Part 50 (2/2)

The twisted hunk of metal crashed into the gravel right in front of the garbage can, covering Tony in glittering bits of safety gla.s.s and slamming the can into his shoulder.

He didn't think he made much of a noise, but when the dust settled, the demon stood just outside the beam of light, eyestalks turned toward him, the bit on its face that corresponded to a nose twitching and testing the air.

Not good on a couple of levels.

The runes wouldn't hang forever and a little experimentation over the last few days had proved that the longer they were in place, the less kick a.s.s they became.

Also, the plan was to avoid the ultimate wizard and demon one-on-one for as long as possible. A Powershot would knock him on his a.s.s and out of the fight, so if it turned out to be inevitable it had to happen late in the game.

From inside the soundstage, a girlie shriek. It sounded like Mason.

The demon's head went up, exposing the get-Leah rune cut into its chest. Hard to tell, given the arrangement of its features, but it looked embarra.s.sed. Maybe not Mason, then. Maybe some demons were less demonic than others. Grumbling under its breath, it stepped into the light, hissed and reared back, eyestalks withdrawing into the top of its head.

Tony had started moving as the demon moved. As it reared, he shoved the fourth rune into position.

It had time for only a truncated howl before the runes flared and it disappeared.

”Yes! One down!” He'd just started breathing normally for what seemed like the first time in half an hour when a clawed hand closed on his bruised shoulder.

There were only three entrances to the soundstage.

Three entrances. Six demons. Basic math.

c.r.a.p.

And f.u.c.king OW!

”Wizard.”

Talking? That was new.

Ignoring the blood dribbling down from the points of the claws, Tony twisted as far as he could in the demon's grip. It looked sort of like a miniature Ryne Cyratane, although more Texas longhorn than Bambi's dad, and it wore the most obvious of the Arjh Lord's attributes sheathed up like a dog's. Unlike the single rune on the chest of the first demon, the black runes carved into mini- Ryne's chest were oozing blood over a pattern very nearly as complex as Leah's. It seemed that slipping an arjh into another lord's plan took more than a fake mustache, but since Sye Mckaseeh seemed to recruit from farther out on the horror show spectrum, that wasn't really surprising.

”Help wizard.”

”Yeah. Fine. Release wizard!” The claws hurt as much on the way out as they had on the way in. ”All right, if you're going to...

never mind.” The completely blank expression suggested he keep it simple. ”Follow wizard!” It's a little like live action Zork, he thought as he ran into the soundstage, the demon hard on his heels. Eat snake. Thank you, that was delicious. I can't believe Henry still has that game on his system. And not a good time for silent babbling, Tony.

Pull it togeth-f.u.c.k.

Three of the other four demons had arrived.

There wasn't room for all three of them directly under the gate, so they'd spread out within the confines of the set, turning the entire area into a seething ma.s.s of multicolored flesh and weaponry. Kate and Pavin were trying to loop a tentacled lime-green demon in rope while Saleen whaled on any bits he could get close to with his pipe. Amy, Lee, and Zev had another cornered. No, it had Zev cornered. No, they had it cornered. Jack was down on one knee, blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. Mason was fighting sword to claw with the upper right arm of another of the chitin-covered demons yelling something that sounded like ”Parry, thrust, riposte!” while Mouse silently fought the lower right, and CB dealt with the left side. Peter sagged against the wall, gasping for breath, arms wrapped around his torso. Leah was nowhere in sight. Since the point of this exercise from the invaders perspective was to open the Demongate, CB had stashed Leah somewhere safe.

And a good thing, too, since all three demons had a single, familiar rune etched into their chests. Or the equivalent area.

Tony pointed mini-Ryne toward the battle. ”Fight demons!”

Mini-Ryne seemed less than enthused. ”Help wizard.”

”Fight demons!”

”Guard gate.”

