Shaded Vision: An Otherworld Novel

  Vanzir and Rodney began to back up as a noise came through the portal—it was the sound of trumpets thundering, of crackling fire and the screams of the damned.

  “A Demon Gate. Telazhar created a Demon Gate!” Morio looked petrified. “What the fuck—”

  Camille was nursing her wrist as she staggered to her feet. A nasty lump on her forehead was going to hurt a hell of a lot worse later on. She heard Morio and, before I could stop her, was racing headlong toward Telazhar.

  Morio staggered after her, and I gave chase after him.

  Vanzir glanced at them, then moved in again on the other side of the necromancer while Rodney tackled the last Tregart. The bone golem grabbed the demon’s balls and twisted, hard enough to rip them off. A sharp scream echoed through the room and the demon fell to the ground, blood saturating his pants.

  I caught up with Morio and pushed him aside, then reached out and yanked Camille back. As she fought me, I pushed her together with Morio. “If you have any magic left, now’s the time to bring it on!”

  A clap of thunder and the room filled with mist, pouring out from the Demon Gate. Trytian was suddenly beside me. He grabbed my arm and yanked.

  “Get the fuck away—you do not want to be in the way when the guest of honor comes through.” He dragged me out of the way as a hooved foot stepped out from the gate. I caught my breath. Not Shadow Wing—please, don’t let it be Shadow Wing!

  Newkirk lunged forward, blood pouring down his head. One eye was hanging by the optic nerve, dangling on the side of his face. He was clutching at his chest—holding the spirit seal. A flicker of light shone from it as it began to reverberate, and Newkirk dropped his head back and let out a crazy laugh.

  The figure emerging from the Demon’s Gate was a reptilian creature; he was nine feet tall and looked a little like one of the Sleestaks from Land of the Lost, but his head was sporting a lovely do of weaving tentacles that draped down his back like crazy dreadlocks. His eyes were flat and black, if it was a he. It was rather hard to tell. I thought I saw a penis, but I wasn’t looking all that hard. My attention was focused on the razor-sharp teeth and the claws that passed for fingernails. He was a dirty olive green, and his gaze darted this way and that.

  Four shadows followed him out of the gate, and I groaned as pictures began to fly off the walls and spin through the air. Morio yelped and ducked as a chair went over his head all by itself.

  Next to me, Trytian let out a sharp gasp. “Gulakah! Motherfucking son of a bitch, that’s Gulakah, the Lord of Ghosts! Get the fuck out of here or we are dead.” He motioned toward his bloatworgle lackeys. “Get the seal! Now!”

  Oh hell! Trytian was making a play for the spirit seal. I barreled headlong toward Newkirk, dodging the creatures. I was faster than they were, and as I pulled up in front of the Koyanni, a light shot out of the spirit seal, hitting me like a fist in my stomach. I lurched, falling across the nearest table. The daemons were hot on my heels, but they, too, ended up sprawling on the floor. Smoky and Shade were coming in from two different angles, but then Gulakah was suddenly in front of the Koyanni, moving in a blur. As the ghosts following him entangled the dragons, Gulakah gutted Newkirk with one hand while with the other he ripped the spirit seal from his neck.

  “No!” Menolly raced forward, but Trytian tripped her as she went by, turning to the Lord of Angry Ghosts in her place. He tried to snatch the spirit seal out of Gulakah’s hands, but one of the ghosts rushed through him and the daemon went sailing back across the club, landing in a heap against the wall.

  Camille let loose a ball of energy and it landed square on the demon general but bounced off and managed to take out one of the ghosts. Gulakah snaked his neck around to stare at her and, with a whimper, she scrambled back, turning to race for cover. In the next moment a black slither of energy came sailing out of one of the moving tentacles that he called hair, and it hit her in the back, sending her sprawling. She screamed, so loud I thought she was dying, and Smoky and Morio flew to her side.

  Menolly and Roz were side by side, and they both threw ice bombs at the demon general at the same time, but they just exploded and shattered another one of his ghosts.

  Telazhar was heading toward the Demon Gate, and Gulakah, spirit seal in hand, followed him.

