by N. P. Martin
I walked over and peered down at the beast. "I don’t know what made you or where you’re from, but this is the place for you now," I said to it, to which the creature snarled and writhed its body like it wanted nothing more than to rip me apart. But it soon stopped moving, as if it knew it wasn’t going anywhere.
Standing back, I waved my hand over the large crater, and a second later, it began to fill up with earth again, completely burying the otherworldly beast in the process. As the roots began to snake back to their previous positions, I offered a silent thank you to the trees for their help.
Then behind me, there was the sound of clapping, and I turned around to see Adrina standing there with a wide smile on her face. "Well played," she said. "Very well played indeed."
I shook my head at her. "Where the hell were you?"
She came forward. "Watching, to see what you’d do. Your powers are manifesting."
"Lucky for me. That thing, whatever it was, would’ve eaten me alive otherwise. How did you know what I’d do?"
"I didn’t."
I shook my head again. "So this was some sort of test, was it?"
"Just an opportunity for you to dig deep, Corvin. Something you’ll have to do when you meet Erebus."
"Controlling a few tree roots is one thing," I said. "Defeating a demigod is another."
She came and put a hand on my shoulder. "You’ve only just begun to discover your powers, and as such you’ve barely scratched the surface. Have faith, Corvin. You will have all the power you need to defeat Erebus."
I nodded, even though I didn’t quite share her confidence just yet. I was getting there, though, just slowly it seemed. "I take it there’s no more of those things around here?"
"I don’t think so."
"Let’s go and see what Mr. TV Executive knows then."
Chapter 9
The house that Kyle lived in was a red-bricked two-story affair that seemed to have been built in the last twenty years or so. Getting inside was pretty easy, since I just turned myself to vapor and passed through the back door, unlocking it from the inside so Adrina could enter, who was pretty certain that Kyle had been alerted to our presence, especially after I’d killed his pet, whatever the hell it was.
The two of us stood in the kitchen for a moment as we listened. All the lights were out, as if Kyle wasn’t home, but we knew he was. Adrina whispered to me that she could hear his heartbeat coming from down the hall in the living room. She moved first through the kitchen doorway and out into the wide hallway as I followed just behind her. We were halfway down the hall when we glimpsed a figure leaning out the doorway of the living room. A second later, shots rang out, and I instinctively ducked as bullets hit the wall above my head.
Adrina, however, didn’t flinch from the shots. Instead, she continued walking down the hallway, using her supernatural speed to avoid every bullet that came at her. Six shots were fired before any empty clicking noise filled the hallway, and I knew Kyle had run out of bullets. Not that the bullets did him any good in the first place.
"Who are you?" he said loudly as Adrina continued to advance toward him. "What do you want?"
Adrina rushed at him, grabbing him by the throat and dragging him inside the living room. With my ears ringing from the shots, I hurried down the hall and into the living room as well, turning on the light as soon as I entered, just in time to see Adrina fling Kyle down onto the couch like he was nothing but rags. He was much older than I expected, in his seventies at least, and despite his tall frame, he seemed fragile, as if he would break apart if you went too hard on him.
"Take a seat," Adrina snarled. "Or you’ll end up dead like your pet out in the woods."
He didn’t seem amused about that. "That was a gift from Erebus."
"Well, whatever it is, it’s dead," I said.
The old man, sporting a white beard and barely any hair on his head, stared up at Adrina, and at her glowing red eyes. "What does a vampire want with me?" he asked her, his sharp blue eyes defiant and seemingly unafraid behind small, round glasses.
"You know what we want," Adrina said as she stood in front of him, staring down.
Kyle snorted slightly and then shifted his gaze to me, his face changing as he seemed to recognize me. "I know you," he said smiling. "You’re the supposed savior, aren’t you? The one who will stand up to the Dark Lord." He laughed as if the idea was funny, then looked at Adrina again. "I suppose Mirahorn sent you here to…what? Interrogate me?" His eyes narrowed. "You want to know where Erebus is, don’t you?"
"I’m glad we’re on the same page," Adrina said.
Kyle laughed. "The same page? My dear, we’re not even reading from the same book."
"You’re American," I said, stepping in before Adrina got violent. "What are you doing over here?"
"I grew up here," he said, somewhat offended. "I’m as Irish as you are, Mr. Chance."
It still disturbed that he knew my name. The Disciples probably knew everything about me, and have done for a long time now. "That’s not what I meant. If you’re such a media bigwig, why aren’t you directing things from Dark Disney Land instead of here?"
"I’m done with Dark Disney Land, as you call it," he said. "It’s a sewer over there, full of the worst mutations of the virus we call humanity. The whole world is, in fact."
"Which is why you and your brethren intend to live as machines instead."
"Indeed," he said like it was no great secret. "It will be the ultimate control structure. We can thrive without being dragged down by the demeaning physical needs that currently drive us all."
"But the virus of humanity will live on," I argued. "You’ll be just another mutation."
