Demonspawn (41 page)

The UV lights blinked once, then went out
completely.

It wasn't me that did it. At least, I don't
think.

My night vision let me see everything. They
fired everything they had, but their shots passed through me. They
only succeeded in destroying the door and glass windows behind
me.

“Did we get him?”

“What the fuck?”

“Where's the lights?”

Someone grabbed their radio. “Roy, fire up
the backup generator.”

There was a pause, then a voice on the other
end. “Both generators are fried.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

I saw the shadows in the room start to move.
I think they even grew larger. The men saw it too. They all bunched
up near the center.

“What is that? What the hell is that
moving?”

There was one inhuman moan. Then another. I
could almost feel the air leaving the room, even in the ghost
world.

I saw claws reach out from the shadows. A
claw raked down the back of one of the men. He fell to the ground
screaming.

“Remember!” I called, like I was talking to a
bunch of kids. “No killing!”

But Heins and all his men would wish they
were dead.

It was a scene straight out of my old visits
to the demon world. It reminded me of when I first saw my
biological father. My little minions attacked with rage. They came
out of the shadows, the corners, the floor. They were everywhere.
The men in the lobby all shot blindly. I think they may have even
wounded each other.

I followed a stairs sign down the hallway. I
didn't even bother running. I saw a demon with its jaws wrapped
around some guy's arm. He screamed as he beat the demon on the head
with his free hand. The demon looked like it was having a little
too much fun. As it chewed on the man's arm, it put a claw to his
throat.

“Hey! I said no killing!”

It looked sad, like a puppy. I winced as the
demon ripped the man's arm off from the elbow down. It didn't
speak, but I could hear a deep voice in my head.

“He's alive, master.”

I walked up the stairs. As I passed the
second floor, I could still hear screams and demons wailing. It did
creep me out.

But I didn't feel sorry for them.

They had their chance to run. They didn't
take it. My demons wouldn't kill them, but I doubt they would be
able to hunt a vampire ever again.

I opened the door to the third floor. Old
offices and cubicles were everywhere. The lights flickered on and
off. I heard another scream that sounded like it came from
outside.

I ran to the window. Down in the parking lot
I saw some of Heins' men trying to escape. Some of them crawled
away as fast as they could, demons on their backs. Then I saw the
demons vanish. The men who could still run did so without looking
back.

I realized the demons couldn't go too far
away from me. They were linked to me, just like I was linked to
them.

I heard a noise far across the floor in the
corner. I could see a rifle sticking out from behind an old desk.
Looked like someone was reloading.

Sure enough, Heins jumped up and started
shooting at a few shadows. My demons maybe were messing with him,
as I didn't see any. He looked terrified.

“You like my little friends?” I asked.

He pointed the rifle at me and fired. I was
already vanished. He emptied every round he had into the wall
behind me. When he was out he tossed his gun and pulled out a
knife. I tried not to laugh.

I saw my demons. They crawled out of the
shadows, surrounding him.

“Wait,” I reappeared.

“They're all alive, master.” It was many
voices now. They seemed to come from everywhere. I thought only I
could hear them. But the way Heins flinched told me he heard them
too.

He pulled a grenade out of his vest.

“Stay the fuck back!” Heins shouted. “Or we
all
die!”

I laughed this time. My demons laughed with
me.

“You think that will hurt us?” I asked.

Heins was really afraid. Every time I'd seen
the man, it was all tough-man bravado type crap. Now here he was,
sweating bullets.

“It doesn't matter,” he said. “I've won. The
world will know now. No more secrets.”

I snarled. I wanted so bad to take him back
to the stadium. I wanted him to see the ghosts of the people whose
deaths he was responsible for.

“And we both know you're not gonna kill me,”
he said. “You don't have it in you, kid, or whatever the fuck you
are. Deep down, you're a pussy, just like that vampire bitch of
yours, and just like Bachner. You won't do what has to be
done.”

