The 13th Demon (Demon's Grail) Read online

  “So they're not dangerous yet?”

  “Of course they are, but this might be our only chance to stop them. If we wait, they'll get stronger and then they'll sweep every other life-form away.”

  “Now you're starting to understand,” Grimmholm says as he shuffles back over to join us, fiddling with something in his hands. “No-one can run from these things. You either have to stand and fight them, and get crushed into the dirt, or...”

  “Or what?” I ask.

  “Or try to please them in some way,” he continues, with a hint of sadness in his eyes. “I don't think bounty hunters will have much of a place in the demons' world, but maybe they can still use people to run errands for them. That's got to be better than dying.”

  “I'm going to stop them,” Abby says firmly, taking a step back. “I don't know how yet, but I'm going to go to Karakh and I'm going to find a way.”

  “I'm coming with you,” I tell her.

  She shakes her head.

  “I can't stay here,” I continue, making my way over to join her. “As soon as the surveillance tapes from the police building are reviewed, I'll be a wanted man. Besides, there's no way I'm going to just sit around here knowing that somewhere else there's a fight taking place. I know vampires tend to think humans are weak and useless, but can't you imagine a situation where it might actually be worthwhile having someone like me around?”

  “Humans never survive for long,” she replies, “not where I'm going.”

  “Give me a chance to prove you wrong,” I tell her.

  “Like my mother?” she asks. “Like Shelley? Like Ash?”

  “I can look after myself.”

  She opens her mouth to reply, but I can tell she's considering the possibility. It's as if finally, after all this time, I've manage to wear her down.

  “Abby,” I continue, “please -”

  Suddenly I see that she's noticed something behind me. Turning, I watch as Grimmholm continues to fiddle with whatever he's holding in his hands.

  “What have you got there?” I ask cautiously.

  “Nothing,” he replies. “Hang on, nearly got it working...”

  “What is it?” I take a step toward him.

  “There!” Holding his right hand toward us, he reveals what appears to be some kind of small gray rod. “Just needed a new charge unit!”

  “Mark!” Abby hisses. “Get back!”

  “Vampires are always so loathe to try new technology,” Grimmholm says with a smile. “Maybe it's tradition for them to fight with their bare hands, but fortunately the rest of us are more willing to keep up with the times. Sorry, Ms. Hart, I know this won't kill you, but it'll knock you out long enough for me to collect my reward. Nothing personal. It's all about the money.”

  With that, he holds the device up and causes a blast of crackling, spitting red energy to flash across the room toward Abby. For a moment she seems too shocked to move, but at the very last second I step in front of her, taking the full blast to my chest. The last thing I feel is a vast surge of pain rippling through my body, but I don't have time to scream before everything goes black and my mind slumps into darkness. The last thought that runs through my head is filled with shock:

  I'm on fire.

  Part Two

  To Hell

  Abby Hart

  “You're going to be okay,” I whisper, carrying Mark's burned body along the dark street. “I swear to God, you're going to be just fine.”

  As soon as I reach the sidewalk outside the emergency room, I drop to my knees and set Mark down. He's still alive, but barely; when he took the brunt of the blast from Grimmholm's weapon, he sacrificed himself to save me, and now he's so badly burned, I barely even recognize him. He lost consciousness immediately, of course, which is a blessing since he'd only be in agony if he was awake right now.

  “I'll come back for you,” I tell him, trembling with fear as I see the full extent of his injuries. “I swear. They'll be able to save you here, and you'll be safe once I'm gone but if there's any chance for me to ever come back, I'll let you show me how useful you can be, okay? I promise, I...”

  My voice trails off for a moment as I realize that the prophecy denies any such chance. Words might offer scant comfort for now, but it's actions that really count.

  “Help!” I shout finally, getting to my feet. “We need help out here!”

  As soon as I see a couple of doctors running out from the building, I turn and hurry away. Reaching the shadows, I glance over my shoulder and watch for a moment as the doctors kneel to start treating Mark. I can see the shock in their eyes as they start calling for more help on their radios. Despite the damage to his body, I'm certain Mark'll survive, although I'm also certain he'll have significant injuries that'll stay with him for life, and there'll probably be psychological damage as well. I want to stay and help him, to be with him every step of the way as he recovers, but I know I can't stay in this world for much longer. For the sake of Mark and everyone else here, I have to go to Karakh.

  “You don't have to worry about Grimmholm,” Jonathan says suddenly, as he and Oncephalus reach me. “After that little stunt he pulled, I finished him off. I just hope he didn't misinterpret my need to kill him quickly as some kind of mercy.”

  “We're getting out of here,” I reply, turning and hurrying along the street while reaching into my pocket and pulling out the two metal spheres I retrieved from Grimmholm's house. “Every second we delay the journey to Karakh is another second that the demons get stronger.”

  “But what do we do when we get there?” Jonathan asks. “Just storm the place?”

  Stopping and turning to him, I hold out one of the spheres for him to take. “You're not coming,” I tell him. “Not right now, anyway. You'll join us later, but first I need you to do something else for me.”

  “Abby -”

  “This is important!”

