The Black Madonna (The Mystique Trilogy)

by Traci Harding

  My last awareness was of Mathu whispering ‘My queen’ as he fell to the ground alongside me, and fate stole us from each other once again.

  CHAPTER 20

  MONTAUK—LONG ISLAND

  MIA DEVERE—MERIDAN

  I was very grateful to be a master of etheric matter as I headed into such hostile territory; I was invisible before I even entered the facility located deep underground beneath the Montauk Air Force Base, Long Island.

  When the vacuum of the porthole died away, I was left standing on a platform inside a massive, almost completely spherical metal chamber. Before me was a pod suspended over the void at the centre of the chamber via a long walkway. It held one seat and was entirely enclosed. Its shield window was facing me and so I could see it contained one occupant, but, due to the ambient lighting inside the pod and the outer chamber, I could not define his or her features. There were large metal umbrellas attached to the top of the pod and its underneath—most likely a transmitter and receiver, I deduced—along with many coils and other conductors coating its exterior.

  The Montauk Chair?

  I looked around the chamber. There was another control deck set higher up in the structure, where several military men and a few Dracon were obviously overseeing the proceedings in the pit below. Behind the control panel I could see two small alien beings, known as Greys.

  The platform I was standing on overlooked the deep dark void where the floor should have been; an antenna dropped from it an indeterminate length into the darkness. An enclosed observation deck circled the rim of the entire room, its transparent tubelike structure ensuring an unhindered view of all areas of the chamber. Behind me was a huge white cement screen, the wormhole now fading on it like the ending to a film.

  I was horrified to see that Levi had followed me through the porthole. He stood with Killian Labontè on the landing platform, looking bemused not to find me there too.

  A trapdoor opened in the platform between Levi and myself, and one of the Nefilim, accompanied by several armed Dracon, rose up through it.

  Levi bowed his head to the new arrivals. ‘My Lord Erragal, Timewalker 456143 returning to report on Project Horse.’

  ‘What the hell?’ The towering Nefilim looked baffled and turned to those at the control deck above. ‘Why do I have an operative returning from a mission in AD6037, when all I ordered was a wormhole to the other side of the planet?’

  Everyone looked confused.

  Erragal turned to Killian, who was standing as far from the aliens as possible. ‘Is he one of the Amenti staff?’ he demanded.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Killian was puzzled. ‘This isn’t the man I persuaded to follow me.’

  ‘So where is the Amenti staff member you were instructed to bring back?’ The demi-god was beginning to lose patience.

  ‘How should I know?’ Killian spat back. ‘He was right behind me, then…’ He shrugged. ‘Look, I did what you said. Now I want to see Tamar.’

  My heart skipped a beat. How on Earth had the Nefilim got their hands on my daughter? And how had Killian Labontè ended up back in the year 2003? Was I still in 2003? They were all good questions and only Killian had the answers.

  ‘How many life forms came back through the porthole?’ the Nefilim lord asked the control tower above.

  ‘Three,’ came the response through the speaker system, and the Dracon snapped to attention, realising there was one unaccounted for.

  ‘Fucking shamans!’ Erragal hissed. ‘Castor can change form.’ The lord’s dark eyes scanned the huge void before him for any sign of movement. ‘If there is so much as a flea within this chamber I want it caught!’

  Dracon and military personnel alike jumped into action all around the observation deck.

  ‘And you, Timewalker 456143, are coming with me,’ Erragal said, sounding disbelieving of Levi’s claim. He gripped Levi around the neck and pulled him onto the moveable platform, followed by two Dracon hauling Killian. As the lift appeared to be the only way on or off the launch platform, I was quick to hitch a ride too.

  I was surprised to find it no effort to hold my breath all the way through the descent—just one of the many perks of being an Amenti staff member that I was discovering on a daily basis. The lift continued past the observation deck and down several floors to the correctional facility—I really didn’t like the sound of that.

  ‘Humans…you literally make me feel sick!’ Erragal complained to his captives.

  The doors opened behind me, startling me, and I leapt backwards into the corridor to avoid being steamrollered by the other occupants. Thankfully, there was no one waiting for the lift or I would have surely bowled them over.

  ‘Take him back to the holding cell,’ Erragal instructed the Dracon holding Killian. They went one way, and Levi was dragged by Erragal and the remaining Dracon guard in the opposite direction.

  Levi knows what he’s dealing with, I thought quickly. I need to get some answers from Killian Labontè first.

  The young rebel was tossed into a corner of the cell. He didn’t get up and retaliate as I’d expected; it seemed his will to fight had abandoned him. His dark fringe fell over his bruised face, and his long lean body looked rather beaten too. I could see why young women the world over were going nuts over this guy; even ‘victimised’ looked good on him.

  ‘Where’s Tamar?’ I asked. I expected to hear Castor’s voice coming out of my mouth, but it was my own. I reached around to check on the auric simulator and found it was missing.

  ‘Mia?’ Killian moved to rise.

  ‘Stay as you are, in case you’re being watched,’ I said.

  He returned to his slouched pose. ‘They could be monitoring sound too,’ he pointed out.

  ‘This is a large correctional facility, they’d go insane trying to monitor audio in every cell.’

  Nevertheless, I crouched low to speak with him softly. He reached out and made contact briefly.

