In shock from the grievous wound, the creature shook violently, but stayed where it lay. Thick black blood spewed from its ravaged shoulder and ran down the street like a gory river. Satisfied it was out of the fight, I turned my attention to the fiend I’d stunned earlier. It had just begun to gather it senses and pull itself to its feet. That was unacceptable. I ran over to it, swinging the severed arm over my head. The fiend looked up just in time to see my weapon of choice. It cringed as the arm crashed into its skull. With a meaty thud, they collided, driving the fiend back to the ground. I discarded the arm, a surprisingly less effective weapon than one would think, and decided to go about this the old-fashioned way; pure and brutal ground and pound. Not giving the fiend the chance to defend itself, I pressed down on the back of its head and drove my knee into its face. The impact smashed its jaw, teeth exploding from its mouth. I felt it go limp, but I didn’t stop. Over and over again, I rammed my knee upward until the fiend’s face was nothing more than a seeping puddle that dribbled down its chest in shades of reeking red and black.
Splattered in blood, my own and my enemies’, I spun about to face the last of the attacking fiends. I was surprised to find only Veronica there, staring at me through a mask of cuts and bruises. She wobbled on her feet.
“Where is it?” I shouted, spinning around in a circle to find the missing creature. Veronica said nothing. She looked ready to pass out. Unable to find it, I turned back to her, my rage subsiding. Fueled by the blood of Lucifer, my senses heightened, I saw her shiver despite my being thirty feet away. She didn’t look too good. Her stomach and thighs had been raked apart, leaving behind bubbling wounds from which flaps of flesh and clothing hung in strands. One of her arms lay limp at her side, trails of crimson running down its length, dripping from her fingers. Her face had been brutalized, even beyond what I’d done to her earlier, making it almost unrecognizable. My heart sank as she limped forward. I knew she didn’t have much time, her breath heavy in her lungs. I snatched up my gun and raced to her side, scooping her up into my arms as gently as I could. I whispered sugared apologies to her as I took off full out down the street, trying my hardest not to jounce her about too much. After only a few blocks, her whimpered cries piercing my heart at every painful jolt, I came across what I needed.
At a stop light sat a beat up Chevy Impala, its muffler spewing black smoke, its sub-woofers rattling the trunk. I saw the driver slouched in his seat, bouncing his head in rhythm to the music, his arm hanging out the open window, oblivious to the world around him. I ran up alongside the Chevy, shifted Veronica so I had a free arm, and reached into it, putting the car into park. The banger inside stared at me with wide eyes, at least as wide as the bandanna on his forehead allowed, while I yanked the door open.
“This is what you get for not locking your door,”
I told him as I snatched him out and shoved him down onto the street, away from the car. He tumbled back, uncertain of how to react. I’d caught him off guard.
“And wear your seat belt next time.” I wasn’t in the mood to be witty.
I eased Veronica inside, from the driver’s side, and slid in after her. I slammed the door shut just as the owner found his courage. He stepped up to the window shouting obscenities in Spanish, calling me out as he reached for the handle. Not interested in playing, I pointed my. 45 at him. He took a quick step back, his arms raised in surrender. Like most wannabes, his courage fled once faced with the barrel of a gun. With no time to waste, I gunned the Impala and shot off down the road, leaving the vato in the dust. I saw him in the rearview mirror, jumping up and down, shouting. He’d found his eggs again.
Unconcerned with his antics, I was in a race for Veronica’s life. I had to save her, especially if there was to be any chance of my having sex before Asmoday brought about the end of the world.
I didn’t want to die horny.
The Precipice
Back at my house, I screeched to a stop in the driveway. I hopped out of the appropriated Impala and raced to the passenger side to collect Veronica. Even in the short drive, she had paled a good deal. She was slumped down in the seat, lethargic. The blood loss had taken its toll, the seat beneath soaked in dark fluid. I pulled her out of the car and rushed to the front door. I fumbled in my pocket for my keys and after a heart-pounding moment where I’d believed them lost, I fished them out. I got the door open, calling out the password that would shut down the defensive wards in an emergency, and ran inside toward the bedroom. Unceremoniously, I dropped her on the bed and tore into the hidden stash of Lucifer’s blood. I yanked a vial free of the pack, and popped it open, leaving the rest on the floor. I knelt beside Veronica and fed her a couple drops of the blood, urging her to swallow. When she did, albeit weekly, I leaned back against the headboard loosing a sigh, having done all I could. From then on, it was all in the hands of my uncle. Well, it was all up to his blood, at least.
As I watched over Veronica, her eyes fluttering behind their closed lids, I tried to catch my breath. The rush I’d felt earlier was wearing off fast, exhaustion welling up to take its place. Like a thick, gray cloud of smog, I felt it coming on, choking my senses. I sealed the vial and stuffed it out of sight between the pillow and mattress as I fought to keep my eyes open. The frantic voice ringing about inside my head helped.
“Are you there, Frank?”
Good old Rachelle. “I’m here.” I kept my voice low.
“What happened? Were you attacked?”
I nodded, then remembered she couldn’t see me.
“Yeah, we were. It seems Asmoday got the bulk rate on those Dread Fiends of his. We had four of them pop up. I managed to take out three, but one got away.” I glanced over at Veronica. She twitched gently, squirming on the bed with her eyes closed, her face flush with color. I could see her wounds knitting themselves together, the skin bubbling and inching closed. I felt the weight of my conscience lifting itself from my shoulders. I really didn’t want to be responsible for her death, my earlier testosterone-fueled anger a distant memory. I still cared too damn much.
“I’m glad you’re all right, but I’m afraid there’s more.”
Not surprised, I shook my head. “What now?”
“The Dread Fiends were nothing more than a distraction.”
“From what?” My heart started to pound. If the fiends weren’t the worst of it, I was hesitant to know Page 191 what was.
“While we were busy with Asmoday’s pets, he was performing yet another ritual to draw power from the Demonarch.”
I thought about that for a second, the words chilling, but yet they felt empty. There was something missing in the equation. “Well, we’re all still here. The world isn’t a flaming ball of smoking ash, so what happened?”
“I’m not exactly sure. With my focus drawn to the fiends, I failed to notice the dead zone that cropped up until the ritual was already complete.” Her voice drifted off, coming back strong. “There was something different about it this time though, Frank. The footprint seems much smaller than it did at the last two locations, the scarring less drastic. I don’t sense the same kind of damage to the dimensional wall, although there is some. It just doesn’t seem like the same level of event.”