Fallen Stars (The Demon Accords) (12 page)

“Good afternoon and welcome to Captain Henry’s…” the pretty young hostess said, trailing off as she got a good look at my violet eyes. 

“Hi yourself!” I said, moving closer and focusing a big smile at her.  Her heart rate climbed by a third as she immediately smiled back.  “Table for two? My cousin and I are starving.  And do you have take-out?” I asked. Her smile got bigger as she heard the word cousin and she immediately grabbed a take-out menu along with two lunch menus. 

“Follow me, please,” she said, flipping her brown hair and smiling at me again.  She pretty much ignored Stacia.  Walking just ahead of me, she glanced back over her shoulder to make sure I was close.  I was, faithfully playing the role of interested flirt so Stacia could hang back and tuck the zip-lock-baggie-wrapped book into a salty hidey hole in the aquarium.

Ten seconds later, we arrived at the table and only then did the hostess notice we were missing someone.  She frowned slightly but smiled when Stacia appeared, weaving her own way to us through the crowded restaurant.

“Sorry. I was looking at that striped eel and I didn’t realize you two had left me behind.”

“Yeah, isn’t it great!” the hostess bubbled.  “Love your shoes!” she said with a glance at Stacia’s feet.

“Thanks,” my partner smiled back.

“Well, here are your menus, and your waiter, Patrick, will be right over,” she said, giving me another big smile, then twitching her way back to her hostess station.

“Wow, if she put any more swing in that walk, she’d throw her back out,” Stacia noted before turning her attention to the menu.

“Your turn,” I noted as I saw the waiter approach.

Stacia glanced up, then looked back down at her menu. “Nope, still you,” she said, which made me look up in confusion.  Then Patrick arrived.

“Hello, I’m Patrick and I’ll be taking fabulous care of you today!” he said with a flamboyant twirl of one hand and all his attention focused on me.  Stacia grinned at me from behind her menu.

“Can I get you pretty people some beverages?”

We each ordered milk. 

“Patrick, we have to bring some food back to the rest of our group.  Can I place take-out orders now?”

“But of course!”

I ordered two salmon entrees and a spaghetti and meatball dinner for 'Sos.  When he returned with our drinks, we ordered calamari and crab cake appetizers along with bowls of lobster bisque and lobster rolls.  Patrick finished writing up the order, then made a show of looking both of us over,
tsk
ing as he did.  “I would blow up like a dirigible if I ate half that much,” he noted.  Then he looked back at Stacia’s feet.  “Fabulous shoes, girl!” then swished away to turn in our order.

“What do I do with this?” Stacia asked, showing me the empty wooden book box in her purse.  I thought about it for a minute till an idea popped into my head.

“Let’s put something else in it.  Something from the emergency kit in the car.”

She frowned, obviously thinking about the kind of items the Pack keeps in its car emergency kits.  Let’s just say that the list wouldn’t match up with Triple A’s suggestions.

“You think that will fool anyone?” Stacia asked.

“Only for a minute or two, but that could be a whole lot of time,” I said.

“Especially to Grim,” she agreed.

The food came quickly; we ate, paid our bill, and took 'Sos’s food out to where he was waiting impatiently in the car.  The Volvo shook a little from side to side as he chowed down, making the drive to the Grangers’ house feel like we were driving through a seismic shockwave.  Stacia rummaged through the kit, finally holding up the very item I had thought of.  I nodded at her raised eyebrows and she carefully fitted it into the box, then tied it closed with a ponytail holder, even going so far as to attach a note warning that opening the box was dangerous.

A big black Ram pickup truck was the only vehicle waiting in the driveway of the Granger house.  Jep unfolded himself from the driver’s side like a Transformer, his head well above the roof of the big truck.

“I’ve kept everybody out, but Ned wondered if we can use the house tonight.  Our pack is hosting some important visitors from Europe and this would be the best location if it’s not overrun with demons and shit,” the big man rumbled.

