Chapter 26

The answer to my question was: not a lot of passengers could fit into Aerilyn's truck, at least not if we wanted to be comfortable. Nine of us squeezed into the small truck, plus my cat Angel. The ride back to Pandemonium was crammed, bumpy, and more than once, I was tempted to ignore Nero's mandate and use my wings to fly there myself.

As we approached the town, I saw that the Magitech wall was indeed still up. The monsters hadn't gotten the message, though. They ran free on the streets of Pandemonium, chasing people's screams.

Paranormal soldiers stood atop the wall, shooting at the beasts on the ground. I signaled one of them to open the gates and create a brief opening in the barrier for us to drive through. I wasn't concerned that the monsters chasing our truck would follow us in. It wasn't like the barrier was doing anything to deter them anyway.

But why was that? Why wasn't the Magitech barrier keeping them out? In two centuries, the barrier had never failed to do its job, but now twice in one week, it had. Could this have anything to do with the curse currently infecting the Earth's supernatural population? I just didn't know. The curse didn't affect potions or magic technology like the Magitech barrier; it only affected the people who used magic.

Aerilyn brought the truck to a screeching halt just past the wall, and we all piled out.

"Take out the monsters, but remember you can't use your magic," I told the bounty hunters.

Gypsy drew two guns. "No magic. That's just the way I like it."

I knew that like Calli and Jinx, she didn't have any magic. I knew that Nolan Ash did have magic. I wasn't sure about the others, though.

"Take these." I tossed each of the bounty hunters a small pack of potions. "You can use these, but use them sparingly because once they're out, that's it." I looked grimly upon the besieged town. "Good luck."

Gemini and Sagittarius were already running off down the main street, right into the heat of battle. Cocky, weren't they? Nolan joined a pair of nearby paranormal soldiers locked in combat with a rather behemoth wild wolf. Jinx started climbing up a ladder along the side of a building; with one broken ankle, the going was slow.

"I'll make sure he doesn't defect to the monsters' side," Gypsy told me with a wink, then followed Jinx up.

Faith clenched her fists, planted a determined expression on her face, then ran in the direction of trouble. I grabbed the hood of her sweatshirt, stopping her before she'd made it two steps. Her head snapped around, and she shot me a defiant look.

I glanced at Calli. "You'll look after her?"

"I'll keep her safe," Calli agreed.

"Thanks." I released Faith.

Calli set her hand on the girl's back, leading her toward the ladder that led up the wall. "Let's go, kiddo. We have to get to higher ground. You're in charge of my ammunition. I'm going to keep shooting at the monsters and you keep reloading my guns."

"But I want to fight," Faith protested.

Calli gave her a gentle shove toward the ladder. "We will fight. But from up there." She pointed at the walkway atop the wall. "We're here to save the people of this town, and we can't do that if monsters tear us to pieces. Now start climbing."

Another of those wild wolves, not as behemoth as the one we'd already seen but twice as fast, came bounding around the corner. I charged forward to cut it off and give Calli and Faith time to climb to safety. Angel ran right beside me. And so, surprisingly, did Aerilyn.

"You came to warn us that the town was being attacked." As I ran, I coated my blade with a fire potion. "And now you're helping us fight these monsters." I slashed my now-flaming sword at the wolf, setting it on fire. "Why?"

The monster shook itself, and the flames went out. Damn it. I grabbed a mundane grenade, but even that didn't have much effect. This wolf was tough.

"Why am I helping you? For profit, of course." Aerilyn swung her long spear at the wolf.

"I didn't offer you anything yet."

"But you will." She slashed at the wolf. "An even share of one million dollars, split with the other hunters." She thrust her spear forward, impaling the beast on it. "Deal?"

I looked at the dead wolf dangling from her spear, then at her. "Deal."

"Good." She freed her spear. "There are more monsters over there."

"I've never seen a bounty hunter fight like you," I told her as we attacked the pack of wolves.

Her blue eyes twinkled. "My mother's a soldier. She taught me to fight."

"So why did you become a bounty hunter instead of a soldier?"

"I prefer to work alone," she said. "And I like to see the world."

"Soldiers get to travel."

"They get to travel, sure. But most of them don't get to truly see the world. They don't take the time to stand for a moment in majestic nature, or to stop at some great landmark and just breathe it all in. They're always rushing from one battle to the next."

