Infernal Father of Mine (3 page)

"Can you identify what the symbol is, and how
it was burnt into the grass?"

He paused for a moment. "I will do my best,
Elyssa. Is there something wrong?"

"Justin has been taken."

"By his father?"

The question caught Elyssa off guard. She
hadn't even thought of the possibility that David Slade might
kidnap his son. After all, Justin was to play a very important role
in the battle against Daelissa. What if his father had switched
sides? Her stomach tightened. She couldn't rule out the
possibility. "I don't know who took him. I saw them talking, and
then someone snuck up behind me and knocked me out."

"If someone was able to sneak up on you, they
must be quite skilled," Cinder said. "According to Justin, you are
an amazing badass. I must admit, I do not quite understand how
being analogous to a defective posterior makes someone amazing, but
having seen you in combat, I must agree with Justin's biased
assessment."

Elyssa wasn't sure what to say, so she changed
back to the matter at hand. "Just find out where that symbol comes
from. I'll be out in the field looking for leads."

"Very well," he replied.

She disconnected the call and stared for a long
moment at the symbol, a circle with two lines crisscrossing each
other. They didn't quite form an X since one line was a little
higher than the other. It didn't look like any Cyrinthian or arcane
symbol she'd seen before, but it did seem familiar. Elyssa didn't
have any arcane abilities, so she couldn't fathom why a magical
symbol would look even remotely familiar to her unless she'd seen
Justin use it. To the best of her recollection, she hadn't. He
stuck to plain circles anytime he needed one to cast a
spell.

Footprints surrounded the symbol. Elyssa
tracked them into the small church up a slight rise from the
cemetery. The quaint building was little more than a sanctuary with
a few rows of pews. Dirt and soil marked the floor where the
abductors had walked through the room. She continued on, emerging
on a sidewalk covered by a cloth awning. It made sense why she
hadn't spotted anyone entering the church. The covered sidewalk led
to the street where cars would have to park along the curb or at a
large parking deck across the road.

It was a good bet the kidnappers had parked
here, ambushed Justin, and brought him out the same way. She
spotted an ATM cash machine at a small bank across the road. Not
daring to hope, she ran to the other side of the street and found
the small piece of glass hiding the camera. It appeared to be
angled just right to capture whatever happened across the
street.

Elyssa wished she could contact Alysea, but
Justin's mom and Nightliss had been called away on a Templar
emergency in Colombia and were under a communications blackout.
Plenty of options remained. She whipped out her phone and called
Shelton. "I need you to meet me right away."

"Cinder told me about Justin," Shelton said.
"Kid can't keep himself out of trouble for two minutes."

"I'm sending you a picture," Elyssa said. "Use
the omniarch."

Shelton sighed. "It might help if I knew what
you want me to do once I get there."

"Hack a camera."

"Got it. On my way." He
disconnected.

Elyssa took a picture of an alley between the
bank and the art supply shop next door. A short time after texting
the image to Shelton, a portal shimmered open in the air. Harry
Shelton appeared on the other side wearing his leather duster and a
wide-brimmed hat. He stepped through, followed by Bella. The portal
closed behind them.

"Elyssa, I'm so sorry," Bella said, her Spanish
accent rolling the Rs ever so slightly. She brandished a wand. "I
am ready to do whatever is necessary to help you get him
back."

Shelton held up a hand. "Before you go blasting
holes in buildings, let's do a little digging."

"Really, Harry, do you think I would go off on
a rampage?" Bella quirked an eyebrow.

"I've seen you and Elyssa in action," he said.
His gaze shifted to Elyssa. "Where's the camera?"

She showed him the ATM. "Can you hack the video
feed from it?"

He looked it over. "Adam gave me a spell that
might do the trick."

That came as no surprise to Elyssa. Adam Nosti
had once been a conspiracy nut and was probably the best spell
hacker she'd ever seen. "Well, why aren't you using it?" she said,
impatient to begin. For all she knew, Justin wasn't even in Atlanta
anymore.

