Reaper: The Demontouched Saga (Book 3)
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Authors: Douglas Wayne
REAPER
The Demontouched Saga
Book 3
Douglas Wayne
REAPER
THE DEMONTOUCHED SAGA
BOOK 3
Douglas Wayne
Copyright © 2015 by Douglas Wayne. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events or locales is purely coincidental. Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.
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This book is dedicated to my wife and kids. Without your sacrifice these books would have not been possible.
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- 1 -
Another explosion rocks the building, sending me to my knees. Looks like someone had a bigger fireworks display in store than they advertised. I need to find whoever is responsible for this mess and pay him a visit. Probably make sure that it’s nice and painful while I’m at it. The bastards are just lucky I have Sara with me. Getting her out of here is the priority.
Sara helps me to my feet and we continue down the stairs, the crowd from upstairs following closely behind me. The sound of panic gets louder as we close in on the ground level. The sound of the chaos I heard upstairs isn’t doing any justice to the actual display once we reach the bottom floor. The only thing I know is that as much as I don’t want to go out there, I definitely can’t stay in here. There are no telling how many more bombs they managed to plant inside.
“I need you to stay close to me,” I tell Sara. This is a huge departure on how I usually operate. Shit storms like I am about to face outside are the kind of situations that cause Eunie to go a little stir crazy. By the flutter in my chest, I can tell he is just itching to come out and play. The last thing I need is my girlfriend standing two feet away the moment he decides that I can’t handle things on my own. Especially with Uriel and Zeke taking another route outside.
I smile at Sara when she grabs the gun I keep in my belt line. She may not be a crack shot, but someone seeing her with a gun may cause them to hesitate for a moment. I’ll take any edge I can get out here even if it only buys me a fraction of a second.
I pull out my knife and grab her hand. “Ready?”
She nods. I can tell she is trying to be a trooper, but her quivering jaw is giving her away. I’ll take a scared Sara over any one of these people on the streets though. At least I know that she can operate under pressure.
The door I kick open leads into an alleyway behind the building. I want to get out of this area as quietly as I can. As much as I don’t want to admit it, there are limits to my bad-assery.
The front door is probably being watched, too. The only reason you set this show up, and give the hero the best seats in the house, is so you know where said hero is at during the display. That way you can drop him when he tries to save the day. The sound of gunfire somewhere close just emphasizes my point.
The dark smoke grows thicker as we approach the street. It will make it harder to determine who is friend or foe, but it may help me get out of here without a fight. All things considered, I’ll take it either way.
“Which way do we go?” Sara asks.
“We need to get back to the highway, see if we can find an abandoned car before then.” My Expedition is about two blocks from where we are at now, but there’s no way you could drive on the streets here. At least I brought Tamiel’s blade and my knife in with me. The last thing I want is to face a demon or three without them.
The sound of gunfire to my right sends us moving the other way, staying close to the cars parked along the roadway. The vehicles will give us an easy place to duck away from in case things get nasty.
I come up on an intersection after a few minutes and try to get a gauge on my surroundings, but the smoke is still thick out this way. The only hope we have is to keep moving the same way. The smoke has to end sometime.
“How much father do we have before we get to the highway?” Sara asks.
“Seven or eight blocks. Hopefully the cars are a little more spread out up ahead.”
Screams fill the air from up ahead sending us ducking behind a red Civic as they get close. I peek around the side to see a woman running down the street, arms flailing while she looks back. I sit here wondering how long its going to take before she falls on her face or runs into a car.
Rule number one in the ‘Escaping Bullshit Handbook’ is not to look back at what you are fleeing. It limits your ability to react to the things in front of you. It also happens to slow you down. This chick learns that lesson when she crashes into the front of the Civic. I try not to laugh when I hear the resulting thud from her impact.
“Screaming won’t save you here,” I say as I walk around to the front of the vehicle.
The panic in her eyes subsides a bit when she notices me. “My husband is back there. He has him.”
“Who?”
“Some guy. He was wearing a black shirt and pants.” She starts to sob uncontrollably, making it hard to understand the next thirty seconds of her speech. The only thing I manage to make out is the words mask and gun.
“Can you show me where you last saw him?” I ask.
She nods, rubbing her eyes. The last thing I needed was more company, but at least this one comes with an alarm. I only hope she can keep her shit together long enough to get us back to her husband.
“Oh my god! What is that?” She yells about two feet from my ears.
Too much to ask, I guess.
“Look, you are going to have to keep it down. The last thing we need is for your yelling to bring them to us.”
“I’ll… try.” She lowers her head in shame. Sara pats her on the back to console her, but it doesn’t seem to help.
Trying to be calm is all I can ask for. Most people live their whole lives without ever being in a nasty situation. Lord knows I hadn’t been in one until the Rising. I probably would still be like her without my little advantage.
