."  She turned and left without another word.

Three minutes later, Lyric and Cadence made their way out of the room and headed to the elevator.  They reached the lobby with no incident and were a handful of steps away from the door when four uniformed officers entered the lobby from another hallway.  Trying to remain nonchalant, Lyric led Cadence to the doors, avoiding direct eye contact.  They'd almost reached their goal when Lyric saw one of the officers turn toward them and sniff the air.  The sinking feeling in his stomach was validated when the cop called for them to stop.  Lyric considered stopping for half a second, but the decision was made for him.  Cadence grabbed him by the hand and bolted out the door making for the car.  The sudden abrupt movement sent a lance of pain through his wound.  Gritting his teeth, he forced the pain aside and relentlessly forced his legs to keep pace with the small warrior.

As soon as they reached the parking lot, they ducked behind a brown pickup.  Peering through the windows Lyric saw the cops heading straight for them, all four with their noses in the air.  Suddenly the police officers were bowled over by Lyric's nurse as she threw herself into them from behind.

"Go!" She yelled as she broke an arm on one of the officers as if it was a dead tree branch.  The man howled in pain and his three companions turned on the nurse, snarling their rage.

Lyric watched the guardian angel throw the men around as if they weighed nothing.  Cadence pulled his arm and he let himself be hustled to his car.  Jumping in he started the engine and was surprised the familiar whine and rumble from under the hood were gone.  Hitting the gas they took off with shocking speed, almost crashing into several parked cars before Lyric compensated for the improved and more delicate response of the machine.  Apparently, the Keylac did more than tune up his vehicle.

As they sped out of the hospital parking lot Lyric looked in his rear view mirror and would have laughed at the sight of four more police officers chasing them on foot, had it not been for the fact they were keeping up.  Shaking his head, he despaired at his inability to go for any extended period without having someone want to see his insides become his outsides.  

Lyric stomped on the gas pedal and his car shot forward.  Careful steering and blind luck saw them avoiding slower moving cars and hurtling through red lights without crashing.  Lyric spared a brief glance in his rear view mirror and saw his pursuers had fallen behind but continued their dogged chase.  

The soul singer improvised a brief melody that caused cars he passed to stop and skid sideways in the road, forming blockades.  Though the police continued to fall behind, another glance saw them leaping over the obstacles without difficulty.  Eventually, excessive speed and careful steering left their pursuers behind and found them several miles away parking on the far side of town in the shadow of a large, abandoned looking factory of some kind.  

Acheron, what are the chances of you pushing past that stopper?

I won't be able to do it for long,
came the faint reply.  
Let me know when it's time.

Lyric turned to Cadence.

"Those cops weren't human.  Based on what I saw back there I think they're probably werewolves.  If that's the case we won't be able to escape them, we have to stop them.  I'd rather get it over with, are you ready?"

Cadence nodded, two silver raptor blades suddenly in her hands, she offered one to Lyric.

"No thanks, I wouldn't know how to use it."  The Singer wondered again at the mystery of his protector. Once again, it would have to wait.  "Let's go in here and find a defensible position."

They entered the factory and discovered a huge metal maze of broken down machines, stairs and catwalks.  Cadence put a hand on Lyric's arm and gestured for him to head up a flight of stairs down the aisle.  Before he could comply, she pulled his shirt up and over his head.  He blinked in surprise as she took off at a dead run, waving his shirt in the air.  He wondered if she was infected too and maybe going a little crazy.  Once she began rubbing his shirt on stair rails and metal struts, he realized she was spreading their scent to make it harder for the weres to track them.

The Singer made his way up the stairs and located a narrow hall on the top floor that led to an office with a fire escape out the window.  Half a minute later Cadence joined him a few feet into the hall and they waited.  It didn't take long.  They heard cars pull up outside and booted feet running into the building.

The wolves had arrived.

18 WERES

It's weird how stories and legends change and grow over time.  For example, vampires are not pretty and they're not magic.  They started out as an ancient disease, transmitted through saliva, extremely hardy and highly contagious.  They drink blood and are stronger than your average human is.  However, they are often sickly and they have terrible breath.  They are smart and sneaky and are a major presence in the supernatural black market.  Most humans are nothing more than a walking snack bar to them, but typically, they're opportunistic bullies; cowardly, selfish and more than happy to eat their own mothers if there's a profit to be made.  

Weres, on the other hand,
are
magic.  Their origin is a mystery shrouded in time.  Unlike shifters who are mortal and whose magic is learned or given, weres' magic is intrinsic.  No one knows why they change, and contrary to popular belief their bite will not cause you to become a were.  It might get infected and cause you to get sick and die, but it won't turn you into one of them.  Unlike vampires, weres are very healthy and immune to disease.  They're also extremely hard to kill; their only real weakness is a high sensitivity to silver.  They suffer an allergic reaction resulting in anaphylactic shock that leads to a quick but painful death.  The only protection they have against silver is the presence of the moon.  For some reason, moonlight protects them from their allergy.

For centuries, the largest clan of weres, the wolves, has served as police, private investigators, bodyguards and mercenaries.  The wolf clan is famous among the supernatural and second sighted as tenacious and loyal.  They never hire out singly or in pairs, but always in groups of at least three or four.  The nature of their magic while mysterious is extremely potent.  They are fearless, strong, fast and resistant to all but the most powerful magics.  