Shelton's forehead wrinkled. "Don't rush me,
woman." He took out his arcphone and fiddled with it. He grunted,
tapped the screen, and nodded. "Hope this works." Standing to the
side of the camera, presumably so it wouldn't record him, he
pressed the arcphone over the glass.

Symbols flashed past on the screen followed by
green static. Images of people and cars zipped past in reverse
across the field of view of the camera, as did patrons visiting the
ATM. A man in a huge fur coat reversed course from the camera to
reveal two large black vans parked across the road. A procession of
people in long, hooded robes walked backwards up the sidewalk and
into the church.

"That's got to be the kidnappers!" Elyssa
said.

"He was kidnapped by monks?" Bella
said.

"Don't look like no monks I've ever seen,"
Shelton said.

The video rewound all the way back to the vans
driving away from the parallel parking spaces in reverse. Shelton
moved as if to pull his arcphone away.

"Wait," Elyssa said.

A few minutes later, David Slade exited the
church from the front door, walking backwards and vanishing down
the sidewalk. Justin had taken an omniarch portal to an adjoining
construction site. Elyssa had given him a moment or two and used
the portal herself to shadow him. She'd promised not to follow him,
but had he really expected her not to?

"David was alone," Shelton said. "Dollars to
dog nuts he had nothing to do with the abduction." He raised an
eyebrow. "Can I stop recording now?"

Elyssa nodded.

Shelton took the phone off. Electricity sparked
from the machine followed by a puff of smoke and the whirring of
something spinning. Cash suddenly spewed from the front of the ATM
and an alarm wailed.

"That's not supposed to happen," Shelton said,
looking at the money wafting through the air.

"Call someone to open the portal," Elyssa
said.

"Son of a—" Shelton gave her a disgusted look.
"There ain't nobody there to open it."

"What about Ivy?" Elyssa asked.

Shelton shuddered. "That kid gives me the
creeps."

Bella elbowed him. "Be polite, Harry." She
looked at Elyssa. "She's there, but I don't have her number. Do
you?"

Sirens wailed in the distance. Elyssa
frantically waved everyone down the alley. "I have her number, but
it's in a text Justin sent me. I'll have to look, but we don't have
time right now."

A metal gate blocked the end of the alley.
Bella took out her wand and, with a word, sliced the hinges with a
thin beam of magic. The gate fell to the ground with a clang. Their
path took a sharp right turn into another alley leading to a
street. They hadn't gone more than a few feet when two police cars
blockaded the exit. Elyssa spun and looked back the way they'd
come. The police cars with flashing lights had cut it off as
well.

"You'd think somebody just robbed a bank,"
Shelton said, jaw tight.

Elyssa looked up at the three-story buildings
on all sides. There were no ladders, no fire escapes—no way up, and
no way out.

I saw a smile break out on Montjoy's face as
the sapphire portal sucked at the billowing cloud of mist coming
from David's mouth. Whatever the man was doing, it was probably
about to kill my father.

"Please don't send me away!" the nebulous face
in the cloud cried. Just as it neared the threshold between worlds,
the smoky mass stopped swirling. The face bared wickedly sharp
teeth. "Just kidding." Then it bellowed like a tyrannosaurus rex on
steroids. The gale blew hoods from Exorcists and sent candelabras
tumbling. Candles flickered out, leaving most of the sanctuary in
pitch black. Someone screamed.

My night vision flickered on. I saw a smoky
tendrils extending in all directions from the cloudy mass. They
whipped around the circle like an octopus gone mad. One of the
panicking Exorcists fell, crossing the silver line of the ring. A
tendril lashed out, gripping the cloaked figure by the leg and
lifting him high. It spun the Exorcist and flung him. The cry of
terror cut off as the body smacked into a stone column.

A metal candelabra fell across the silver ring.
I felt a rush of magic as the seal around the circle broke. Now
free, the blue tendrils reached further, gripping another victim
and throwing him across the sanctuary. Wood cracked as he smashed
into a wooden pew. Shouts of terror echoed as Exorcists ran
blindly. The smoky arms snatched each one with ease, sending them
on short, brutal flights across the room.

