The Town

Lloyd Nolan sniffed the air. His face wrinkled at the sharp bite that drifted to him. He had inherited a house with three other people, and found a gift that he used. He didn't know what the smell meant, but it could only be bad news.

Lloyd walked down to the iron gate at the end of the drive way. The smell flowed along the street. It was stronger in one direction. He looked down the avenue, noting that the sidewalk and road were clear of dead animals.

Whatever had attracted his attention was not visible.

Lloyd started back to the house. It looked almost brand new. They had put a lot of work into the building to bring it back to something livable. He debated leaving a note for his roommates. He decided that a smell wasn't worth that.

Lloyd pulled his bike out of its parking space, turning it to face the street. He pulled on his black helmet while walking it down the driveway. He rolled the motorcycle to the edge of the street before swinging his leg over and kickstarting it. The engine roared to life. A check of traffic and he turned on the road.

Lloyd followed the exotic scent through town and out the other side, finding himself on roads with no shoulders, signs for deer and school bus stops competing with miles per hour and signs pointing to other towns still keeping apart from the county seat, but inside the line.

The spoor faded as Lloyd reached the town limit, a sign leading to the next county over gleaming under the afternoon sun. He pulled into a driveway and cast about. The scent drifted from around the county line, but there was nothing visible.

Lloyd debated what to do. The obvious thing was he couldn't let this go. A scent covering half the town meant trouble of some kind. Unfortunately, he wasn't equipped to fight the immaterial.

Lloyd turned his bike and pushed it forward before hitting the gas. He had learned some fighting skills, had an excellent grasp of what he could do. His wolfish side only made him more graceful, and stronger when it emerged. It coiled up inside, on guard and ready to emerge.

Lloyd rode back to the house. The smell meant trouble. He would have to consult with the others. Miranda's control of the air might brush the stink back until they figured out what was going on.

The Wreckers had stopped an invasion, and shut down a mouse trap. This could harbinger another battle for them. He frowned. He was ready to fight. The others didn't like it. Still, they had lived up to their obligation so far.

They had inherited the house, and then the battles of the former owner. He didn't expect them to back down from just a smell. They were tougher than that.

Lloyd rolled into the driveway. Everyone was home which made telling them the bad news that much easier. He pulled up beside the pickup Carter Malone still drove, then around the front of the truck so the other heir could back out without hitting his bike.

Lloyd stowed his helmet, then walked up the patched concrete walk to the porch of the house. He let himself in, listening to the sound of his roommates carrying on their own businesses. He decided to talk to Parker first. The delivery driver would take the news in stride and be instrumental in convincing the others.

Lloyd had been handed a fragment of something that allowed him to change into a wolf man. Parker Dundee had been given an ability to calculate stress points and angles. He naturally went for any weak point he perceived.

Parker also lived to look some crazy weird thing in the eye and send it home in a box.

Lloyd felt Parker had read too many comic books as a kid. They weren't superheroes. They didn't have to get involved. They just were because that's what they had signed on to do.

Lloyd listened, picking out the sound of Parker talking to himself. He strolled along, glad the wind had blown in his face for a little bit. He paused at the door, watching Parker fool with his laptop, ear buds in his ears.

Lloyd decided that the best thing to say was what he knew. Parker would start on the problem after they talked.

Then they would wreck whatever was going on.

Parker Dundee put his computer down, and pulled the ear buds out. Lloyd Nolan stood over him, looking serious. Parker figured it was bad news before the other heir could say anything. Lloyd was the quietest of them, and the best trained for the life they had fallen into.

Parker called him the Kung Fu Werewolf, if only to himself.

"Problem?" Parker rubbed his hands together as he stood up. He might as well stretch the kinks out while he was listening.

"It feels like it." Lloyd frowned, buzz-cut changing shades as he looked around the living room. "I think something is coming, something big."

"How big?" They had already faced one invasion and shut it down before it got out of the basement. Parker didn't want anything that big again.

"Big enough to ruin the town." Lloyd considered. "Maybe bigger."

"What did you see?" Parker didn't doubt Lloyd's instincts. The wolf inside let him know things ahead of time. They had already seen it in action more than once.

"I'm picking up a bad smell. It seems tied to a fog that's building around the city limits." Lloyd shrugged. "I think it's building up into one of those door things."

"That's a big door, Lloyd." Parker did some calculations. "We're talking about something almost ten miles across."

"Maybe more than that." Lloyd shrugged. "I thought you should know so we can get ready for whatever it is."

"I need to see this." Parker started packing his laptop with a camera. "We may need some expert advice on how to stop this, which means pictures."

"So we're getting ready?" Lloyd knew Parker would believe him.

"Better to be ready than to ignore a potential problem." Parker zipped his bag. "I just need to look at the problem first before I can deal with it."

Lloyd nodded. The camera would provide something they could look at and brainstorm over or send to someone who could figure it out faster.

"Let me tell Carter and Miranda." Parker slung the bag over his shoulder. "Usually this stuff waits til night fall, but they should know in case we don't make it back."

Lloyd nodded. Carter could sling stuff hard, and Miranda had a way with air. He didn't see how their abilities could help except to move the fog away in some fashion. He didn't think that would stop what was going to happen.

The fog felt like the demon atmosphere he had fought through when they inherited the house. Even pushing some of it back wouldn't stop the spillover he felt was coming.

"Hey guys." Parker walked away. He found Carter Malone in the kitchen building a sandwich the size of his shaggy head. Carter looked like a bear in build, and temperament, and ate like one too. "Hey Carter. Lloyd thinks we're about to have trouble. We're going out to get another look. Would you mind buttoning down the house until we get back?"

"How big are we talking about, Park?" Malone started putting ingredients back in the fridge since he had everything put together.

"We're thinking a big gate that will cover the whole town." Parker knew better to mince words, and found that he didn't like to now that his new gift pointed out stresses to him almost everywhere he looked.

"Marvelous." Malone sliced his sandwich in half. "Don't worry. We'll still be here when you get back."

"Thanks." Parker left, looking around for Miranda. He found her looking at stocks she was managing on her computer, a HP desktop model with printer and fax in a room converted to be her office. She didn't look that happy.

"Lloyd and I are checking into some possible trouble." Parker winced at the look she gave him. "You might want to shut things down, or start saving them, or something."

"Possible trouble?" Miranda Rambo brushed back loose strands of her dark hair that had fallen over her heart-shaped face. Brown eyes glared over a thin nose. She always seemed to be frowning whenever Parker watched her moving around the house.

She could break hearts if she smiled just once.

"I'm hoping it's something small." Parker smiled. "Lloyd thinks it's a city wide gate that will unleash a flood of demons."

Miranda started shutting her computer down.

Parker and Lloyd took Dundee's car, camera and laptop stowed in the back seat. Parker had been a delivery driver before earning his quarter of the inheritance. He took to the road a little above the speed limit, passing a walker on the road by cutting into the other lane.

"Head east, Parker." Lloyd had his window down, head hanging out slightly to take in the air. "You'll see what I'm talking about once we hit the town limits."

"No problem." Parker cut through slower moving traffic, eyes open for sheriffs. In about ten minutes, he pulled off the road and got out. His nose wasn't as sharp as Lloyd's, but he could smell something in the air. He had smelt that same odor when he invaded Hell to stop the attack in the house's basement.

Lloyd got out the other side, looking around, sniffing the air. His hair stood on end, his other side coming to the fore. Amber eyes glared for an enemy to rip apart.

"Let me set up the camera." Parker pulled his bag out of the back seat between the front seats. "Maybe it'll see stuff we can't."

Lloyd grunted, fur running up his exposed arms and face. Fangs grew for biting and ripping. Something wrong was there. His changing was proof enough for that.

Parker pointed the camera at the surroundings after hooking it up to his lap top. He could save the footage for search purposes later. He took about five minutes of footage, turning the camera slowly to get a 360-degree view of everything.

"This place stinks of demons." Parker turned in a circle again. "Let's take a couple more shots along the line and see what we can find."

Lloyd piled in the car, rolling his window up. Being on the move seemed better than sitting there and watching for whatever it was coming for them.

Dundee stowed the equipment before getting behind the wheel. He worked his way west, stopping every ten miles or so to take pictures. The smell got worse the later it got. He thought that it wouldn't be long before something happened.

"Let's get back to the house before something happens." Parker headed home. "If it doesn't happen tonight, I'm sure it won't be long."

"Full-fledged invasion?" Lloyd turned the air conditioning up with the vents closed to the outside air.

"It's looking bad but we really don't know anything." Parker shrugged, thinking about the angles. "This could just be a small thing with a big side effect."

