Unmasked (4 page)

Chapter 5

The little demon looked so sad and pathetic, Addie couldn’t stand it. “Can we take the net off of him? The poor little guy looks exhausted.”

Jett cocked an eyebrow and stared at her. “He’s a demon. We’re supposed to kill them.”

Addie folded her hands across her chest and glared at Jett. “He’s barely a foot tall. Just look at him! He doesn’t look very threatening.”

Jett rolled his eyes, but then he knelt in front of the demon and stared at him. After a minute, the demon nodded his little horned head. Jett must have figured the demon was okay, because he slipped the net off the creature and set it aside. “Do you have a name?” he asked.

The demon looked from Jett to Locan and then settled on Addie before he nodded. “Ukopach,” he said. His voice sounded all rough and squeaky at the same time, but maybe he didn’t talk much in his own world.

Nodding, Jett glanced at Addie and Locan. “Minor demon,” he said. “I think he’s supposed to guard the fires of hell, but he’s not known for being particularly vicious. Just watches over the fires and keeps things hot.”

The demon stood up, nodding his head. “And blow things up. Kaboom!” He spread his hands wide.

“So how’d you end up in Hollywood, inside an actor?” Locan crossed his arms over his chest and looked a lot more intimidating than he had a moment earlier.

The little demon fell back on his butt. “Moloch said Yush made him.”

“Why?”

The power behind Jett’s simple question raised shivers on Addie’s arms. No wonder the demon was shaking like a leaf.

“Yush hungry.” He curled up in a little ball and hid his head under his bent arms.

“Wait right there. We’re not going to hurt you.” Addie patted the demon’s bony shoulder and dragged the boys off to one side. “Okay. So what’s going on? Who’s Yush? And Moloch’s just the name of a dumb video game.” She nodded toward the demon. “He acts like Moloch’s a person or something.”

“Try ‘or something,’” Jett said. “Moloch’s a real demon, but in this case, I think it’s just the name of the lead video game demon. He might act like Moloch, but he’s not the real thing, thank goodness. The real demon Moloch requires child sacrifice, though he’s still not as powerful a demon as Yush, who likes to hunt humans.”

Locan nodded. “Yush thinks of humans as the main course with a purpose. They taste good and he gains power from each one he eats.” He glanced at the demon then back at Jett and Addie. “So? What’s your take?”

Jett stared at the little demon. “Yush, and maybe even Moloch, or demons who want to be like them and are using their names, have infiltrated the CGI bodies of the video game demons. That’s giving them a form that has the ability to interact with humans. It’s also given them an army. I would venture to say that the one who ate the assistant director is Yush, but the others are merely creatures like Ukopach here. Gaming demons who have taken on the names of real demons, or maybe they just use the names the video game designer gives them. Point being, they’re essentially animations, but they have enough intelligence and self-awareness, manufactured or otherwise, to exist outside the game. But something has to power them away from the game, and something has to have called them away. I wish I knew if Yush was the only real demon here, or if maybe Moloch is one as well. If so, I wonder who the hell Moloch has possessed?”

Addie thought back to the movie set and the various people she’d been watching. The director hadn’t acted like a man possessed, but he’d not been nearly as upset as a guy should be after watching his assistant get eaten by a demon. “I think Moloch’s the director. He’s got to know what’s going on. I bet he’s helping this Yush demon . . .”

“. . . who is probably the one in the makeup trailer. Could he be calling up the video demon forms and helping them complete the possession?” Locan cast a quick look at Ukopach. “But why?”

“Yush gains power from the humans he eats,” Jett said. “If he controls the video demons, he’s essentially controlling the humans, once the demons take over. They’re little guys, and mostly animations, after all—not all that powerful, and yet any demon, no matter how weak, can easily take over a human who invites them in. If the humans are opening themselves to demonic possession, which they must be doing in the makeup trailer, then they’re giving up their souls to the demons, who in turn give up the bodies to Yush.”

