There Will Be Blood Read online

  Now, though, looking up through the canopy, there was nothing but bright blue skies with a few fluffy white clouds floating overhead. The temperature was cold, but nothing too terrible. Just a normal beautiful, chilly, winter day, just as it had been when they arrived. His girlfriend’s cries snapped him from his haze.

  She ran toward him, her arms out. “Oh, my God. Are you all right?”

  She knelt in the leaves beside him, picking twigs and leaves out of his hair, then cupped his face and stared into his eyes. “Tell me you’re okay. I couldn’t bear it if you weren’t. I don’t understand what happened between us over there just now.”

  The guy shook his head. “I’m okay. I don’t either. Everything was so gloomy, and the anger and fear inside of me came out of nowhere.”

  She nodded. “I know. I don’t think you are in love with my sister, not even for a second. But standing by that cave, it was like all the fears I’ve ever felt my whole life came flooding into me at once. I was terrified that you were going to leave me; that you didn’t love me. Then the anger came and… well, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean any of it. Not a single word.”

  He put his hands up to her face as well and leaned forward, kissing her deeply, then pulled back and shook his head. “I didn’t mean any of it either. I don’t think you’re crazy, and I would never leave you out in the woods by yourself. I felt the anger and fear too; it was like a blanket wrapped tightly around me.”

  She stood up and took his hand, helping him to his feet. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, glancing back at the creepy cave. “Let’s get out of here.”

  As they walked away, a low wind whipped out of the opening of the cave and black smoke oozed over the floor of the forest.

  2

  Lucifer clenched his fists in front of his face and gritted his teeth. He growled louder and louder, his body shaking as he pitched a temper tantrum. He threw his hands out and finally roared at the top of his lungs, shaking the chambers. Plumes of dust fluttered to the floor and pebbles of lava rock bounced off it. The demon standing in front of him shivered.

  Lucifer sighed and looked at him. “I don’t understand women! You try to please them, and they are assholes. You try to motivate them, show them they are stronger than their lost crows, they are assholes. You try to show them you love them even with scars, and what do they do? They complain about how you gave them a damn scar to begin with.”

  The demon just stared, unsure of what to say. Lucifer sighed and leaned back in his chair, one eye peering at the servant. “What can I do to please Mania? She’s obviously still upset, although there was a moment when I thought she had gotten over it. Then the whole Beelzebub thing came up, and she is back to being prickly. Dammit, how am I supposed to please her and keep hell running at the same time? I swear, those humans with more than one lover are insane. They must attempt suicide at least once a week. I know I would. Not that it’s any better down here in hell.”

  The servant swallowed hard, seeing that Lucifer was actually looking to him for an answer. His face brightened and he put his finger up, but then shook his head, realizing his idea was terrible. He just shrugged instead. “Unfortunately, your Greatness, I have little experience with this. I really don’t know what to tell you.”

  Lucifer eyed him and growled. Getting up quickly from his throne, he stomped toward the servant, who cowered in front of him, shaking. “What good is it to have all of you around if you are too stupid to know how to fix my problems?”

  He snarled loudly, quickly pulling his sword from his side and swiping it at the demon. It cut through one of his legs, and the demon screeched as he fell to the ground. Lucifer sighed and sheathed his sword. “Someone clean this up.”

  As he sat back down in his chair another demon, glancing nervously at the hapless one-legged servant on the floor, cleared his throat. “I’m sorry to disturb you at such a fraught time…”

  Lucifer snarled. “What? What do you want from me? Everyone wants something from the lord of hell.”

  The servant looked at the others, who nodded and waved their hands at him to proceed. The demon took a deep breath and stood up as straight as his curved body could. “Um, Beelzebub is requesting an audience with you. He says it is important.”

  Lucifer slammed his hand down on the chair arm and then rubbed it over his face, closing his eyes. “Again? This is the second time he’s done this. Does he not know what it means to be the ruler? I am not here to constantly be bothered by the insolent idiots who surround me.”

