Constantine - The Novelization - Whoa is (Not)

lood, and then took another drag. He laid the butt on the remains of a table, then took a keychain from his pants pocket. On it were house keys, keys to a car he couldn't legally driveanymore, a Ralph's Supermarket swipe card, and a set of small, very old silver medallions, eachwith an image of a saint. When Constantine got to Saint Anthony of the Desert, standing withone foot on the head of a gorgon, the demon reacted with a wet chattering glossolalia.Ah--that's the one, is it? Constantine thought, stepping onto the bed, squatting to straddle thegirl.Sending his field energy out along his arms, into his fingers, Constantine raised his hands,making the passes, the runic shapes, that directed the energy.Then he snarled at the demon, so that its master - who heard whatever the demon heard -would know:"This is Constantine. John Constantine, asshole!"He pressed the medallion against the girl's bruised forehead. The metal began to glow red-hot,and smoke rose from burnt skin. The child - and the demon - screamed and convulsed.All the time, Constantine was careful not to look directly into the child's face as it flickered inand out of shadow - but seeing out of the corner of his eyes, he had an impression of the girl'sface alternating with another. One that should not be visible at all in the world of men.The girl jolted on the bed, the bonds cut into her wrists and ankles, and then her eyes snappedopen and Constantine found himself looking into them as the demon in her snarled, "Vamosjuntos a matarla.'"The pot calling the kettle black, Constantine thought, holding her down with one hand whilehe pressed the medallion with the other as the girl's body shimmied on the bed....And then suddenly she went limp. Lay still, as if dead."What the hell?" It should not have killed her. The thing should be fighting for a while yet.He leaned forward to look at her face - and something jumped beneath the skin of her neck, upinto her face, distending abruptly malleable jaws so that they jutted forward, as if trying to gnawits way free from within...Constantine recoiled - and the demon kept coming at him, lifting the bed frame off the floortelekinetically, arms outspread in the now-upright frame like a mock of the crucifixion; like awolf dragging its cage, it came snapping at his face with its unnaturally outstretched jaws.The demon roared and foamed at the mouth and contorted, beginning to shake the bed frameapart...And Constantine, swearing-old-fashioned obscenities and not incantations - stepped in andpunched the girl hard in the side of the head with his right fist.She gasped, her eyes rolled back - and the girl, bed frame and all, fell backward, out cold.Heart thumping, dizzy, Constantine became aware of voices behind him. He turned to see asmall crowd at the half-open door. Several men and a woman, mouths and eyes wide open,staring.Constantine hoped they'd seen more than him punching a little girl. But if they had, there wasno condemnation. Just horror as they stared at the unconscious child.Constantine knew how to take control of dazed people when he had to. "I need a mirror.Now!" He turned to look at the girl. "At least three feet high! Move!"The three men looked at one another, murmured, then ran down the hall. They ran to thenearest apartment, didn't find a suitable mirror, hammered on another door, and thundered inside,making an old woman shriek as they tore a big floor mirror from its stand and raced puffing backup to Constantine with it.Distantly aware of all this, Constantine went to the window and shouted down to hisapprentice, still leaning against the cab."Yo, Chaz!""What?" Chaz shouted back."Move the car! Your cab, move it!"