Slaying demons, p.27
Slaying Demons, page 27
part #2 of Damsel Series
From the fact that a fireball formed in front of him, it was kind of clear that the man, and he was one of those for certain, being naked as he was, wasn’t on their side. The thing, about the size of a basketball, was flung with a gesture, which was batted away by Wisp, who still had his face mask on, but, much like Zip, was about half undressed, from his costume being torn by what seemed like claws. There was blood on the man, and one of his breasts was hanging out, giving that particular ruse away, if anyone there hadn’t known about it.
Hannah froze, for a moment, as another fireball started to form. Then she remembered the magic she’d set up, and pointed at her casual wear earing. Just the one on the left-hand side. The pale man, who wasn’t much taller than she was, suddenly found himself unable to move, at all. Trapped, perfectly.
Lash, seeming almost blind, still glanced at her. There was no comment about the strange new magical powers, however. Things that weren’t going to follow her home, of course. She didn’t let herself get used to the feeling. It was different, being the one who waved their hand and made things happen like that. Still, she drew her firearm and pointed at the pale being.
“Should I kill it? It should be stuck there for ten hours. The bars will last that long, nearly, as well.” That the things from inside of that could come after them then was a thing she didn’t point out at all.
The Moore, who had clearly fought hard for a long while, nodded.
“Yes. We may not be followed, after some time, but this one will seek us out later, in a few hours, if we don’t take care of it now. The beings who live here in the Never might be harmed by it, before they kill it themselves.”
Hannah had never killed anything other than insects and one rabbit and most of those had been by accident. What she had done was simulate killing, thousands of times, in VR. That meant, in the moment, that she aimed and pulled the trigger, removing the head and upper chest from the demon creature. The missing portion was no more than a mist in the air.
A thing that had the black beings attempting to reach for them suddenly pulling back. In fear.
The world went quiet then, the moaning and grunts from the portal stopping totally.
Veronica looked at it and smiled.
“That worked. We need to heal up. You have that, Damsel?” She sounded tired. They all looked the worse for wear, so she got the amulets around and passed them out. Debbie, who was the only one who seemed healthy at the moment, took hers off and gave it to her wife. That got a sigh, after a few minutes. When the woman could see again.
The others took turns, but they were still there an hour and a half later. All of them seeming like they’d been in a battle, but in a movie. The blood was still there, but the wounds weren’t. Then, with help from Guardia, she and The Moore tossed what remained of the pale demon back through the gate. It passed through the bars easily, of course. It was mainly human, after all.
Lashondra nodded.
“That will give them something to think about. You killed a Duke of Hell, Damsel. After trapping his minions away. We have ten hours of safety, from things coming through this portal?”
She nodded, certain of that. It was how the magic worked.
“We do. Probably eight hours now. Even if I leave. If someone comes and moves the rings there, then it will be opened up, but that will take a human being or something similar enough to one for it to work. Then, that, um, Duke, was similar enough for that, so...”
It was a flaw, in the work she’d done, but no one called her on it. Instead Lashondra simply moved and hugged Debbie.
“We should leave then, so as to not tempt the denizens of that place to seek us here. We won’t be caught again as easily. That... Was a mistake, on my part. I’d been told that the Duke of Hell, Variel, was more or less on the side of humankind. It seems that didn’t apply to us, directly. Not this time.”
There was a soft grunt, from John.
“We were both there, love. Lucky for us Debbie didn’t go down to the demon’s spells as easily. Thank you. All of you, for coming for us. This was... A dead end. We know that demon magic is behind the Tri-D, but we’re no closer to finding out who set that up at all. We can’t have it undone, either. Not easily.” He was rambling a bit, or so it seemed, but then turned, and for some reason, looked at Hannah.
“Now, you’re the new high wizard of this place? Sweet! I’d claim that I hadn’t seen it coming, but you weren’t being whispered about in the dark because of your cute behind, were you? Are you planning to stay here, then? Take over the place and maybe... I don’t know... Put in a new ocean or something?”
That hadn’t even crossed her mind. It was nice, for once, having power. It was also not really her place. She lived in a world with a single boring moon, blue skies and food that didn’t have magical properties based on its name. True, she could have done a lot there, and might, in the future, but in the moment, she was still learning to not be a victim. Suddenly having vast power wasn’t going to aid in that.
Not really.
It would, most likely, just have her going corrupt, and turning herself into a God. Which was fine, except that she had no real vison for what a world of her making would be. Until she knew that, and it proved to be better than what was already there, she needed not to let that kind of thing happen.
Alistair had the right idea that way, even if she wasn’t half as good of a person as the kid was. That being the case, she shook her head.
“Nope. We have things to do back home. People to help, if we can. Plus, I’m pretty certain that this place has a Pan, already. They don’t need a Hannah.”
That got a chuckle, from Debbie.
“There is always a Pan. Daniel has been in charge here for, oh, twenty years? Someday he’ll decide it’s time to grow up and for another to take his place. That’s what happened with the last few.”
