Crack the Sky: Preternatural Chronicles Book 8 (The Preternatural Chronicles)

by Hunter Blain

  With nothing else I could do, I dug up and then placed Meli and the boy in a single grave by the edge of the yard, close to nature. Luckily the rain had stopped, as if to pay last respects to the fallen.

  Before filling in the hole with dirt, I reached down and put their arms around one another in a final embrace. I don’t know why I did it. It just felt right.

  As I manifested a large shovel to help fill in the grave, movement caught my ear.

  Turning my body, I saw Depweg slowly standing up to his twelve-foot stature, his muscles and bones popping as he moved. Even though it had briefly rained, blood still caked his fur from head to toe, making him look like a juicy zombie who had been resurrected during the process of decomposing.

  But he wasn’t a zombie. He was my best good friend.

  “Depweg!” I cried out in excitement as pieces of his skull slid together, reminding me of watching a Claymation video.

  Yellow eyes with black slits locked onto me, and I screamed, “It’s alive! IT’S ALIVE!” cackling into the sky right as lightning dashed through the cloud cover.

  Eyes drifted from me to the hole I had dug, and remained there, frozen.

  The storm must have been getting ready to drop round two because I heard thunder rumble in the distance, making my skin crawl.

  Then I realized it wasn’t thunder.

  Depweg was making that powerful noise.

  “Dep…weg?” I asked nervously until I followed his gaze and saw his family lying in the hole and me with a shovel of dirt ready to cover them forever.

  Shooting my gaze back to Depweg with my mouth hanging open like I had been caught with my hand in the cookie jar, I was horrified to see part of the wolf’s yellow eyes were beginning to glow crimson.

  “Um…” was all I could get out before Depweg charged me in a blur of flashing teeth and swiping claws.

  41

  Numbness burst from the side of my face as my vision went black, leaving me dazed and confused while the subtle feeling of weightlessness tickled the bottom of my stomach.

  In an instant, I knew he had struck me somewhere on the side of my head with enough force that my armor was blaring sirens in the control room of my mind.

  Doing a quick status report, I gasped when I saw the celestial armor had done just enough to keep my head from exploding on impact. When I inquired why my helmet hadn’t done more to protect me, it pinged back with a printed readout of the word were-pire.

  Lilith, I said to myself while inside the bleating control room of my mind, It was only one hit!

  A quick gif played in my mind of being on a rooftop in Mexico as the feral werewolf nearly decapitated me with one swipe of his claws. Granted, I hadn’t been wearing my celestial armor, but now the playing field had been leveled once again. Even with my angelic armor, the virus had made Depweg powerful enough to negate any protection.

  Then it hit me.

  That was exactly what Samael had wanted when he had his Nazi lackeys develop the virus by using vampire, werewolf, and even god (small g) abilities. The combination proved enough to tilt the balance of power against Satan’s brothers.

  A green light flashed indicating the healing was complete, and I shot my consciousness back into my body.

  Vision cleared and mind focused, I was relieved to see that everything I had done had taken place within a single second and I hadn’t smashed into any trees yet. Right then, I couldn’t afford to fight back unless it was of the critical persuasion variety, even if it meant putting myself through excruciating pain. Gabriel had said how important it was to bring back Depweg alive. I would have to talk my way out of this mess. And if my experience in Faerie was any indication, I wasn’t excited to have the unhinged Depweg poised to do as much damage as he wanted without real resistance.

  Seeing the trunk of an already destroyed tree coming my way, I flipped in midair so that my feet hit the bark, and then slowed my momentum as I crouched.

  Locating the stalking Depweg, I shot toward him like a javelin, aiming for his ample torso. If I could somehow subdue him in some sort of choke hold, I might be able to talk some sense into him.

  With my fists forward, I flew like Superman before tucking myself into a ball and rolling, ready to land a stunning double kick right in Depweg’s sternum.

