CHAPTER FIFTEEN

 

“You!” Anton Black shouted.

A circle of red-robed figures stood above the cyst, looking down at Richard lying in the hollow atop the rock. The leader threw back his cowl with one hand and pointed with the bandaged stump of the other. “You!” he repeated. “How did you come from the other side?”

Richard staggered to his feet. He did not see the portal, but he felt it. It was close. As he moved he realized it was closer than he had thought. In some strange way, it felt like it was inside of him. He didn’t know how that could be possible.

But he had more important things to worry about right now. He was surrounded by men he had been shooting at just a few weeks before, and this time he had no backup and no weapons. He didn’t even have any clothes.

“What happened?” one of the other robed figures said.

“The portal is gone,” Anton Black whispered. “I can feel it’s gone.”

Then you can’t sense the hidden world as I can, Richard thought. He would have felt smug if he didn’t think he’d die in the next minute or two.

Anton Black drew a knife from the pocket of his robes. It had a strange wavy blade and looked razor sharp. He pointed it at Richard. “Bring the portal back and finish the sacrifice you started. You’re going to bring the Hooded One onto this plane of existence, or I’m going to kill you very slowly.”

Richard glared at him. “No.”

Another of the cultists removed his hood. Richard recognized David, whom he had met at a previous ritual. David pulled out a .44 caliber revolver. “Let me take care of him,” David said. Even in the dim light of the distant streetlamp, Richard could see the eagerness in his eyes. This was a man who liked killing.

Anton raised a hand. “No, we must make him comply. “He motioned to two of the other figures, who jumped down into the pit and grabbed Richard’s arms. For a moment, he had a flashback to being held the same way by the leather men in Mitch’s studio. Richard struggled but to no avail. While these cultists weren’t nearly as strong as the leather daddies, it was still two against one.

Anton jumped into the pit in front of him and raised his knife to Richard’s throat. “Obey.”

“Or what, you’ll kill me slowly? If I obey you, I’ll be the Hooded One’s slave for all eternity. Slitting my throat will be doing me a favor.”

Anton’s eyes narrowed. Richard tensed, he tip of the knife pricking his throat.

“We can make another deal,” Anton said. “I have great power and occult knowledge, and can control the Hooded One. If you mate with him, let him finish the ritual and manifest on this Earth, I can assure you he will not enslave you.”

“How? Demons lust for men. They spend centuries in agony, waiting for their chance. He’d never give me up.”

Richard didn’t have any intention of taking up Anton on whatever offer he might make; he was merely playing for time. Time was all he had.

“There is a ritual in which we can pass the enslavement onto another innocent fool like you once were. All we need to do is get someone drugged up enough to agree, someone desperate for love and attention. There are plenty such people in your decadent community. I’m sure you know one.”

He did. Peter fit the bill perfectly. Richard’s heart went cold. While he would never betray Peter, there were plenty in this city who would. Suddenly he realized just how vulnerable his community was. Society’s hatred of his kind had raised a group of people who were unsure of themselves. Many even hated themselves. Anton had failed with Richard, but sooner or later he would find someone to give him what he wanted.

Not if Richard stopped him first. But how?

The tip of the knife was at his throat. A pair of men held his arms. David stood above him at the lip of the pit, pistol in hand. He was helpless. He had no allies and no weapons. He had nothing.

That strange shifting within his chest told him otherwise. The portal had bonded with him somehow. When he had been cast through it, riding a wave of demonic energy from the battle he had witnessed on the other side, his own talent and the position of the stars had made something unexpected happen—it had made him the portal.

But how to use it?

Richard looked Anton in the eye and tried to act convincing. “Swear that you will keep your bargain,” Richard said to make his assent sound more convincing.

“I swear.”

“How can I trust you?”

Anton raised his bandaged hand. Now that Richard had a closer look he could see that the fingers were all gone and only half the palm remained. That shot had crippled him for life.

As he raised his arm the sleeve of his cloak fell back to reveal his wrist. Anton made a slight cut with his knife. Blood oozed out of the wound.

“I swear by my blood that I will keep the bargain I offered to you,” he intoned.

Richard nodded as if satisfied. “What do I do?”

Anton studied him for a long minute. At last he spoke. “We will continue the ritual. You stand here and focus on reopening the portal. With our help and your natural talent, it might work. And once the portal is open, summon the Hooded One. If you don’t succeed, or if you try any trickery, David will shoot you on the spot.”

Richard paused. There was no way to do what he planned to do in time before David pulled the trigger. But at least New York and all his friends would be safe.