Standing next to Cadence, Lyric began his song.  As soon as he began singing the sound of the weres moving below stopped for a second, then began again in earnest.  A moment later, the first one appeared around the corner.  He was big and obviously very strong.  While this registered on a superficial level with Lyric, it didn't really matter.  He narrowed his focus and sent his song to wrap around the giant were as he stalked forward slowly, cautiously.  A howl of agony erupted from the poor creature as his clothing turned to silver at the command of Lyric's song.  The Singer was already thinking ahead to other songs, as the were's throat seized up and he fell to his knees, gasping for air and tearing at the clothing that had become his death.

Lyric's next song was in mind and he shifted to it as two more weres came around the corner.  Flame erupted in a sheet across the hallway, peeling paint from the walls.  To Lyric's surprise and disappointment it didn't even slow down the weres approach.  They walked through the flames as if they didn't exist.  As Lyric shifted songs again he made a mental note to inform Master Storn that weres were unaffected by fire.

The next song tagged on the first, ripping the silver clothing from the barely wheezing were on the floor.  The uniform stood up and approached the advancing weres.  This gave them pause.  Snarling angrily they stopped walking and glared at Lyric.  The Singer's sense of satisfaction was short lived however as his opponents unholstered their firearms and took aim at his head.  Cadence yanked him out of the way and sped down the hallway to engage the enemy.

In a flash, she was before them, spinning and slicing with her wicked raptor blades.  The first wolf dropped silently, spouting blood from his newly ventilated neck.  The second was considerably louder as he managed to block her first attack and took the poisonous blow on his forearm.  He swung with the other arm as he shrieked in pain.  Cadence evaded the strike easily and inserted a curved blade between his ribs, putting a stop to his beating heart.

As one, four more weres came charging around the corner and Cadence dove into them without hesitation.  Lyric prepared to assist his bodyguard when he heard the sound of breaking glass come from the office at the end of the hallway behind him.  Turning to face this new threat he saw five more weres emerge from the office.  So much for a defensible position.

Acheron, now's good.

With an ear-shattering shriek, Acheron appeared out of the dark that split the air in the hall.  She tore into the five weres, with a fury that was savage and shocking.  Lyric had seen her fight before but never had he seen her so vicious.  She brutally rent limbs from bodies, swinging them like baseball bats at the others, sending them flying.  The startled weres slowed their attack and those remaining looked for a way to overwhelm the demoness.  Acheron stood before them defiantly and filled the air with expletives that cut off midstream as she toppled to the ground and vanished.

Lyric reeled from the sense of weakness that overwhelmed him as Acheron disappeared.   Staring at the spot she had occupied seconds ago, he reached wildly for the tie and came up with numbness.  The tie was still there but it felt dead.  Returning his attention to four more wolves approaching from the office he felt the familiar personal terror that accompanies facing one's death and seeing it smile.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw a bloody Cadence shred the last of the weres approaching from the hallway.  Turning toward him, she wiped blood from her forehead and stepped resolutely between him and the four remaining weres advancing from the office.

Lyric began to hum, using a simple tune from early in his training taught clandestinely by older students to younger to give them an extra edge during some of the physically arduous exercises they were put through.  Immediately a surge of refreshing energy flooded through him and Cadence as they faced the remaining weres.  Not wanting to wait for them to press the attack, Cadence leapt at them and cut one down before they could react.  As one, the other three leapt on the small warrior, seeking to bring her down together.

Lyric surged into the fray, pulling one of the attackers off her and hurling him into the wall.  Unfazed, the were attacked the Singer viciously.  Lyric, well trained in unarmed combat, held his own with rapidly decreasing effectiveness, giving way before the fury of the were's attack.

He heard a grunt, a wet pop and an angry snarl behind him.  A heavy weight hit the back of his knees and he sprawled over the werewolf Cadence had just killed.  The were he was fighting lunged forward to press the advantage when he was stopped abruptly by Cadence's boot as it broke his nose, sending him reeling backward.  The extremely lethal woman stood over Lyric with Silver raptor blades in each hand pointing at the two remaining weres.  The one with the broken nose spoke as Lyric rolled to the side and stood up.

"Get back to the master and tell him we failed."

The other were took off as broken nose jumped at Cadence.  She plunged one of her blades into his throat and ripped sideways, nearly severing his head.  Lyric watched the life leave the were's eyes before he hit the ground, hoping he never became comfortable with the horror of bloody combat.

Cadence closed the eyes of her recent enemies and smiled wearily at Lyric.  The Singer nodded heavily and the two of them began the depressing and unpleasant chore of cleaning up the bodies.

* * *

Melody listened quietly to her general's report.  Finally some good news.  The Singer and his strange companion lived, but one of the elves in the diner had managed to banish to demoness back to hell.  According to her Mistress that was about as ideal a situation as could be.  She couldn't wait to report.  Her attention came back to the general who was still speaking.

"... as you ordered your majesty.  Even if they didn't believe in our cause, they'd give their lives for your glory.  I've sent the bulk of the forces to the coast to prepare for the western approach.  All seems to be going well."

"Thank you, Rondeaux, you've made your goddess very happy. One more batch from Falspoh won't hurt. I have business to attend to; I'll meet you at the training ground in a few days." Melody favored her general with a bright smile.  "The time we've dreamt of fast approaches.  Our agent will get us into Markhato and we'll extinguish the Light.  Then the veil will fall. All because of my beloved followers. These are important times we live in, general."

General Rondeaux saluted smartly and turned to leave.  Melody waved a hand over her body to return to her natural state and headed to Markhato.