No Place Like Home Page 13

  Something clinked on my shoulder, my skin turning into a spiderweb of crystal to protect me. I turned to see a spiked demon hiding in the trees a few feet away, and it hurled sharp spines from its tail at me.

  It was immobilized by dark magics as the spines clinked harmlessly off me. I looked to see an enraged Marie, weaving her hands in the air, casting the net. Ella and Toto were running at the monster, howling their challenges when we all looked up at a blur in the air.

  My jaw dropped open when I saw the petite Vermillion Chrysanthemum pirouetting in the air. Her red hair fanning out behind her, making her look like some sort of Celtic warrior of lore as she came down on the demon, her javelin spearing through its skull and pinning it to the ground with a sickening crunch.

  She stood over the demon, yanked the javelin out with one hand, and with a sweep, she flicked the black ichor off the shaft. Then she turned to us, looking as innocent as you please. Holy shit. Ver was a badass.

  We started running into the forest again at Toto's urging and left the sounds of battle behind us. We could have really used Snow right about then, in her Perchta form she could have at least carried Ella up ahead of us to confront the demon. If it was a demon, I was sensing that is.

  We burst out of the forest at the base of the ridge, and I scanned it. I wasn't going to beep again so don't get excited. I cocked my head in confusion saying to the inquiring faces around me, “It feels like it is somewhere inside the ridge not on top.”

  Toto barked once, her tail wagging and she was off, flattening her ears to her skull. Fenriss said as we started moving, “Thiss ridge iss verry old. It holdss many caves where the beess make the honey for our mealss.”

  A cave? That made sense. A perfect place to view the battlefield below while staying hidden.

  Ella asked, “Marie? You feel that too?”

  Marie nodded. “Now that we are closer, I can sense what our amore feels.”

  Toto slowed and turned to us becoming human again, a hopeful look on her face. “This is the demon who has been opening gateways all these years? The one responsible for the death of so many of our people?”

  I wondered absently if she and Dot realized how they both referred to the people of Oz as theirs. I had a feeling that this was really their home now, not the mortal realm, and they would probably realize

  that if they were ever to make it back again.

  I looked from her to the ridge and felt the large quantity of demon magic that seemed to ooze through the air down to the gateway shimmering below. I nodded. “Whatever is up there is responsible for the portal.”

  She nodded and held a finger up and dug into a pouch on the harness she wore.

  I blinked at what she pulled out... a cell phone. She tapped on the screen then said to us, “Just a second.”

  A moment later she was saying with the anticipation of the hunt in her voice, “Dotty. Parker did it.

  The demon is in the honey bee caves... yes... ok... see you there.”

  She closed the phone. I had to ask. “Umm... cellphones work here?”

  She grinned from ear to ear as Marie, and I kept our gazes up, though our naughty Ella was cocking an eyebrow in appreciation of her form. “Dotty kept them working so we could communicate with each other. Batteries never run down.”

  I hesitantly asked, “So just between your two phones?”

  She shook her head and looked downcast. “No... we can call anyone in our contacts.” She looked so profoundly sad. “It had been almost fifty years here before she thought of it. Everyone we knew would be long dead or close to it. So the list is just a sad reminder of our past lives.”

  Marie prompted, “But it had been but two years for them.”

  Toto stared at her phone, looking almost afraid of it. I felt her disbelief and sorrow, then turned my gaze down to the meadow as a huge explosion rocked the valley. Dorothy was there in front of the gateway, thrusting her hands forward and another explosion shook the ground.

  She was throwing raw power through the portal, directly into hell! The waves of demons scrabbling to get out into Oz were blown back like motes of dust in a strong wind. Then she physically grabbed the edge of the portal and yanked her arms down in a tearing motion and in an implosion of silence and crackling emerald energy, it was just gone.

  Even Ella looked stunned. To close a portal in the mortal realm, we needed resonant magic or the blood of the summoner. That is how we had lost our leader, Maireni Damaschin, the Red Hood for a short time when she sacrificed herself to close a gateway twenty times the size of the ones we saw in Oz.