A really big side effect Parker figured considering the amount of driving they had done for their fact finding.

Lloyd huffed in disagreement. He had a nose for this sort of thing, and his nose was telling him they were in a battle for the whole town. He just didn't see how they could protect everyone. People were going to die soon.

Parker pulled into the driveway beside Malone's pickup. He grabbed his bag as Lloyd shut the gate behind them. Whatever was coming would get on the grounds if they wanted to do that badly enough. The gate was just a momentary inconvenience that might buy them precious time later.

Besides it kept the neighborhood kids out for the most part.

Parker led the way up the steps they had redid in concrete, grabbing the repainted railing leading up to the porch. They had put a lot of work into making the house livable. He wasn't going to let that go to waste. They were going to stop this thing, whatever it was.

"Hey!" Parker opened the door, looking for Malone and Miranda. "We're home."

Carter appeared, his new battle vest stretched tight over his bear frame. A smile split his shaggy features.

"What you got, guys?" His voice rumbled across the empty space.

"We don't know yet." Parker started for the living room. "It does smell bad. Even I could smell it."

"Everything's been quiet here." Malone scratched his head. "Miranda went to her room."

Parker nodded as he hooked his lap top to the television. She had been taking classes in something since they had entered the house of the twins. He didn't know what exactly, but thought it was some kind of self defense course.

He did notice that her control over her gift was sharper than he had thought. Maybe she was teaching herself things other than defense. The flame throwing trick she had taught herself was awesome in his opinion.

They had all learned some tricks to use with their talents like Malone's new vest. It had about twenty loops down the front. Protective plates went inside the stitching. The loops held simple bars of metal they had manufactured from junk yard heaps. If there wasn't anything to throw nearby, he could pull one of those bars and blast away.

A bulletproof vest that doubled as a bandolier went perfectly with the way he liked to wade into things.

Lloyd, Parker, and Carter went over the footage shot at the town limits. It should have been scenes of empty countryside. For the most part, it was. The differences were what stood out to the three heirs.

"So it looks like an invasion to me." Parker froze one of the strange frames. Large eyes stared at the camera. They were familiar eyes to all of the men in the room.

"I thought we took care of that demon prince guy." Carter scratched his head. "I shot a hole clean through him."

"This might be the second string." Miranda Rambo said from the door. "After all, Harry Carey waited for a long time trying to stop the original invasion. They must have built another bridge trying to get around him."

The three men turned at the sound of her voice. She wore army surplus fatigues and jacket, with hair pulled back in a scrunchy. She held a quiver full of arrows and a simple bow. She didn't quite smile at the look on their faces.

"Figured I should get a real weapon since I don't like to let monsters get close." Miranda put the bag and bow on a chair.

"Sylvester Stallone would be proud." Parker smiled.

"Shut it, Dundee." Miranda did smile then, bright and brief. "What's the game plan, boys?"

"I have to agree that he has a new bridge if it's the same guy." Parker ran the footage forward at a slower pace. "We have two options as far as I can tell. We have to find out who sold their soul for that bridge. Or we wait until they come to us and do what we can."

"I vote for finding the guy." Carter put some tobacco leaves in his mouth, and started to chew. "Then we can punch him in the eye for being stupid."

"I second the punching in the eye." Miranda pulled out a map of the town. "How do we get started?"

"We start by finding the highest degree of stench." Parker stopped the video. "That's where our guy will be."

"I can't do that." Lloyd shook his head. "I can't narrow it down. It all smells the same to me."

"That means we wait for whatever happens to happen." Dundee frowned. "I don't like that at all."

"We can patrol." Miranda spread the map out for the others to see the layout of the town. "This is where the house is. This is the town limits. We can drive around the town line and try to keep things to a minimum."

"That's odd." Parker stared at the map. "Really odd."

"What's odd?" Miranda stared at him, then looked at the map again.

"I don't see it, Park." Malone glared at the map too, taller than the both of them.

Parker grabbed a pencil, looking at the map. He checked directions with a finger. Then he started writing on the map with short moves of the pencil.

"Our house is here." A circle marked the address on the paper. "The main roads for town go right by and meet at the end of our block. That means anyone trying to get across the town to the other side of the county has to pass in front, or to the left side. That can't be an accident."

"You're saying Carey planned for this." Malone looked at the diagram. "They're coming here from all sides."

"That sounds so crazy it has to be true." Miranda shrugged at the looks the others gave her. "Someone had to say it. Might as well be me."

"I know it sounds crazy." Parker drew circles where he and Lloyd taped. No place was further than one mile from one of those roads. "I just think it fits Carey's style."

"Let me see if I got this right since I'm feeling a little slow in the head." Malone spit juice into a bottle he kept for that. He threw them into an incinerator when they were full. "Harry Carey, mysterious man of mystery, assembled four weapons. He left us the weapons and this house with the terms being we had to live here. And he did that because he knew about the first attempt to build a bridge, and now this fog thing. That's what we're saying."

"That is the best summation of a problem I have ever heard in my whole life." Parker beamed. "I couldn't have said it better myself."

"That does not make me feel better, Park." Malone glared at his colleague.

"The only exception I see is Carey knew this was coming long before we were born." Miranda nodded. "He waited on us to be here. That should make you feel better."

Malone looked at Lloyd Nolan. The slimmer man shrugged. The amber eyes looking back at the bigger man laughed.

"Where does that leave us as far as the invading demon army thing goes?" Malone spat again.

"It leaves us looking for more information." Parker shut his laptop down. "Time for another visit to the library."

The four heirs divided the papers they had gathered in the months they had been living at the house. They began to read. Carey had planned for them. He might have left some kind of clue on how to stop the growing menace.

"I don't remember seeing this before." Parker held up papers with a set of diagrams on it. "This looks like the town."

Parker spread the drawings out for the others to examine. He squinted at the first one he had found. One finger picked out what looked like the house in the center of the crossroads. The notes in the margins consisted of short, block letters. He frowned at them, not comprehending their meaning in his first glance.

"It looks like a treasure map." Malone indicated a fragment with a wind direction written down on it.

"We don't have a lot of time to figure this out." Parker bumped two of the papers on top of each other by accident. He stared at the result. "It is a treasure map."

He took the scattered papers, and stacked them one on top of the other. His hands held them up to the ceiling light so that it shone through the accumulated sheets. He smiled at the discovery.

"It's a map of the town with markers where the demons will coalesce." Parker frowned. "It also says they will kill anybody they catch to make their bridges stronger and permanent. A lot of people in town will die if they get loose on the streets."

"It's worse than that, Park." Malone's voice drifted down from over his shoulder. "The house is the prime target again. Once they have a permanent spot, the next thing they'll do is try to get the house so they can spread out without interference."

"So our options boil down to try and stop them from getting a foothold, and waiting for them to come get us." Miranda frowned. "I'm not happy with either of those."

"Except with Carey's notes, we know exactly where they will be crossing over." Parker put the papers down on the desk. He pulled out a pad and pen, copying addresses. "We can meet them and deal with them before they become too much of a problem."

"We need to talk about this optimism thing you got going on, Park." Malone shook his head. "It's going to get you killed one day."

"I admit I'm not happy with the odds." Dundee tore out the sheet of pad paper he had written on, and split it four ways. "On the other hand, I really think we can do it if we can catch them before they really get started."

"We fall back to the house if we can't stop them?" Malone took his fragment, and put it in his shirt pocket. "I assume we make fighting retreats back to the door."

"Goes without saying." Miranda looked at her own strip before putting it in her pocket. "They'll overrun us before we take six steps if the last time is any indication."

Parker looked at his three friends. They were the first people he had met who would put everything on the line for him. He didn't know what to say, and definitely didn't want them seeing him cry. He could feel his eyes watering and fought the tears down before the others said something about it.

"Let's go do some damage." He headed for the door with his own address in his pocket with his pad and pen.

Mercifully the others held back any comments on his choice of words. Parker's talent sheered through anything in its way like the axe of Shiva. If any of them did some damage, his would do the most once he got close enough to apply it.

The heirs split up at the driveway as they got into their vehicles and pulled away one by one. Parker led the way out with his two door. He backed out on the street, and was on his way before Malone and Miranda could get their own cars moving down the concrete strip.

Lloyd rode out last on his motorcycle, taking the time to close the gate after he exited the grounds. He didn't think the iron bars would hold anything back. The gesture just made him feel better. The wolf man turned and headed toward his designated post, goggles over his eyes.

Dundee reached his spot, parked on the side of the road. He hoped he hadn't made a mistake asking the others to split up and cover the rest of the anchor points. He had lied about the need in any case.