"Sometimes it feels that way," I admitted.

We'd made it through the pack of wolves, but they'd been the toughest wolves I'd ever fought. Immune to magic and explosions, nothing seemed to hurt them unless you thrust your weapon at just the right spot. Finding that weak spot was hard enough; hitting it was nearly impossible. They moved too fast. But Aerilyn's aim was shockingly good.

"You should try to take a moment now and again, Leda Pandora," Aerilyn told me, then continued walking. "The Magitech barrier's controls are on the other side of town."

"How did you know I wanted to check the Magitech barrier's controls?"

Aerilyn snatched a throwing knife from her armband and landed it right between the eyes of the turkey-sized dinosaur that had tried to get the jump on us; it dropped to the ground. She was good. She always knew just where to hit a monster.

"There are monsters on the wrong side of the wall," she said, her eyes tracking the herd of small dinosaurs running down the houses on either side of us. "If I wanted to figure out why, the first thing I'd do is see if there's anything wrong with the control settings."

The dinosaurs covered the houses like a thick, green carpet. I drew my gun and began firing at them. I ran out of bullets before the houses ran out of monsters, so I switched to arrows. I was hardly making a dent in their numbers. The little dinosaurs were tough. And damn fast.

Aerilyn pulled a small orb out of her jacket. It rose from her open palm, hovering in place for a moment before it shot toward one of the dinosaur-infested houses. There was a loud boom, then dead dinosaurs rained down on us.

The way was clear once more. Aerilyn extended her hand, palm up. The orb returned to her and landed softly on her hand.

"Some kind of psychic blast pulse?" I asked her as she tucked the orb away.

"Yes. The orb absorbs psychic magic, stores it, then expels some of the magic when you unleash it on an enemy."

I looked down at the dead monsters strewn all over the street. "Some of the magic? Just how many blasts does that little ball hold?"

"Three or four, depending on how big you make them."

"I've never seen anything like that."

"You didn't think the Legion of Angels had all the best toys, did you?" She smirked at me. "Come on. The barrier controls are just up ahead."

We fought through a pair of bears, and then through a trio of large crocodiles that had laid claim to the local swimming pool. Each fight lasted over half an hour. These monsters were all so powerful.

Finally, we were at the Magitech barrier control tower. The cylindrical structure was built out of dark red bricks. The tower had neither doors nor windows. What it did have was a tiny terrace on the roof. Flying up there was out of the question. I wasn't supposed to use any magic. That meant I'd have to do this the old-fashioned way.

I sheathed my sword, secured my gear, then started climbing up the tower wall. The going was slow, given that there weren't any reasonable handholds, but eventually I made it to the top. And so did Aerilyn.

"Not bad," I told her.

"Not bad yourself." She considered me, nodding in approval.

"Would you consider joining the Legion?" I asked her.

I was horribly short on soldiers in Purgatory. Nerissa had told me it was due to my inherent pickiness. I wouldn't take just anyone. They had to be special. Clearly, Aerilyn was special.

Ok, so maybe this wasn't the best time to be recruiting new soldiers, but sometimes you had to seize an opportunity before it was gone. I might never see Aerilyn again—or many of the other bounty hunters on my team, for that matter. I'd recruited them for one mission, but what if I could make that arrangement more permanent? What if I could make some of them Legion soldiers in my territory? Their sideways thinking would do the rigid Legion a lot of good. And that would do the Earth a lot of good too.

"Working with the Angel of Chaos? Now, that's an intriguing offer." A dreamy look fell over Aerilyn's face. "You're someone I could actually stomach working with, Leda. But I'm afraid I have other plans."

She didn't elaborate on her plans, but I expected they involved seeing the world and working alone, the two reasons she'd given me for not wanting to become a soldier.

"Let me know if you change your mind," I told her.

"You'll be the first to know if I do." Her gaze panned across the rooftop terrace, homing in on a metal panel in the floor. "The controls must be under there."

I was already moving toward it. The panel had hinges on one side, so it must open somehow. I slid my fingertips under the edge on the opposite side. I was pleased to discover that the panel opened easily. Given how we'd had to get up here, I'd expected a magic ward or at least a lock. I could have picked a lock, but a ward would have been a bitch to break without my magic.

With the panel open, I reached in and pulled out the mechanical arm that held the barrier's control panel.

