Page 60 of Rekindled Prophecy

“Well, that’s fantastic! No one has any ideas? Jasper, come on! You’re the military genius or so you are always saying.” Actually, he was, and she knew it. He was the guardian angel military general equal to Patton, Alexander the Great, and Attila the Hun with the splash of Sun Tzu for added brilliance. At this moment, she needed him to be all the above.

“Hey, I am a genius, but this goes far beyond anything I’ve ever encountered. I was less nervous on D Day.” After she flashed him a shocked look, he added, “Okay, I wasn’t nervous then, but I am now.”

Her fingers twitched as she paced the cramped alley.Think, Grey, think!

“What I need is a spy camera to get a closer look.” It was a start. Without hesitation, she pulled out her phone and speed-dialed Thomas.

In a hushed tone she conveyed to Thomas what she needed: satellite surveillance of an entire five-block radius. Lucky for her, he had contacts up the food chain over at the NSA. “I don’t know what to tell you, Grey. Not sure they’ll come through. That is a tall order.” She begged him to at least try. Otherwise, this was nothing but a suicide mission and everyone in the alley knew it.

While they waited for Thomas to call back, she silently climbed to the roof of the sandwich shop to take a look. Greylyn did not need night-vision goggles to see the nightmare before them. There were twenty demons of various factions guarding each entrance into the building. Some wore heavy armor while others wore nothing at all. The one thing they all had in common was the pure evil radiating off them, casting a hellish glow around the building. The streetlamp at the corner facing the east side of the building flickered, allowing shadow demons more mobility in that vicinity. There appeared to be only four of those, for which Greylyn was grateful, but they were the best at hiding so she fully expected more.

Congregating around a park bench on the front, southern side of the building were human-looking demons that could only be shape-shifters. They were well equipped with military-grade armor and weapons and could easily pass as a SWAT team. But as long as someone had a silver knife, those could be easily disposed of, but it would be messy. Upon death, their bodies congealed into a bloody cottage-cheese-looking substance before melting into the ground. They were at the bottom of the list of her favorite monsters to fight giving the goriness of their deaths.

Her vantage point did not allow her visual access to the northern side and only an abbreviated view of the western side of the building. She guessed from the growling noises that there were at least a few more feral beasts lurking in those areas, possibly werewolves since it was a full moon, even if clouds covered most of the night sky. But werewolves were not known for active military duty. Gang-style fighting for their pack, yes. Not this type of situation.

Within fifty yards of the building, there was a mishmash of other sinister entities that appeared as a secondary line of attack. The place was surrounded, and she still did not know what lay in wait on the far side of the building.

Thomas, don’t let me down. I need you, buddy.

Just as she was about to descend back to her comrades in the alley, something highly unusual caught her eye. Coming out from behind the northern face of the building was a freakishly tall, hulking figure of a man. He seemed to be barking out orders to the rest.

So, there is a general leading this siege.

Now if she only had binocular vision along with night vision, she could figure out who exactly this was. Based on his size and obvious leadership capacity, she surmised he was higher up the chain than a mere demonic entity. If not Malphas himself, this was likely one of the most notorious demons around … a full-fledged, pure blood fallen angel. They were rumored to be the worst of the worst.

She had encountered a couple over her lifetime as a guardian, but never defeated one outright. They always managed to get the best of her. Perhaps, if they could eliminate the general, the rest of this little army would fall apart. Unfortunately, she was too far away to get a good look at the guy. If this was indeed a fallen one, their job had just gotten a lot more difficult and dangerous.

She scrambled down the side of the building to ask if anyone had thought to bring binoculars. None that were handy anyway. They had the fancy demon-vision goggles, but no binoculars.

The shorter, thirty-something man with shaggy dirty-blond hair, looking more like a drummer of some backroad bar cover band had some.Unfortunately, he left them in his truck several blocks away.

Things just were not looking up for this tactical unit. Greylyn and Jasper both had excellent sight, but neither could see through buildings. This could be an unmitigated disaster if they charged in without knowing what lay on the other side.

Just then her phone buzzed softly.

“Hey, doll. You know never to doubt the Wizard!” Thomas boasted. “Considering I had to promise the moon and stars to get this information, you owe me – like huge! I was thinking a Caribbean vacation – just the two of us …”

“Yeah, yeah! Put it on my account, will ya?” she snapped.

Unaffected by her ill humor, Thomas described what he saw. His contact had agreed to allow Thomas to see the imagery, but no one else. “Dude says he’d be court-martialed and thrown into a tiny five by five jail cell underground in some godforsaken country for the rest of his life if someone finds out. Considering it’s their job to track every single call, text, and email throughout the world, he is reluctant to provide a visual of the satellite pictures. However, my communication channels are so tough, even the NSA can’t break in.” A soft chuckle came over the phone speaker.

After a moment when she did not reply, Thomas got down to business. “Each side of the building is heavily guarded, but there are fewer guards on the north. There is a secondary line of attack in the adjacent alleyways covering a one-block radius. The troops appear to be tightening ranks around the derelict building. There’s a lot of them, doll.”

Thomas paused, clearing his throat. “There’s something else.”

“Well, what is it?” Greylyn gritted between clenched teeth. Her nerves were already frayed like live power lines after a hurricane.

“The image isn’t too clear, seems to be a haze cast over it so we can’t see it clearly. Whatever it is, it is well over seven feet tall, and weighs 250 pounds or more. Normally, their imagery could make out the smallest polka dot, but not this time. Fred is freaking out thinking that his software’s on the fritz. I don’t think that’s the problem though.”

“Well, any ideas what I’m dealing with?” Greylyn’s heart raced as she held her breath waiting. This had to be the hulking figure she just saw.

“Nothing good. That’s a certainty. The best I can make of the image, besides the size of it, is long, white hair. Seriously though, this thing’s size alone makes Thor look like a tyke.”

“Oh, shit!” Everyone in the alley turned to stare at her, waiting for the bad news.

“What, doll? You have an idea who or what this is?” The Thor reference was all she needed.

Olivier!

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