All the demons were coming to where he was standing.

There might be some peripheral damage that should be dealt with, but Carey's notes had made it clear to his eyes what was going to happen. The demons needed to secure the biggest node before they could advance into town. There was only one of those. And Parker happened to be standing right where the door would open for them.

He didn't plan to let them succeed.

Parker looked up and down the road, smelling the taint rising in the faint wind. His hands crackled as he flexed them, everything becoming numbers like a dart board, or shooting range targets. Calm wrapped around the heir as he waited. He had split his friends off to protect them.

He did plan to do that.

The mist came in slowly, creeping along like a gray cat. It forced Parker's numbers to climb to impenetrable tens. He waited just inside the border for the first demon to cross into the real world. Then his work would begin.

He idly wondered how many he would have to kill before he disrupted the necklace they wanted to tie around the town like a noose. He flexed his hands again as he walked to just beyond arm's reach from the mist.

Soon it would be time to go to work again.

Parker Dundee waited patiently, knowing he had taken the right course. He could not let his friends be hurt in what was almost certainly going to be a battle. Since they were safe from the killing ground, he could watch out for himself without worrying.

And if he did get killed, they wouldn't be able to get on his case.

The mist congealed into a narrow strip of darkness and fire in front of him. Roars of pleasure reached his ears through that thin door. It didn't look that bad a defensive zone. He only had to hold them until sun up. How hard could that be?

Parker killed the first demon with a poke in the eye. It hadn't expected any resistance, much less anything lethal to its Minotaur-like anatomy. The door widened as it fell to the asphalt. The heir realized his mistake instantly.

The more demons that could make it across, the wider the door would open. The first demon had fallen on the line. The narrow strip grew as wide as Parker's outstretched arms. It wasn't enough just to kill them, he had to make sure they fell on the other side of the line. That might be harder than he had thought.

Maybe he should have risked the others after all.

Parker punched the next two in the chest, pulling out what could have been their hearts. His blows knocked them back into the line trying to reach the real world. That was much better. He dropped the hearts into the brimstone before pulling his hands back. He had an idea that even body parts would help widen the door.

Too bad he wasn't super strong like Lloyd. Then he could pick up the first demon and shove it back home.

Parker forced another one back across the border line with kicks to its eight legs. He sheared through an arm, broke a jaw, and ripped a wing off. He took a breath and regretted the smell that filled his nose.

He was going to lose. His talent marked out weak points for him. It also told him that as long as the demons could keep pressing him, the door would swing wider no matter how many he killed. The only way to shut things down was on the other side.

And if he did that, the town would be flooded before he could reach the focus that allowed the demons to cross over.

He sliced through a flock of leathery birds with both hands as he thought about what he needed to do. He couldn't sacrifice the whole town on a last ditch chance. That couldn't have been what Carey wanted.

Parker stood on the line, hands working on their own. The numbers in his vision marked zeroes over where he should hit, and his limbs did the rest. Demonic slime crowded at his feet as the bodies melted when he was done with his swings. A glance to either side told him that he was being forced back on the street.

His talents marked weak points, but couldn't handle an army on its own. He should have told the others what was going to happen. He had made them as helpless as he was.

They were waiting at their posts where he had sent them on their own. They might be able to hold off part of the army like he was doing, but none of them singly could stop the thing.

Something with spiked tentacles wrapped around his leg while he was shearing a moving tree in half. He went down, stunned and rapidly losing blood. He ripped the offending limb apart but he still had wounds running in a circle around his leg. More tentacles extended out of the door to finish the job.

A ball of superheated matter passed over Parker's head as he tried to get back to his feet. Screams answered the volley. The heir looked around, surprised at whom he saw coming down the road.

But he knew that he shouldn't have been surprised at all.

"You are such a terrible liar." Miranda Rambo pulled an arrow from the quiver hanging from her hip. She notched it on the string of the bow she had been practicing with the last few weeks. When she released the missile, a tail wind punched it clear through a misshapen head like a bullet.

"I have to agree, Park." Malone pulled another bar from his vest, compressing it in his hands. "You can't lie worth spit."

Lloyd Nolan jumped over Parker, swinging with both arms. Ichor flew as dagger like claws ripped demons apart. His amber eyes reproached Parker enough without him actually saying anything.

"Get him out of the way, Lloyd." Miranda drew another arrow. "We need clear shots."

The werewolf slung Parker over his shoulder, clawing with the other hand before jumping clear of the portal. As soon as he was clear, Miranda and Malone started firing projectiles into the door at any target unlucky enough to get in their sights.

"We have to keep them from coming across." Parker winced as his leg shot pain through his body.

"We're handling it, Parker." Malone spit juice on the ground as he reached for another metal bar.

The four heirs stood in front of the gate into the underworld. Well, Parker sat, ripping the tattered leg of his pants away from the wounds in his leg. He winced at the holes traveling around his thigh and lower leg.

"Looks nasty, Park." Malone fired compressed bar after bar into the gate. He hoped he was doing something but he couldn't really see if he was hitting anything once the spheres crossed the border line. "That's what you get for trying to do things on your own."

"Malone's right." Miranda knelt by Parker, putting her bow on the ground. "You deserved it."

"Do you two mind?" Parker grimaced at the blood leaking from the holes. He might bleed to death before the gate closed.

At least then he wouldn't be around to hear them harping about leaving them behind.

Still, that had been a bad idea. He should have thought about it a little more.

"Let me." Miranda pulled out her lighter, flicked the flame to life. "This is going to hurt a lot."

"Do it." Parker closed his eyes. He realized what she was going to do as soon as the flame hung in the air. Pain wrapped his leg again, more intense than the actual wounding. He hoped she left enough to walk on after this was over.

"That should do it to stop the bleeding." Miranda sounded happy through the blur that Parker felt. "We'll have to get you to a doctor to check the leg out if we live."

"We have to get across and find their anchor like we did the last time." Parker found he couldn't stand. "Once we do that the gate will close."

"First we have to clear a way through to do that." Malone hipshot a mass of something that he couldn't decide what was the most defining feature. "I don't see how we're going to do that."

"Use my car." Parker looked at his Nissan. "That should give you enough to knock down all these little guys."

"I don't think I can." Malone waited for Miranda to start firing arrows into the mess to hold back the onslaught. He wondered how many demons were turning into goo on the other side. They had certainly killed enough of them in the last few minutes.

Malone grabbed the car, activating his power. The fender started to compress, but he could see that his ability was pulling the section off the rest of the body. His power only worked on single objects and a car was a mass of parts welded together. He would pull the fender off before he absorbed the rest of the car.

Malone looked at the gate. He couldn't do the whole car at one shot but he could do the parts of the car until he reached his limit. He knew that he could only compress so much before he started hurting himself. He thought of it as loading too much in a catapult bucket. Eventually the arm will break.

Still he could hurl at least half a car with his ability if he could hold each piece for a bit.

Malone glanced over at the gate. Miranda had run out of arrows. She had to use flames from her lighter to fuel a flamethrower. Lloyd was a furry shadow, slicing with the daggers he called fingernails. They couldn't expect to hold out long with Parker down, and Malone busy.

He would have to hurry.

Malone worked his hand down the side of the car. Ripping sounds accompanied his movement as the steel came away and shrank into spinning globes in his hand. Loose parts that hadn't fallen under his influence clattered to the ground. He judged he had roughly the whole passenger side of the car in his hand as he turned to the gate.

"Get out of the way, guys." Malone pointed his giant shotgun at the floating hole. "I'm coming through."

Lloyd pulled Miranda out of the way with one long arm. He jumped clear with a savage grin. Demons started to cross in peace until a variety of spheres sliced into them with ease. Screams spoke of unseen wounded as the projectiles kept going until their energy was spent.

"That worked good, Park." Malone went to the other side of the car, and started compressing that. It was a lot easier with the other half simply gone. "Let's see what happens when I use the other side."

Malone left a small collection of spare parts on the ground when he was done. They had fallen out of the engine, and there was no telling where they were supposed to go. That didn't matter at the moment. All that mattered was he had another load for his shotgun, and he could fire at point blank range at the invaders.

You couldn't wish for more than that.

Malone released the different sized spheres into the crowd he could sense trying to come up into the real world. He grinned at the sounds that resembled surprise and fear. He didn't know how many he had hit but the gate shrank back to its narrow origins.

He pulled a bar and took a blind shot, hoping to just add to their misery before they could regroup and try to climb back to where he stood.

