The Incubus, Succubus and Son of Perdition Box Set: The Len du Randt Bundle (53 page)

Rebecca’s hand shot to her mouth. ‘
Justin!
No!
’

At the last moment, just before
impact, Justin pulled his head back. Greg’s foot overshot its intended target
and flung him off balance. Justin kicked Greg’s leg behind the knee and the
younger man crashed to the ground. In an instant Justin was on top of him,
pummelling his fists into Greg’s face. Justin didn’t realise that Natasha was
standing behind him until she grabbed him by the shoulders. She jerked him
backward and flung him through the air before a coherent thought could
formulate in his mind. Justin cleared at least thirty feet before he smacked
into the cement with a sickening crunch. He barely hit the floor when Natasha
was upon him again, screaming as she scratched at his face. Justin tried to
fend her off, but didn’t have any strength left in him to fight back. He tried
to push her away, but to his weak arms it felt like he was trying to move a
mountain. Slowly he felt what little strength he had left drain from his arms
as she heaved her full weight on his chest. His breathing slowed down to match
his fading heartbeat. With one final effort he tried to budge his arms, and as
he realised that it was a futile attempt, darkness engulfed him.

*   
-    -    -    *

 ‘Your turn,’ Greg said as he
stood up. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth as he neared Jared. A
horde of demonic beings surrounded the two men, chanting their war-cries in the
spiritual realm.

Jared backed up as the man advanced,
but stopped abruptly when he struck the workbench behind him. Not taking his
eyes off the deranged attacker, Jared frantically searched the bench behind him
for something—
anything—
that he could use as a weapon. His hands grasped
at nothing.

The attacker sprang into action,
rushing towards Jared with his arms flailing through the air. He was just about
upon Jared when fate stepped in. Jared felt something hard and in an instant he
wrapped his hand around it and took a swing. The wrench struck the assailant
against the head, knocking the man to the ground.

The demons hissed and closed in on
Jared. A shrill scream not too far off made them stop and turn to face Natasha.
She looked up from Justin’s unconscious body and snarled as the irises in her
eyes turned from black to scorching red. The demons scattered as she cleared
the distance between herself and Jared in one powerful lunge.

‘What the hell are you?’ Jared asked
and swung the wrench at her.

Natasha grabbed his wrist in
mid-swing and squeezed. Jared screamed out in pain and the wrench dropped to
the floor. She then clamped her free hand around his neck and lifted him off
the ground.

Jared gasped and tried to pry her
fingers from his throat, but to no avail. He kicked out at her with his feet.
She didn’t budge. The more he squirmed, the tighter her fingers clamped around
his neck. He tried her fingers again, but there was no strength left in his
hands. Her grip tightened even more.

She grinned, exposing her fangs.

Her eyes flared.

The demons laughed.

Three shots rang hollow throughout
the hangar. The grip around Jared’s throat released and Natasha took a few
steps back. It was when she fell to her knees that Jared saw his mother not too
far off, still aiming the gun.

‘No...’ Natasha said. She looked up
at Jared and as her face relaxed, her irises faded to black. She exhaled her
last breath and then fell forward at Jared’s feet. Dead.

Rebecca dropped the gun and her
hands shot to her mouth. She was still in shock when Tanya attacked her from
the side.

*   
-    -    -    *

 ‘You fool!’ Tanya shrieked.
‘Do you know what you’ve done?’ She knocked Rebecca from her feet. ‘You will
pay for this,’ she growled and wrapped her fingers in Rebecca’s hair. She then
raised Rebecca’s head off the ground and slammed it down hard.

‘
Mother!
’

Tanya looked up and snarled. ‘You’re
next, you little twerp!’ she yelled and picked up the gun. Screaming, she shot
off round after round while running towards Jared.

He was about to react when a slug
struck him and he instantly dropped to the ground.

*   
-    -    -    *

Tanya towered over Jared. ‘You
shouldn’t have done that,’ she said and aimed the gun at his face. ‘We were so
close, Jared. And you ruined
everything!
’

Jared tried to speak but couldn’t.
He reached for his shoulder and what he felt was wet. It was then that his
brain acknowledged the fact that he had been shot; it was then that he became
aware of the hot, burning pain surging through his chest. He stared up at the
barrel pointing down at him and laid his head back down on the cold cement
floor. There was nothing more that he could do. He closed his eyes and embraced
his fate.

‘Goodbye Jared,’ Tanya said.

You will have a major influence in
the lives of millions of people. You will either lead them to Christ, or their
slaughter. That much is certain.

Tanya was about to squeeze the
trigger when something moving to her side caught her attention. It was Natasha.
The younger woman moved and groaned. Tanya ran to her side, but as she neared
Natasha, she stopped. The once beautiful face that could seduce the most incorruptible
of men was now pale and thin; the eyes dark and sunken back into the head.
‘Nahemah...?’

Natasha looked up and around her,
clearly disorientated. She held her hand out to Tanya, but what was once soft
flesh now resembled dried meat. Her elegant fingers were bony and claw-like.

Tanya took a step closer and knelt
down beside Natasha. ‘Are you all right?’

Natasha didn’t answer. Her hair fell
out and her cheeks pulled tight. She snapped her head forward and the skin at
the back of her scalp tore open. The flesh tore down her back and finally
ripped open, revealing the reptilian scales underneath. Razor sharp claws
ripped through her hands, and soon, all flesh that was torn from the creature
lay on the floor beside Tanya.

‘Nahemah...’ Tanya said. She was
about to stand up when the creature shot its claw out and grabbed her by the
throat. It stood up and lifted Tanya right off the ground. She kicked out and
tried in vain to loosen the grip around her neck. ‘What...are...you...doing?’
Tanya asked, fighting the urge to just close her eyes and relax her muscles. ‘I
command you to let me go!’

