Jack Templar and the Lord of the Demons (The Jack Templar Chronicles Book 5) (18 page)

I
couldn’t believe it
.

I reached all through the drawer, looking for a secret compartment, but there was nothing. We pulled it all the way out and searched the hole behind it. Nothing.

I felt a touch on my shoulder and turned to see one of the Il Cento monks standing there with one hand to his throat. He obviously wanted to say something, but not having a tongue was really getting in the way. Instead he pointed to the drawer, then to his own eye, then to the glowing red eyes of Shaitan pulsing inside his ice coffin.

“He has the Jerusalem Stone?” I asked the monk. “He moved it?”

The monk nodded his head. He picked up a rock from the ground and placed it in the drawer. Next he pointed to Shaitan, then removed the rock and did something absolutely horrific. He pretended to insert the rock into his eye so it disappeared into his head.

I looked back at Shaitan and groaned. The Stone was inside the Creach Lord’s head. And that meant we weren’t getting it any time soon.

A groan came from beside us. Daniel was waking. I rushed over and replaced the Templar Ring on his hand.

He got onto his knees, rubbing his head. “Man, I feel like I was run over by a pack of Grunt-Wailers.”

I patted him on the back. “Just hand-to-hand combat with the Lord of the Underworld to save us all from certain death is all. Can you walk? We’ve got big problems.”

Daniel climbed to his feet. “When have we ever not had big problems?”

As he rose, he was almost knocked off balance by Eva running up and giving him a hug.

“That might be the first werewolf/vampire hug in history,” Xavier said.

“Uhhh … guys,” T-Rex said. “I think our problems are just about to get worse.”

I twisted around just as there was a loud
crack
. One of Shaitan’s arms broke free from the ice and clawed at the rest of his icy prison. Chunks of ice flew up in the air. It wouldn’t be long before he was free, and I knew we would be no match for him a second time.

“We have to get out of here,” I said.

“What about the Jerusalem Stone?” Will said. “I thought –”

Another
crack
and Shaitan had one of his legs free.

“There’s taking risks, and then there’s dying for no reason,” I said. “I think it’s time to retreat so we can live to fight another day.”

Crack
—and the other arm was free.

“Okay, but how do you expect to get out of here?” Daniel asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “We run the way we came and just hope … hey!”

Midsentence, I suddenly found myself in the air, sailing through the burnt out landscape of the Underworld. Xavier was next to me, screaming in a mixture of fear and delight.

Something had a hold of me around my waist and was carrying us. I twisted in place and saw one of the Il Cento monks above us. Only now the monks red cape was gone, revealing a pair of beautiful black-feathered wings attached to his back.

I turned to Xavier who looked back at me.

“The Il Cento are Guardians,” Xavier yelled. “I thought they were just a myth. This is unbelievable!”

The wind and the adrenaline rush that we were making our escape kept me from asking more questions. Xavier called them Guardians, but they looked a lot like angels to me, except I’d always pictured them with white wings. And maybe not quite so tough looking.

Suddenly, it made sense that they were an ancient order tasked with guarding a portal to the Underworld. Seemed like a good job for a hundred angels living on Earth.

I twisted more and saw that the other two Il Cento monks were on either side of us, each carrying two of my friends, swerving and cutting in and out of the rock pillars as we picked up more and more speed.

“Yeah!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, believing for the first time that we might make it back to our bodies and out alive.

My shout was answered by an ominous rumble of thunder that shook the cavern around us. The thunder transformed into Shaitan’s laugh, deep and full of arrogance, and getting louder and louder the farther we flew. The rock pillars vibrated from the noise. Some crumbled, collapsing in front of us, making the monks twist and spiral to avoid being smashed.

Rocks the size of cars tumbled from high above us, shaken loose by the earthquake. Geysers of lava jetted up from beneath us, so close that I felt the heat singe my hair. Guardians or not, Shaitan wasn’t going to make getting out easy.

Finally, we saw an opening to a massive tunnel. The Guardians increased their speed and zoomed into it, moving back and forth to evade the falling rocks.

On one quick turn, Xavier lost his grip and fell.

“Xavier!” I yelled.