We make our way down the street slowly, sticking to the cars as much as possible. After a few blocks the cars begin to spread out more. That should make our escape easier once we find this lady’s husband.
It is nearly three blocks before the smoke from the explosions starts to clear. Up ahead I notice a body lying prone in the middle of the street. “Are we close to where they took your husband?” I ask, trying to block the woman’s view.
She nods. That’s good. She hasn’t seen the body up ahead.
“I want you to stay right here with Sara. I’m going to check out something up ahead.” I look the woman in the eyes. “Whatever happens, you need to stay calm.”
“I’ll keep you safe,” Sara says.
I try to stick to the shadows as much as possible as I make my way to the body, removing my cassock when I come up to a spot where I have to cross in moonlight. The last thing I want is to give this asshole an easy target.
The area around the body is clear. Though the darkness is making it hard to see much past it. As much as I hate to do it, there’s only one way I can see if his attacker is still here.
I take in a deep breath and walk out into the open. Any hope of blending into the shadows is long gone after the first four steps.
“Drop the knife, Father.” I hear up ahead on my left.
“I don’t think that is necessary.”
A figure walks out of the shadows. As I expected, he is pointing a gun right at me. While I’m glad that my secret isn’t widely known, it’s only a matter of time before that changes. That doesn’t stop a smile from forming on my lips as he gets closer.
“One more chance. Put the knife down.” I hear him click the safety off. Mr. Tough Guy means business, I see.
“OK, don’t shoot.” I bend down, placing the knife on the ground. “There doesn’t have to be any trouble.”
“The only one in trouble here is you. Take a few steps back and sit on the ground.”
“Or what?” I love testing the patience of assholes like this. This guy thinks he is the king of the streets here. He is about to find out otherwise.
He fires a round off to the side. It’s time to stop playing nice. If that shot was to my right, he could have hit Sara.
I take a few steps up and focus my thoughts on the knife. “Do you believe in miracles?”
The asshole laughs. “The miracles are all gone, Father. You should know that.”
“If you don’t believe in miracles, then you really won’t believe this shit.” I push my hand forward, sending the blade right at him. He fires off a shot before the blade hits, forcing me to stop the bullet before it does any serious damage.
He drops the gun, opting to use two hands to pull the knife free from his shoulder. Not the smartest move you can make if you find yourself impaled by something, though it is usually the one most people decide to try first. Too bad for this asshole, I’m just going to help him out with that.
He can hate me for it later.
Focusing on his gun, I use my power to pull it to my hand. Can’t have him getting off a lucky shot now, can I? “What did you do to the guy on the street?”
“Nothing man.”
I pull the trigger, sending a bullet to the ground between his legs. “Want to try that answer again?”
“I just knocked him out. They told me to keep everyone I could from leaving.”
“Who told you?”
“Just some guys, man. They told me they would set me up with a new car and a month of food if I did it.”
I bend down and pull the mask from his head revealing the face of a young man. If I had to guess, he couldn’t be a day older than seventeen judging from his failed attempt at growing a beard. “Have any other weapons on you?”
“No, man. Just the gun.” He rubs his eye with his bloody hand. “I never shot one until a minute ago.”
I search him, just to make sure. It’s not that I don’t believe his story, it truly sounds legit. It’s not like I can say that I work for the most pleasant guy myself.
Still, I’m not stupid enough to take a chance on him being decent.
“Here is what’s going to happen. I’m going to pull that knife from your shoulder and try to patch you up. You are going to haul ass to the nearest hospital and you won’t look back.” I put his gun in the small of my back. “Do we have a deal?”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t really have a lot of options. I would have taken the deal if I was in his spot too. It’s a shame that a kid has to grow up like this. Why he was left behind is beyond me, but I know I’ve made my fair share of bad choices in my life. I’d put money that he just happened to make a bad one at the absolute wrong time. It could be me, but he just doesn’t seem like the hardened criminal type.
I rip the sleeve from my suit and fold it up. It’s not the cleanest thing in the world, but it’s all I’ve got. “You ready for this?”
He nods. He isn’t ready for the pain that is coming, but I can tell he is ready to be the hell away from here.
“Three.”
“Two.”
“One.”
I pull the blade from his shoulder with a bit of a magical assist with one hand and put the folded sleeve on the wound. “Hold this as tight as you can.”
He sits up and I help him to his feet. “I’m sorry I shot at you, Father.”
“You don’t have to apologize. Besides, I’m not really a priest.” I give him a wink.
He gives me a sideways look before running off. I only hope that this decision doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass later.
“It’s clear,” I say, signaling the girls.
They walk out from behind the bus. It takes about two seconds before the woman rushes over to the body of her husband on the ground. He is moving, but you can tell he isn’t doing well.
Looking around, I notice a car about a block over. I tell the girls to stay here while I go check it out.