Now! Merihim roared. Just lay your hand on the Hammer and I’ll do the rest. If you don’t you’ll never leave this place alive.
Pain smashed through Warren’s head, almost causing him to black out. He stumbled but managed to go forward. Naomi offered to help, but he brushed her away. Even that fleeting contact, though, must have hinted to her what he was about to attempt.
“No, Warren,” Naomi said. “You can’t—”
Then Warren was by her, charging toward the Templar with Balekor’s Hammer strapped over his back. The Templar must have sensed him coming, because he tried to turn around. Warren was quick, though, and he reached for the Hammer’s haft.
He closed his right hand around it and the contact was electric and powerful. Immediately the Hammer glowed with a phosphorus-bright intensity. Then a wave of force exploded from it, blowing the Templar away and leaving Warren standing there with the Hammer in hand.
Weapons fire from the demon guns hit all around him. He knew with the hammer in his hand and lit up by the glow that he was an immediate target. Before he could move, and he wasn’t sure if he could move, three bullets suddenly stopped in midair only inches from his chest. If they’d hit him, he had no doubt that they would have punched through his heart.
Warren gazed in wonder at the bullets, wondering if he had somehow stopped them. He hadn’t known he could blow the wall apart with a gesture either. The encounter with Merihim had changed him.
You didn’t do that, Merihim told him derisively. I saved you. And if you listen to me, I’ll always save you. I have marked you, Warren Schimmer, and you are mine.
The demon’s threat chilled Warren, but he felt comforted by it. The demon had claimed him. For all of his life, no one had ever told him they wanted him. No one had ever protected him.
He stared at the bullets as four more joined them. He was protected now.
Call my name, Merihim urged. Call my name so that I can come to you.
Holding the Hammer with both hands, Warren could “feel” the demon. Merihim was already getting closer. He could sense the demon’s proximity.
Call my name!
Lifting the Hammer, following the urge that squirmed through him, Warren shouted, “Merihim!”
Instantly, a purple, two-dimensional disc irised open in midair almost in front of him. Lightning stirred within the disc, occasionally erupting from it. The static electricity caused Naomi’s and Kelli’s hair to lift. Sonic booms cracked within and pealed out over the basement.
Warren felt like ants were crawling over his body. “Merihim!”
Incredibly, the demon started to crawl from within the disc.
Forty-Three
S imon pushed himself up. His senses still swam from the explosion that had occurred after the man had grabbed the hammer from Derek’s back. Despite the armor’s protection, he tasted blood in his mouth. His eyes focused on the shimmering purple disc as the demon began to crawl from it. The bullets frozen in midair before the man—His name is Warren. Simon remembered the woman Cabalist calling out his name just before Warren had lunged for the Hammer.
“Stop him!” Derek said. “Take the Hammer!”
There was something about the monstrous form of the demon that touched a well of fear inside Simon. The feeling was like nothing he’d ever known before. It was primitive and unstoppable, and it ran rampant through Simon. The last thing he wanted to do was approach the demon.
But only he and Derek were left aboveground. And Derek was struggling to get to his feet. His breathing sounded labored. As Derek forced himself up, Simon saw the broken shard of a demon’s spear that had been thrust into his stomach.
“Simon!”
Derek’s voice broke whatever spell was on Simon. He moved forward at once, but felt pressure immediately shoving him back. Now he understood why the bullets hung in the air. Arcane energies protected Warren.
Still pushing forward, Simon summoned his own arcane energy, aiming it like a weapon at Warren. When he had it strong enough, he fired it at Warren. Something rippled in the air between them.
Warren staggered back, his concentration shattered. The disc held its form, though, as the demon pushed through and into the basement.
When the pressure went away, Simon swung his sword, intending to knock the Hammer from Warren’s grip. Instead, Warren shifted. The blade caught him on the right wrist and sliced through.
Warren’s hand fell away from his wrist. Blood gushed from the horrible wound. Crying out shrilly, he dropped the Hammer and closed his other hand over the end of his maimed arm.
Simon felt bad about the turn of events, but he closed on the Hammer and lifted it from the floor. The bullets resumed their course and at least one of them struck Warren as he fell.
The disc imploded, but the arcane forces shot the demon from it like an inhuman cannonball. Before the demon went far, however, it stopped in midair and sank to its knees, obviously stunned. Its voice rose in ire and pain, and Simon knew he didn’t want to be there when it recovered.
The two women ran to Warren. The dark-haired one tended to his amputated wrist while the other one stood by him and held him with a wooden smile on her face.
Knowing the Cabalists weren’t friendly or even neutral, Simon abandoned them, following Derek down into the hole in the floor.
“Can you make it?” Simon asked when he landed on the floor beside Derek.
“I have to.” Derek straightened with effort. Blood ran down the front of his armor. “Give me the Hammer.”
Simon did, then accepted the explosives Derek handed him.
“Mine the tunnel,” Derek said, glancing back up at the hole. “The demons will be down on top of us as soon as they’ve finished with those people up there.”
Simon nodded and slung the explosives over his shoulder. They ran.
Only a short distance ahead,
