<<<>>>

  Down below the Conception base and inside the ARCANE Mage quarters on Level Ten, Amber spoke to Sheldon. “Status report. Do we have orders from command or ARCANE or Indian Springs yet?”

  “Nothing’s come over the notification channels. I’m tapped into Mil-Net too, and they’re getting their asses handed to them up there,” Sheldon pointed upwards.

  Amber shook her head. “Not acceptable. It’s our job to send them back to Hell and protect the innocent. We need into that fight. Find a way to get us there Shelly.”

  The man called Sheldon rolled his eyes and nodded. “Let me try and reaccess the command channel.”

  “Do you smell that?” Alexander sniffed the air. Turning, he scanned the room.

  “What is it?” Nadya asked. The Earth Mage clutched a knife that suddenly appeared in her hand. It was her most deadly weapon.

  Alex sniffed again and scrunched up his face in disgust. “Smells a bit like a garbage fire in a pig pen.”

  “That bad?” Nadya asked.

  “Pretty much,” he sniffed again and pointed up and to the left. “It’s coming from the main ventilator. Up there.”

  The team all looked up.

  Sheldon sniffed the air. “I don’t smell anything… Wait… OK. There it is. Ugh. That’s awful.”

  “Told you. We’ve fought Demons before, and they never smelled like that before,” Alexander replied.

  “That last Demon we took out was at that cult house in Los Angeles. It was only a medium-sized Demon according to the geeks at ARCANE. By-the-way there’s a formal thank you in our files from the FBI on that one,” Amber explained.

  “The FBI? Why would they care about what we do?” Nadya asked.

  Amber looked at her sometimes boyfriend and team member, “Sheldon?”

  “That cult was elusive. They kidnapped a bunch of kids a few years ago and raised up several Demonic entities. An FBI strike team took them down,” Sheldon reported.

  Alexander started, “How? I’ve met some of those teams, and they pretty much only shoot hostages and scare old ladies.”

  Catching his eyes, Amber shook her head. “Play nice. They had a backup. Agatha Blackmore was in her second year at the Academy, and she pitched in. They missed one of the sub-groups but managed to take out the whole cult and save most of the hostages. It was the first mission where she proved her worth to the FBI.”

  “You’re talking about the Witch? The one that works for the FBI, she’s got a pet horse or something? That Witch?” Alexander asked.

  “Unicorn. She’s got a pet Unicorn. It talks to her. I know it sounds crazy, but she was all my estranged family could talk about. Blackmore family this and Blackmore family that. They wouldn’t shut up about it all. Trust me when I say that I know lots of gossip and lies about that family,” Amber explained.

  Alexander snorted. “Talking Unicorns. What is the world coming to now? And you wonder why we don’t have Paras working for ARCANE. What makes her so different from the rest of those stuck-up bitches, anyhow?”

  Nadya whacked Alex across the back of his head. “She cares. There’s a human on her team, a well respected one. William Maxwell, a real hardass from the old school FBI. They’re all good people. So watch what you say!”

  Sheldon looked up at the name Maxwell but didn’t say anything. They had a job to do and correcting a Mage when she was pissed off wasn’t on the agenda. She’d see the memo about Maxwell’s death, eventually. The tablet in his hand finally made a connection and beeped in response. “Hey, I’ve got something here!”

  Tapping the screen, Sheldon managed to link the tablet to the large screen in the team room. It lit up to show the ‘bowl’ filled with burning corpses and liquid metal. The hole was covered over and smoking.

  “The hell?” Alexander remarked.

  Amber cut her eyes at Sheldon, “Last resort?”

  Sheldon nodded, “Looks like it. We need to get up there, this isn’t over yet.”

  “Orders?” Amber asked.

  “Nothing official. Could be the military forgot about us down here, Amber,” Sheldon remarked as he sifted email.

  Amber nodded. Staring off into space for a moment, she considered what would happen if the base was overrun. “We’ll use evac plan ‘Charlie.’ Assume the base is overrun and stay away from any exit near the bowl or Alpha through Delta Sections.”

