A hoof came out of the crater and slammed deep into the pavement of the walkway. The demon, billowing smoke from a dozen wounds like a broken chimney, lowered its head and roared. It was coming for them. The Grimnoir kept shooting, but the smaller bullets didn't even seem to hurt it. She didn't know much about demons, but she figured when it ran out of smoke, it would be dead, but by the time that happened, it would probably have killed them all.
Something grey shimmered through the remains of the front porch, and Heinrich materialized right in front of the monster. He shouted something insulting in German. The demon turned its eyes toward him and growled. 'Yes. Here I am. Come! Come and get me.'He shot it with a skinny-barreled pistol. A three-clawed hand swung and Heinrich turned blurry right before impact and it zipped through him. He ducked under the next attack, and rolled across the grass, his long coat flapping behind.
'What's he doing?' Faye asked.
'Buying us time,' Francis answered as he pulled himself up.
Heinrich turned grey as the demon lowered its head, snorting in rage, and threw horns through him. The mean, but very brave, man appeared on the other side, grimacing from the strain. 'What happens when he runs out of Power?'
'He dies.' Francis looked her right in the eyes, desperate. 'Can you find its Summoner? If you can stop him, it'll weaken that thing.'
Some of the others were moaning. Jane was moving between them like a white battlefield angel. Bullets were landing around them again as the remaining bad men renewed their attack. She turned to the woods, and knew that it would take a few jumps to find the man controlling the demon, and she would have to find him out there in the dark, surrounded by the same kind of men who'd killed Grandpa.
I'm not losing another family. She gripped Mr. Browning's.45 tight in her callused palm, picked a spot as far away as she dared, and was gone.
His chest was burning.
Sullivan sat up with a grunt. His back was pressed into the end of a ditch, and it took him a second to realize that the trench had been dug by his body. He shook his head to clear it as he pushed loose from the dirt. His shirt had been ripped open, and the hexagram scar on his chest was hot to the touch. The new Power was streaming through his tissues, giving his already hardened body extra strength.
His Power was still recovering from the massive Spike, but he could feel it building along with his anger. He checked the BAR. The rugged weapon was unharmed, etchings of durability glowing slightly in the dark. He had landed close to the woods, and could hear voices around him in the night as the Imperium men cautiously approached the house. They were all around him, shapes in the fog. There was gunfire to his left as one of them opened up.
In the distance, the Greater Summoned was battling with Heinrich. Behind the spinning forms, the first floor of the Grimnoir house had been laid open like a disemboweled animal. Delilah leapt from the second floor, screaming, dark hair whipping in the moonlight, and landed next to the demon. She charged it, fists raised. It was going to rip her apart, and it was his fault. 'Damn it,' he muttered, rising. Now I'm mad.
He came out of the trench, covered the short distance to the man shooting the submachine gun, raised the heavy BAR overhead, and shattered his skull. Before the body hit the ground, Sullivan had picked up the subgun, some weird Jap thing with the magazine sticking out the side, and raised it in one hand, looking for his next target. There were two more men crouched ahead of him, so he pulled the trigger, working it across them, bullets tearing into their backs as they jerked and twitched. The bolt flew forward, empty, and he hurled it into the darkness.
Shapes turned toward him, aware now that something terrible was in their midst. Sullivan shouldered the BAR and went to town.
Faye hit the ground running. She figured she might as well be moving while she checked her head map, since the place was covered in bad men with guns. But she didn't need to worry, because off to one side, Mr. Sullivan was killing the ever-livin' hell out of the Imperium men. They were dropping like alfalfa in front of a scythe.
If I was a demon Summoner, where would I hide? She scowled at the trees. The fog was wispy and moving, and it made it hard for even her grey eyes to see good.
'Kid!' A deep voice came from above. She looked up to the noise of beating wings, and instinctively ducked as an owl swooped past. 'Hundred and twenty yards, due east!' Lance shouted through the bird. 'Careful. There's three of 'em!'
She could Travel that in a few hops. Back at the house, the demon roared its fury, and she knew she didn't have much time.
Madi stalked back and forth, enraged. Several Grimnoir were tangling with the severely damaged Bull King. His goons were dropping like flies. The stinking unreliable Shadow Guards were still missing. And his watch was telling him that Toshiko was in position, and needed to get a target in the next few minutes before the Army pulled their heads out of their asses, realized they'd been attacked, and sent reinforcements to the Peace Ray. And he still didn't know if the Tesla device was here or not. 'Damn it, Hiroyasu, you better get your shit together or I swear on the Chairman's eyes I'll cut your balls off.'
The thin man was concentrating on his Power, sweat beading his brow. 'One moment…'
Yutaka was focused on his demon. Madi stomped over to him, scowling. They should have been done by now. 'This is fucking unacceptable,' he shouted as he drew the Beast from his shoulder holster. 'I'll take care of these Grimmy bastards myself.'
He flinched as Yutaka's brains hit him in his good eye. The right side of his partner's head had split open like a dropped melon. Yutaka opened his mouth, like he was trying to say something, but nothing came out except a trickle of blood as he fell to the ground.
Madi wiped his face with his coat sleeve. A skinny, grey-eyed girl was standing there, big.45 raised in one quivering hand. 'You!' they said at the same time, and she cranked off several fast shots, and by the time he raised his gun, she was gone.
'Son of a bitch!' Madi bellowed, feeling the burn of the hot slugs embedded in his chest. It was that Portagee's brat. 'You Travelin' whore!'
Hiroyasu was crouched low, afraid. Madi's improved senses couldn't pick her up. He knelt down and checked Yutaka, but half the contents of his head had already slid onto the damp grass. His partner had only been able to sustain a single kanji of vitality on his body, and that wasn't near enough to withstand getting your skull emptied.
He'd lost an Iron Guard. He'd lost a brother. The Chairman was gonna be pissed.
There was a flash of movement to his side, and he raised his.50, thinking it was that little Traveler bitch coming back for more, but instead it was one of the Shadow Guard. The little man in black bowed deeply, noticing the dead Iron Guard. 'Sir, I have bad news.'
'What now?' Madi spat.
'Our other Shadow Guard was lost to the Grimnoir. He was-'
'Frankly, I don't give a shit. Did you find the device or not?'
'Not yet, Iron Guard. I will return.'
'Wait. You're taking me with you. You want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.' He turned to where his remaining Iron Guard was cowering. The.45 bullet lodged in his lung was pissing him off. Madi grabbed Hiroyasu by the collar and hoisted the tiny Lazarus off the ground. 'Listen up. Yutaka was twice the man you were. I'm going in there myself, and there damn well better be some gawdamned zombies doing some killin' out here or I'm gonna come back and hurt you in ways you can't even imagine. Got it?'
'Hai!'
Madi dropped him on his ass, put his hand on the Shadow Guard's shoulder, and said, 'Move it. I got murdering to attend to.' The two of them Traveled, disappearing into the darkness.
The Greater Summoned was confused, weakened. It stumbled as Delilah punched it in the chest with a crack that could be heard across the entire peninsula. It went to one knee, and Delilah immediately stepped up onto its leg, threw herself high, and crashed her elbow down between its four eyes. Fire billowed around her, scorching her dress.