“Jep, it will either be safe to use or it will be a blast crater.  We’ll know pretty quick.  Why don’t you lead Stacia and Awasos back out to the road.  Maybe get a quarter mile or so away,” I said.

“Fuck that!  I’m here,” Stacia said.  Awasos woofed four times in rapid agreement with her statement.

“Guys, I don’t think there’s much of anything for you to do.  If I fail at this, the whole thing will go to shit,” I pleaded.

“Well then, you’ll just have to get it right the first time, won’t you!” she said, her stance daring me to attempt to make her leave.  The furry beast by her side crouched down, braced for anything.

I looked at them for a moment or two, then shook my head.  “Jep, you at least should get a safe distance away.”

“No sir.  I’ll stay on site in case you need anything,” he said, crossing his own arms.

They were all nuts. 

“Alright, let’s do this!”

Chapter 13

The house was as creepy as ever, tainted almost since its construction.  I stopped just outside the door to the third floor staircase to give Jep one of my anti-demon necklaces.

“When we go up, I’m going to close the portal with my aura.  As I understand it, the power built up in the house by all of the dark rituals that occurred here allowed the girls to complete the spell that ripped a hole in the barrier between this world and Hell.  The spell was probably partially completed decades ago and was sorta tripped by the kids.  Almost prearranged, so to speak.”  All three nodded back at me, even the wolf.  Jep noticed 'Sos’s head bob but didn’t comment, just looked slightly shocked.

“When I start this, the portal will project feelings of helplessness and uselessness.  It’s a protective measure to get me to stop and give up; sorta built-in defenses.  We can’t allow that.  I have to finish once I start or the results will be bad.  There may be more active defenders as well,” I said.  I didn’t know for sure about the last part, but it made sense, as the gate had been fully open last night and who knew what might come through.

“Define bad?” Jep asked.

“House swallowed by gaping Hellhole, but that’s just the start, as the portal will be a hundred times bigger at that point, letting all kinds of things through.  Things may try to come through while I’m closing the gateway.  You three need to stop them.  Jep, you might want to be in beast-man form if you can swing it.  Awasos, bear form.  Stacia, I need to you stay human so you can talk to me if I start to lose it.  Maybe we can find a weapon for you.”

Jep snorted.  “I got just the thing!  The Boss keeps it for Rose to use if we are attacked by a were gang.”

He disappeared into Ned’s bedroom, returning a moment later with a Mossberg semi-auto shotgun.  It was a tactical model, eighteen-inch barrel, extended magazine tube, attached weapon light, and ghost ring combat sights.  The sling had a bunch of extra shells attached to the sewn-on webbing.

“Can you handle this?” he asked Stacia, looking at her uncertainly.

She didn’t answer, just took the gun from him and expertly checked the chamber by reaching over the top the gun to pull the bolt back with her left hand, her right hand holding the grip, trigger finger indexed above and alongside the trigger guard.  Then she pointed the muzzle at the ground and looked up at him.

“My dad was an Army Ranger, my uncle is a Vermont State Trooper.  I got this,” she said firmly.

Jep glanced my way, obviously impressed, but all he said was, “I’m going to go Change.”

At the word Change, Awasos flickered and suddenly expanded into his full bear mode.  Despite himself, Jep fell back a step.

“That’s… awesome!” he said.  “But I’m gonna need a minute or two.”

He went back into his Alpha’s bedroom and after a few moments, we heard the sound of bones breaking and crunching as he rebuilt himself into something larger.

When he stepped back out, he was damned impressive.  Over eight feet tall, and he had to weigh close to five hundred pounds.  Black fur covered the massive muscles that corded his limbs, torso, and legs.  His jaws would easily close over a grown man’s head.  But his eyes still held their full measure of human intelligence and feeling.

“Okay, here’s how it goes.  ‘Sos, you’re up first.  Just go right through the door and kill anything you find on the other side.  Me next, then Jep, and finally Stacia.  Stacia, I want you to stand overwatch on me when I sit down.  Blast anything that gets by these two,” I instructed, pointing at the bear and wolfman, who both looked offended at the implication that anything could get past them.

