I won’t say that my mind was entirely on what I was doing (driving a two-and-a-half-ton death machine) and I was probably going too fast considering the road and the unfamiliar vehicle. But when I say that someone appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the road, I mean literally no where. Suddenly, there was a tall figure in my headlights, arm raised to shield his eyes from the glare.
In that frozen “oh shit!” split second, I saw the blond Mohawk, the glint of too much metal in his face, and I knew in some back corner of my brain that it was Axel. But that couldn’t stop my instinctive swerve, foot mashing hard on the brakes as the enormous truck pirouetted gracefully off the gravel road and into the ditch.
I came to a stop with a jarring metal crunch, establishing first that I didn’t seem to be injured, and second that the truck was still running with no noticeable noises of impending death. The third thing that I established was that when I got out of the truck, I was going to kill Axel.
18
“J esus freakin’ Christ, Axel!” I hopped out of the truck, landing in ankle-deep, freezing muck, and slammed the door harder than I needed to in my frustration.
The demon appeared at the front of the vehicle and grimaced. “Again, can we not bring him into this?”
The left front fender was dented in, and I anxiously examined the truck for broken lights, happy when I found none. The fender damage was mostly cosmetic, and Marty could get it beat out in no time. That didn’t make the accident any better, really, but at least I hadn’t totaled someone else’s truck.
“Have you ever heard of the phone? Or like… a singing telegram or something?” The demon actually looked a bit abashed when I turned my furious glare on him. “You could have gotten someone killed!”
“I needed you to stop. There was no time for a polite request.”
I clambered out of the ditch, my feet making a nice “ssssshluck!” noise with every soggy step. As best I could tell in the dark, the rest of the Suburban seemed all right. “What’s the freakin’ emergency, then?”
“He’s after the boy.”
That made me stop, which was no doubt his intent. “The Yeti?”
The blond demon nodded. “At the hospital. If he touches the boy, it’s all over.”
“He’s… in public? In full view of-” Axel was already nodding emphatically. “Why the hell would he do something crazy like that?”
“Because he knows you. He knows you’ll do anything to protect that child.” Axel’s eyes glowed cherry red, beacons in the darkness. “He knows the only way for you to save the boy, from here, is to call him away. To call your challenge due.”
“The guys are there. Are they all right?”
Axel shrugged his lanky shoulders. “They were when I last saw them.” That wasn’t an answer. He’d been giving me a lot of nonanswers lately.
“You could be lying.”
“I could be. But think. Have I ever told you a lie? Even a little one?” He smirked and nodded toward the truck. “Try to call your friends. See if they’ll answer their telephones while they’re under attack.”
I advanced on him and poked my finger into his chest, mostly to see if Mira’s protective spells would trip. They didn’t. Again. “You’ve been pushing me around like a damn pawn for the last week, for whatever agenda it is that you have, and I’m getting pretty tired of it.”
He smiled at me, that slow sinister grin I was familiar with. This was an Axel I recognized. “Are you willing to let your friends die, the boy’s soul be ripped out, over a sense of moral outrage, Jesse?” He tsk ed softly at me and stepped away, putting distance between us as he moved down the gravel road. “There might be hope for you after all.”
“Does the Yeti have his little pets with him, attacking the hospital right out in the open?”
“Mmhmm. A few. He’s become very short on cannon fodder, thanks to you.” His boots crunched on the gravel, every step taking him farther and farther outside the reach of the truck’s headlights.
“And if I call him away, those things will go apeshit again, like earlier.”
“Mmhmm. But if you don’t call him away, little Zane will be one of them. I wonder if he’ll even realize when he’s ripped his own father’s throat out, eaten his tongue.”
“If I call him away, I want something from you in return.”
That made him pause, and he raised a pierced brow at me. “And what might that be?”
“Help them.” The Yeti had rightful claim on my soul at the moment. I couldn’t offer that to Axel and he couldn’t ask. What was the worst that could happen? The demon pursed his lips thoughtfully, eyes narrowing as he looked me up and down. “C’mon, man. Whatever little spat you’re having with your own kind, you’ve already picked a side by helping us earlier. Help them again.”
He made a great show of thinking it over, rocking his head from side to side, going through the hemming and hawing. Finally, he smirked. “All right. If you call your Yeti away, I’ll help them. But you will owe me a favor. Not your soul, I won’t even try that. But.. . something. Something I’ll ask for later.”
“Fine.” Part of me expected that deal to burn itself black into my skin, like the Yeti’s brand, but nothing happened. Maybe these ephemeral “rules” covered only set contracts, not vague favors.
“Decide quickly, Jesse. They don’t have much time.” He took two more steps backward, and the darkness swallowed him up. Sulfur wafted to me on the tiny breeze.
What else could I do but throw my head back and yell “FUCK!” at the empty night sky? Then I kicked one of the tires for good measure, mud splattering everywhere.
Well, I could try to get Cam-or anyone else for that matter-on the phone. Of course, every single number I tried went unanswered. It did occur to me at some point that Cole’s phone was one of those fancy ones that would let me look up things, so I found the number for the hospital in Fort Collins. And that one went unanswered too. I hung up when it hit fifteen rings.
As much as I hated to believe that Axel might be telling the truth (and trust me, I knew he was doing it only for his own benefit), I couldn’t think of any reason for a hospital phone to go unanswered, unless major shit was going down.
Sadly, I was in no shape to be fighting the Yeti. I had my sword in the truck, yes, but my armor was all the way back in Missouri. I threw open the back doors of the truck, pawing through what was left of my friends’ belongings. They’d taken their packs at the hospital, and with them they’d taken their paintball markers. No holy paint for me.
As a last resort, I patted my pockets down, wishing futilely for any of my little antidemon gadgets and doohickeys. I discovered something hard and flat in one pocket, and investigation revealed it to be a quarter. It tingled against my fingertips.
Great. One sword, and one holy quarter. This was my arsenal.
Second concern was location. Fighting in the middle of a blacked-out gravel back road was probably not the best idea. Not to mention that our terms said it had to be in the mountains. Immediately, my eyes lit on the peak, looming large over me. I grinned. Perfect. This time of year, any campgrounds would be deserted, and hopefully the park rangers would be long gone home for the night. If I was lucky.
With the judicious application of a crap load of gas and a colorful variety of curse words, the Suburban gave a lurch, a shudder, and then it was free of the muddy ditch, albeit quite a bit dirtier. I drove back toward the lights of the city until I found the first sign that pointed toward Pikes Peak, and I took that turn. Whaddya know, Marty’s truck will squall tires. Probably shouldn’t mention that to him.
I’d never actually been to Pikes Peak before this, but I knew you had to buy passes in order to drive up the mountain. And where there are passes required, there are gates. And where there are gates after closing time, there are gate crashers. Guess what I was.
I don’t know if there was supposed to be some kind of barrier across the drive or what, but there wasn’t. There was a light on in the little guard shack, but I didn’t see anyone sitting in it as I blew right past it. I did hope briefly that: one, no one tried to chase me up the mountain, and two, that I didn’t get anyone in trouble for not being at their post.
According to the posted signs, it was at least an hour drive to reach the tippity top of the mountain. The guys