A wave of sadness washed over him. That time with Tyrone had been their last. He’d never see that beautiful black face again.He held back his tears. He wouldn’t give these sickos the satisfaction of seeing him cry.

Anton put the knife away. “Will you do it?”

Richard nodded.

The cultists let go their grip and climbed back out of the pit, as did Anton.

“Focus,” Anton ordered. “Focus on reopening the portal. You may not be trained, but you have great talent, and the Hooded One waits on the other side. You can do it. Once he appears, give yourself to him and take his seed. Then he will walk the Earth and we will be more powerful than anyone in history. We, I say, for you shall be the first among my followers. Your talent will be of great use, and will only grow greater as I train you. I will give you great riches, and men to play with, and anything else you desire. You can even have this city you love so much as your personal fiefdom. All this I will give you, and all you have to do in exchange is have the sex you so crave, and find me another willing slave for the Hooded One.”

A great joy ran through Richard’s spirit. At first, he couldn’t figure out why. He was about to die, so why should he feel happy?

And then he figured it out. He wasn’t the least bit tempted by Anton’s offer. Many people would be, including these supposedly respectable straight men surrounding him. All his life he had been told he was a deviant, a freak, the paragon of immorality, and yet here he was refusing the greatest of all temptations. He was even prepared to die to refuse it.

Richard looked Anton in the eye. “Thank you,” he said, and meant it.

The cult leader chuckled. “I knew that one day you would see sense, my new acolyte. Now focus.”

Anton Black began to chant in a strange language. The others fell in with him, raising their hands to the stars as they encircled the pit in which Richard stood.

Squaring his shoulders and taking a deep breath, Richard focused on the strange swirling sensation inside his chest. He pictured what he wanted to come through from the other side.

At first nothing happened. Despite his resolution, the sight of David’s pistol distracted him. He closed his eyes, but that didn’t help. He couldn’t concentrate.

Richard opened his eyes again and looked up to the heavens, past the red-robed figures and their outstretched hands, past the treetops in Central Park, and at the stars. His vision focused on a bright “V” of stars high in the sky. Was that Taurus? A vague recollection from high school science class hinted that it was. A strong feeling in his heart confirmed it. Out there, somewhere near that “V” of stars, a comet blazed across the night. It was too faint to be seen with anything except a telescope, but it affected him, affected the spell these cultists were trying to cast, affected everything.

As Richard focused on those glimmering stars, imagining the comet hidden nearby, the swirling in his chest grew in intensity. He felt something opening up, a harsh wind blow, and smelled the stench of brimstone.

“Yes,” Anton Black hissed. “Yes, you are doing it. Bring him forth. Bring him forth and let him taste your flesh!”

“I’ll bring him forth all right,” Richard growled, not taking his eyes off the constellation Taurus.

With a final effort, he called forth the power inside him. He felt a jolt, a tearing, and from his chest issued a red mist that quickly began to take the form of a bull-headed man.

“What is this!” Anton cried.

David raised his pistol and cocked the hammer.

“Taurus!” Richard shouted.

The demon took final shape just as David fired at Richard. In a movement too quick to see, the demon got between them. The bullet hit the demon in the shoulder and made him grunt.

The Taurus Demon didn’t fall from the shot. In fact, the only thing the bullet did was make him angry.

With a roar, he swept his arms out, knocking down the cultists like a circle of bowling pins. The Taurus Demon must have sensed Anton Black was the leader because he turned to him and raised his fists in order to smash the man into a pulp against the rock.

Anton pulled at his collar to reveal a stone amulet. He brandished this at the demon and shouted out some word in a language Richard didn’t recognize.

The demon recoiled, covering his face to ward off whatever spell Anton was casting. One of the cultists pulled out a gun from his pocket but the demon had enough power left to smash him down against the rock. There was a sharp snapping sound and the man lay still.

The other cultists edged away. David was running away as fast as he could. The other cultists looked like they wanted to join him.

Anton stood firm, the amulet in his hand. “Be gone!” he commanded.

The Taurus Demon became blurred and unclear.

“Stay!” Richard ordered.

The demon’s image solidified a little.

Then Richard felt something else inside him. That swirling portal that was somehow a part of him was opening again, and he felt something else coming through.

Something familiar. Something that desired him.

Panicked, Richard mentally clenched down on the portal, trying to squeeze off the demon who was trying to penetrate into this world. With a snap audible only to Richard, the portal closed, leaving the Hooded One on the other side.

At that same moment, the Taurus Demon disappeared.

“Oh shit,” Richard muttered.

“Get him!” Anton bawled.

