Judgement Day (The Intern Diaries Book 5), page 21
“Well, the plot thickens,” I told them. “It seems your girlfriend is hoping to sacrifice me to unleash the Antichrist.”
“They are still trying to do that?” Julius jumped in.
“There are always trying to do that,” the Boatman told him.
“The Antichrist is not our concern,” Katrina interrupted the boys. “Jake is taking care of his kid. We still have an army of enemies and a few kidnapped people.”
“That is so much better,” Sergius told her with a fake grin. “Should we get going?”
Gun fire, horns, and screams erupted from the West side of the forcefield.
“Right on time,” Constantine announced as he strolled toward the noise. “Ms. Virginia, Ulises, do you mind making a hole for us?”
“What are you doing?” I asked Constantine as an explosion hit the forcefield.
“Are you sure?” Godmother asked him.
“Now, please,” Constantine replied.
The witches and the elves obeyed and opened a hole big enough for three men to pass on the west side. Smoke filled that side of the wall as more explosions rocked the field. Legionaries and Reapers moved into position to attack whatever was coming through. From the smoke, a Harley Davidson crossed the field followed by eight of the biggest trolls I’d ever seen. The Harley did a quick one-eighty turn, and two lab-coated men opened fire at the opening after the last troll entered.
“Close it, please,” Constantine ordered.
The witches and elves closed the perimeter as Second and Fourth sprinted at us leaving the Harley behind.
“Holy Jesus Christ,” I said to myself as Eugene ran towards his brothers. “Constantine, you are good.”
“Never underestimate the power of family,” Constantine told me.
We moved towards the new arrivals. Second and Fourth’s coats were ripped and bruises covered their faces, but they glowed with energy.
“Glad you made it,” Constantine told them.
“Thank you for the assist,” Second replied.
“We want some pay back of our own.” Fourth adjusted his ripped coat. “Nobody disrespects the Mistress. Enforcer, we are at your service. Love the bees.”
“God, I’m so happy you are alive.” Eugene rubbed his eyes.
“Mistress?” Sergius asked. “Is everyone represented here?”
“Pretty much, and we have less than three hours to stop these fools before the horsemen ride and the end of the world starts.” I gave them the condensed version. “Constantine, man the skies.”
“Not this time little one,” Constantine announced. “Ninth has that covered. I’m riding with you.”
“You are kidding, right?” I replied. “We are fighting vampires and demons.”
“I know.” Constantine moved several steps back and shifted.
His Maine-coon body grew larger than a panther. His dark fur shifted to snow white. Once the transformation was complete, instead of an oversized house cat, we had an enormous Saber-tooth tiger.
“Damn,” shouted Eugene.
“Never underestimate the fur man, little sis,” the Boatman told me.
“I stand corrected. You are definitely coming,” I told Constantine, who was now eye level with me. “Is everyone ready?”
It was a rhetorical question. We didn’t have a choice anymore.
“How far is the TRAHC building from here?” Junior asked.
“About five and half miles,” Bob replied.
“Five miles through that?” Eugene stated. “For those of us without superhuman strength and speed, can we get a truck?”
“I thought you would never ask,” Shorty told him. “Underground go.”
The thirty members of the underground dispersed. Within minutes, a fleet of Ford F-150s rolled forward, all of them painted black with blood-red letters on their side. The messages ranged from “Go Back to Hell” to “Time to Die.”
“When this is done, I’m going to make a killing selling those back to Orr,” Shorty told me as he marched to the first truck in the line.
The driver jumped off and climbed on the bed. Each truck was equipped with a 50Cal and water hoses. They were not taking any chances.
“Eugene, you go with Bob,” I started directing our assault team. “You need to find the necromancer and take him out. Aim for his legs.”
“Roger.” Eugene saluted and the two of them moved to a truck next to Shorty.
“Junior, you are with Shorty,” I ordered.
“It will be my pleasure.” Junior moved to the back of Shorty’s truck while his shadow avatars positioned themselves around it.
