Embers

by Daniela Elana

  * * *

  My eyes popped open with a gasp. I lay on the train platform with Asmodeus’s release.

  “Soon prophet,” he said, disappearing.

  Bright blue flashes of light cast on my silhouette exposed me. The heavy tread off tactical boots followed by screams of terror erupted through the tunnels.

  “Surrender to the Lemurian Order!” an officer yelled. I backed away while more armed men moved in. Pivoting around, I ran. Behind they chased me. I passed Zev who stumbled to the ground—they handcuffed him.

  “No!” I cried out. In his drunken stupor, he shook his head.

  “Don’t try to save me,” he said. My feet burned with every stride I took, pulling each leg in front of the other until I reached the others. Leslie’s eyes widened at the sight of them chasing me. Erich, Caroline, and Kevin started running with me out of the tunnel, climbing the ladder.

  I was last to jump on the ladder up. Looking down, I saw Zev. Turning away, I kept climbing as they shot at me barely missing.

  We hopped in the cattle truck. Erich fired up the engine, driving. The officers leaped in their cars with red and blue lights flashing, shooting at us while we sped along the coastline.

  A bullet pierced Erich’s forearm. He lunged forward, slamming the brakes, so hard the truck swerved. Leslie shrieked. The vehicle rolled over the guardrails off a rocky cliff hurling for the ocean. We ejected ourselves falling into the water with the explosion behind us. Everything around me went black.

  * * *

  “Are you sure about this?” Rain said to Leo while they and Crystal stood outside of the gray domed facility in New York City.

  “We need some of the Lemurian Order’s weapons to stop them,” Leo said.

  “It sounds more like you want it for revenge,” Raid said. Leo didn’t answer

  “Wear these.” Crystal said, handing them armbands. I made them out of DNA I extracted from corpses who had taken the mark,” Crystal said.

  Leo slid on the band, covering it with his sleeve. “This should make them believe you have the currency.”

  Leo and Rain strode to the backdoor, holding their armbands up to the door’s panel. The door clicked open, and they took the elevator to the fifth floor. They crept around a corner until they came to office 202.

  Leo picked the lock and jiggled the knob. Just as it cracked open, a voice spoke.

  On the other side was the silhouette of a man with white hair seated in a swivel chair. His shoulders were hunched and back to them as he stared out the window at the city skyline.

  “Can I help you, boys?” the man said.

  “What weapons is the Lemurian Order having you work on, Dr. Prescott?” Leo said. He turned around with rage in his purple shade eyes.

  “How did you get in here?”

  “That’s not important.”

  “How did you know I was working on a device?”

  “One of the books in the Vatican library.”

  “So, you’re the fools in Maricel’s cult. I thought they locked you up.”

  “I don’t work with her.”

  “I’m not telling where my weapon is,” he said. His arms stretched forth like rubber tree branches while his nails turned to claws, extending from his hands, gripping the both of them by the necks. Dr. Prescott’s skin hardened like bark on a tree. “You made a horrible mistake breaking into my office,” he said, his eyes ablaze.

  * * *

  The hum of providence petrels and the roar of the ocean current jilted me awake. We had washed ashore. I turned just as Belial left. Before I could thank him, he disappeared.

  “My arm!” Erich shrieked, writhing on the sand gripping his forearm.

  “Erich!” Leslie cried, squatting over her husband. Blood pooled under from arm while he blinked. “We need to go to the hospital!’

  “We can’t, or we’ll get arrested,” Warren said. “Plus we have no idea where we are.”

  “I can do my best,” Caroline said. Leslie looked up at her. Kevin and Warren came from behind and assisted Leslie and me in carrying him further onto land.

  We laid Erich down while Caroline reached into her backpack and pulled out antiseptic wipes, gloves, forceps, a scalpel and a tourniquet. Leslie bit her sleeve half-covering her eyes as Caroline pulled on the gloves, wiping down the wound.