  The servant nervously raised his finger. “If I may, your Darkness? You reinstated him on the Council to keep an eye on him. Perhaps if you listen to him, he won’t go do anything stupid.”

  Lucifer opened one eye and looked at the servant. “I guess you’re right. I suppose you aren’t completely useless. Send him in.”

  The demon scurried off, toward the tall main doors. He grunted as he leapt, latching onto the round ring of a door handle and throwing his body back. The door creaked open a bit and the other servants ran to help him, creating a chain to get the door open. Beelzebub ignored them as he entered, hurrying to the center of the room and bowing deeply.

  Beelzebub knew exactly how to handle Lucifer. “Your Greatness, it is a pleasure being in your light once again. Thank you for your gracious welcome to the Council. You are the most amazing and intelligent ruler in all the dimensions of the world.”

  Lucifer raised an eyebrow and smirked. One thing that he did like was a good butt-kissing. Having his minions tell him how wonderful and powerful he was, was exactly what he needed to feel better. Normally Mania would have filled that quota already for the day, but she had decided to run off and do her brooding elsewhere. Just the thought of this made Lucifer bitter, and his smirk faded.

  He rolled his hand in the air, holding his head up with the other. “What do you want, Beelzebub?”

  Beelzebub cleared his throat. “I understand that the demons on topside were unsuccessful at ridding the Earth of both Calvin and his bride. I wanted to give you my sincerest apologies for their failure.”

  Lucifer shrugged. “Wasn’t much you could do except tell them their role. You were in hell, and have not been allowed to go to Earth since we set that plan in motion. You should have been a better leader, but I cannot fault you for their mistakes, even if Mania does.”

  Beelzebub winced at the sound of her name. He knew if it were up to her, he would have been expelled to the deepest parts of hell already, with no chance of return for centuries. He was more than a little glad to see that she was not at his side, although he would never say that out loud.

  He nodded his head in thanks. “I have a suggestion, though, and I hope that Your Grace will allow me to elaborate on it.”

  Lucifer lifted an eyebrow. “Go on.”

  Beelzebub swallowed hard, trying not to show his nerves. “I suggest that you allow our demons to go back to Earth. In fact, I believe you should be sending them there purposely.”

  Lucifer narrowed his eyes, and Beelzebub patted his hands in a downward motion to deflect the coming outburst. “Let me explain. Our demonic energy was growing thicker and harder by the second. It was so thick in that dimension that you could almost feel the evil coursing through the air. If we were to push the demonic energy, it might quite possibly wake another Leviathan. They could be a strong force for our cause on Earth, as well as exacting our revenge on both Calvin and his bride.”

  Lucifer sighed and shook his head. “That all seems well and good from the outside, but I don’t believe it will work. Two of them are already dead. Juntto flipped sides completely and is now trying to kill all of us. Baylahn is an idiot, just swimming in circles forever, not actually realizing he’s doing so. And the others? Who knows what they’ll do? It’s a tricky game.”

  Beelzebub nodded. “I completely understand. But…as we speak, one of the most evil and terrifying of them all is beginning to awaken on his own. Kabbus stirs, Dark Lord. If we could give him a push, and a
little direction…”

  Lucifer sat up, tilting his head to the side. “Yes. Kabbus. I nearly forgot about him, but he, like you, dwells in the caves of that dimension. I like this. It has merit.”

  Beelzebub ignored the jab about living in the caves and bowed his head. “Thank you. I will do whatever I can to see this to a quick end.”

  Before the demon could turn, Lucifer flung out his arm, pointing his crooked talon at him. “If this goes wrong, it’s your ass.”

  Korbin leaned up against the window’s frame, shaking his head at Calvin. “Come look at this craziness.”

  Calvin walked up, brushing cracker crumbs off his chest. “Ha. Leave it to Katie and Pandora to put on a show for their troops.”

  They had a full view of their sparring bout out the window. Korbin smiled. “They did a good job training them.”

