Sacrifice: The Demontouched Saga (Book 5) (6 page)

“What’s going on?” I say to Nal when I walk through the door.

“We’ve been under constant attack since you left. Most of the nearby communities are gone. Survivors have been trickling in all day.”

I sit down on the couch across from him. “We lose many?”

“Not yet,” he says. “They have been testing our defenses though.”

“That explains the trees.”

He nods. “I’m glad to have you back though.”

“Glad to be back.” I look down at maps he has laying on the table. “That doesn’t look like St. Louis.”

“It’s not,” he says, pulling the corner from under the stack and revealing the word Chicago in large letters.

“What’s up there?” I say curiously.

“Sara.” He grabs a yellow envelope lying underneath the stack of maps and hands it over to me.

“Nancy?” I ask.

“Open it.”

I break the seal on the envelope and pull out the paper within. From what I can see it is definitely written using Nancy’s handwriting, but the similarities stop there.

Mitch,

If you hope to save Sara, you must hurry to Chicago before Thursday. Your actions down south have sent the demons into a frenzy. In response, they sent her into Chicago to challenge Michael. They know Israfil doesn’t have the power to take down an angel as powerful as him, but they can’t risk you being in St. Louis when they open the portal. You have time to find her in the city before she issues her challenge, but you must leave tonight.

Malachi

I rub my chin, contemplating the words on the note. Why would they want Israfil free just to send him north to die by Michael’s hand?

“Does yours say what I think it does?”

“Chicago?”

Nal nods. “Nancy told me they want to split us up. Specifically get you out of the picture. They figure they can keep you busy up in Chicago long enough for them to open the portal.”

“They would make me choose,” I say, putting my face into my hands. I hate being thrust into this position, but I guess I asked for it. The only sensible solution is to let Sara go, stay down here in St. Louis and keep the portal from opening. But my heart won’t allow the rational solution. It wants me to drop everything now and make the four hour trip up 55.

“I know how you feel,” he says, sitting next to me on the couch. “Just so you know. I stand by whatever decision you make.”

“Even if I leave you to face an army of demons downtown while I go save her?”

He puts his arm around my shoulder. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“I need to kick back a few before I make another long drive,” I say. “What is your plan here?”

Nal smiles at me while he pulls out the map of the city. “Apparently they completed the last pieces of the portal while you were down in Caruthersville. By my intel, they should reach the riverfront sometime tomorrow. Depending on what they are using to put the pieces into place, we should have until tomorrow night to stop them.”

“It won’t work,” Azrael says, entering the room. “If you destroy the piece, they will simply create another.”

“Then you’ll like this.” Nal pulls out a phone and shows off the pictures. “They sent all the demons on the barge when they completed the last piece. If we can hit them hard enough now, they might not even be able to create another for a while.”

“Do you have an army hidden somewhere that I don’t know about?” I say. “Because there were a few thousand demons down in the shipyard. That doesn’t count the ones they already have downtown or the humans they might have that support their cause.”

“So you are saying we have a better chance than you?” Nal says, laughing. “Look. I appreciate the thought, but if we don’t strike now, we may not get another chance. We all have to die sometime. Maybe by doing this we can give some of the others a chance.”

I nod. We all have to die. The only thing you can do is choose what you devote your life to.

“You know I want to be there with you,” I say. “When this all goes down.”

He smiles. “I know. But she needs you up there now more than I do down here.”

I snort. “I find that hard to believe.”

“Look outside. I have an army at my back. Sara is all alone. I’m sure as shit she is scared out of her mind. Lord knows I would be in her shoes.”

“Doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“I would be surprised if it did,” Nal says. “I’ll have the guys fill your car up with gas and throw in a few extra cans to get you back. It’s the best I can do without electricity.”

“Better than you had to.” But I’m won’t complain. Going to need every drop to make the return trip. He may plan on doing this without me, but that doesn’t mean I won’t make it back before the show is over.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I say to Nal who is standing next to the gates with the largest farewell party I’ve ever seen.