  “Hold still,” she said. Erich nodded, gritting his teeth. She cut into his flesh, widening the wound to pull the bullet out. More blood ran down his arm. Caroline stopped to wipe it before using the forceps to pull it out, placing the shell on the ground. Kevin, Warren and I held down his legs to stop him from kicking, and Leslie took his left hand. She applied the tourniquet’s Velcro strap above the injury, wrapping it around his arm. She twisted the windlass rod until the bleeding ceased.

  * * *

  Leo hung shackled beside Rain and a third man. His curly hair obscured his face while blood leaked from his mouth. His shackled arms were filled with cuts. When the man looked up at Leo, his eyes widened.

  “You?” Zev said.

  Thane emerged in a black uniform with a baton in hand and smirked. His dark hair was slicked back. His eyes were an odd purple hue rather than their previous brown.

  “Tell me where is Maricel?” No one answered, so he struck Zev in the leg.

  “Where is your sister who I almost got a piece of,” Zev clinched his fist and spit in his face.

  “I’m going torture the three of you until you tell me where she is. Your only other form of redemption is taking the mark.”

  “Never!” Leo said squirming.

  “You will when I’m finished with you,” he said, withdrawing a scalpel. Let’s start with your arm first. Zev here has already gotten his fair, share of beatings, starvation, and peeling of the skin, except I was only torturing him with this petty knife. This scalpel should sever a few veins.

  Rain’s scrunched his face. “So anyone want to pledge allegiance to the Lemurian Order and profess Lovell as your messiah.” A bead of sweat from Rain’s forehead hit the ground. “How about you first big guy?” he said. He shook his head. Thane glided the knife across Rain’s stomach. Rain wailed in pain as blood poured to the floor. “Do you change your mind?” He shook his head. He gashed his right leg. Rain screamed again. Leo swung around, kicking Thane and he fell backward. His hackles broke, and he undid Zev’s shackles then ran to Rain’s aid.

  “Come on!” Leo said with the help of Zev trying to lift Rain.

  “No go on without me,” he said.

  “We can get you the help you need.”

  Rain shook his head.

  “No! I’m finished with this.”

  Thane ran at Leo from behind with a knife. Leo pivoted around kicking Thane into shelves. Zev staggered to the baton and raised it over Thane’s head, clubbing him.

  “Tell me, what the Lemurian Order has planned?” Leo said, joining Zev. Thane laughed.

  “Over my dead, body!” he said. Leo gripped the collar of Thane’s shirt and blood dripped on his hand from his bloody nose.

  “Tell me!” Leo shouted.

  “Pole shifts and the opening of Hell’s Gates.” He laughed. “You can’t kill me, I’m immortal,” he said. Zev threw Leo the scalpel.

  “I’m going to give you a taste of your own medicine,” he said, Thane laughed. Leo came down with it prepared to dissect him when he was knocked out of the way. He turned to see Rain standing there.

  “No, you’re not,” he said.

  “Rain?”

  “I’m finished trying to be a hero, that’s why I got this.” His eyes flickered with an amethyst tint.

  “You have the mark?”

  “I’ve had it for some long time. That’s the only reason you were able to get into this building.”

  “Leo charged at Rain with the scalpel. Rain gripped his wrist.

  “We’re stronger than you. I’m going to spare you both this time.”

  * * *
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  Camping around a fire, a young boy with golden wavy hair contrasting his dark complexion rushed out offering us a dish, I smiled accepting it.

  “You six are from America?” a woman said with a full head of silver hair.

  “Yes.”

  “We were running from the Lemurian Order,” I said. The woman shook her head.

  “This island has been filled with chaos as well.”

  “How so?” I said.

  “The giants who dwell in the caves are roaming around more, attacking locals. We’re afraid.”

  * * *

  “Where’s Rain?” Crystal said as Leo helped Zev into the car and Zev how did you find us?”

  “He was kidnapped, and Rain had the mark all along.”

  She shook her head with a tear, heading for Memphis.

  “He was the only blood relative I had left, my cousin...” she said with a sniff. In the backseat, both Zev and Leo sat.

