Like riots, droughts, wildfires. Revolutions and famine. Everything we’d been seeing on the news for months now. And this was just the beginning. “Chaos, mass hysteria, dogs and cats living together…” He didn’t get the reference and just gave me a puzzled look. “ Ghostbusters? No?”
He gave me a flat look. “I got hit in the head today, forgive me. Anyway, like any prophecy, the clues and portents are open to interpretation. But our cardinal believes that the time is now, and that Hell’s first order of business will be to remove us. All of us.”
I could tell Cameron believed it. I mean, really believed it. His order thought the end was near, probably in all capital letters. Normally, I’d have laughed in his face.
Normally, that is, except for a few stray comments from Axel that I just couldn’t get out of my head. “They don’t follow the rules, Jesse.” “Think of it like a family food fight.” There was trouble brewing Down There. Axel was trying to make light of it, but there was some kind of internal discord. I promised myself that the next time Axel showed up, I was getting some kind of information out of him one way or another.
“But they can’t hurt us. We have to allow it, we have to bargain for the fight, or they can’t touch us.” Ironclad rule. Except Axel’s words from last spring were marching double time around inside my head now. They don’t follow the rules, Jesse. Over and over again, like an alarm blaring. And more recently, We always come back.
That one single fact was banging around in the back of my skull, part of me screaming in hysterical terror. The Yeti was back, but if I stopped to think about it right now, I’d cease to function. I’d think about it later. Hopefully.
“Those things out there bled, didn’t they? You wiped it off your sword.” He nodded toward my blade. “Then they’re not demons. And they’re not subject to the edicts.”
He was right. Whatever those things were… they weren’t demon, and all bets were off. Christ, I had to get to a phone, I had to call Ivan and warn him, send out an alert through Grapevine. Something. Anything. Oh Jesus… Esteban… The kid was with my wife and daughter. If they went after him…
“We were watching all of you. All that we knew about. They sent me to Kansas City to… try and mitigate damage, I guess.”
“And then you followed me up here. What about Esteban? Who’s watching him?”
“The boy?” Cam blinked a little, obviously puzzled. “He’s just a kid. He wasn’t considered a priority, I guess. They didn’t think about putting someone with him-” He choked, possibly because I had him by the shirt collar, hauling him into my personal space.
“That boy has killed a demon. And now he’s alone, with my wife and daughter. If anything happens to any of them, because you didn’t consider him worth saving…”
His hands were strong-much stronger than I’d thought-as he gripped my wrist, trying to loosen my hold. Cam was a creature of surprises. “They said… no homes… Too hard to hit the homes, too much. .. protection…” He gasped when I let go, gulping air.
Someone moved at the bottom of the stairs, a shadow sprawling across the ceiling above us. “Jesse? You guys okay up there?” Cole. And calling me by name was code. If I answered with anything other than “little brother,” he’d be up the stairs in a heartbeat, guns blazing. Figuratively. I think.
“We’re fine, little brother. We’ll be down in a little bit.”
“A’ight.”
Cameron was still rubbing his throat when I looked back at him. “ Who said, Cam? You keep saying ‘they said.’ Who is ‘they’?”
“There was… an interrogation. I wasn’t there. I told you I’m just a foot soldier. Information was obtained.”
“They interrogated… what? A demon? How did…?” The concept was alien to me. How do you hold something that can disappear at will, let alone interrogate it with any semblance of credibility? “How do you interrogate a demon?”
“Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to know.”
“Even better than that, how did you find one? One just happened to fall for the box-and-stick trap?” Cam looked down, away, and a chill settled over my skin. “You summoned a demon, didn’t you? Summoned it, bound it somehow.”
He still wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Not me personally, no.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Something like that, you can’t just sit still for. I stood up to pace the confines of our small circle of light. “Christ on a freaking cracker, Cam. You’re supposed to be the good guys, and you’re summoning demons? You don’t summon demons! Not for anything, or anyone. That’s how they get in, just that little bit of acceptance. And after that, maybe a small deal, something harmless. Then a little more. Then more. Then they have you by your short and curlies and there isn’t crap you can do about it, unless you come to someone like me. You simply do not summon demons!”
“It was necessary. We knew something was coming-we needed details. It was the only-”
“Oh screw your details. I notice you didn’t impart any of this great wisdom on the rest of us. What if we hadn’t brought you on this trip, Cam? How many of your other ‘brothers’ weren’t anywhere near the people they were supposed to be watching? I mean hell, there’s only five of you to begin with!” Again, he refused to meet my eyes. “More than five. Probably lots more. Any other lies you’d like to clear up, while we’re up here?”
“None of these things were my decision, Jesse. You have to know that.”
“I don’t care whose decision it was. You just better hope the rest of your ‘brothers’ are as good at their job as you are. ’Cause if your secrets got anyone hurt, I will personally turn you over to Ivan Zelenko for an asswhupping.” Ivan was one person that I never ever wanted mad at me, and if the knights had endangered his people… Mad wasn’t even adequate to describe the old man’s reaction. I don’t think they’d invented a word yet for how pissed he was going to be. “And then I’m gonna kick the crap out of the pieces of you that are left.”
He nodded, and I could see the exhaustion weighing down his shoulders. There were circles forming under his eyes already.
“You need to rest as much as you can. We can’t let you sleep, in case you have a concussion, so you’ll have to make do.” I headed for the stairs, leaving the lantern behind. “We’ll continue the conversation in the morning, when you’re coherent.”
I was halfway down the stairs before he spoke again. “Jesse.” I stopped, looking back with my eyes just level with the floor. “It may not have been the best idea. But they did what they had to do for the information. And it probably saved your life today.”
“Yeah? Tell that to the Quinns. Let me know how safe they feel.”
10
T here really wasn’t much else to do. Wisely, no one wanted to venture out into the darkness with those things, and so we were left with nothing to do but bed down for the night and wait for the sun to rise.
I was never any good at waiting. As the guys hauled their sleeping bags downstairs (opting to sleep in front of the fireplace instead of up in the loft), I did a walk-through of the cabin, checking defenses. Cam’s spell may be holding the nasty-bads back for now, but by his own admission, it wasn’t going to last forever.
I started in the main room, and while it may have looked like I was merely watching the night outside the windows, I was actually passing my hand over the glass, feeling for Cam’s wards. At each one, I found the telltale prickle of magic in place, and I was careful not to touch it and disrupt the protections. With those in place, I might be able to doze a little, at least.
On my way through the kitchen, I gave the faucets a twist, just to see the clear cold water come running out. The water was actually piped in from a spring just behind the cabin. A spring that, I hoped, was still on consecrated ground. “Hey, Marty? If you guys have any buckets, start filling them with water.” Siege strategy said that you first cut off water and food from those penned in. I didn’t know if the Yeti was versed in siege warfare, but why take the chance?
Outside the back door, the night was cool and silent. To the west, the mountain peaks still had a faintly lavender glow, but otherwise night had fallen. Was dark always so black? In a few hours, the moon would be rising somewhere behind me, but right now all I had was the faint gleam from the cabin windows.
