Roaring Blood (Demon-Hearted Book 2) (12 page)

I stayed put for a minute, still fuming. I'd let my already wounded pride get the better of me and said hurtful things. Joe was a friend of mine, but you wouldn't have known it from hearing that little exchange of ours.

One thing was for sure. The ride to the park was going to be long and awkward.

***

As predicted, Joe and I didn't talk the whole way. Whenever he did speak to anyone, he gave only clipped responses. I sat in the back of the SUV, hands folded in my lap, watching the night scenery pass by through the tinted glass.

So what if Joe doesn't want to talk to you?
I thought.
It's go-time, your time to shine. Yeah, maybe you were an asshole back there, but he shouldn't have run his mouth. No one around here takes you seriously. No one thinks you have the power to win this thing solo, but you'll show them. You've faced off against Agamemnon twice now. You've seen what he can do. He doesn't have any more surprises. You don't need a team to get things done here, but they sure as hell need you.
I looked at Joe derisively.
Throwing fireballs isn't going to solve the problem. You need real brawn to tangle with the necromancer, and soon everyone will see that you're the only one who's capable.

My internal pep-talk was intended to pump me up, to get me angry and motivated. It wasn't working, though. Every word of it made me feel like a fraud. I'd escaped the last time, but Agamemnon had had things all but wrapped up against me. The guy could have carved me up like a Thanksgiving turkey if he'd wanted to, and it'd only been a bit of quick thinking that'd allowed me to weasel out of there.

But I wouldn't allow myself to show weakness. Call it stubbornness, excessive pride, downright stupidity, but I wasn't going to allow myself to be held back by this “team” bullshit. Mine was a power that couldn't be restrained, a power unlike any other. And I was going to prove it. Joe could talk as much shit as he pleased. When all is said and done, talk is just talk. I was going to aim for something more substantial than that: Results.

I'm going to tell you something you don't know about me. One of my greatest fears in life is being looked down upon as weak. Sounds like a generic fear; I mean, who
likes
being underestimated, right? But for me, it runs pretty deep. I think I've told you before about how I wasn't a particularly strong or active kid. Some would even say I was “lazy”.

Once, when I was in fifth grade, I got picked on by this bully. His name was Juan, and I still remember, to this day, the way his big, crooked teeth stuck out from behind his lips. He was bigger than me, with a real loud mouth on him, and he loved to pick fights. Well, little Lucian was willing to take a lot of abuse at the hands of this kid. Insults, pranks-- anything you can imagine in the schoolyard, really. He stole my lunch a few times. When we played dodgeball in gym class he'd take a few minutes even after the game had ended to repeatedly hit me with the ball and then order the other kids to join in.

One day, I stopped putting up with it, though. I'd spent too much time crying over the abuse, stressing out over going to school and feeling bad about myself. Those adults who constantly preached that violence wasn't the answer to conflict were drowned out in an instant when, during recess, Juan came up to me and shoved me down. I'd been wearing a new sweatshirt that day, a gift from my dad. I hadn't seen him in a few weeks since my parents had just recently split up, and dumb as it sounds, the sweatshirt meant a lot to me. Well, as it happens, I landed in a puddle and the thing got soaked through with muddy water.

He laughed and laughed, calling me all sorts of names. “You gonna cry?” he asked, getting in my face.

I won't lie. I did cry. But I also stood up and knocked his two front teeth out. I don't actually remember doing it; you could say that I snapped, blanked out for the duration of the fight. The next thing I knew I was being hauled off to the principal's office by two teachers and Juan's face was bleeding from every opening. I earned my first detention that way, and Juan eventually transferred to a different school.

The important part, though? No one at that school ever said shit to me again. I'd defended myself, made it so that no one in the schoolyard would ever mistake me for an easy target again. Something changed inside of me that day.

That's my long and flimsy justification for excessive self-pride, I guess. I was a kid who got picked on a lot, a kid who got tired of being looked at as weak, and who learned, early on, that in order to be taken seriously you have to step up to the plate. I've never responded well to being underestimated, and when Joe started discussing my failures it hurt all the more because he was supposed to be my friend.