"We have to try something else." Parker looked around. "We'll never be able to hold them off the whole time the gate is active. They have the numbers to wear us down."

"Open to suggestions." Malone stepped back, waiting for the next guy to step through. He would turn that demon into a bullet.

"Let's start with a wall." Miranda concentrated. A wall snapped out of the road to block the gate for the moment. "That should buy us some time before they can break it down."

Parker Dundee thought furiously, trying to ignore the pain in his leg. He had an idea the limb had been poisoned and he would lose it, or his life. That problem had to wait its turn. He still had to think of a way to close the gate down and save the town and his friends.

The only idea that attracted his attention was the thought that someone had to get to the head of the invasion and cut it off. He just didn't think any of them could do that. They would have to battle an army on its home turf.

Parker concentrated, smacking his injured leg with the edge of his hand before hopping over to the wall constructed from asphalt. Someone had to go in and deal with things. Since he didn't think he would survive much longer, it might as well be him. He brought his hand down on his leg again, relishing the burning he felt for the first time.

It was telling him he was still alive and able to fight.

"All right, guys." Parker braced himself in front of the wall, checking his watch. "We have a bunch of hours until daybreak. I'm going in and seeing if I can find the head guy. You guys should stay and make sure nothing gets through while I'm gone."

"I think you're off your rocker." Malone moved his ammunition around so he could grab it faster. "No way can you deal with all those guys on your own."

"Malone is right, Dundee." Miranda put her empty quiver and bow away in the back of her car. "You don't stand a chance."

"I'm open to suggestions." Dundee hopped around, trying to get his leg to work right.

"I'm the one who should go." Nolan winced at everyone looking at him. The immediate danger had passed so his more formidable werewolf persona had faded for the moment. "I'm the only one who can get pass the army, the only one who can track the guy down, and the only one here who has a chance of getting back."

"How do you want to work this, Lloyd?" Parker didn't want to risk anyone else, but knew the other heir was right. Malone would go down in a second once his arms were restrained. Miranda could keep the demons at bay but for how long? Nolan's other self was very fast and deadly, and he had some ability to defend himself with his hands before unlocking Carey's gift to him.

"Pull the wall out of the way long enough for me to go across." Lloyd smiled. "If I make it back, I'll knock three times."

"One of us should go with you, Lloyd." Malone frowned as he measured the odds.

"None of you could keep up." Nolan walked to the wall. He gave Dundee a nudge to get him out of the way. "Drop the wall so we can get on with this."

"I can do better than that." Malone reached out with his hand to touch the wall. "Get ready, Miranda. You'll have to put up another one as soon as Lloyd goes across."

"I'm on record for saying this is a dumb idea." Miranda's thin face seemed even sharper as she glared at the other three heirs. "I can't believe I have such suicidal roommates."

"I'll come back." Lloyd's amber eyes glittered. "Let's go ahead before I decide to hide in my room."

Malone nodded, calling on his power. The wall compressed in his grip, breaking off at a fault line. He didn't try to hold it. The ball cut a line through the demons trying to get through to the Earth. It was a small hole, but it was perfect for Lloyd to leap through the gate with claws slicing through anything in his way. Parker and Malone closed from the sides to keep the overspill from making landfall before Miranda raised another wall and sealed the gate back up.

"I hope we didn't send Lloyd to his execution." Miranda leaned against her car on the side of the road.

"I hope we didn't send the whole town with him." Parker sat down. He checked his leg again, frowning at the purple threading along under his skin. "All we can do now is wait and try to keep the demons back if they break the wall down."

"We need to get you to a hospital, Park." Malone grimaced at the purple stripe. "It won't do us any good to win if you die with Lloyd."

"I'm not going anywhere until we know that Lloyd succeeded." Parker slapped his leg again with the edge of his hand. "After that I'll go to the ER and lie about how I got this."

"Lloyd might not come back, Dundee." Miranda walked over to inspect the leg after hunkering down beside Parker. "What will we do then, mastermind?"

"I'll wait, just like I would if you guys had gone over instead." Parker grimaced as she poked the painful limb with a finger. "I'll wait because someone needs to be here to help fight in case he doesn't come back."

"That's good for a war movie." Miranda began to massage the leg. "If the fight does start again, I'll be glad to throw you at the first demon I see."

"What you doing, Randy?" Malone found himself moving between the two of them and the wall.

"Randy?" Parker tried to hide a grin as intense pain warned him not to upset the person with her hands on his wounds.

"Don't call me that." Miranda pulled out her lighter. "This is going to hurt a lot."

Purple ichor leaked from the points in Parker's leg. Miranda set fire to it with the lighter, controlling the flame as she gestured with the other hand. The leg returned to a normal pale appearance as the venom rolled into the flame.

Finally normal looking blood started running from the round wounds. Miranda smiled as she cut the lighter off and used concrete as a bandage.

"You were right." Parker flexed his leg, wincing but feeling better than he had a few moments before. "That hurt like I don't know what."

"Next time, don't run off on your own." Miranda made sure the stiff cast was in place with a painful slap.

Lloyd Nolan growled as he sliced through demons with his claws as he fought his way down the invading army's stream. Body parts rained down as he sent pieces of demon out of the jet they were using to get to the door.

Why didn't they just build steps? That seemed easier to his mind than trying to ride an invisible escalator.

Lloyd hit the base point of the escalator, slicing anything that came close. He might have been too confident in his wolf senses. He had thought he could track down the mastermind with his nose. He found that everything smelled the same.

More fighters came up to where he was disrupting the line. Everything else was throwing themselves against the asphalt door above. These seemed geared to taking him down as he pushed more and more of the demons off the stepping stone and into the abyss.

They were in for a long fall from the looks of things.

Lloyd picked up something that looked like a turtle and threw it at the guards. One of them fell off the floating islands they were using to cross to where he stood. The other screamed something at the werewolf.

Lloyd leaped across the distance to land right in front of the guard. The demon froze for a second before raising a club for a hand. Pieces of him drifted down to join his fellows on the long trip to the bottom of the underworld.

Lloyd howled as his instincts became more bloodthirsty and threatened to explode out of his skin. His eyes spotted more of the club hands leaping across the floating archipelago. He noted their direction of travel. That was the way he would have to go if he wanted to deal with the real enemy. He jumped to the next block, scattering small fry everywhere with his landing.

At least the demons trying to invade stuck to orders and didn't interfere with him unless they got too close and decided to act on their own initiative. That made things easier for him as he reached the first club hand and split him apart with one swipe.

Lloyd cleaved the next one the same way before he jumped three of the floating islands to land on the biggest in the area that he could see. More of the clubbers had turned to try and catch up with him. A massive throne sat at the other end of the island. A demon prince sat on it, glaring at the werewolf with red sparks of eyes. Ebony skin burned the hellish air around him as he stood up. A sword answered his summons as Nolan cleared a fighting circle around himself.

"So we meet again." The prince swept his sword in a tight circle at his side. "I can't believe my luck."

Neither can I.

The last time Parker had reached into the Prince's chest and pulled out a contract after Malone had used a compressed island on him. Lloyd didn't think it was going to be that easy with just him trying to get the job done.

"I guess I shouldn't expect pleas for mercy after what happened the last time." The prince walked closer, swinging his sword in front of him. "Still it would be nice to hear you beg."

Lloyd noted that none of the lesser demons approached as the prince readied himself. Amber eyes simply looked at the head demon, as claws spread to answer the sword's threat.

"You must be very confident to think you can stand up to me, human." The prince nodded his horned head. "It'll be a pleasure to send you to the pit for eternal torment."

Lloyd waited, letting his senses reach out for him. He had an idea. He didn't know if it was a good idea, or not. But everything was telling him the prince expected trouble and had prepared for it so he wouldn't be foiled the same way as he had been when Parker had ripped him apart.

The contract for the invasion wasn't anywhere in the underworld.

Lloyd considered the idea while he waited for the prince to make a move. Either way he sliced it, he would have to do something to the head demon to take him out of the action while he looked for the contract. It would have to be something so devastating that he could take time to look for the agreement.

Of course he had to be right about where the paper was in the first place.

"Don't tell me you're frozen in fear." The demon swept closer, swinging with the sword. The silent Lloyd should be screaming instead of standing there, long ears swiveling like radio dish antennae.

The sword of carved stone sliced down, a white triangle forming the blade. It cut through the air harmlessly. Lloyd had ducked it, then charged forward. His taloned hands seized demon arm and body to make the sword stab its owner before he could pull away. Long claws blinded the prince with his own blood before Nolan ripped his throat out with the other hand.