John nodded, then didn’t say anything. It made it seem like he got something the others there didn’t. Like for instance, there once having been a Pan named whatever Nevernever used to be called. Possibly even one called Debbie. Hannah didn’t ask about it, a rip being torn out of the world, as Deb moved her right hand, in a graceful sweeping motion. On the other side of it, was, boringly, her apartment. That meant the others stepped into place, going first, with her picking up some of the jewelry. Not all of it. The rings needed to stay in place.
After all, she’d killed the demon boss. It was just possible that the minions would want to get their revenge on her, given that. Any bit of time she bought herself away from them coming for her, was a good thing, in that case.
She decided not to worry over it too much.
Though, when she stepped through the rip between worlds and looked back, she nodded. At Debbie, who came in last.
“If we have to fight those guys again, we’re doing it there. At least if we have that as an option.”
That got a snort.
“No doubt, Honey! Now, thank you all. We... Should probably help Hannah fix this patio window? I sort of broke it, coming in the first time.” Debbie looked at Lashondra, who simply smiled back at the idea.
As if a window, even a big one, was a real issue. One that they weren’t planning to dump on helpless little Hannah. She already had a plan for that, so shrugged.
“Let me call that in to the facilities manager? I bet they manage to have that fixed by morning. Now, hello, everyone!” She moved around, passing out hugs, since to her she’d been gone for a full day. Maybe a bit more than that.
Alistair stood up, and, reading her mind, smiled.
“About five hours, here. Luther only got here an hour ago. That... You’ll have to tell us about what happened?”
She was willing to do that, but John moved forward, spreading his hands.
“It started two days ago, here, I’d guess. Coming to a dead end in our investigation, giving in to a desperate need to fix the broken world here, we summoned a demon. At least we tried to. The demon Lord, Variel, one of the fifty named Dukes of Hell. That isn’t their name for the position, just ours.” He paused then, dramatically. “We were pulled, Nevernever, Lash and my humble self, into a near-hell dimension. There we were kept, for ten years, more or less, being beaten, and tortured for information, using magical inducements. It was close, but we didn’t break. After five years, Nevernever, being stronger than either of us, broke free and escaped. She wisely came here, and asked you all for help. Then these others spent about six months getting to us and helping us escape, or so I understand.”
The man spread his hands then.
“Which worked. Now, how do we solve this Tri-D problem? Because I’ve spent ten years on the idea and have nothing much new at all.”
It was strange, but Lash nodded then, as if to say she agreed with that assessment, totally.
Chapter seventeen
When Hannah had to go back out for the show taping, she was still reeling, just a tiny bit. Not from the fact that there was a magical realm where she was fairly decent at using magic. That, her ability to make stuff up in the realm, was cool, but had faded in her mind. Like a dream. She knew that it had happened, but it seemed incredibly remote to her. Like it wasn’t a thing that counted in some way.
Mainly because she wasn’t ready to be powerful. Not yet.
She was still working on the idea that she wasn’t a victim any longer.
Plus, she didn’t have that kind of power in her own world, so it was a lot like playing a VR game. It seemed real, when she was doing it, but it didn’t stick with her much, later. Except, hopefully, in skills.
Even killing that demon guy hadn’t really hit her that hard. He hadn’t seemed like a real person and the power of her weapon, enhanced by magic, had been so over the top that it really had felt like a game to her.
No, what was bothering her still was that her friends, John and Lash, had both been stuck in that horrible place for ten years. It hadn’t shown at first, since there had been healing done and they didn’t seem to have aged, outwardly, but both of them had acted... Weird, after that. Scared of the world, even though both of them were hiding it really well. They’d been injured, coming out, but there was no way that the demons had known they were about to escape so had beaten them right before they were released.
Meaning they’d been hurt, over and over again, for a decade. While Hannah and the others were trying to get to them, as fast as they could. It was going to be hard for them to come back to the normal world, now. She’d been hurt, held against her will, too. Scared beyond reason...
Things that had always been measured in days, not years.
It had drastically affected her, and now her friends had been hit so much worse than she ever had. Hannah didn’t know what to do for them, really. Except for what had worked for her. The only thing that had ever made a difference for her, was that people, a few, had been there for her. Willing to talk, or just hang out, letting her feel safe in a world where she really couldn’t, otherwise.
Which meant that she called Lashondra, as they pulled up to the campground, in their cleverly camouflaged fake private ambulance. Meaning she was a bit shocked when, right in front of her, out the front windshield of the van, a dark-skinned woman, dressed in her normal slightly Chinese seeming clothing, put a phone up to her ear.
“Hello?” She sounded a bit sad, which was going to happen for a while.
A thing Hannah knew about, personally.
“Hey, Lash. We’re just pulling in... Now, what are you doing here? Not that it isn’t cool. We can build lean-tos together. Make s’mores. It will be fun.”
That got a snorting laugh, that sounded choked and fake, at the same time. Still, there was effort in it, which was enough, for the moment.
“I was hired to come see about the sightings you had here, last week. We all came. Most of us. Debbie is here, too. Someplace. Hovering. At least she has been all morning. I... It’s hard. She feels like it was her fault, not coming to get us faster.”