  Calvin strolled over to the window on the adjacent wall. “And you did an excellent job with the fort.”

  Korbin meandered over, looking at the almost-completed fort in the distance. “It’s not there quite yet, but it will be done soon. I can’t take all the credit, though. The team has really put in the work.”

  Calvin sighed. “I thought for sure it would be done by now. Then again, I have really nothing to base that on, considering we built the last one like three times and in a hurry.”

  Korbin nodded. “Yeah, the French are using a lot higher quality tools and materials to build this wall, ultimately because their budget is bigger. So, it takes a bit more time to secure the wall the proper way. No use in building with all this expensive stuff and having the wall come down the first time a demon blows on it. So yeah, not done yet, but we are getting really close to the finish line.”

  Korbin walked over to the table, picking up his coffee mug and taking a sip. Calvin turned toward him and crossed his arms. “You look happier doing this than you did leading the teams. Not garden-in-the-middle-of-nowhere happy, but you’re happier.”

  Korbin shrugged. “I don’t know if I would say ‘happier.’ I loved leading the team back then. There was always something going on. Now that I’m older and have a wife and a memory of what normal is like, leading the team sounds like a big hassle to me.”

  Calvin chuckled. “Yeah. It definitely is that, especially now that we’re paired with the military.”

  Korbin laughed. “Even more paperwork. But yeah, I really like doing this. Now, don’t get me wrong, I wish every day that we had been able to beat these demons a long time ago. I wish that building these walls wasn’t necessary. But unfortunately, it is. The demons got stronger, and we weren’t able to get ahead of them. Since we need the forts, I’m glad I am part of it. I know being on the team and fighting is doing something good for humanity, but there is a lot of bad to it too. With this, I am setting countries up to save lives. That feels really good. Really rewarding, in the end. I just hope the forts all hold up and really help.”

  Calvin smiled. “Good. It’s about damn time you felt good about something you were working on. You always took the negative to heart so bad, I thought you would never recover from it.”

  The phone rang, and Korbin put his hand on the receiver. “I might not, but at least I can feel proud of the work we are doing in the meantime. The rest will just be ghosts of my past, haunting in the background.”

  Korbin picked up the receiver and put it to his ear. “This is Korbin.”

  General Brushwood sounded exhausted. “Korbin. Good to hear your voice. I got some pats on the back from the Council for the good work you’ve been doing on these forts.”

  Korbin smiled. “Thanks, but it’s not just me, it’s the whole team.”

  The general chuckled. “Well, thanks to all of them. I called to get an update on the French fort. I know this one is taking a bit longer because of the supplies and structural issues, but I figure it should be getting close.”

  Korbin tapped his fingers on the desk. “For sure. We are definitely getting close. Most of the bunkers are finished. The armory is ready to store the weapons, and the walls are close. We haven’t brought the weapons to the armory because there is construction going on around it. We wouldn’t want to accidentally blow that section of the fort up because someone fucks up.”

  Brushwood sighed. “Uh, no. That would be a very bad thing. It’s one thing when a demon kills our allies, but if we accidentally killed them with their own ammo? That would warrant a change of plans on your part. Let’s try to keep people safe.”

  Korbin smiled, shaking his head. “Trust me, General. I do not want to have gone all this time, having killed that many demons, and die because of a block falling on a missile. That would not be a hero’s death.”

  The general grumbled, “No, it would not. But I trust you. You’ve done well so far. Even saved a bunch of lives in that battle at the last incursion. We are getting ready now to plan the next few places to go after you get done in Romania. Every time I go to the council, we receive new requests for forts.”

  Korbin glanced at the fort over Calvin’s shoulder. “They are definitely a must-have right now. They may have to get bigger as the war progresses.”

  The general grimaced. “Yep. And hopefully, the smaller countries will be able to afford to do them as well. Right now, I have a request from both Russia and Brazil for forts—one ice bowl, and one tropical paradise.”

