The End of the World As I Know It (The Ghosts & Demons Series Book 2) (21 page)

No.

More
than human.

The first time I felt this way, I was seven years old. Mama let me play in Medicament’s recreational soccer league for kids. The practices were all co-ed and mostly it was clutches of little kids kicking each other’s shin pads in a moving scrum. We didn’t know what we were doing, but it was harmless fun.

I played defense. When the action went to the opposite end of the soccer field, I got bored and occupied myself with picking bouquets of dandelions for Mama. I’d get interested in the game again if and when the ball came back my way.

At the end of summer, we attended a tournament with soccer teams from nearby towns. Our coach was a young man given to outbursts. He wasn’t mean. Most of the time his outbursts came out of joy at a goal. We lost our last game of the year and, perhaps in frustration, this twenty-three-year-old man kicked the soccer ball.

He told Mama later that he meant to kick it high, to the center of the field. Instead, that ball came flying at my head.

I was standing just a few feet away. The crowd and the green grass of the field melded into a static, washed out background. I could have counted the seams and diamonds on that twirling ball rocketing my way. Time slowed and I didn’t need an annoying pair of vegans to watch it happen. The details of that soccer ball are still burned into my memory.

Then the ball sped up again and hit me square in the forehead.

Malta was coming for my head, too. This time, I saw the hole in her offense. I mounted my defense. With a single savage strike with the flat of my blade to the top of her helmet, she fell to her knees.

“Malta! No!” Mr. Chang said. “You must
help
Iowa!”
 

“You’re a little late,” I said, “but it’s the thought that counts, I guess.”

Malta raised her helmet’s mask and glared at me. “You kissed your brother.”

“Half-brother.”

“You kissed a demon.”

“Half-demon.”

“You
are
a half-demon,” Malta said.

“Touche,” I said. “That’s a
fencing
term, by the way, so you probably don’t know it.”

“You — ”

Another shotgun blast ripped through the underground cavern, echoing off the walls and vibrating through our armor. Mama stalked to the middle of the stone bridge, teeth gritted. The way she looked at Mr. Chang, I was scared for him.
 

“Tammy? Are you the secret weapon?”

Mr. Chang and I answered at the same time. “Yes.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I dunno.”

“Well…don’t you think you should go do whatever you’re supposed to do upstairs? Rescue the town? Save the day? Like that?”

“According to Chumele, all will become clear in the climax of battle,” Mr. Chang said.

“She was suicidal,” I said.

“That doesn’t mean she was wrong.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better, Mr. Chang.” I was liking Kevin Chang less and less as this day progressed.

“Ladies!” Mama pointed to her wristwatch.

Malta and I looked to each other, gave a grudging nod, and raced up the stairs.

I was upset about the demon blood in my veins, of course. Could I have children? Did I want to test fate by trying? How strong would I become and, realistically, could I still hang out at Starbucks if I grew big leathery wings out of my back?

That sort of shit might be okay in Brooklyn, actually. I could pass myself off as an extra in a movie. However, anywhere but New York, big bat wings could be awkward. I might never slip through a revolving door again.

My first taste of my new strength was especially satisfying. When Malta ran out of breath, I threw her on my back, armor, weapons and all, and ran up the winding stairs to fresh air and an army of demons.

At the top of the stairs, I put Malta down and put my shoulder to the heavy stone that blocked the exit.
 

It flew out of our way.

Seething with newfound strength, Rasputin’s spell had unleashed a new me. I leapt into the light. As I landed on the rock at the center of the quarry, my war cry bounced off the quarry’s walls and up into the sky. I felt ready for anything.

Lesson 151: With great power comes great volatility.

My high didn’t last long. I was surrounded by a small army of demons.

Chapter 37

A hundred demons or more stood ready to attack on all sides. Magog still floated high above me in the air. Spider Richardson hung beneath him. Magog’s tail wrapped around the holy man’s arm to the shoulder.

Spider was alive and pleading for his life. His begging bothered me. For a moment — just a moment — I was on the demon’s side.

Then I remembered how Gog and Magog murdered my friends. My father was on their side, too. That sealed my allegiances.

