"Dead."

  "How many do we have?"

  "Thirteen collared and tagged, one dead, four unaccounted for."

  "Not for long!" one of the guys called from down by the stairway as a female werewolf charged into the hallway and started shooting. Sean dropped her instantly with a sleep spell.

  "Richard!" Roxy called. "Satchel!"

  Sean blinked and looked at Roxy. "What are you doing to do with that?"

  "Everyone clear the hallway," Roxy said, catching the pack Richard had tossed her. She laid it on the floor and pulled the cord coming out of it.

  "Oh, shit!" Sean said and dove into one of the rooms and they all quickly cleared the hall as a loud explosion suddenly rocked the building.

  Getting to his feet and turning back to the hallway, there was now a very large hole in the floor. Checking his defense framework as he drew his pistol, Sean ran to the hole and jumped through it, with Roxy and Cali following close behind.

  The ground floor was thick with dust and smoke, and Sean shot the first two people-shaped forms he saw without a second thought as Cali took cover behind him, and Roxy covered his back. Moving quickly down the hallway, Sean saw the two people he had shot were two more werewolves. Both were down, unconscious.

  The others he came across that were already down he hit with sleep spells and hoped they kept them down.

  "We're missing one more," Cali told him.

  "Yeah, but where is she?"

  "She's not behind us," Roxy said as the rest of the team came down through the hole in the floor, passing the woman they'd already captured.

  Cali stopped suddenly and yanked hard on Sean's belt.

  "We need to leave, now!" Cali hissed.

  "What about the other girl?"

  "There is no other girl. We have to go! We have to go now!"

  Sean backed up slowly. "Clear an exit," Sean said over his shoulder, "we're leaving."

  "What about…"

  "Now!" Sean growled and shifted into his lion form as he felt it. Something was making his hair want to stand on end.

  'Demon!' the First said.

  'Any advice?'

  'Running would be good!'

  "Grab the girls and run," Sean hissed and kept backing up. He put the pistol away; he didn't think it was going to do him any good now. Cali had disappeared, and Roxy was tossing the women out the front windows one after the other, only four of the men were left, then Roxy dove out as a loud scream shattered all the windows on the house, all the light bulbs, and anything else made of glass.

  Looking down the hallway, Sean saw it. It was tall, probably taller than he was, as it had to duck to fit into the room. The skin was black as ink, and at first he thought it was covered in fur, but quickly realized there was something crawling all over the demon's skin. Or maybe the skin itself crawled all over the body.

  The eyes were red, there were short horns, two on either side of the head, that came up out of the forehead, and there were large fangs that slipped down past the lower lip, that dripped…something.

  The demon was nude, which led to confusion in Sean's mind as to its sex, for while it had large, pendulous breasts, there was also a rather large penis that swung between its legs, though he didn't see any sign of a scrotum.

  The arms were longer than a man of the same size would have, coming down to the knees, and the hands had long, wicked-looking fingers with claws at the ends, while it walked on cloven hooves.

  'What the hell is that thing?'

  'It's a raseri djevel, a devil of fury, they come from the Onderwereld. That's why Cali felt it.'

  'And how do I beat it?'

  'A faerie sword would kill it easily.'

  Sean swore at that, he didn't have such a sword, and just then it charged him, moving faster than he would have expected on those cloven hooves.

  He dodged the first swipe of the clawed hands and punched it as hard as he could in the chest. It was like hitting an electrified rock, and the shock of it stunned him long enough for it to backhand him into the wall.

  In the moment it took him to recover, it was on Richard, and it ripped off his arm, then started to tear his body into large pieces right before Sean's eyes.

  Sean blasted it with a bolt of pure ice, which did nothing to slow it down, then he remembered the dark elves came from a land of cold, so he hit it with a jet of flame.

  It screamed that awful noise again, causing his ears to fold flat, then turned on him and charged him once again. Sean jumped up through the hole in the ceiling and hit it with another jet of flame, then grabbing the edges of the hole with those vicious looking hands, it pulled itself through the hole as Sean retreated quickly down the hallway towards the stairs.

  When he got to the end of the hall, he cast a fireball at it, the explosion filling the hallway and making it scream once again. Turning, Sean ran up the staircase to the third floor and had just put a foot onto the floor when he was rammed hard from behind and sent flying all the way down to the far end of the hall.

