Amber by Dan-Dwayne Spencer (e book reader .TXT) 📕

couple dozen demons remained, the victorious survivors. Bored with the melee of bloodshed they had wreaked on their own kind, they ceased fighting each other and lashed out at passing cars. They appeared dazed, unaware of the pedestrians gathering to see what was going on in the cemetery. Only the accelerated momentum of the cars caught their attention.

Upon seeing me, the blonde, child-like demon charged headfirst—teeth gaping from her open mouth. Roger stepped in front of me, holding the book with the affixed talisman out before him. The child ran into it, and the talisman adorning the cover sparked. For a split second, she glowed red and amber before she turned to ash.

A particularly ugly demon with excessive stitches holding his sagging flesh in place grabbed a boy off his bicycle and opened its maw to tear into him.

I commanded, “Stop. Burn.”

The demon instantly dropped the child and ignited in amber flames.

Chapter Twenty-six

The Devil’s Spawn

Realizing our power over them, the demons began fleeing from us. Some were getting in the cars, and others were belly crawling away like cockroaches.

“We should stop them and send them all back to hell,” Stoney demanded.

“I have a better idea,” I said before raising my voice loud enough for all the remaining demons to hear. “All demons within the sound of my voice must seek-out other demons and send them back to hell.” I smiled at my own cleverness. “Not even one of you is allowed to harm humans. Your targets are demons—demons only. Now, go far from here and begin your hunt.”

A crowd of residents from Blue Eye were gathering in the road and gawking at the cemetery. The demons walked by them as if they were unaware of their existence. A car passed. Not one demon lunged after it as before.

I looked over at Stoney. “There, how’s that for tying up loose ends. This gang of devil spawn will take out untold hundreds of harmful demons before they get sent back to hell.”

Stoney huffed and stuffed his blades back in his satchel. “I still don’t like it. I’d rather send them all back to Hell on the Stoney express.”

An old man walked up to me and asked what the loud noise was all about. With everything that had happened and the cemetery in a wreck, I thought his question was unusual. I wondered what he was seeing. Surely it wasn’t what I saw or he would run back to Blue Eye in terror. I took him by the arm and closed my eyes. Reaching out with my mind, I instantly got a vision from his point of view. To my surprise, he couldn’t see the spirit world like we could. In his mind, the cemetery looked normal except for a burned tree near the praying hands monument. Demons were only people, normal people, leaving a funeral. They couldn’t see the burned graves, and they thought the broken headstones were as they should be.

I answered, “Lightning struck the tree during a funeral, scared everyone silly. But no one was hurt, and the rain put it out.” I gave him my best trust me eyes. “Nothing to worry about.”

Mr. Dark’s voice reverberated in my mind, “Are you going to open his eyes and let him see what’s actually there?”

“No. It’s best he thinks it’s just another normal day.”

“Makes you wonder what all was going on around you at any given point in time when you were blind to it.”

“Well, I’m not blind now,” I sternly said.

“By the way, I never doubted you. I knew you could do it all the time.”

I withdrew from the passerby’s mind. “Really, Mr. Dark? You lie. You didn’t know anything. You’re the one who was always telling me to run and hide.”

“I knew more than you think.”

“What I think is that this is not over and you know it.”

“True, but we’ve won the first battle.”

“What’s this we business? I didn’t see you doing anything to help.”

“Okay, if you insist. You won your first battle.”

“No. My first battle was in the Roundhouse talking to Kelly Carter. I discovered my gift too late to help him. If I knew then what I’m capable of… I could have saved him.”

“You don’t know, or are you so self-absorbed in your guilt to see it? Remember what Flower said? ‘Some people don’t want to be saved.’ I think he was one of them.”

Only a few demons remained by the cemetery fence. They looked like lost sheep wandering back and forth. In their midst, the sheriff stood beaten, breathless, and confused—staring at me. For a moment I thought my gift had failed. He might charge the same way the demon child did. Then he turned toward his police cruiser and opened the door.

“Stop him.”

“Why should I?” I asked. “He isn’t posing a threat anymore. He lost his master and now he only has the purpose I gave him.”

“Speak the words of commandment. Do it now.”

I yelled, “You who claim to be Sheriff Briggs, stop and look at me.”

The demon stopped, took his hands off the car door, and stepped back. He stood there with his back to me; then slowly, he obeyed, glaring at me with resentful eyes.

“See—cool, right? Isn’t there something you need to fix? I mean, Rose doesn’t need a record, and this guy has falsely arrested her to disguise her kidnapping.”

“Demon,”—I concentrated on my voice and commanded—“go straight to where you are holding Rose and set her free. Afterward, you will leave the body of Sheriff Briggs. I order you.”

A raspy voice replied, “Prophet, where am I to go? Do not cast me out into the air, let me inhabit some form.”

“To which angel do you give tribute?”

“I am bound to the angel Phoenix.” The raspy voice came from