Roaring Blood (Demon-Hearted Book 2) (30 page)

At the far end of the hall, on the polar opposite side of the basement level, we entered what looked like a locker room. White tile adorned the walls and floor, and several sets of black Kevlar armor were found sitting within cubbies. When I was certain that there was no one inside the locker room, I started rifling through each set of armor, seeking one that might fit. I'd never worn this kind of thing before, wasn't even sure how to put it on. I picked up one set and it fell to pieces. I'd been expecting something like a wetsuit, but there were separate parts; some that covered the legs, one for the chest and shoulders, pieces for the arms. “How the hell am I supposed to find my size?” I asked.

Germaine ducked in and out of the cubby openings, knocking body armor onto the floor and then searching for tags. “What size T-shirt do you wear? Maybe it fits the same way?”

I frowned. “This ain't a fucking Gap dressing room, man. It's possible this stuff is just one-size fits all. Or... I dunno. Maybe there's a big size and a bigger size.” I picked up a chest piece that looked a little too big for me and pulled it on over my head. The material was thick and heavy, and it certainly felt capable of stopping a bullet. “This'll do. It's a little big, but it gives me some breathing room.” I sought out the other pieces of the outfit and awkwardly put them on. A few minutes later I put on the black helmet and respirator and looked something like Darth Vader.

“The helmet is overkill,” offered Germaine.

“Yeah, but if I walk out there without it they're all gonna know it's me, you dumbass.” The respirator portion of the helmet blocked my eyes, giving me only two narrow lenses through which I could see my surroundings. Never mind peripheral vision; the mask didn't allow the least bit of that. I felt seriously stifled in the helmet, but knew I could take it off once I got to the RenCen. I just had to keep it on while I was hanging out around HQ. The inside of the helmet smelled vaguely like some other guy's sweat, but I did my best to ignore that.

“What now?” asked Germaine.

“I guess I should go find out where the other commandos are at.” I pulled the chest piece to the side. “Climb on,” I said. “You can come along.”

Germaine feigned tearfulness. “You want to bring along lil ol' me? I'm flattered, Lucy. That's the kindest thing you've ever said to me.”

“Climb on before I change my damn mind. And shut the hell up; if someone hears you talking out there we're going to be screwed.” Germaine nestled up to my chest and held onto the inside of the body armor.

Exiting the locker room, I found the stairwell and trudged to the first floor. I've read, again and again, that the best way to blend in someplace where you don't belong is to
act
like you're supposed to be there. Walk around with purpose, act natural. Stuff like that.

So, that's what I did. I walked right across the lobby, past the front desk and the attendant, and straight out the door.

The temperature had gone up since I'd last been outside, and from the moment I stepped outdoors, I knew this body armor wasn't going to work out. I felt like I was being slowly baked. The black material drew the sun like asphalt, and I wasn't even half-way across the parking lot when the lenses in the helmet started fogging up.

“Jesus Christ, can we take off the armor?” asked Germaine, panting. “You're cooking me in here.”

“Shut up,” I muttered, face dripping in sweat. “We have to keep this on till we get to the RenCen.”

From behind me, I heard a shout. “You there!”

I turned stiffly, trying to see through the cloudy lenses of the helmet. Around the corner, near a fleet of idling SUVs, was a commando. He was wearing the black armor like I was, but he'd skipped the helmet. I waved to him and started ambling his way.

“We're shipping out. Hurry your ass up,” said the commando, nodding to the vehicles at his back. “And you don't have to wear the helmet, you know. It's too damn hot for that shit.”

I cleared my throat. I'd have liked nothing more than to take the thing off, but I couldn't let this jackass see my face. If he knew it was the Demon-Heart under here he'd flip his shit, go running for Kubo. What I needed was an excuse. “Hey, say what you will,” I began, dropping my voice an octave to try and sound older, “but I feel safer with it on. You're all gonna wish you suited up when we're in the shit. Plus, this way, I don't smell those rotting bastards quite so much.”

The commando ahead of me opened the side door of an SUV and waved me inside, chuckling. “I guess I never thought of it that way. Get in.”

