Rival Demons (31 page)

He was determined to catch it, and not just to
recover his mother's stolen earrings. If this little monster was
the one who'd been stealing jewelry all over town, then it might
have Erin's necklace, too. Jason could already imagine how happy
Erin would be when Jason returned it to her.

He chased the creature into Mrs. Gottfried's
yard, which was full of toy windmills and fake plastic birds. Jason
caught up with it and reached one hand down to grab the creature by
the scruff of its neck. Then the creature disappeared in another
green puff, and Jason realized too late that the little monster had
led him directly toward a low stone bench. Jason was running too
fast to stop.

His shins cracked into the bench, and Jason
spilled forward, falling among a family of plastic ducks.

Ahead of him, the little creature turned and
laughed, revealing its crooked yellow teeth again. Its laughter
sounded like a hyena.

By the time Jason scrambled to his feet, the
green creature was across Mrs. Gottfried's lawn and puffing its way
across the main road outside Jason's neighborhood.

Jason chased him through three more
neighborhoods, activating motion-detector lights here and there
when he came too close to a house. The little green guy seemed to
have no effect on the motion detectors—they only clicked to life
when Jason passed.

Then Jason chased him down an overgrown trail
through the woods. The green creature reached a brick wall ahead,
stuck its tongue out at Jason while waving the stolen earrings,
then vanished in a puff of smoke.

Jason reached the wall and slapped his hands
uselessly against it. The wall was ten feet high, covered in moss
and mold. Jason realized it was the wall around Mrs. Dullahan's
yard.

"Come back here!" Jason yelled. He thought he
heard a hyena-ish giggle on the other side.

Jason picked one of the tall old trees next to
the wall and climbed it as quickly as he could. He scrambled out on
a thick limb over the wall, struggling to catch his breath. He'd
been running nonstop.

Below him, the deep black shadows of Mrs.
Dullahan's yard were scarcely pierced by the thin moonlight. It was
inhabited by big old oak trees, almost as dense as a forest. The
few patches of ground he could see were overgrown with tall weeds
as thick as bamboo, and for a moment he was just glad he didn't
have to mow her yard for her.

Then Jason saw a streak of weeds ripple, as if a
rabbit were dashing between them.

He didn't have time to find a safe way down.
Jason held his breath and dropped from the limb into the darkness
below.

Something hard and wooden, the size of a
shoebox, crunched under his ribs as he slammed into the ground.

Jason rolled up to his feet and looked at his
aching side. He'd landed on what looked like a carved wooden
squirrel, its mouth and eyes wide with fright. The fearful
expression was heightened by that face that Jason had just broken
its head from its body.

Looking around, his eyes adjusting to the
shadows and moonlight, he saw more little wooden creatures—toads
and rabbits and even a full-size deer. A wooden owl perched on a
limb overhead.

All around him, little paths paved with moss
twisted through the high weeds.

The paths snaked across the yard, curving across
each other at little intersections. Each path ended at one of the
giant old trees, at ornate little doors no more than a foot or two
high, which appeared to be built into the tree trunks. He saw the
little green creature scurry through an arched green door in a dark
elm tree. It pulled the door most of the way shut.

Jason jumped after him, grabbing the tiny knob
just before the door closed. The brass doorknob was the size of a
child's marble in his fingers.

"Hey, come back!" Jason yelled. He pulled the
door open, but the little green creature was nowhere in sight.

The interior of the tree was hollow. A series of
roots formed a kind of staircase that spiraled down below the tree,
out of sight.

"You're kidding," Jason said. He looked up at
the dark shape of Mrs. Dullahan's house against the night sky.
Maybe she wasn't a witch, but there was definitely something
strange going on at her place.

Jason stuck his head into the open door. He
looked up, into the hollow shaft of the tree, but it was completely
dark.

Below, around the bend of the root-steps, he saw
the slight glow of distant light. He could hear the faintest hint
of music, and smell traces of wet, blossoming flowers and baking
bread in the air.

He put his hands inside the tree and crept
forward as far as he could. He scrunched his shoulders and squeezed
deeper inside, looking a little further around the curve.

Somehow, he was able to fit even more of himself
through the door, as if it expanded slightly for him. He crawled
further down and around the root-and-dirt staircase, worried that
the little green creature might pop out and hit him, or maybe bite
him in the nose, but he was too curious to stop now.

The curving space seemed to widen even more as
he crawled forward, so he could let his shoulders relax and spread
out. He crawled down another twist of the steps, and then he was
completely inside the tree.

The stairwell grew even wider as he moved
forward on his hands and knees. The walls were made of packed dirt
and more tree roots, and a few fireflies provided some light along
the way. These fireflies were much larger and brighter than any
he'd seen before, and their light was red and orange.

He crawled around and around, and soon the
stairwell was wide enough for him to stand, though he had to almost
double over, his back brushing against the ceiling.

He followed it down and down, around and around.
Had it been a staircase in a building, he would have descended five
or six stories by now. He kept going.

Finally, after hundreds of steps, he reached a
door. He seemed to be standing inside the round shaft of the tree
trunk, though he should have been deep underground now, far below
the roots of the elm tree. Golden sap dripped along the heartwood
walls. His hands were covered in the sticky stuff, and probably his
shirt, which felt glued to his back.

The door in front of him looked just like the
green arched door he'd entered above, except much larger. He would
still have to duck his head to pass through it, but he wouldn't
need to crawl.

Jason touched the brass doorknob, and then he
hesitated. None of this made any sense. How could there be such a
long staircase under the tree? And where could this door possibly
lead? Was he going to be attacked by a bunch of angry little green
creatures on the other side?

