part0021

The rest of the day went as expected. They took down all eighty-one soul eaters and the three shifter rogues. There were several injuries on their side, but no deaths on the supernatural teams. The humans lost two quickly and violently, but she’d managed to heal four others who hadn’t died immediately due to their wounds by sending healing spells over the life-web.

Grant had been quite impressed and excited by that, and she hoped it wouldn’t make them overly confident the next day, leading to more casualties.

As for Asmodai, there’d been no hint of him all day, and she worried about that the most. Wherever he was or whatever he was doing was bound to bite them in the ass any moment.

On the bad side, the press had played up her interview with congress, and she didn’t come off looking all that great at all. They only played sound bites, that took it all out of context, and while they didn’t say it straight out they definitely implied it was all her fault.

There were riots in LA, New York, and smaller disturbances around the country and in college campuses. Between the senators grandstanding, and the press’s inclination to make everything look even worse than it was for ratings, there were a lot of people calling out for the government to remove all supernatural beings as a threat. It was a mess.

Not all of course, not even close, most humans were better than that. A mere few thousand out of three hundred and twenty-five million people in America was a tiny insignificant amount, but between the press and social media those few hysteria filled people that should’ve been ignored had disproportionately loud voices. There were riots and protests all over the world as well, not just there in the states.

It was a complicated problem, and them coming out to the humans was rife with issues and far more dangerous than she’d previously envisioned. Churches were being packed as well, a clear response to people finding out that heaven and hell was real along with four supernatural races connected to both of those realms.

After calling it a day, they headed back to the hotel, where they were met by tons of press, and protesters with signs decrying their evil violence, and suggesting they go back to hell where they belong. It was ugly, and she was upset by the time they got through the crowd and into the elevator.

She knew some humans were grateful for what her and her people sacrificed for them, but sometimes it was hard to see past the ones that reviled her for it. She’d been through it all before though, and it would happen again. She didn’t blame them either, in a lot of ways she felt like it was her fault, even if she knew intellectually it was all Samael. She’d just been… stupid, naïve, and fell for the wrong guy.

The rest of the team was already back, plus Daniel, and she went and poured herself a drink before sitting down at the table. She wouldn’t get drunk, but a drink would help her relax after a hell of a day. She also wanted to hurt someone, there was a lot of frustration going on. It seemed so obvious to her what was going on, while they decried her past they were falling for the same bullshit from a demon, but the humans lacked her experience and perspective.

On the other hand, when the father of lies had seduced her with lies, false love and promises she’d had no warning at all. She’d had no bible, churches, synagogues, or other religions and myths that told of the danger of hell and the seduction of evil. Back then, she wasn’t even aware of hell, and she’d been seduced easily as a result. Clear thinking humans and history should make a difference, shouldn’t it? It didn’t seem to.

Jacob snorted, “Interesting interview.”

She gave him a hurt look. The humans tweaked her a bit, but honestly she didn’t let that bother her all that much outside of worrying they’d have a complete meltdown of society. If that happened a lot of people would die in the violence and hysteria. Otherwise, she couldn’t give a shit less what they thought about her, not really, even if it would be nice if they’d acknowledge her sacrifices over the years. But Jacob could hurt her easily, she loved him.

Cinna frowned, “Actually it was a good interview, and she made them look like idiots, but the press took everything out of context. It isn’t her fault every bigot, racist, hater, and drama queen took to the streets today.”

Jacob sighed, “Not what I meant. Sorry. It’s been a long day. Humans actually got in our way a couple of times, and shouted at us, as we protected them and cleaned up the evil in their city. It… pissed me off. Still, them learning the hard way wouldn’t make me feel any better, and quite a bit worse, so we won’t be backing off at all until they figure out their new reality.”

She nodded, “Sounds like a plan.”

Jacob said, “You know the drill, let’s eat, and rest while we can. Asmodai’s been off our radar for over twenty-four hours now, who knows what he’s been up to, and we need to be ready for anything.”