Left palm flat against the center of his back, Tony shoved him forward. ”Fight demons!” Whether the pressure of the rune convinced him or he'd run out of excuses, mini-Ryne finally charged into the fray, and Tony raced for the extension ladder. CB and Jack had been insistent that he not be in the middle of the fight; there were too many demons and if one of them realized he was the wizard, in the absence of the Demongate he'd be the center of all the demonic attention by default.

From the top of the ladder, he crawled out onto the lighting grid. Technically, this was not someplace he should be, but the grid was built to hold hundreds of pounds of lights and sooner or later, every electrician or light tech in the business ended up with his feet off the ladder or scaffold. Since he was neither, it was a good thing CB ran a flexible studio. Had demons been attacking a CBC studio, the world would be screwed.

He burned all four runes into the air beside him before he looked down.

Lime-green-and-tentacles had moved away from the corner. Amy had danced inside the tentacles and was pounding a second, foot-long ash stake into the main bulk of its body. Lee bashed the end of a tentacle against the floor with an antique mace, ducked a second, and slammed a third away from his head at the last minute. Zev stood to one side c.o.c.king a crossbow, a length of the yellow nylon rope tied to one end of the quarrel.

They weren't bringing it down, but they were definitely holding it in place.

”Welcome to the set of Darkest Night,” he muttered, stretching along the grid. Vampire shows inevitably acquired a lot of interesting weaponry. He dropped the first two runes into place and was ready with the third when Amy screamed, her leg caught in one of the demon's unexpected mouths. Distracted, Lee went down, lime-green coils around his torso. You don't get to be distracted! he reminded himself. He was already doing the best thing he could do to help. Third rune down. Placing the fourth rune got tricky until Zev got off his shot, dropped the crossbow and tried to tangle the demon's legs with attached rope. A glancing blow from the chitin-covered demon drove him forward into the grasp of another tentacle. Adjusting for Zev's weight, the demon jerked back against the first three runes. It shrieked as it brushed up against the power. As it charged forward, Tony threw the fourth rune into position.

”And action!” Light flared.

Amy, Lee, Zev, and a meter of tentacle that had been reaching beyond the area the runes enclosed lay panting on the floor- although strictly speaking the tentacle wasn't panting as much as twitching. Amy had both hands clamped against her thigh, blood seeping between her fingers. Rows of tiny holes in Lee's jeans were beginning to darken. Holding the quarrel with the rope in one hand, Zev crawled toward the crossbow.

Focus on the demons!

Something grabbed his ankle.

He probably should have wrapped both arms around the grid and hung on, but that occurred to him a second late. Turning, Tony caught a glimpse of a familiar mouth with too many rows of black teeth between red scaled lips.

The sixth demon.

And then he was falling.

He curled in the air, landed on his right side, heard a bone snap. Since it wasn't his skull, he was actually okay with that. Arm maybe. No. Higher. Something in his shoulder. It hurt to breathe.

Then it really hurt as red-and-scaly flipped him over and raised a hand, trio of ten-centimeter claws extended. As the claws swung down for a disemboweling stroke, Jack caught the arm, shoved his gun in the demon's armpit, and pulled the trigger.

On a good day, which this wasn't, Tony had no idea how many bullets Jack's gun fired, but it seemed to go on for a while. Five, ten minutes. Or maybe his sense of time had gotten scrambled by the fall because there was no way the demon should have waited that long to bring its tail around and smack Jack off his feet.

On the other hand, its arm flopped uselessly, so who knew?

One arm flopped. The other was working fine. The first strike removed the front of Tony's jacket and most of the T-s.h.i.+rt under it.

For some reason, losing a second jean jacket in the line of duty really p.i.s.sed him off, and as the demon threw back its head and screamed in triumph, Tony c.o.c.ked his right elbow just enough to raise his hand off the floor.

He'd spoken the first four words of the Powershot when Kate appeared holding two lit flares that she slam-dunked into the demon's gaping, tooth-lined throat.

The explosion was unexpected.

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