  'Damn, that hurt!' Sean swore and cast a heal spell on himself, then threw himself to the side as the demon tried to ram him again, but it missed, crashing into the far wall with a great deal of noise.

  Running back the way he'd come, Sean ducked into the room they'd entered by, casting another fireball behind him, then diving out the window. He grabbed the still hanging rope and quickly swarmed up it as the demon flew out the window behind him, then fell to the ground below.

  'Did that hurt it?'

  The demon jumped to its feet and screamed loudly again.

  'I don't think so.'

  Sean pulled out his pistol and started to shoot it; he was beginning to run low on mana, and he didn't want to keep wasting powerful spells on it if they weren't having any effect.

  'The fire hurt it, but I don't know if you can do enough of those spells to kill it.'

  The demon was looking all around the courtyard for him, then suddenly it turned and looked up as the bullets started to hit it. Apparently they were annoying it. As Sean watched, it ran over to the building and started to climb up it, using its hands to rip holes in the sides as it did.

  'What else can hurt these things?'

  'Cold iron would probably do it a good bit of damage.'

  'You're supposed to be a god,' Sean grumbled as he watched the demon getting closer.

  'Yes, and in my own body, I could probably kill it. But I'm not in my own body now, am I?'

  Sean emptied the rest of the bullets in his pistol at it, on the off chance that, if he did enough damage, eventually it would die. Holstering the pistol, he shot it with a flame bolt and ran for the far side of the roof, making sure to stay within the marked lines from earlier.

  As soon as it gained the roof, it ran straight for him, setting off the multiple traps as it came, which slowed it down, but didn't stop it. Just as it was about to get him, and he was debating jumping off the roof, the entire building shook with a loud explosion, and suddenly the demon's eyes got wide as it stopped. It smiled at him in a manner that was most disquieting, actually blew him a kiss, then disappeared.

  "What the hell just happened?" Sean said out loud.

  'Now would be a good time to leave, son.'

  Jumping off the roof, Sean decided to do just that.

  Hitting the ground and rolling, he got to his feet and saw Cali and Roxy waving to him as they ran for the gates, which had been blown off their hinges. Sean ran after them, catching up not long after they'd left the grounds.

  "What the hell happened?" he asked, gasping.

  "If you kill the summoner, the summoned goes back to Onderwereld," Cali said, panting.

  "So we just blew up the end of the house we thought he was in," Roxy said with a shrug. "Guess it worked."

  "Yeah, guess it did. Now let's get out of here."

  "Yes, lets!"

  Down Slow

  Sean yawned as he dropped into a seat, and Jolene dropped into his lap. Both he and Jolene had just spent the last six hours examining the lycans they'd rescued.

  "So how are they?" Chad asked.

  "Brainwashed," Sean said, shaking his head, "their heads have been so seriously messed with that there's not a lot in there, really. They've all got the intelligence and the awareness of a six-year-old."

  "Damn, so now what?"

  "Well, using some of the powers I get as a lion," which meant that the First did it, "plus Jo's mental powers, we erased the memory of the mages who did this to them from their minds. But none of them will ever be able to function on their own."

  "Terry said he'd take them in," Roxy said, coming into the room.

  "They have any problems last night?" Sean asked.

  "A few. But nothing they couldn't deal with; your warning had them prepared."

  "Well, that's good," Sean said and yawned again.

  "So what was that place?" Max asked.

  "A weapons research facility," Jolene said, shaking her head. "One of them had managed to summon that demon and bind it without being killed. Apparently the previous six attempts ended up with dead magic user entrails spread all over the walls."

  "And the two following attempts," Sean added.

  "Yeah, they were still working the kinks out," Jolene nodded. "I called my uncle and gave him all the juicy details. I'd be surprised if the place isn't already a smoking crater."

  "Oh? Why's that?" Chad asked looking surprised.

  "Summoning demons is proscribed. Doing so is an automatic death sentence, and the Eruditio are the people charged with carrying it out. It's the one thing in which they're completely ruthless."

  "So, think we've seen the last of them?"

  "I hope so," Sean said and shivered, "that thing was nasty."

  "So now what?"

  "I guess it's on to Portland," Sean said, then putting his arms around Jolene, he gave her a hug, "after a nice long nap. What time is it, anyway?"

  "Nine AM." Roxy supplied.

  "Well, show me where our bed is, 'cause I need to be in it." Sean yawned again.

  "Come on, I'll show you both where we're sleeping," Daelyn said.