  The curse which created the Red Hood was the same curse used to create the werewolf plague on Earth, and the demon responsible hadn't counted upon his own magic being used against him like that.

  But here, Dorothy of Oz just seemed to tear the portal out of existence, like it were an old playbill being torn off a light pole. I swallowed as I could feel, even from a half mile away, her eyes turn

  toward us.

  I asked, “She could have done that at any time, couldn't she have?”

  Antoinette stepped beside me nodding, and I asked as we watched the battle continue below as the last of the demons were dispatched, “Why didn't she just do that when we arrived? So many lives could have been saved.”

  Ella answered for her, a note of understanding and respect coloring the almost cute voice of her real body, “She was stalling, giving us time to locate the one responsible. The demon would have snuck off when the battle was lost. Many died for that distraction, but it's nothing compared to the numbers who would have fallen to demons had the attacks continued on, day after day, year after year.”

  I noted she forgot to use her cockney accent, she must really be impressed by Dot. I chastised myself for being so insecure that I felt a little pang of jealousy that she seemed to respect Dorothy so much, even though they grated on each other.

  Toto nodded. “She's on her way. We need to get to the beast before it gets away.”

  Fenriss hissed out to me, “Yess, the Dorothy lady will join uss ssoon, glasss maiden. I can ssmell foul demon flessh from here.” He leapt into the air and flapped his leathery wings, and we all ran after him as he flew above a narrow ledge cut into the ridge.

  The cliff face looked to be pockmarked with small caves that were now visible this close up. I reached out, focussing on the nearby demon magic and froze. “Um, people? I'm feeling movement of demon magic at multiple sources in there. From a distance, it seemed like just a single source because it was so small compared to the massive number of demons in the battle.”

  Ella and a now canine Toto took point with Fenriss above Vermillion and me and Marie at my back. Heyyy... why was everyone protecting me? I wasn't the most vulnerable one here. Well fine, I was the only one of us who had no weapons or offensive magic to fight with, but I was no wilting violet.

  Toto was unarmed too unless you counted those fangs of hers and those razor-sharp claws on her paws that we already saw could rend demon flesh. Well fine, I wasn't the most useful on offense, but I was awesome at defense.

  We had passed a couple openings, and both Toto and our flying monkey took deep sniffs, shaking their heads. Vermillion moved forward a bit to whisper to me, “Something is not right.”

  Marie startled me by whispering from my other side, “What eez it, Ver?”

  The Munchkin shrugged as she shook her head. “I do not know, but I have been to the hills around Old Man Dandelion's meadow to collect honey on many occasions, and something doesn't feel right.”

  That had me on edge, and then her eyes widened. “Buzzing! There's no buzzing. The Beefolk

  make honey in these caves for Oz.”

  I cocked my head to listen, then I understood. Besides the clamor of our own footsteps on the narrow ledge and the sounds of the last of the battle below being carried on the wind to us, we were met with silence.

  I thought of the ants we saw below, dressed in uniform, big for ants but still so tiny and e
nvisioned these Beefolk she spoke of similarly. Tiny things, possibly with little flying goggles or something.

  That was dashed from my mind when we reached a larger cave opening, and there was a Munchkin sized man, who looked like a fuzzy bumblebee, torn in half at the entrance. There was a harpoon through his chest, and I saw large translucent bee wings on the ground five feet from his body. The demons had plucked his wings from him.

  Toto was standing inside the cave a few feet, her nose working, and a deep resonating growl came from deep in her chest. Fenriss landed on her back, grasping her harness, looking like some sort of odd impressionistic painting of a rider on a mount. He too was hissing low. Ella was at their side peering in. I don't know if she was aware she had one hand on Antoinette's back like so many of us had done with Daria when she was in wolf form.

  Instead of feeling jealous, it made me feel a bit of relief that my girl was accepting the others like she had our unorthodox family of Avatars back home.

  Vermillion was on her knees by the humanoid bee, sorrow on her face. “Oh, to be killed with your own stinger... She stroked the fluffy down on his body then stood she growled as she put a foot on the half of the body with the harpoon in it, and yanked.

