"True."

"Hey, when Reyna first showed up, she said she'd met you once before. Back when you were a lowly Marine. Got me wondering a little, so, what happened?"

He was quiet for a moment as I saw memories of a jungle flashing through his aura, "It was back in '68. My company was stationed in Laos. We ran across a village that was completely empty but there was blood everywhere. There were a lot of atrocities in that war but this looked bad. We trailed the force that had done it for a day and a half."

"They were leadin' us deep into the jungle, and the Captain figured they were playin' with us. Somethin' just didn't seem right about 'em. They hit us out of the darkness. They moved so fast, we only saw shadows. Over about three hours, they destroyed a whole company of Marines. We got a few, and when we saw what they were, we knew we were in trouble. They weren't human."

"There were only fifteen of us left when the jungle lit up off to our left. She walked out of the jungle and it looked like she was on fire. Behind her came twenty men, and women with swords of flame. It was the kind of thing I expected to see if I was losing my mind. It really pissed off the forces that were hittin' us. They came out of the shadows quick."

"You can imagine what we witnessed after that. Soulguards are impressive to normal people, and I was very impressed. After all was said and done, all fifteen survivors of my company became Soulguard. Been tryin' to kill all of the Demon bastards ever since."

"I see," I said. "I guess we all have something like that in our past."

"Just about all of the Guard came from that sort of thing," Ric said. "These new Guards will be different. In some respects, better, some not. They'll fight like soldiers, but they have families and friends who they'll return to eventually. They'll serve shorter terms, and they'll want to go home. I can't say that's a bad thing."

"True enough," I said. "They have people they fight to protect. Most of us fight for the memory of people. I never met my parents, but I fight for their memory. My true family is the Guard. I have nothing else."

"It's the same for me, Boss. The Guard's all the family I got," he said. "Things are gonna be different from here on out."

"That's what I told Paige the other day," I said. "Of course it's gonna mean a whole new thing when you say veteran after this. Over time there's gonna be a lot of people who don't work directly for us anymore, and yet have the power they gain from the knot. There's a lot that we need to work with in dealing with that. But that's something Paige has to worry about. We only need to worry about several million Kresh bent on destroying our race."

"Oh, is that all?"

"Yeah, we'll leave the big decisions to the Archmage."

He laughed and gripped my shoulder, "We'll take care of the little things then."

"Yep."

"What was he like?" I asked Dietrich.

We sat at a table at the Hooters in Wichita, once again. It seemed to be our unofficial meeting place now. Every week a group of Soulguards would descend on the place, and try to eat all the food. They tried to convince the girls to go home with them as well. Some had been successful, like Jacobs. But mostly, the girls who worked there were immune to the advances of soldiers and Soulguards. They had to be to still be there, I suppose.

"Merlin?" he said, "Honestly, no one knew much about his personal life. He was one scary bastard, though. When I met him, he was close to nine hundred years old. He would say things that sounded ridiculous to most folks about things that had happened so long ago. But then we would meet a Demon army in the field, and he would blow up the world around us. I've seen some pretty impressive displays of power in my life, but he was at the top. Our world was small, we knew there was more, we just couldn't get to it all. I think he had gone to places most of us had just dreamt of."

"I guess you could cover a lot of the world in nine hundred years," I said.

"No doubt. He was fond of something I saw you do on some video footage. The huge vortex of power you held over the field in Kansas. He would do that, and just rip giant gouts of fire down onto their heads. If we'd been there when they came for Kent, things would have been different. Kent was awesome by himself, but, together they were something totally different. I saw them destroy an army of Demons together. We were just there to feed them power. They left the ground so hot it was flowing like water. It was beautiful and the most terrifying thing I have ever seen."

"It's hard to believe they could send something over here that could kill one of them. But they had something and they used it. There was nothing left after that day, only the Guards who weren't there. We started over and Merlin disappeared. For a while I couldn't understand his leaving. But a hundred years ago or so I did the same."

"I was tired. I'd spent so long killin' and fightin', and my stubborn son decided he had to join the Soulguard too. I left and then I heard he had died with some Mage they called the Demonkiller, and I swore never to return."