Lloyd knew that wasn't a lethal blow. Malone had compressed the same demon and sent him spiraling across the netherworld. If he could come back from that, then he would certainly heal what Nolan had done. First he would have to find his head. One chop of the sword and two kicks sent the body parts falling into space.

Time to get back to the others.

Lloyd Nolan had an easier time getting back to the door than he had fighting his way down to the base island. All he had to do was get in line, and send demons in front of him over the edge. Some of them were big enough to resist any pushing, until he started using their weight to drag down their comrades.

Lloyd reached the wall in front of the gate. Cracks mangled it from where demons in front of him had hit and broke pieces off before slipping off the stream and having to fall to the next one erupting from the pit far below. The wolf cleared a space to work with his talons.

It was time to put an end to this scheme. Nolan hoped he was right about his guess. Otherwise, it was going to be a short comeback.

Nolan grabbed the wall with his massive wolf hands. He pushed on it with his great strength. The asphalt crumbled out of the way. Lloyd stuck his furry fingers through before Miranda could seal the gate again. The animated road moved out of his way to let him by.

Dundee and Malone grabbed Lloyd's arms to pull him through while Miranda pushed the wall back in place. One small imp tried to get by and smashed against the compressed tar as it blocked everything off again.

"What did you find out, Lloyd?" Dundee hopped on his still painful leg, letting the werewolf's arm go before dragging him down.

"Our old friend from the first night at the house is behind this." Nolan let his other persona slip away for the moment. "The link isn't over there. They hid it over here somehow."

"Where?" Dundee thought about that, not questioning Lloyd's assumption. Instead he calculated things based on that as a fact. He wasn't pleased with how they added up.

"I don't know." Nolan grimaced. "I didn't take the time to ask Mr. Horns where he put it."

"We have to ask ourselves what he would do." Parker closed his eyes. He thought about everything that had happened so far to them since they had inherited Carey's house and his problems. He pictured the notes they had gone over as if he was reading them for the first time in the library. He saw something there, glimmering into a partial answer. It seemed the only explanation.

Dundee inspected the logic chain for any flaws before he said anything to his companions.

"These demons and Carey were at it for a long time before Carey died. Carey actually bought the house they were going to use for their first invasion to foil them. Maybe they saw that and decided they needed a back up plan. Their agent had plenty of time to do things before we were notified and set up as heirs." Dundee opened his eyes, smiling. "Their contract has to be back at the house."

"I get it." Malone smiled. "There was a chance we would win so they hedged their bets. But as long as they're trying to get in here, we're stuck."

"We'll have to split up." Dundee thought about it, and didn't like the options. "Miranda and Malone will have to stay here to keep things under wraps. Lloyd and I will have to go back to the house and look around."

"Go do it, but hurry up." Malone spat tobacco juice on the ground. "We'll hold them as long as we can on our own."

"I don't like that plan at all." Miranda worked on her wall some more.

"I don't like it either." Dundee looked at her thin face. Resolve glared back at him. He was more scared of her than any demon he might face. "We can't leave the gate undefended and someone has to make sure Lloyd's right. And Lloyd is the one with the super sniffer."

"And you're going because?" Miranda crossed her arms.

"If you have to run, I'll slow you down." Dundee pointed to his bum leg. "And I want you to run if you have to. Don't stay and slug it out."

"You don't have to worry about that, Park." Malone spat again. "If those things do get through, I'll grab the missy and tote her off under my arm if I have to."

"You'll be wearing your hat where the sun doesn't shine if you try." Miranda turned her eagle eyes on him for a moment. "Don't worry, Dundee. We'll get out of here if we have to."

"Cool beans." Parker smiled. "We'll find the contract and get rid of it as fast as we can."

"Call either way." Malone looked at the wall. "We'll meet up at the pizza place in town if things go south."

"No excuses." Miranda turned her gaze to the wall also. "Call, then meet us there."

"Don't worry." Nolan went to his bike. "I'll look after him for you."

"What did you say?" Miranda turned her gaze on the wolf man.

Nolan started his bike and turned it to go back to the house. He waited for Parker to throw a leg over the seat before taking off. The bike roared as it careened away down the road. Dundee waved before they vanished in the night.

"Does something strike you as funny?" Malone spat again.

"No." Miranda thought for a second. "We haven't seen anyone on the road since we came out here."

"I thought the same thing." Malone looked around. "I know small towns roll up the carpet early but shouldn't we have seen someone coming down the road?"

"Maybe they felt something was up and decided to wait at home until the storm was over." Miranda picked up a walking stick she had gotten from somewhere that she couldn't remember the name. "Like earthquake weather when animals go nuts because they know something is about to happen."

"I hope it stays like this." Malone went to his truck to get more ammo. "I don't want to deal with people while we're waiting for hell to bust loose."

"Tell me about it."

The house loomed up out of the fog like an angry watchman. Dundee and Nolan knew something was wrong. They just couldn't see what. Nolan sniffed the air as he rolled to a stop in front of the closed gate.

"Demons." Nolan dropped the kick-stand as he and Dundee swung off the bike. "They're inside the wall."

"We have to deal with them if we want to find where they hid the contract." Dundee hopped to the gate. "Unless you can smell the thing from here."

"Let's see what we can do." Nolan hopped the wall with one easy vault, using his long arms as a fulcrum. He vanished into the grounds, leaving Dundee to stare after him.

Dundee grabbed the gate and pulled on it. It refused to budge. The bars resembled a grinning face, laughing at his efforts. Parker stepped back to examine things more closely.

Parker brought his hands down. The gate grimaced as the double blow smashed it aside. Dundee stepped on the grounds. His eyes roved the lawn as he headed for the house. That's where he would start looking for the contract and the demons.

Lloyd had already vanished, moving with his incredible speed. He probably had locked on the demons and was heading right to them. Hopefully he wasn't getting in over his head.

Dundee couldn't match that with two good legs. He hobbled along to the front door. He saw several places that seemed good for ambushes. No one jumped out at him as he put his key in the front door and stepped inside.

Parker decided the best place to start looking was the basement. That was where the earlier invasion had taken place. That was where he had ripped the demon prince's heart out with his bare hands. It seemed logical that was where they would hide the contract for this secondary invasion.

After that he would search the library again. That was where the lawyer under the demon's control had read the will to them. Those two places seemed the best choices to start with but if he turned up empty, he would have to expand to places they hadn't gotten around to fixing up yet.

They had worked on repairing the house as much as possible, but Parker knew it was still a work in progress. The contract could be hidden in any one of those places. He could be there all night without Lloyd's nose.

Dundee walked down the hall, alert for trouble as he approached the door to the basement. They had decided not to repair the stairs destroyed by Malone. It was just in case they had talked over in case the door opened again.

It looked like they were right not to invest in the wood and labor for it.

Dundee threw open the door. He glanced around the open area. Nothing jumped out at him. He stretched out and pulled the door shut. Time to look around the library again.

He doubted there would be anything there with the amount of time they had already spent in there looking around. The contract would have to be in a spot where they hadn't looked ever. He doubted there was such a place.

Where was Lloyd?

He didn't like walking through the house when he should be making sure Miranda was okay. He wanted to be there. He knew it was better to find the contract and make sure it was destroyed. It just didn't feel right.

Dundee paused at the threshold of the library. The lights were on. He was sure he had cut them off. He habitually did that. His roommates left lights burning all over the place. And he went behind them and cut everything off.

Dundee shoved the door open with his foot. He made sure to stand to one side in case something with a long reach waited for him. He realized he was wrong about the lights being on. Instead someone had put a vat of fire in the middle of the library. Misty streams boiled slowly from the books on the shelves and drifted down to the open cauldron.

That was something you didn't see every day.

Parker decided to walk in slowly. He could feel the pressure inside the door frame trying to keep normal air out. The library must have been abducted for the container of fire to be placed inside. He didn't like the thought of that. A room shouldn't be subject to an extradimensional crossing without the owner's permission.

Parker sniffed the air. He didn't have Nolan's nose but he recognized the smell of sulphur anywhere. The room was full of it. The only question was where were the demons that should be there to stop him from smashing the vat?

Dundee looked around as he started toward the burning fog. His vision distorted, the numbers jumping wildly as he swung his head. That hadn't happened before. Something else must be going on besides what he could see.

The heir held out a hand toward the vat. Ribbons of light screamed around the vat, faces forming and dissolving with a speed so fast he doubted what he saw. Of course the vat would be booby-trapped against anyone touching it.

He looked back toward the door. He wasn't pleased to find the door was gone. He was locked in with the vat and its protection until someone let him out. That couldn't be good.

