K Stewart - A Shot in the Dark

Furry Yeti’s head tossed in agitation while Human Yeti’s image remained calm, cool, and collected. “You should not be here. You violate your own laws.”

The blond demon snorted again, and I swear I saw the real Yeti flinch. “There is no law that says I cannot try to collect a soul, especially one I’ve had a claim on for years. Check the ledgers, you’ll see my mark.”

I gave Axel a “what the fuck?” look, but he refused to take his eyes off the other demon.

“Yes… the Architect’s little pet.” The Yeti was not happy. The man in the gray suit frowned, jaw clenching, and overlaid on that image, the big hairball’s muzzle wrinkled, his claws digging furrows into the forest floor. “A mark unclaimed is a mark unclaimed. Your presence here exerts undue influence-”

“YOU DARE?!” That hurt, and out of the corner of my eye I caught Cam clamping his hands down over his own ears too. Damn, Axel had some lungs on him. “You DARE question ME?”

And it wasn’t just us. I swear, the Yeti about wet himself. He looked just like Duke making a puddle on the floor. It’s kinda hard to be scared of something that looks like a spanked puppy. “The laws.. .”

“I know the laws! Did I not write them? Shall we really start tallying up just who has violated what?” Axel moved down to the very last step, as far as he could go without touching the ground. “Do you really want that eye focused on you?”

I’ve heard of the power of personality, but I don’t think that I truly appreciated what that meant until I watched Axel back the Yeti down with nothing more than a stern glare and a few cold words. Even without his gaze fixed on me, part of me wanted to go slinking back inside too, and I’d taken two steps before I caught myself.

“You are sworn to be neutral.” Even cringing and all but melting under Axel’s gaze, the Yeti had enough spine to try to resist. “Remove yourself.”

“YOU WILL NOT COMMAND ME!” Leaves fell from the trees; rocks clattered down the hillside behind us. Axel’s voice reverberated for what seemed like forever. “MY WILL IS LAW!”

I don’t know what he did. He flung his hand out, a casual gesture, and there was a flash of light, brighter than the sun. When I finished blinking the after images out of my eyes, the Yeti was gone. After a few moments Axel’s shoulders relaxed, and he dropped his hand to his side. “Well. That’s that, then.” He shook his head, frowning at something, and finally said, “Well, shit.”

There wasn’t enough time in the world to formulate all the questions I wanted to ask. Geez, where would I even start? Architect? Laws? What? I finally settled for, “What the hell is going on, Axel?”

He looked at me like he’d just remembered my existence, and shook his head, the sun glinting off his piercings. His injuries were gone, I noticed in a distracted way. Too tough to keep him down for long, apparently. “There’s no time, not today. He won’t stay gone forever; he’s grown too strong for that. You need to listen to me, because I can only say these things once, and then… I most likely won’t be back for a while.”

When he put it that way… I just nodded.

“The creatures out there aren’t gone. They’re his. I don’t have the power to command them. Without him here to direct them, they’ll be feral, rabid. He’s starved them, so they’ll be very hungry.” Axel spoke quickly, an urgency in his (my) voice that I hadn’t heard before. “Your Yeti will be back as soon as he can marshal his strength. You need to go now, or you won’t leave here alive. I can’t protect you anymore.”

So many things to ask, “Why?” being only the first in a very long list. And there was no time.

“I feel weird saying this, but… be careful, okay?” He’d helped, okay? For his own reasons, yes, but he’d helped. A little. Don’t judge me.

Axel paused a moment, then smiled, and I could almost believe it was sincere. “Thanks.” A whiff of sulfur and he was gone. I knew he wouldn’t be back. Not until this was over.

I shook my head when Cameron tried to speak. “No time. Grab your shit. We’re outta here.”

Somehow, now that Axel was gone, I felt like a real little worm on a big damn hook.

“I think there better be time, Jess.” I’d fully expected the guys to jump when I said jump, but instead they faced me in a semicircle, Marty’s dark brows drawn together in the deepest frown I’d ever seen on him. “Who the hell was that? Don’t give us shit about him being a coworker. I think that ship has sailed.”

Oh yeah. I’d been hoping they’d miss that part. “I don’t know his name. I call him Axel. He’s a demon.”

“You knew that. You knew that, and you let him around our families. Our kids.”

“He’s…” Harmless? Not dangerous? Like Marty had said, I thought that ship had sailed. “Can we do this later? We need to get the hell out of here.”

“Why are we leaving at all? Isn’t his magic protecting us?” Oscar pointed at Cameron, and the priest shook his head.

“It isn’t magic, it’s faith. God has chosen us to-”

“Look! We seriously don’t have time for a lesson in semantics!” Even Duke flinched when I raised my voice. “First, Cam, you can call it whatever the hell you want, but my wife can do all that you just did, and she doesn’t even believe in your god. In fact, I’m pretty sure your god and her goddess aren’t even on speaking terms. So chew on that before you start spouting off about being the ‘chosen of God.’

“Second! The wards here are blown. The consecration is gone, and Cam can’t even keep Axel out, so we need to go and we need to go now. If anyone wants to further discuss this, submit it to the committee and I will have an answer for you in six to eight weeks. Provided that we live! Now move your asses!”

I didn’t have to tell them twice. Well, technically, yeah, I did, but there wasn’t a third time. We grabbed everything that remotely resembled a weapon, shrugged into our backpacks, and were out the door in five minutes.

I gotta say, I was impressed with every single person there. I mean, we were voluntarily leaving a semi-secured position, to take a stroll through woods teeming with pseudozombies. I guess bravery is really just the ability to shout louder than the little voice in your head that screams, “Run, stupid!”

Marty, ankle wrapped so he could walk on it, tied Duke’s lead around his waist to keep his hands free, and we walked in tight formation, keeping Zane in the middle. I’ll give the kid credit. As sick as he was getting, he kept up, marching out of the clearing in grim silence. I hoped he’d make it at least to the truck, ’cause there was no way in hell we’d be able to carry him and fight at the same time.

Cole took point with what few bullets he had left. Being right-handed, I stayed on the right side, scanning the trees as we walked. Marty and Duke had our left flank, and Cam stumbled along at the rear (more to keep an eye on me than anything, I suspected). Oscar was armed with the one and only hatchet we had, and he and Will walked on either side of Zane.

Without Duke, we’d have been toast in the first rush.

Barely ten yards into the trees, they dropped down on us from the branches above, and the only reason we had any warning was Duke’s raging bellow. In fact, the big dog yanked Marty right off his feet, lunging at the nearest threat.

The creature on that side-the handless female, I realized, which meant she’d fled the roof last night instead of being slaughtered with the rest of her kind-hit the ground on all fours and immediately sprang back into the brush, vanishing from sight. Duke, roaring like a grizzly bear, did his damnedest to drag Marty with him, chasing after it.