Piercing the Darkness (53 page)

SCION, LOOKING LIKE
himself again, took wing and swooped out of the Sculpture Garden with four black bats hot on his tail. As soon as he cleared the roofs, still trailing a stream of light, Si crossed that stream with a searing trail of his own and drew aside two of the demons. At least these buzzards would be busy for a while.

SALLY RAN PAST
the Physical Sciences Building, over a plaza, and then down a long flight of concrete stairs to the busy street below. A taxi was approaching. She waved furiously. “Taxi! Taxi!”

Two men, looking like any other university students, spotted her and started her way.

The cab driver thought he saw someone trying to flag him.

Two demons dropped through the roof and clawed through his brain.

Huh? Eh, she isn’t there . . . Now where was I going, anyway?

The taxi drove by, swerving from lane to lane, not slowing. Sally bolted into an alley.

It was a blind alley—sheer concrete walls and no escape.

The two men closed in behind her, silent, skillful. If they moved quickly enough, they could finish her before she had a chance to scream. One had a long scarf in his hands, the other held a gleaming knife.

Filthy spirits were there too, whooping and frothing, bouncing off the walls like golf balls down a gutter. This was it!

MOTA RODE ON
the roof of Marv Simpson’s ranch wagon as it rolled lazily down Hannan Boulevard on the south end of the Bentmore campus. When it came to a corner, Mota’s wings burst forth like fireworks and the next thing Marv knew, he was in a right-turn-only lane and had to turn right, heading up the campus’s west side.

“Doggone,” he muttered.

“Weren’t we supposed to go the other way?” Claudia asked.

But he was looking this way and that and trying to change lanes,
getting more and more frustrated. “Now how do we get out of
here
?”

SALLY BACKED AWAY
until she came up against the sheer, featureless concrete at the end of the alley. So much for flight. Now for fight. She raised her duffel bag to shield herself.

No sound, only shadows blurring in the street lights. The scarf hit her face, her head hit the wall, one eye was covered, she couldn’t see.

A knife flashed!

Chimon was there and parried.

The knife deflected and lodged in the duffel bag.

A blow to her neck! She pitched forward, grabbing the knife man. He pulled the blade free and plunged it at her again.

The knife ripped through her coat. Her scream was muffled inside the scarf.

A searing blade opened Chimon’s shoulder. Two demons caught his backhanded sword and dissolved.

The knife slashed Sally’s coat open, but missed her flesh.

Scion came in low, ducked under a cluster of lashing, hacking spirits, and rolled into the knife man’s legs. He fell backward. The knife clinked on the concrete. Scion had rolled into the middle of a death trap. Twisting and spinning, he was able to fend off most of the demons’ blows, but one wild blade caught his leg, cutting it deep.

Chimon had a screaming, flopping, slobbering demon by the feet. He batted Scion’s attackers away in one powerful swing, then whipped the flailing body over his head and smacked the scarf man in the face.

The scarf slipped away. Sally could see again. She lunged forward and broke free.

The knife man grabbed her coat sleeve.

Signa dropped out of the sky, tracing an exclamation point of light. His sword caught the seam at Sally’s shoulder and the sleeve tore away.

She ran. Alive!

The knife man was looking for his knife. The scarf man couldn’t tell where he was in the dark.

Chimon, Scion, and Signa were cut, bruised, and limping, but they grabbed hold of Sally and got her out of that alley.

Destroyer saw it all, and screamed for his hordes. The spirits gathered
from every corner of the campus, swords burning, wings roaring, ready for a kill. With Destroyer at the point of a massive arrowhead formation, they dove toward the street.

IN BACON’S CORNER,
Lucy ran into Amber’s bedroom expecting blood, bruises, an accident, something horrible.

It was nothing of the kind. The child was beside herself, screaming, cursing, pounding the walls.

“Amber, what’s wrong?” her mother cried, trying to embrace her.

She spun around like a vicious animal and stood apart from her mother, her fingers curved like claws, her eyes wild and glaring, darting about the room as if watching distant events. “Cut her up! Grab her, take her, cut her up!”

Lucy backed into the wall and remained there, speechless. There was no stopping Amethyst when she was like this. She’d tried before.

Destroyer and his hordes were screaming out their war cry, their sulfurous breath forming yellow streamers that etched the sky like comb’s teeth.

MARV SIMPSON WAS
looking for a place to turn around and getting more and more frustrated. He hardly noticed that woman running out of the alley.

“Oh my,” said Claudia, “what’s going on here?”

Tal dropped through the roof and filled the whole backseat with his massive frame.
Stop and pick her up!

Marv saw her again. She was actually running into the street.

“Oh!” Claudia exclaimed, “she’s coming toward us!”

“Oh, man, a nut case! We’ve got to get out of here—”

Tal grabbed Marv’s head in his two huge hands and forced him to look toward the woman.
PICK HER UP!

“Let’s pick her up,” said Claudia.

He pulled over.

GUILO SHOT INTO
the sky, flanked by Nathan, Armoth, Cree, and Si.
They intercepted Destroyer and his henchmen like a clap of thunder over the campus. The demons were like an irresistible wall, and the angelic warriors went tumbling and spinning aside. Destroyer and his horde resumed their course, dropping toward that station wagon; the five warriors recovered, circled, and dove down on the demons’ backs like falcons. The vile spirits fought them off, but they had to take precious time to do it.

“NEED A RIDE?”

Sally pulled the door open and clambered into the backseat. “Please. Get me away from here!”

Four men appeared on the sidewalk, two with radios. They saw her get into the car and quickly disappeared.

Marv was still lost. “How do I get out of here?”

“Left, up at the corner,” said Sally, “and then go under the tunnel.”

“Tunnel?”