Hound of Fire by Jared Bledsoe-sams (that summer book .txt) 📕

The human stink was almost unbearable. Especially when hiding between containers of their trash. He felt amazed that the stench of garbage almost drowned out the smell of the bodily wastes. Urine, vomit, fecal matter, and rotting foods did not mix well in this alley. Or any of those he had previously been through.
They were getting closer now. Their beating hearts were the sound Garmr concentrated on while moving through the city. It was almost ridiculously easy to hide from humans within their own domain. Just almost.
It had been two days since he had let them find him. Since then they had chased him across three cities. But now Garmr had grown bored with the game of cat and mouse. If the humans did not stop soon they would come to regret it. Garmr was adept at making the hunter the hunted.
Two heartbeats came from the right. He hid between a, thankfully, non-foul smelling Dumpster and a brick wall. Day old blood could be smelt on the wall. The humans approached slowly. A black powder smell came from their guns.
Once they passed by he took off. One of the humans saw him and fired. Tak-tak-tak-tak-tak-tak.
The bullets hit the road behind him. He went a block then quickly circled back behind a row of cars. One of the humans was speaking on the radio he carried on his body.
“Confirmed, I repeat, visual identification confirmed. Target appears to be a tall, dark red, shaggy Irish Settler. Numbers of eyes is unconfirmed. Moving northbound in pursuit.”
Garmr had a small laugh to himself as he watched the humans reverse direction. They naturally appeared to openly belittle their own intelligence.
He turned from the humans and moved along the opposite direction. Those two were the closest heartbeats. While he knew most of the sounds there was another that he couldn’t quite place. It sounded like something was chopping the air. To him it was a sound he felt that he should know.
From the sky a bright light shined down upon him. Before he could look up a voice shouted down at him.
“We know you can understand us, proceed up the street to the cross street. Make no attempts to evade us or we will open fire.”
Garmr sighed then looked up. So it was a helicopter. He made a mental note of remembering the sound of its blades moving through the air.
The helicopter was a shade of green with black. A middle section was opened with two humans sitting with their legs hanging out. Two more heartbeats met his ears from the front of the vehicle. On the back end of the flying machine were four big letters.
H.A.D.I.
At least he now knew the name of the pests following him. Perhaps he would be kind enough to tell them his name before they died. He held no hopes that they wouldn’t be stupid enough to attempt an attack.
Garmr lazily sauntered out into the middle of the cross street. The helicopter’s searchlight stayed on him. Both of the two humans approached from behind but kept their distance. He could hear their heartbeats quicken with their breathing. If they didn’t force his hand their hearts would keep beating beyond tonight.
When he reached the center of the two roads the voice from the helicopter spoke again. “Hold your position. Any sudden movement with be considered an attack.”
With a harrumphed Garmr sat on his haunches. A small conversation wouldn’t hurt. But not all humans were skilled with words.
Three large trucks roared into the intersection. They stopped in a half circle. The second truck sat directly in front of him. All three were the same blocky pattern of green and black as the helicopter. Identical white letters were on all three trucks. H.A.D.I.
Dozens of heartbeats filled his ears. To Garmr it sounded like drums.
Sixty or more men pilled out of the trucks. They were quick to surround him. All of them wore complete black with four big white letters on their chests. The sound of safety being turned of seemed like one long click to Garmr. Rather quickly the living drums quickened its pace.
Garmr quickly came to suspect that they planned on him resisting whatever they planned to do. Pity they did not know the powers they toyed with.
From the third truck one last person emerged. Once the human walked through the circle of armed men Garmr could see that this new human was female.
She wore white robes with a black band around both her throat and collar. A crucifix hung from the one around her neck. Around her waist was a thick leather belt with a book chained to it. From both of her wrists hung what Garmr guessed to be rosary beads. Black short hair covered the top of her head while blue eyes glared at him through glasses. For a human, she looked to be attractive.
Her heartbeat was the only calm one he could hear.
She spoke down to him. Like a king would do to a commoner. “I, Sister Clarise sabata, command you to tell me your name Demon. Obey in the name of the father and the son.”
“And if I don’t?” He replied in a carefree tone. It only seemed to annoy her. Garmr guessed she was what humans called uptight.
“Do not think to toy with me, monster. Through my hand the Holy Spirit will strike you down if need be.” Definitely uptight.
