Chapter 12: Welcome to a Nightmare
To say I probably drove like a maniac to Lafayette Cemetery would be the biggest understatement of the 21st century; in fact, I was 99% sure that Doc Brown would be envying us at this point. Mikael and I had loaded the guns into Lee so fast that any thoughts or concerns were automatically blurred from our minds, as the only impulse we knew that had front stage was to get there and provide needed backup.
"Almost there!" Lee shouted as we pulled onto a familiar road, and in my peripheral vision I could tell that Mikael was gripping onto the door with a death grip. As the cemetery came into view, we could distinctly hear the sounds of combat rising onto the still and humid Louisiana air. Pulling into a spot, Mikael and I grabbed a weapon each with enough ammo to last, at the most, a few hours. However, once we were in the cemetery, we stared dumbfounded at the grey maze that loomed before us. Where are they?! I growled in my mind, but as I turned to look at an open passageway, I tuned my hearing to get a sense of orientation. But before I could decipher where the sounds were coming from, Mikael exclaimed, "I hear them! Follow me!" before vamp speeding to the opposite direction. I kept up with him for what seemed like hours, but finally the scenes of battle greeted us.
The power angels were holding up a vicious fight against the fiendish demons, and I saw Balthazar and Haniel having a good go at a massive horde of them in another passageway. One of them was sneaking up behind her, crawling down the side of one of the grave and raising its claws to strike her, but before he could, I raised my Mossberg and shot it right in the side. In an instant, the hideous creature turned to face me and came charging at me so fast and so hard that I was knocked against one of the gravestones. After regaining my senses, I could make out the creature's outline hovering above me, to which I promptly lifted my leg and kicked it in the throat before planting more lead in its head. However, just as I finished him off, another came up from behind and latched itself onto my back. I struggled and spat, trying to get it off, but its claws had a firm grip on my skin and clearly had no intention of letting go. That's when, due to its weight, I fell backwards, crushing the creature before I shot him in the heart.
Mikael was struggling against two massive looking ones, and he was holding up a nasty fight, but they were clearly more powerful than he had anticipated. In a blur, I slammed the butt of my gun onto one's back, sending it down in a flash of gun smoke before it could react. Yet his buddy had released Mikael, and I went down painfully onto the concrete. Claws met flesh, feeling like a hot iron bashing my cheek. Another blow to the chest, and I felt blood rise in my throat. Crap! SOMEONE HELP! I rocked back and forth, but the creature was so massive that even when I kicked it in between the legs, it did not move.
"Taste this, fiend!" I heard Mikael yell before demon blood splattered in my face. Yuck!
A hand reached out for me, and I rose to my feet. Mikael was just as bloodied as I felt, yet he grinned. "Thanks!" I panted before shouting, "WATCH OUT!"
I didn't see the creature at first, but it moved with the same speed that a vampire would move. I did get a good look when another one tackled me to the ground (again). The creature looked human, but clearly it wasn't, not with that speed. My head met its and put me back into power. Hybrid! The word popped into my mind like a thunderclap before I had pinned down the creature and finished it.
Mikael and Balthazar both raced up to me. "The demons have retreated, but now here come more of the special forces," Balthazar rasped. As soon as the words exited his lips, Mikael turned and said, "Well, speak of the devil!"
10 more hybrids were lined up on the passageways surrounding us, and we all backed up into the small clearing as they marched forward in unison. Their eyes were glassy and unfocused, remnants of dirt still clinging to their clothes. When they stopped, Mikael, rubbing at clawmarks left from one of the fiends he'd finished, snarled, "What is it you want, pack of abominations?"
One of them stepped forward. He had dark brown hair and a broad, muscular build, so I was pretty intimidated. His voice, however, sounded as though it had been dragged through nails.
"You honestly believed that we would be stopped by a petty law?!" the hybrid exclaimed. "No law ever established by man has stopped us! It may have worked for a while, but for now, we run the Quarter."
"Eat us, you forsaken mongrel!" I spat at him. Then I realized my mistake. Yeah, remember that part about me running my mouth at bad times?
The hybrid grinned. "What a delightful idea, you little leech!" He turned to the other hybrids. "Take out the vampires."
Horror exploded in my stomach as every hybrid turned their gaze on me and Mikael, who hissed in my ear, "You must learn to control that tongue, girl! Since we have both had our guns knocked out, the best way to kill a hybrid is to snap its neck!"
I had no time to respond before two came over and instantly bowled me over. One had me pinned, and before I could even think of retaliation, I felt fangs sink into my neck, causing me to scream in agony. Yet no more than 2 seconds after, I grabbed the head of the one pinning me down and used my strength to snap the neck.
Crack!
My head yet again met with the other's, and the minute I had them, I sent it back to Hell.
Balthazar and the rest of the angels were easily keeping these guys back, so I raced to make sure Mikael was holding up as well.
And he wasn't.
At least 6 of them were on him, and without thinking, I hurled one of them over like a football.
"Take care of that one! I've got the rest!" he hollered, blocking one hybrid from biting his shoulder. The one I had thrown was getting to her feet, and I instantly made quick work of her neck, satisfied by the crack of bone.
The lead hybrid was exposed and bewildered. "HOW?! These hybrid bodies were supposed to be stronger than that!"
Mikael drew up beside me, bloodied but exhilarated, as given by his rigid body language. "Ha, that fool!" he hissed, turning to me. "That was decent fighting back there."
Grinning, I replied, "Not bad for the Original father."
The rest of the hybrids were slain easily by the hands of the angels, and we all ganged up on the lead hybrid, whose eyes were wide with wild fear. "We-we were supposed to win!" His gaze swung around to us. "YOU STINKING LEECHES! If we had our way, you both would be our puppets! We could take over any town we wanted!"
Mikael seized the hybrid by the small hairs on the back of his head, and growled, "You do not hold power over us, especially not me!"
I stalked forward to the hybrid's other ear, snarling, "Tell those losers down below that they will never have the "leech spy" on their side. Also, tell them to stay out, or we will track down every force that have here in New Orleans- allied or main forces- and beat them into oblivion."
Balthazar stalked forward, his eyes glowing. "And with that, you now recede back to Hell!" A bright light shown forward, and the ground began to tremble before it stopped abruptly. The hybrid had completely disintegrated.
I slumped to the ground, exhausted from the battle and from the werewolf venom raging through my system. Mikael crouched beside me. The angels were now conversing amongst themselves, and Haniel stepped over to us. "Well done, you two," she praised, smiling at both of us. Carefully, she made a cut on her wrist and brought it to my mouth. I gladly drank, feeling my strength flooding back into me. My wounds all closed, and when I was done, she hauled me back to my feet. Balthazar administered his blood to Mikael, who first refused it, then deciding to drink.
Haniel peered up at the brightening sky. "One battle won, but the war is still raging. At least for now they will stay out."
"Mmm...Haniel, was it?" Mikael spoke suddenly.
"Yes?"
He sighed a bit before, in a chuckling voice, he said. "I think I accept your deal."
At that, I smiled for the first time in days.