“There are other Templar around you,” the suit’s AI informed him. “They cantake responsibility for your safety.”
“Negative.” Simon squeezed the trigger and palladium spikes shredded demonflesh. “Do whatever medical procedures necessary, but keep me functional.”
“Understood. Stand by to set jaw.”
Before Simon could say no, the helmet’s interior shifted as the nanofluidflowed and pulsed to realign his face. His jaw shifted and the pain dropped him to his knees. Just before he passed out, the suit AI opened up the full range of medical supplements.
Epinephrine pumped through his system. His nose started clearing as the swelling was reduced. He tasted blood at the back of his throat and knew he was swallowing it, but there wasn’t anywhere else for it to go. The suit would alsomake sure he was pumped full of anti-nausea meds as well.
Then, blessedly, the pain started to fade too.
“Stop him!” Booth screamed. “Don’t let him get away!”
Simon had no intention of getting away. He stepped toward the first Templar who came at him and delivered a roundhouse kick thatcaught the man in the midsection and knocked him from the bridge.
Danielle waded into the thick of things as well, striking out against the Templar as she tried to make her way to Simon. She was a wraith among the Templar, one of the best unarmed fighters Simon had ever seen. Her hands punched like piledrivers and her knees and feet flew in rapid strikes. Booth’s mencouldn’t equal her.
She stripped a sword from one of the Templar before she heaved him over the side of the bridge. Turning, she threw the sword to Simon.
“Catch!” she cried.
Recognizing the blade as his own, Simon swapped hands with the Spike Bolter and caught his sword by the hilt. Firing steadily at the demon standing on the bridge, he advanced on the creature with his sword.
Warren turned, trying desperately to keep Fulaghar locked on the bridge, then saw the demon stepping from the rift beside him.
Nine feet tall and wiry, Toklorq had four arms twice as long as his body and an eye on every side of his head. If there was a mouth, Warren couldn’t find it.The demon was covered in bronze and orange scales. The arms were more like tentacles. They whipped out to seize Warren.
Warren tried to slip away, but couldn’t. The arms wrapped around him andstarted squeezing so hard he couldn’t breathe. His vision started to turn black,but he tried to hold Fulaghar.
“Let Fulaghar go,” the voice advised.
The fear Warren had of Merihim wouldn’t allow that, though. He struggled tomaintain his hold.
“Warren!” Naomi yelled from back at his sanctuary.
She pulled at him with her power, trying to get him back through a rift.
Warren turned her efforts aside.
“You’re going to die!” the voice said.
Warren knew it was true. He could already feel himself slipping over the side, and there was nothing to stop the express elevator down once he went.
Leah squeezed the trigger and felt the Cluster Rifle surge against her shoulder as it fired a missile at the center of Merihim’s chest. Some sixthsense warned the demon, though, and he rolled over on his side to let the projectile slide harmlessly by.
He pointed the trident at her. That surprised her because the camouflage ability was still juicing the suit.
Leah saw a mild distortion leave the tines of the trident, then the distortion turned wild and was upon her. The force blew her backwards, and she just knew she’d come apart.
In his HUD, Simon saw the shimmering force leave Merihim’s trident andstrike… something. He had to guess that it was Leah. He called her namebut didn’t get a response.
He wanted to go to her, but he didn’t even know where the demon’s blast hadknocked her. She was still invisible to his sensors. He checked for blood, but didn’t see any of that either. If she’d been hurt or killed, her suit was stillholding together.
Instead, he concentrated on the demon on the bridge. That one at least was within range.
The demon threw a hand out. Flames jetted over Simon and raised the suit’sexternal temperature to smoldering in a heartbeat. By then Simon was on the creature. The palladium spikes from the Spike Bolter weren’t doing much damage. The demon washealing too quickly.
Simon drew his sword back, it too wreathed in flames from the demon’s attack,and swung. The blade cleaved toward the demon’s head, but then Merihim’s tridentwas there.
“No!” the demon roared in his raucous voice. Merihim kicked Simon in theface and sent him skidding back across the bridge.
FORTY-EIGHT
Just before he lost consciousness, Warren released his hold on Fulaghar and turned his full attention to Toklorq.
“Die, human!” Toklorq hissed. His intelligence didn’t seem to be quite on apar with Fulaghar’s other two minions. But he was easily as deadly.
Warren pictured a sword in his mind, then built it out of the arcane energy he controlled. With a quick thrust, he shoved it into Toklorq’s head. The skullexploded and eyeballs shot in all directions. Some of them plopped against Warren.
Dead, the demon fell backwards as its tentacles lost all control.
Wheezing, barely able to suck air into his lungs, Warren collapsed on top of the Middle Tower. Then he remembered Fulaghar.
When he turned around, Warren saw Fulaghar leap up at Merihim, who was still flying. Both demons hung in the air and became targets for Templar fire.
You witless, gutless fool! Merihim exploded. We had him beaten!
Terror flooded Warren’s veins when he thought of the demon’s wrath. He triedto catch hold of Fulaghar again, but his efforts were too weak and were too easily turned aside.
Instead, seeing the Templar in the moat, Warren awakened the dead in the nearby graveyards and called out to them. Then he reached for the dead that he felt in the bed of the moat. Some of them were new, but some of them had been there a long time.
All of them came.
When Leah came back to herself, she was lying flat on her back. Recalling the blast that had hit her, she didn’t