  “No—you can’t take that!” I leaped forward, but the next moment, the two vanished through the gate, and the gate disappeared. They were gone, and so was the spirit seal.

  “Fuck. We were right. Telazhar was working with Shadow Wing all along, and now he’s helping Gulakah. They took the spirit seal. Shadow Wing has two now…no…” I could only whisper as the shambles around us began to come into focus.

  “Camille needs help! Delilah, get over here.” Smoky sounded frantic.

  I crawled over to her side. Something black and leechlike was affixed to her back. It had eaten through the cloth. “Motherfucking…what is that?”

  Trytian stomped over. “Good going. Now neither of us has the seal.”

  “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Do you know what the hell is attached to Camille?” I shoved him in front of me. “Because if you do, fix it.”

  He gave me a long, cold look but turned back to her. “Devil leech. You need to freeze it off her. And I’d do so soon, or it will burrow through the flesh and take hold of her heart, and then she’ll belong to the enemy.” And with that, he motioned to his henchmen and they strode out of the club.

  We sat there, in the midst of absolute carnage, as Smoky sent a blast of freezing cold over Camille’s back. The leech let go and fell off, and Camille groaned. She rolled over and slowly sat up, looking as bruised as I felt. We’d all been slammed around, including Menolly.

  “Well…” The sudden silence was deafening and I felt like somebody had to say something. “What do we do now?”

  “I’m not sure,” Shade said, “but whatever it is, I don’t want to make the decision from here in this club. At least Newkirk is dead, and Van and Jaycee.”

  “Yeah,” I whispered. “But at what cost?”

  Camille rose, unsteady on her feet. “If that…thing…that was on my back is any indication of Gulakah’s powers, then he scares the crap out of me. Because I could feel it worming its way into my heart…like it was planting seeds of evil within me. When it died, they died, but if you’d been much longer, I would have been fighting for Shadow Wing.”

  “That’s worse than the Karsetii demon. Instead of draining your powers, it turns you. And it came out of one of those tentacle-snakelike things on his head.” I turned to Shade. “Do you think he’s gone back to the Sub-Realms?”

  “Probably to deliver the spirit seal, but he’ll be back. I guarantee it. We lost this round. Shadow Wing isn’t going to let that go unnoticed.”

  Smoky shook his head. “No, he won’t. And Shade is right. You can be sure that Gulakah will return. And Telazhar with him. They are working in concert, that much has become obvious.” He glanced around. “Where’d that punk Trytian go?”

  “Back to the Demon Underground, probably to let his father know what happened. I think…as much as I hate to say it…we’re going to have to contact him and work out some sort of long-term alliance. His army’s been decimated since he killed off most of the Tregarts who were following him, but we can’t count Trytian out.” Camille stretched, wincing. “What about the women in back?”

  “We told them to stay put…bunch of Weres who’d been kidnapped. I think it’s time we tore this place apart. We need to find their armory and confiscate everything we can. Then we need to level the wall down below and close this place down for good.”

  “Blow it up? The building’s empty except for the bar. There have been a number of explosions here tonight. We can pin it all on Van, and Chase can announce that the mad bomber was caught and killed.” I looked around, wondering just what had gone down in this club over the past few months.

  “Sounds good to me.” Menolly glanced at Smoky. “You and Shade willing to rattle the rafters?
”

  “Oh, let me,” Vanzir said, with a sly grin.

  “You? You have dynamite or something?” I stared at his eyes. They whirled as usual, a pool of unnamable colors, but there was something behind them—something new.

  He shook his head. “Don’t need it. Trust me.”

  We got the women out, calling Sharah to come pick them up and check them out. She also took the body from the tunnels and I gave her the girl’s wallet and belongings. Sharah promised to notify Clarah’s family.

  After busting out several walls, we found a stash of weapons, including a number of magical stun guns. We cleared the bar, including some of the better-quality booze, and stepped outside. Vanzir stood in the archway to the entrance. He held his hands up to the sky and let his head drop back, staring at the ceiling. There was a creak, then a groan, and then a shift. After a moment, the concrete walls began to buckle. The ceiling wavered, and with a shriek, the metal struts gave way and bent, breaking through the cement.

