Page 46 of Chaos Demons

Which was what we’d seen as we’d flown over the city.

The morning’s new light had shown the swarm spreading into Manhattan, still clogging the Queensboro Bridge and spewing out from the midtown tunnel. There were so many of them, it was hard to fathom the numbers, a sea of seething corpses. Although for the most part, the zompires seemed to be stopped or stalled.

I guessed that was the work of Osiris, along with other gods and daemons, keeping the creatures mostly contained. But there were gaps in the defense and areas where the undead were trickling through. And it was worse in Queens. I could see the undead mass spreading out through the borough.

Our plan was simple: the helicopter would drop us off near Calvary Cemetery so we could sneak in and strike at Nari directly. If we took care of him, the hope was that the zompires would falter. Though, in truth, we didn’t know.

As much as we suspected he was controlling them, none of us really knew what would happen when he stopped doing so. Would they all collapse… or remain animated but uncontrolled?

“This is crazy,” Trent whispered. The poor man was clearly terrified and out of his depth. I didn’t know why Eva wasn’t. But then… given what I sensed from her, I was beginning to think I knew what her burgeoning aspect might be: war.

“Look, there!” Ana called and pointed. We were descending, coming in toward Calvary Cemetery, and she’d spotted someone on the roof of a large building trying to flag us down.

“Is that a church?” Eva asked. Whatever the building was, the zompires seemed to be avoiding it, like they did with most others.

“Whatever it is, it’s got a parking lot we can land in, and it’s close enough to the cemetery that we can head out from there,” Grey said, his assessment completely analytical, as always.

“They need help,” Ana insisted.

Grey, Ramsey, and I shared a look. This would work well for us. If Ana wanted to stay at this — hopefully — safe place and help these people, then we wouldn’t need to worry about her while we went in to face Nari.

“Take us down!” Grey ordered the pilot.

Ramsey slid open the side door and he and Eva began popping off shots to clear the zompires which were milling about our proposed landing area. I knew Ramsey was a crack shot, but Eva was nearly as good. Even shooting from a moving, swaying helicopter, her shots hit home nearly every time.

I summoned enough of my beast to aid me, becoming my half-wolf form, then leaped down from the helicopter. I landed lightly in the parking lot on canine legs, with claws on my hands and a wolf’s head.

It didn’t take long for me to finish up the remaining undead, and after, I went to the single access point to the lot and guarded the way in, as the helicopter landed behind me.

Eva and Ramsey were soon nearby, picking off any zompires that got too close, so I shifted back for now — those two had things covered — and went to help Ana and the others.

Several people were running out of the church. “We have wounded inside. Can we use your helicopter to get some people away to a hospital?” said a man in a priest’s robe.

Grey nodded. “Get as many as you can on there. I’ll tell the pilot to get them to the safest hospital, then return for more.”

The priest nodded and ran inside.

“I’ll see what I can do to help them!” Ana shouted over the whirling rotors before heading inside.

Trent tagged along, seemingly uncertain where to go and what to do. He shouldn’t be here at all, but Eva had insisted he come, saying he’d be safer closer to her and us. There was a certain logic in that.

Grey turned to me. “We’ll get the first group loaded safely, leave Ana and the others here, then go in.”

I nodded, deferring to him. He was the oldest of us and the one with the aspect of The Hunt. I trusted his judgment.

Tension hung thick around us as the first group of wounded were loaded onto the helicopter. The sporadic cracks of Ramsey’s and Eva’s rifles came more and more often. We were attracting attention.

But then the helicopter was away and the group of us retreated into the church, hoping the stillness after all of that noise and commotion would keep the zompires away.

Inside, Ramsey switched out the clips on his rifle and Eva reloaded with Trent helping her.

“I thought you said you’d never set foot in a place like this?” I asked Grey, my voice low so no one else could hear me. Being in one ofThat God’schurches always felt a little weird for most of us daemons.

Grey gave a harsh laugh, but he was all business. “The helicopter will return, and I’ve asked to see if they can bring some others, to get these people out of here. We may not be able to save many today, but these few… we can help. It doesn’t matter who they worship.”

He was right about that. And thinking of helping these people… I sought out Ana, who was tending to a wounded woman lying on a pew.

This was the Ana I loved: kind and caring and giving. She may not be a warrior, but she would do everything she could to help these people. Ana kept glancing around, making sure no one could see as she slowly healed the unconscious woman and I step close to her, blocking the view of a few people who walked by.

---