  “Who put you in charge?” he asks.

  “No-one,” I continue with a sigh, “but I doubt you have any better ideas!”

  Taking the metal sphere, he turns it around in his hands. “What is this?”

  “We were going to use a portal to search for Karakh,” I tell him, “but I think maybe the time has come for me to embrace technology just a little more. Grimmholm had these end-to-end personal locators, and we're going to use them. They're transportation devices, they can be programmed to take you between worlds. As far as I can tell, their range is massive. I've already set yours to find an old friend of mine.”

  “What friend?” he asks cautiously.

  “We need to know as much as possible about these demons before we face them,” I continue, “and this old friend is the one person I know who ever took the old legends seriously. He studied the stories, and I'm ashamed to admit that I was one of the many people who thought he was wasting his time, but now he might know something we can use to our advantage. Please, Jonathan, I need you to go and tell him what's happening and get him to fill you in on whatever he knows.”

  “Why just me?” he replies. “Why don't we all go?”

  “Oncephalus and I are going to look for someone else,” I tell him.

  “We are?” she asks.

  “We are.”

  “This isn't just your way to get rid of me, is it?” Jonathan replies. “Abby, if this thing just takes me and dumps me somewhere you think is safe -”

  “I'd love to do that,” I continue, “but I can't, not this time. I need you to go and speak to my friend and find out as much as you can about the demons. The device is programmed to lock onto him, wherever he is, and then the second setting will bring you to me once you're done. These things target people, not places, and I'm pretty sure that when you find my friend, he'll be getting on with his studies. He tends to always have his nose in a book.”

  “Okay,” he replies, “I'll do it, but I'll be quick.”

  “Just turn the top of the sphere to activate it,” I tell him, stepping closer and giving him a hug. “I need you
to do this for me,” I whisper. “We can still defeat these creatures, but we need to know if they have any weaknesses. Every life-form in existence can be killed if you know what to do, even these demons.”

  “I'm sorry about Mark,” he says. “He seemed like a good guy.”

  “He still is,” I reply, stepping back from the hug. “He's not dead yet, and neither are we.”

  Looking down at the sphere in his hands, Jonathan fiddles with it for a moment before finally managing to turn one of the sections. There's no flash of light, no beam of energy, but one moment he's standing right in front of me and the next he's gone. I've never really trusted technology, but I guess I have no choice right now.

  “So what about us?” Oncephalus asks. “I'm assuming you've already programed that thing with another destination.”

  “You know perfectly well where we're going,” I reply, turning to her.

  “You said they work by locking onto a person,” she continues, “not a place. How can you use them to get us to Karakh?”

  “Grimmholm said the spiders were massacred when they got there,” I explain, “but I've got a feeling that... Well, let's just say that I know someone who will have ended up at Karakh with the rest of her species, and I'm betting that somehow she's still alive. I doubt she'd be very pleased to see us, but I think I've managed to offset the destination by a few hundred meters so that we're not placed right next to her. In theory, if she's still alive, she'll inadvertently be our ticket straight to the edge of the old spider palace.”

  “I hope you're right,” Oncephalus replies, putting a hand on my shoulder so that we have contact when I activate the device. “I'd hate to end up bouncing straight back here.”

  “We won't,” I reply, as I turn the sphere to activate the system. “Trust me, if anyone could have survived whatever happened at Karakh, it's her.”

  Emilia

  “Get back here!” I scream, reaching my arm out between the bars. “What are you so afraid of? Get back here and face me, you goddamn piece of -”

  Breaking into a fresh wave of sobs, I slump against the door. I've lost track of how long it has been now since I was dumped into the dark little cell, but the lack of windows means I've been unable to even count the rising and setting of the sun. At first I tried to count the hours as they passed, but after several days I had to give up and now, as I step back and then stumble, I feel as if I must have been down here for at least a month.

  Landing hard against the rocky ground, I let out a gasp of pain.

  “You tricked me,” I whisper, staring straight ahead into the darkness. “You made me think my father was coming back...”

  “It wasn't difficult.”

  Turning, I see that there's another figure at the door now, staring at me through the bars.

  “If it's any consolation,” Skellig continues, “I enjoyed seeing the hope in your eyes when you thought you'd won. And then the pain and sorrow when you saw the other spiders being killed... For the first time, I actually began to understand the value of other life-forms. It is so amusing to watch the way your pathetic lives unfold.”

  “Go to hell!” I shout, stumbling across the cell and grabbing the bars. When I try to reach through, however, he steps back so that I can't quite grab him.

  “Your very existence is a form of sacrilege,” he sneers. “I remember the day I first saw other life emerging from the mud. I was so sure that nothing would come of it, but gradually I was shown to be wrong. Spiders, vampires, werewolves... Humans too, later, and so many other variations. I was almost driven mad by the very concept that anything could exist other than the twelve demons, but I have now come to terms with this heresy.”

  “Why don't you step closer?” I ask. “You can come to terms with my fists!”

