The crowd went wild again. “Kill the zombies! Kill the fangers!”

  I took a deep breath. While I wasn’t disagreeing with what they said in terms of removing the zombies and most of the vampires, I knew the slippery slope Lucifer would take them on.”

  “And here…here are your fanger lovers and Supernaturals…” He spoke when they calmed down enough.

  Two Watchers pulled aside a curtain to the right of Lucifer to reveal what looked like ten hostages, bound and gagged. They had been forced into kneeling on the stage. Most of them were vamp junkies; some of them looked underage. But two of the prisoners were obvious: one less-than-jolly-blue Jotun and Ironspell. Watchers stood behind our friends with muzzles from the AK-47s pressed against their temples.

  Oh shit! Was Lucifer going to kill them on stage?

  Do something! Ulf snarled as his hackles raised.

  The people began screaming, “Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!”

  I let loose of Ulf’s fur as my fingers flew across my phone’s touchscreen. It wasn’t dark enough yet, but I had to do something. I couldn’t use my technomage powers right now, but there was another form of magic that was available to every programmer and engineer ever born, Supernatural or Normal. I accessed every hacking tool I had—which included many of Spaz’s own creations.

  “In due time.” Lucifer grinned. “Let me tell you about each of these Supernaturals and their crimes…”

  Sure enough, Lucifer began his diatribe about why these people were sinners and deserved to die. Typical megalomaniac. Lucifer loved to hear himself talk, especially while he loomed over his victims. This gave me precious time to find what I needed to shut this entire lunacy down.

  As I searched for the right app, I got a private text from Spaz. What’s up?

  Lucifer has Ironspell and I need to hack his stage. I texted back.

  You at the right IP?

  I grinned. Oh yeah, baby!

  Meantime, Lucifer was making the rounds on his intended victims. He stopped at a ragged woman who wore a tank top and pajama bottoms, even though the early evening air was starting to cool off. Her brown hair had been pulled into a ponytail. I guessed she was maybe in her forties by the lines on her face, but she also had tracks from multiple vampire bites. Some fresh, some scabbed over, and some scarred. “…and this woman left her family including a toddler to chase after the blood high!”

  “Kill her! Kill her!” The crowd screamed.

  “Her name was Maria Smith, but she now goes by ‘Bloody Mary’—don’t you darling?” he sneered. Maria’s brown eyes widened and she shook her head frantically. “Don’t deny it, you harlot! Bloody Mary left a kind husband and an eight-year-old daughter too! For shame! For shame!” He pointed his finger at her. She lowered her head and sobbed as he did, her cries muffled by her gag.

  “Shame! Shame!” the people echoed.

  Suddenly, the lights cut out on stage. Lucifer looked up startled. “It’s okay…it’s just a…”

  He never finished it because I hacked into the sound system and cut it.

  The crowd looked around confused—or as Ironspell would say— “nonplussed.” Lucifer turned toward his minions who had been handling the sound system and was saying something to them, when I restarted the video without sound.

  Now, people saw Lucifer on the screen with horns, a barbed tail, and bat wings, courtesy of yours truly. The Watchers he talked to now sported horns, red skin, and bat wings as well.

  The crowd gasped in unison on seeing my little trick. Even from my hiding spot, I could hear the babble of dismay as the people began to doubt their newest Messiah. In the meantime, Lucifer was shouting something, which I assumed was along the lines of “turn that off!”

  I only had a few moments, but I put up the words “I am Satan!” in big, flashy red letters. Yeah, I know Satan was a different arch-demon than Lucifer, but it got the point across.

  The words had the desired effect. I felt the power from the batteries waver and fail. Apparently, Lucifer was using the crowd’s ramped up emotions as a battery for the containment and anti-magic field. Emotions are powerful conduits, and I should’ve guessed that Lucifer would use that to power his so-called battery. I didn’t know whether cutting the power would save the people who became batteries from an early death, but I didn’t care. They had made their choice to side with Lucifer, for fuck’s sake. No matter what his guise was, when someone tells you to kill other sentient beings who are innocent of wrongdoing that makes you in league with evil. The zombies and most of the fangers, notwithstanding.

