Summon Lyght(32)
Lesedi supposed he knew Lyght after a fashion, but he didn't know these people, or how easily offended they might be. Judging by the vast array of weapons on display, going with the flow would probably be the smart choice.
Lyght glanced at Miya and Lesedi, then turned back. "They haven't quite had a chance to become accustomed to the idea yet, Kassern. In fact, I haven't had time to fill everyone in on the whole picture." He grinned. "Lesedi and I were busy getting scolded for making plans without consulting the ladies, even though Lesedi was blameless in that. I was still explaining things when some of those beasties came along."
Lesedi was grateful Lyght did not incriminate him or pretend he had taken part in any of the ignorant tactics he attempted to use with the ladies. Nor did he try to make himself look innocent or heroic. A good sign.
Lyght finished detailing how much of the grand plan he'd managed to reveal to them before being rushed off from Miya's. The red guy scowled and sat in a big chair behind the table and a tiny blonde woman glided to his side. He immediately drew her into his lap with the kind of smile that said she was his entire world.
Lesedi could not prevent the foreign flash of envy that washed through him at the little display. What would it feel like to look at a woman like that? And have her return it? Well, not just a woman. The woman, the one he wholeheartedly believed had been put somewhere on earth to be his perfect match. Unbidden, an image of Miya inserted itself in his mind and Lesedi looked at her with that exact expression. Right. A woman like Miya would not truly fall for an African as black as the ace of spades, let alone a man with a dubious past. Her current attraction was nothing more than curiosity about the unknown.
The red man laughed a little, drawing Lesedi back to the matter at hand. "Karly tells me introductions should be the first order of business. Then we can move on to more serious matters and fill Lyght's Quad in on the dirty details of our mission and their part in it. That work for everyone?" He scanned the occupants of the room, most of whom either nodded or lifted a hand in agreement.
The next ten minutes were a flurry of introductions and trying to figure out the complex relationships and associations. And to think someone said there would be eight more groups of four by the time it was finished!
Lesedi forced himself to concentrate as the guy called Troy spoke, going over the details of the mission. It seemed utterly delusional to consider demons and other evil beings stalking the earth in search of human souls to harvest. That was the stuff of Biblical fairy tales and fiction, not reality. Yet Troy, and all the others, behaved as though it were incontrovertible truth.
When Troy reached the end of his explanation, Sam rose, the wife of that bald guy, Toren? Mercury warrior if he remembered correctly. "Troy covered it all, but I think everyone would be more convinced to see some of the creatures and the attacks they've launched." She looked at the red angel—Kassern? "Show them the footage that one scout angel gave us. Of the girl in the bed."
Kassern raised a hand and just like that, the bank of monitors on the wall transformed to a single screen. The seats Lesedi and the others had been given came alive under them with a hum and turned automatically to face the screen.
A beast like the one who had come to Miya's house slunk along the side of another home, rising to peer in windows, then lowering itself to sneak further. Finally it leapt through one, ignoring the shattering glass.
The camera followed it inside and a small dark room filled the screen with a new creature accompanying the first. The second being's slim figure approached the hospital bed across the room. Its face suddenly filled the screen and Miya's gasp of horror seemed unnaturally loud in the momentary silence.
A round, disc-like mouth with row upon row of serrated teeth, all moving side to side like saw blades, contorted into what might have been intended as a smile. Red slitted eyes oozed with blood and a festering wound occupied the space the nose should have filled. Pale skin covered with blackened and crisped strips of flesh stretched over the naked bony chest. Holy Mother of God, what was that thing?
"It's a demon," someone said as if in reply to a question asked aloud.
The demon continued to move toward the hospital bed and the camera turned again to show the bed's lone occupant. An emaciated woman lay there, hollow eyes dark and glistening with fever. Her breath rattled in a constant groan of agony.
"Are you ready, Alicia?" the demon asked. "I will end your pain and you will live forever, healthy, and watch you children grow up. The cancer will be gone, as if it never happened. A miracle."
The camera shifted again to show the beast from another perspective. A glowing being stood before the dying woman, graceful wings folded behind it and a beatific smile spread across its normal looking mouth.