I looked at my demons. They were anxious to
tear into him.

But they would do whatever I said. I had
total control over them.

“You know what I'm gonna do?” Heins was
suddenly getting brave. “I'm gonna find that sister of yours. Then
I'm gonna find your girlfriend. And we're all gonna have some
fun.”

I looked around at my demons. “Play time's
over.”

They looked dejected. “But master.”

“It's
over
.”

Slowly my demons faded back into the shadows.
The lights came on steady. The thickness in the air seemed to go
away. With my demons gone, I could hear the men on the second floor
screaming in pain, and calling for help outside.

“Oh, just me and you, now?” Heins asked. He
actually put the grenade away and dropped his knife to the ground.
“Okay, let's go, freak.”

I walked toward him. He could have been
trained in one hundred forms of martial arts for all I know. But
that wouldn't matter, not for what I had planned for him.

Despite everything he'd done, and how he
tried to provoke me, he was right. I couldn't kill him.

But he needed to be dealt with. He was still
very dangerous.

He tried to take a swing at me. I wrapped my
wings around myself. I heard his knuckles crack against the tough
skin. He yelled in pain and held his fist.

I reached out and grabbed his arm.

“You ready to go for a ride?”

The office building faded around us. The air
got humid as the dark red landscape took over. The demons were more
spread out this time, chasing ghosts around.

Sadly, I was getting used to seeing them
eating and devouring what used to be people.

They paused when they saw me.

“Master. Can we play again?”

I looked at the guest I'd brought along with
me, Heins. His mouth hung open as he looked at the Hell around him.
I still had a lock on his arm.

I didn't know I could bring demons into my
world, or bring others into theirs. I was running off of instinct
now.

And it felt good.

“No. But I brought you a toy.”

“What-what the fuck?” he said. “What you are
gonna do?”

“You're right. I'm not kill gonna you.” I
gave him a smile. “I'm gonna leave you here.”

“Are you joking? No, please.”

“So long, Heins.”

I let go of his arm. He fell to his knees.
The demons started circling him.

“No!”

I disappeared from the spirit world before
they tore into him. Did they kill him? Or let him live as long as
possible for more torture? Is it even possible for anything to die
in the demon world? I don't know.

I walked slowly back through the office
building. I had to walk through pools of blood on my way out.
Heins' men still littered the place. True to their word, my demons
killed no one. They were in bad shape, though. I saw a guy missing
his eyes. Another had a leg missing. They begged me for help. I
called 911 on my out the door, but that was it. Compared to Heins,
they were the lucky ones.

I didn't think any of them were in any shape
to hunt again.

I took a deep breath as I stretched my wings
against the night air. I didn't know how much sleep I'd lose. I
didn't know how much guilt would eat away at me. Did I do the wrong
thing? Was I just as bad as Heins and his men? Maybe. But I thought
back to the people in the stadium. I thought back to the people
killed at Waylon Research. At least their ghosts could maybe have
some peace.

I heard ambulances coming. I flew off into
the night sky.

I am part demon. I think for the first time,
as I flew away from Heins' hideout, I was okay with that.

Two weeks went by. Despite what Heins thought
would happen, the vampires of the world didn't just stand up and
declare “We exist”. And the military and government, well, they
kicked off probably one of the greatest coverups of all time.

The whole incident was all over the
international news. But according to the government, the military
responded to a domestic terror threat at the stadium. They even had
mug shots and criminal backgrounds to go along with it. I could
only wonder who the poor guys they were showing all over the news
were. But the threat had been neutralized, they'd claimed, so the
citizens of the country could just relax.

That didn't stop the grainy internet videos.
Some of the videos and even some eyewitnesses showed up on the
news. But still, it didn't alter how everyone lived their lives.
There weren't waves of vampire hunters rising up to fill the ranks.
Heins had failed.

Victoria and I said goodbye to Bill.