The demon hissed and with the twist
of its wrist, snapped Tanya’s neck. It flung the limp body through the air
where it slammed into the wall on the far side of the hangar. Once the creature
was satisfied that Tanya would not get up again, it roared out loud, shattering
all the windows in the building. It snorted and sniffed the air before turning
its attention to Jared.

*   
-    -    -    *

Jared rolled over. He realised the
futility of his situation as Tanya’s lifeless body flew through the air. There
was no way that he could fight the thing that Natasha had turned into and he
knew it. ‘Help me, Lord,’ he prayed as he reached for the gun. The demon roared
and turned to him. It briskly walked towards him with awkward, sticky
movements. Jared’s torso was on fire. His arm felt as if it had been ripped
from its socket. Inch by agonizing inch, Jared reached for the gun.

The demon kept advancing, snorting
wisps of sulphur.

Jared’s hand clasped around the butt
of the gun. He pulled it closer and screamed in pain as he sat up. He clenched
his teeth and squeezed the trigger. A shot rang out. The demon kept coming. It
was on top of him before he could squeeze off another round and slapped the gun
from his hand. The demon howled loudly and grabbed Jared by the throat. Jared
tried to scream, but he managed nothing more than a raspy gurgle. The invisible
demons drew closer to Jared, hissing and laughing as his consciousness slipped
away. The reptilian demon stabbed its claws into Jared’s side and a faint
scream escaped his lips.

Not far off, Justin stumbled to
Rebecca and embraced her. They could only look on helplessly as the demon
drained the last of their son’s remaining strength.

Do not be afraid,
spoke the voice of
Pastor Jacobs in the void of Jared’s mind.
Those who are with us are more
than those who are with them.

‘Oh Lord,’ Jared prayed with the
strength he had left. ‘Open their eyes...so that they may see...’

A brilliant light flooded the hangar
and the demon instantly released Jared. It roared and looked up at the source
of the light. The other demons fluttered back to the furthest, darkest reaches
of the hangar, but it didn’t help. The light was everywhere, exposing every
inch of every crevice.

‘Can you see them?’ Justin asked his
wife. He looked at the back of the hangar where the demons cowered in fear.

Rebecca nodded.

They both looked towards the
brilliant light and gasped when they saw the legion of angels that spanned as
far as the hangar’s entrance and beyond.

Victory to the Lamb!
The angels shouted in
unison, their voices sending a vibration through the ground that toppled most
of the demonic beings off their feet. Simon stood at the front and narrowed his
eyes. He unsheathed his sword and raised it into the air. Hundreds of angels
followed suit.

The Succubus took a few steps back
and growled.

‘Leave Nahemah to me,’ Simon said.
He took a deep breath and then slashed his sword through the air.

‘
Attack!
’

*   
-    -    -    *

The angels and demons charged at
each other, flailing swords and claws as they went. They clashed into one
another with a supersonic
BOOM!
that shook the foundations of the
building.

Elrisk led a team to the back of the
hangar to dispose of those demons that were too cowardly to fight.

Simon moved in to protect Jared and
his parents against Nahemah. He slashed his sword out to the left, and two
demons dropped to the floor. One attacked from the right but Simon parried the
blow, side-stepped the demon, and took off its head with one powerful arc of
the flaming blade. By the time he reached Jared, the man and his parents were
sitting in a huddle, looking awestruck at the scene that unfolded itself around
them.

Demons flew up into the air, trying
to flee the combat through gaping holes in the roof. Some angels caught on to
this and cut off any escape routes. The demons would have to stay and fight.
Nahemah roared and advanced upon Simon, knocking over angelic warriors as she
went. Simon swung his sword at her legs, but she grabbed his wrist and twisted
it hard, relaxing Simon’s grip on the weapon. The sword clattered to the
ground. Nahemah hissed and slashed Simon’s chest with her claw. The angel
dropped to the ground and this was all the time the demon needed to spread its
leathery wings, and fly up through the roof.

‘Oh no, you don’t,’ Simon said and
as fast as lightning, shot up after her. High above the hangar he grabbed hold
of her bony ankle and pulled at it. ‘This ends here, Succubus!’ he shouted
above the roar of the beast and yanked his arm down hard, throwing Nahemah down
towards the earth at an incredible speed. She crashed into the Cessna outside
the hangar, causing a violent explosion that ripped apart most of the front
side of the hangar.

Simon landed near the fireball and
slowly walked towards it, keeping an eye out for the demon. Through the flames
walked the monster and she was upon Simon before he could react. Sharp fingers
dug into Simon’s side and he shouted out in agony. She tossed him through the
air as if he weighed nothing. By the time Simon hit the ground, the demon was
upon him again. She roared victoriously before slashing her claw out for the
killing blow.

It never came.

For a moment everything stopped.

Time stood still.

Nahemah didn’t move.

The creature looked down at the
blade protruding from her stomach. She spun around and stood face-to-face with
Jared. He took a step back. The Succubus howled and raised her bony claw into
the air. She was about to strike down on the human when Simon pulled the sword
from her back and, with lightning fast speed, slashed diagonally down,
splitting the demon’s head and shoulders from the rest of her torso.

Nahemah dropped to the floor. Her
body jerked in convulsions and boiled as the demonic scales melted into
oblivion.

The rest of the demons, realizing
that their master had been destroyed, were frozen with fear. The angels needed
no invitation to end the battle swiftly, and once all the demons were banished,
the angels aligned themselves in neat military units that stretched to the
farthest reaches of the hangar.