Rapture (27 page)

There was a knock on the door. The guard turned away and Sam used the opportunity to touch a nerve point on the man’s neck. Nerve points were always a bit touch and go – certainly not something to be used in combat. You had to strike with precision and pick your spot carefully. Thankfully, it worked. Sam supported his body to avoid any alarming thuds as the guard slumped silently to the floor.

He moved to the door and opened in such a way that the body of the guard was concealed behind Sam’s own bulk. He slid outside and found himself confronted by one of the desk clerks.

“Is everything alright in there?” she asked.

“Fine,” said Sam.

“It’s just that you said something about that guard needing his medication. I know for a fact that he doesn’t keep it in here. He leaves it in his locker.”

“My mistake,” said Sam, trying to push past her, silently cursing his bad luck.

Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Where is he, anyway? I’ve seen you around here before, haven’t I?”

Sam decided to take his chances. “Sorry, gotta go.”

He sidestepped around her and she cried out in alarm. “Stop. Stop that man,” she yelled.

He raced through the lobby and out through the main doors, roughly pushing anyone that got in his way. “Let’s go,” he said to Grace and Joshua, handing Josh his baseball bat.

The crowd were looking around in confusion as the woman’s yells carried outside. Sam ignored them. Just in front of them, a car pulled up. Finally, something was going their way, thought Sam, as a well-dressed couple got out of the Bentley.

“We’ll take it from here,” said Sam. “Josh, you drive.” The man started to protest but the cries died in his throat when he saw Sam remove his katana from under his jacket.

Joshua pushed the man aside and tumbled into the driver’s seat. Sam climbed in the passenger’s side while Grace hopped into the rear. “Go!” cried Sam.

Josh sped off, frantically waving people out of the way.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Sam asked.

“Sort of,” confessed Josh. “I think I can get us out of the city.”

Sam nodded. He started to relax. Their getaway seemed to be almost too easy though; he would’ve expected Jonah to be better prepared than this. Then he felt it – the familiar sensation of demons. Jonah had released the demons from whatever confined them to the churches. They were coming.

“Drive faster,” he ordered urgently. “They’re after us.”

“I’m trying,” protested Joshua. He didn’t ask who was after them, probably assuming the worst.

They sped through the city at high speed, Joshua seemingly taking turns at random but Sam realized that they were gradually heading north. They turned a corner, the tyres squealing in protest and found themselves at an intersection. Before them, illuminated by street lights and moving as one great mass, were hundreds of grey bodies. Every direction was blocked by a horde of Lemure. Sam could see the bulky shapes of other, larger demons mixed in with them.

“Back,” he yelled.

Joshua brought the car screaming to a halt and slammed it into reverse. It was no use. More demons were streaming onto the street behind them.

“Keep going,” said Sam. “Straight through them.”

Joshua continued to reverse at high speed, slamming into any Lemure bodies that got in the way. They threw themselves at the car, clawing and scratching at the windows. The rear window shattered. Grace screamed but Josh could see her striking out with her feet at any Lemure who tried to push through the window. Fortunately, the Bentley was an extremely solidly built and heavy machine and the attempts for the Lemure to slow it down were destined for failure.

It all changed in an instance. Joshua swerved violently to avoid the hulking mass of a horned demon that appeared behind them. Out of control, they ploughed through the glass front of a shop in a storm of glass shards. As the car slammed into the counter of the shop and stopped dead, the air bags in the car exploded out, forcing Sam and Joshua hard back into their seats. None of them had been wearing their seatbelts. Sam felt the hard impact as Grace’s head connected with the back of his seat.

Sam turned around in his seat, fighting against the confining mass of the airbag. Grace was lying on the rear seat, groaning. Suddenly, the Lemure were upon them once again. Long, grey taloned hands reached for her through the rear window, clutching at her clothes. Stunned, but now aware what was happening, Grace screamed again.

Sam wrestled with the airbag, finally popping it and tried to struggle through into the back seat. Next to him, Josh was trying to get through his own airbag to reach the gear shift. Grace was being pulled through the rear window. Sam grabbed her clothes desperately but he was in an awkward position and it was hard to get a good grip. He could feel her slipping away.

