Reaper: The Demontouched Saga (Book 3) (11 page)

“No weapons.” I throw down my knife. “If we are going to do this, we do it hand to hand.” Fighting him with weapons is the same as losing the fight. It is bad enough that he could still get one of the blades and kill me before I could react. The only thing I hope is that he actually does have a sense of honor.

Belial releases Sara and walks over to the bodies of the solders. He sticks the blade into the chest of one in a way that oddly reminds me of the Sword and the Stone though I bet this one will be easier to pull out. He also pulls off his backpack and places it nearby. If I had to take an educated guess, I’d say that he has the orb inside.

“Put your blade in another, and we can begin.”

I comply, sending my knife into the body of another. It seemed like such a morbid way to put our weapons away, but whatever makes him happy. “Let’s do this, then.”

Three hits. That’s what I feel to my ribs within the first five seconds, followed by another four to my kidneys. It doesn’t take a genius for anyone to figure out that this fight is going to be lopsided.

“Come on now, Mitch. Surely you can do better than that.”

“Stay still for a second and you will see.” I rear back, trying to hit him with a nasty hook. As I expect, he moves out of the way to avoid the blow before hitting me in the abdomen with a few counter blows.

“You’re going to wish I used the sword,” he says. “This way will take so much longer.”

Anticipating another set of body blows. I roll forward, towards the bodies. Belial may have a sense of honor, but that doesn’t mean I do.

“Tisk, tisk. I thought you were better than that.” He appears in front of me, landing a hit to my face with his size 12 boot before I can react. The force of the blow knocks me on my back.

The only logical position from here is for me to curl up into a ball as he proceeds to stomp the living shit out of me. I can still feel Eunie playing around in my gut, but he seems to be enjoying the show. Sometimes I wonder if he just enjoys watching people kick the shit out of me.

The blows last for what feels like an eternity, but in reality was probably closer to twenty seconds. My forearms and shins are sore from blocking the blows and my head throbbing from the kick.

“As much as I could do this all day. I have a schedule to follow.” He kneels down and wraps his hands around my throat before mounting me. I jerk my body trying to get free, but only succeed in using up more air. Before long, my head feels like it is going to explode, surely from the lack of oxygen to my brain. In a last ditch effort, I reach out and put my hands on Belial’s head. Pushing up on his chin, I hope he may punch me a few times, allowing me to get a breath, but it doesn’t seem to phase him.

“Goodbye, Demontouched.” He tightens his grip and things start to go black. Regrets fill my mind in these final moments. There were so many things I wish I could take back, but I know I’ll never get the shot.

Linda’s eyes light up as I hand her our son. We decided to name him Jack after her father who died in the first Gulf War. The name was more her decision than mine. I was fine with any name that wouldn’t get him beat up in school. My list was long, but Jack was definitely not on it.

“He has your nose,” she says as she rubs his head.

“Your eyes,” I say. There was no doubting that it was our kid. Even at an early age he favored both of us evenly.

We were young when we had him.

Too young, perhaps. We had been a couple for nearly a year before she got pregnant with him. In today’s society, that wouldn’t have been a problem if she wasn’t catholic. While she never managed to convert me to her religion, she did push the marriage issue once we found out.

We had to be creative about it. Catholic weddings typically need a lot more preparation time than we had to work with. In nine months we will have this kid, ready or not. So we had to come up with a new plan.

It took a couple thousand dollars for last-minute airfare and hotel stay along with a week’s vacation to get us out of our conundrum. There was only one sensible thing for a couple to do in our situation.

We went to Vegas.

I nearly hack out a lung the moment the light hits my eyes. Across the room I see Sara hogtied on the ground in the corner with Nal in a in a heap a few feet away. Either this is what purgatory looks like, or the bastard let me live.

“Ah, I was wondering when you were going to wake up,” Rick says, entering the room. “Couldn’t let you die before I finish the show.”

“What show?” I say.