  As I finished my rotation and looked to make sure my aim was good, I noticed a portal closing, leaving only empty air where Depweg had just be—

  A fist the size of a cinder block slammed into my stomach like a judge’s gavel, sending me crashing to the ground with a rush of air from my instantly deflated lungs. Depweg’s fist remained in my gut, guiding me to the ground with all his weight behind the blow.

  Remembering my extensive combat training in Faerie, I instinctively shot my feet upward while crossing one of my legs over Depweg’s forearm. Tucking the foot of my bent leg under my other knee, I formed what is known as a triangle in jiujitsu and pulled my free foot back toward my body, locking my right foot behind my left knee.

  Using my right hand, I manifested a ball of light and threw it toward Depweg’s looming face, exploding the sphere right in front of his eyes.

  Depweg roared as the small explosion seared his sensitive orbs, allowing me to reach down with my left hand and grab the ankle of my left foot.

  Yanking my foot toward me while trying to forcefully straighten the lower half of my body, Depweg’s forearm snapped as the rest of his body was thrown off balance and toward the ground.

  He hit with his shoulder as his eyes finished healing, and I released my triangle hold on Depweg’s massive appendage.

  Clambering up his arm, I landed a powerful left hook to the bottom of Depweg’s chin with a crack that was both satisfying and worrisome. I was only trying to debilitate my brother, not kill him. But my supercharged celestial batteries made it too easy to pour plentiful power into every move.

  His hand swung up from the force of impact right as his forearm popped back into place, alarming me with the rate at which he recovered and reached for me. Witnessing the incredible healing time from the other side reminded me of what it must be like to fight me. I almost had to chuckle at the irony.

  Seeing my opportunity, I tried to scramble around the giant wolf so that I could take his back while somehow putting him in a choke hold, allowing me the time to try and talk him down.

  Moving quickly, the hand that had been reaching for me raked its claws down my leg, cutting through the Fae jeans and into my meat.

  Kicking free with a grunt, I continued to try and take his back, only to have Depweg begin to roll with me. It felt like I was on top of a car that had gone over a steep cliff.

  His impressive weight landed on top of me, pinning me instantly right as one of his hands wrapped around both of my kicking legs around the knees. The pressure of his grip was immediate, and I could feel the armor trying its best to not let my bones be reduced to tiny shards of glass.

  With half of my body in his grasp, Depweg continued his roll, leaving me imprinted into the ground, and positioned himself on his knees on the left side of my body. His other hand reached for my torso, and I knew he was going to rip me in half just like he had in Faerie. The stakes were even more real now, as I felt at my very core that if my armor was disconnected, I would lose connection to my river of time and never be able to return. Even worse, if I allowed this stream of time to continue, Gabriel anticipated it might crash into the main river and destroy everything.

  I mentally shuddered as I thought about another universe blinking into existence exactly on top of the original. I could only guess that the resulting explosion would make the Big Bang seem like a firecracker in comparison.

  My eyes flicked down Depweg’s body in a desperate attempt to find a glaring weakness that I could exploit. But that might have been the gamer in me that was used to bosses in video games having glowing orange sections you were supposed to attack in order to defeat them.

  I tried to summon my flaming gladius with the desperate and
primal hope of lighting Depweg on fire, but I quickly shook the idea away, unwilling to risk the very real potential of killing my were-pire buddy with heavenflame.

  “Plea—” I tried to beg Depweg before his hand wrapped completely around my head, forcing my mouth shut with teeth-cracking strength.

  Something tugged on my hip with enough force to grab my attention even through the pain that was seeping down every nerve like having molten lava poured over my entire body.

  Realizing what was producing the tugging, I reached my left hand close to my face and willed Mjolnir into my grip.

  Depweg screamed as he was torn off the ground and flung through the air, but only for a few feet, which was still enough to make him drop his grip on my body and throw him off me.

  Scrambling to my feet with Mjolnir in my hand, I understood that it had flown toward my grip sideways, allowing maximum surface contact with Depweg’s leg that had been stuck between my hip and my hand.

