“There’s plenty of time,” I retort with venom in my voice, “because you are never going to win this.”
I concentrate on his large, black head with the protruding horns and think of ice as hard as I can.
“No seriously, stop.” His voice is calm, but it reverberates through my stomach. When I blink, he’s changed into his tall, dark-haired human form.
He leans over me and reaches for my head.
Ice, ice, ice. Please freeze him!
“Relax, I’m not going to kill you. Yet.”
I look up. His hand hovers above my head. The scales from his monstrous form shine through the skin, but there’s not even a trace of ice on it.
His index finger pokes me so hard in the forehead that I tumble back. Before I can get up, he leans over me with a stern look. “Sit still for a minute and listen.” He tilts his head, waiting for me to make another move. I don’t.
“Good.” His grin is so big I fear it’ll tear his skin. “I’ve got a proposition for you.”
In an attempt to regain my dignity, I cross my arms. “The answer is no.”
“Don’t test my patience, Dante Banner.” He raises his voice, and I turn my head when a foul stench escapes his lips. “I may not be able to kill you in this projected form, but I’m starting to feel the urge to try.” He straightens up to his full length and looks down on me as if I’m nothing more than an ant. “Now shut up and listen. Your family has been trying to sabotage my plans for years. This has never ended well for you, and it never will. My rule over the Earth is drawing nearer. I admire your efforts to stop me, but eventually, you will go down just like your father and grandfather did before you.”
I roll my eyes and sigh heavily. “Is there a point to this speech?”
He brings his handsome face close to mine. The heat rising up from it scorches my skin, but I keep still.
“My offer is to let you live. We can play this game a while longer, but to be honest, I’m fed up with it. There are more enjoyable games to play. Games we could play together.”
I snort and almost believe my faked confidence myself. “Somehow I doubt we have the same taste.”
“Oh, but I think we see eye to eye on some subjects. For instance, how do you feel about murderers, rapists, torturers and such?”
I press my lips together.
His throated laugh makes the ground tremble. “You try to hide it, but I can see the disgust in your eyes. What if I told you you could punish them all? All of those sinners.”
He’s almost got me tempted, but of course I know it’s too good to be true. Still, I play along. “That would be great. And then what?”
“I will let you find and punish every sinner on Earth. I get just a couple of souls in return. Nine is all I’m asking for. All sinners too, by the way, so where’s the loss in that? I get my nine, you get the rest. Do with them what you will. How does that sound?”
He gives me that creepy grin again and waits patiently for my answer, but I can tell by the way he flexes his fingers that he’s nervous.
I keep him in suspense for a moment, pulling a face that hopefully says I’m mulling it over.
“Well?” he asks. “What is your answer?”
“Really?” I imitate his laughter, but it comes out weak. “You think that’s a good deal?”
He scratches his chin. “Not enough, huh? What if I throw in some saved loved ones?” He places a hand on his chest. “Promise to let all the people you love live. I can even bring that feisty girl back to life for you. What do you say?”
My heartbeat goes up. My brain shows me images of Vicky without see-through skin. Vicky in a different outfit, with different hair and flushed cheeks. I would give anything to make that happen.
“See? I told you I had something good to offer.” Lucifer sounds satisfied. “You don’t have to answer now. I’ll visit you again soon. Think about it. And decide wisely.”
When I look up, he raises both hands at his sides and moves one up after the other, like an evil imitation of Lady Justice. “Save them all, kill them all. Save them all, kill them all. It’s your choice, Dante.”
I want to tell him to stuff it, but he vanishes into the mist.
I stay on the ground, breathing in deeply.
“Dante? Say something!”
It’s Vicky. She sounds panicked.
“I’m here!” I yell back, waving my hands in front of me to part the fog.
A dark shape jumps out at me and almost crushes my lungs. “We’ve been looking for you for hours! Where did you go?”
I frown. My answer is muffled by her lips. She kisses me hard, and I have to push her away to catch my breath.
