Ted closed the final distance between him and Vamps, just as the demon stumbled back to his feet. His left arm dangled from a shoulder six inches lower that it should be. Vamps grabbed it with his opposite hand and wrenched, popping the joint back into place. He did not wince or show any pain.
“You lied to me,” said Ted. “You said the attack was coming tonight, and only from the front.”
Vamps grinned, his tongue flicking in and out like a snake’s. “Truth and fallacy are human creations. Accept your fates or face further humiliation.”
“Accept that this world doesn’t belong to you, and I won’t have to kick your arsehole into your throat.”
Vamps hissed, then launched himself at Ted. Ted was not an agile man, so he only made it halfway out of danger. Vamps struck him in the chest and spun him around. He fell down in the dirt, then rolled aside and back up onto his knees in time to dodge a second attack. He needed to regain his hammer.
Vamps backhanded Ted and crushed his cheek. He fell down again, this time too dazed to get back up.
“Are you maggots the best your god could manage? Weak, flawed creatures that consider themselves superior to all? You are not superior. You are uninspired creations of an uninspired god. I shall replace you with beings so glorious that the sun itself will darken in their presence. Mine will be a universe of perfection.”
Ted scrambled to his feet. “Perfection’s boring. It’s the screwed-up shit that makes life challenging.”
“There is no challenge, only futility. You are a mere reflection of your creator’s lack of imagination.”
Ted grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it in Vamps’ face, then used the distraction to scramble to his feet. “You see, that was challenging, but I pulled it off. Lots of things are challenging—like watching Man Utd play, or trying to get an erection after a night down the pub. Sex is one of those imperfect things you hate so much, but trust me, it’s the messiness that makes it worth the effort.”
Vamps rubbed at his eyes until they were clear of sand. “Then it is the first thing I shall erase.”
Ted dashed for his hammer, and this time, when Vamps tried to attack him, he turned and threw himself into a tackle. He landed on top of Vamps and pounded at his face. The rage took hold of him, and he threw down his fists harder and harder, breaking bone and rupturing flesh. Blood went everywhere, and his mouth opened in an animalistic roar. Vamps might be a demon, but Ted was the true monster here.
He lost his mind to anger—but then suddenly realised it wasn’t really anger that came over him when he fought the demons. It was grief.
Chloe called out to him from the shadows of his mind. The echoes of her screams rattled inside his skull, and he saw flashes of the balmy night they had torn her away from him. Demons had dragged his little girl from the flatbed of his truck while she slept beneath the blankets he placed on her. The entire under-construction housing estate had kept them safe for weeks, but that night the demons had finally come for them. Ted had been sat with the lads playing cards.
Chloe’s screams were the last thing he remembered about her—her wailing voice fading into the darkness as demons carried her away. He should have stayed closer. She shouldn’t have been sleeping alone.
All of that grief came out now, along with so much guilt he felt like he might grow wings made from it. His fists reigned down with so much anguish that Vamps’ face turned to mush.
But as quickly as the grief came over Ted, it washed away. He fell away from Vamps, panting and sobbing to himself while clutching at the dirt and trying to pull the earth over himself. He wanted to be buried. This needed to be over.
Frank appeared at the bottom of the steps, and saw the emotional wreck that was Ted, but then he saw the bloody remains of Vamps and looked shocked. He looked back and forth, obviously confused, but then raced over to help Ted.
“Kidda, what the heck happened?”
Ted got ahold of himself. “Vamps set us up. H-He was opening the gate. I… I killed him.”
“Yep, I’d say yow did that alright. Come on, kidda, let me help yow.”
Ted took Frank’s hand and got to his feet. He was about to say something when he saw movement in the corner of his eye.
The fight wasn’t over.
Ted shoved Frank aside just as Vamps pounced, his face a ruin but slowly reconstructing. He had been aiming for Frank’s back, but instead collided with Ted. He hissed and raised a clawed hand to cut through the air.
50
DR KAMIYO
“I have no idea how you expect to do this,” said Kamiyo, as he removed the braces from the sally port. While it was a lovely and convenient solution in theory, it wasn’t so easy as strolling down the hill and diving into the lake. There were maybe a thousand demons between Hannah and her destination.
And she was dying rapidly.
They were all dying.
Hannah shouted up at the teens on the wall and told them to clear a path outside the sally port. They nodded okay, calmed by their protected positions. The walls really had given them a chance, and not a single demon had got close to scaling the perimeter.
At least not yet.
Philip slumped up against the wall next to the sally port, holding a spear in his free hand. “I say we just walk out there casually, like we’re conducting normal business. Maybe it will confuse them enough to buy us some time.”
Kamiyo