Malta scrambled up the stairs to crouch by my feet. “Get back down here!”

“Magog has Spider.”

“Get down!”

“Why?” I asked. “This is the only exit. There’s nowhere to go, but maybe I can cut the head off this snake.”

“No! Iowa — ”

No time to chat, I reached down and spun Malta around. I snatched the bow and one arrow from her backpack rig. I nocked the arrow and drew the bowstring back in one fluid motion.

Even the Choir’s archery instructor would have approved of my form. I took steady aim and held it with more ease than I ever had.

The demon laughed again. “I am
Magog!
”

Magog put a lot of stock in the fact that he was Magog.

“Shoot him! Shoot!” Spider screamed.
 

The demon horde rushed us and I let the arrow fly before we could be overrun.

I swear I heard the heavy
thunk
of the blessed arrow as its head drilled into the holy man’s right shinbone.

Lesson 152: It turns out I put too much stock in being Iowa, Castrator of Demons. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, you still have to practice. I told you I wasn’t any good with a bow and I’d told myself sword practice was more important than putting up with Devin Anguloora.

I am Iowa, half-demon village idiot.

Spider writhed and began to slip from the blue demon’s grasp. Magog cackled hard. Spider held Magog’s tail now, instead of the other way around. Swinging back and forth, the holy man screamed, “You dumb
biiiitch!
”

My plan was to jump back into the hole. Malta and I could cut the demons down as they tried to squeeze through. That had been my plan when we entered and it still seemed like the only option. It would work as long as the demons didn’t have explosives. If they tossed a grenade down on us, we were screwed. I supposed a race that travels between dimensions could develop that sort of thing, but all the demons I’d met seemed to prefer old school cutting, slashing and dismembering followed briskly by lunch.

As the demons rushed our little island of rock, I ordered Malta to get down to the platform and draw her sword.

Covering her retreat, I glanced down as the demons roared as one. Malta already stood on the platform beneath me. She was the one with explosives. At least, I deduced that because she held a detonator high.
 

“Malta?”

She pressed the plunger and charges under the quarry’s lake of ice exploded in a sequence of concentric circles. The ice fishing huts were the first to go up. Columns of ice and water reached high into the air.

Spider fell as Magog reeled up and away.

Splash!

Spider surfaced, his eyes wide and full of hate.

The fearsome roar of the demon army turned to fearful agony as they fell through the ice and the dark water swallowed them.

Water is the best conductor of holy energy. Spider must have been celibate a long time. He had obviously kept himself busy blessing this demon trap since he and Chumele were a couple. The demon army burned.

As the circle of charges reached for the center of the quarry, chunks of ice flew my way.

Ice crystals glittered in fresh sunlight as the explosions turned fountains of holy water into demon blood.
 

I thought of that soccer ball hitting me in the forehead when I was a kid. Everything was happening in slow motion again. I watched, fascinated, as a brick of ice as big as a boxing glove rushed at my face. I dodged it easily.

Feeling my power, I began to laugh. Then another chunk of ice slammed into the back of my head. I tottered on the edge of the hole at my feet and fell into darkness. Demons don’t have eyes in the backs of their heads.

Chapter 38

The smell of cedar.
 

Rustling and the crackle and pop of a log fire.

Warmth.

An itchy wool blanket.

I opened my eyes. The underside of an unfamiliar wooden roof hung above me. In a moment, Manhattan looked down into my eyes. She put her mouth by my ear so only I could hear.

“The largest demon incursion into our dimension so far has been destroyed. Magog got away again, but hey, he’s your white whale…blue whale…blue demon. Whatever.”

An IV bag hung above me on a metal pole. My lips were dry, but, aside from the headache, I didn’t feel as bad as I thought I should. “Spider?”

“The holy guy? Yeah, he’s fine. You’re not his favorite person, but he’s okay. I told him to stop whining. It was a shoot-the-hostage situation.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“I wouldn’t tell him that,” Manny said. “He’s a powerful sorcerer. If he didn’t think you were crazy, he might turn you into a toilet brush or something.”

“I’ll stay crazy then.”