“Then show me some damned respect little human. You are not a being worthy or capable of commanding me.” He spoke flatly now. Better to leave no room for budging.
“So be it demon.” She hooked her thumbs on her belt.
“I am Garmr. The Hellhound of fire and lord of Judecca. Now. Why are you little humans pestering me so intently?”
“Because divine entities like yourself do not belong within the kingdom of man. I come to give you two alternatives. Submit to my will and serve H.A.D.I. Or you can die and return to the hells that spawned you.” She smiled with some kind of self-satisfied smile.
Garmr promptly answered her with a cackling laugh. It wiped the smirk right off her face. “Do you know the audacity of what you just said? A mere human threatening me? If your attempt to be tough wasn’t so amusing I would kill you were you stand.” He let a long low growl emit from his throat.
She grew angry in reply. “Then die as you so arrogantly choose.” This human raised her left arm straight out to her side.
Every human surrounding him raised their guns. So they forced his hand. Every human that pointed a weapon at him would soon be dead.
Garmr spoke aloud to those with the guns. He used his power to send his words from his mind to hers. To Clarise’s mind he sent the words in English. Others heard the Old Language.
Yrev lewl. Primera rowep slea noep. Nawaken Ashpodel!
“Very well. Primera power seal open. Awaken Asphodel! Become forever lost within the dark forest.”
Now even Clarise’s heart was beating fast.
Garmr laughed. He began to pant fire to toy with them. Their hearts began to beat even faster in response. Ever so slowly Garmr stood up on all fours. He gave a deep booming laugh that sent fire into the air. The column of flames from his mouth seared the bottom of the helicopter and destroyed that annoying searchlight on him.
“Fire now! Open fire! Slay this six eyed abomination!” Clarise seemed to be a very feisty human. Perhaps he would spare her for the piquing of his interests.
Tak-tak-tak-tak-tak-tak-tak-tak-tak-tak!
Before any of the now attacking humans could finish pulling the triggers, Garmr used the Place-Shift technique. In the time it would take their brains to tell their eyelids to blink Garmr moved from the road to the top of one of their armored trucks.
Place-Shift was a spiritual type of magic. It was a very well known, and used, short ranged teleportation ability that used an insignificant amount of energy to execute. Another perk of Place-Shift was the lack of evidence of its use it left. No cloud of smoke or flames or sparks appeared on use. Just instant from point A to point B.
Garmr watched and waited on top of the armor truck for a moment. What the humans might do after what little power he showed them.
“Did you see those six yellow eyes? That thing was definitely a dog demon! There is almost no way we could have killed it with just that barrage of armor piercing bullets. Did it go back to hell? We should still have its body or see some of its blood if we hurt it.”
Garmr imagined this group of humans gagging at the scent of his blood. Hellhounds’ blood smelled of sulfur. Blood from a Hellhound could often be compared to putting your nose directly into sulfur. Even Garmr thought the smell of his own blood to be somewhat putrid.
“Over here!” Garmr called to the armed humans below. Only one was stupid enough to fire his weapon at him. The bullet missed Garmr by a laughable margin.
“Hold your fire!” Clarise called out to the shooter all but a moment to late.
Garmr was already speaking an incantation loud enough for all of them to hear as they moved to surround the truck. “From the heavens comes a burning flame. Those meant to burn shall suffer the pain for an eternity. All within the second before their bodies are sacrificed to the flame. As the fire burns the body so to shall it sear the soul. Fall o flaming tears of eternity.”
From the dark clouds in the sky a ball of fire came down. It hit the single shooter dead on. Upon impact it made a column of fire around his body that would leave no ashes. Those around him moved out of the way lest they be burned as well. The burning flesh in his throat and lungs drowned his scream out. A moment later the flames dissipated. Not even a pile of ashes or his metal gear remained.
Clarise took a look at the spot at which the man stood not a minute ago. She grew visibly angry to the point that her body shook with rage. “You screwed yourself now pooch! Open…”
Garmr leapt at her with a flaming bellowing roar. His fangs would remove half her head in the blink of an eye. Time seemed to slow as his jaws came closed. But something was wrong. There was no taste of flesh and blood in his mouth. No crunch of skull between his jaws.
She had him by the throat. With her opposite hand she held the book in one hand. Clarise was chanting.