I sat down in the SUV, selecting a seat in the back row. I didn't want to draw attention to myself. I just wanted to be the quiet guy in the back, with the steamy helmet on. A couple of others piled into the vehicle after me, till every seat was filled. To be honest, I couldn't really see them. The lenses in my helmet were too damn foggy at this point to make out much of anything.

I heard the doors close and the SUV start. Then the driver addressed us. “Bit of a change in plans. We're heading straight for the RenCen. We've blocked all of the news outlets from the area and we're going to try and get the jump on the necromancer. A strike team will be going in discretely.”

I'd made it just in time! If I'd hesitated in the isolation room any longer, I might've missed out on my chance to participate in the battle. What we were setting out to do now was leagues better than the original plan. If we took out Agamemnon now, before nightfall, maybe we'd avoid a war.

Something was bothering me, though. The voice of the driver was awfully goddamn familiar. I couldn't tell if it was just the bulky helmet playing tricks on me or if that was Chief Kubo talking from the driver's seat.

I stuck a finger up past the edge of the helmet and scrubbed away the film of condensation on my lenses.

Yup.

It was Kubo all right.

My body tensed so hard I nearly turned Germaine into spider jelly.
Of all the frigging vehicles I could have hitched a ride in...

THIRTY-SEVEN

Don't blow this. Don't blow this. Act cool.

Sitting in the back of this SUV while Kubo briefed the troops was pretty surreal. I could barely see the guy, but I suspected he was staring at me in the rearview mirror. Nothing I'd done so far could have possibly tipped him off about my identity... but I was convinced the bastard
knew
it was me somehow.

I sat upright and just listened to him rattle off the plan of action, his words echoing slightly within my helmet.

“We've succeeded in evacuating the surrounding area. Several blocks have been shut down and the residents are slowly being relocated. As a result, we're going to head in. We're going to meet a lot of resistance in there. Due to the possibility that the hostages are still alive we can't simply blow the thing up. That'd be terrible PR.”

There was some laughter in the vehicle at that part. I laughed too, just to play along.

Kubo continued. “We suspect that the necromancer is inside. All of you will be following Kanta, Percy and Joe. We've located a subterranean entrance to the building, through the sewer system. Once inside, you will support them as they fight their way through. We want to know what we're up against. If the necromancer is encountered, all the better. Secure any hostages and lead them to safety if possible. Kanta will be leading the strike, as she's armed with the Archangel Saber. She just needs to hack apart Agamemnon and we can all go home. Got it?”

A few “yessir's” were heard.

I don't know how long I sat in that SUV, sweating my ass off. The other troopers made light conversation. Some of the guys talked about “the game last night”, others mentioned what they planned to do after they were done with this job. I just sat there quietly. Better to play the stoic type than to risk being found out, I figured.

I felt Germaine squirm against me and lifted the chest piece of my armor just a bit to give him more room. What would I do once we arrived at the RenCen? It occurred to me that I wasn't armed. All of these dudes had guns on them; I could hear the clack of the straps as they balanced big rifles on their laps.
Shit... didn't think that far ahead, did you?
All I could hope for would be a chance to sneak away before anyone called me out on it. No one had noticed so far, but if I followed everyone else into battle without a gun I'd get a talking to for sure.

Better get used to all of this sweating,
I thought with a seasick smirk.
Hell is going to be pretty damn hot.
Something I hadn't considered was the possibility that we might
lose
this fight. Yeah, we had the angel sword and I'd snuck in at just the right time to assist the rest of the team. Overall, things were looking promising. But there were no guarantees. There never were in battle, especially when your enemy was a super-powered necromancer.

It was very possible I'd buy the farm. And if I did, I knew just where I'd end up.

Hey, don't write off that possibility just because I'm sitting here relating this tale to you. For all you know I'm dead and dictating this from the Lake of Fire.

Make no mistake, death was a
very real
possibility. It'd never been
realer
, in fact. Not a pleasant thought right before go-time.