He changed tack and jerked his car door open, knocking two Lemure off their feet. He drew his swords but the situation was impossible. Wreckage from the crash was impeding his swing and more Lemure kept piling into the shop. He saw Grace being dragged out of the car and he screamed his frustration.

“No!” he yelled, trying to fight his way forward.

Countless Lemure stopped him, throwing themselves at him, heedless of the few that fell under his swords. Other Lemure were swarming over the cars roof, trying to get at Joshua on the driver’s side. Fortunately, they couldn’t – part of the shop counter effectively blocked that side of the car.

“Sam! Sam!” He could hear Joshua yelling his name and he turned. Joshua had deflated the airbag. The Bentley roared to life. “Get in! We have to go!”

Sam threw himself into the car. He glanced backwards. Surrounded by a mass of Lemure bodies, Grace was disappearing out of the shop. Inside the car, three Lemure had forced themselves through the shattered rear window and were reaching for Joshua and himself. Sam quickly dispatched them with three short thrusts of his wakizashi, showering the leather upholstery with cinders.

Joshua threw the car into reverse and the Bentley charged out of the shop, grinding over shop wreckage and scattering the Lemure. He put the car in gear and the wheels spun, producing black smoke of burnt rubber.

“There!” said Sam. Ahead of them was the pack of Lemure carrying Grace, moving rapidly away from them down the street. “After them!”

The Bentley shot forward. More and more Lemure launched themselves at the car. For relatively stupid creatures, they seemed to know exactly what they were doing, trying to prevent the two boys reaching Grace.

Sam sensed a familiar presence above them and then the Bentley shuddered under a massive impact. Sam and Josh both ducked. With a horrible screech of tearing metal, the entire roof of the Bentley was ripped off. The Astaroth roared in satisfaction, still clutching the torn section in the claws of its hind legs. It dropped it, the roof clattering on the bonnet of the car, forcing Joshua to swerve again.

Sam stood up, fighting for balance as Joshua swerved again and again, trying to keep the Astaroth off them. Sam struck upwards, fending off the claws of the massive flying demon above them.

The Lemure carrying Grace were getting further and further away. Suddenly, he realized what their destination was - what it had always been. A church. The gateway. They were taking Grace to hell! At the far end of the street, he could see it. It looked like any of the hundreds of small churches that littered the city, with white washed walls and a slate roof. The sign above it said it was a wedding chapel.

The Lemure weren’t far away. Even with the power of the Bentley, they weren’t going to get there before them. Like the Lemure, the Astaroth seemed to know what it was doing, forcing the car to veer off so it couldn’t intercept the fleeing creatures.

More Lemure piled onto the car. Now Sam was forced to split his attack, dispatching any Lemure who got in through the roof and keeping the Astaroth at bay. Sam knew they were fighting a losing battle. Next to him, Joshua seemed to share the same thought.

“We have to get out of here,” Joshua said, his voice high with panic. “We can’t save her. There’s too many of them. We have to go.”

“No!” roared Sam. “We’re not leaving her. We’re going to save her.”

Visions of the poor family in the airport terminal of Jacob’s Ladder swarmed into his head. He thought of the woman in the street of his home town that he hadn’t been able to save either. So many people had been taken. He hadn’t been able to save those people and still berated himself for not trying hard enough. He wasn’t going to let the same happen to Grace. Grace was a good soul a good person. An innocent. He wouldn’t condemn her to Hell. She didn’t deserve it. Wasn’t this what Gabriel wanted him to do? Wasn’t this part of what he was left behind to accomplish?

“Don’t stop,” Sam roared, spearing another Lemure with his wakizashi.

Joshua turned to him, his eyes wide. “What do you mean?”

“I mean don’t stop. Go straight through, into the church. It’s the only way to save Grace.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“I’m deadly serious. Drive the car straight through the wall and pray we don’t hit Grace.”

