“I’ve never shot a policeman before. You better leave before I start.”
He looked back over his shoulder with an evil grin. “That’s the spirit.” Crow whirled toward her and Faye instinctively fired. The gun bucked in her hand. He kept coming, so she fired twice more, then Traveled back to where she’d started from. Crow passed right through where she’d been standing and crashed hard into the wall. He slid down and collapsed onto the floor, hands pressed against his chest.
Damn it! She really hadn’t wanted to shoot any policemen. She was a terrible fugitive. Faye kept the pistol on him and shouted, “I warned you!”
“You killed me…” Crow’s head fell forward. The hat covered his eyes.
George Bolander came hurtling down the stairs with a revolver in one hand and an oil lamp in the other. “What happened?” He saw Crow on the ground and aimed his gun at the man. “You all right, Faye?”
“That’s the government man, Crow,” Faye explained as Whisper and Ian ran down the stairs. Ian was shirtless and Whisper had on a blue silk robe with pretty flower designs on it. Both of them had handguns too. “He attacked me. I had to shoot him.”
The four knights watched Crow’s still form for a moment.
“Well, Ian, you wanted to take the fight to the other side,” George said. “Looks like you’re getting your wish.”
A particularly nasty gust of wind shook the house. “Was he alone?” Whisper asked.
“Far as I can tell,” Faye answered.
“There’s something wrong here. This just feels… odd.” Ian walked over, keeping his pistol trained on Crow the entire time, and kicked the G-man hard in the leg with one bare foot. There was no response. He moved Crow’s hand away from the bullet wound. In the shadows it seemed almost as if the hole was smoking. “What the hell?”
“What’s wrong?” George asked.
“I can feel it with my Power.” Ian squatted down next to the body and used the muzzle of his pistol to lift the brim of Crow’s hat, revealing four brightly glowing red eyes in a horizontal line across his face.
The G-man shoved Ian across the room so hard that the knight bounced off the far wall. Crow practically flew to his feet. “Just fooling with you.”
Faye had four shots left in her pistol and she cranked them off so fast that they sounded like a machine gun. Whisper and George weren’t too far behind. Crow was riddled with bullets and he jerked as they hit. Then it was quiet and the guns were empty. Crow was still standing, smoke drifting from the bullet holes. He slowly raised his glowing eyes and smiled at her. Now his teeth were definitely sharp, like rows of bone needles. Faye yelped and rummaged through her pockets for her other magazine. “Nice try, Grimmys. Now let’s see if you’re ready to play in the majors.”
Crow moved incredibly fast and knocked George to the ground. The oil lantern shattered on the floor. Flames quickly spread across the wood. The oil hit Faye’s feet and she Traveled back a split second ahead of the fire.
Whisper dropped her empty pistol and stretched her hands toward the flames. The circle of fire suddenly contracted tighter and tighter, until it was a ball of solid heat. She whipped one hand toward Crow. The oily ball of fire followed the trajectory and streaked right into his chest. There was a terrible flash and Crow was hurled into the living room.
Faye got her spare magazine into the pistol, yanked back the slide and let it slingshot forward, then Traveled after Crow. She landed behind a thick couch, raised her gun, and… Crow was gone.
“Watch out. He’s really fast!” Faye shouted. “George?”
“I’m fine,” George answered with just a hint of pain. “Ian?”
“He’s a Summoned!”
That was impossible. Summoned were stupid. Crow was a person. But those eyes… They’d looked just like the terrible Bull King that they’d fought in Mar Pacifica. The only way they’d been able to beat the Bull King was because she had tracked down and killed its Summoner. Faye checked her head map. Where was- There!
The rooms of the first floor formed a ring around the main stairwell. Crow had circled back around and was coming through the kitchen and heading for her friends in the dining room. Moving like a freight train, he kicked the door into splinters and streaked toward Whisper. Faye appeared and swept her out of the way an instant before impact. Crow’s momentum destroyed the next wall. Immediately, he turned with a roar, looking too big, twisted and inhuman. His clothing was stretching and tearing as he grew. No… that wasn’t fabric. That was skin. Crow came out of the wall and roared with a noise that couldn’t possibly come out of a human being.
George raised his hands. Blue light seemed to pour from his eyes, before it streaked down his arms and erupted from his fingertips. A blinding arc of electricity crashed into Crow. The noise was deafening. Thick black liquid sprayed out of Crow’s chest and across the room, burning and smoking. Faye cried out as some hit her arm and sizzled.
The demon was hurled back, but kept thrashing and pushing against the energy. After several seconds of the Crackler’s fury, George gasped and stumbled, dizzy. Crow took a step back toward them. His body was charred to ash and billowing smoke. “Not too shabby,” he said around a mouthful of needle teeth.
“You shoulda been fried!” George bellowed.
“There’s nothing worse than a nigger with magic.” Crow seemed to shimmer as his body continued to change. “Time to learn your place, boy.” His feet scorched the floor as he strode toward George.
“He’s a Greater Summoned!” Ian grabbed George by the arm. “He’s too strong. Up the stairs! Go! Go!” Ian fired his pistol repeatedly as George and Whisper ran past him.
Good idea! They were trying to funnel Crow so he wouldn’t have room to maneuver, but he was too fast. They wouldn’t make it. She needed to distract Crow away from her slower friends. “Hey!” Faye appeared directly behind the demon, shoved her pistol into his back and fired twice. He threw a backhand at her, but Faye appeared directly in front of him, extended her pistol and shot Crow squarely through the brain.
The blast of smoke from the wound blinded her. He lashed out and Faye gasped as a terrible burn crossed her stomach. Crow lifted one hand and showed her his newly formed claws. “Try to keep up, Toots.”
She Traveled out of his sight and landed in the kitchen. The distraction had given her friends a moment, but it had cost her. Wincing, Faye lifted her blouse and discovered a mean cut dripping blood. “Darn it!” But like Mr. Sullivan always said, if it wasn’t squirting then it wasn’t a big deal. Faye grabbed the biggest kitchen knife she could out of a wooden block with one hand and a cast iron frying pan in her other. Now she was mad.
Faye appeared in the dining room. The curtains were on fire and the place was filling with smoke, natural and demon both. Crow was trying to push his way up the stairs, but was being simultaneously blasted with arcs of electricity and a stream of billowing fire. Whisper and George could only hold that kind of Power for so long and it gradually tapered off to nothing. Crow began climbing the stairs.
“Hey, stupid!” Faye shouted.
Crow slowly turned to look at her. At some point he had become seven feet tall and ram’s horns were sprouting out the side of his head. He was charred like a piece of meat forgotten on a campfire spit. His skin was flaking off in gigantic burned chunks. Smoke was bleeding from dozens of holes. His voice had become deeper, the kind of voice you only hear in your nightmares. “You should have come along quietly, Faye. Your friends wouldn’t have had to die.”
She held up the butcher knife and frying pan. “Only person dying around here tonight is you!” She screamed and leapt. Crow surged toward her. Faye disappeared at the last second, came around, and clubbed him in one horn with the frying pan. The knife went through one of his gigantic legs. Faye Traveled back, breathing hard, but Crow was already following her. Crap! He’s faster than Delilah!