“Specifically, the ones that crawl on the ceiling,” I said to her but looked sideways at the two massive forms next to her. That appeared to mollify their wounded egos.

With everybody clear on the plan, I opened the staircase door and looked up at the next door at the top of the stairs.  It was bowing out against the spikes I had nailed in place, flexing like something monstrous was pushing on it repeatedly.

“'Sos, you’re up!”

More than a half-ton of supernatural muscle and bone shoved passed me, flowing up the stairs in a remarkably graceful blur.  The door at the top of the stairs, its attached frame, and whatever had been pushing on it all disappeared in a crash.  I was right behind him, Grim directing my actions as we jumped into the hellish scene.  Something with tentacles squirmed under the door, its motions frantic at the crushing weight of my were-bear standing on top of it.

Awasos batted a big scorpion-looking thing across the room.  The arachnid bounced off the plaster and came back with a wicked-looking barbed tail.  My mono-edged right hand sliced the tail off while my left foot smashed a roundhouse kick right through its chitinous carapace.

Jep bounded into the room and tore into another monster that leaped out of the bedroom.  This one was only human-sized, and it had no chance against the enraged werewolf.  I realized that till this point, Jep had been helpless against the monsters that had assaulted his daughter.  But now they were coming through the passage in their true forms, something I had feared might happen but was supposedly against the Accords agreed to by Lucifer and God. It gave the giant werewolf an appropriate target for his rage.  The demon was literally torn into tiny, bloody pieces in a split second.

Every demonic monster in the sitting room was dead or dying by the time Stacia stepped through the doorway.  She had activated the shotgun’s flashlight and had the gun in the ready position with the butt touching her shoulder and the barrel pointed low and forward.  Damned if she didn’t look like she knew what she was doing.

Awasos roared and plunged into the bedroom. I went hot on his heels, Jep pounding along behind me.  Awasos stiffened both front legs and slammed on the brakes, sliding to a sudden stop.  I piled into his furry rump, then Grim took us straight to the ceiling as giant Jep smashed into my bear in a were pileup.  The big wolfman bounced off my bear, who hardly noticed, his attention intent on keeping from falling into the swirling black hole that now took up two-thirds of the room.  It had spread into the walls and floor, swallowing the beds and smashed dressers completely. 

Awasos moved right, taking up most of the remaining floor space on that side of the room.  Jep mirrored his action by assuming a guard point on the left.  I dropped back to the floor and settled into a crossed-leg sitting position that was only a mantra shy of a meditation pose.  Stacia moved up behind me, standing with her gun pointed at the center of the room. 

“Okay, here goes,” I said, settling into my spot.  Ideas and knowledge unfolded in my brain; information just suddenly appearing where none had been before.  Part of me was analyzing the opening with thoughts and words not my own. Concepts of gluons, quarks, and tachyons flashed across my mind as I gazed at the ragged shape of the opening.  My right hand directed a thin stream of aura into the broken edge nearest me.  A violet line snaked along the fractal curves and jagged outline of the portal, moving clockwise around the opening.  Part of me understood that the opening had originally corkscrewed open from a pinpoint in a counter-clockwise motion;
widdershins
, as my Scots ancestors were prone to call it.  Moving against the natural clockwise motion of the sun was considered bad luck in olden days, and my sudden profound knowledge of particle physics told me there may have been something solid behind that belief.

The glowing violet line circled back toward me, beginning to highlight an opening that had more broken lines than the coast of Maine.

“It will never work, Gordon.  You will fail, miserably.”

The words came from nowhere and everywhere.  The others all jumped as they heard them, too.

“Ignore them,” I said, gritting my teeth and feeding more aura into the line.

My abilities with my aural power had grown immeasurably since meeting Tanya, but I had never extended an unbroken line of power longer than thirty feet or so. The zigs and zags of the opening made it by far the longest distance I had ever projected.  The far side of the opening was only eleven feet overhead where it ate into the attic rafters, but my raggedy line of aura was already over a football field long.