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DARK. BLACK. BLACK AS TAR. A whooshing noise, like the cabin of an airliner. Please help me. Where am I? God, please help me. Brutal cold. I can’t breathe, but my body doesn’t seem to care. My guns, where are they?
Zan was relieved to find she could move her arms. She could feel herself. She frantically searched for her hidden weapons. Her Beretta was gone but her Sig Sauer still hung in the shoulder holster under her jacket. She gripped it like a line thrown to her while drowning, then let her hands fall to her sides.
What good will it do me here? Wherever here is.
A vibration in her throat. She should be able to hear herself screaming, but she couldn’t. She thought of Rainer. He’d tried to save her.
I should have listened to you. My stubbornness cost me my life.
Whoever or whatever had grabbed her was gone. She thought. She couldn’t tell. She had no sense of space or time. The whooshing sound got louder, became deafening, and then she was falling, falling. She felt weightless, then not. A brutally strong hand clamped onto her arm, and Zan found herself face down on dead grass. Nighttime, but there was light. Ambient light. Streets in the distance. The city. She breathed in and tried to roll over. The strong hand held her to the ground. She kicked ineffectually and tilted her head to look up. A gravestone. She struggled to angle her head so she could see more. A lot of gravestones. The black lace of winter trees against a frosty sky. She was in a cemetery.
Her tormenter yanked her upright and dragged her forward. Zan could see mausoleums and huge obelisks lined up between the old trees. In the distance, water glinted under city lights. They were in Laurel Hill Cemetery, acres and acres of ornate memorials to the dead on a bluff overlooking the Schuylkill River.
A terrifying noise sounded all around them, sucking, shattering and ripping. Now that Zan could see, she wished she couldn’t. Demons rushed out of the air like they had materialized from nothing.
I’m bait. Oh, please, no. Rainer.
Whoever held her began to drag her toward the demons, who sped forward in a clump. Zan’s limbs weakened. Her legs gave out and she pitched forward, allowing her to get a glimpse of the face buried in the hood of the black robes. Female. High cheekbones, brown skin and disconcerting copper-colored eyes that grew fearful as Zan watched. Zan followed their gaze to see Rainer charge, only to stop abruptly a moment later, as if he had hit something. Her captor wrenched Zan’s arm, handed her to a demon, then ran away. Rainer resumed his charge as the demon’s claw dug into Zan’s arm. A series of loud raspy grunts came from the beast as foul-smelling spittle sprayed from its mouth. It shook an enormous, double-sided ax in the air over her head.
Rainer slowed and circled to the right, his sword poised low in front of him. Strange feathers of light played in the sky behind him.
Zan knew what she had to do. Taking a gulp of air, she steeled herself.
Now or never.
She pulled out her Sig Sauer, pointed it upward and sent a bullet up through the bottom of the monster’s chin into its brain. It dropped with a thud and she spun to fire at the two closest demons, so close that her shots landed true in their heads. She took off running. She heard beautiful sounds like a cascade of musical tones, mixed with the ugly croaks of the beasts.
I know those sounds. I heard them in the concert hall. Rainer’s language.
When Zan reached a mausoleum, she hid and peaked around its edge. Rainer walked, his arms spread wide, his sword pointing away from the demons. He talked to them. They didn’t pursue her. Their heads were turned to him. He dropped his sword.
“Rainer, no!” Zan screamed, running from behind the mausoleum, gun up. She charged back towards the demons prepared to fire, but a steel grip around her waist yanked her back.
Ack! That freaky bitch has got me again.
Zan twisted, prepared to shoot her in the head, then saw it was Pellus.
“Let me go!” she screamed.
“No, Zan,” he said, his voice ragged. “He would not want me to.” He dragged her back behind the mausoleum as she writhed, trying to break his hold.
“I have to help him!” She leaned to see Rainer, surrounded by demons. He had two monsters holding each of his arms and each of his legs. The others tried to get a grip on his head. He thrashed as much as he could while they grunted and hissed and cut him with their axes. Zan screeched with rage. “Let me fucking go! They’re going to kill him! Rainer!”
“I do not know what they are doing.” Pellus’ voice was calm now. “Stop struggling and let me concentrate. I am forming a barrier to protect him.”
“What do you mean you don’t know what they’re doing?”
“If they were going to kill him, they would have done it by now,” Pellus said, staring intensely at Rainer and the demons. They continued to cut him while some uncoiled thick chains that had been wrapped around their bodies. A moment later Pellus let go of Zan’s waist and grabbed her arm instead. “That adept is stopping me from creating a barrier.”
“Adept?”
“Someone like me.”
“Where is she? I’ll kill that freaky bitch.”
Pellus spoke with urgency. “The adept is female?”
“Yeah. I got a look at her. Weird eyes, like pennies.”
“Domist.” The word came out like a hiss. Pellus was sweating. A vein throbbed in his temple.
“Domist? What does that mean? Please, Pellus. How can I help?”
“By staying put if I let you go, so I can concentrate. Barakiel’s best chance is for me to form a barrier. If you run over there, I will save you instead of him. He made me promise.”
“All right, but you need to break that goddamn promise if it comes to it.” A smile touched the corner of Pellus’ mouth as he let her go. He nodded.
“Help him!” Zan screamed when the beast that had been trying to grab Rainer’s head finally succeeded. It shoved something into his neck. A second or two later he slumped, unconscious. The demons with the chains stepped forward.
“Dire essence,” Pellus muttered. Zan wanted to ask him what that meant too, but his look of fierce concentration stopped her. A moment later the demons howled and swatted at themselves. They all backed away from Rainer, who fell to the ground. When they tried to rush him again, brandishing their axes, they ran into something. Their axes bounced back in their faces.