“Who then has plenty to eat, and they’re not going to fight him because the ones controlling the human bodies are video game demons and they’re used to being controlled by the gamers.” Locan shook his head, but he was chuckling softly. “In the video game, which is their real world, they get blown up whenever the game is turned on and they get caught, but they always come back to life for the next game.”

Addie’s head was spinning. “So you’re saying that Yush is the real thing—he’s a real demon, who has somehow infiltrated The Trials of Moloch video game, and he’s got the gaming demons under his control through Moloch, who is their imaginary ruler, and Moloch has somehow gotten them all into Earth’s dimension, where they seem to be able to function as real demons, not pretend ones.” She squeezed her head between both hands. “Sheesh . . . that’s a bit much, don’t you think? How?”

“Yush.” Jett cast a long, steady gaze at the little demon, who was a quivering mass of tiny arms and legs by the time he looked away. “The more I think about it, I’m convinced that Yush is the only real demon. He’s got the power, and he’s probably shared it with Moloch to bribe him to come along. Probably told him he can turn him into a real demon, but I imagine that if we can get Yush, the others will disappear. They’ll go back to their game where they belong.”

Jett quickly spun and planted himself in front of the terrified demon. “You know Yush?”

Ukopach nodded his head so hard Addie was afraid his horns would fall off. “Yush bad demon. Very strong. Hurt Ukopach!” He wailed desperately, stretching his name into a loud howl. Then he fell over.

“There’s no time for drama, Ukopach!” Addie grabbed him by the shoulders and made him sit up. “Look. We’re trying to help you. If we can get rid of Yush, we can send you back to your world. You can go back to racing around the forest, hiding from the cannons and getting blown up so you can start all over again. Does that work for you?”

“How?” He hopped to his feet and stared at Addie. “Can you do that? Send me home?”

“We can. But we have to go back to the set, and you have to show us which one is Yush.”

He stared wide-eyed for a long time. First at Jett, then Locan, and finally Addie. Then he nodded, but he didn’t look very happy about it.

Addie glanced over her shoulder and caught Jett and Locan grinning. “Okay. So what’re you two jerks laughing at?”

Jett grinned. “He’s awful cute. Think we could keep him?”

“No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!” Ukopach wailed and toppled over.

“Thanks so much for your wise and thoughtful assistance.” Addie glared at the guys, grabbed Ukopach under one arm, and sent herself back to the Hollywood Hills.

* * *

As she expected, the guys appeared beneath the huge Hollywood sign at the same time she did. It was dark. Addie had been worried that the movie crew might have folded up shop for the night, but bright lights on the hill above them still filled the sky.

She wrapped an arm around Ukopach and balanced him on her right hip as if she were carrying a toddler. He was actually smaller—she didn’t think he weighed more than ten or fifteen pounds. She felt him drawing energy from her—it was probably the only way he could maintain his form in the real world—but it was such a small amount she didn’t worry about it. “You guys ready?”

Even the demon nodded. “Ukopach, we’re going to go in cloaked as shadows. I want you to become mist, the way you were when we caught you. Can you still talk to me?”

He nodded and touched his head. “Okay. Let’s go.” Partially dissolving until she was nothing more than a dark shape among shadows, Addie
jumped
to the movie set on the hillside above. She spotted Jett on her right, Locan moving away on her left, closer to the director, though he quickly disappeared in the sharp shadows cast by the klieg lights.

Which way, Ukopach? Where is Yush?

In that room where we were given our humans.

The makeup trailer?

She sensed rather than saw a misty shrug.
Jett? Let’s check out the makeup trailer. I have a feeling Yush will be there in his demon form. It won’t take as much energy, and they’re all in costume or possessed, anyway. I doubt any of the human actors would even notice.

Okay—we’re looking for a really ugly big red demon with six fingers on each hand.

Sounds lovely. C’mon, then.
She wasn’t quite sure how she’d ended up in charge of this expedition. Maybe it was because the little demon was clinging to her, but Addie drifted through the shadows, skirting the main part of the set, where the director was screaming at some poor actor about something. She knew Locan was over there trying to find out if the director was the real Moloch, or merely a video game demon posing as the real demon.