Meri interjected, “There’s going to be a protest tomorrow. Something about us hunting down beings in the nation’s capital being unamerican.”

They all looked at her.

Meri shrugged, “My point is maybe Asmodai will show up for it, it might be a good place to set up an ambush. There’ll be all those idiotic supporters of him and his point of view there.”

She frowned, “It might not hurt to pass the idea along, but do you really think he’d show?”

Daniel replied, “Maybe? It wouldn’t hurt to set up a couple of snipers. Obviously if he does show up at a rally of some kind, we can’t rain hell down from the AC-130.”

They started dinner then, and they didn’t talk until they were finished. She enjoyed the chicken and dumplings, and there was pie and ice cream for dessert. She felt a lot better with a full stomach and a drink in her, but she knew she wouldn’t completely relax until Asmodai was sent back to hell.

Then again, she’d fought against Samael’s schemes for sixty-five thousand years, if Asmodai was here to stay for a while she’d deal. She wouldn’t give up though, she was sure they could destroy him and banish him to hell if the right opportunity came up. He was one step below Samael, below archangel, but that was a fairly big step. She didn’t think Samael would’ve even noticed that hail of bullets, much less been badly hurt by them.

She said as much, and the others nodded in agreement.

Carl said, “Human weapons seem marginally effective. The trick will be stunning him enough that we can finish him off before he flees again.”

They brainstormed for a while, and they made a call to let Grant know what they were thinking, he promised to look into it. Then they retired for night.

Jacob and her lovemaking that night had almost a desperate edge to it, as they brought each other pleasure and comfort, before they sought and eventually found sleep.

Her stomach tightened in worry and stress, and she tried to push it away as she studied the life-web. She shivered, as tried to count them all.

She shook her head, and then snuggled into Jacob to take comfort. It was probably silly, but she felt safe in his arms, reality or not it was how she felt.

“What’s wrong? Where is he?” he asked.

She said, “He’s at the national mall, with over three hundred soul eaters, and at least five hundred humans. That latter number is going up as we speak, no doubt those human protestors gathering. It looks like Meri called it. It makes me sick, the idea the humans are rallying around sadistically evil serial killers and mass murderers. Only good news is no more rogue shifters, I imagine he had to scrape the barrel to even find the eight we took out the last two days. No rogue witches either.”

He nodded, and gave her a sweet lingering kiss, and then they both rolled out of bed and started to get dressed and ready for the day. They’d showered last night after their desperate love-making.

She had a really bad feeling about today. The country was already in an uproar, or at least some humans were. She wondered if there was enough fear out there to cause a major panic and breakdown if Asmodai’s plans advanced and he turned to destruction, and she feared the answer her mind came up with. It was possible he would just keep playing the game for a while longer, get the humans even more at each other’s throats, but if that was true why would he need so many soul eaters there?

That told her his plans were about to advance, to the next stage. Whatever that turned out to be.

He pulled out his phone, “There’re two more teams on standby, that will raise our four-person combined human and supernatural teams from eight to sixteen. They should be here in about an hour.”

She replied, “That will help. I’ll call Grant, and we can all meet up by the mall. No point in staying back, they’re all in the same place. I’m also going to suggest the president go to camp David, I have a bad feeling Asmodai is about to make his major move.”

They each made their phone calls, and then went out to the kitchen for a quick breakfast before they hit the streets. The hotel entrance was choked with press, so they took the side entrance and headed for the national mall. Cinna and Allison were staying behind in the hotel, the latter wasn’t happy about that, but wouldn’t be much help against three hundred soul eaters.

She feared human deaths were inevitable that morning.

Jace said, “It’s going to be a hell of a day. It might be too risky to try and take him out with such a big crowd nearby. What if they leap to his defense?”

Carl replied, “Then we’ll pull out, and let them learn the truth the hard way. We can’t force them to accept our protection.”

