The Demon Deception (31 page)

“Well, if you’d stop moving around so much,
maybe you could order some. You know you can always have it sent to
my house, and if I’m not there, Morgan can send it wherever you
are,” Sam pointed out.

Lazarus thought about it, then said, “Well, I
think my coffee would be playing an eternal game of catch me if you
can if I did that. Plus, by the time it got to me, it would be
stale.”

“Okay, I’m just sayin’.”

“I know, and I appreciate it.”

Darcy came back and she had bought some
copper jewelry. She placed a chain with a copper cross on it around
Sam’s neck. Sam looked at it and smiled, “Thanks Darcy. I like
it.”

Darcy’s smile dimpled. She gave Lazarus a
copper bracelet with a cross and flat, blank part for his name to
be engraved on. She turned to Lilith, and gave her a copper
bracelet with a feather pendant, “I didn’t think you’d want one
with a cross on it.”

Lilith smiled, “Thank you, Darcy.”

Darcy ordered a coffee and had chocolate
syrup poured into it, to make it a café mocha.

The walked back out, and got into the van.
Lilith was driving again. She didn’t have to drive too far from
there, only about five minutes, less than a mile. She turned east
onto Tombstone Canyon drive, and drove under State Route 80. She
pulled into the Copper Queen Mine tours parking lot.

As they drove towards the office, Lazarus
noticed a burly, tattooed man in a leather jacket, dark t-shirt,
blue jeans, and heavy boots sitting on a Harley motorcycle. He had
long, blond hair, and an impressive long, red beard. There was a
Nazi Swastika tattooed on the side of his bicep. Lazarus had an
immediate disliking of the man. Beyond the Nazi insignia, Lazarus
could feel the wrongness about him. He could feel the demon
taint.

“One of yours?” Lazarus asked.

Lilith nodded, “Yeah, I have converts in the
Disciples. Plus, they really like to party.” She pulled over to the
man on the motorcycle. “Hey, Bull, where’s Skull?”

Lazarus muttered, “Apropos name for the
motorcycle gang.”

The man forked his thumb over his shoulder at
the entrance to the pit road, “He’s already down in the mine,
waiting for you, darlin’.”

She batted her eyes at him, then threw him a
kiss, “We need to get together and have another party.”

Bull smiled a big grin, “I’m up for it
whenever you are.” He looked into the van, and didn’t like what he
saw, “Friends of yours?”

She nodded, “They’re here to help us with
this problem.”

“I don’t know, hon. They look like the
problem to me. Especially that big one in back. You can bring his
girlfriend to the next party, though.” Bull blew a kiss towards
Darcy.

Sam looked like he could throttle the guy.
Darcy leaned into Sam, the idea of partying with Bull not setting
well with her.

Lilith smiled, “I’m not sure she would
survive the night with you boys. I don’t think that would sit too
well with Sam, either.”

The guy cracked his knuckles, “Don’t really
care what he thinks about it.”

The growl rumbling from deep within Sam’s
chest filled the van. Lazarus could feel the rumble deep in his
bones. Darcy looked at Sam in alarm.

Lilith laughed, “Oh, Bull, you’re funny. I’ll
see you down in the mine when you get done up here.”

Bull nodded, “I just have to talk to the
po-po, and let them know that you don’t want anybody in or out for
the next few hours, then I’ll be down there as well.”

Lilith waved, and drove past Bull towards the
access road. It went along the rim of the pit to the south side.
The van rocked back and forth as Lilith navigated around the holes
in the dirt road.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to get
this van back out of here when this is all over, Eli,” Sam
said.

Lazarus waved his concern off, “If we can’t
get it out, I’ll buy the church a new one.”

The road ran around the lip of the great pit
that made the Copper Queen Mine. At one time, it had been the
largest open pit mine in the world. Those days were long past,
however. The copper had run out, and now it was a tourist
destination.

Lilith seemed to be unable to keep the van
from hitting the deeper pot holes and ditches. Lazarus banged his
head on the window, and Sam hit his head on the roof of the van.
Darcy was starting to get queasy

“Ah, can somebody else drive?” Darcy asked.
“I’m going to throw up if this continues.”

Lazarus looked at Lilith, “How often do you
drive?”

She smiled, “Never. I don’t have to. There
are plenty of people willing to drive me wherever I want to
go.”