  Seeing the wolf land with a bone-jarring thud, I could see the upper thigh of his left leg was horribly disfigured. A loud pop that sounded like a gunshot informed me that he was already recovering from where Mjolnir had crashed into him like a dump truck speeding into a lone brick wall.

  Mjolnir vibrated in my hand almost like it was applauding, and an idea came to me.

  Stepping forward, I launched the hammer like a baseball, sending it flying into the huge target that was Depweg’s forehead. I had to make sure the force I used was akin to tapping a nail into drywall rather than taking a sledgehammer to a railroad spike, lest I risk exploding his cranium like I had done to Jose.

  Success! Mjolnir barreled into him with a crack, sending him toppling backward with arms splayed out.

  With the hammer soaring back to me, I leaped through the air and landed on the acreage of Depweg’s chest.

  Hoisting the hammer to the sky with the intent of slamming it down in a restrained yet powerful strike, I froze as I saw the crimson of Depweg’s eyes fading to their normal black slits within yellow orbs.

  “Depweg. Depweg, it’s me!” I desperately said as I waved my right hand in front of his face. “It’s John!”

  His skull popped once, and I was disheartened to see yellow eyes beginning to fill with scarlet slits once again. I briefly wondered why his eyes had the red slits while Stripe and the original were-pires only had yellow eyes that flashed crimson. But that didn’t matter right then.

  “Hey!” I cried out, slapping Depweg across the snout. “Stop being a dick! It’s me! It’s John!”

  Yellow eyes blinked a few times as a growl began to grow before fading again just as quickly. Black slits locked onto me, and I saw recognition in his eyes, so I pressed my luck.

  “Yeah, man. It’s John. Your hetero life mate. Your bestest good friend…your brother.” I said the last words softly as I injected love into the message. There was something to be said about two friends who had been through enough to call each other family. A bond that transcended blood because you had chosen them to become the highest honor that one could bestow. Next to marriage, of course.

  Depweg was my brother, and I loved him with every atom of my body.

  Blinking yellow eyes stared up at me, and Mjolnir quickly vibrated in my hand. Looking up at it, I realized how I must look with a beefy hammer poised to strike.

  Letting the weapon vanish, I hopped off my brother and let him push himself to a seated position.

  “What…what happened?” he asked, rubbing either side of his head with both hands.

  “You transformed into something much greater than a were-wolf,” I said in a horror movie announcer voice. “You turned into…a when-wolf.”

  When Depweg intentionally didn’t respond to my epic pun, I breathed out, “Yeah, that fell flat with Gabriel too.”

  “John…what happened.” It was a demand rather than a question this time. He probably knew that if I was stalling, then it wasn’t good.

  “You’re, um…heh heh…not gonna like this…” I prefaced, trying to decide where to start. “But I had to…like…inject you with the…um…” I sped up my words and basically whispered, “were-pire virus.”

  “You what?!” Depweg barked, dropping his hands and shooting his gaze toward me.

  “Dude! You were totally dead!” I quickly explained with my hands up in placation. “Wha-wha-wha-what was I supposed to do, man?! Just let you die?!”

  Depweg turned and regarded the mound of dirt that was about twelve yards from where he stood.

  “No!” I barked out with an accusing finger. “Gabriel says we need you, man…I need you.”

  In answer and without taking his eyes off the dirt meant to bury his family, Depweg began slowly reverting back to his human form.

  A gentle gliding over my leg caught my attention, and I looked down to see both my flesh and even my freaking jeans were repairing. I’d have to ponder on how my Fae clothing was healing some other time.

  All of Depweg’s injuries had finished healing, but the rest of his muscles and bones began creaking, popping, and groaning as his body shrunk to less than half its size. Healed or not, I knew the transformation back to his man-suit hurt like hell.

  Something caught my eye, and I noticed his fangs didn’t fall out, instead reverting back into human teeth with audible groans of compressing bone.

