Rise of the Demon Lords, page 13
Kai bowed. “Yes, teacher. Chosen, do you have any message for Maria?”
Conryu scrubbed his hand across his face. “Just tell her I’ll be back as soon as I can and until then to take care of herself. You and the other girls too, Kai.”
“Don’t worry about us, Chosen. We all await your safe return. I’ll begin the journey back now.”
“No need.” Conryu waved a hand and she was instantly back in the borderlands near Maria. He turned to Narumi. “I hate this. I’d rather fight an army than sit around here waiting.”
“So you’ve told me,” Narumi said. “But we all have our parts to play. Don’t worry, your turn will come soon enough. And when it does, you mustn’t underestimate the power of the other Chosen. Though their magic is vastly different from your own, they will be among the strongest opponents you’ve ever faced.”
Conryu nodded. He recognized that everything she said was true, but that didn’t make it a bit easier to accept.
23
When Maria hung up on Jonny his mind was spinning. Conryu filling in for the Reaper was less of a surprise than the idea that there was more than one hell. That little tidbit took everything he thought he knew and turned it upside down. Did it mean that this wizard they were hunting was as powerful as Conryu? He hoped not for everyone’s sakes.
At the wheel, Diane was rigid and he could see the whites of her eyes. Her throat worked as she tried to swallow. At least the traffic was light. Given her mental state, he wouldn’t have wanted her to have to make any quick moves.
“Hey, you okay?” he asked.
She blinked and shook her head. “Okay might be a stretch. Your friend sounded pretty pissed at you. Could she have been telling us a story?”
“Maria might hate my guts, but she wouldn’t make up something like this. Do you want to call in backup?” He hoped she might say yes. Jonny had been feeling a little out of his depth before, but now he was drowning.
“From whom? The whole department is busy fighting monsters. What about the military?”
Jonny shook his head. “A single private on a joint investigation is one thing, but a full mobilization into the city would probably take a presidential order and I doubt we have time to get one. Looks like it’s just you and me.”
“I’m less optimistic about our chances than I was half an hour ago. Still, maybe Carlos will tell us something useful. If we have a definite target, I can probably get a SWAT team to raid it. There’s his building now.” Diane pulled off the street and down into an underground parking lot.
The building was a steel-and-glass skyscraper and Jonny wouldn’t be able to afford an apartment here if he saved for a hundred years. She parked the patrol car between a pair of luxury cars that together probably cost as much as a tank.
“This is so not my neighborhood.” Jonny got out of the car and leaned on the roof.
Diane joined him and shrugged. “I certainly can’t live here on a cop’s salary. Even a police wizard doesn’t make that much extra. Come on. There’s a private elevator that goes up to his apartment.”
He followed her down a line of fancy cars, including one that looked like it came from the fifties, until they reached an elevator with a monitor beside it. She pressed the call button and took a step back.
A few seconds later the face of a brown-skinned man about forty appeared in the monitor. “What do you want?”
“We’d like a word with Carlos,” Diane said. “Is he available?”
“You got a warrant?”
Jonny and Diane shared a look. This wasn’t going at all the way Kate said it would.
“No,” Diane said. “I was told Carlos was on friendly terms with the police.”
“Things change. Now fuck off.”
“Wait. Can I at least leave my card in case you change your mind?”
“Drop it on the ground in front of the elevator. Someone will be down to collect it later.” The screen when blank.
“Friendly,” Jonny said. “I think your friend the detective led us astray.”
“Maybe.” She set a business card down directly in front of the elevator door. “Let’s find somewhere out of sight. I want to see who comes and gets it.”
“You think someone actually will?”
She shrugged. “I hope so. If it’s someone with an outstanding warrant, I’ll have no trouble getting permission to search the apartment.”
Diane led him to a shadowy spot across from the elevator. They settled onto the hard ground.
“Is this your first stakeout?” she asked.
“Yeah, I guess it is. Shouldn’t we have coffee and donuts or something?”
“You’ve seen too many movies. Besides, we probably couldn’t afford the coffee or donuts in this part of the city.”
Jonny grinned. Diane was starting to grow on him. She wasn’t exactly his type, but having a wizard cop for a friend couldn’t hurt.
Miguel opened his eyes when the murmur of voices stopped. He’d been practicing sending his consciousness out of his body to check on the thralls. They were spreading nicely despite losing a few to the police and their allies. He had several hundred now that he could call upon should the need arise.
He’d just finished commanding them to keep their efforts to the poor and run-down sections of the city. Not that he could put it exactly that way. The thralls’ intelligence was too limited for such detailed instructions. Instead, he imprinted the image of slums and homeless people on their minds along with the instruction to focus their efforts there. The powers that be generally cared less for the poor than the wealthy. The incident at the insurance office had drawn far too much attention for his liking.
Heaving himself up off the wonderfully comfortable couch, he padded across the carpet and looked down from the second-floor landing. Old Man was just coming back from the door.
“What was that?” Miguel asked.