  Vanzir was sweating, his face set in a horrible pain-racked visage. He took one last deep breath and then, as he exhaled, the club began to crumble, imploding in on itself, screaming girders and all. As the thunderous sound of falling concrete filled the air, Vanzir stumbled back and Smoky caught him before he fell. We watched as the club slowly disintegrated before our eyes, and then…it was gone in a cloud of roiling dust.

  Chapter 23

  We phoned Chase, asking him to meet us at the FH-CSI. Everybody needed to be looked over. As we straggled in, bedraggled and bruised—except for Smoky, who was clean as fresh snow, of course—Chase stood, his mouth agape.

  “What the hell happened to you?”

  “Don’t ask. But the explosions should stop, at least all of the ones as of late. Menolly was almost staked, Camille’s got more bruises than a prizefighter, and I think I might have sprained my ribs again. I also think I bruised my tailbone when I was slammed against the wall.” I looked at the others. We still hadn’t asked Vanzir about what the hell he’d been able to do. Obviously, he had some new sort of power but how, and from who?

  Morio rubbed his neck. “Look me over, too—check out my injury. I think I’m okay, but I got banged up pretty bad.”

  Sharah nodded. “What about the rest of you? I doubt if I have to ask Smoky and Shade. What about you, Roz? Vanzir? Shamas?”

  They shook their heads, mostly just dirty and bloody.

  “We’ll wait in the waiting room,” Shade said. Sharah took Camille, Morio, and me back to the exam rooms. None of us were in need of hospitalization, but Sharah spread salves and lotions where we needed them, and she made sure there weren’t any lingering tendrils from the devil leech. After twenty minutes, we were pronounced fit to go home.

  Chase was waiting with the guys. Roz was gone. He’d left for home to make sure there were enough people guarding the house. We gathered in the conference room and examined everything that had gone down.

  “Jaycee and Van are out of the picture. Dead and gone. Most of the Tregarts are gone, too. Newkirk, dead. The Koyanni will be on the run, now that their new fair leader’s dead. They aren’t very effective without a good leader, and I have the feeling, having lost their Wolf Briar contacts, they won’t be showing their heads much around the area. Of course, that’s what I said the last time.” I ticked off notes on a steno pad.

  “The Energy Exchange is gone, and Vanzir trashed the place.” Camille turned to him. “And just how the hell did you do that? You were stripped of your powers.”

  He ducked his head. “The Triple Threat…when Camille was in the Northlands with Iris, they began taking me through a series of rituals. I didn’t know why, but Grandmother Coyote told me that I needed to cooperate. When one of the Hags of Fate gives you a direct order…” He stopped. Nobody questioned that little piece of news. We all jumped when Grandmother Coyote said jump.

  “What did they do during the rituals?” I started to asked, but Camille stopped me.

  “He can’t tell you.” She gave Vanzir a long look. “Rituals are private affairs, just like my initiation was. I knew you were studying with the Triple Threat, but I wasn’t sure why. We won’t ask how or why—not right now…but if you have other powers, you better tell us if you can. If you know.”

  They locked gazes, and then, with a glance at Smoky, Vanzir gave a half shrug. “I feel like some of my prior powers are coming back, but they feel…different. I don’t feel pushed to feed on anybody now, but I feel like I could reach out and…I don’t know just yet. Like tonight, I knew that I could bring the club down. I still don’t understand how I did it, but I felt like I could reach out, take hold of the atoms making up the walls, and shake them into falling apart.”

  “Very well,” Smoky said. “But you keep us informed.” He and Vanzir were on speaking terms again, but I had the feeling Smoky still didn’t trust him.

  Vanzir nodded. “Save your huff and puff. I promise. I’ll tell you when I sense something new.” He slid back in his chair, examining his fingernails.

  “And now, for the elephant in the room.” I tossed the pencil onto the table. “We have a new demon general to deal with. He managed to steal one of the spirit seals. We all know he isn’t going to stay back in the Sub-Realms. He struck a blow for Shadow Wing here, and he’s going to be shipped right back here to wreak more havoc. And Gulakah…there’s no way we can take him down easy, especially when he combines his powers with Telazhar.”