  Korbin smirked. “I don’t know how many volunteers I’ll get for Russia, but I have a feeling we will get Brazil built in a day. Everyone will want to tag along to that one. Still, we’ll have to talk to Timothy to get an idea of where incursions are likely to happen next. We want to focus on those places first, then move on to the less-affected areas.”

  The general agreed. “We already know they are going to target you wherever you go, whether through big incursions or small ones. Either way, you are right; we need to protect the most vulnerable and populated locations first. I’m sure the Council can hash that out among themselves once we get the stats from Timothy. I’d rather have them fight it out.”

  Korbin sighed. “I wish it wasn’t an issue.”

  Brushwood was quiet for a moment. “Me too, Korbin. Me too.”

  Juntto leaned against the wall in the main room of the gaming convention. People were everywhere, and he was feeling the need for some Hygge and a Doctor Who marathon. He had just gotten there, but he couldn’t stop watching. It wasn’t much of a surprise that he had morphed into his nerdy guy form, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself. Besides, he had decided not to compete in the games anymore. He didn’t want to risk the team getting a win taken back because they found out he was Juntto.

  The phone in his pocket rang and he pulled it out, looking across the room at Angie with her team. The general spoke when he answered. “Juntto. Where the hell are you? It sounds like you are at a rave or something.”

  Juntto raised an eyebrow. “I am not sure what this ‘rave’ is, but I don’t think that is where I am. Angie has one of her game competitions today, so I have tagged along. There are a lot of loud noises here.”

  Brushwood lifted both eyebrows and shook his head. “You guys are into the strangest stuff.”

  Juntto chuckled. “You don’t even know the half of it.”

  The general frowned. “I don’t think I want to know, either.”

  Juntto laughed. “Don’t worry, General. Angie says that having privacy and secrets in a relationship is important. I won’t rain our laundry on you.”

  The general paused. “Oh, you mean, ‘Air your dirty laundry?’ I appreciate that. But hey, I wanted to call and check in with you. I like to get confirmation on status from my guys-in-waiting. Are you still ready to go whenever I call on you?”

  Juntto looked down at his fingernails and then around the room, not seeing a single pair of red eyes. “Sure. I mean, I don’t know what is going on with the lack of incursions. They said at the base they have just completely stopped. For me, that’s worrisome. If nothing else, I am overprepared to leave on a mome
nt’s notice. There has to be something brewing out there that we just aren’t seeing.”

  Brushwood groaned. “I agree. Demons don’t just give up like that. There is more to this than meets the eye. I am glad to know you are ready to go whenever I need you. Thanks for that.”

  Juntto nodded, looking around again and talking more quietly into the phone. “I even have my Juntto-sized weapons stored in the closet. Angie said not to put them there because one could fall on her, but she never goes into that closet. I wanted them to be easily accessible so that if I needed them in a hurry, it wouldn’t be a hassle.”

  The general laughed. “Be careful. A woman’s wrath can be worse than a demon’s.”

  Juntto curled his lip. “Yeah, I felt that when I didn’t fold the fitted sheet and just threw it in a ball in the closet. How do you even fold those things, anyway?”

  The general laughed loudly. “The secrets us men will never know. I’ll keep in touch with you, though. Have fun out there, and try to relax. There will be plenty of fighting in the future.”

  Juntto hung up and walked through the room, stopping and glancing at the cosplay competition going on. Standing in the middle of the floor, waiting to go on stage, was a kid done up as Juntto.

  Juntto laughed and ducked into the side hall, transforming to his normal size and color. As he exited, ducking through the doorway and moving through sideways, the kid looked up, excited. “It’s you! Let’s get a picture together!”

  3

  Baal and Beelzebub lounged in the cushioned chairs in Baal’s study and stared at the fire, thinking about what Beelzebub had accomplished by going to Lucifer. Baal was surprised, and a bit cautious, but who wouldn’t be about a demon like Beelzebub? He was conniving on every level.