  With a wet tearing sound, the shaft was free, and I gasped as I realized it was a huge stinger, with hooked barbs on the end. It looked as hard as steel. Ver pulled out a scarf and wrapped it around the base, again and again, tying it off.

  I blinked, she had fashioned a rough sword out of it. She looked at me with pride for the fallen and offered me the stinger like it was some great honor. I just took it by the wrapped base like a pommel and inclined my head at her.

  She whispered, “These monsters need to be stopped.”

  I nodded once at her conviction and was amazed at the imposing looking stinger that could impale someone as easily as steel, weighed virtually nothing. It had almost no mass to it. I imagined that it is what a blade of carbon fiber would probably feel like.

  Marie knelt by the bee and said a silent prayer, crossing herself. That struck me as different. And I realized that with Ella in charge of their body most of the time, I had only physically interacted with Marie for a maximum of ten or fifteen minutes a day. I hadn't known nor asked about her religious

  beliefs since Ella despised the topic, believing that no god would allow them to be cursed like they were.

  This made me think about how I have always seen them, as one individual with two personalities.

  And I vowed to get to know my french woman better after this. Then I brightened. Dot said that Marie could be free of the prison of her own flesh for a third of each day.

  Ver turned and looked at the sky, my eyes followed as I took Marie's hand, marveling at the fact it actually was just Marie, not my hybrid girl. She laced our fingers easily. I saw a funnel cloud racing through the forest.

  As odd as it was to see a cyclone moving through the forest, I knew what to expect as it approached. It started to dissipate as it reached us, and I saw a form arcing down from the sky to us, her black robe fluttering in the wind.

  She landed on the ledge a little way up from us, cratering it and sending a huge rain of stone tumbling down the ridge where, with a huge cracking sound, it gave way.

  She strode to us like a woman on a mission, her eyes consumed by the green flames. She saw the body of the Beefolk man, and she made a guttural sound that sent a chill racing through me that raised all my natural defenses. It was a primal response to a predator in our midst. I shivered at the visceral reaction. I lived with so many alpha predators, but Dorothy truly scared me just then.

  Toto was there, in human form, Fenriss still with her, his tail wrapped around her throat as he perched on her shoulder. I winced, wondering how tough Toni was in her human form since his claws merely pinched her skin, not puncturing.

  She laid a hand on Dorothy's face as the witch, who was consumed fully by the wickedness just then, looked between the bee and us. Her eyes narrowing at Ella. Dot wanted a fight, and she could take out her anger on her.

  Toto whispered, “Dotty, she's with us... they didn't do this, the demon did. Remember?”

  Dorothy turned to her and glared. The rage I saw there made me fear for Antoinette. But the nude woman just smiled encouragement, and the flames flicked almost hesitantly in the Cardinal Witch's eyes. She asked in a tiny voice, “Toto?”

  The blonde smiled and gave her a quick peck on the lips and said as she turned toward the cave, leaving her hand on Dorothy's cheek. “Parker says she can feel many demons in there, not just the one.”

  Then the blonde's face contorted in pain and sorrow as she asked almost pleadingly, “The Beefolk?”

  Dorothy concentrated, and I could feel a distortion wave ripple outward from her of pure white

  magic, like a radar pulse I realized as it washed back through us. My eyes widened, realizing that Dorothy was doing what I do but times a million. I wondered if the others felt it. She was connected to everything in Oz, and it was part of her.

  She nodded and said to alleviate Toto's concern, “There are many dead, but they have fled to the other side of the valley with their queen.”

  Then she exhaled in exasperation. “I still cannot feel the demons.” She huffed in frustration that an enemy could hide basically in plain sight from a woman who could feel the very fabric of reality in her realm and remain unseen.

  She locked eyes with me, and I shrugged in apology that I could. She softened and shrugged back with a touch of amusement on her face.

  Ella rolled her head on her shoulders, her neck cracking as her hands curled into fists, her knuckles popping. She wiped a thumb across her nose and asked, “These tossers are going to be clearing out fast now that the portal is closed. So, are we going to kick these wankers asses or what, Witchy Poo?”