He stared at me a moment before nodding. "I suppose so, in the beginning at least. But a new kind of consciousness will arise and take over, and this new consciousness will not reflect humanity in its current degenerate form. Before long, humans will be nothing but a distant dream or a long forgotten memory."
"Well, it all sounds very bleak to me," I said, taking out my cigarettes.
"I’d prefer it if you didn’t smoke in my home," Kyle said.
I shook my head at him as I popped a cigarette in my mouth. "What do you care? Sure you’ll be machine soon enough, won’t you?" He glared back at me as I smiled slightly and lit the cigarette, blowing a stream of smoke toward him. "What you do is despicable, by the way, mind controlling people via the media, and that’s not even counting whatever else you do as a Disciple of Apep. As far as I’m concerned, you’re all despicable human beings, a virus mutation that needs wiped out. I’m just telling you this because I know you’ll probably resist telling us what we want to know, in which case I or Adrina there will have no qualms about causing you great pain until you do talk. And if you go to die on us, which is highly likely given how physically frail you are at this stage in your life, Adrina will bite you and turn you into a vampire. And believe me, I’ve been there, and it ain’t a whole lot of fun, craving blood constantly." I looked at Adrina. "Are Disciples allowed to be vampires even?"
She shook her head as she stared down at Kyle, who was beginning to look uncomfortable now, less cocky than he was. "I don’t think they are. I think the Order is quite strict about that sort of thing."
"That’s what I thought," I said, looking at Kyle. "Discriminating bastards that you all are, they’ll probably just kill you, or leave you to run around half mad, ravaged by hunger. Your dream of becoming an immortal machine will have ended then, and you’ll just be an immortal monster instead." I walked forward and slowly sat bedside him. "So how do you want to play this, Jeremy?"
As he remained silent, staring straight ahead, I connected with the house plant sitting on a table next to him. The thin branches of the plant then began to grow at rapid speed as they started to reach out toward him. He didn’t even notice until the first of the wiry branches wrapped around his throat, followed by three more that all started to tighten up at once. The branches were so thin that it might as we
ll have been wire around his throat, and try as he might, he couldn’t pull them off, nor get his fingers in behind to do so. In a matter of seconds, his face had gone purple as he started to choke, hardly able to breathe anymore. At that point, I got the plant to release the pressure a little, just enough so he could breathe again. After a few seconds, I commanded the branches to tighten once more, cutting off his airflow for a moment before easing up again. "I can do this over and over," I told him. "How long do you think you’ll last before your heart gives way or your lungs fail? We’ll have to turn you then..."
"All right!" he gasped, still pulling at the plant around his neck. "You win…just get this off me…"
The plant uncoiled from around his neck at my command, the branches retracting only half way back as they rested on the back of the couch, as if awaiting further instructions from me. "You made a wise choice, Jeremy," I said as he sat rubbing at his neck, red rings around his loose flesh now. "Are you parched? You look a little parched to me. Get the man a drink, Adrina."
Adrina stared down at me for second, and then shook her head as she walked to the other side of the room to a large cabinet where various bottles of alcohol sat. "Would our savior like a drink also?" she asked, making no attempt to hide the sarcasm in her voice.
"Whiskey please," I said, smiling inwardly at Adrina’s annoyance. "What about you, Jeremy? What’ll you have?"
"The same," he mumbled, all traces of his earlier defiance now gone I was glad to see.
Adrina brought the drinks over and handed us one each. "Perhaps sir would like some nibbles as well?" she said, holding her head to one side as she stared at me.
"I don’t know," I said with a straight face. "Some nuts might be good. I haven’t eaten in a while…"
She shook her head at me. "Fuck off," she said, before going to sit at the other side of Kyle, who was now sandwiched uncomfortably betweens both.
"So Jeremy," I said after tasting the whiskey. "Now that you’re all unparched and everything, maybe you’d like to tell us where Erebus is." A smile spread across Kyle’s face, which I didn’t expect. He also began to laugh, which I didn’t expect either. "What’s so funny there, Jeremy?"
"You," he said after a moment, turning his head to stare at me. "That little show of yours was completely unnecessary. I’m quite happy to tell you where Erebus is."
"Are you now?"
"Yes. Do you know why?"
I stared at him a moment. "Because you such faith in your Dark Lord that you think it doesn’t matter that I know where he is?"
"Exactly right," Kyle said, now looking at me with some contempt. "You are no match for Erebus, and you never will be, no matter what Mirahorn or his acolytes or anyone tells you. Erebus will destroy you along with everyone else. If you want your death to be sooner rather later, then I’m happy to tell you where he is."
"Go on then," Adrina said, pressing one of her long fingernails against his throat. "But just remember that I’ll know if you’re lying."
"I have no need to lie," he said. "Erebus resides in the place of his birth, in the nameless city."
"The nameless city?" I said. "Can you be anymore vague?"