“I was so worried. We all were.”
She finally lets go and turns around. “Guys! I’ve found him!”
It takes a couple of minutes and some more screaming to gather everyone. I’m glad to see Jeep, D’Maeo and Taylar with them.
Charlie flings himself at me and pats my back hard. “I thought we’d lost you, mate. What happened?”
I touch my cheeks where the sting of Lucifer’s heat still lingers. “I was here. I was just here.”
Vicky weaves her fingers through mine. “We called for you. Why didn’t you answer?”
“I saw Lucifer.”
Every single mouth drops open.
D’Maeo is the first to recover. “Are you sure? That’s not possible, is it?”
“Of course I’m sure. He isn’t that hard to recognize, you know.”
“But how?” Taylar asks.
“He said he projected himself here.”
Vicky’s hand skims my chest and face. I shake her off. “I’m fine. He couldn’t really hurt me, because he wasn’t really here.”
She steps back abruptly.
“I’m sorry.” I pull her back and kiss her. “I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just… let’s say it was an intense meeting.”
Jeep takes off his hat and dusts it off for the third time. “What did he want?”
“He offered me a deal.”
Frowns all over.
“What kind of deal?” D’Maeo and Vicky ask in unison.
Quickly, I explain what Satan offered me.
Jeep bends over with laughter. “He said that?”
His laugh is contagious, and soon we’re all gasping for breath.
Except for D’Maeo, who folds his arms over his chest and gives us his fatherly look of disapproval.
“Come on,” I finally manage, taking in big gulps of air. “You have to admit it’s kind of funny. The Devil is so scared of us that he offers me a part of his kingdom.” I make quotation marks in the air at the last word.
D’Maeo nods slowly. “Yes, he’s getting desperate. And you know what desperate people do, right?”
I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand and shrug. “What? Desperate things? What’s he going to do, send more demons?”
The gray-haired ghost doesn’t answer. He just stares at us, one by one, forcing us with his gaze to remember something important, like a teacher waiting impatiently for their students to dig into their memory of past lessons.
Maël is the first to regain her serious demeanor. Although, I have to say, she never really loosened up. She never steps out of her role as queen.
“Okay, what?” I ask them both. “What is the worst he could do after all he has already done to us? He tried to kill us and scare us. He sent armies of demons, and traitors who acted like friends. He took my mother and tortured her. What in the world could be worse than all that?”
My voice gets stronger with every word. Fear is slowly trickling back into my body, because I know D’Maeo wouldn’t look at me this way if it wasn’t serious.
“Beezlebub is worse,” he says calmly. “And I can guarantee you, that if you say no to this offer, and we save more souls─”
“You mean ‘when’,” I interrupt.
He smiles. “Yes, when we do that�
�� Lucifer will turn to his last option, his last chance to win this. He will send his right hand to deal with us. And I’m not looking forward to fighting Beezlebub.”
“Right.” I wipe the remains of my laughing fit out of my eyes. The fist that has been squeezing my heart a lot lately is back.
But I straighten my back and shake the tension off my shoulders before the feeling can take a hold. “You know what, let him send this Beezleguy. We’re stronger than he thought, and we will get even stronger. Some of us are still learning to control our powers, and for every surprise he has, we’ll have an answer. Right?”
Nobody answers, so I raise my fist to strengthen my words and try again. “Right?”
Gisella is the first to step forward and raise her fist next to mine. “Right!”
Of course Charlie follows her example, and soon the others join in. Even the beetle-bees, that have watched us silently from a couple of feet away, dash in and click their fangs furiously.
“The Devil will never win,” I exclaim, and I smile as D’Maeo gives me an approving nod.
CHAPTER 11
We’ve walked another mile at least, the bees keeping watch in front as well as behind us, when we finally see a light in the sky and something swirling around it.
“There it is!” Vicky calls out. “That’s the beach, right?”