Lloyd Nolan circled around the back of the house. His nose told him where to go. Sounds of digging drifted to his ears. Burying, or exhumation?

The four demons glaring at him growled. He growled back, with his wolf aspect baring fangs almost the equal to theirs. The hole in the ground sat right where Miranda wanted a pool. Now she had a start on that.

The four demons jumped out of the hole as Nolan charged across the yard. Various sounds of displeasure roared across the miniature battlefield. Then Nolan blocked, ripped one, kicked the next, ripped the faces of the last two with both hands. He turned to the survivor, grabbing it by a long neck.

"English, do you speak it?" Nolan squeezed its neck with choking force. "Nod your head."

The demon nodded its horse head.

"Do you know how to stop this?" Lloyd kept his grip firm, but loosened enough for it to talk.

"We will never stop until the human worlds are ours." The demon's voice sounded like a buzz saw to Lloyd. "This is only the first in the line to fall."

"Wrong answer." Lloyd ripped its face off. "I don't have time for halfwits."

Lloyd examined the hole in the ground. A wooden chest sat at the bottom of the pit. It was plain and sealed with a large padlock. He ripped it open with a shrug of his shoulders. A cylinder of wax sat in a wooden cradle at the bottom of the box.

This might be what they needed.

Now he had to find Parker and get back to the gate. That should be easy enough.

Lloyd wandered to the front of the house, scenting the air. Dundee must have gone in while he ran to the back of the house to deal with the intruders. That usually meant trouble. Parker's talent cut to the heart of matters which led him to the center of places where he shouldn't be on his own.

That meant that someone had to go in and help him out of whatever trouble he had gotten into.

Lloyd made a note to talk to him about that.

Lloyd opened the door and went inside the house. It looked like the demons hadn't entered here yet. Still, there was a taint to the air. He wondered where it came from.

Lloyd followed the air to the library. His keen ears detected the sound of impacts behind the door. Dundee was in action. His moves had a distinctive cracking sound. To Lloyd's ears, they sounded like glass breaking.

Nolan pushed the door open. One glance inside told him the whole story. Parker had bodies littered around him, dissolving into ectoplasm. A vat of green fire glowed in the center of the room. There had to be a trap somewhere.

Lloyd tucked the cylinder in his belt, took his jacket off and used that to block the door. He didn't want it to close and trap him inside before he figured out what that vat was about. He grabbed the nearest shadow thing and ripped it apart.

"Parker, we need to talk about your getting into trouble." Lloyd walked over to the vat, ripping everything that tried to grab him. "I don't think we should have to rescue you all the time."

"It's not my fault." Dundee slapped two of the defenders away with simple swings of his arms. "I just came in here to look around."

"What's this thing?" Lloyd sniffed the glowing fire. "It smells awful."

"I don't know." Dundee looked at the vat, frowning when it didn't show any weak points to his vision. "It looks unbreakable from the sides."

"It has to have a weak point." Nolan touched the sides, frowning that it was cold to his fingers. "Otherwise why have defenders in here to keep us away from it?"

"I don't know." Dundee looked around. "That's never happened before."

Nolan tried to pick the vat up. The cauldron refused to move. His muscles strained against his fur. He took a deep breath before wiping the cold away. The palms of his hands had frosted over.

"I can't move it." Lloyd stepped back.

"I can." Dundee smiled. "Except it will only be in one direction."

Dundee slapped the floor around the vat. He did it again and again until the vat crashed through. He stood up as the green metal fell through to the basement. Maybe that will be enough to make a crack.

"Let's go down and see if we can get it out of the house before we try to break it apart." Dundee dropped through the hole so he wouldn't have to circle around to the basement door.

Lloyd dropped down behind him, sniffing at the air. The basement smelled dusty but clean of the sulphur that he had become used to fighting the demons.

"It's unharmed." Dundee rolled the vat over with his foot. "Still no cracks anywhere."

"That's okay." Nolan tried to pick it up. It lifted up in his arms easily. "Let's get it out of the house."

"Doesn't that hurt?" Dundee stepped out of the way.

"Yes, so let's hurry it up."

Miranda Rambo felt tired. Putting up wall after wall in front of the gate wore at her. And the demons kept coming. Dundee and Nolan better have discovered something to help them out. Otherwise she and Malone were dead as soon as she ran out of energy.

She couldn't think about that. She would do what she could until she couldn't do it anymore.

"You hear something?" Malone held a mass of the compressed matter in his hands. He had taken to using the shotgun approach when the first wall fell. It helped him clear the gate as Miranda worked on building another wall.

"It sounds like a motorcycle with a cow bell." Miranda looked around for the approaching rider. "I hope it isn't more trouble."

Nolan came into view on his bike. Dundee rode behind him. Something that looked like a glowing cauldron rolled behind them on a chain tied to the seat of Nolan's bike.

"What is that?" Malone glowered at the burning pot as they came to a halt.

"We don't know." Dundee got off the bike as soon as it stopped. Give him a car any day. "I found it in the library. It's unbreakable."

"Found this in the yard." Nolan showed them the scroll. "Demons at the house trying to dig it up."

"A scroll and a vat of green gunk." Miranda raised her eyebrow. "How does it fit together?"

"Don't know." Nolan shook his head. "The demons didn't want to talk about it. They also didn't want me to have the scroll."

"Let's see what it says." Malone spat on the ground. "Maybe that will give us some kind of lead."

Nolan popped the seal with a fingernail and unrolled the scroll. He scanned it, then shook his head. He handed it over to Parker. Dundee frowned.

"It's in some kind of legalesee." He handed it to Miranda. "What do you think?"

Miranda scanned the document. She shook her head.

"As long as the party of the first part has agreed to live in town, it gives the party of the second part the right to town." Miranda rolled the document up. "This is the contract to that agreement."

"Does it mention anything about the vat?" Dundee looked at the glowing dragon pot. It had to be tied in somehow.

"I didn't see anything." Miranda looked at the pot. "Maybe Malone can compress it, or something."

"Drop the scroll in it." Malone spat on the ground again. The tobacco in his mouth was about chewed up. "That seems to be the only thing we can do barring chucking it into demon territory."

Everyone looked at the big man. He shrugged at the stares.

"We don't have anything better to do." Dundee took the scroll and dropped into the glowing vat.

The cauldron split apart. The yellow fire inside turned into a column that turned into an image of a man. Dundee squinted at the face of the living picture. He stepped closer. The image took flight, disappearing into the night sky.

"That was Bell." Dundee pointed at the vanishing image. "That was that lawyer that hired us about the house."

"The same man?" Miranda watched the image go. "Why am I not surprised?"

"We should get after it." Dundee started for Malone's truck. "We should find out what's behind all this."

"We'll split up again." Miranda looked at the crumbling wall. "I'll stay here and try to keep the demons at bay."

"I'll stay." Nolan's wolf aspect came to the fore again. "Get going."

"Looks like I'm driving." Malone stepped to the wall, both hands full of swirling energy. He waited for a hole to appear. Then he unleashed both blasts into that gap.

"Get going." Miranda waved another wall into existence over the gap. "We'll hold them off."

Malone got behind the wheel. He turned the ignition key. His truck roared to life. He put his foot down. The pickup roared off in a cloud of dust.

"I hope we didn't make a mistake." Miranda tapped her staff against the road.

Malone put his emergency lights on as he followed the streak flashing through the sky. He looked in the mirror, his eyes open for cops. He wondered where they were.

Where were other cars? Twilight and no one was on the road. That wasn't normal in his experience. Maybe everyone but the four heirs had got a secret message to stay home and watch out for trouble.

"This has all the signs of bad stuff, Park." Malone looked in his mirror again.

"Tell me about it." Parker had his hands on the dash. "Where are the other cars?"

"I was thinking the same thing." Malone followed the burning light in the sky. "Everybody else was told to stay home?"

"Maybe these invasions don't happen in the real world." Parker pointed at where the eldritch comet started descending ahead. "Maybe this isn't the real world as we know it."

"Like at the house when everything changed that first night." Malone nodded in agreement.

"That's the only way I can explain why no one is around." Parker looked at the end of twilight flying by his window. "Lights should be on in every house we passed so far."

"What happens when we reach wherever this light is going?" Malone put the lack of people out of his mind. It just meant a reduction of innocent bystanders when they went to work.

"That depends on what we find." Parker closed his eyes. "Some things seem obvious now."

"Like what?" Malone turned down a gravel road, slowing as the truck bounced up and down on the rough surface.

"Carey left the vat to find the anchor point for this invasion, foresaw where the scroll was hidden, knew where the entry point was going to be." Dundee looked back in his memory. "He probably even knew about the lawyers."