  “Charlie? Is that the one where we crawl through the air ducts without shoes on at Christmas time?” Alexander asked.

  Nadya punched her sometime movie watching partner in the arm. “That was Die Hard. We just watched all twenty of those movies last week! She’s talking about the plan where we take the stairs, remember?”

  Alexander rubbed his arm and looked at her aghast. “Stairs? Why can’t we just use the elevator? I’ll shoot anyone or anything that tried to get on. There’s like fifteen flights of stairs over there.”

  “More like twenty, actually. Let’s get to climbing, we have Demons to kill,” Amber instructed as she opened the door wide and looked upward.

  “But the elevator is right there!” Alexander pointed toward the shiny silver-colored door.

  Amber looked at him shaking her head. “If the base above us is overrun, what will you do against all the Demons by yourself?”

  Alexander snorted. “I, at least, won’t be tired from climbing a million flights of stairs. We can handle whatever they throw at us. You trained the lot of us to be better and stronger than them. Trust me. It might be a gut level move, but I bet you we can get clear. Can we at least try?”

  Looking past him towards Sheldon, Amber grimaced. All the team members had pleading looks upon their faces. “If we die doing this, I’m coming back and killing you, understand?”

  “Great. I’ll even stand still so you can do it. Thank you, Amber.” Alexander bowed flaring his arms out like a showman.

  “I mean it,” Amber remarked. “Just to be safe we’ll get off on Level Four.”

  “Four?” Nadya asked as she stepped into the car.

  “Yes. There’s a backup command center we can use on Four. If comms are down internally, we should be able to patch into the hardline from there.” Amber explained as she stepped into the elevator.

  “Since when is there a backup command center?” Sheldon asked.

  “It’s always been there. Level Seven staff and above are informed about it and some of the other hidden parts of the base. It isn’t used by Military Command because the equipment is a bit old, but it’s my understanding it should still work,” Amber explained.

  Still holding his tablet, Sheldon called up a map of the base. “Where is it on here?”

  Staring at the map in Sheldon’s hands Amber remembered the briefing she was given by her predecessor.

  <<< >>>

  “The base was conceived as a gigantic helix rotating downward. It was one way to support the floors and provide just one more level of secrecy,” Commander Xavier Cedar had explained.

  “After the last invasion, the President tasked both the Pentagon and the Defense Oversight Committee with constructing a deterrent. If there is a repeat of 1945 and the Demons come, we needed to be able to push them back quickly. That was the biggest problem back then. No one was prepared for it. If the Guard hadn’t rallied, or the Weres joined the fight… You’ve heard the speculations. It would have been very nasty, regardless. There are eleven floors altogether here.”

  “Eleven?” Amber looked shocked. “The elevator only goes to ten.”

  Xavier nodded, “correct. Only the Joint Chiefs and the President himself know about Level Eleven.”

  Amber looked up at the commander, “Wow. What’s down there?”

  “The linchpin for the base. We were never supposed to fight this base,” Xavier remarked.

  “Not fight? Why would they build this then?” Amber waved at the ceiling above her.

  Xavier chuckled, “I said the same thing when they posted me here too. The original plan was to collapse the base, trapping the Demon Horde inside it. The military high command wanted to use destruction as a delaying tactic. Hold the Demons off until we can hit them Magickally. Or at least that’s the theory. Remember ARCANE evolved out of a group of Mages that fought the last war. They were heavily involved with building this place from the ground up.”

  “What does it do?” Amber asked.

  Xavier frowned, “What does what do?”

  “The linchpin. Is it an artifact of some kind?” Amber asked.

  “It might count as one now after all the power with which it's been imbued. Each month, the team’s lead Mages are to strengthen the spell holding the base together. The rituals and spellwork can be found in your commander’s wall safe. You and only you are to know the real purpose of the ritual. There are orders to this effect in the box as well, but if the base looks to be lost, you are instructed to go to Eleven and essentially pull the pin.” Xavier replied with a grimace on his face. “It’s a suicide mission. A noble purpose or some crap. Those who came before us had twisted senses of humor.”