“Godmother, pick your truck.” She kissed my cheeks and moved silently towards the vehicles. “Everyone, it’s going to be messy and deadly. Stay close. Reapers in the front, it is plowing time.”
I moved to the front of the Reapers with Constantine on my side. Julius and Sergius flanked me on both side. Our small little army wasn’t nearly as helpless anymore. I gave the group one last glance. Werewolves, panthers, tigers, and wild cats surrounded the trucks. The Legionaries positioned themselves right behind the Reapers with Katrina in the front. Second and Fourth were back on the bike, glowing with that crazy Pestilence power. Iason and Ulises were right behind me with their elves, golden swords out and magic flying from of their fingers.
“Ready?” Constantine asked me softly.
“Is it too late to send everyone home?” I replied.
Julius laughed.
“She’s ready,” Sergius answered for me.
“Now,” Constantine growled.
The witches and the elves brought down the forcefield, and the floods of hell poured upon us. Time slowed for me. I charged at full speed with the Reapers and I could feel them. We could anticipate each other’s moves as we reached for our enemies. Scythes were spun at double speed, sparks flying every time the blades hit the ground. The first line of our enemies didn’t last three seconds when the Reapers hit them. Three hundred and one Reapers were a force to be reckoned with.
We cleared a path for our forces to move through. The Legionaries fought without mercy. Every walking corpse that crossed their path was turned into chunks of scattered bones. The enemies’ shifters went for the weakest of our group, or at least they assumed. Werewolves and tigers charged at the Underground only to slam into the witches’ forcefield. We had a long five miles, so hopefully their powers lasted that long.
It took us fifteen minutes just to make it to Abuelitas due to all the fighting. Highway Eighty-Two was a minefield. If leaving Reapers looked like the ending of the Infinity Wars, this part was straight out of The Hunger Games. I needed less violent movies to compare my life to.
Neither Eugene nor Junior had been able to find the necromancer. I was sure he had emptied every cemetery in the four states region. This place was loaded with cemeteries, and the dead did not stop coming. Eugene’s flesh-eating energy bombs had taken out at least fifty. The Reapers sustained minor injuries but nothing that could destroy their immortal bodies. The Legionaries, on the other hand, had a few wounded that the Order was mending. Losses did not stop those soldiers or their odds. Katrina was tougher than all her men. She single-handedly knocked out three werewolves attacking one of our shifters.
We didn’t have time to stop but Abuelitas was surrounded. Vampires had joined the fight thanks to the ridiculous cloud blocking the sun. I decapitated two zombies trying to reach Abuelitas.
“We got this. Go,” yelled Abuelita from the front of the door.
Angelito was throwing spells next to her while Ana used a rifle. Trolls were on their left with shifters on their right. Trish took out a wolf by wrapping roots around its body. If those were their only foes, I would have listened. But four vampires were ripping their roof apart and about to drop down.
“In a minute,” I replied and, using a parked car as a ramp, I catapulted to the roof. “Hi.”
Four against one were horrible odds, and unfortunately I didn’t feel like playing fair. Their monster faces flashed at me. I spun the scythe in front of me, chopping the arms off a vampire to the left. The vampire exploded into ashes covering his peers. I kicked the one on the right off the roof and smashed his face off the other two. The entire process took less than thirty seconds. I flew off the roof to finish the last vampire but Second had beat me to it. He had burned the monster to ashes.
“Nice job,” I told him.
“We cannot be outdone by a bunch of Reapers,” Second informed me. Even Interns like a friendly competition.
Eugene had sent his swarm of bees against the trolls. Two were on the ground rolling like mad dogs. Those trolls were paying dearly for picking the wrong side. The snakes and scorpions that covered them did not add to their comfort. Four more zombies popped out of the earth in front of the trolls.
“Did they just bury people everywhere here?” Eugene asked.
“Remember, this town is less than one-hundred and fifty years old,” I explained. “Most of this was wild land.”