"What does that leave us?" Malone stopped in front of a gated driveway. The comet descended into the house beyond, passing through without wrecking anything.

"It leaves us cleaning up the mess by wrecking the game board." Dundee smiled. He got out of the truck. "Excuse my mixing the metaphors."

"You're excused." Malone got out, walked around the pickup. "I guess this is where we break in."

"Allow me." Dundee brought his hand down, slicing through the hinges of the gate. He pushed with his other hand. The square frame of bars fell in.

"Let's see what this Bell has to say for himself." Malone grabbed the gate with one hand before he stepped over it. He drew it up in his palm. "Maybe he didn't know he was being used as a Duracell for demons."

"Maybe he did." Parker followed, alert for more trouble. "I'm more worried that he's changed into something worse than a lawyer."

"Is there anything worse than a lawyer?" Malone made a beeline for the house's front door. A half-naked woman ran out as he was about to ring the doorbell.

He had to catch himself so he didn't put a hole in her head.

"Hold on." Malone caught her with his free hand. "What's going on, Mrs.?"

"Something's wrong with my husband." She pointed back into the house. "I don't know what's happened."

"Stay here." Malone pushed her out of the way. "We'll look into for you."

Dundee stepped inside the house. The bedroom must be upstairs. He wondered which side of the hall it was on. He started up the stairs, his hand on the wooden rail. What happened to Bell? From the look on his wife's face, it wasn't good.

"What do you think, Park?" Malone's heavy tread preceded the words.

"I don't know." Dundee pushed on, decided to turn left instead of right. "We have to see it with our own eyes."

"It's bad." Malone pulled off a door for more ammo.

"What makes you say that?" Dundee had the same feeling but he wasn't going to say anything.

"Cause I can smell it like Lloyd smells tacos." Malone paused outside a room with a door ajar. "Bell? We need to talk to you."

"Go away." The voice didn't match the memory of the man.

"We're here to help you, Bell." Malone raised his hand. "Why don't you step on out so we can talk like peaceable men?"

"I said go away!" The door pulled inward, coming off its hinges. "Don't make me tell you again."

"Come on out, Bell." Malone looked around for more objects to use. "Otherwise we'll have to come in after you. You won't like that."

A large white face on top of a furry cloud of darkness appeared in the doorway. Limbs of shadow stretched out on either side. The mouth opened to reveal Bell's face inside.

"Go away." The tiny face said the words.

Dundee scratched his head, trying to think of something that would enable them to move around the situation they were in. Unfortunately the only thing he could think of was how did Bell turn into a monster? He didn't see a solution to that right off hand.

"You want to talk about it, Bell?" Dundee's unique vision focused on the white mask that had replaced the lawyer's face. "Your wife is worried about you."

"What is there to talk about?" Bell's inner face blinked in the mouth of the beast. "I knew something like this was going to happen. I just hoped it would skip me and go to one of the others."

"Maybe we can help you." Dundee urged Malone further to the side in the hall so he would have a clear shot. "Let's talk about the deal your firm made with the demons."

"We made a deal to defend criminals to the best of our ability and keep corruption moving in the streets." Bell sobbed. It was high pitched like a whistle. "There would be a required meeting to discuss future negotiations."

"What was supposed to happen then?" Dundee frowned as he considered the new information. "Renewal of contracts?"

"I don't know." Bell flowed out of the bedroom, his shadow form reaching for the walls like an inky blanket. "The board never discussed what their plan was to us. I assumed one of them would deal with the offer when the time came."

"What's supposed to happen now, Bell?" Dundee didn't know how this was helping their situation, but maybe Bell knew something they could use if they could get him to talk about it.

"I don't know." Bell kept advancing, his outer teeth clacking. "I thought one of the demons would be here to tell me what they wanted from the firm. Maybe you guys are scaring them off."

"We have them bottled on the old town road." Dundee stepped back to keep out of reach. There was no telling what his touch would do to them.

"Let one of them by so I can get back to normal." Bell loomed over the two Wreckers. "Everything could depend on me talking to their emissary. I might even be allowed to change the deal."

"You could be signing everyone down the river." Dundee raised his hands. "Maybe you should stay here while we talk to your boss."

"Get out of my way." Bell pushed forward. "I'm getting this fixed. I won't be a shadow puppet."

Malone released the stored projectiles in his hand. The compressed matter sliced through the shadow of Bell's body, scattering it like soap foam. The outer face smiled when it realized he hadn't hurt it with his cannon hand.

"Go for the head." Dundee picked up a vase and sent it flying at the transformed attorney. It smashed against the white bone mask, staggering the thing before him.

"Last chance, Bell." Malone grabbed the nearest piece of furniture to use as ammo. "Cut it out, or we're going to have to put you down."

"I'm going to get rid of you two, then your friends." Bell surged forward again, mask face still shining clean. "Maybe that will get me something."

"Wrong answer." Malone released his shot, but it flew too low, clipping through the dark body, and into a wall beyond.

Dundee backed up, grabbing a floor lamp as a weapon of opportunity. So far Bell seemed content to deal with Malone first. The big man was messing up his house and that had to be dealt with.

And Dundee didn't seem that formidable anyway.

The shadow creature reached for Malone with various limbs, intent on grabbing him. Compressed furniture met the charge, blasting holes in the body and the walls beyond. The former lawyer snarled at the damage.

Dundee came in from the side, swinging the lamp like a staff. He aimed the heavy base for the white mask at the head of the dark deluge. If he could stun Bell, maybe his talent would give him some kind of edge he could use.

The metal saucer cracked against the false ivory. Bell staggered back, unsure what had happened. Pain radiated from where a cheek would be on a normal man.

Dundee pressed his advantage, swinging the floor lamp again. The metal staff broke off at the bottom as Bell fell back against the wall. Lines marked the impacts from the two blows, like a window starting to crack. The wrecker stabbed with the jagged end of torn steel. The spear went through the mask and into the wall behind the blot. A scream broke from the white skull and the tiny face in its mouth.

"Dang, Parker." Malone spat on the floor. "Did you have to pin him to the wall?"

"Better him than us." Dundee looked at the mask. "Let's see what happens when we get him together with the demons."

"How do we do that?" Malone compressed some wood paneling. "Take the wall with us?"

"I was thinking more like the face." Dundee looked around, snatched up a drawer that had been knocked out of a table in the scuffle. "All we need is a cover."

"Got it." Malone pulled a piece of wood wide enough to cover the drawer from the wall. "Now all we need is some way to tie it down."

"We'll use my belt." Dundee handed the drawer over. "Get ready to cover it."

Malone knelt, holding the lid over the top of the improvised box with his one hand. He still held the compressed piece of wall with his other. He watched, wondering what Dundee had in mind.

Dundee went to the screaming shadow thing. He pulled the tiny Bell from the mouth of the mask with a faint setting of his jaw. He dropped the tiny head into the box. He wiped his hand on the carpet.

At least the screaming had stopped.

"Let's take this back to the others and see if we can make it work." Dundee took the box, and wrapped his belt around it, tightening it with a sudden pull of the end through the buckle.

Miranda Rambo watched a car come to a stop for the second time that night. She held herself up with her staff. She had raised several more walls since her two friends had chased the comet across the sky. Now they arrived with a box in tow.

"What took you two so long?" Miranda pointed her staff at the small box. "What's in the box?"

"Hopefully the answer to our problem." Parker went to the opening in reality. He noted the green blood burning on the asphalt where Lloyd had demonstrated his skill with his natural weapons. "We're going to try a little experiment."

"Bell turned into a monster thanks to that vat." Malone spat on the road. "We had to lie to his wife about what happened."

"He wasn't very coherent other than get out of his house." Parker agreed. "Let's see what happens. We'll need to take the wall down and clear room."

"I got it, Park." Malone walked over to the wall. "Get ready."

The trucker touched the wall with his hand. It shrank down to a ball in front of some surprised demons trying to batter their way through the material with their various appendages. The released sphere wiped that look off their faces moments later before they could make a move to attack.

"All right, Bell." Dundee opened the box. He took out the tiny head. "What do we have to do to stop this?"

"You can't stop it." Bell's tiny shape tried to push away from Parker's grip. "All humans will die."

Parker held the tiny thing over the threshold of the demon gate. A spirit of Bell's old body appeared around the head. A chain led off it to somewhere in the region beyond. His face seemed to be tormented by something out of Dundee's sight.

"This is a big change." Parker stabbed a demon trying to push pass him with his hand. The creature fell back into the void. "You're the link between the demons and the real world. If I got rid of you, this invasion would be over. How do I do it?"