  I frowned as I noticed he wasn’t paying the sharp pains of shifting any mind. Even after countless transformations, it was nearly impossible for Depweg not to wear the pain he was experiencing on his face, especially coming back from feral form.

  Then again, the surreal anguish experienced from staring at the grave of his family dwarfed any physical pain he had ever experienced.

  A gentle breeze whispered across the yard of Depweg’s broken home, spilling a minuscule amount of dirt from the large pile into the grave.

  42

  Lilith

  “How long do we have?” Father Thomes asked with a sigh as he eased himself into his worn reading chair. After leaving Taylor in the cathedral, the Catholic priest and the first vampire had made their way downstairs, Father Thomes taking his time with each step of the winding stone stairs.

  “With the sorcerer wielding both crowns of Faerie…not long,” Lilith answered honestly, staring into the fire from where she sat opposite the priest, a small end table spacing the chairs apart. Upon the table was an old tome with an indiscernible cover and weathered pages.

  “This child bested you?” Thomes asked with an unreadable expression. “Both of you?”

  Lilith nodded her head in defeat as she slowly willed her gaze from the mesmerizing flames and locked eyes with the priest, the fire creating a mirrored reflection in his thick spectacles.

  “With John gone…there’s only one person who can stop the sorcerer…” Lilith let her meaning hang in the air so that Thomes might digest her suggestion.

  “You mean to ask the Devil for help to save the world?” Father Thomes Philseep asked with a downward tilt of his head.

  “It is my understanding that he wishes to rule over all of the creation he feels he helped bring to life, not just a smoldering cinder of the work he shared with his Father,” Lilith countered. “The man I once loved was an artist who saw beauty in ways that only he could perceive. I am confident the destruction of this world would bring great sorrow to his already shriveled heart. It would be like taking the entirety of a painter’s catalog and burning them all in front of him, knowing he had spent a lifetime planning each brushstroke, every combination of color, across countless canvases.”

  Father Thomes regarded Lilith with glasses that reflected the flame.

  Removing them, he placed the spectacles on the thick tome beside him so that Lilith might better see his aging eyes.

  “Would it not make more sense to ask God above for his aid?”

  “I think we both know the answer we’d receive.”

  “What about the angels? John appears to have an unprecedented relationship with the Archangel Gabr
iel. Surely he would help before the Lord of Hell.”

  “As I said, with John just up and disappeared…I wouldn’t know how to contact any of the flying bastards.” As she spoke, Lilith looked toward the ceiling with an expression of disgust creeping into her face, the dancing light of the fireplace casting shadows across one side of her head.

  “Curious,” Father Thomes mused, lowering his head as he pressed his lips into steepled fingers.

  Lilith lowered her face to regard the priest.

  “What?”

  “You said John has disappeared,” Father Thomes said with an almost quizzical tone. “How do you know that?”

  The two stared at one another, motionless, as the flames portrayed a scene of false movement created by rippling shadows.

  “Never you mind, priest.” Lilith spit out the last word with venom.

  Knowing he had caught a whiff of a carefully guarded secret, Father Thomes pointedly narrowed his eyes before returning to the subject at hand.

  “I will reach out to Heaven above and seek celestial guidance,” Father Thomes informed while leaning forward in his chair and staring deeply into Lilith’s eyes, which were the purple of sunset at the moment. “You, my dear, will travel to Hell.”

  “I…” Lilith attempted to speak, but silence stole her tongue as anxiety gripped her unbeating heart. “I can’t…”

  A thunderclap rumbled overhead like a bestial growl of warning before a ferocious attack.

  Father Thomes slowly looked up and inspected the ceiling as the stampede of sound grew in a crescendo until it was as if giants were clashing sword against shield right above the church.

  “I’m afraid we are out of time,” Father Thomes said just above a whisper as his gaze lingered on the ceiling, which had begun dropping small clouds of dust toward the ground.

  Lilith’s face scrunched into a scowl as she all of a sudden turned to her right and toward a corner of the room, her head moving as if she were searching for something that wasn’t there.