Then he remembered his purpose—recover Erin's
necklace, and his mom's earrings, from the little green creature,
who was probably still running away from him.

Jason took a deep breath and pushed open the
little door.

J.L. Bryan
studied English literature at the University of Georgia and
at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic
period. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He enjoys remixing
elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and science
fiction into new kinds of stories. He is the author of The
Paranormals trilogy (
Jenny
Pox
,
Tommy
Nightmare
, and
Alexander Death
) and other
works.
Fairy Metal Thunder
is
the first book in his
new Songs of Magic series. He lives in Atlanta with his wife
Christina, one baby, two dogs, two cats, and assorted attic
squirrels. His website is
http://jlbryanbooks.com
.
You can also follow on him on
Twitter
or
Facebook
.

An excerpt from

by J.D. Robinson

*Contains some strong language*

Seth

I focused on Jon's voice, raising my head to
look for him. My left arm was twisted under me at an odd angle, but
I pushed myself up in time to see them disappear into the forest.
Jon's melody was beginning to fade from my mind.

For as long as I could remember, I'd been able
to hear Jon. He had this presence, this melody that I could hear
anytime we were close to each other. It was like an orchestra would
start playing inside my head. I never told anyone about it. I knew
I was probably crazy. But I figured, if I just kept it to myself,
hopefully no one would notice.

Jon was all I had left now. His song, I couldn't
lose it. I couldn’t lose him like I’d lost Mom.

I forced myself up. The pain was horrible. I
didn't care. Jon needed me, and I needed to help him. Out here,
like this, I couldn't let them take him.

"
Jon!" I ran towards the trees
after him, but I was knocked to the side. I crashed into the tent,
getting tangled in the lines that held it up. The log that hit me
fell off to the side.

"
And just where do you think
you're going?" Christian was still across the clearing. He stalked
towards me, reminding me of a lion going after its prey. His eyes
even glowed slightly.

What the hell was he?

I pulled at the cords, trying to free myself,
when I felt something hard beneath the tarp. Hope exploded in my
chest as I recognized the outline. Dad's knife. I dug for it,
clawing through the material. My hand brushed the cool metal of the
hilt, and pain exploded in my mind. Followed closely by the worst
sound I'd ever heard in my life.

I screamed.

It couldn't get any worse, at least that's what
I told myself. In a daze of pain, I pulled the blade from its
casing and cut myself free of the tent. The gut wrenching,
nails-on-the-chalk-board, roar that filled my mind wouldn't stop.
I'd never heard something so loud before. The noise spiked its
intensity as Christian moved in closer.

I had to make the noise stop, I had to kill him
to make it stop. I forced myself to focus on him.

I spun, extending my arm as fast as I could but
it wasn't fast enough. He was faster still. How?!

He lashed out at me, and I couldn't move away
quick enough. His blow caught my shoulder and sent me flying back
against a tree. Stars burst across my vision after my head hit the
trunk. I slid down the rough bark and sat for a moment, trying to
gather myself.

I willed my eyes to look up and focus on
something, anything that was out before me. That something ended up
being the guy walking towards me. I forced myself to stand,
fighting the waves of dizziness that washed over me. The f**king
noise in my head wasn't letting up, and it wasn't helping.

Using the tree for support, I watched as
Christian paced. I had hit him earlier when Jon had started the
fight. The punch had caught him right across the jaw splitting his
lip. But looking at him now, his lip was whole. How could he have
healed that fast? I raised the knife again.

"Stupid human," he spat. His eyes were glowing
faintly again, giving him an even fiercer appearance. "You honestly
think you can fight me?"

All of them had been insanely fast, and he'd
healed the split lip like it'd never happened. There was no way
they could be human. But what were they if they weren't-

One word from horror movies fought its way to
the front of my mind.
Vampire.

What the f**k? That couldn't be right. Vampires
were fiction. They sparkled or became rock stars. They did not
actually exist! Right?

I listened to that screaming noise that still
rang incessantly in my mind. It didn't matter what he was. I just
needed to get away from him. My fingers tightened around the
handle. I just needed to wait for an opening.

A calmness spread over me. I raised the knife,
instinctively changing my grip on the handle so that the blade ran
along my forearm.

Christian circled around me, a grin parting his
lips to show a pair of wickedly pointed canines. They looked like
the expensive vampire teeth that stores sold at Halloween, but I
doubted he was a regular Dracula enthusiast.

Closer, just a few steps closer. My body
stilled, my breathing evened out. I could do this. Just one more
step.

He took it and I sprang forward without
hesitation. The monster's eyes widened in surprise. He paused for a
second and that second was all I needed. I plunged the knife into
his chest. He stared up at me as he fell to his knees.
"Or-orion...," he gurgled with his last breath, and fell to the
earth in a pile of dust.

I jumped back, coughing as I inhaled some of it.
The noise in my mind faded, leaving me alone with the sounds of the
forest. But panic, worry, and fear crept into its place. I
frantically looked around the ruins of the camp site. The others
were gone.

Jon was gone.

I forced myself to take a deep breath, trying to
calm my frying nerves, and listened hard. If Jon was still close,
I'd be able to hear him with my mind. But no matter how I strained
to listen, I couldn't hear the melody that was distinctly his.

He was really gone.

"
f**k!" I sank to my knees,
and punched the ground in frustration. I could feel hot tracks of
tears on my face but I wiped them away quickly.

I caught sight of the dust covered knife.
Holding my breath, I dug the knife out of the pile. It glowed
faintly in the light of the moon, the steel reflecting my battered
image.