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Chapter 20
The silence that followed the roar of rocks and shrieks of the soft, squishy humans (or variations thereof) as they fell to the ground was almost as deafening in its absence as the sound was previously.
Samantha? Are you hurt?
I groaned and shoved a cantaloupe-sized bit of boulder from my arm before rolling off Paen. My left wrist might be broken. It hurts bad enough that I may barf. Are you OK? Why did you grab me right as we fell? I must have crushed you when we hit the ground.
I grabbed you so you wouldn't be crushed. Let me see your arm.
A red wave of pain and nausea threatened to overwhelm me as I struggled into a sitting position, my hurt arm held tight to my chest. "I'm fine," I told Paen as he tried to examine my arm. He had a nasty gash in his cheek that spilled blood down the side of his face, but he looked relatively all right. "Find Clare."
"Clare? Where are you, love?" Fi
"Of course I can hear you," came a muffled reply from about ten feet away. Fi
"What about Pilar and Caspar?" I asked Paen as he turned back to me. The rear side of him was covered in blood, his shirt tattered and bloody from where he had hit the debris-strewn ground. Beyond him, Uilleam and the ghosts approached, leaping from rock to rock.
Paen snarled an oath as he helped me to my feet. "Who the hell cares about them?"
"Oh! Just look at this shirt! Just look at it! It's completely ruined!" Clare pushed aside Fi
A state that would change if she had her way.
"This is the second outfit of mine you've ruined," she screeched at Pilar, snatching up a rock and brandishing it. "This shirt is raw silk, hand-screened by Do
"Clare, no, he's the monkey god! You can't hit a god!" I yelled, but not before she cracked Pilar upside the head with the stone. He stared in stark surprise at her for a moment, then threw his head back and roared his fury to the night sky.
"Christ on a handcar, I can't take her anywhere," I swore, starting toward her—but at the exact moment that Pilar turned his furious eyes to my cousin, an explosion sent us all ducking. Debris rained down upon us, rocks and sticks and chunks of earth pelting us without discretion, the air thick with the stink of demons as Caspar emerged from a pyramid of broken rock. Behind him, a good hundred or so demons swarmed out of the ground, leaping onto the nearby rocks, their shrieks cutting into the night.
"Sun Wukong!" Caspar bellowed, his face black with rage.
"Oh, shit," I said, watching in horror as Caspar flung open his arms and called up his demon horde.
"My feelings exactly," Paen answered, scooping me up in his arms and hauling me to the large rock Uilleam was perched on. "May I?" he asked, setting me down before holding out his hand.
"Sun Wukong, you have deceived me!" Caspar screamed, pointing at Pilar.
Uilleam gri
"Um… Paen…"
"As you deserved, Yan Luowang," Pilar called back to him. Beppo hopped off his shoulder as Pilar leaped a good eight feet onto the boulder nearest him, striking a dramatic pose as he addressed the enraged demon lord. "You have defiled this reality for long years. Now it is time for you to be sent back to the fifth hell where you belong!"
"Stay here where you're safe, love," Paen told me before nodding toward the demons climbing down the rocks. "Shall we?"
"Aye, we shall," Uilleam answered, then lifted his sword high as he gave a battle cry. The ghosts shouted in return as they ran forward to meet the onslaught of demons, Fi
"This time, I will have my revenge," Caspar swore, lifting his right hand. Power crackled off it like miniature lightning. "This time, I will destroy you."
I closed my eyes for a moment and wished myself anywhere but here, about to witness the showdown of two ancient gods. I opened them again when I heard a chirruping—Beppo was picking through the rubble at my feet.
"Isn't this exciting?" Clare asked, coming over to where I was seated. "It's just like something out of Lord of the Ri—"
I shot her a look that stopped the words dead, and slid off the rock to carefully make the few steps over to where Beppo was struggling with a stone.
"You're too sensitive," Clare told me, then frowned at the monkey. "What's he doing?"
"I don't know, but I have a feeling—hey! Come back here with that! That's my statue!"
The clash of steel and screams of demons rose into a wave of noise as the ghosts and vampires met the attacking demons. I threw myself after Beppo, intent on retrieving the black monkey statue he'd found in the rubble, but at that moment, two bright lights hit the area, taking everyone by surprise for a second. The lights were blinding, causing me to stumble over a rock and hit the ground a second time.
"Cool, reenactors," a black silhouette with an American voice said from behind the huge arc lights.
Around us, the battle raged, the noise of it almost deafening.
"What are those ugly brown things they're fighting?" another voice asked.
A red wave of pain and nausea rolled over me as my bad arm smashed against a rock. I retched up my last meal, gasping for air, desperately trying to stay conscious as my body rid itself of everything in my stomach.
"Who cares?" the first voice answered. "Just film it, it's great footage. Watch your step, there's a woman puking right here."
"That's my cousin, if you don't mind," Clare said indignantly as she bent over me, pausing to ask in a much more civil tone, "Are you movie people?"
"Dude, check out the babe," the second man said, nudging the first with his elbow.
"I'm a model, not a babe," Clare answered, and despite her frivolous nature, ignored them to help me to my feet.
"Get the statue," I gasped, the world spi
"What? Oh." Clare pointed at where Beppo was leaping from rock to rock, dodging the flying bodies and spi
"No, it bloody well isn't," I answered, staggering forward as best I could.
Sam! Stay where you're safe! Paen was next to a huge boulder, swinging a sword black with demon blood, one demon clinging to his side while two others rushed toward him. Behind him, Fi
That damned monkey has the statue. I'm OK, just take care of yourself. Above you!
Paen snarled an obscenity in my head as a demon threw itself down on him. I knew I would be helpless in battle with a broken arm, so I plunged forward, through the fringes of ghosts battling demons.
"That's mine," I yelled to Pilar as Beppo leaped up his arm, the Jilin statue in the monkey's furry little hands.
Pilar smiled as he took the statue from Beppo, turning to raise it triumphantly over his head. "Behold, Yan Luowang! The statue which you created in my image! It has returned to me at last."
"Nooooooo!" screamed Caspar from where he perched on a rock. His body twisted in anguish—or so I thought for a moment. As it continued to twist it grew, lengthening, folding up on itself, his features becoming misshapen parodies of a human face. I realized then that he was changing out of his human form, his true demon lord body being revealed. It was a horrible sight, so foul my eyes instinctively skittered away from looking at him. "Revenge… will… be mine!"