“You did it!” Zan said as Pellus murmured in musical tones. “Is he all right?” she continued. “What did they do to him?” She tried to keep the desperation from her voice.
The last thing Pellus needs is for me to get hysterical.
“They drugged him. It is a dangerous drug, but he is breathing.”
“Oh, thank god.” Zan doubled over, clutching her stomach. “How long can you keep the barrier up?”
“I do not know. My adversary is powerful, and it is easier to destroy a barrier than create one. If she succeeds. I will have to create another, which is difficult with her interference.”
“Why did they drug him? What do you think they’re planning?”
“I think, uh—” His voice sputtered out. He took a deep breath. “They have chains. The drug made it easy to bind him. The adept who abducted you can transport him, but because she has never traveled with Barakiel before, she cannot form the necessary connection unless he is conscious.”
“Transport? Transport?” Zan walked a few steps and retched. She hadn’t eaten in so long, nothing came out but bile. “They’re going to take him to his father,” she whispered.
No, Rainer, no. He can’t have you.
Pellus glanced at her, then locked his gaze back on Rainer. “I fear you are right.”
“We can’t let this happen. I won’t let this happen.” Zan paced, pulled out her cell phone and touched the screen a few times. She held it to her ear.
“Mel! Thank god you’re home. Do you still have a set of my keys?”
“Yeah, why? What’s wrong with you. You sound panicked.”
“I am. Listen to me carefully. Rainer’s life is in danger. I need you to help me. Help him. Please.”
“Call the police.”
“I can’t call the police.”
“What the fuck, Zan? If he gets arrested that’s better than getting dead.”
“Police on the scene would not be good for me. Or them. Take my word for it. Please. Please help me.”
Mel’s voice softened a little. “What do you need?”
“I need you to get your high-powered rifle and haul ass to my car. It’s parked on my block. I have two fully automatic assault rifles in my trunk, some homemade grenades, and a kevlar vest. I need you to bring them to me.”
Zan held the phone away from her ear but she could still hear everything Mel said.
“What the fuck is going on? Why do you have illegal weapons in your fucking trunk?”
“Please, Mel.” Zan lost control, choking with tears. “You’ll understand once you get here. Please. He saved Lucy. Please help him.”
Silence on the phone. Zan was about to beg again when Mel spoke. “All right, Zan. I’ll help you. Where are you?”
An explosive sob escaped Zan, but she shut it down. “Thank you, oh god, thank you.” Using the GPS on her phone, Zan told Mel the intersection closest to where they were in the cemetery. She said she would meet her there.
“It will take me at least a half hour to get there, even on a Sunday,” Mel said. “Hang in there, okay?”
“I love you, Mel.”
“I love you, too, or you could be sure I wouldn’t be doing this shit.” She hung up.
“Pellus!” Zan said. “Why aren’t the demons coming after us?”
“We are concealed. They cannot see or hear us. I am not bothering to conceal the whole area.”
“Good. I’m going to need you to hide my friend when she gets here, to keep her safe. Will you be able to do that?”
“Your friend? What—” Pellus became incomprehensible again. The demons pressed against the barrier. Zan saw a flash of light, then a streak of red. With another flash, the monsters were through. They hauled the unconscious Rainer upright.
“What the hell was that?” Zan shouted and glanced at Pellus. He was as motionless as the carvings of angels on the mausoleum next to him.
He’ll get it back up. He’s got to get it back up.
The demons dragged Rainer to gigantic obelisk of white marble with a wide base that tapered to a pyramid point. They affixed a heavy chain to each of his wrists, and then wrapped the chains around the obelisk, crossing his right arm over his chest to the left and his left arm over his chest to the right for a straightjacket effect. They bound his ankles tightly together, then pulled them snug against the obelisk with the chains.
Zan paced, angry at her helplessness. “Pellus, can I find the other one? The adept? Break her concentration?”
“I am sure she is concealed, Zan.”
“What can I do?” Zan growled with frustration.
“Stay put and let me concentrate. This will be the last time she collapses my barrier.”
Once the demons had bound Rainer tightly, they stood drooling in front of him. When he revived and began to struggle against his binding, they grunted and jostled and began to strike and cut him.
“I’ve got to stop them.” Zan was about to rush forward to shoot the beasts with whatever she had left in her gun when they howled and backed away again.
“The barrier is up?”
“Yes,” Pellus said, his shoulders sagging with relief.
“You’re amazing,” Zan whispered. She walked to the edge of the mausoleum and squinted over at Rainer, whose many cuts bled as he struggled.
“He’s bleeding.” Zan’s voice wobbled. “Do they want him weak? Is that why they were cutting and beating him?”
“I suspect so, to make him manageable. And I think they enjoy it.”
“Can you keep the barrier up until my friend gets here?”
“Yes, but what insane thing are you planning? Please, stay here with me. The demons cannot see or hear you. Neither can Domist, uh, the adept.”
“No. I have a plan. My friend is bringing me weapons that will kill these things. Then you can drop the barrier and I’ll unchain him while you’re dealing with the adept.”
“Zan, you will be killed. He will never forgive himself.”
“What else are we going to do, Pellus? Keep the barrier up until a bunch of people show up here tomorrow morning? Until a couple demons peel off to engage in some carnage because the barrier vigil got boring?”
When Pellus did not answer, Zan nodded her head. “Yes, that’s right. Now, I’m going to meet my friend. Be ready when we get back. She’s a crack shot. You’ll need to conceal her while she picks them off. I’ll go in with an automatic weapon.”