“A cop. She wanted to talk to Carlos.” Old Man looked up at him. “Did you complete your meditation?”
“Yes. What did she want?”
“I don’t know. Carlos would talk to the cops whenever they wanted. He liked to show them that he was untouchable. Do you wish me to find out, Master? The woman said she’d leave her card in front of the elevator.”
“It might be useful for us to know how far along they are in their investigation. Go get the card while I think about our next move.”
Old Man returned to the elevator doors out of sight.
Miguel made his way downstairs, pausing only long enough to check on the Black Eternals. The plants had absorbed several gallons of blood and would soon bud. He needed to get pots and soil so he could plant the new growth.
No need for fresh dirt. Just toss out a few of the plants lying around the apartment.
“I’m no plant expert, but can’t putting new plants in a used pot kill them?”
The Black Eternals are magical plants. No fungus is going to kill them. As long as you keep them out of the sun and water them regularly with fresh blood, they’ll survive just fine.
That was certainly convenient. Now he just needed to decide what to do about the cop. He couldn’t very well let her into the apartment. One look at his greenhouse and she’d go straight for her gun. Maybe if she stayed in the entryway?
He shook his head. The smell of blood would reach her regardless.
They’d have to meet somewhere else. Neutral ground. She might go for that.
The elevator opened and Old Man stepped out. He held a small rectangle of paper out to Miguel. There wasn’t much information. A phone number, her department address, as if Miguel was going to go there, and her name, MO Diane Sif.
“What does MO stand for?” he asked.
“Magical officer,” Old Man said.
“She’s a wizard? That’s perfect. I need a wizard to consecrate the temple. I can interrogate her then we can take her to the island to sacrifice.” Miguel handed the card back. “Call her and tell her we’d be happy to speak with her at her earliest convenience.”
“Here, Master?” Old Man gave the opening to the living room a knowing look.
“Of course, here. She’s not going to have a chance to do anything about the greenhouse. Now call her.”
“Yes, Master.”
Miguel rubbed his hands together. First the Black Eternals got a proper feeding and now the wizard he needed dropped right into his lap. Could his day get any better?
24
On tv, stakeouts always took a long time and allowed the partners to get to know one another. He had barely settled into a reasonably comfortable position on the hard pavement when the elevator doors opened.
Diane rushed to get her phone out and point it at the opening. A rather gaunt, pale-looking man Jonny guessed was around fifty appeared from behind the door.
Diane snapped a picture, he bent, and picked up her card. A moment later he was back in the elevator and on his way up to the penthouse.
“That was quick,” Jonny said. “What now?”
“Now we go back to the car and I run that guy’s picture against the wanted list. If we get lucky and he has a warrant out on him, we can call in backup and raid the joint.”
They stood and Diane led the way back to her squad car. She sounded so optimistic that Jonny hated to rain on her parade. “How do we raid an apartment that has a private elevator controlled from upstairs?”
“The elevator is for convenience and status. Building codes require a fixed exit in case of power outage or fire. That means we can hit them from the stairs.”
Jonny had never really thought about it before but that made sense. Who would want to be on the top floor of a skyscraper without a way down when the power went out? Then his training kicked in. A flight of steps would be really easy for a few guys to defend, especially if they had any kind of defensive position built. Booby traps might be an issue as well.
He didn’t point any of this out as neither Diane nor her fellow officers were idiots. They would have all the angles figured out before they made any attempt to assault Carlos’s apartment, assuming they could even find evidence enough to justify the move.
They hopped into the car and Diane fired up her computer. When she had the cell phone connected, she ran the picture through the police database. Images flickered across the screen so fast he could hardly distinguish one from the other.
A chime sounded and a mug shot filled the screen. It was the guy only about twenty years younger, Ortega Santos. He’d had several run-ins with the law, but nothing recent. He was suspected of running drugs from the Caribbean, but he’d never been caught.
“Doesn’t look good,” Jonny said when he finished reading.
“Not for us,” Diane agreed. “No way we’ll get a warrant with just this. I—”
Her phone rang, cutting her off in midsentence.
“Officer Sif,” she said.
Jonny couldn’t hear what was said, but Diane’s eyes got wide. “Yes, of course. My partner and I are still in the parking garage. We can come up right now. No, it’s not a problem. If I got offended every time someone swore at me, I’d need a new job. Okay, we’re on our way.”
“What was that about?”
“It seems Carlos wasn’t happy that Ortega sent us packing. He wants to talk right now.”
“Is that safe? Considering what we know about Ortega, maybe we should let someone know what’s happening.”
“That’s not a bad idea. I’ll call dispatch before we go.”
Jonny got out of the car while she radioed in. When she joined him he asked, “What should I be on the lookout for?”
“Drugs, guns, anything that might give us probable cause. This guy’s not an idiot, so I doubt we’ll find anything, but then again, stranger things have happened.”
She touched his chest and muttered something.
“What was that?” Jonny asked. If she was going to cast a spell on him, he would have appreciated a heads-up first.
“Flying spell. If we’re desperate, we can leap out one of the windows. The spell’s good for an hour so keep that in mind.”