Richard leapt out of the pit and threw a punch at the nearest cultist. He had a glimpse of a terrified, middle-aged face beneath the cowl before his fist landed home and knocked the guy out cold.

Then Richard was out of the circle and running for all he was worth.

He sprinted down the path, and then ducked through some bushes as the cultists chased him in silence; only their labored breathing and the rustling of their robes, far too close behind him, told him they were in pursuit.

Briefly, he thought of shouting for help. It wasn’t so late that Central Park would be completely abandoned, but then he realized that no one would come to his aid. No one had when he had gotten mugged on a busy street in broad daylight.

Besides, shouting would only give away his location. He crawled through a thicket, trying to not make any noise and wincing every time his bare feet stepped on a stick or a rock. He could hear rustling as the cultists closed in. They’d find him at any moment.

He didn’t know where he was going or the quickest way out of the park; he was just trying to avoid the sounds of pursuit.

His path took him to the edge of the bushes. Before him stretched an open field and then a cluster of trees that offered shadow and shelter.

Not seeing anyone, but hearing the men who were hunting him closing in behind, he burst out of the bushes and sprinted for the trees.

An instant later someone shouted, “There he is!”

Hoping no one would dare take a shot at him in a public park, he kept running. At least David had shown himself to be a coward and run the first chance he got. That psycho would have opened fire on him for sure.

He glanced over his shoulder. Five cultists were coming behind him, with more trailing further back or just emerging from the bushes.

Richard plunged into the copse.

It was dark here, the trees being wide-spreading oaks that sheltered the ground beneath from any street lamps or starlight. For a moment, Richard continued to sprint, arms ahead of him, hoping he didn’t smack into a tree. Then sanity took over and he slowed to a quick walk. He could still hear the cultists behind him, but they had lost him for the moment.

He saw light up ahead, a faint illumination in the gloom. He moved towards it. Perhaps it was the edge of the park. If he got onto a city street, the cultists might be afraid to follow.

Instead of a city street, he found an opening in the canopy. Starlight shone through, as did the ambient light of the surrounding city. A man stood there in shorts and no shirt as Richard blundered naked into the half-light.

“Well, hello,” the man said, giving Richard a fetching smile as he admired his naked body. Then the five cultists burst into the grove, wielding knives.

“Oh shit!” the cruiser shouted and ran off.

Richard darted back into the shelter of the trees, stumbled over a root, and staggered further into the darkness. The cultists were close. He zigzagged, circled around, and the sound of their footsteps grew fainter.

Richard stopped, unsure of what to do. He had to get out of here and he had to do it fast. There were about a dozen more coming, and once they got here they could surround this little forest and work their way through it. They’d find him for sure. Anton would torture and kill him out of pure spite.

The snap of a twig, just off to his right and a little ahead, made him freeze.

A tree stood to his left. He edged around it and stumbled over a stone.

Silence.

Then the cultist began to move. Richard could hear him on the other side of the tree. Richard bent down and picked up the stone he had tripped on. It was bigger than a brick and heavy. He rose, held it aloft, and waited.

Dimly, he saw a shadow pass through the gloom, coming around the tree. Richard brought the stone down hard and cracked the cultist on the head. The man fell to the ground with a groan.

Hoping no one else had heard that, Richard bent over to check that the man was out. Whether the cultist was unconscious or dead he couldn’t tell, and didn’t much care. Richard pulled the robes off of him, gritting his teeth as the man’s body flopped around on the ground, making far too much noise.

Richard hurried away a few yards as he heard the sound of soft footsteps, then put the robe on, covering his head with the hood.

“You see him?” someone whispered from a few feet away.

Richard almost leapt out of his skin. He hadn’t noticed the guy there.

He shook his head and muttered, “Nuh-uh.”

The figure moved away. Richard thought of attacking, but decided against it. Instead, he slipped away in the other direction.

Trying to retain his composure, he walked through the forest, looking this way and that as if he was searching. He walked right past two other cultists before he got to the tree line and saw the beautiful sight of a park gate not fifty yards away.

He ran. He ran faster than he had ever run in his life. He didn’t look back, didn’t even think to; he only ran. David had run, and he hoped that if any of the cultists saw him they would assume he was one of their number running away too.

Whether any of them had seen him or thought he was a cult member, he would never know, but he made it to the park gate alive. Within minutes he was back in the honking, dirty city he loved so much. All those normal, decent faces, all those prostitutes and hustlers and dealers and Johns. All those tired businessmen and sad housewives. He wanted to kiss every one of them.

None of them even gave a second glance at the barefoot man in the red, hooded robe walking down the street panting from exertion and adrenaline. This was New York City, after all.