"Then I started a war," I said, "And another of your stubborn kids was gonna run off and join the Soulguard."

He looked down the table at Kharl, who was laughing at something Jacobs had said, "I'm not gonna make that mistake again. Never let your pride make you leave the one's you care for, Boy. Sometimes there ain't a miracle that can bring them back to you."

My office door opened, and I saw Alec Brighton standing in the entrance.

"I'll never really trust them, the Shak'Tar," he said, "but I'll give you my loyalty. I've spent the last week talking to every person I could find about you. What you did out there, tying yourself to the Source. You didn't expect to survive that, did you?"

"No," I said, "but my Guard would survive. That was enough for me."

"And that's why I'll follow you."

"Thank you, Alec."

He nodded and turned away. I watched his Soul as he walked down the hall. There was one thing that truly bothered me about how the Guard has given me so much loyalty. Was I forcing it on them with the telepathy, or did they truly follow of their own free will. Alec helped in dispelling that worry. He chose to follow. I had stayed away from the company as they decided. I wanted to be sure I wasn't affecting them by being there.

Over the last few days, they had all come and given me their decisions. All of them stayed. Alec was the last of them to come see me. I could see his point with the Shak'Tar. I had a serious hate for them myself. But when I Marked them, I became responsible for them. It wasn't their choice, and I could have just killed them, but they looked to me for direction now.

And after the explanations, I felt there was no choice. The Shak'Tar were still out there killing humans, and if I sent them back across, that would stop. No choice at all, really. I'm not sure my oath to protect humanity can just cover those on my own world. There are fourteen other worlds of humans out there, and they were under the rule of the Kresh. That's unacceptable, and I will cross into their worlds one day.

Then I will end their rule.

Chapter 37.

They hit New York in November. It was the biggest catastrophe ever seen by that huge city. Right in the center of Broadway and 174th street, a portal opened and Demons charged through. Other portals formed nearby at several intersections. They poured through the portals for some time before the National Guard and the Soulguard could get anywhere near the place. It was estimated that there were close to five thousand Demons loose in the largest city in the U.S.

They poured into the congested population of New York, and killed everything they could find. It was absolute chaos.

It was 8:45 PM when our plane landed at LaGuardia. My company exited the plane to be met by a Military Liaison.

"Sir," he said, "we need to get your men over the river, and to the staging ground in Central Park."

I looked at the map in my hands, "You got enough helicopters to get us all over there?"

"No sir," he said, "We'll have to take three trips."

"We'll get there faster on the run," I said and turned to Rictor.

"Ric, we're hittin' this Parkway," I said, pointing at the map, "at a run. Form everyone up."

"You're going to what?!" the Liaison asked.

I looked back at him, and my rage must have been very close to the surface because he stepped back quickly, and tripped to fall on his backside. I reached down and pulled him to his feet.

"Take more NG's on the Helos. We'll get there faster on foot," I said.

I didn't have time to explain better than that.

"Ready, Boss," Rictor said behind me.

I turned and the world slowed as I shot across the runway at seventy five miles per hour. I leapt the fence with one Soullord, eleven Mages, and a hundred Guards hot on my heels. Traffic was backed up on the parkway, but it didn't even slow us as we ran across the tops of cars in the heavy congestion. We followed that road through several name changes until we reached the turn toward the bridge. I had wanted to return to New York someday, but it definitely was not under these circumstances. I could only imagine the death toll already. I cringed and poured on more speed. Traffic on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge was completely stopped, and people were pouring across the bridge on foot.

We hit the top of vehicles once again, and never slowed down. On the other side of the bridge, it was much the same so we ran across cars and leapt to open areas. Once we even launched ourselves to the top of a building to get past the crowds of people trying to escape to the other side of the East River. We stayed on Martin Luther King until 8th Ave where we headed south.

The staging area was in the big open area at the Northwest corner of the park, Cathedral Parkway. I could see the darkness of Demons to our Northeast, and the rage was clawing at the walls.

We reached the mass of soldiers before the first helicopter made it. I stopped in front of a surprised soldier.

"Where's HQ, Private?"

"The big tent there in the center," he said quickly.

He had already met a few Soulguards this day, and our speed hadn't affected his response time.