  “We should have listened to Damos long ago,” he continues. “Still, now the rest of us have accepted that he is right, and his quest to create a thirteen demon is progressing well. I wish things didn't have to change, I wish we could go back to how things were in the old days before the other, upstart species appeared, but I know that is impossible. Now we -” Suddenly he starts coughing, and then he winces as if he's in pain. “Now we are almost ready to accept the concept of death, and to move into the final phase. Rest assured, however, that you have provided some entertainment along the way.”

  “I'll get my hands around your throat yet!” I tell him as he turns and walks away. “You'll pay for what you did to my people!”

  I wait, but he's gone now and all I hear is the sound of my own breath. This cell is way, way down in the depths of the old palace, far from the main areas where the demons are working on whatever they're planning. I'm pretty sure they'd have killed me by now if they didn't need me, they'd have slaughtered me the same way they slaughtered all the other spiders when we got here, so I can only assume that they're keeping me alive for some particular reason. The only contact I receive is the daily delivery of some bread scraps and a bowl of water. I'm their little pet spider.

  Maybe the best way to spite them, then, would be to kill myself.

  “The Emilia I knew and loved would never do such a thing,” a voice whispers in my ear.

  A shiver runs through my chest. I'd know that voice anywhere, and in a way I've been waiting for it. I guess my mind has finally started to crack.

  “You have strength within,” he continues. “More than you realize. I saw that in your eyes, the very first time I met you.”

  “You're dead,” I say out loud.

  “And you're trapped, but that doesn't mean you have to give up.”

  “You're dead!” I sneer again.

  “But you're not!”

  I turn, but of course I can't see anything in the darkness that surrounds me. So this is what it's like to go nuts, huh? I guess deep down I always knew this might happen, but I can't help feeling a flash of fear in my chest.

  “I didn't spend all that time raising you and training you,” Keller's voice continues, “just for you to commit suicide in your enemy's prison cell. You're the last surviving member of the royal Karakh lineage, you're tougher than the average spider. Don't embrace weakness.”

  “You thought you were serving my father,” I spit. “You were fooled.”

  “I was, and for that I can never be forgiven.”

  “Damn it!” I hiss. “I'm not insane! I'm not going to start talking to myself and listening to the voice of a spider who died over a year ago!”

  Shuffling back across the dark cell, I lean against the wall and try to get my thoughts together. I swear I can suffer any indignity that's visited upon me in this wretched place, but the one thing I will not tolerate is madness. At the same time, I know that the more I try to fight this insanity, the crazier I'll become. There must just be a crack in my soul, and maybe I can't do anything to fill it before it grows deeper. Maybe Ill end up as some gibbering old wreck down here in the darkness.

  “I was weak,” Keller's voice whispers, sounding just as close to my ear as before. “I wanted so desperately to believe that your father was returning from the void of death, and I ignored the warning signs. I didn't question what I heard, I didn't analyze the situation properly. I let emotion get the better of me.”

  “And Abby Hart killed you,” I whisper, “like a -”

  I stop myself just in time.

  “I'm not talking to you,” I continue. “I refuse! You're not -”

  Damn it! I was doing it again.

  “There's a way out of here, Emilia,” he says after a moment. “You just haven't found it yet.”

  “Great,” I mutter, “so is that why I'm hearing you? Is my subconscious mind trying to deliver a message? How cliched.”

  “It gets cold in here at night,” his voice replies.

  “Below freezing,” I mutter. “I've gotten used to sleeping curled up.”

  “And you have water.”

  “So?”

  “And the door is made of wood.”

  Sighing, I tilt my head back
. “So what am I supposed to do? Toss water against the door and hope it rots eventually? Great plan, Einstein!”

  I wait, but his voice has fallen silent. I know full well that it wasn't really him, that this solitude and desperation has merely started to drive cracks into my soul. Worse than that, I know that those cracks will only get bigger with time, that this madness is going to grow and grow until my mind shatters. Just a short while ago, I expected to join my father in ruling the spider empire from Karakh, and now I'm going to die alone down here in the dark, with my mind falling to pieces until there's nothing left and...

  Staring ahead into the darkness, I blink a couple of times.

  The door.

  The water.

  The freezing cold nights.

  “Genius,” I whisper, feeling a wave of hope starting to rise through my chest. “My subconscious mind is a...”

  I pause for a moment, running the idea through my head over and over, trying to work out whether this plan might really work. The temperature rarely rises above zero during the day, and at night it plummets far enough to make my teeth chatter. Crawling across the dark space, I reach out and run my hands across the wooden door, and after a few seconds I manage to find the area around the handle and lock. Sure enough, the wood is already badly cracked, and I feel certain that the low temperatures are causing ice to form and expand a little more with each night that passes. If I could find a way to accelerate that process just a little, the door might become weak enough for me to force it open.

  Grabbing the bowl of water that was delivered just a few minutes ago, I start pouring it into the cracks around the lock. This whole idea is insane, but I don't have anything else to do, and for the first time I actually feel as if I might manage to get out of here. I just have to work slowly and carefully, and be very, very patient.

  Abby Hart

  “Is this it?” Oncephalus asks, stepping past me and looking out across the vast landscape of desert mountains and valleys. “Is this where Patrick hid Karakh all those years ago?”