I squint at the wriggling shape. “Yes, I think it is.”
We increase our pace, but I warn the others to stay vigilant. Anything can jump us from the fog if we’re not careful. Still, I feel a lot more confident now that I’m no longer alone with Maël. With all our strengths combined, we make a pretty good team. And it’s nice to have the beetle-bees as back-up.
Finally, we reach the end of the path of black skulls. It takes a couple of steps to get used to even ground again. The solid sand we walk on now has red stains here and there, as if something gets killed on it regularly, then pulled down and eaten, but so far, nothing is popping out of it.
When I look up again, a snake made of sand is hovering in front of me.
“Hi there,” I say cheerily. “Good to see you again! Thank you for guiding our friends to us.”
It bows its head and nods at the portal in the sky, which is pulsing.
“You want us to follow you through another portal?” I scratch my head. “Are you sure it’s safe?”
The snake’s head nods, then moves from left to right before soaring back into the dark sky.
“Well, that’s comforting,” I say to the others as we start walking again.
Vicky links her arm through mine. “I think we should follow it. It seems benign.”
I exchange a look with Maël. “That’s what we thought too.”
We walk until we’re under the shiny portal and look up. There’s nothing to see but the pulsing light, which seems to hold the gateway open.
Charlie sighs and conjures a large ball of grease. “Okay, let’s do this. I can’t wait to get out of here, you know.”
Within seconds, he has built a stairway of gel. While he builds some more steps, he offers his hand to Gisella and guides her up.
I whistle softly. “I’m impressed.” Then, with a grin, I add, “But there are faster ways of getting there.”
Before I can finish my sentence, the Beach of Mu sweeps down and picks me, Maël and Vicky up. In one vertical movement it heads for the portal. I have to cling onto its granular body to keep myself from falling.
Once we’re through the portal, it slithers across the floor to let us off. When I get to my feet, I realize we’re in another unknown world, that doesn’t look much better than the last. The air is humid, and the sky somehow seems to press down on me. Shivers wake up inside me at the thought of walking through more unfamiliar territory. Who knows what else we’ll run into. I don’t want to find out what kind of creatures live here.
The sand dives back down to pick up Jeep, Taylar and D’Maeo while Charlie and Gisella step from their stairway into this new world. Behind them, the swarm of bees gathers silently.
“You’re not coming with us?” I ask them.
The one at the front clicks solemnly.
Maël appears next to me and places a hand on my arm. “I don’t think they can. They are bound to their world.”
“Then this is our goodbye,” I say, and I’m surprised to feel the tug of sadness. I get down on one knee and bow my head. “It was an honor to know you all and to fight with you. Thank you for all you’ve done for us. Stay safe.”
Next to me, Maël gets to her knees too, and soon the others follow.
The bees click softly and bow their heads. Their red bellies turn a bright yellow. Then they turn and take off.
Jeep is the first to get up. He puts his hat back on and cracks his back. “That was interesting.”
When I pull Vicky back up, she places a kiss on my cheek. “I’m so proud of you,” she whispers. “You’re turning into a great leader.”
“Thank you, babe, but I’d rather be a great fighter right now.”
She tilts her head in thought. “Try to be both.”
I pull her close, and she buries her face in my shoulder. “I was so worried when we couldn’t wake you from Maël’s memory.”
“I know, I’m─”
“Guys?” Charlie nudges me, chocolate smeared all over his mouth.
Reluctantly, I let go of Vicky and follow his pointing finger with my eyes.
I swallow when I see an army of toad-like monsters the size of raccoons approaching on all fours, their spiked tails raised high. “That doesn’t look good.” I survey our surroundings. There’s some kind of dark lake on our left and dead, white trees on our right.
I point behind me. “I say we go that way as fast as we can.”
“I second that.” Vicky turns and pulls me with her.
Every couple of steps I look behind me. The army of toads is following us at a lazy pace, which makes me think we’re going exactly where they want us to go.