  Menolly floated down from the ceiling. “He’s the Lord of Ghosts. We’re going to have a long haul getting rid of him. Not to mention the freak-show cavalcade of spirits he’ll bring with him. Those motherfucking ghosts he trotted out tonight were probably the mere bullies of the party. I can’t wait to see him call up the big boys.”

  I rubbed my temples. I had a raging headache. “There’s nothing we can do about that right now. We have to be satisfied with the fact that we took down Van and his cronies.”

  Yugi knocked at the door, then peeked in.

  Chase motioned him in. “What is it, Yugi?”

  “Gambit is dead.” Yugi glanced over at us, looking grim.

  “What the fuck happened?” Chase jumped up. “We had him in custody—he was going to stand trial and we were going to put him away.”

  Yugi placed a series of photos on the table. “Here—these are printouts caught by the security camera. This man just…showed up in the cell block. We have wards down there to prevent magic, but somehow he got in. The next shots show him in Gambit’s cell—with it still locked—and then, a blur, and then—Gambit’s dead and the man’s gone.”

  We glanced at the pictures. Trytian.

  “Fuck—how did he get past your wards?” I slammed my hand on the table. “I’m not sorry that Gambit’s dead, but what’s this going to do to the hate groups? They’ll martyr him.”

  “No, I don’t think they will,” Chase said. He handed me the evening edition of the Seattle News. The front-page headline read, Three More Women Report Gambit Raped Them.

  “So, he really was a serial rapist?” I flipped open the paper. Sure enough, apparently three more women had come to the headquarters during the evening to swear out complaints, stating that Gambit had raped them, too. The Seattle Tattler had withdrawn its support of him, basically throwing him to the wolves.

  And Trytian…had shown up and killed him.

  “There’s no way to bring him in,” I told Chase. “We can’t arrest a daemon—he’d be out of here so fast that…”

  “Yeah, I know. I’ll swear out an arrest warrant on John Doe, but this is one case that will remain unsolved. Once the DNA comes back—providing it proves it was him—the public isn’t going to mourn Gambit’s death. Good riddance, even though I can’t say so in public. At least not until I have the DNA proof in my hands.” He paused. “So, where does that leave us?”

  I just wanted to go home and go to sleep. The past few days had been brutal, and we’d lost a hell of a lot. But we’d also gained allies, and support.
And we’d taken out some of the bad guys. And maybe, just maybe, we’d started a movement to squelch the hate crimes that had been building in the city.

  Camille laughed. “It leaves us…well…we prepare for the return of Gulakah and Telazhar. With Gulakah being the Lord of Ghosts, and Telazhar being an ancient necromancer, they’re well suited to work together. So…what next?”

  I shook off the bone-weariness that had settled in my body. “I supposed…we tell Queen Asteria we lost another spirit seal. We see about getting Wilbur out of the hospital so we can give Martin back to him. We build an alliance with Trytian. We tear down that wall below what remains of the Energy Exchange. We help Marion rebuild her café and help her and Douglas find a new house. Just a simple morning’s work.”

  Snorting, I stood. “At least we got Van and Jaycee off the streets, out of the picture. No more Wolf Briar, at least for now. And Zach…” I told them about Zachary, as hard as it was. “He’s gone out of our lives for good, I think. But it’s his path. It’s what he needs to do. He’s running through the hills of Otherworld by now, free and healed.”

  After a pause, where we all stared at the table, Shade grabbed my hand. “Before we take off for the night, there’s one more thing we have to address.”

  I looked at him, unable to think straight. “If there’s anything else, I’ve lost track of it.”

  “Delilah has conveniently forgotten that I asked her to marry me. And she said yes. Well, she said yes to someday becoming my wife.” He grinned, and as Camille and Menolly clapped, I blushed. While everyone was talking at once, I moved over to the window, staring out on the squad room. Chase joined me.

  “Delilah,” he said softly. “I want you to know…I’m happy for you. Truly.” He offered me his hand and I took it, squeezing his fingers.

  “Thank you. I’m content. It’s right. Shade and I…we fit together. We’re a match, in a fashion I never knew I could have.”

  “I know you are. I can see it. I have some news of my own.”

  “About your family tree?”