  “That’s crazy! If there was even a single chance of getting out alive why wouldn’t a Mage take it? What happens to me if I refuse?” Amber asked.

  Xavier laughed, “I’m not a Mage, remember? I did ask that to my predecessor, who was one. In the 1970s, this very question came up. We’re volunteers. Why die? Their answer was to come up with an unofficial solution. There are two switches now. One drops the whole place as soon as you pull it and the other gives you exactly twenty minutes to get out. The kicker though is that you get to choose. If the base is overrun, waiting too long could doom California.”

  Amber winced. “Wonderful. Some kind of choice that is. Is that all that’s down there?”

  “That and some leftover construction equipment. I installed a gun rack and weapons stand just inside the door, but if you’re in that room making the last stand there is pointless. If it’s your time to choose, pull the right switch,” Xavier pointed out.

  Pursing her lips, Amber asked, “What about the military? What are their plans?”

  “I’m not really sure. Since the military doesn’t know about ours, we are forbidden from asking. I’ve always assumed it was nasty. Explosives are pretty much the only way to kill Demons after all,” Xavier explained.

  “So, if I choose the escape option I might die anyway trying to get out?” Amber asked.

  “Yup. A fun choice isn’t it? Don’t worry yourself about it. That time may never come in our lifetimes. Let me show you the rest of the base and some of the other secrets,” Xavier grabbed her arm and headed for the elevators.

  <<< >>>

  “Amber, where is it?” Sheldon asked again.

  Blinking, the team leader stared at him for a moment. The past is better off left in the past. “It’s in the cafe. I’ll show you when we get there.”

  Alexander pressed five on the panel in front of him. “Here we go.”

  The elevator gave a little shudder as it moved between floors. As systems go, this one was more than fifty years old. Each floor they passed chimed and said the level number. Something else held over from the 1950s. For science fiction fans, it was cool sounding.

  “Level Five, ladies underwear and stockings,” Alexander remarked as the door opened to darkness. “Powers down.”

  Sheldon tapped his ever-present tablet and shook his head. “There’s a short somewhere. They’ve been firing more guns at once than they ever have in practice. Something couldn’t hold the surge. Look for a fuse panel.”

  “Guns up and on your guard people.” Unslinging her AR15, the team leader, stepped into the dark hallway.

  Chapter 4

  “Milord, our gate in Sicily has been closed,” the Demon known as Dargun announced.

  Duke Harborym turned toward his legion commander and scowled, “How? There were three captains with two full legions guarding it.”

  Bowing before his lord, Dargun kept his eyes downward. “The humans were more resourceful than we anticipated. There were Mages involved as well.”

  The woman once known as Camilla Blackmore raised her head letting out an unearthly scream. Dogs began howling in response all over the city of Charleston. “Damn them. Did both of our legions make the transition here?”

  Dargun grimaced. “Only one. Captain Nuthon came across with his Imps and Cambions.”

  “It isn’t enough. Has Esta returned yet? We will need her skills once more,” the Demon Lord said.

  “Not yet, Milord. I will check the portal. There may be some time dilation on the other side. Is our bargain with the Dragon Empire necessary?” Dargun asked.

  Camilla Blackmore’s body’s eyes glowed a bright red suddenly when the Demon controlling it turned toward his servant. “You overstep yourself, Dargun. Remember that it was I that brought you out of darkness and pain. I can just as easily return you there!”

  Dargun dropped to his knees, prostrating as far as the borrowed body he resided in allowed. Autumn was a slim girl with long light brown hair and could bow quite low.

  “I should make you stay like the dog you are down there. Get up and find Esta. If we are to open the gate here, we will need more of our army to fight off the human response,” Duke Harborym gave Dargun a swift kick.