“Then why did you say you were going to drive
down here?”

“If I hadn’t been driving, you wouldn’t have
been allowed down here. Bull and the boys would have stopped
you.”

“You mean, you driving was some kind of safe
code?”

“Exactly. A girl can’t be too careful.”

“I think you could have accomplished the same
thing with a word, or a gesture, instead of putting everybody’s
life in jeopardy.”

Lilith pulled up to the road that lead down
to the bottom of the huge open mine pit. It was a switchback, and
very steep.

“No way I’m going to let you drive down that
damn road. Stop, put it in park.”

“I can get us down,” she replied.

“Yeah, I know you can, but I prefer to get to
the bottom alive. Not everybody in here is an immortal.”

“Okay, cry baby, I’ll stop.”

She stopped, put it in park, and climbed out
of the driver’s seat, putting her rear dangerously close to Sam’s
face, “Hey, watch that thing, Lilith.” He pushed her away.

Lazarus climbed over and got into the
driver’s side seat. Lilith wiggled, turned around and winked at Sam
and Darcy. Sam grimaced. Lilith slid over to the passenger seat and
sat down. Lazarus put on his seat belt, then looked at Lilith.

“What?” she asked.

He tapped his seat belt.

She sighed, “Really? I don’t think we’re
going to survive if I need a seatbelt. Not on this road.”

He waited. The van remained in park.

She gave up, “Fine, whatever.” She fastened
her seat belt.

Lazarus smiled, and put the van in drive. He
inched out onto the road, using his brakes liberally. The road was
very steep. When he reached the hairpin turns, he slowed down even
more.

“You drive like an old woman, Eli.”

Sam spoke, “Well, we do have an extraordinary
amount of explosives in this van. Even if we survived the drop off
the side, I don’t think we would survive the explosion at the
bottom.” He looked down at the bottom of the open pit, “And I don’t
think your motorcycle gang down there would appreciate it
either.”

Lilith craned her neck to try and get a look
at who was waiting for her at the bottom, but she was on the wrong
side of the van. She had to wait for the next turn to see who was
down there, “Good, it looks like they have their entire chapter
here.”

Lazarus spoke, “Let me guess, a pack of
lycanthropes?”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“Well, you have a pack of bikers. I don’t
think that vampires would be their style. Plus, it’s daylight. You
already have an alpha male hierarchy in a biker gang. One just
seems to fit the other.” Lazarus thought for a second, looked at
Lilith, then looked at Sam and Darcy in the back seat and started
laughing.

“What are you laughing at, Eli?” Sam
asked.

“Well, we’re in a van, we have a red head and
a brunette, and now I’m trying to figure out who’s Fred and who’s
Shaggy.” He hooked a thumb towards the big hole in the ground, “I
guess we’re taking the mystery mobile down to meet Scooby Doo.”

Lilith snickered. Sam rolled his eyes. Darcy
didn’t know what he was talking about.

Lazarus was able to avoid more of the
problematic landscape driving down the road, but even he wasn’t
able to keep the van from bouncing around. Darcy was about to get
sick in the back of the van. Sam tried to keep her calm by
massaging the back of her neck. It seemed to help, or at least keep
her mind off of the swaying of the van. She leaned her head against
his shoulder and closed her eyes, sighing. Sam ran his hand up and
down her back, trying to help her settle. He put his chin on top of
her head. She nuzzled in.

Lazarus made the last hairpin turn, and a few
thousand feet later, he pulled up alongside the motorcycles of the
Disciples. He put the van in park, opened the door, and stepped
out. Lilith was a lot more energetic. She burst out of the van and
ran over to the alpha of the pack.

“Skull, how are you?”

She melted into Skull’s arms. Lazarus felt
something, deep in the pit of his stomach. He was alarmed to find
himself growling like Sam had been at the top of the mine. Skull
grabbed her hair, bent her head back, and kissed her roughly. This
guy was even bigger than Bull. His arms were the size of most men’s
thighs, and he had no neck, just shoulders and a very round, very
bald head. He had on the same general outfit, t-shirt, blue jeans,
heavy boots, but a leather jacket instead of a vest. He had his
swastika tattooed on the side of his head.

Darcy hopped out of the van, accompanied by
the whistles of the bikers. Then, Sam unfolded from the back of the
van. Some of the bikers choked, and the whistling stopped.