I felt a hard tug on my waist and I almost lost my grip too. I reached down and felt spiderwire attached to the clip on my pants, Xavier dangling at the end of it. I didn’t know when he’d managed to attach us together, but the precaution had saved his life.

The Guardian swerved again and Xavier flew sideways, yelling at the top of his lungs.

He was headed right at the rock pillar the Guardian was dodging. I yanked on the spiderwire, and Xavier missed it by inches.

“Help!” I cried. “Help us!”

The Guardian angled up, pulling Xavier with us, then adjusted back down sharply and grabbed Xavier with his free arm.

“You all right?” I yelled.

Xavier nodded. “Just glad I tied us together.”

I managed to turn enough to slap him on the back. “Good job. Without the spiderwire, you would have been a goner.”

I
looked
up ahead and saw the Gatekeeper blocking our way. The Guardians didn’t slow down. In seconds, we were at the Gatekeeper with its trunk arms and thousand hungry mouths. The Guardians crossed and swirled, confusing the beast, and then we were past it into the giant open space with the lake.

The Guardian carrying me beat its black wings so fast it reminded me of a hummingbird. We tore through the air, tears streaking from my eyes due to the wind.

Then, with a jolt, we stopped.

I looked down and saw we were hovering only a couple of feet above the lake. As I watched, nine circles began to bubble on the surface. Slowly, our bodies and the bodies of the three Il Cento monks, the Guardians, rose out of the lake. It was such a bizarre sight that I had to fight down the urge to think the whole thing was just some kind of long, twisted nightmare.

“They’re coming for us!” Will shouted.

I felt the Guardian holding me turn to look behind us at the same time I did. I was greeted by the most horrifying sight I’d ever seen.

At first, I thought that somehow a massive jet of water was exploding from the tunnel where we’d first faced the Gatekeeper. But it wasn’t water. Pouring out of the mouth of the cave we’d just left was a torrent of winged demons flying straight for us. There were so many that soon I couldn’t see the mountain cliffs behind them. It looked like a sandstorm rolling toward us, only each particle of sand was a demon with wings, claws, and probably the righteous anger of the Lord who commanded them.

“There have to be millions of them,” Xavier whispered next to me.

I was about to respond when the Guardian turned us midair to look at the bodies rising from the lake. The second these lake-bodies cleared the water, they flew up as if being sucked in by a vacuum cleaner. Each merged into the rightful owner.

As mine entered me, I gasped for breath. It felt like I’d been holding it without knowing. I suppose by body trapped under the lake had been doing just that. Regardless, there was no time to waste thinking. With a horde of demons right behind us, it was time to go.

W
e soared
up through the cavern and into the opening we’d fallen through on our first descent from the monastery. I could tell the trip up was going to be a lot faster than the free fall on the way down. The Guardians flew like their lives depended on it. One look beneath us confirmed it did.

The space beneath us glowed red from the thousands of demon eyes chasing us upward, and I knew there were millions more behind them. A howling sound rose up from them, filling the air until the rock walls shook.

With a sickening feeling, I understood what was happening. This was an all-out assault by Shaitan to break out from the Underworld. He was using our escape as a cover to escape with his entire demon horde. The Guardians above would only have one choice once they figured out what was happening. They had to drop the iron cage over the opening. The only question was what side of the cage we were going to be on when it happened.

Up, up, up we flew, the red glow under us closing the distance.

“Look!” Xavier yelled. “What’s that?”

Within the mass of red glowing eyes rising beneath us, two giant red embers appeared. Somehow, I immediately knew what it was. Shaitan was leading the pack. And he wasn’t using his small humanlike form this time.

“Faster!” I cried.

I looked up and miraculously saw light above. It was the monastery.

As we got closer, I heard war drums above us. An alarm.

I looked below. Shaitan had broken free of the rest of the demon horde and was almost on us.

I saw him clearly now. A red beast with thick scales like a dragon. Two sets of black leathery wings with shredded ends. His huge head nearly filled the tunnel with glowing red eyes, curled horns, and a mouth of jagged teeth.

“Templar!” he bellowed. “I will destroy you and your world. I am Shaitan, Lord of the Demons and I will not be stopped this time.”