  People screamed and began to flee. Some morons began firing their weapons at the stage. At the same time, the anti-magic shield dropped. The Watchers who had been guarding the hostages rushed forward and began spraying the crowd with bullets.

  I felt the containment field fall.

  Sadly, Ironspell must’ve been a bad influence on me. I quickly threw up a shield between the stage and the audience and one over the hostages, now that I had my magic back. Yeah, I used my smartphone to cast the shields. I wasn’t a decent wizard maybe, but I was an exceptional technomage.

  Ulf nudged me. Can you sling fireballs?

  I nodded.

  Get on and start slinging at the Watchers. We’re going in.

  ~ * ~

  Climbing onto a giant wolf who could eat you in one bite isn’t my idea of fun, but to be fair, Ulf let me clamber on when he was smaller and grew in height while I was sitting on him. He then leapt from our now not-so-hidden spot and charged the crowd.

  People screamed and ran. Some of them tried to shoot at us, but before Ulf leapt, I had the presence of mind to code in another shield.

  Three shields—that had to be a record.

  Just as we approached Lucifer and the hostages, I dropped the shield between the crowd and stage. Otherwise, Ulf would go splat, and he’d probably eat me for that faux pas. A few of the Watchers who were still on stage tried shooting at us. My shield held and I was able to summon up a fireball and threw it at the Watcher. It missed—I never could throw straight—and exploded on stage, taking out three other Watchers. It also set the stage on fire.

  “I meant to do that.”

  Ulf landed on the stage, causing it to sag dangerously low. Get Vetr and the others. I will take care of Lucifer. He shook and I soared off him, barely holding onto my smartphone as I crashed into the Watcher I had intended to hit with my fireball.

  I ran to Vetr first and had the joy of ripping the duct tape off his mouth. By the tears in his eyes, I knew I had gotten him back good. But he couldn’t talk. Because he had sharp teeth, they had thoughtfully put what looked like a horse’s bit in his mouth so he couldn’t bite off the duct tape. I tapped in another spell on my smartphone and the cuffs fell off all the hostages. As Vetr and Ironspell were removing the last vestiges of their gags, I ran to help Ulf.

  To my horror, Lucifer had shapeshifted into a gigantic serpent. He coiled around Ulf and despite the wolf’s best efforts to bite him, Lucifer looked like he had thick, adamantine scales. Furthermore, Ulf looked weakened because the serpent had bitten and injected him with venom.

  Lucifer saw me approach and snapped at me. For his efforts, I tapped into another app and sent a lightning bolt right down on his head. He shook in pain and Ulf whimpered.

  “Oops, sorry, Ulf.” I looked at my smartphone to see whatever spells I had that wouldn’t cause injury to my friend.

  As I was preoccupied, Lucifer smacked the living shit out of my shield with his tail. The shield flashed red and then failed, causing a substantial rebound in my magic. My magic smack me and sent me soaring across the floor. I dropped my smartphone and it skittered away out of reach.

  Meantime, Vetr and Ironspell attacked. Ironspell sent a stream of deadly fire and Vetr threw ice shards as sharp as knives. Luckily for Ulf, their aim was a lot better than mine and they hit the upper half of the serpent. Lucifer struck out at them, heedless of their attacks. Instead, he ripped apart their shields and attacked mercilessly. Despite Ironspell’s Templar blade, Lucifer tore it from my friend’s grasp and bit hard into Ironspell’s shoulder. Ironspell wobbled with the venom and collapsed.

  Vetr fared a little better and managed to get in a hit before Lucifer crunched into his arm and shook the Jotun like a rag before tossing him aside.

  Lucifer then turned on me.

  Chapter Six

  I stared at the gigantic snake in horror.

  “Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?” I quipped to hide my terror as the Devil, himself, slithered towards me. I glanced at my smartphone which had fallen ten feet away. I could maybe make a lunge for it, but it would put me closer to that colossal monster.

  Lucifer saw my glance and slammed his tail on the phone, smashing it. Pieces of my brand new smartphone skittered away from under his tail. “Now, little tech wizard, you are helpless. Give up and your death will be quick.”