I kind of wished I could talk the matter over with Germaine, but in the SUV it just wasn't possible. That's right; I actually
wanted
to chat with the mouthy spider. I'd have spoken to anyone willing to listen just then. Expressing my fears in words seemed like the best way to vent, but I had no choice to bottle them up as we drove along.

And then the SUV rolled to a stop.

Well, time to shift gears.
I banished those dreary thoughts and prepared to leave the vehicle.

It was true: I might die. But focusing on it too much would make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. I was alive right now and we'd made it to the RenCen, by the sounds of it. That meant that I still had time to cause Agamemnon a world of hurt.

And maybe I'd be lucky enough to see him get cut down today.

***

I could smell fire the instant I exited the SUV. Even with the respirator in place, the choking taste of smoke filled the air outside of the barricade. The Veiled Order, in cooperation with the Detroit police, had blocked off all of the streets leading to the RenCen, making it so that no one would be able to enter unless they'd been cleared by us.

We ambled out into the blazing sunlight, all of us a little twitchy in anticipation of the fight, and got into a line as we waited for Kubo's orders. When the Chief joined us, it was with a couple of other people who'd just stepped out of another SUV.

It took me a few minutes to realize it was Percy and Joe standing there next to him.

Through the foggy lenses they'd just looked like colorful, human-shaped blobs.

Gritting my teeth, I decided upon my first course of action. Before rushing into the building and kicking zombie ass, before rescuing any hostages or anything even remotely heroic, I was going to ditch this fucking helmet.

Kubo started talking, but I was too busy trying to get a look at the smoking set of skyscrapers ahead. The center building; that is, the tallest one, and the one I knew to be a hotel, wasn't actually on fire. At least, it wasn't actively burning down. From where I was standing, squinting at the far-off roof of the building from behind sweat-soaked lenses, there seemed to be something
on top
of the skyscraper that was burning. A few of the windows were leaking smoke, too, but only those in the upper stories.

Kubo began to explain. “During our last flyby we discovered something on top of the center building. It's a giant steel cauldron of some kind, and Agamemnon's guys seem to have filled it with straw and other flammable materials. The thinking is that they want some sort of smokescreen; they don't want us looking in there till they're ready to reveal themselves. It worked on the news helicopters, but we've managed to peek in through the walls with our thermal imaging tech and there appears to be a lot of movement inside. The zombies don't give off much, if any, heat. But the hostages do. And so does Agamemnon. We're not going in completely blind, but we're also not sure just how many enemy combatants we're dealing with here. I'll be hanging back, giving out orders.” He motioned to his busted arm. “I'd go in there if I could. We've selected a nearby entrance into the sewers from which we'll be able to breach the complex's basement. When HQ gives me the all-clear, these two will lead you on, along with Kanta. She was in another vehicle, but should be here any second.”

This was my chance. It was time to go before the lovely exorcist showed up and exposed me. The outfit had been a great idea on my part, but when Kanta showed up there would be no fooling her. I could trick her eyes without a problem, but she'd sense my demonic energies from far-off. I hadn't anticipated that. I started wandering away from the line, slowly. I walked past the bright orange cones and wooden signs blocking off the streets and began towards the RenCen. I wasn't about to sit around and wait for HQ to give us their blessing. The sooner we got in there, the more lives we could save.

“Where are you going?” asked Kubo, pointing to me. “It's not time yet.”

“Sorry,” I replied, voice low in the hopes that none of them would recognize me. “Gotta take a leak.”

Kubo sighed. “Should've taken care of that before you left headquarters. Hurry back here when you're done, got it?”

“Yessir,” I said, darting around a corner.

Germaine, panting like a dog, poked out from beneath the lower seam of my chest-piece. “Home-free,” he muttered.

Out of view, I took off the helmet and took a big, gasping breath. It was damn hot outside, but the breeze that washed over my matted hair felt incredible. I set the helmet down on the sidewalk and continued towards the complex, Germaine sitting atop my shoulder.

“Holy shit, feels good to be out of there. Any longer and I'd have come down with a serious case of dehydration.” Germaine glanced at the building as we approached. “So... what's your plan? I don't suppose you're gonna turn around and join the others going the underground route, are you?”