“Great,” Eugene shouted after blasting the corpses with blue fire. “Junior! Get that damn necromancer.”
“If anyone can point me in his direction, I will do just that,” shouted Junior as his avatar sucked the life out of two shifters.
“That was gross,” I told Junior.
“Yuck,” Eugene replied.
“What does he look like?” Katrina asked as she rode on top of the hood of Bob’s truck.
“Limping?” I replied with a shrug.
“No help,” said Katrina.
“I never saw him,” I confessed, helping Trish knock out one more troll.
“I got this,” Eugene announced.
He made circles with his hands and sent his bees across the entire area. Eugene climbed on Second’s bike and followed the bees.
“Shorty, follow him,” I ordered.
“We are on it, Boss Lady.” Shorty put the truck in gear, running over any corpses or vampires that stood in his way.
The Underground members on the back fired at everything that rolled his way and Junior’s avatar did the rest.
“I’m not sure if Junior is going to survive this,” I told Second.
“He is a strong one,” Second informed me.
“He is. But Shorty is a maniac behind the wheel,” I clarified.
“Shit, we got him.” Second ran off behind Shorty and Eugene blasted anything in his path.
“Isis, go.” Abuelita gave me a hug and pushed me away. “We can handle it now.”
I blew her a kiss and took off running. It was easy to pass a moving vehicle when you had Reaper speed. Past the Elks club, seven Legionaries and two shifters were surrounded by three demons. They were not even pretending to be human anymore. Wings extended, they were hell beasts in the flesh. Talons longer than my forearm slammed into our people. Scythe extended, I landed on top of the demons just as Constantine crashed into a second. The demons tossed me aside, slashing my arms and side. Blood trickled down but quickly stopped.
“Constantine, exactly what can kill a Reaper?” I asked, rolling to the side to avoid the demons lunging at me.
“Decapitation, like vampires,” Julius answered, stabbing the demon through the gut. “So don’t lose your head.”
“Good to know.” I sprinted to the third demon and kicked it in the head.
Hand-to-hand combat with demons was not part of my training. Then again, I was only supposed to be collecting souls during the apocalypse, not trying to stop it. I cracked a few bones in the monster but the thing kept coming. Avoiding the Legionaries was becoming challenging since vampires had joined the fight. The demon had a dislocated jaw, but it didn’t stop him from reaching for my head. I used the scythe to block the bite but venom dripped from its mouth.
“Not today bitches,” someone said from behind me.
Water soaked my face as the demon went up in flames. Julius slammed the monster off me as the Triplets sprayed the rest of the demons down.
“Have I told you three I love you?” I asked the Triplets.
“We know Boss Lady,” Triplet number one replied. “You better hurry, the fighting is getting heavy by Big Jakes. We got this.”
Julius pulled me up to me feet. “Nice friends.”
“Welcome to the family,” I told him. “Race you.”
I didn’t wait to see if he followed. The feel of the pavement flying underneath me was exhilarating. Running never felt so good or so empowering when I was human. I didn’t want to stop, but I arrived in less than a minute to Big Jakes.
“What took you so long?” Julius was leaning on his scythe when I stopped. “You need to stop thinking about running and focus on flying. You will move faster.”
“Faster?” I let the idea sink in as I concentrated on the chaos in front of us. “What are we looking at?”
“Eugene found the necromancer on the roof of Big Jakes,” Katrina explained, jogging across the street from the madness.
“Who set the trees on fire?” Big Jakes had several huge pines around the building that were covered in flames.
“That is a toss-up between Shorty, Second, or Fourth,” Katrina confessed.
“Holy flames,” Sergius said as he joined us. “What’s going on?”
“Necromancer is on the roof,” I told him.
“What’s the plan?” Julius asked. “Besides setting the entire block on fire.”
Dozens of corpses erupted from the ground. The trucks pulled back as the corpses attacked. Eugene sent his bees at the necromancer, but he exploded them with magic.