“The one where I kill your friends while you watch,” he says. “You have been a thorn in our side for a while now. We had no idea what you were capable of until you got lucky and killed Duncan.”

“Wasn’t exactly luck,” I say. In reality, it was as close to a miracle as I have ever been in my life. Duncan was bigger and stronger than I could ever be, yet there was something there that gave me an edge. One moment I was being stretched apart in the air, the next I was flinging the angel blade through his chest.

“Oh, but I believe it was,” he says. “Duncan’s powers weren’t limited to metal, like yours. I once watched him crumple a rival into a ball with nothing more than a thought because the demon had a passing thought that he could do things better.” He kneels a few feet in front of me before pulling the orb out of his pack. “No worries though. His work will be finished.”

“If your hard-on for the orb is anywhere close to his, you will be dead within the hour.”

Belial laughs. “That is one thing I will miss about you, Mitch. Defiance in the face of death. A pity you joined the wrong side. You would have been a powerful ally.” He reaches into the bag and pulls out something that looks like it used to be a basketball holder and places the orb on it. Guess he didn’t have time to find something more appropriate.

“What do you need with so many souls?” I ask. “Your kind already outnumber the angels nearly fifty to one. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to kill so many people, considering you need a living host to even be here.”

“They are the key to ending this war. Once my task is complete, we will take over this planet within the week. The angels will be powerless to stop us.”

“You planning on killing every angel with my sword? I doubt they stand still long enough for that to happen.”

“I won’t need to,” he says. “Soon the balance of power will shift to our favor forever. Even if God himself decides to get involved, he won’t be able to stop us.”

If I didn’t already know better, I’d swear he was suffering from some major delusions of grandeur. In history, every time someone has said that God couldn’t even stop them… lets just say it didn’t end well. We might be in the middle of the end, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t firmly in control.

“While I’ve enjoyed our little boxing match and chat, I have a deadline to hit.” He places his foot on the fallen soldier and pulls the sword out of his chest. “If you have any last words to say to your lady friend, now would be the time.”

The one thing I’ve never been able to figure out is what they expect you to say during this time. You know they aren’t going to give you hours to have a long conversation. Not to mention that there isn’t much that you can say to make things right in a few sentences. So I ask the only thing my mind seems to be capable of.

“Still got the necklace?” Four little words, not one goodbye. I’m not about to concede that to this asshole.

Not even now.

Sara nods. Even from across the room I can see her eyes start to glow. I haven’t worked with her enough for us to have this move down, but we have lived together long enough for her to know what I mean without extra explanation.

“What is this?” Belial rushes forward, pinning Sara to the ground. “Another demontouched? How fortunate that I get to return two of my brethren back to the world.”

“You aren’t the hero today.” I push through the rubber coating on the ball holder, latching onto the metal beneath. I try not to laugh knowing that he was dumb enough to put something as important as the orb onto something metal. I carefully pull the orb to my hands, careful not to drop it on the way.

My eyes light up the moment the orb hits my hands sending it’s power flowing through my veins. “Might want to keep a closer eye on this,” I say. “Might be a little hard to work your little plan without it.”

“How did you?”

I thrust the holder back at his head. “Here’s your hint.”

“No matter. This time I won’t make the mistake of letting you live.”

“No, you only get to fuck that up once.”

When I see him dash off in my direction I attempt to create a shield like I did in the fight against Duncan. I figure that if it was able to block the lightning, it might be able to block a body… or a sword.

It is worth a shot anyways.

Belial screams as he hits the invisible wall of my shield, nearly dropping the angel blade. “I don’t know how you did this, but It won’t matter soon.”

“No, it won’t.” Knowing that I was able to pull off the shield again, I focus on the sword this time. A smile reaches my lips the moment I feel my power latch into the hilt.

“Impossible!” Belial puts both hands on the blade, attempting to keep it from me. The sword shifts directions a few times before he is able to pull it out of my grasp. Apparently I am not as good at moving other things as I am metal.