This was so weird, being surrounded by humans all possessed by demons who weren’t really the spawn of hell . . . no, they were merely the spawn of some game developer’s warped imagination, which could, of course, be the same thing. But knowing they were probably under the control of a bona fide demon meant she and the guys couldn’t ignore the potential threat.

Nothing about this job had been normal. That didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous. Jett slipped on ahead of Addie and found a door at the back of the trailer that was ajar. The gap was wide enough they were able to slide in without being noticed. The little demon, though he was nothing more than mist, suddenly flattened against Addie’s shadow form.

Is that Yush?

Scary.
Ukopach’s voice quivered in her mind.
So scary. There. In the corner.

He really was scary. Yush was huge—almost seven feet tall with long, scraggly white hair and a filthy beard that appeared to be stained with blood. His teeth were needle-sharp points that overlapped his upper and lower lips, if you could call them that. His face reminded Addie of a large, fanged lizard, and his hands with their six fingers were absolutely huge. Shuddering, Addie looked away and caught Jett’s almost imperceptible shake of his head.

He’s going to be tough to kill, but at least we don’t need to worry about harming an avatar. That’s the real thing.

I think you’re right.
She concentrated on Ukopach.
Who are the other demons? Are they inside humans?

The little guy clung even tighter.
Yes. Everyone is stuck in a human. They know I’m here. They want to know if you’re going to save them.

Addie’s mind spun. How could she get them to help?
Tell your friends we’ll do our best. What does it take to get them out of the humans without hurting anyone?

Gamers use a big cannon.

Addie sighed. That wouldn’t work.
That would kill the humans, Ukopach. Can’t do that.

Does water kill humans? The cannon in Trials of Moloch shoots water.

Jett coasted near.
Remember, this is a little kids’ video game. There are different levels of weapons, a water cannon and one that shoots water balloons.

We have to get rid of Yush, first. Any ideas? I doubt a water balloon’s going to do the trick with him.
Addie glanced at the big red demon in the corner. He was huge and scary—a regular demon. No human host for that guy—he was the real thing, while everyone else in the crowded trailer was possessed.

I want to see what Locan’s discovered. I’ll be right back. Stay hidden.
Jett slipped out through the partially open door. Addie stayed in the shadows, and listened to the odd snippets of conversation. It appeared the video game demons were attempting to talk like people, but they weren’t carrying it off very well.

There wasn’t anything remotely human about any of them at all.
If it looks like a demon, acts like a demon, and talks like a demon . . . damn.
It was hard to remember they were victims every bit as much as their human avatars.

A shiver raced along her spine. Addie glanced up. The red-skinned Yush stared directly at her. His eyes glowed red and his skin was the color of blood. He clenched and unclenched those odd, six-fingered hands, and Addie’s sense of dread grew stronger. She glanced about. Every demon in the room was looking at her.

She should have been invisible. Obviously she wasn’t—at least not to demon eyes. Ukopach squeaked and pressed his misty form even closer against Addie’s shadowy body.

Yush shouted something in a language Addie’d never heard. The other demons in the room moved to one side or the other, clearing a direct path between Addie and the red demon. She carefully peeled Ukopach off her side and set him on the counter beside her, hopefully out of danger. Shedding her cloaked appearance, Addie drew her swords and stepped out of the shadows, ready for battle.

She’d worn knee-high leather boots and tight black jeans. Her black sweater hugged her body like a second skin that would give an attacker less to grab. Drawing her short sword with her right hand, clasping a longer one in her left, she waited, hoping like mad that Locan and Jett would arrive.

What the hell was keeping them? Had they run into trouble with Moloch? Yush shouted what sounded like a command. No one moved.
Ukopach? What’s he saying?

He’s commanding them to attack.

Her gaze leapt from one silent figure to the next. The demons watched her, but they’d not taken a step.
They’re not attacking. Any idea what’s going on?

We don’t like Yush. They saw me come in with you and figure you’re on our side.