Jacob grunted, “Maybe, we’ll see what’s what when we get there. How many now?”

She replied, “Still around three hundred soul eaters, and about three thousand humans now, but they’re still coming. The protest is scheduled to start in about forty minutes?”

Meri nodded, “Yes. Nine o’clock.”

They were quiet for the rest of the ride as they all considered the mess they were in. With the exception of Lilith, none of them had seen anything like this before. They’d always hunted one to three soul eaters at a time, while saving a handful of humans from death. This was so much bigger than that, and a supernatural battle in the making of a size unseen for many thousands of years.

Worse, there’d be thousands of human bystanders in the middle of it, rooting for the wrong damned side.

They pulled over, and her and Jacob made their way over to Grant and Jessica while the others found their human team members. They were situated about a half mile from the gathered numbers. The sea of people looked huge, but she knew there was only about four thousand of them total now, with still more coming.

“This could get ugly.”

Grant nodded, “The president agrees. He wants us to watch, and only intervene if things turn to violence first. There’s too much risk of collateral damage and human lives lost if we try to attack three hundred soul eaters among thousands of people, or even just go for Asmodai.”

She frowned, it felt wrong, but at the same time she couldn’t disagree. If they attacked a peaceful demonstration it would turn the country against them, no matter how logical it was. Of course, that meant waiting for everything to go sideways and letting Asmodai show his true colors and intentions.

She didn’t know what she worried about more, the idea of him turning to the next phase of his plans and going violent, or the idea of letting him get away with recruiting even more humans with his silvered tongue. Too many humans would die if he proved his perfidy that day, but… many more would die in the long run if he didn’t.

Grant continued, “We have several snipers set up, and will have sixteen teams of combined FBI agents and your people on oversight. Not to mention DC’s police will be out here in force to make sure things are peaceful.”

Yeah, or make them more chaotic and unsure.

She blew out a breath, “I don’t like it, but it’s also the right call, the only call we can make. I just hope those humans down there don’t lose their lives as the price of their stupidity.”

She had a bad feeling, and she felt like she was missing something.

Jessica said, “Not our fault, stupidity isn’t illegal, neither is the right of assembly.”

Still more humans trickled in, some groups with up to a hundred people, many much smaller than that as they joined the protest and rally. She estimated up to ten thousand humans down there, when they finally got started. Asmodai took the stage with a wide smile, and his wings open wide. He was beautiful, angelic, and had a compelling and pleasant voice.

It was a reminder the humans weren’t really stupid, she’d fallen for the same good looks and lies back when she was young, new, and naïve, they didn’t know any better. They should, but they didn’t, they didn’t believe in good and evil anymore, or heaven or hell. In a world where evil was racism, hell was just another address. Ridiculous.

Her eyes narrowed, she still had a bad feeling, something scratching in the back of her brain. She shifted her eyes to an eagle’s sight, and she started to scan the crowd below.

She was scared, and a part of her wished she was still clueless. Ignorance truly was bliss.

Jacob asked, “What’s the problem?”

She sighed, “What can’t I feel on the life-web?”

Jacob blanched, “How many?”

She shook her head, “I’m not sure, I counted over thirty that I can’t see on the web, but that’s just on this side of the crowd.”

Grant asked, “What’s going on?”

She sighed, and felt helpless, “Warlocks. Asmodai must’ve found a shit load of them, and he got them under his sway. I’d guess some of them are demons as well. If I had to guess, he’s going to slaughter the crowd, unleash a whole bunch of demons, and lay waste to DC.”

The blood drained from Jessica’s face, “Are you sure?”

She shrugged, “No, but why else bring so many soul eaters to the protest. He’s also been clearly hiding the warlock’s he recruited, but he’s brought them here, and they’re surrounded by soul eaters and possibly some demons as well. That means he’s ready to make his move. He could panic the whole country with this move, and at the same time completely remove its leadership and government. The fall of the most powerful country, the fall of civilization here in America, will set off a chain reaction around the world. Oh, not all at once, but it will happen. This protest right here, with all these people gathered to be sacrificed, I’d bet that’s his plan.”