I look over at my knife embedded in the soldiers skull and try to latch on. The skull shifts slightly due to the vibration in the blade, but it fails to move otherwise. Belial is on top of me before I can try it again.

He drops the sword to the ground and makes a move for the orb, placing both hands on the side. I quickly counter his move my putting my other hand on it.

“You will not win this time, Demontouched.”

I grasp the orb tightly, but to no avail. The only thing keeping it in my hands is the extra pull of my new power, and even it is starting to fade.

“Tell me how this feels, asshole,” Nal says from behind Belial. The demon’s body moving forward slightly as Nal drives the blade of my knife into his back.

His grip on the orb fades as his jaw drops open. I watch close as his eyes start to turn a milky white. In a last act of defiance, he starts to laugh loudly.

“When they find the orb, I will be free again. The next time we meet I will send you to hell.”

Before the body falls to the floor I put one of my hands on his face. “You won’t be coming back.” Wisps of power radiate from my fingertips and into his eyes. He yells in defiance as I pull his soul from his body and into my own, releasing my grip on his face the moment the soul is secure.

“I don’t know what the hell you just did, but it looked awesome,” Nal says, smiling.

“If I figure it out, I’ll let you know.” I walk across the room and help Sara to her feet. “You did great earlier.”

She kisses me on the cheek and smiles. “I knew you had things under control.”

“Glad you had more faith in me than I did.” I pull my knife out of Belial and grab my sword. “What do you say we check the mall for survivors?”

- 16 -

We pull up to the gates of Uriel’s compound sometime around seven in the morning leading a convoy of nearly forty vehicles. While the wing we went through was empty, the other two were loaded with survivors. Many of them were lured here hoping to create a safe community, only to realize it was a trap when they found themselves locked into the stores.

Outside the compound, the soldiers are lined up on both sides of the street. Sara thought it would be a good idea to call ahead and let Uriel know what we had coming ahead of time. She was worried that the soldiers would start shooting at them, thinking they were under attack. From the nervous glances many of them are giving us as we pass by, I can see she is probably right.

I pull onto the side of the road when I notice Uriel walking towards the gate.

“You saved all of them?” she asks.

“Not all of them. We made a few stops on the way to pick up some of their friends and family.”

Quite a few of the people trapped in the mall were there to see if it was actually a safe place. Most of them were only there for a few hours before they learned the truth, thankful we were there to get them out.

“I also managed to find something else.” Nal hands me the orb from the back seat. “They are planning something big with these things. Had to kill Belial before I could find out what.”

“Take that back to the house. We will talk after I welcome our new guests.”

I plop down on the couch as soon as I get inside. After the events of the last few days, it doesn’t take me long to pass out.

“Naptime’s over, princess.” I hear Nal say before I find myself crashing to the floor.

“How long have I been out?” I say, pulling myself back on the couch.

“About twelve hours now,” Sara says. “Hard to know for sure. The power has been cutting in and out all day.”

“Guess the grid isn’t that secure,” I say. To be honest, I’m surprised that it lasted this long. I figured it wouldn’t make it a day after Nal blew the hotel. “How hard do you think it will be to stabilize it?”

“Shouldn’t be too bad, but we are going to need some bodies.”

“Take some of the people you brought in,” Uriel says, entering the room. “Many of them are looking for some way to contribute.”

“Not a bad idea,” Nal says. “I’ll walk around and get some volunteers. We can head out first thing in the morning.”

I nod. While humans can live without electricity, many of us were brought up to rely on it. If the grid is not secure, it is probably a good idea to do what we can to keep it going.

Uriel sits down on the recliner the moment Nal walks out of the house. “Tell me what you found.”

I spend the next few hours going over all the details of the mall. Everything from our grand entrance down to finding out the place was really a prison. I cap off the story talking about my fight with Belial and how I was able to pull his soul inside of me.