  “Listen up, Moron. I’m not a tech wizard, I’m a technomage. And yeah, you now owe me like two thousand bucks because that’s the latest smartphone made by EF Enterprises. And you’ve pissed me off, because I really prefer to use my smartphone to cast.”

  “Technomage. Tech wizard. It matters not. You have nothing to cast a spell with,” Lucifer hissed.

  “I said I prefer to use my smartphone to cast. It doesn’t mean I have to.” With that, I raised my hands, calling on the power of the Enchanted Forest that was all around me. You see, when the anti-magic field dropped, the Enchanted Forest’s virtual reality network was able to connect with my magic again. I joined with that connection and opened the pocket universe Spaz and I had been working on. Right on top of Lucifer.

  With a giant whoosh! the pocket universe sucked in the Devil and I slammed the door shut.

  You got him? I asked Spaz.

  Yep, and he’s furious. This is so going to be fun! Spaz replied. Spaz has a truly weird sense of what constitutes fun.

  I need another phone, I informed him.

  What happened THIS time?

  Lucifer smashed it. Take it out of his hide. Although I couldn’t text, per se, I could see the words form within my mind’s eye. It wasn’t quite like mindspeak, which was painful, by the way. This…text-speak,—I guess you would call it—was a bit easier on the neurons.

  Okay, take it out of the company’s expense account. See you back in the EF? Spaz sounded hopeful.

  Yeah, but I’ll probably get a beer with the guys after this. See you tomorrow. I signed off.

  ~ * ~

  There’s not much more to say, really. The cops—including the DWTF—managed to get here after all the fireworks were over. Surprisingly, even the Denver Police Department Supernatural Division or DPDS showed to clean up the mess. Since Highlands Ranch wasn’t under anyone’s jurisdiction—because, Vampires—the DWTF took control of the situation. That included sending some of the DPDS guys on zombie patrol. Something the DPDS guys loved, I’m sure. I could see it in their sour expressions, especially when Ironspell directed them to establish a perimeter. Some bad blood there, I guess. But that story is for another time.

  Ironspell walked up to me after sending the DPDS guys off to do their jobs. “What happened to Lucifer?”

  “He’s in a very safe place where he’s unlikely to bother anyone anytime soon.” I crossed my arms.

  Ironspell looked down at the pieces that were once my smartphone. “Whoa, Dude, did Lucifer do that?”

  “Yeah, and I’m in serious need of a beer. Your department better cough up the money, because I’m looking to get ripped.” I glared at Vetr as he and Ulf joined us. “Better yet, tell your partner he’s buying since I had to babysit that monstrosity of a wolf of his.”

  Ulf growled.

  “By Ulf’s word, he babysat you.” Vetr pointed out.

  “And whose word are you going to take? Mine or the wolf’s?” I acted hurt.

  “The wolf’s.” Ironspell nodded.

  “It’s okay, Ulf. He’s an idiot. You know that.” Vetr spoke to the wolf, who seemed mollified.

  I sighed. “You up for a beer?”

  “Yeah, it’s the end of our shift anyway.” Ironspell nodded.

  “What about all that?” I pointed my thumb behind me at the cleanup.

  “I’m sure the captain can take care of all that without us.” Vetr nodded.

  “Let’s go to Trader Vic’s. I know the beer’s good there.” Ironspell grinned.

  “The Werewolf bar?” My eyebrow raised.

  “Yeah, my fiancée is waiting for us there. Luna wants to hear all about the fight.” Ironspell ripped open a Gateway with a flourish. “After you.”

  I took a look at Trader Vic’s on the other side, somewhat envious of Ironspell’s magic. I had to learn to cast a portal without my smartphone. Luckily, I had kept my entire phone’s configuration in the Enchanted Forest’s Cloud. Otherwise, it’d be a bitch to set everything back up from the beginning. “Thanks.” I walked through the Gateway, followed by Vetr, Ulf, and Ironspell. Fuck. I was actually going to a Werewolf bar. My life is weird.