“Just bring her back in one piece,” he says. “We can handle it all from there.”

He hands me a couple cans of Diet Coke and a bag of trail mix for the road. “Besides, they don’t know we are bringing three angels to the party.”

I let a smile reach my lips. I already knew Nancy was planning on taking part in the assault, but apparently Uriel and Azrael are planning on joining in as well. Even with the trio of angels, I can’t help feeling like Nal is still out-manned, but his odds are tons better with even one showing up.

“You sure I can’t talk you into taking someone with you?” he asks for the third time in the last fifteen minutes.

“I’m sure,” I say, putting the car into drive. “I’m going to have enough trouble keeping myself alive.”

Nal smiles before backing up a few steps, allowing Uriel to approach the car.

“You must take care while you are there,” she says. “My brother may still not like what you can do even though you have much better control over it now.”

“Didn’t think he would.”

Part of me knows why they really sent Sara up to face Michael. It is hardly a secret that the angel general isn’t too fond of me or my pack with Eunie. I can’t help but to think he won’t change his mind when he finds out Einuir is a reaper. He may have been too busy with the demonic assault in Chicago to come down and handle me, but I won’t get that luxury up there.

“Try to find her before she issues her challenge,” she says. “He can be arrogant at times.”

“If you were the second most powerful being in existence, you would be too.”

“I’m not far behind him,” she says, smiling. “But I can’t be coaxed into a fight, like he can.”

I sigh. “So I don’t just have to stop her, but I have to keep her from just issuing the challenge. Why is this getting more difficult by the second?”

“The path is never easy,” she says. “It is just the path. You either walk it, or you don’t.”

“Or you drive a gas guzzling SUV down that bitch.”

“There’s that.” She kisses me on the cheek before taking a few steps back. “Come back to us safe.”

I nod. “I will.”

- 10 -

After an exhausting five hour trip, I pass 355 right outside of the city proper. Not knowing where the demonic activity really starts, I pull off on Lemont to find traces of civilization.

It doesn’t take me long to find it.

I approach a roadblock a little over a mile up the road. Two cars parked longways blocking the flow of traffic in the northbound lanes though I can see they have a similar setup on the other side. Off to the left I can even make out what they are protecting as there is a makeshift wall built around part of a subdivision.

I stop the car well before the roadblock and shut off the engine. The last thing I want to do is provoke a fight out here with people I don’t know. I’m going to be stirring up enough shit without looking for more trouble.

“What brings you here?” the man asks, approaching my car. He is armed with a classic hunting rifle and wearing a full camouflage outfit.

“Thought they outlawed guns here?” I say, pointing to his weapon.

“The law doesn’t mean much anymore,” he says.

“I guess not.” I open my car door slowly, stepping out with my hands up hoping he isn’t the jumpy type. “I’m looking for a friend. A woman with long red hair, about five-five, something of a feisty streak.”

“The woman from St. Louis?” a young gal, maybe in her early twenties says as she walks up to the car.

“That’s her,” I say.

The man with the rifle lowers his gun before giving me a pat down. “You need new friends,” he says, when he grabs my knife.

“Can’t argue there,” I say with a smile. “She causing any trouble?”

“You could say that.”

The young woman walks closer once the man is done with his search and offers her hand. “I’m Shelby Clark. This is my father Robert.”

“Mitch Butler,” I say shaking their hand.

“Your lady friend has a thing for fire,” Robert says, sitting on the curb. “Burned down a neighborhood just south of here this morning. The refugees have been moving in ever since.”

“It’s not her fault,” I say, as Robert hands me back my knife. “She was trying to save a group of people down our way and ended up being possessed by a demon.”

He nods. “I figured that much. We’ve been under siege by them for years.”

“Not much better down there,” I say. “In fact, some major shit is about to go down, so the faster I can find her and bring her back home, the better.”