“You’re at Spider’s cabin, by the way. He’s got a great collection of King Crimson records that has been keeping me occupied between diaper runs.”

“Wh..what?”

“Some of the Choir is here, camping and keeping watch, but Magog isn’t showing his ugly face.”

“How long have I been out?”

“Two days. Want some water?”

I nodded and that hurt my head.

Manny moved to prop me up, but I got up on one elbow under my own power to drink some ice water.

“I never should have let you come home without me,” Manny said. “See the trouble you get into without me around?”

I squeezed Manny’s hand. “What about Wil and Mama?”

“Everyone’s fine but you. Wil got away in the Guardian. Your mother says she’s reevaluating her relationship with Mr. Chang. I heard about Trick. Sorry about that, chick.”

“Where’s Mama?”

“She’ll be here in a bit. I called her. You’ve been rolling around in your bunk a bit. Dr. Moosejaw said you’d wake up soon.”

I looked under my blanket. I was naked except for a diaper. “Oh,” I said.

“Yeah,” Manhattan said. “We’re friends forever now. You owe me big time until you change my diapers. We’re going to be really old ladies before you’ll get a chance to repay that debt, sweetie.”

I fell back onto the narrow bed and pulled the blanket over my eyes. “Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God!” My cheeks felt like they were on fire.

“Your mother took her turn, too,” Manny said, obviously enjoying my humiliation.

“It wasn’t all bad,” she added. “Part of it was fun.”

“F-f-fun?”

“Sure. You have me to thank for the Brazilian. I wish I got mine while
I
was unconscious.”

I pushed her off the bed and she laughed as she hit the floor. I was pretty sure she was joking. Not entirely sure. I’d check for myself when I had some privacy.

I wrapped the blanket around me, stood and waited for the pain to come. I expected to be sore, but I wasn’t. In fact, aside from the throbbing in my scalp, I felt better than ever. I still wore the cast on my forearm. Somehow, I knew I didn’t need it anymore. I pulled it off easily, like taking off an old glove.

“Slow your roll, Iowa. How do you feel?”

“Like I could take on the world.”

“Good,” Manny said. “I suppose you will have to.”

“What’s wrong, Manny? We
won
, right?”

“It’s war, Iowa. There is no winning. There’s only ending. Sam’s body wasn’t in the ashes of the funeral home. She’s missing.”

“Then she must have gone through the rift and she’s with my father and the Ra.”

“That’s what Victor thinks. He’s pretty freaked out. We all are.”

“Yeah. Me, too.”

Manny checked her phone. “The cell towers are still all down, but my phone’s still good to check the time. C’mon, out on the deck.”

I followed her outside. It was cold, but the winter temperatures didn’t bother me. I figured out later that I should have been more worried. However, with Rasputin’s dampening spell lifted, the real me was part demon and, for a short time, I was okay with that. Blame the concussion.

“Where is everybody?”

“Not far,” Manny said vaguely. “Moosejaw and Victor thought it would be best if you woke up to my friendly face first. You’ve been through a lot and everyone needs some adjustment time.”

“I don’t want adjustment time,” I said. “I want to see mother and talk to her about…that man.”

“Your father.”

“Peter Smythe, yeah. Weird name for a demon, isn’t it?”

“I’m sure that’s not his real name, Iowa.”

“You think?”

“Your mother is pretty embarrassed.”

“I have a million questions,” I said. “How long into dating were they before she figured…I mean, one of
them
? That must have been one amazing masking spell.”

“I talked to her about it a little.”

“What did Mama say? Tell me.”

“She didn’t want to talk about it. She did say your dad was a demon in the sack.”

“She did not!”

Manhattan gazed at me steadily. Not a flinch.

“Oh,
God.
”

“Yeah, well, every older woman was a younger woman once, off on her own adventures and —”

“Don’t.”

“Okay.”

“Any other surprises?”

Manny checked the time again. “A couple. Wait for it…wait for it…” Manny raised a hand and pointed at the horizon as if she held a gun. As she mimed pulling the trigger, a flash of white light froze the forest in a black silhouette.

Manny put her arms around my shoulders and held tight. We watched a column of orange fire rise high in the air followed by a mushroom cloud.