The bully was Agamemnon now, and I was angry about more than just a soiled sweatshirt, but the fight was the same. It would have been easier to agree with Joe, to lean on the rest of the team and hope that we could all pull off a victory together. But my fight with the necromancer was personal now. I had something to prove here, and goddamn it, I was going to see this through on my own. If the others wanted to lend their support I'd have no problem with it. But when the time came for the final showdown, that hooded hulk was mine and mine alone.

Gadreel had a bone to pick with him too. It was absolutely possible that my ordinarily stubborn tendencies were coming in harder than ever because of the demon's influence. It wouldn't surprise me if being demon-possessed somehow amplified the less desirable aspects of one's personality, but I wasn't going to hide behind that. I was willing to own it: I was going to prove to everyone just how wrong they were to write me off. I
did
have the strength to take on this monster alone, and I was going to make it a matter of public record.

We got to the park. The SUVs rolled to a stop in the lot, and I immediately climbed over the seats to get out. Stepping out into the warm night, I had a look around at the dark trails that opened up before us, at the rows of empty picnic tables and grills. There were two other SUVs parked nearby, both of them teeming with commandos. They were checking their weapons and talking over radios.

And then I saw something that made my stomach turn.

In amongst this other group of commandos were the two jackasses Amundsen had hired, Kanta and Percy.
What the hell are they doing here?
I'd been under the impression that this call had been for Joe and I alone.

“Well,” I said, walking up to them with a scowl, “come to follow along with me, have you? Very kind, but I think I'll be all right on my own.”

Percy smirked. He was a hair taller than the SUV he leaned against. “I know demons are supposed to be pompous, but this guy really thinks the world of himself, doesn't he?”

Kanta rolled her eyes. “Oh, he's talking, is he? I've just trained myself to filter out his voice. No sense in getting worked up over a demon's conceit.”

“Have it your way. Just try to keep up.” I whistled loudly, waving over Joe and the team of guys we'd come with. “Let's go.”

The commandos shouldered their guns and walked over reluctantly. I knew they weren't fond of me, weren't looking forward to taking my orders, but it was time to get the show on the road. I wasn't going to let Kanta and Percy set out first and make the big find before our guys had even started down the path. If push came to shove I'd let Joe handle the troops and just go on ahead of the group. They seemed to like Joe better anyway.
He
didn't have a demon in him.

“Cool it,” warned Joe. “No stupid grandstanding, or I swear to God--”

“Come on,” I said, pointing to the trail ahead. “The patrols found a big group of undead deep in the woods here, yeah? Whereabouts? Take us to it.”

The trooper fielding my question confirmed the location of the find over his radio. “Yeah, it's about a mile in, off-trail. There's a big ravine there that's laced with a series of tunnels. They saw more than a hundred zombies hanging out there.”

More than a hundred? That was rough. I nodded, appearing unfazed by the news. “All right. Lead the way.” I peered back at Joe, then at Percy and Kanta, who'd come up to join us, grinning. “Let's get this party started.”

I followed on the trooper's heels as he started out of the parking lot and bypassed all of the marked trails. Aside from Joe, Percy and Kanta, we'd brought along about fifteen guys, all of them decked out in black bulletproof gear and packing serious heat. Not that I paid them any mind. As we marched into the dark woods, it was just me and the guide, as far as I was concerned. The two of us charged onward, and once I got a general idea of where we were headed, I even pulled ahead of him.

“Slow the fuck down, Lucy,” warned Joe from behind. “You're going to blow our cover.”

I was too amped up to slow down. My heart was thrashing, the demon lusting for a fight and driving me on. Very soon now, between some of these trees, I was going to stumble upon something I could kill. Something I could destroy ruthlessly, to use up a little bit of this rage I held.

I felt someone grasp my shoulder roughly from behind. “I don't know if you're deaf or just stupid, but you need to listen to your friend,” said Kanta, getting in my face. Her green eyes threw off the moonlight and would have been dazzling if I weren't so pissed off at the interruption. “Do you know how zombies work? If one of them spots us, they can call out to the others. They have scouts posted for that very purpose and you're going to give us away if you don't quit charging on blindly.”