“She shouldn’t be that hard to find,” Shelby says, backing up towards the cars.

“Just follow the fires?”

“Something like that.”

“We took one of refugees in from the other neighborhood in earlier today. You are welcome to come in and question them.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Shelby asks, taking her position.

“It’ll be fine,” Robert says. “If he gets out of line, I’ll just shoot him.”

My eyes dart over to Robert, seeing the seriousness in his eyes.

He leads me to the edge of the wall and we follow it around to the north until we reach the makeshift gate. Getting a good look at the whole thing makes me wonder how it is still standing here today as it doesn’t look like much more than sheets of tin held up with pieces of rebar. Once we pass through, I see my suspicions are true.

“I guess you have been pretty lucky?” I ask, pointing to the walls.

He nods. “We were worried when we saw the fires yesterday, but they never got any closer than before.”

“You keep talking about the fires, but I didn’t see any smoke coming in. Where was it at?”

“About a half mile south. A little ways off of Lemont.”

“Weird,” I say. “I would have thought it would still be smoldering at this point.”

“Me too,” he says, walking up to one house. “But the survivors say that the fires stopped when your friend left.”

“Interesting.”

Robert opens the front door as I walk into the house. Around the room there are lit candles along the wall at four foot intervals that cast a yellow glow throughout the room.

“Sit,” he says, pointing to a nicely patterned couch on the edge of the room. “I’ll bring one of them up.”

Robert leaves the room only to have a woman enter.

“I’m Tessa,” she says with a smile on her slightly wrinkled face. Her hair is long and blond, heavily matted though which tells me she hasn’t showered in some time though you couldn’t tell by smelling her.

“Mitch,” I say.

“Did you escape the fires too?”

I shake my head. “Nah, I’m looking for the one who caused them.”

She stares at me intently, piercing my soul with her dark brown eyes. “Why would you want to follow a demon.”

I sigh, sitting back in the comfortable couch before telling my story. I don’t tell the woman everything, however, but make sure she knows that she was possessed without her consent.

“That makes a little more sense,” she says. “But you won’t have much luck here unless you plan to kill them all.”

I nod. “I heard about the demon problem up here.”

Robert enters the room with an older woman in tow. The woman has her head down to the floor allowing the light to glisten off of the streaks of gray in her hair. He leads her to the opposite end of the couch, helping her sit before he takes a seat on a nearby recliner.

“Julie here was one of the ten survivors that came in this morning. According to her, there weren’t many more that made it out with their lives.” He takes a drink from a glass next to his chair. “She lost her husband and two sons to the attack.”

“I’m sorry,” I say as sincerely as possible.

She looks over at me and cries the moment her gaze meets mine. I hand her the box of Kleenex on my side of the counter that she takes with a nod.

“Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

She nods before blowing her nose.

“The woman that attacked you. Did she have red hair?”

Nod.

“Was she wearing a pair of red glasses?”

Nod.

“Was she alone?”

She shakes her head.

“Can you tell me who was with her?”

She sits up in the chair, looking at Robert who nods her on.

“She was with a man. He looked about my age with a thick black beard. They came into the neighborhood early in the morning before most of us were awake.” She blows her nose again. “I’ve always been an early bird.”

I smile and urge her to continue.

“When they passed by the window, I looked out in time to see her hair flying everywhere. Then out of nowhere the house across the street caught on fire. Then the one next to it.”

“Anything odd about the fire?”

She nods. “They looked like letters at first. Across the street was the letter M. Next door was an I. I couldn’t see the rest.”

Michael. She didn’t have to see the rest for me to know what was going on. I got here too late. If I had to guess, that was Israfil’s way of issuing the challenge.

I’m about to ask another question when she cries even harder.

“Then the man did something with his hands and a big gust of wind carried the fire to the other houses. After that the fires spread quickly.” She places her face in her hands and just lets go. Tessa gets out of her recliner to console the woman.