  “I’m sorry about your mom, I lost my folks not too long ago,” Leo said to Zev. Zev glanced at him.

  “Nah, it’s not your fault. We’re in the tribulation.”

  * * *

  I walked through the islands until we came to the edge of the Aotaha caves, Kevin and I went while Caroline and Warren stayed behind with Leslie to help care for Erich.

  “You really think giants are in these caves?” Kevin laughed.

  “I mean we’ve seen zombies, mutants and giants why else wouldn’t there be giants. I’ve seen them before.”

  “You have?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ve heard legends of the sci-tes-cah red-haired giants in the lovelock caves in Western Nevada. According to lore, they were cannibals and warred with Native Americans.”

  “Yes, indeed. I didn’t take you to be one for mythology.”

  “There a lot of things you don’t know about me. But do you really think these stone giants are here in these caves.”

  “Yup.”

  “If you say so, but if I see something, I’m taking off, because I’m not trying to be David. I don’t have a slingshot neither do I know how to use one,” he said. I laughed.

  “Neither do I.” I shined a flashlight in the cave as we walked through it, I stepped on something, and I looked down to see the skeletal remains of a human. I backed away.

  The pounding of weighted footsteps trailed us as rocks fell. Kevin and I turned, noticing the entrance was barricaded by stones.

  * * *

  Leo slammed the car door shut, leaving Crystal and Zev in the car.

  The click of heels along the alleyway alerted him. Tess stood before them.

  “Hello, you contacted me through astral projection,” she said.

  “Thane told me something about pole shifts. What all does that mean?”

  “Oh, Leo, you’ve always been the perfect toy,” she said, caressing his face. He shoved her hands off. “You would’ve made a superb soldier if you wouldn’t have been too weak for Maricel.”

  “The pole shifts you heard about will be massive, the entire magnetic field will disappear, the ozone layer destroyed nothing to blanket the earth and stop debris from falling, and well solar flares will burn up much of the planet not to mention Niburu will pull on the earth causing massive tsunamis.”

  “Niburu?”

  “Yes, the mother planet.

  “And you see this as good, how?”

  “I’ve got a ticket out of this world, I’ll travel to the moon, Mars wherever I can. It’s not like the angels can’t take me.”

  “And how is this supposed to happen?”

  “Dr. Prescott and his team created the perfect machine, they are supposed to show it off at the convention this weekend. Anything else you need to know?” She smiled, tracing her fingers along his chest. He looked down at her as she smiled.

  “No.”

  “How exactly did Maricel get a hold of the seal.”

  “She and Belial or lovers,” he said. She shook her head.

  “Poor thing. Maricel broke Azazel’s heart too,” she said, swishing away. Leo sighed, watching her disappear.

  * * *

  Kevin and I pushed against the rocks. It was going to take a wrecking ball to move them.

  The closer the giant came, the faster our hearts fluttered—we had no line of defense.

  “We’re going to have to trick it somehow,” Kevin said.

  “How?”

  “Follow my lead.”

  A giant man with dark hair emerged from the darkness.” He licked his chops.

  “Looks like I’ll have a nice treat tonight.”

  Kevin ran under his legs suddenly, and I followed. The giant looked under his legs and pivoted around, chasing us through the cave trying to smash us.

  We ran in a zig-zag pattern while his arms reached to scoop me up. He kept missing, bruising his hands on the stony ground. Kevin ran up against the wall. The giant reached for him, but he slid away, causing the giant to hurt his hand. I turned running under his legs again with Kevin going back toward the entrance. The disoriented giant tried to spin once more, falling upon the barricaded entrance, passing out.

  We rushed out of the cave back to the shore. Our four friends waited with the locals staring at the darkened sky ignited by a bright streak of lightning.

  More giants were emerging down from the hills. We gathered together as there was nowhere left to turn but the water.

  A towering figure with a head of a swordfish and scaly flesh arose from the waters. I bit my lip in shock as the Adaro, made his way onto the land the local stood back, from the other side the giants ran at us.