  ~ * ~

  To say I got plastered would be an understatement. I thought that I might have a couple of brews and call it a night, but Ironspell and Vetr were buying, so I got ripped. Trader Vic’s is in LoDo not far from Larimer Square in downtown Denver. It’s typical as Werewolf bars go, I guess—not that I’ve been to many. Or should I say, not that I’ve been to any, although I’ve heard about them on the Internet. The steps went down to the bar where there was a seating area for drinkers, another seating area for those who wanted something from the restaurant, and a few back rooms for playing pool. There were a few pool tables in the bar, too.

  Trader Vic’s did pretty decent business and had expanded to the top levels as well. My understanding is that Alaric, the Alpha were, keeps his office and probably living space in the topmost levels. The restaurant had expanded to the street level, because Trader Vic’s pulls in clients from both the Normal and Supernatural populations.

  So, we were sitting with Ironspell’s werewolf fiancée, Luna; his daemon friend, Tuz, whose real name is Tuzren, but he doesn’t like people to know; and a smoking hot Elf named Elryn. Ironspell assures me she’s a lesbian, which didn’t really matter because I was drunk. I was at least hoping for bi, because she was an awesome knockout. She’s also Ironspell’s unofficial partner in these crazy adventures, which makes the Jotun his official partner with DWTF.

  How Luna didn’t get madly jealous or Ironspell didn’t try coming onto her was beyond me, but after Elryn knocked me on my ass twice for suggestions and a warning from the huge werewolf barkeeper, I decided to keep my thoughts to myself.

  It didn’t mean I wasn’t looking though. Not that she was showing much. She wore armor, big time, which covered her completely, but it was distinctly form-fitting, which let me appreciate her curves. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not gay. Justin is just a friend, and I prefer women. I accept that Justin is gay and he trusts me enough to give me the key to his home, but beyond that? Nothing between us.

  Luna was beautiful as well, but the Elves have a hotness all their own. The turning into something hairy with big nasty teeth is a real turn-off for me, which is why Luna had no appeal. Plus Ironspell, despite his forgiving nature, would pound me into the next century or maybe just crisp me with Muspelheim flames if I made a play on her. Luna oddly suits him, anyway. So, I wasn’t really surprised the fylgja was a puppy.

  Speaking of the fylgja, Callan was have a righteous chew on a bone that was left over from a steak he inhaled. Since Callan was part of Ironspell’s spirit, I’d have to ask him if he felt full after Callan ate. Ulf laid beside Vetr, looking obviously amused when the puppy growled at him for looking his direction.

  Ironspell and Vetr had finished regaling the newcomers with our exploits and were now deep in the discussion of Spaz and the Enchanted Forest. I was staring into my coffee they had insisted I drink to sober up, wishing instead for another beer.

  I was just about to get up and relieve my pressing bladder when the doors slammed open and Michael the Archangel stumbled into the bar. The Archangel looked like shit and probably felt how I would feel tomorrow. His normally beautiful face held plenty of scars—some old, but many new. One of his wings was bent at an odd angle; it looked broken and both wings were burnt and missing feathers.

  He wore a camo uniform with modern armor, but the clothing looked shredded. He grimaced from the many wounds. He teetered for a moment before his gray eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed.

  Ironspell and Luna were on their feet moving to catch the angel before he hit the floor. They barely caught him, too. Ironspell looked up at the barkeeper and said, “Water!”

  The big werewolf nodded and headed over to them with a three-quarters full glass. All eyes were on them as Ironspell and Luna dragged the stricken Archangel to our table. The barkeep set the water on the table as they hoisted Michael into a chair.

  “What happened?” Ironspell asked, as Luna pressed the glass against the angel’s mouth.

  Michael didn’t respond at first. Luna dribbled a little water on his lips and his tongue licked the water from them. She pressed the water against them again and he slowly drank. His eyes flickered open.

  “What happened?” Ironspell repeated.

  Pain entered Michael’s eyes. He took in his surroundings and grimaced. The werewolves in the bar and restaurant made no attempt to hide their interest. All eyes were on the angel.

  “I’m fallen,” he whispered.

  The End

  The Ironspell Chronicles Returns in the next book, Fallen Angel. Watch for its release, Winter 2023, on Amazon!!

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