The church loomed in front of them. Ahead, the Lemure carrying Grace had just disappeared inside it. As the Astaroth suddenly seemed to sense their intent and renewed its attack with even more vigor, one of its claws snagged Sam’s arm. He ignored the pain and struck upwards with his longer blade, burying half the blade in the armoured body. The Astaroth bellowed in pain but didn’t stop its assault. At the last second, however, it was forced to as it soared upwards, narrowly missing the small steeple before it. If the cross had still been on the roof, it would have impaled itself.

Joshua accelerated. The rapid thud of Lemure bodies bouncing off the car sounded like heavy rain. He looked at Sam and this time, by unspoken agreement, they both put their seatbelts on.

The Bentley hit the curb and kept right on going. For a fraction of a second, they were airborne and then, suddenly, they were crashing through the wall of the church.

“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: . . .”

Sam must have lost consciousness for a moment. The Bentley had crashed through the outer wall of the church and then slammed into the far inner wall, where it now rested, wrecked beyond repair. The collision had been horrendous, and he tried not to think what would have happened if they hadn’t been wearing their seatbelts. That was the only thing that had saved them given that the airbags were already wrecked.

Inside the car, Joshua was still out cold, his head resting against the steering wheel. Blood oozed from a cut on his scalp. Sam undid the clasps on both their seatbelts and tried to rouse his friend. Blearily, Josh finally came to, looking around slowly in confusion.

“Come on,” said Sam. “Out of the car.” He got out, moving to the driver’s side to assist Joshua as he looked around.

All the pews in the church had been removed. In the open space in the dead centre was a pentagram. It was nothing like the chalk pentagrams Sam had drawn; the outlines of this one seemed to be blazing with an unholy fire. Braziers, filled with what smelled like sulphur, burned at the five points of the symbol.

Inside the pentagram were a huddled mass of Lemure, crouching low and emitting a high- pitched whine. And in the exact centre of the pentagram was the still form of Grace, lying unconscious.

Hope surged in Sam’s breast. They weren’t too late. Grace had not been taken yet. Wordlessly, he reached into the car and handed Joshua his baseball bat, then he moved warily towards the symbol.

He stepped over the burning outline of the pentagram, noting that the flames did not touch him. In fact, he did not even feel any heat. Behind him, Joshua followed, stepping carefully over the fire. He was not so lucky, yelping with the pain as the fires licked at him.

The Lemure had not seemed to notice them and remained where they were, oblivious to the intruders. Sam directed his gaze to the gaping hole in the church wall. Thankfully, there was no sign of the Astaroth or any more Lemure. His eyes sought out Grace and he began moving stealthily towards her, careful not to disturb any of the crouching Lemure. The noise they were making began to intensify. Something was happening. They had to hurry.

Heedless now of the Lemure in his way, Sam pushed his way through. Some of the demons roused themselves and clutched at his legs; he swatted their grasping claws away with his swords.

He finally reached Grace. Like Joshua, she had a long gash on her head, blood ebbing sluggishly from the wound. He put one arm around her neck and lifted her head gently.

“Grace,” he whispered. She groaned but did not open her eyes. He shook her again. “Grace,” he said urgently.

The Lemure whining had increased dramatically. Something was definitely happening now. Outside the pentagram, the walls of the church flickered and became less substantial somehow, as if a veil was being drawn before him.

They were almost out of time. Picking Grace up, he moved quickly towards the flaming outline of the pentagram, motioning to Joshua follow.

But they were too late. He knew what the Lemure were doing and a part of him could almost comprehend how – the knowledge danced tantalisingly close. He felt the impact of the change and staggered with the sheer shock of it. Then, before Sam’s horrified vision, the church outside the pentagram disappeared completely.

It was replaced with a vista of rock and diabolical fire, as far as the eye could see. They were standing on a large rocky plateau; further in the distance, Sam could see canyons, flickering with the light of the flames that roared in their depths. Above them, Astaroth circled and screeched beneath a fissured stone ceiling many miles distant, bathed in the crimson glow of the fires beneath.

With growing despair, Sam knew without doubt where they were.

Hell.

Almost as one, the twenty or so Lemure that surrounded them stood, their eyes suddenly locked on the unconscious form of Grace in Sam’s arms. He set her down as gently as he could and, standing above her body, drew his swords.