  Swallowing back my fluttering heartbeat, I withdrew a rope from my backpack and leaped on the back of the Adaro attempting to choke it with the cord. It threw me off and reached for Leslie, grabbing her. Erich tried to tug her away. His injured arm cracked, bursting the tourniquet.

  She screamed as the Adaro took her captive. He held up his hand. A force surrounded them while he shot poisonous fish. I dodged the flying fish that nearly grazed my skin.

  I withdrew the necklace from my pocket, staring at the seal as it hung on the broken chain then back at Leslie. The Adaro was opening his mouth to suck her life out. From behind the giants raised their clubs to smash us.

  Placing the ring on my finger, my body convulsed and I rose. The Adaro stopped as he and the giants stared. My body became translucent, and I dematerialized and then materialized. Not only did I resume control over demons but the four elements rather than just my main element of wind.

  “Asmodeus, bring the others we have giants and an Adaro to beat.”

  They appeared around me, forming a circle bearing their claws to fight.

  The Seirim turned to me glaring. His hoof caught on fire, and he stomped it out.

  “Enough fooling around get to work.”

  The demons pounced attacking the Adaro and the others the giants. The Adaro dropped Leslie, and she ran to Erich, helping him up. I then commanded Asmodeus.

  “Make me a boat, to sell away in.” He did so, using wood he could find to fashion one and form a portal to what was left of the West Coast. I signaled for everyone to get on board, they ran to it.

  “Thank you.” I smiled. Asmodeus frowned and turned away. “Leave now,” I told them, they did as I said and we sailed through the portal.

  * * *

  “We’re on the west coast!” Kevin said, kissing the ground. “Back in America!”

  Leslie smiled, helping Erich off the boat.

  In California’s place was Las Vegas. People gathered outside by the beach laying out. We crept around them. Most not noticing us as they were too busy, taking selfies and on their phones. One feature that stood out with each person I did meet’s gaze was their eyes shimmered a purple tint. Amethyst-the spirit of the Age of Aquarius coursed through them.

  To my dismay, a group of the Watchers walked with women along the beach. Hoping the
y wouldn’t notice me, I tried to divert my group’s attention.

  Semjaza sat up as his arms remained wrapped around his a woman I had never seen before and glanced at me. His eyes grew large, and he alerted the other angels. They all began turning with their wives.

  “Mar, why are those people watching us?” Leslie said.

  “I don’t know, let’s get out of here, maybe they figured out we don’t have the mark.”

  We started to walk faster when Kasadeja, Semjaza, Kokabel, and Shamsiel approached us.

  “Well, well if it isn’t Maricel and let me guess your friends,” Semjaza said. I smiled at them.

  “Mar, who are they?” Leslie whispered.

  “Just a couple of people I went to school with,” I said with instant guilt for my lies. Leslie narrowed her eyes.

  “It’s been a long time, how have all of you been,” I said. A couple of the women on Semjaza’s arm looked me over, snickering about my tattered clothes and messy hair and skin.

  “The question is, how have you been? We haven’t seen each other since high school, it’d be nice if we caught up maybe at the casino.”

  Although it was a terrible idea, the fact Semjaza had covered for me pretending to be someone I knew from high school was kind of him. What were they gambling in those casinos

  “Sure, we’re up for it.” I glanced at Caroline; her mouth hung open.

  * * *

  Leo waited outside the convention hoping he’d catch Tess so he could speak with her again. His spite for her was just as strong as his fascination. She was the one who had made him aware of my existence. While she jaded him with her games between assignments flirting and stringing him along, one year ago in Baltimore, she made it clear after an invitation to a hotel room and a large sum of money all he had to do was get rid of me. Here he was again at square one.

  Tess and Jalen walked out together, holding hands. Her eyes wandered to him, she split from Lovell as he got in the car with Azazel, riding off. She walked over by him.

  Crystal’s nose shriveled up at the sight of her. Zev stared for the longest time without saying a word, and she pulled Leo aside.

  “I overheard what Dr. Prescott said about his device having the ability to alter the Quantum realm and bring back the Pre-Adamic race?”