"You know what I've been wondering," I said, logging in to the control panel. "This curse affects people with magic, turning their magic against them, right? I went to one crime scene after the other and saw the effects of the curse for myself, and more and more reports of dead supernaturals are pouring in with every passing day."

I drummed my fingers on the control screen, waiting for it to finally accept my Legion credentials. The system was dead-slow today; maybe the monsters had taken down a communication tower.

"Every crime scene seemed to fit the bill," I continued. "All the victims were connected to the rogue vampire nest that the Legion found in Purgatory, or the victims were connected to people who were connected to that nest. The curse started with the vampires and spread out from there."

I wasn't sure why I was talking to Aerilyn about this. Maybe I just needed to go through it aloud to figure it out. And I was still waiting to be logged in to the control panel.

"But there is one incident that doesn't fit in at all," I said. "The witches who were injured at Desert Rose when they tried to repair the Magitech barrier. No, not even repair it. The barrier was still up. The witches were trying to track down some minor fluctuations in the barrier that Major Horn's technicians had reported. The witches were running a diagnostic. And then… What did Major Horn say? Oh, right." I snapped my fingers. "Five minutes into their diagnostic, several Magitech generators overloaded, opening up a few holes in the barrier. At the same time, a burst of concentrated magical energy pulsed off the controls and hit the two witches, knocking them out instantly."

I knocked on the lagging control panel, which was still working on verifying my credentials. "All along, we've seen that the moment an infected supernatural tries to access their magic, that magic backfires on them, typically resulting in their death. But we can all use potions and Magitech and little balls with stored psychic magic because the magic is already in them. We don't need to tap into our own magic to throw potions or use tech.

"And here's where this all falls apart. The witches at Desert Rose never used their magic. They only used a Magitech machine to run a diagnostic. And then their diagnostic was running for a whole five minutes before the machine overloaded and hit them with the burst of energy that knocked them out. Do you know what this means? It means the curse didn't attack the witches at Desert Rose. It means that we are dealing with two entirely different things. One, the curse that's ravaging the supernatural population. And two, whatever, or whoever, hurt those witches.

"You know what I think? I think that whoever hurt those witches at Desert Rose is also responsible for what's happening here at Pandemonium. In both cases, monsters passed through the Magitech wall while it was still up. Yeah, these two incidents are definitely connected—and they're both disconnected from the curse."

I turned away from the control panel and looked at Aerilyn. "But that would mean that the Earth is facing two distinct threats right now."

"One battle at a time, right?" she replied.

"Right." I took a deep breath. "You're right, of course. We're here, so let's deal with the Magitech barrier and these monsters first."

I'd never before simultaneously fought two threats to our world. The weight of the dual threats pressed down on me. Even if I defeated one, the other would still be there.

"I can hear something coming," Aerilyn said, drawing a throwing knife.

I'd heard it too. Something on the tower wall. Slowly, cautiously, I moved toward the edge. I held my sword in front of me, not that it would do much good if another herd of those small dinosaurs streamed over the wall and buried me in their green scaly bodies. I inched a little closer, my heart racing.

"If you're planning on challenging me, Pandora, I'd suggest otherwise." As smooth and quick as liquid lightning, Nero pulled himself over the top of the tower wall and landed in front of me. "I've just fought my way through two crocodiles, a Tyrannosaurus rex, a dozen giant spiders, and a deranged bunny-like creature that farts firebombs. My patience is thin, so if you challenge me too, I promise I won't go easy on you."

I couldn't hold back my grin. "Nero." I sheathed my sword, jumped forward, and hugged him. "I'm so glad to see you."

He held me for a moment, one perfect moment. But it was over too soon. He dropped his arms and stepped away from me.

"We don't have time for this." He seemed to be chiding himself, not me. His sharp eyes, glowing like a rich green forest lit up by the rising sun's light, snapped to Aerilyn. "Arrest her."

"Why?"

"She injured the witches at Desert Rose, and she's the reason Leila Starborn was in a magic coma until just this morning."

I looked at Aerilyn. She didn't even try to refute Nero's accusations. Instead, she smiled and shrugged.

"Leila was after Carver Spellsword," I said.

"And she found him," Nero told me. "Except Spellsword doesn't exist. He's just another one of Aerilyn's aliases."

I drew my sword again and took a step toward her. "You are behind this. You killed all those people."