"Thank you, Private," I glanced down, "Swann."

"Ric, Lyrica, with me," I looked to the others, "I'll be back with targets in a moment. I'd suggest looking over your maps for the time being."

I headed to the central tent where a guard stood outside, "Colin Rourke, Soulguard."

"Go ahead, Sir."

I entered to find several Officers arguing over the map stretched across the table. One of them looked up, and I recognized General Gasper.

"Good!" he exclaimed as he saw me. "Welcome, Mister Rourke. Welcome indeed."

"What's our situation, General?" I asked.

"It's bad, Colin," he said and pointed at the map, "They showed up here, and we got slaughtered in there. This is part of the densest population in the whole city. Your guys and the NG's have the top along 181st pretty well stitched up, but they poured south killing everyone they find. There's still more pouring through those damn portals, and there are thousands of people in these areas. Last report says the Kresh are into Harlem already, and they're destroying anything they can."

"Where are our lines?"

"Across 138th. They're stayin' to the roads, so we set up in intersections to hold them. Damn these bastards are tough."

"That they are," I agreed. "OK I'll put my guys along 138th at the intersections, and start advancing to the North. We need everyone we can get pulling people out of the occupied territory. I can't open up with innocents in the line of fire. We clean this area of civilians, and we'll bring hell down on the bastards. You get any information you think I need, we're on frequency 32 on the coms."

"Got it," He said. "Good luck, Colin."

I left the tent with my whole body vibrating. I'd been waiting to get at the bastards for nearly two years, and my walls around the monster inside me were getting thin.

"You heard the man, Ric," I said. "I want our guys on that line, and I want them working North to pull people out. Lyrica, you're with me."

"They have injured here," she started.

"I need you on the top of a building," I said. "I need to know when this area here is clear of humans."

I was pointing at the area that was about the center of the island about halfway between the two lines of NG's and Guards.

"This is the kill box," I said, "When I give the order, I want everything we have hitting right here."

She looked at me with narrowed eyes. There's nothing slow about that woman's mind.

"Just how are we going get them into this 'kill box'?"

"They'll be going there soon," I said. "They'll have an irresistible urge to go there."

I could see she was pissed.

"It's the only thing they want more than to slaughter the human race."

"What the hell are you saying?" Prada asked from behind me.

"He's going to be bait," Lyrica said with a snarl.

"Now I want everyone on that line," I ordered, and turned away from the worried faces of three of the people I cared about most in this world, "so let's get this done."

With that I headed back North along 8th avenue. The Mages and Guards followed silently, and when we reached the lines where the National Guardsmen had fortified the intersection, Rictor started barking orders.

Each Mage went either right or left to join the NG's at the other intersections.

"I need you here, Ric," I said, "You need to run things from here, and me and Lyrica are heading North. She'll be on that tallest building there. She can steer you guys to pockets of civilians to pull out."

"You're determined to do this?" he asked.

"I don't see any other way, Ric."

"At least take a squad of Guards with you."

"They're all needed on the line," I said, "Don't worry about me, I can outrun them if I need to."

"I wouldn't know," he said, "because I've never seen you run from them."

I chuckled, "True enough. I will if I need to."

The "kill box" was the area between 145th and 149th streets, hopefully between Broadway and St. Nicholas. I intended to try to get them to focus on that area in an attempt to limit the casualties from this point out. Right then they were scattered from 138th to 180th Streets all across the island. The bridges were all closed off but the Kresh weren't trying to cross them anyway. They were satisfied in the crowded areas of Hamilton Heights and Washington Heights. They had gotten into the northern-most parts of Harlem before the NG's had established the lines where we were now passing.

Lyrica and I leapt over the NG's and headed into the war zone. I pointed to the left at the tallest building I had seen.

"That one should do it," I said.

She grabbed my arm as I was turning toward the darkness I could see ahead of me. I turned and she was abruptly right there, close. Our lips met and she kissed me. There was a surge of something through my entire being, and I really didn't want to stop, but duty called. We parted and there was a smile on her face that I know was mirrored in my own.

"Please, be careful," she said softly.

"I'll do my best," I said, "You watch yourself, too."