  “It will be done as you ask,” crawling on hands and knees, Dargun left the room. Being killed by his lord for stupid reasons wasn’t in his own personal plans.

  “Good help is hard to find,” Harborym commented to himself. Everything on Earth this time around so far had been a disappointment.

  The last Demon invasion of this world was conducted by one of the few remaining Princes of Hell. A German military dictator brought him into the plane of Earth by accident, and he tried to claim the world for his own. If not for the Magickal works of the humans, he might have succeeded. But they closed all the portals trapping him on Earth. A great spell by those humans calling themselves Russians took the Prince’s life along with all those he controlled.

  Haborym said a prayer to the spirits of Hell and to his new lord, the God Set. It was at the God’s suggestion that he crossed through the portal to negotiate more troops rather than send a minion. Of all the Dukes participating in the invasion, only he survived.

  Now Harborym was in charge, and things were going to be different. Even if he had to lay waste to this city and sacrifice every human within it, it would be different this time. Demon-kind would rule and use Charleston as a launching point for a massive invasion. No more would humans dominate them by raising just one or two low-level Demons. There was still the small matter of the Dragon Empire, but they were but animals, anyway.

  <<<>>>

  Esta Genovese was free. She was able to think freely for the first time in over a year thanks to entering the portal. It might have something to do with traveling between worlds or some part of the metaphysical that she was unaware of but it didn’t matter. The Book of Undying had finally loosened its control over her.

  Racking her brain, she tried to remember how she got into this situation. Esta recognized that betrayal and sheer ignorance was the cause of everything. As one of the founding members and a leader in her own right, Esta was very knowledgeable in her Craft. She was the one who verified the existence of the book.

  The Strega had been searching for a specific book for more than a century, just as the American Witches Council had been struggling to hide it. Created more than three hundred years before, the Book of Undying explained how to access all the hidden realms and use the power of Necromancy to control the dead. Less than ten copies existed in the world, and nine of those were accounted for. The tenth had mysteriously vanished in Haiti at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Rumors abounded about its existence. The fall of Germany and the start of the Demon War was blamed on the knowledge it contained.

  The Council believed that some types of Witch powers should be eliminated from all the gene pools. Necromancy was their number one target. The modern human culture was obsessed with the idea of Zombies, but the reality of it was much more horrific than TV. Certain spells could enable the user to control all the dead on the planet. No matter the age or cause of death. A Zombie apocalypse was a real possibility in the right hands armed with the correct powers. And the Strega believed they had found both.

  It was through the Egyptian God Set that the Strega found their first clue. He, in his divine wisdom, granted the Witches the powers of prophecy and insight. As their cult grew they devoted more and more energy into the worship of the dark God.

  Only a fool makes deals with the divine because the Gods are fickle and cruel. But the Strega leaders believed their patron when he spoke to them of power and glory. Negotiations were made with mysterious third parties, and it was the Dragon Empire that supplied the last true copy of the book.

  But Esta underestimated the power contained within it and the motives of both the God and Dragons. The old joke to be wary of dragons held true to even what looked like a good deal. There was a triple-cross in the making, and it was the Strega who were the ultimate losers.

  A deal was made, and a ritual prepared. Like before, instead of a minor Demon lord being raised, they received a duke. And Duke Harborym brought his army with him. Only Esta was spared a horrible death at the hands of evil. Set looked upon the chaos and smiled. His job of creating turmoil was complete, as was a long-term plan of domination.

  It was through his manipulations that a Magickal host was acquired for the Demon Duke. A Witch who was at odds with her family over the rights and usage of power. She was easily manipulated to alienate her closest family and turn against those who could’ve helped save her. Deeply hidden inside her genetics was the ability needed to raise the dead and power the spells from the Book of Undying. Tricking Camilla Blackmore was Set’s goal, and he succeeded. The Strega was just icing on the cake.

  Esta was spared death. The Book possessed her mind the moment she opened it. Her usefulness was guaranteed to the Demonic Horde. It was something they counted on, actually.

 

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