"The nameless city is an ancient city in the Tunisian desert, now buried under the sand, and once populated by a race of creatures that have long since vanished under mysterious circumstances. Some say these creatures were the spawn of Apep himself. Erebus lies there in wait, gathering his power for the armageddon to come."
"Sounds fitting," I said. "I assume you have exact co-ordinates for this nameless city?"
"I do. I’ll even give them to you, if it’s your death you want to go to."
"There’s one thing I don’t get," Adrina said, her sharp fingernail still on his throat. "If Erebus has known about Corvin for all this time, why hasn’t he come after him?"
"Because he believes in the prophecy that foretold this whole unfolding situation long, long ago," Kyle said. "There are murals on the walls of the nameless city that depict Erebus doing battle with the supposed savior. He believes it is his destiny to one day face this savior and destroy him, as the prophecy says he will."
I couldn’t help but be disturbed on hearing this. "So all of this has been foretold?"
"Yes," he said. "Which is why I know you don’t stand a chance. If Erebus doesn’t chose to kill you at the nameless city, he will surely do so in the Final Battle."
"The Final Battle?"
"The Great Battle for Earth," Adrina said, removing her fingernail from Kyle’s throat. "It’s in our prophecies as well."
I shook my head, annoyed that I was only hearing about this now. "And who wins in your version?"
She averted her gaze for a second. "It doesn’t matter. They’re just old tales, nothing more, and therefore not very reliable."
"Who wins, Adrina?" I pressed her.
Her dark eyes fell on me again as Kyle smiled to himself. "Erebus does."
Chapter 10
"So when were you going to tell me about these prophecies?" I asked Adrina angrily as we made our way back through the woods again, having just left Kyle’s house. Kyle himself now lay dead in his living room with a broken neck thanks to Adrina, after having provided us with the exact co-ordinates of Erebus’ whereabouts in the Tunisian desert. His final words were, "You’re all going to perish…and I shall be laughing in Hell when you do…"
"Well," I said to him just before Adrina killed him. "You have fun down there."
Now we we’re standing by the gate at the edge of the woods, the cold moon shining down on us, the stars still seeming sinister. "Look," Adrina said as she put one hand on the gate. "The prophecies came from seers on both sides centuries ago. We saw them as nothing more than possibilities. The outcome of these things is never set in stone."
"Well, that’s not what Kyle said." I paused at the gate and turned to her. "According to him the prophecies are set in stone, literally, on the walls of the nameless city."
"He would say that, wouldn’t he?"
"But the prophecies of the Order say the same thing! That Erebus will prevail against the savior…against me. Am I wrong?"
She sighed and shook her head. "You’re not wrong, but at the same time, we’ve never taken the word of the seers all that seriously. They are often wrong about things."
"They wouldn’t be bloody seers if they were wrong all the time, would they?"
Adrina stared hard at me for a long moment, to the point where I thought she was going to slap me. "Look," she said, stepping forward. "It doesn’t matter what anyone else believes. The only thing that matters is what you believe, Corvin. If you believe that we will prevail, then we will. Our whole Order has faith in you." She put a strong hand on my shoulder as her dark eyes looked deep into mine. "Do you have faith in yourself, Corvin? That’s the real question you should be asking yourself, for it is that more than anything that will dictate the outcome here."
I didn’t ride back to the castle with her. Instead, I told her I wanted to be alone for a while to get my head together, and that I would portal back to the castle as soon as I was ready. Adrina nodded as if she understood, and said she would go back to the castle and organize a team to go to Tunisia. "You really think any team you put together would stand a chance against a demigod?" I asked her.
"I don’t know," she replied. "We still have to try, though, right?"
I nodded as if that were the case, and then watched her speed away up the dirt road on her motorbike, the sound of the engine seeming massively intrusive in the surrounding stillness. I was glad when she hit the main road and the sound of the bike faded into the distance. Still standing by the gate, I felt like I could breathe again for the first time, now that I was alone. I had a lot of respect for Adrina—I even liked her—but she had a tendency to put me under pressure, as if she expected a lot from me. Which she did, along with Mirahorn and their whole damn Order of the Serpent. Somehow, in the last few months, I’ve gone from being a guitar player and borderline bum, to someone
who literally now carried the fate of the world on his shoulders. It was too much to process along with everything else. The best I could do was take things one step at a time, and my next step was to hunt down Erebus.
Alone.
I had no intention of taking Adrina or anyone else with me to Tunisia. Somehow I could almost sense what an immensely powerful individual Erebus was, despite having never met him, though in some ways it felt like I had. It was as if he had been lurking in the shadows my entire life, watching and waiting, savoring his destiny while I toiled away in ignorance, not even knowing who I truly was. Erebus had had a lifetime to come to terms with who he was, and to refine whatever grave power he possessed. I had no doubt either that he believed he would prevail in this so-called Final Battle. All of these things would provide him with unshakeable faith in himself, his monstrous father and his true purpose. Whereas I had little faith in anything, least of all myself. Hell, I hadn’t even met my real father yet. How was I supposed to save the world when I barely knew what I was?
