The ward tingled a little when I passed through it, and I stood on the back porch for a few moments, listening to the world around me. Nothing moved. No birds, no animals, hell, I don’t think there were even any insects buzzing around. Everything sane had cleared out hours ago. Even if I couldn’t see the Yeti and his pets, I knew they were there.
I flexed my fingers on the hilt of my sword and stepped off the porch. Funny, holy ground didn’t feel any different from regular ground, except for the very faint tingle across my skin. Magic. Cam could call it prayer if he wanted, but it all smelled and felt the same to me. I paid special attention to that tingle as I walked across the clearing, ready to jump back if I crossed the barrier between consecrated and not.
Things were moving in the trees now, rustling softly. The only reason I could even hear it was that everything else was so freakin’ quiet. Whatever they were, they knew I’d left the cabin, and they were tracking right along the edge of holy ground. That wasn’t encouraging.
The spring itself was the only natural sound for yards and yards. The water burbled quietly, trickling from a small spill of smooth rocks into a man-made pond. It was still within the boundary by about three feet, and I had to wonder how long it would take for the spell to fade, to open this up for attack. Once we lost our water, we’d be out of time to make decisions.
How soon? I dipped my fingers into the pond, letting the pure water trickle over them while I had a good think. How long do we have? How long did Mira and Anna have, if those things were after Esteban? How long for Ivan, and Sveta, and Avery, and all the others I’d never even met?
Barely a yard in front of me, the bushes parted and a bald head appeared, nose wrinkling to sniff the air. I stood slowly and brought my sword up, dropping into a defensive stance. The creature leaned forward, testing the invisible barrier between us, then hissed in silent displeasure. Whatever it was, it wasn’t willing to cross Cam’s threshold. “That’s a good boy. You stay right there.”
It cocked its head to one side, a very human gesture of curiosity, almost like it understood what I was saying. Its eyes were solid black, but glowed somehow, and I got the impression that something larger was looking out at me from the inside. Goose bumps ran laps up and down my back.
Another one slipped through the brush, roughly shouldering the first aside, and they bared their teeth at each other before turning to look at me again. I took the opportunity to get a good look at them, despite the darkness.
Both male, that much was evident, their bodies were almost skeletal, stained and dirty skin stretched tight over a framework of bone. Their teeth were rotted black, and the odor of decay slowly permeated the area. They breathed, but made no other sound that I could hear, and they crouched on all fours like a hound rather than moving on two legs. Their movements would have been fluid on another animal, but on them they were strange and alien, like their bodies just didn’t fit what their brains were telling them to do. Or what their master is telling them to do.
Their bare feet weren’t clawed, per se. More, it looked like their toenails had simply overgrown. The same with their fingers. Still, there was no mistaking the dexterity of their hands. I’d seen them grab and shred.
Briefly, I wondered what would happen if I stood at the very edge of the marked boundary and cut their heads off. Something told me that would be a bad idea. I mean, shedding blood on holy ground? Just didn’t seem to be a good thing.
A third joined them as I watched, the handless female I’d taken a bite out of earlier. If she noticed her missing appendage, it didn’t show. She shuffled around on the stump just as easily as on her remaining hand. The wound itself wasn’t bleeding, but I could see smears of something black and thick left on the foliage as she passed. I swallowed hard and tried not to think about what that was. Just looking at her was making me a bit queasy. I could have handled something more… animal, I think. They were just human enough to be grotesque. The wrongness of it all turned my stomach.
The female silently snarled at the two males, and they slunk back, giving her space. Her gaze fixed on me, and there was something in there, something more than that otherly blackness the males had. I felt like she actually saw me. “And just who are you in there?”
There was more movement in the bushes to my left as even more of them gathered, drawn by some unheard signal. It was time to go. Slowly, I backed toward the cabin, not willing to turn my back to the eerie creatures who had massed to my presence. I was never so glad to feel my heels hit wood as I was that night, stepping back up onto the small porch.
“Darling, aren’t they?”
Either I was getting slow, or Axel was really freakin’ fast. My sword missed his head by a fraction of an inch. I may have sliced hair. “Jesus freakin’ Christ!”
“ Shh… No reason to get him involved.” The blond demon hooked his thumbs in his belt loops and leaned against the wall, shushing me with a grin. “And we wouldn’t want your buddies to come investigate the ruckus, would we?”
“How the hell did you get here? The ground is-”
“Consecrated? Yes, I know.” He made a face and spit. “Nasty business that. Hadn’t counted on that.”
“Counted on wh-…” It made sense, suddenly. “You were inside already. Upstairs. That’s what Duke was growling about.”
“Stupid mutt. At least he’s smart enough not to take me on.”
“But how’d you get out here? The wards…”
Axel snorted. “Your little priest friend should learn his limits. There’s barely enough power here to make me itch.” With a smirk, he demonstrated, hopping back and forth over the threshold of the open door. “I’m on the east side, I’m on the west side. I’m on the inside, I’m on the outside.”
“Wonderful. So the wards aren’t any good.” Just what we needed.
“Au contraire. They’ll work perfectly fine against anything that isn’t me.” He grinned, and it occurred to me that his injuries from earlier were gone. Only the faintest hint of a shadow showed where the worst of the bruising had been. Damn, demons healed fast. “I’m just that good.”
“What about the ones at my house?”
“Ah, now those are good wards. Your little priest could take some lessons from your wife.” Somehow, that made me feel better. If Mira’s wards would keep Axel out, surely they could keep out anything else Hell sent at her. Just until I could get home.
“So you’re… what? Lurking around here so you can offer to clue me in for… dun dun dun… a price?” I wasn’t up for playing games tonight.
The demon frowned at me. “Now there’s no need to get snarky. I am what I am.”
“Boy, don’t I know it.” I tried to move past him, and he barred the door with one arm.
“Jesse, in all seriousness. You need to talk to me.” Sometimes, when he got all serious in my voice like that, I could almost believe him. Almost.
“In exchange for what? I think I’m gonna be needing my soul soon, so I really can’t offer that up at the moment.”
He nodded. “Yes, you’re going to need it. Even if I tell you not to, you’ll do it. Maybe because I tell you not to. But that’s because you are what you are. Rather static creatures, aren’t we?”
“Same shit, different day.” Dammit. I needed information, and at this moment, I trusted the demon on the porch more than the priest upstairs. “All right. What info do you think I need, and what do you want for it?” There was this little voice in the back of my head screeching “Warning, warning!” but I ignored it.
He pursed his lips a bit, moving to gaze out into the darkening night. “Aren’t you even going to ask me what they are?”
“Would you tell me?”
“I might.” He grinned without looking at me, but I could hear it in his-my-voice. “If you ask the right question.”
“Can they be killed?” ’Cause really, that’s what it came down to. Whatever they were, wherever they came from, if I could kill them, I had options.
“Decent question. The answer is yes.” He looked at me, waiting.
I gritted my teeth. “ How can they be killed?”
“Ah, now that was a good question.” He nodded. “Destroy the neural pathways, and the body will cease to function.”