Skull looked at Lazarus, “Man, you drive like
a pussy.”

Lazarus smiled and waved, “Hi, nice to meet
you, too. My name’s Lazarus. I’m Jewish, by the way.” He pointed at
Skull’s tattoo in reference.

“I could give less than a damn about
you.”

Sam walked around the van, “Hi, my name’s
Sam. I’m an American Indian. I’m one of the mud people that you
guys like to talk about. I’m not one of you pure, white guys.”

Lazarus smirked. Skull took it as a
challenge. He picked up Lilith and sat her down on his motorcycle.
He walked over to Sam, smiled, held out his hand, and said, “Well,
nice to meet you Sam.”

Sam looked down at the offered hand. It was
huge, almost as big as Sam’s. Sam held his hand out, and grabbed
the proffered hand. The bikers around them started laughing, and
taking bets on how long it would take Sam to start crying. Sam
stood there, feeling the pressure of the grip increase. Skull’s
smile grew. Evidently he played this game with a lot of people, and
hadn’t lost in a very long time, if ever.

Seconds passed, and neither man said
anything. It was a contest of wills as much as it was about grip
strength. Muscle corded on the forearms of both men, veins popping
out. Then Lazarus saw the chink in the armor. A bead of sweat ran
down Skull’s forehead. His smile faltered. His men around him began
muttering, sensing that something was wrong. Sam smiled, then said,
“Is that all you’ve got?”

Sam began to bear down. Skull’s smile turned
into a grimace. His face turned red, then purple. He showed signs
of the pain he was experiencing. Lazarus didn’t want the Alpha to
lose control of the pack, so he spoke, “That’s enough, Sam.”

Sam held the grip for a few seconds more,
then let go. Skull pulled his hand back quickly, probably too
quickly. He noticed the look on the faces of his men, and started
raging, “What the hell are you looking at? Get the weapons out. Get
the weapons loaded. I didn’t tell you to stand around.” He walked
over and slugged one of his men, to get the crowd moving. Aware
that it was not a good time to draw attention to themselves, the
other members of the biker gang withdrew, began pulling weapons out
and loading them.

Skull walked back over to Lilith, and tried
to kiss her again, but the mood was gone. She slipped away from his
kiss, and walked over to look at the weapons. Lazarus, Sam, and
Darcy walked over to see what they had.

Lazarus looked at the array of weapons. There
were all sorts of pistols, revolvers and semiautomatics in a
multitude of calibers. They had sawed off shotguns. They had M1s,
M14s, and AR15s. They didn’t have enough discipline to at least use
the same style of weapons so that they could share ammunition and
magazines.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, Lazarus
saw something that intrigued him. He walked over. Three guys were
standing there that were obviously prior military. He could tell by
the way they held themselves. All three of them had Squad Automatic
Weapons, or in military nomenclature, the M249 light machinegun, or
SAW. It was a great weapon, perfect for a squad of infantrymen.

Skull wasn’t too far behind, “yeah, we
brought the firepower. What did you bring?”

Lazarus smiled, “Oh, we didn’t bring much,
did we Sam?”

Sam smirked. He walked back to the van,
opened up the back door, and pulled out one of the M60 special
operation machineguns, “Oh, hey, look, we have machineguns too. I
think mine’s bigger though, and it shoots a bigger bullet.”

Darcy was standing next to Lazarus, “Are they
talking about the machineguns?”

Lazarus grinned, and shook his head, “No, not
at all.”

Darcy giggled, “I didn’t think so.”

Skull frowned, upset that he had been
upstaged again. The rest of the biker gang watched. They were
beginning to realize that one age was ending, and another might be
beginning. Skull was beginning to realize it as well. He didn’t
like it. He turned and walked to Lazarus, thinking he could
intimidate the smaller man, “I’m thinking I ought to just leave you
two lying face down in the dust. What do you think about that?”

It was his last attempt to take charge. If
Lazarus showed any fear at all, Skull would rally his pack, and Sam
and he wouldn’t make it out of the Copper Queen alive. God knows
what would happen to Darcy. Fear wasn’t exactly Lazarus’ style
anyway. Instead, he held his hand straight up, and then dropped it
to point at Skull’s motorcycle.

Skull laughed, “What the hell was that? Is
that all you got?”