Seconds later, we were out of the tunnel and into the monastery. Everything moved in slow motion. Time was measured in the rapid beat of the war drums.

The air filled with Guardians flying in full armor.

Boom
went the drum.

Shaitan’s roar pounded my eardrums as he exploded from the tunnel.

Boom
.

The metal dome of the monastery crashed through space, heading toward us.

Boom
.

The Guardian swerved to the right so hard the air was forced out of my lungs.

Boom
.

Shaitan reached out a clawed hand for me.

Boom
.

The metal cage whooshed by us, so close I felt the breeze of it passing.

BOOM
!

With a sound louder than any number of drums could make, the metal dome slammed into place.

Shaitan smashed against it, violently thrashing, foaming at the mouth.

My ears rang so loud I couldn’t hear anything, but I saw the dome hold.

Then thousands of winged demons rammed into Shaitan and the metal dome lifted.

I gasped, thinking they were strong enough to break through. But whatever old magic had made the domed cage was strong enough to hold them, and it lowered back into place.

The thousands of demons pushed harder and harder, forcing Shaitan’s beast face up against the metal cage. The air filled with the stench of their flesh burning against the iron. My hearing returned a little, like sound coming through a tin can.

“Take me down there,” I yelled at the Guardian holding me.

He ignored me.

“I need to get down there before it’s too late,” I pleaded.

Still nothing.

Then I heard Master Adem’s voice bellowing from some point above us. “Guardian, listen to the boy. Take him.”

Sebastian, the Captain of the Guardians, grabbed ahold of me and we were airborne. “Where to?” he yelled.

“The eye. Take me to the eye,” I yelled back.

He soared through the air, then dove right to the spot where Shaitan and his demon horde pressed up against the metal cage, screaming from the burning iron.

I jumped onto one of the thick bands of metal. Trapped by the demon horde beneath him and the cage above him, Shaitan’s face was jammed hard into the metal, smoke rising where the iron touched his flesh. His head was slightly turned so that only one of his massive glowing red eyes looked up through the cage. It swiveled in its socket to look at me. The eye burned with hatred.

I leaned forward so he could get a good look at me. “You have something I need.”

With that, I plunged my hand into his eyeball. Up to my wrist, then up to my elbow. I moved my hand around until my fingers closed in on a familiar shape. I’d held two other Jerusalem Stones in my hand before, and this one felt just the same.

I pulled back my hand, the Jerusalem Stone safely in my possession. I held it up for Shaitan to see. “Thanks for keeping it safe. I’ll take it from here.”

Somehow Shaitan managed to move his mouth and get a few words out. “Like I said, a pawn in a game you don’t even know you’re playing.”

I admit, hearing that bothered me, but I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. I clutched the Jerusalem Stone.

“All I can say is that if this is someone’s game, then it looks like my team is winning,” I said.

I nodded to the Guardian nearby, and he grabbed me by the arm and flew me to the top of the ledge where Master Adem had pushed us over the edge. All my friends were there. Will and T-Rex hugged me tight. Eva, Daniel, and Xavier closed in around us, each of us taking comfort that we were all together once again. And alive.

Master Adem walked up to me. He nodded at my hand.

“You have it?” he asked.

“I do,” I replied. “And I intend to keep it.”

Master Adem looked around at the Il Cento, the hundred Guardians ringing the pit now with the iron cage at the bottom. All of them now held golden spears at the ready.

“I could take it from you,” Master Adem said.

My friends took up positions next to me.

“You could try,” I replied.

Master Adem smiled. “Perhaps you are the One,” he said. “Perhaps you are not. But the world of Man could use a chance. So I will give it one.”

He gave a short bow and pointed toward an open door leading out to real sunlight.

I returned the bow, then looked back over the edge of the pit. Shaitan had submerged into the sea of winged demons, but there were still thousands pressed up against the cage.

“Do you need help taking care of that?” I asked.

Master Adem grinned, producing a golden spear of his own and shaking out a set of wings from his back.

“No, I think we can handle it,” he said. “Safe journey, Templar. And good luck.”

Master Adem dove off the edge of the pit, and ninety-nine Guardians followed him down. Soon, the shrieks and cries of the demons filled the air.

“Come on, guys,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”