They walked back to the elevator and this time when Diane pressed the button, the door opened without an interview. The inside of the elevator was all polished and perfect. There wasn’t even a control panel. Jonny had never ridden in such a clean elevator. Back home there would’ve been empty beer bottles or a puddle of vomit or something equally nasty in one corner. The winch would have squeaked the whole way up and at least one button would have been broken. This ride was silent and smooth.
A chime rang and the door opened on a luxurious entry room. Jonny had no time to take any of it in as the overwhelming stink of blood nearly made him retch.
Diane managed a single syllable of a spell before a black vine wrapped around her throat.
Jonny went for his pistol, but was quickly wrapped up as well.
When they were both cocooned like a fly waiting for the spider, a bronze-skinned young man stepped into the room with Ortega behind him. The guy was dressed in a fancy black robe marked with strange signs. Jonny had never seen anything quite like it outside of a bad fantasy movie.
The wizard wannabe ignored Jonny and focused on Diane. “If I remove your gag, you won’t do something stupid like try and cast a spell, will you?”
Diane managed to shake her head.
“Good. Should you forget, just remember I can crush your voice box or rip your friend’s head off with a thought.”
The vines retracted enough to allow Diane to speak. “Are you a wizard?”
“I am a hellpriest, the Chosen of Lord Baphomet. You should be honored. Your blood will consecrate the first new temple to my master in thousands of years.” He turned to Ortega. “Fetch the car. We need to return to the island immediately.”
“Yes, Master.” Ortega brushed past them and got in the elevator.
“Where’s Carlos?” Diane asked.
“He’s feeding the plants. I’ll show you.” The hellpriest gestured and the vines lifted Jonny and Diane and followed along behind deeper into the apartment.
The smell of blood grew stronger by the second. Crimson lights burst to life.
It was a good thing Jonny’s mouth was held shut as he badly wanted to throw up. Bodies of a bunch of men and one woman hung from the ceiling by yet more vines. They’d each had their throats cut and blood was still dripping out onto a pair of plants with shiny black leaves. Each drop was instantly absorbed by the plants.
The windows had been fully overgrown by vines. The only light came from tiny cracks at the very edge of the plants.
Jonny had never seen anything like them and he hoped to never see anything like them again. Black plants that fed on blood could only be magical. Their purpose, on the other hand, was a mystery.
“Welcome to my greenhouse,” the hellpriest said. “From here, Baphomet’s blessing will spread across the entire city and eventually the world. As the master’s Chosen, I will rule.”
“Who is Baphomet?” Diane asked.
“The ruler of Hell and Lord of the Corrupt Earth. And the new god of this world for all intents and purposes.”
“Lord of Hell, you mean the Reaper?”
She groaned in pain as the vines creaked tighter.
“I do not mean that fraud. My master’s hell is far greater.” The hellpriest cocked his head as if listening to a voice only he could hear. “No, I won’t kill her before we return. But I also won’t have her insulting the master.”
It was becoming painfully clear to Jonny that this guy was absolutely barking mad. He was also insanely powerful. He might even give Conryu a run for his money.
“What’s going to happen to my partner?” Diane asked.
Jonny had been wondering the exact same thing though every guess he came up with sucked.
“As you can see, we’re nearly out of plant food. I think one more sacrifice will be enough to get the Black Eternals to bud.”
That was the worst-case scenario for sure. And he was helpless to do a thing about it.
The elevator bell chimed and Ortega said, “The car is waiting, Master.”
The hellpriest looked away and when he did Diane said, “Wind Blade!”
An invisible sword cut away the vines holding Jonny and a moment later the vines covering the window sheared away.
Blinding light and shards of glass filled the air.
Jonny didn’t hesitate.
He willed himself skyward.
The flying spell took hold and he rocketed up and out the opening. It pained him to leave Diane behind. His only hope was that these lunatics seemed to want her alive, even if only because they intended to kill her somewhere else.
Jonny swore he’d do everything in his power to rescue her before then.
25
Jonny landed a block from base and started running. He ignored the surprised looks from the people strolling along the sidewalk. Wizards were reasonably common in Miami so seeing someone land on the side of the street couldn’t have been that unusual. He could still feel the spell Diane had cast and was certain that if he wished it, he could have flown for a little longer.
Unfortunately, the sky above the base was restricted and protected by a barrier that negated flying magic. The army wizards had been thoroughly pissed when Conryu smashed all their spells last year. Which, Jonny suspected, was exactly why he did it.
He rounded a bend and spotted the main gate. The shadows were long and he doubted fighting a hellpriest, whatever that was, would be any easier after dark. The sooner he got the cavalry underway, the better. He considered going to the police directly, but he had no real standing with them. Major Evans would have better luck getting through to someone in a position to do something about the situation.
He really didn’t want to give them a chance to move Diane. Once they did, who knew where she might end up.
At the gate, the same sergeant was on duty. He leaned on the gatehouse and shook his head. “Back again? Misplace your new partner?”