Hannah simply took a deep breath.
“I hear that one. I took half an hour out of our schedule, to make sure that she healed up first. We were right there, at the mouth of the cave. That was what, weeks? Months, to the two of you? It was the right choice, at the time, from what I knew, but... how much were you both hurt, because I did that? Which is really worse than it sounds... I could have made the magic work instantly. I was just following the rules of that place, or what I thought they were. So, I screwed up. It cost other people.” She took a deep breath, then shook her head, as Burt parked in one of the camp sites.
“Which is my cross to bear on this one, not yours. I... We all are going to have little things like that. Which, yeah, it means that I’m going to freaking hover, too. If it gets to be too much, tell me to buzz off. Is John around?” She wouldn’t have blamed him for going home, even if he came back in a few weeks.
Lash pointed, to the left, where, among the trees, there was a man in what looked like military surplus fatigues. A lot like the soldiers she kept shooting in VR, actually. This time they had a face though and under the dirty-blond hair, his chin clean shaved, was indeed her buddy, John. Not that they were that close.
Except that, one time, she’d gone into a different reality, to help get him out of a demon prison. That, as odd as it sounded, left her feeling closer to him than they had been before. How he felt, if anything about her at all, she couldn’t tell. They simply hadn’t spoken enough, since coming back.
Going on, Lashondra seemed a bit annoyed.
“Everyone insisted on coming. As if I can’t handle a few demons, suddenly? Even Carl is here, which... Well... I suppose it shows a lot of growth, that he’s willing to be there for the emotional support functions like this. Unfortunately, it hasn’t really changed his attitude about most other things.” That was spoken with wry acceptance, which sounded wise, instead of simply as if she wanted the rest of them to go away.
“Ah? Well, I suppose you can all watch me suffer, for your amusement. Let me hang up. I’m right here, after all.”
Talking to a person seventy feet away, using a cell phone, was rude. At least in her book. It sounded lazy, if nothing else. As if she couldn’t be bothered to walk a few feet to address someone face to face.
Pulling her pack, which was filled again, since she wasn’t taking risks that way, she also grabbed a cooler filled with food. Which was a mistake. She could walk with it, barely, but it was a limping, slow thing. Mainly because she was carrying slightly over her body weight. About a hundred pounds. No one ran to help her, directly, but several people headed toward her, looking...
Better prepared than they had before.
Lara was dressed like she was going to be in a catalog that sold camping gear, or at least on a web-site for it, and Terry was in a warm looking jacket and jeans. Both of which seemed new.
Hannah grunted, breathing a bit hard.
“Food in the back of the ambulance. I got lots, this time.” Maybe even enough to feed the extra people who had come. The ones she knew, anyway. It was a bit strange that Lashondra was the expert they had in. Until she realized that it was Life of Kate. They had a magical problem, so it kind of made sense that their magical experts would be people that Katie trusted. Even if she wasn’t supposed to know who they were.
Which, Hannah decided, simply meant that she, the meddling extra, had brought them in.
She didn’t know where she needed to get set up, but then, she was almost certain that she really wasn’t going to get to have food or clean clothing that week. Even if she’d tried to make sure she had the option, just in case it came up.
It was Darnel, the white guy with the black name, who was wearing a shirt which seemed pretty girly that day, showing a small, but real bust line, and being pink, who waved at them.
“This way? Um... Hannah? We need you to get ready for a hike. We’re all going, but...” The guy looked away, as if he was expecting a beat down or at least being yelled at over what was coming next.
They moved the whole time and headed over to Max, who was standing and talking to Carl, who turned and sneered at her a bit. The other man, who had a great big bushy gray beard, smiled, at least.
He didn’t get to speak first. Carl did, seeming almost pissed off.
“De Peyser. Good, the plan is to dump you out in the woods, or at least faking that. You’re armed?”
She nodded and grinned at the man.
“Always. Firearm and two blades.” She’d gone with one the last time, but it occurred to her that if one broke, she was going to be stuck.
That, saying she was armed, wasn’t enough for Carl, who insisted on seeing all of it and inspected the fire arm, making sure the magazine was loaded. She had a bullet in the chamber as well, even if that was dangerous. If she needed to shoot, not having that ready to go was asking for someone to take her out before she could respond at all.
A thing he noticed, and smiled about.
“Good girl! Trust me, you tell ten people to stay armed, all the time and nine of them will ignore you and the last one will only get it right about half the time. One in a hundred of those will actually put the effort in, all the time. We call those people paranoid.” He snorted then, looking dark. “We also call them alive.”
She got her gun back, the safety on, the barrel pointed at the ground as they passed it between them. That went into the holster over her appendix. She liked having it in the small of her back, better, but the forty-four was just too big for that to be comfortable when she sat down. She could take it off and hold it, but doing that all the time was annoying, too.
Carl, who towered over her, being over six-six, stopped smiling, fairly quickly.
“You’ve been practicing, when you can?”
She nodded, since she really had been.
“Not enough. About three hours a week. I get three days off, so...”
