“Flame?”
“He’s the closest.” He moved away from the window to a secluded part of the tiny room.
Reese stared out into the darkness. The dense fog hung low over the pavement, curling and floating around fixtures and doorways. The temperature plummeted so much more that she could see her breath in the air. Dark beings of all shapes and sizes formed in front of her eyes. She gasped and Dagan instantly materialized at her side.
“We will be surrounded,” Dagan yelled out to Rufus.
“I’m on it.” Rufus grabbed Geoffrey and they headed toward the back of the building.
Dagan pulled out one of his Magnums and handed it to Reese. Moving behind her, he lifted her arms. “Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, point and shoot. It will give you some stability. These are special bullets. If you hit the
galla
in the head they will disintegrate.”
“Okay.”
He kissed her neck then went to check on the rest of the group.
In her boring life, she’d never used a weapon or ever thought she’d have to, although her cousin had once shown her how to shoot.
Reese peered out to see the creatures closing in. Across the street, under a lamppost she saw Kur, tall, blond and dangerous with a big smile on his face. He waved, she shuddered.
“Can’t you just do your seal thingy?” Reese called out.
“It drains me of energy.” He glanced out the window. “I’m going to need all my energy for this.”
“Pity,” Joe mumbled as he walked by. “Seems even gods—” he looked Dagan up and down, “—have limitations.”
“I don’t like your friend,” Dagan said to Reese after Joe went by.
She laughed. “It seems he doesn’t much care for you either.”
He grunted.
“But, if we’re going to work together, you two are going to have to get past it.” She placed her hand on his chest. “Dagan, please. Do it for me.”
He rolled his eyes. She knew that one would work.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “But if he hits me again, I won’t hold back.”
The lights went out. Reese groped for his hand. “Oldest trick in the book.”
He chuckled. “Then why are you trying to cut off the circulation in my hand?”
She loosened her grip. “Sorry, but I’ve had this face to face before and I don’t really look forward to it again.”
“No worries, Reese.”
She spun around to see Rufus and her friends armed with tubes that looked to be part of metal shelving, broom handles that had been carved into spears and a large kitchen knife. They were ready to face the enemy.
“Oh my,” she breathed.
“Are we set?” Dagan asked.
“As much as we can be,” Rufus replied. “Geoffrey and Chloe are in the back. We’ve secured the doors and windows.” He smiled. “That Chloe seems to know her stuff.”
Dagan looked at Reese. “I want you in the middle so you’re surrounded by everyone and keep your head down.”
“But I want to fight.” She raised her chin. “I’ll not have you and my friends fighting this battle alone when I’m the one he wants.”
He clenched his jaw, a familiar sight. “If you get caught then we are doing this for nothing.”
“And if I let my team fight and one of them gets hurt, I won’t be able to live with myself. I’m fighting.”
Joe snickered. “You might as well pack it in. You can never win an argument with her.”
“Besides, you already gave me this gun.” Reese held it up and waved it around.
Dagan grabbed the barrel. “Watch it, would you? You’re going to shoot someone.”
“That’s the idea. Don’t stand in my direct line or it might be your ass I hit.”
He threw her a devilish grin. “We’ll have that discussion later.”
She felt the blush creep up her body.
“All right. You are the second line of defense.” He pulled her back to the desks where they had piled boxes up on top and made a cubby in between. “You stay here behind the boxes. You can point the barrel through the crack. If they get past us, it’s up to you. Is that good enough?”
She had a fallen look. “It’s all you’ll allow anyway, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Fine!” She plodded back to the desks and set herself down in the crevice.
“These creatures know how to use guns,” Dagan yelled out to the others. “Shoot before they get too close. The demons with the yellow eyes will only go for Reese. She is their target. If you get between them and their target, don’t let them touch you.”
Roberta said, “How will we see them in the dark?”
“You won’t have a problem. Their eyes glow a bright yellowish color.”
“Any weaknesses?” Joe called from one of the windows.
Rufus nodded. “They can’t stand bright light. That’s why they killed the power.”
“Good to know.”
Roberta came out from behind the bookcase. “We have some flashlights in the storage room.”
“Why don’t you get those,” Rufus said. “They could come in handy.”
Roberta rushed past him and disappeared into the back of the building. A couple of minutes later she reappeared with three silver flashlights and extra batteries. “I’m not sure how long the batteries have been in these, so I brought extras.”
Reese stood and watched her pass out the beacons of hope. “See,” she said to Rufus, “I told you she’s from the CIA.”
He laughed just as glass rained down from the skylight.
“Reese, down,” Dagan hollered and came running back to engage the enemy. “Rufus, watch the front door.”
He reached behind his head and pulled out his sword. The
galla
jumped down to the floor and raised its hand toward the front door.
“’Fraid not, friend,” he said in a steely voice. “Your playmates are going to have to find their own way in.”
Dagan swiftly swung the sword in a wide arc and sliced through the demon’s neck in a smooth motion. It turned to smoke and dissipated.
Joe ran to the spot where the creature had stood. “What happened to it?”
“Rule one.” Dagan smiled. “Decapitation is the only way to totally destroy this enemy. Injuring them, even severely, returns them to the Underworld where they can heal, gain strength and return again.”
Joe gave a thumb’s up. “Got it, cut their heads off. Got anymore of those nice swords with you?”
“Afraid not. This one was built special just for me.”
“Swell. Some help you are,” Geoffrey murmured.
“Do the best you can.”