  In a chorus, Marie, myself... and Toni, all chastised, “Ella!” for a couple different reasons. But it was a joy to see a familiar smirk on the unfamiliar face of my brash girl.

  Toto's worry eased as Dot just smiled in a predatory manner, showing her teeth as she said in anticipation, “Oh, by all means. These demons will terrorize Oz no more!”

  And with that, we started into the cave, Ella, a canine Toto, and Dorothy at the front. I heard a flapping flopping sound then my girl growling out, “Oh for fuck's sake,” as she kicked off the big clown shoes on her feet.

  Ok, I may have chuckled, and Marie gave me a cute side hug as we followed our ill-behaved girl. I could feel the dark magics she was holding at the ready. I often worried about her because we could all feel the pull of the dark magic, tempting us to use more, tempting us with the power to put us under its thrall. Ella's strong will usually keep it at bay for them, but Marie was free for a time now.

  I placed a hand on her arm for a moment and gave it a squeeze. It was still mind boggling to know that it was really her, mind and body.

  She must have known my concern because she gave me a reassuring smile as we traveled deeper into the cave.

  Chapter 12 – Demon

  The walls of the cave seemed to glow a dim amber, and my eyes widened when I realized that they were huge honeycombs, filled with an amber liquid. Good god, there must have been dozens of gallons of honey in each hexagonal cell.

  We moved quickly and silently along, even Fenriss, who couldn't fly well with the ceiling so low, ran along halfway between myself and Vermillion, with Marie behind me. His claws retracted like a cat, as he padded along without a sound, his nostrils wide as he sniffed the air.

  I looked away from the carnage of the many shredded bee bodies that we passed. I shuddered and felt almost helpless that we hadn't been here to save them from their plight. I hated feeling helpless, and that just fueled the fire inside me. I made a silent promise to the universe that we would stop those responsible for this and would end the centuries-long siege of terror the people of Oz had been subjected to.

  I heard the almost musical tone of my breathing and the crystalizing
crinkling of my tendons tightening as I balled my hands into fists. A screeching sound raising as my sharp diamond nails scraped against the crystal spreading across my palms to protect myself from them.

  The thing I hated most was that these demons brought out so much hate in me that I had no qualms in killing them. Well, demons didn't really die in most cases. Their physical form in this reality loses stability, and their... soul or souls are banished back to the hell they live in. Only a demon's own magic or blood, or our friend Illya's demon unicorn form, can grant them a true death.

  Marie and I made a point to try not to look at the carnage around us, instead looking at the wonder of the glowing honeycombs.

  In a couple places, a cell had broken, likely in the skirmish, and some of the golden liquid had flowed out to puddle on the tunnel floor. The sweet scent of honey and clovers hid the smell of death and blood.

  Ella paused to put a finger on a broken wax chamber and tasted. Her eyes widened slightly, and she offered some to Marie and me, looking like the shy chambermaid from centuries past that was still inside of her.

  She placed her finger in my mouth, and I tasted the rich honey. My god, it was good. She smiled and then caught back up with Dot.

  They exchanged snide looks that had the rest of us rolling our eyes. Vermilion chastised, “Behave you two.”

  I couldn't stop my smile. The Munchkin who held Dorothy in such awe had no problem scolding

  her. At that thought, I realized that Ver probably saw us all as children if she were as old as I thought she might be, regardless of her youthful appearance.

  Ella held up a fist for us to stop, I had to smile at her using Red's hand signals. Mari had usually led our group, being the best tactician of the group, not to mention just about as strong as Ella. Mari also had the speed and reflexes of a werewolf as it was the nature of the curse of the Red Hood.

  Dorothy looked down at the arm which Ella had held out to bar her advance and cocked an eyebrow at her as if to ask, “Oh really?”

  Toto was growling low as she peered ahead of us, where the tunnel appeared to widen into some sort of chamber glowing gold from the honey. I thought I saw shadows moving.