He had solved his one last case, and was
ready to move on. There was no funeral for him, as he was only
declared missing. There wasn't a body to bury. But we met at the
cemetery anyway. Just a touch from me let Victoria say goodbye to
her dear friend. A lot of things had to fall in the right place.
But if it weren't for Bill, I could only imagine how many people
would have lost their lives, including Victoria and me.

The two talked for a bit. I wish I could have
left them alone, but that wasn't possible. We watched Bill walk
over a hill. Then he vanished somewhere even I couldn't see. I
thought I saw a tear in Victoria's eye.

Things slowly got back to normal. It was a
Saturday morning. The phone ringing pulled me out of a deep
sleep.

Cindy stirred next to me.

“Who calls this early?” she asked.

She threw a leg over me. We were both still
naked from the night before. We were up most of the night, so there
was a good chance it wasn't as early as she thought.

“I'd better go see who it is.”

She gave me a quick kiss and rubbed my
chest.

“Hurry up. I got plans for you.”

Cindy and I are together now. I've never been
happier. She was still my best friend. We still spent time
together, watched TV, had dinner, hung out with all our friends.
The biggest different now was we had a lot of sex. She accepted me
for who I was, wings and all. There was no way I'd ever be able to
tell her in words how much that meant to me.

I answered the phone in the kitchen.

“Alex, it's me.”

Victoria. I tensed up. We'd spoken a lot the
past two weeks. Every time she called, I expected bad news. Like
the military is on the way to your house. Or everyone knows about
you and wants you dead. But that wasn't the case. There were videos
of me flying around the stadium on the Internet. But you couldn't
see my face. And like Victoria said. People don't believe the truth
even when it's right in front of them. I was safe.

“What's up?”

“Nothing. Just checking in. Seeing how you're
doing.”

“I'm good. Me and Cindy, getting ready to
have some breakfast.”

“Is that what they call it now?”

I smiled.

“I'm happy for you two,” she said.

“Thanks. So you just called to talk? No bad
news or anything?”

I could almost see her rolling her eyes. “No.
No bad news. Everything is okay. Even if it wasn't, I know the
right people.”

“Okay, cool.”

“Listen. I have an early dinner planned with
Bachner. But what do you have planned tonight?”

A dinner with Bachner. That was a name I
hadn't heard much in the past two weeks. And those two eating
dinner was something I couldn't see in my head.

“Dinner? You two are friends now?”

“I don't know if you'd call us friends. But I
don't think we're enemies anymore. We got a lot to talk about
still.”

“That's good to hear. We're going out with
our friends tonight. You've seen us all before, at the club.”

“You mind if I tag along with you?”

Our little group was getting bigger. Alicia
was dating that boy she'd met at the stadium, Chris. After the
military, Victoria, and Bachner cleaned up the stadium, Chris was
all my sister could talk about. He was almost the complete opposite
of her, but she was crazy about him. He hung out with us all the
time.

“Sure. You're always welcome. You know
that.”

“Thanks. I'm gonna go, time for bed for me.
Tell Cindy I said hi.”

“I will.”

I hung up. When I turned around Cindy was
leaning against the dining room wall. She still hadn't put any
clothes on. Wow, she is gorgeous.

“You awake?” she asked with a smile.

“I am now.”

I gave her a hard kiss against the wall. Our
breathing started picking up. I was ready to pick her up and carry
her back to bed when I felt the goosebumps.

I turned to see someone standing in my living
room.

I ducked behind the couch, pulling Cindy with
me. I was startled for a second, then annoyed.

Cindy thought behind the couch was where we
were going to make our magic, and laid down on the carpet. She
tried to pull me on top of her. Funny, looking back now.

“Hold on a sec. Uh, who exactly are you?” I
called.

Cindy was confused, then she pieced together
what was going on. She rolled her eyes, but smiled. She wasn't
afraid of ghosts anymore.

“I'm so sorry,” a female voice said. “I
didn't mean to interrupt, well, your private time.”

I was holding Cindy's hand, so she heard her
too.