The next attack came two-fold. One broke out the window where Joe stood and another rammed the back door. Chloe hid until the demons rushed in. She slid a long, curved knife from behind her back under the short-waisted jacket she wore and cleanly sliced through the creature’s neck. Another appeared behind it and she pulled a small metal ball out of her jacket pocket and threw it at the black demon. The ball easily melted through its skin and a small explosion shattered it into a zillion pieces.
“Nice job,” Dagan said when he ran in to help her. “We need to talk.”
“Later, doll face. We’re a little busy right now.”
“Point taken.” He frowned. “But I expect a few answers.”
She smiled. “You’ll get them.” She ran off toward where Joe fought off another member of the death squad.
Dagan drew his Magnum and shot the next creature trying to come through. He picked up the door and put it back in place. He pointed his forefinger at the door frame and a small beam of light extended, fusing the door to the frame. Using his power, he moved heavy boxes in front of it to give added resistance.
Others had come in the front. Geoffrey had one of the broom handle stakes jabbing at the creature who was a little on the short side. He seemed to be holding his own.
Dagan swung around when he heard a loud crash. Roberta had just broken a lamp over a creature’s head. “Take that you piece of demon trash.”
He smiled. Reese’s friends were definitely an interesting group.
Rufus tripped over something lying on the floor and fell to one knee. One creature approached, glaring and ready to strike. Out of nowhere, Chloe appeared, stabbing it in the back.
“Thanks, beautiful.”
“See me later.” She beamed and ran off.
“Shit,” Reese yelled.
By the time Dagan got there, a yellow-eyed
tregorian
had Reese cornered. It stood eight-foot tall in flowing black garments and a colorless, decomposed arm with long deadly fingers reached for her.
“Oh no you don’t,” she cried, grabbing a large, fat book that lay within reach and hurled it at the creature’s cloaked face.
Dagan flew over and brought the sword down heavy across its back. When it turned, he stabbed the tip into its stomach. A horrible howl shook the windows before the thing lifted to the ceiling and turned to smoke.
“Where’s the gun?”
“I dropped it and couldn’t get to it fast enough.”
With grim features he said, “You okay?”
“Never better.”
The smile she gave him was as brilliant as the sun. He retrieved the gun, winked at her and went back to work.
Roberta turned one of the flashlights on a creature. It let out a heinous screech, the likes of which could probably have shattered glass, if she hadn’t whacked it upside the head before staking it with a broom handle.
The second yellow-eyed creature snuck up behind Reese, who concentrated on the battles in front of her. It whirled her around and grabbed her neck with its scaly fingers. A slight tingling of euphoria sparkled through her body. Her arms fell loosely and the gun slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor. She needed to fight and not succumb to the lethargy threatening to overtake her. Calling forth her rage and anger, she tried in vain to break the hold the
tregorian
slime trapped her with. “
Dagan
,” she mentally called out to him.
A few seconds seemed like an eternity and she felt herself slipping away when suddenly the demon’s grip loosened and vanished. Joe caught her as she started to fall.
Slowly, the haze lifted. She reached up and gently touched her neck to see if the beast had left a mark.
Looking up into Joe’s eyes, she said, “What happened?”
Dagan roared, hurling his way toward her, stabbing and decapitating any demon who dared get in his way.
The crowd of
galla
thinned.
Hearing the anguish torn from Dagan, Reese crawled to her knees and pushed Joe out of the way so she could see him. Locking eyes with her, he stumbled to a stop.
“What the hell are those things?” Geoffrey’s raspy voice called out.
“Another kind of demon.” Dagan turned to cut down another opponent.
In a blaze of light that sent the remaining
galla
retreating, Flame appeared.
“Sorry I’m late,” he called out to Dagan. “Got tied up following a swarm in the seventeenth century.”
“Thanks for coming.” Dagan nodded then stopped to look at her.
Sensing his need for some kind of reassurance, she called out, “I’m here, I’m fine.”
Flame had dual swords hung on his hips. He unsheathed them and roared before he and Dagan clanged the tips of their swords together then ran out the front of the building and took the death squad head-on.
“Oh my God,” Reese screamed and ran awkwardly to the door.
Battered and bruised but still standing, the others rushed to the windows to watch the masters in the art of destroying the enemy. With a skill born of centuries fighting this evil, the time walkers plowed a path through the enemy toward Kur, who laughed while he watched the show. In their wake they left puffs of smoke and fiery bright lights as one by one, the
galla
fell.
Before he vanished, Kur straightened his jacket and said, “Your time is coming, Dagan.”
In the next instant, Kur and his minions disappeared.
Bearing cuts, bruises, some nasty burn marks and one thick gash on his right thigh, Dagan limped into the building.
Reese ran to him. “What have you done to yourself?”
“I’m fine.” Callused, bloodied fingers tentatively touched her cheek.
Flame strolled in with one sword propped against his shoulder. “Damn, Dagan, you look like hell.”
Dagan shot him a nasty retort in his ancient language.
Flame shrugged. “Well you do.”
“He’s right, you’re a mess,” Reese said and lowered to take a look at the slice in his thigh.
“It will…”
Shoving his hand aside, she said, “I know, I know. It will heal quickly.” She grabbed a fallen dagger and cut the leather away. “Let me look at it anyway.”
Flame sidled up. “Rufus and I are going to take a look outside.”
Geoffrey limped over. “You’re not going out there again. It’s still dark.”
Chloe arched a brow. “What happened to your leg?”
“I banged into the corner of a desk pretty hard when one of those demons lunged at me.”