  Yawning yet again, Sean followed her with a sound-asleep Jolene in his arms. As soon as he got to the bed, he set Jolene down and hit the sheets beside her.

  §

  Yawning, Sean rolled onto his paws and shook his head, fluffing out his mane. He was on the side of the mountain, and he could see the others were all there as well, talking and doing whatever it was they did. Looking around, he saw the First sitting, watching him.

  "What's up?" Sean asked.

  "You need to ask your uncle Maitland to either get you, or teach you how to make, faerie swords."

  "Why?"

  "Because if there's one thing I've learned, once somebody has started summoning demons, other people will do it, too."

  "So you think I'm going to run into more of those things?" Sean said, feeling a bit uneasy.

  "I think there is a chance, yes. So I think you should be prepared for it. For now, I'd say buy a cheap iron crowbar and keep it handy. Definitely talk to that goblin, Sawyer, when you get back home. Anyone foolish enough to summon one once is foolish enough to summon one again."

  "But we killed the man who summoned it, didn't we?"

  "You killed the one who succeeded. I suspect they'll send his notes somewhere else, for others to carry on the work."

  Sean sighed and plopped his butt down to sit.

  "Ugh, more problems."

  "It's not really your problem, Son. It's the magic users' problem, but it still pays to be prepared, in case they send any more of them after you."

  "Damn, it just keeps getting worse, doesn't it?" Sean said, shaking his head.

  "Oh, it's not that bad, if you're prepared for them. One or two aren't that hard to kill. It's when you have to deal with hundreds or thousands of them."

  "And you have?"

  "Ask one of the dwarven lore masters about the demon wars," the First said with a heavy sigh. "Now those were tough."

  Sean laid all the way back down and closed his eyes. "Goodnight, Dad."

  "Night."

  End Book Eight

  Afterword

  Hello everyone. I'd like to thank you for having gotten to this point in the ongoing story of Sean and the battle into which he's found himself drawn. If you enjoyed this book, I'd appreciate it if you'd rate and review it on Amazon. Writers are rewarded by Amazon when we get four and five star reviews, and the more we get, the more we're rewarded.

  So please! I'd appreciate it very much if you gave me a good review.

  If you find any typos or 'wrong words', please feel free to email what and where they were to me. Typos always make it through, no matter how many people I have checking things.

  Some Notes: I thought I wouldn't have to mention this, but please, do not send me suggestions or ideas for this series. I won't read them, and they will be deleted without being read, and I will not respond to them. Why? Because I don't want to be accused later of having 'stolen' an idea that I've already fully developed and which I've already put into the plot.

  Don't laugh, this actually happens, a lot. I know some of you have your own thoughts and ideas and even stories that you've come up with reading mine, and that's cool. I don't have a problem with that, and if you have an idea you really like, by all means go write it yourself, I have no problems with fan fiction (just don't go selling it, because that encroaches on my copyright). Please understand I won't read any fan fiction for the same legal reasons, and I ask that you respect my copyrights.

  If you want to write a story in my universe that doesn't feature any of the main characters and want to see about licensing it and having it published. That may be possible, but right now I can't promise anything. June (2018) is going to be a very hectic month for me.

  Book Nine: Book #9 is in progress (working title: Take California). It's slated to come out in June, but I've got a bit of traveling to do in June and some family issues I have to deal with. So I don't know exactly when in June it will be completed. I have a mailing list, that I only use to announce new releases (because I hate spamming people) which you can sign up for on my webpage if you're interested.

  Some Recommendations: As mentioned before, I do have another name I write under: John Van Stry. If you haven't looked at it, you might appreciate my 'Portals of Infinity' series. It's currently at eight books and will continue, but right now I'm focused on the Valens Legacy series, so I probably won't be revisiting the Portals series until sometime in the Fall.

  Some other people I enjoy reading in this genre, and you might, as well: William D. Arand, Blaise Corvin, and Michael-Scott Earle. They're all good people and good writers. You may also want to check out this group on facebook:

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/haremlit/

  Again, thank you for your support and for buying my books.

  My Amazon Author's webpage:

  https://www.amazon.com/Jan-Stryvant/e/B06ZY7L62L/

  Occasional announcements at:

  https://stryvant.blogspot.com/

  Jan Stryvant website at:

  http://www.vanstry.net/stryvant/

  Email:

  stryvant@gmail.com

 

 

  Jan Stryvant, Desperate Measures

 

 

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