I gently picked up her wrist and then tossed her hand away from my shoulder as though it were a moldy banana peel. “Thanks for the lesson, but for your information I've fought plenty of zombies. I know what they're capable of and I don't need you slowing me down. Kindly fuck off.”

The guide turned and adjusted the radio on his shoulder. “S-she's right, you know. We should probably be real slow heading this way, discreet. If one of them sees us it could be all over.”

I got in his face. “I wasn't putting it up to a vote. Move your ass.”

Percy cleared his throat loudly. I guess he was about to add to the chorus. Had he done so I would have hung his guts in the surrounding trees like Christmas garlands, but thankfully that's not what happened.

Well, maybe
thankfully
isn't the right word.

A rustling noise sounded from somewhere nearby. Everyone heard it, though there was some disagreement about where it was coming from. We couldn't be sure what caused it, either; the woods were dark and this spot was awfully crowded with trees.

“We're almost to the ravine,” said the guide, his Adam's apple quivering. “It might be the horde we're hearing.”

Joe cracked open his lighter and tossed a few fireballs into the air. They remained there, bobbing slowly and emitting a warm glow. Will-o-the-wisps. “It might just be a deer, guys. Or--”

With our surroundings lit up, the conversation suddenly died away. The light of the Will-o-the-wisps was reflected in the eyes of numerous staring figures in the immediate vicinity. Not twenty feet from me was a small cluster of zombies, staring over at us from behind the knotted foliage. Scanning the tree line and suddenly becoming very tense, I lost count at around fifteen.

Were these scouts, or had we walked straight into the horde itself? Were there really hundreds of these bastards waiting for us in the woods?

From all around us, came a slow, croaking call. The voices were surprisingly even, harmonic considering the desiccated throats they sprang from. This I took to be a warning call, summoning the main forces for assistance.

“They're calling for reinforcements,” said Percy, pulling his sword from its sheath. “They were on the lookout and we tripped the wire.”

“No shit,” I replied. The time for talking was over; we needed to shut these creatures down before they called a million more. But how? By the time we cut them all down the rest of the horde would have already heard them. We needed something fast, sudden, that could take them all out at once.

Something like a lightning bolt.

“Stand back. I'll handle this.” Channeling my rage, I reached up into the sky. It wasn't really a necessary part of the process, but the added movement really does make it more dramatic. All the while, the zombies continued their low moan.

The scent of rain, a change in the breeze.

And then I lit up the woods like the Fourth of July.

Gadreel really went above and beyond this time; not one, but
four
different bolts of lightning shot down from the sky, splintering trees and zombies alike. Their voices were drowned out by the roar of lightning and the ground shook as the forest around us was completely razed. In the flash of blinding light I watched Joe and the troopers dive for cover. Kanta and Percy were startled too. I admit I was a little disappointed when that big old sword of his didn't draw the lightning and get him killed, but the look of utter shock on Percy's face was good enough.

The air began to settle. Embers swirled by on the breeze and quiet returned to the woods. I had a good laugh, hands on my hips. “
That's
how you get a job done. Did you guys
see
that? Incredible, efficient.” The commandos looked up at me with fear in their eyes, while Joe slowly stood up and dusted himself off.

“Goddammit, Lucy...” Joe's Will-o-the-wisps had vanished in the lightning blast, but there was more than enough light to see by, what with all of the burning trees around us. “That was over the top.”

“Over the top? That was incredibly
badass
. I mean, can any of
you
do that?” I turned and looked Kanta squarely in the eye. “Still think I'm all talk?”

Her green eyes jumped out at me like vipers. “That was the most reckless stunt I've ever seen. You're stupider than I thought, stupider than I could have imagined! You could have killed us all, you imbecile!”

I smirked. “And don't you forget it.”

The troopers began muttering to one another. “Who the fuck does he think he is?” asked one.

Their fear turned to anger pretty quickly. Those troopers looked like they wanted to kill me, and I couldn't exactly blame them since I'd just scared them half to death. But the fact of the matter was that I'd just saved us from being found out. I'd killed off the scouts with a single blow-- and with style, no less.