"Screw you, Dundee." Bell looked around, writhing in Parker's implacable grip. "I'll see all of you right beside me."

"I got this, Parker." Lloyd grabbed the little head. "I know exactly what to do."

The wolf jumped through the gate, following the chain, yanking on it as he fell. He used ascending demons to push off after the thread. One set of talons let a winged monstrosity know to get out of the way.

Lloyd dragged himself along the chain, leaping from island to island. He paused when he saw it descended into a large pit of fire on a spit of land below where he landed. He tried to gauge the distance with his eyes, wondering how deep the pit went. He didn't want to enter it, but didn't see how he had a choice if he wanted to save the town.

"Not such a hero now, are you?" Bell seemed to smile and groan at the same time. "What you going to do, wolf boy?"

"He's going to let me handle this." Miranda dropped beside the werewolf, tapping her staff on the island. It started to move under her urging. "What is it with this suicide stuff with you guys?"

"Testosterone." Lloyd smiled slightly, flexing his free hand. "What about the others?"

"They're holding the bridge for the moment." Miranda judged trajectories with her staff. "This is all us."

Lloyd watched silently. Bell whimpered in his hand but he didn't care. He had an idea what Miranda was going to do. His job was to make sure to keep the random demons off her back until she got it done.

The makeshift missile descended into the pit, scraping the sides as it pushed the fire in front of it. The seal was good enough that the platform scraped the chain into the rock wall as it went. Bell screamed for no reason that Lloyd could see unless it was the chain passing pain down its length to him.

Faces appeared out of the fire as ghosts arrived with moans of displeasure. They floated around the falling rock. Bell added more noise to show how he felt to the two wreckers. Finally the platform wouldn't go down any further.

"Get off me." Bell's eyes rolled wildly in his ghost face. "It hurts like crazy."

"Let's redirect that fire so we don't get burned." Miranda tapped the wall with her staff. A chute appeared as the rock bubbled piece by piece. "That seems to have done the trick."

The ghosts sighed, some actually smiling.

"What do you want with us?" one of the dead men danced on the end of his chain.

"Nothing." Miranda split the platform to see what was concealed by the fire at the bottom of the pit. The chain wrapped around an anchor stone, held in place by a lock. "We want to stop an invasion of the living world by the demons. This guy is the key to that."

"They always try and fail." The spokesman shook his head. "You'd think they would give up by now."

"They always try to invade the earth?" Miranda looked at the chained ghost. It shrugged back.

"And they always fail." The ghost shook his head. "I have to say they're persistent cusses if nothing else."

"How many times have they tried before this?" Miranda wondered how many others had been Wreckers before the current batch.

"Millions." The ghost shrugged. "Maybe more than that."

"I going to try and release you." Miranda looked at the porous chains. A simple ring hooked to the rock below her platform. If she hadn't forced the flaming lava away, she was sure the ghosts would still be burning in the pit. "Do you think you can get away from here as fast as possible?"

"Lady, we're dead." The ghost looked at his fellow captives. "None of us were nice guys to begin with if you know what I mean."

"I just want you to cause as much trouble as you can for the demons." Miranda looked at the gathered group around her. "Do you think you can handle that?"

"Lady, we can cause a whole heck of trouble for demons." The ghost looked around. His friends said things that no one could hear. "I don't see how you're going to get us loose for that."

"I'm going to break the rock." Miranda slammed her staff on the stone anchor. It split into two, letting the ring burst out. She frowned. The holding ring was actually a closed loop. She hadn't counted on that.

Lloyd grabbed the ring as the ghosts started to pull their chains in every direction. He exerted his wolf fury on the loop as the crowd tried to yank it out of his grasp. A section snapped as he exerted all of his unnatural strength on the thing. He slid the cold chains out of the link through the opened part.

"Not you, Bell." Miranda grabbed the lawyer's shade as he tried to get away. "You're coming with us."

"You heard the lady, you thieves and murderers." The spokesperson looked more lifelike now that he was free. A cutlass flashed in his hand. "It's time to show these craven cowards what we can do."

Lloyd took Bell's ghost from Miranda, one eye on the fleeing ghosts. He noted that many of them now carried weapons to match the costumes of different eras they had formed from their ectoplasm. The languages went up and down the scale of intelligibility to his ear also.

"I hope that wasn't a bad decision." Miranda watched the fleeing ghosts also. "What can they do?"

"Let's not hang around and find out." Lloyd's ears twitched. "I'm expecting company any minute."

"You're right." Miranda tapped the platform. "Let's get out of here before someone tries to spoil our plan."

The rock grew underneath them, lifting the Wreckers out of the hole. The walls on either side lent some of their substance as the hole filled in to carry them to the top. Harsh cries and gunshots filled the flickering air above them.

"Sounds like our new friends are going to town." Miranda winced at one particularly long scream. "I hope we did the right thing."

Lloyd nodded, grabbed her in his free hand, and started for the rip in reality. Jumping across the platforms floating through the burning air took him to several airy lifts that directed him right to the hole. The ghosts had congregated at the gate, swinging their spirit weapons with abandon. Demons fought back, trying to remove this new complication with their natural weapons. Lloyd kicked a demon out of the way as he puzzled out how to get through without getting Miranda killed.

"Put me down, you walking carpet." Miranda whacked him on the head with her staff. "I can take care of myself."

Lloyd dropped her to the rock he was standing on.

"When we're done with this, I will even the score." Miranda got to her feet, brushing off her arms. "I can't believe you did that."

Lloyd pointed at the warfare above them. He didn't think he could get through with Miranda on one arm and Bell's ghost struggling in the other hand.

"Don't worry." Miranda spun her staff in both hands. "I got this."

Wind kicked out from the spinning stick. Miranda let go, letting the wood spin itself in the air. She spun the weapon faster and faster until a tornado kicked out of the fan. The vortex hit the battling crowd and sent both sides flying with its force.

"Let's get out of here before they can gather themselves." Miranda grabbed her staff with her belt, letting it pull her like a giant propellor. She hadn't thought that would work, but it had.

Lloyd and Bell looked at each other with the same expression. Then the wolf man followed his comrade with powerful leaps until he was in the air lift the demons had been using to get to where Parker and Carter waited with their powers. Dundee pulled Miranda out of the way with an expert grab. Malone stood to one side with his catapult arm ready to cut down anything that came too close before Lloyd reached the spot.

"Let me have that." Dundee grabbed the shade from Lloyd as Malone helped him out of the hell beyond. "This is your contract, Bell. Do you renounce it?"

"Yes." The ghost dispersed in the sudden sunlight. "I do renounce it."

The hole in the air slowly closed with that announcement.

epilogue

Parker Dundee sat in the library, looking out the window at the small glimpses of the town he could see. He imagined himself as Harry Carey, predicting ruin and taking steps to stop it. He had problems doing that.

The amount of second guessing that would have had to been done stopped Dundee before he could even think about Bell's contract and the dragon vat they had found.

"What the world did you know, old man?" Dundee felt a moment of admiration for the man even though they had never met, and he had plunged four strangers into a world of craziness.

If even one of the Wreckers had said no, the Earth would have been screwed. Parker felt this with every fiber of his being.

The door opened. Miranda stuck her head inside the room. She wore a smile. Dundee had thought her too thin, and too crabby when they met. Now she seemed more beautiful with every day.

"The boys and I are going out to celebrate." Miranda edged inside the room, holding the door with one hand. "Do you want to come?"

"Go ahead." Dundee smiled. "I'm already celebrating."

"Your choice, Dundee." Miranda smiled back. "Is there something bothering you?"

"I'm just waiting on the call about Bell's wife." Dundee looked out the window again. Everyone believed that some vicious thing had snatched Bell out of his house, nearly killing his wife in the process. It was in the paper and on the television. Dundee had asked that a trust fund be set up to help her until she could get on her feet.

No one knew when that would be after the events of the night before.

"I'll see you later." Miranda started out the door.

"Miranda?" Dundee wanted to say something to show his affection. He was stumped as to what. His call made her pause on the threshold. "Thanks for saving my life."

"No problem, Dundee." Miranda started to close the door behind her. "Don't be such a knucklehead the next time."

Dundee settled even more into his chair, laughing softly to himself. He looked out the window, waved when he saw his three friends cram into Miranda's small car. He thought Miranda looked up at his window, but she didn't wave. The auto backed down the driveway and out on the road.

He didn't know what was going to happen next, but he didn't have a worry. His friends were going to help him through any trouble. He could have done a lot worse for roommates.

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