Taylar catches up. He blinks nervously as he takes in the lake and forest on both sides and the stone path that seems to lead nowhere. “Where do you suppose we are?”
“To be honest, I have no idea. And I’m not so sure I even want to know,” I respond. I point at the Beach of Mu, dancing through the air like a kite without a string. “But I guess we’re going in the right direction.”
We both glance over our shoulder to check on the army behind us. It’s still there, but not closing in. Their fat toad legs keep a steady but slow pace, and because of that, we’ve slowed down a bit too.
“Where do you think it’s leading us?” Taylar asks.
“To something important. Maybe to the solution to this whole ‘disturbed balance of the universe’ thing.”
“What if it’s a trick?” He rakes his fingers through his white hair and glances left and right again. “What if it’s pretending to be our friend, just to lead us to our deaths?”
The thought has crossed my mind too, but my gut is telling me the sand can be trusted.
Not that my gut is so reliable. Paul and Simon managed to trick it for years. But the beach could have killed me and Maël easily, and the others too, if it wanted to.
What if it’s leading us to its boss? To someone who wants to kill us himself?
“If it wants to harm us, we’ll fight it,” I say out loud to quiet the voice as well as Taylar.
He nods, but there’s still concern on his face. I can’t blame him. This world doesn’t feel much better than the last. I’d be happy to get out of here soon too.
Of course, there’s no such luck.
Suddenly, the sand stops swirling. It hovers high in the air for a second and then shoots back to us at lightning speed.
“What is it?” I ask, but I can already see for myself.
Straight ahead, another army approaches. It consists of fat creatures with slick and uneven skin and tails resembling spiked bludgeons sticking up into the
air. A copy of the army behind us.
“I knew this was a trap!” I yell at myself.
“Stay calm,” Vicky says. “Maybe they’re the good guys, like those bees.”
As if on cue, the toad monsters all come to a halt, rise up on their hind legs and spit out blotches of… well, probably deadly poison.
“Maël!” I point at the army behind us. “Charlie!” My hand moves to the army on our other side.
My friends waste no time. Mumbling rapidly, Maël focuses on the incoming drops on her side while Charlie throws tiny balls of gel at Spiderman speed in the other direction. He knocks the dozens of blotches out of the air like a pro, but on our other side, they’re still coming closer.
D’Maeo steps up beside the ghost queen and raises his hands. His deflective power works faster than Maël’s time tampering one, and after a couple of seconds, the drops fall out of the sky.
I whip out my Morningstar and conjure a bolt of lightning in my other hand. “Maël, Charlie, D’Maeo, can you get rid of any more drops coming our way?”
Charlie and D’Maeo nod. Maël is still chanting, but I’m pretty sure she’s heard me. And it looks like her power is at full strength again.
“Okay…” I raise the hand with the lightning bolt above me. “Who’s ready to fight?”
The rest of the group lets out a battle cry, and when I release my bolt, we all charge, half of us straight ahead, the others in the opposite direction.
The army in front of me lifts their heads again and spits out more blotches than I can count. I increase my speed and duck, but there are too many drops to evade. Moving sideways, I can avoid two more, but one is soaring directly toward me.
I hit it with lightning as a last resort. As soon as it connects with the liquid, I know this was a bad decision. The blotch blows up into hundreds of little splatters that are impossible to dodge.
I throw myself onto the ground, cover my head with my arms and prepare for the excruciating feeling of a toxic substance burning through my skin and bones.
Something hits me with force, and I almost roll over.
“Sorry!” the familiar voice of Taylar says.
I look up and find myself under his shield while poison soars straight through his transparent body. He lifts the shield back up and examines the front. “Looks like the protection spell on it is still intact. Here, you use it.” He hands it to me and storms off before I can protest.
The Fifth Portal: a supernatural urban fantasy action adventure (Cards of Death book 5) Page 7
