“You’re fucking kidding me, right?” Ruiz asked the universe.
Then the first wave was upon them. The fact that they had to scramble around the crates made it so they all couldn’t attack at once. But the SEALs were in the thick of it. They dispatched the first four opponents without much thought. But more came on, and more after that. Fighting back to back, the SEALs’ only hope came from the fact that their opponents were completely untrained and simply threw themselves in their direction. One after the other after the other, they attacked and died, until the pile of bodies was higher than a man’s height.
For a moment, Walker thought they might be safer behind the wall of the dead, then he realized that now their opponents could jump on top of them. The other SEALs seemed to realize the same thing at the same time. They climbed on the crates they’d just evacuated, and Holmes and Ruiz got stabbed for their efforts.
Suddenly Chi Long was back. The spikes remained in his chest. He seemed weaker, but he still had command of his people. He shouted and they stilled, all eyes going to him.
Walker felt the power descend on him once more. He felt his loss of control and the power of another take him over. He turned and raised his knife. Facing Holmes, all he had to do was jam the knife into the man’s back and he would be irrevocably removed from the living. Walker took a step forward, then was launched sideways as a weight struck him. He fell hard to the ground, hard enough to lose the air in his chest and the knife from his hand. A growl erupted from the creature that had attacked him, but the growl wasn’t for him. Hoover! The dog launched herself at the demon, ripping with her teeth and shaking her head.
The demon howled and made a swipe at the dog with a taloned hand. It caught Hoover on the front leg. Blood spurted as flesh parted. The dog howled miserably, but hung on, even as the demon clawed at her again and again and again.
Holmes and Ruiz saw their chance. They leaped on the demon, grabbed the spikes, and jammed them over and over into any unprotected part of Chi Long they could find. He toppled onto his back, trying to defend himself against the naked fury of the SEALs.
Walker clawed his way to his feet and atop the fallen demon. He grabbed frantically at the creature’s hands and torso, but he felt nothing. He didn’t see any rings, nor did he see any bracelets. He had no necklace, no crown, nothing. So what was the focus?
With a roar, the demon surged to a standing position, throwing Holmes aside like a doll. Walker fell hard to the ground. Ruiz wasn’t so lucky. Chi Long gripped him in two hands and viciously snapped his back, then hammered him into the ground over and over, screaming in frustration and rage.
It dropped Ruiz’s body and turned toward Holmes; then a long qilin spike pierced the back of its head, the point coming through his left eye. Yaya! For that instant, the figure of Chi Long disappeared, replaced by that of a dumpy man in a tattooed skin suit. Anger laced his chubby face and bile flew from mad lips.
And a necklace encircled his neck.
Then he was once again Chi Long as he reached behind and pulled the spike free.
But that one glimpse had been enough to give the SEALs the direction they needed.
Holmes leaped onto the chest of the demon and clawed his way upward so that he could grab at the neck. His fingers searched for the necklace, but he couldn’t find it. His hands scrabbled against the chitinous armor as Chi Long roared. The monster grabbed Holmes and threw him a dozen yards, where he fell, arms akimbo.
Walker leaped atop Chi Long’s back. While one arm wrapped around the monster’s neck, the other reached down and tried to find the necklace. Chi Long spun, reaching up and trying to dislodge the SEAL. But Walker had a death grip on Chi Long’s neck, and used it to hold on, even as Chi Long spun again. Suddenly Walker’s searching hand experienced the pins and needles he associated with magic. He concentrated, moved his hand several inches to the left, then wrapped his hand around something that burned with energy. He pulled, but felt resistance. He pulled harder, as he slid from the monster’s back to the front. Now using both hands, he pushed both feet against the monster and heaved backwards, using his legs to push with every bit of his strength.
The monster grabbed him by the neck and squeezed. Chi Long’s strength was staggering. Walker felt impossible pressure against his windpipe. It took all of his concentration to keep his hands on the necklace and not to try and pry the monster’s hands away. Blackness began to invade his vision. Then—
Snap!
The necklace came free.
Suddenly he was falling.
As he hit the ground, he saw the demon replaced by a man—Saw Thuza Tun. The Karen man had started to shout something when one last spike pierced the back of his head and came out of his mouth. As he fell forward, Yaya stood behind him, grim determination and fury plastered on his blood-smeared face. Saw Thuza Tun was now merely human, and the spike’s effect was permanent.
Walker stared at the necklace in his hands. Made of jade beads, it had five jade “fingers,” carved like those of a person. Was this it? Was this the focus? He had an insane desire to wear the necklace. He felt his hands coming toward his own neck. He had no control. He could be powerful. He could rule the earth. But Yaya ran forward and knocked it from his grip. The necklace flew free and as it did so, Walker lost the urge to wear it.
He turned, ready to defend himself against the hordes, only to find them now milling around in stunned confusion, once again themselves, trying to make their way through an imperfect world. Then he remembered.
“Holmes, we gotta go. Bombers are on their way.”
The SEAL team leader looked around. He spied Ruiz’s broken body and hauled it over his shoulder. “To the water,” he yelled.
They ran, climbing over bodies, pushing past the stunned Karen. They needed to make the beach and, with it, possible safety.
“Where’s the necklace?” Laws asked.
Before Walker could answer, a cry went up behind him. He turned to see a young man standing on top of a crate, holding the necklace high into the air.
“Oh, hell,” he said.
But he needn’t have worried.
The young man put on the necklace and for a single instant was Chi Long. But the power of the demon was too much for his frail human body. It burned to ash in an instant, the necklace falling to the wood of the crate. No sooner had it landed than it was taken up again. And again. And again. As each Karen wore it, he burst into flame and died.
Laws pulled Walker away. “Come on—hurry.”
Walker ran. His jerking fingers managed to switch on the radio.
“SEALs to the water,” Holmes screamed as the sound of jets rent the morning.
The Tornadoes flew in formation out of the west.
The SEALs hit the water and swam furiously.
Laws spied more than a dozen skiffs tied along the water’s edge and swam to one. He climbed in, shoved the fishing poles out, and got the outboard started on the second try. He revved the engine, then took off toward the SEALs in the water. He dropped the mooring rope off the left side so his teammates could grab on—first Yaya with Hoover in tow, then Walker, then Holmes, who was holding tightly on to Ruiz’s body. They made it perhaps a hundred meters away from shore before the land burned black of Kadwan erupted in a ball of effervescent destruction as one bomb after another ate away at those beings who would be demon until there was nothing left except the memory of a tattooed skin man who would be king.
Epilogue
Walker stood in front of his mirror, examining all his new scars. His actions during the final battle had scared him. The demon had demonstrated a power over him it hadn’t had over the others. Did that mean that there was some piece of the grave demon left within him? Was there a part of his soul that had been ruined and would remain forever stained because of it? If so, how much of a liability was he going to be to his team? Then again, if not for him, they never would have been able to stop Chi Long.