Shrieks and cries erupted behind me, like those
of overexcited chimpanzees. The cacophony rivaled the screams of
the Exorcists as they battled the blue smoke creature in the middle
of the sanctuary.

My body spasmed. I felt my limbs respond with
agonizing slowness to my commands. It wasn't much, but it would do.
Using all my effort, I pushed into a sitting position. Digging
inside myself I found the demon half slowly waking from
slumber.

"Subdue! Subdue!" Montjoy screamed.

I saw a familiar figure across the room—the
same one that had thrown the silver disc at me and David. Unlike
the others, this one was dressed in tight black Nightingale armor.
It pulled a short rod from a holster at its side. The rod expanded
into a thick black bow. The figure pulled back on the string and an
arrow appeared from nowhere, nocked and ready to fly straight at
David 's hovering body.

"No!" I shouted, jumping to my feet. My knees
gave out as the attacker's head turned toward me. The arrow
whistled for me. I ducked.

The sound of shrieking metal sounded behind me.
I looked back and saw a large cage filled with people. Some looked
unconscious. Others looked insane out of their minds. A man foaming
at the mouth punched himself in the face over and over. Drool
leaked from the hanging jaw of a woman, her fists full of her own
hair as she tore it out by the roots without uttering a
sound.

A short man with wisps of gray hair and wrinkly
skin kicked at the cage door. The metal groaned as the man's bloody
foot rammed it over and over again. I heard bones break. Saw the
toes twist at odd angles. The man laughed hysterically and kept on
kicking even as blood sprayed from the open wounds on his mangled
foot.

I turned away from the wackos in the cage and
crawled on hands and knees toward the crouching figure as it lined
up another shot on David. "Stop!" I shouted.

This time, the attacker didn't turn to look. An
arrow flashed forward. The blue smoke formed a wall, and deflected
the projectile. The Exorcist ninja sprang forward, dodged a
sweeping blow of a smoky tendril. A hand formed at the end of the
nebulous tentacle and grasped for the attacker, but the ninja was
too quick. The slim figure dove and slid on its chest beneath the
giant fingers, sprang to its feet, and kicked away the candelabra
short-circuiting the ring. The ninja turned. Performed a leaping
backward flip to avoid another swing of the smoky hand. Then it
slid across the silver line, dropped to a knee, and touched a thumb
against it.

I heard a faint hum as the circle snapped
closed and saw the fingers on the giant hand sever and fade to
sparkling mist where they'd crossed the silver line. David's body
abruptly dropped to the floor. The blue vapor swirled back into
him, vanishing.

Strength returned to my legs. I stood.
Something crashed behind me. I turned to see the short old man, now
free from the cage, leap at me, rotted teeth gleaming green by the
light of a standing candelabra. Blood trailed from his foot as he
sailed through the air. I held up my hands in defense. His mouth
opened wide an instant before clamping onto my forearm. I shouted
in pain.

"What the hell?" I tried to shake him off me.
"Why are you biting me?" I gripped the few remaining strands of the
man's hair and pulled. They came loose in my hand. His sweaty, oily
head slipped from my grasp even as he opened his mouth and clamped
down on my wrist, teeth gnawing at my flesh. I bellowed with fresh
agony.

I punched his face but the blow didn't faze the
crazy coot. I wasn't nearly at full strength, and despite the
little old man's apparent ancient age and bad health, his grip felt
supernaturally strong. Redirecting all power to my legs, I ran
toward a stone column and slammed the insane man's head against it.
Blood spattered at the point of impact. He burst into maniacal
laughter, freeing my arm. I backpedaled.

A groggy Exorcist staggered from behind a pew.
The old man saw a new victim and leapt on him, biting the robes and
tearing at it with his teeth like a rabid dog. I ran, leaving the
struggling pair behind, and headed toward David. A blur of black
caught my peripheral vision. I ducked. Felt a foot clip my head,
and stumbled to the side. My ribs glanced off a pew. My knees
decided to give out again, and I fell in the aisle.