Grant shook his head, “The military would fight back, and the government would be rebuilt.”

Maybe. She doubted it though. With the pentagon and the rest of Washington gone, who would give out those orders? The governors? It would be a panic. Ten thousand demons were nothing to sneeze at either, soldiers could take them down with head shots, but they’d do a lot of damage, and the warlocks would just repeat the process in the next city or state.

Jenna could have done it on her own, a whole bunch of them under the command of Asmodai, a demon of wrath, would cross the country like a plague.

Jessica asked, “How do we stop it.”

She frowned, “I’m not sure we can completely stop it, but a good start would be taking down Asmodai. Get that AC-130 in the air, if they start killing protestors and raising demons, you’ll have to rain down hell, or this city and country will fall.”

Grant cursed, and then pulled out his cell phone.

She watched the crowd, and then started to count the ones not on the life-web. She’d gotten to just over a hundred, a hundred and seven, when she finished. She wasn’t even positive she’d found them all either. She also couldn’t tell which of them were warlocks and which were demons, since neither would show up on the life-web, the warlocks if they were shielded. She’d have to get within aura range, two hundred feet or so, to be able to make that determination.

“The president is being pulled out by the secret service, and gunship is only authorized if there’s no hope of saving any humans and most are dead. We’re talking about the lives of ten thousand citizens here.”

She nodded soberly, “I know.”

She hoped she was wrong, but knew she wasn’t.

She felt no joy at all at being proved right, when it started just a minute later, at the end of Asmodai’s dialogue. She watched speechlessly, as the ones she believed warlocks pulled out weapons, and started to slaughter the humans around them with guns, knives, and magic. The humans screamed, and ran in every direction in a panic, knocking each other down and getting in each other’s way.

Several loud cracks reverberated through the air, and she watched as a handful of warlocks went down. The snipers had identified the ones killing, and they were already starting to take them down. It was a start, but not nearly enough.

A handful of the soul eaters however, all raced in the direction the shots had come from. No doubt to stop them. She’d been right about that too, the soul eaters were under orders to protect the warlocks. None of them were feeding at all, which meant every human was marked as a sacrifice to bring a demonic army into the world.

Her stomach twisted.

The humans were going down fast, and Grant was silent and shocked for a moment, as he clearly struggled to decide if he should send in the sixteen teams, or just give the gunship the order to open fire. He couldn’t do both, their teams would be slaughtered by the indiscriminate gunship fire from above. The humans were going down at a frightful rate, and she could feel the combined magic of all the warlocks as they summoned demons for the cost of human sacrifice.

A large gateway to hell opened, right in front of the stage, and demons started to pour out.

Grant cursed, and he pulled out his radio.

“Fire on the stage, and the portal in front of it. Agents, move into range and start picking off those warlocks and demons in the crowd, shifters protect my agents!”

It wasn’t a perfect plan, but then what was in a situation like the one before them, almost any orders were better than none, and they all rushed to make it happen. They all raced forward to a three-hundred-yard distance, and the agents with M-16s started to open fire. She hoped they were good shots, any shot that missed a warlock was bound to hit a human. About a quarter of the humans were dead already, which meant twenty-five hundred demons were racing through the gateway.

The soul eaters broke from the crowd, and they rushed their position as the shifters moved to protect the ones with assault weapons.

At the same time, hell rained down on the stage, as twenty-five-millimeter ammo was fired at a tremendous rate straight down on the stage and Asmodai’s head. In addition, high explosive rounds were sent in six second intervals. She was tense for a moment, but Asmodai absorbed the damage as the raised dais exploded around him, and he moved to the side in a blink of an eye, clearly not willing to retreat this time, at least not yet.