Chapter 28

 

The more Kalfu’s legion grew, the harder it would be to find him. Not to mention, I wasn’t sure what we’d do about the creatures already here if I beat him. Legba made it clear that it was just a momentary lapse of control over the crossroads that allowed a single demon from the other side to break through, which led to some of history’s worst atrocities. Getting control of the crossroads was the most important step—but after that, God knows if we’d be able to rid the world of this evil. And what I saw were only the creatures who had corporeal forms. Demons don’t. And frankly, I’d be shocked if more than a few demons hadn’t come through along with the army we were staring down.

I wasn’t going to try to command the vampires. Mercy would command them, but she’d promised to follow my lead. I issued the order. She’d march on the army headfirst, engage, and then pull back to try to spread them out as much as possible. The Voodoo army would work from a distance—these weren’t warriors, not most of them. They would fight through hexes, candles and oils, dollcraft, and whatever their various aspects—if they had any—might allow them to do. One thing grossly lacking from Sun Tzu and Clausewitz was how to wage a magical attack—and even Tolkien was of little use in this regard. We didn’t have a Gandalf amongst us—we had Voodoo, which wasn’t an art particularly crafted for use in a war. We had to rely on the vampires and then hope the Voodoo crowd could do whatever they could to lend support.

Just clear the way enough to find Kalfu—that was all I needed. We’d figure out how to take out these creatures after we got control of the crossroads, after we closed it off. The longer we took to accomplish that, the bigger their army would grow, and the harder it would be to vanquish them.

Vampires don’t usually wield weapons—they have their fangs. But some of these vampires had chosen to carry blades, mostly daggers and short swords. With their speed, they could do some damage fairly quickly, provided these creatures could bleed at all.

I signaled Mercy, and she gave the order.

The vampires charged up my old driveway and across the rubble of where my old plantation home once stood. Kalfu’s army was ready. They quickly formed a barrier, their dinosaur-like creatures forming a wall in front of the rest. Most of the vampires slammed against the dinosaurs—but barring a wound directly to the chest, most of them couldn’t be stopped. The only question was whether we had the numbers.

After one or two of the big creatures dropped, I gave the signal again, and Mercy signaled the vampires to retreat—they didn’t need to, but this would hopefully force the army to chase them and spread out a little. They pulled back to where the old house once stood.

Mikah grabbed a massive chunk of the rubble, threw it into the air, and then used Alexa’s ability to hurl it on a whirlwind at one of the charging dinosaurs. It struck with such force that it decapitated the beast, its massive body thudding against the ground.

I nodded at Mikah, giving my approval. We’d need a lot more where that came from.

The vampires continued their assault, striking and then retreating, to thin the legion out as much as possible.

Kalfu must’ve gotten wise to the strategy. The dinosaurs didn’t pursue them this time. They pulled back, and a row of minotaurs formed, replacing the dinosaurs on the front line. They charged us this time. The vampires met them head-on. The minotaurs flung their heads, catching as many vampires in the chest with their massive horns as they could, effectively staking them. Then, breaking their horns off, they’d toss the vampires to the side like ragdolls. They knew they had to keep the vampires staked, so after a minotaur had used both horns on the vamps, Kalfu redeployed them, along with the dinosaurs, on the human Voodoo contingent of our army.

There wasn’t much I could do about the dinosaurs. Not immediately.

“Pauli,” I shouted, “get me as close as you can to the minotaurs, then on my signal bring me back to the line.”

Pauli didn’t question my order. He quickly coiled around me. I reappeared between two minotaurs. I took my katana to their hair and quickly retrieved a tuft of wiry hair from each of them. “Quick, take me back!”

I appeared back where I was before, with a line of vodouisants behind me.

“Do any of you have any dolls prepared? Blank slates will do, you won’t need them for long.”

Nearly half of the hands raised.

Good, I thought, this might just work.

I gave a tuft of hair, one from each of the two minotaurs I’d taken it from, to two of the Mambos who stood up front. I nodded at them. They knew what to do.

They quickly stuffed their dolls, spoke the proper incantations, and began maneuvering them. I watched from afar. Sure enough, the same two minotaurs were now moving as the Mambos directed.

“Use the minotaurs to attack the dinosaurs!” I shouted.

I saw several nods.

“Pauli, let’s do this again.”

We repeated the same process five or six times. We were gradually turning the tide—we had enough minotaurs under our control that we were able to hold them off most of the Hougans and Mambos assembled.

I spotted a red flash out of the corner of my eye. Two fire imps were charging toward our position. I didn’t even need to shout an order. Sauron was on them like white on rice. She raised her hand, and a massive storm cloud appeared, dousing the imps with rain. A cloud of smoke billowed around them as the creatures squealed in agony.

I quickly turned and saw Ellie and Tressa working together—they had something that resembled a one-eyed ogre in a trance. The hulk of a beast fell to his knees in front of the girls, who exchanged high fives.

I made another quick pass with Pauli to acquire more hair from the minotaurs. This would only work on them—so far as I could tell, none of the other creatures had hair. Swabbing the DNA of a dinosaur was pretty much out of the question. But so long as I could turn Kalfu’s own minotaurs against him, we had an advantage.

I saw a giant stone slab fly through the air—I think it was what was left of our old front porch. I traced its path with my eyes, based on the arc it was making, to see Mikah with a look of satisfaction on his face. Damn, I thought. I knew he was strong… but damn!

Again, he combined his strength with Alexa’s powers to give his projectiles extra force. The slab came crashing down, taking out a row of creatures—orcs maybe? Trolls? What do you even call these beasts? I’d have to think up names later, but they sort of looked like that. Leathery skin—more brown than green—with faces even their mothers couldn’t love.

“Pauli!” I shouted. “We have to find Kalfu!”

I felt his weight leave my shoulders for a moment. A few seconds later he was back.

“I think he’s by the summoning pit. He’s calling out something massive…”

“Quick,” I said. “Take me to him.”

We didn’t make it in time to stop him. Kalfu raised his hand, and three giant chimeras—the same three fuckers I’d seen when I was there to rescue Legba—came charging out of the portal. I didn’t have time to think—hopefully the rest of them could figure this one out. I grabbed him from behind, squeezing his arm.

“Kalfu!” I shouted. “I challenge you for control over the crossroads!”

He looked at me and grinned—he clearly hadn’t brushed since he took over Pauli’s body. I almost gagged—the meat between his teeth… that was vampire meat. The stench on his breath… I didn’t want to think about it.

“I wondered how long it would take you,” Kalfu said.

The next thing I knew, the world around us froze. Where the portal had been, the two gravel roads intersected. Three of the four roads going out of the cross were occupied. Kalfu stood on one side. Hailey on the other. I was on the third. The fourth remained unclaimed.

“Choose your second,” a voice from beyond declared—a voice I’d only heard once before. It was Bondye.