“Eugene is not going to be happy about that,” I told the group. “We need to stop him.”
“Great plan,” Julius mocked. “How?”
“Everyone charge,” I told them. “Confuse him until one of us can take him out.”
“I’m in,” Katrina said running across the street.
“Fly,” Julius repeated and was gone.
By the time I blinked, he was on the roof dodging spells.
“Are you ready to try?” Sergius asked me.
“Not yet,” I replied honestly. “I’ll just run over.”
Mastering flying was not something I had time for. With my luck, I would slam into the building and knock myself out. I ran at full speed and used Shorty’s truck as a steppingstone towards the roof. Sergius and Julius were busy swinging at the necromancer. He was a lot stronger than I imagined. He used to be a member of the Order, so he was probably ancient. I joined the fight, and the necromancer brought even more corpses to the battle. One took me by surprise and pushed me off the roof. I landed flat on my butt on the ground.
“That sucked,” I mumbled as I rolled over.
“Help us,” a girl in her mid-twenties told me.
I spun around and was surrounded. Over twenty people were closing in on me.
“Make him stop,” a man in his seventies pleaded with me.
“God help us,” I told them.
The necromancer wasn’t pulling just empty corpses, he was pulling the bodies of souls who hadn’t transitioned as well. This was super awful. Three more Reapers joined Julius and Sergius, but the necromancer only added more bodies. The souls screamed around me as the battle raged on. I had a horrible idea.
“Death, please forgive me,” I told my boss, who I was sure was listening. “I command you. I free you from your bonds. Stop him.”
I pushed my powers onto the souls and gave them form. The souls glowed and followed my orders, climbing up the building towards the necromancer. Julius swam his scythe towards the young girl.
“Don’t hurt them,” I shouted.
“What?” Sergius asked.
“They are with us,” I explained.
The souls surrounded the necromancer and plowed through the corpses. The Reapers jumped off the roof as the souls attacked the demented witch. The screams of the necromancer filled the night as the souls dragged him off the roof. I didn’t know how to stop them as they dragged the live witch to the ground with them.
“That’s disturbing,” Katrina said walking towards me.
“What did you tell them?” Sergius asked, moving the dirt with his foot.
“To stop him,” I whined.
“That’s it?” Julius questioned me as well.
“Yeah,” I replied, staring at the ground the necromancer disappeared into.
“We need to work on your commands,” Sergius told me as he pulled me away from the newly-made grave. “You have a lot of power. You need to be very specific from now on.”
“I’ll add that to the list right next to flying lessons,” I told the boys, who pushed me away.
“Well, the necromancer has been taken care of,” I announced to Eugene and Junior.
“Great,” Junior told me. “But is he coming back?”
“I’m pretty sure the only place we will see him again is in hell,” Katrina answered.
“That’s even better.” Eugene joined me. “That bastard killed three of my swarms. He better burn for a long time.”
“We need to work on your priorities,” Julius told Eugene. “Then again, there is too much stuff to work on with all of you. I’m ready to get back to my floaty tube.”
“Me too,” Sergius agreed with him.
“Should we get going?” Shorty asked us.
“Can someone please put those out first?” I pointed to the giant torches next to us.
“I got it,” Junior volunteered. He extended his hands towards the trees and extinguished the fired.
“Impressive,” Sergius told him. “How did you pull that off?”
“I sucked the air out of the fire,” Junior told him as he climbed on the truck.
“Is it me or is this a lot of work just to get to a trap?” I asked the group.
“They are trying to wear us down,” Katrina explained. “The weaker we are, the easier we are to finish off when we get there.”
“Tired? I’m just getting warmed up.” Julius stretched his legs. “Race you.”
Julius was gone.
“Damn it,” Sergius shouted as he flew behind Julius.
“I’m not sure if I’m ready for you to be like that in twelve-hundred years,” Katrina told me.
“That makes two of us,” I replied and took off after the Reapers.