  ‘You’re fucking invisible!’ He was flabbergasted. ‘You’re one of them, aren’t you? Those Amenti angels that have got the freak show around here so shit scared.’

  ‘An eloquent assessment,’ I said. ‘Still, let’s talk about you. How you ended up in 2003, for example?’

  ‘I’m in the past?’ Killian suppressed his shock. ‘When I saw the setup they have here, the control deck and all these fucking aliens, I thought I was surely in the future!’

  ‘Bugger,’ I muttered, realising he wasn’t going to be much help. ‘How did the Nefilim get hold of Tamar?’

  ‘She marched naked into Irkalla and confronted Erragal and his bitch directly, demanding to see Ill.’ Killian’s eyes filled with admiration. ‘Even though it seems I’m not her prince, I’m really grateful for what she did for me.’

  ‘Tamar found her prince?’ I was breathless with anticipation for more information. ‘Emmett Rich,’ I realised, before Killian could say it. He nodded and I grinned. So Albray and Sinclair had been right about that after all. ‘Where are Tamar and Emmett now?’ I asked.

  ‘I don’t know. I don’t know where I am! If it’s 2003…damn, there’s an eight-year-old version of me here somewhere.’

  Then a thought hit him like a meteor falling from on high. I saw it land in his consciousness and ignite his being into action. ‘I could warn my parents about the Nefilim and they could—’

  ‘Oh no.’ I was quick to squash any such thought. ‘The repercussions of changing history—’

  ‘—would be great for my family!’ he interrupted.

  ‘No, Killian, nothing would change. Don’t you see? Your parents, love them as you do, were driven by power and money. And unless that were to change, the same fate awaits them no matter how you try to get around it.’

  Killian gave a defeated sigh.

  ‘That was their way,’ I said on a more encouraging note. ‘But it doesn’t have to be yours.’

  ‘What can I do?’ he said despairingly. ‘I rebel…that’s all I do.’

  ‘Rather than re
bel against an enemy, I find it better to outwit my foe.’

  ‘How am I expected to do that?’ He waited for a response that never came. ‘Mia? Mia! Don’t leave me here! They’re going to feed me to the Dracon!’

  ‘I’ll be back,’ I assured him, then melted through the metal wall and into the corridor.

  I heard Killian run to the door and slam up hard against it. ‘She just moved through a solid wall,’ he mumbled,’ and gave a half-laugh. ‘Fucking unreal!’

  I retraced my steps to the lift where I’d last seen Levi, and continued down the long corridor that stretched in the opposite direction from Killian’s cell. It was deathly silent, but not a peaceful hush; it felt more like the repressed quiet of an awful secret.

  Some way ahead a door opened and the sound of hundreds of children screaming shattered the stillness. A Dracon stepped out into the corridor, the door closed behind him and the eerie silence returned.

  As soon as the guard had passed me, I hastened to investigate the source of the disturbing cries. Through the observation window in the door, I saw rows of medical cots with young boys strapped to them. Electrodes were attached to their eyes and genitals and they were being subjected to some form of shock treatment. I had to look away as my empathy sensor went into overdrive and I felt a rush of pain. I have to stop this.

  A Dracon guard emerged from a door opposite and interrupted my potential heroics. ‘You can’t do what you plan to,’ he advised, looking directly at me.

  I was startled into looking down at myself, but I was still invisible. How could he know I was there? Was it Levi? I couldn’t voice my suspicion or I’d give myself away.

  The Dracon came closer. ‘We’re not here to change the past,’ he reminded me and I knew my guess was correct—Levi had changed to Dracon form.

  ‘You grabbed the auric simulator from the back of my trousers on the way through the wormhole,’ I said. ‘But how did you locate me here?’

  ‘It was easy for me to sense your positive presence in this horrid place.’ Levi’s gaze shifted to the boys being tortured in the room I’d been peering into. ‘You could not desire to shut down this project more than I—’ he began, then gasped and moved closer to the glass. ‘I have to check something,’ he said and entered the lab.

  Curious, I followed.

  The current had been switched off and most of the poor boys had passed out; those that hadn’t were only semi-conscious and moaned quietly with the little energy they had left.

  Levi came to a stop by the bed of a young dark-haired boy who stood apart from the others, who were all Aryan types—blond and blue-eyed. He opened the file hanging from the end of the cot. ‘Damn…I thought I recognised this one.’

  Upon second glance, I was stunned to recognise a pre-teen Killian Labontè. There’s an eight-year-old version of me here somewhere, he’d commented earlier, but it hadn’t occurred to me that he’d meant ‘here’ in the building! ‘Killian is one of the Montauk boys,’ I uttered under my breath, as I struggled to comprehend the ramifications of the discovery.

  ‘It explains a lot,’ Levi agreed. He plucked a hair from the unconscious boy’s head and tucked it into his Dracon disguise.

  ‘That’s how the Nefilim have been aware of our every move,’ I realised as I cast my mind back over the events of the past few weeks.

  ‘If Killian is one of the Secret Crew, all he’d need is a strand of your hair, or Tamar’s, and he’d be privy to everything,’ Levi said.

  ‘Even this?’

  ‘Even this.’ Levi’s tone was unsurprised as he nodded towards the glass plate in the door. I followed his gaze to see a flock of reptilian guards in the corridor.

  They did not enter, however; they stood back for Lord Erragal, who was accompanied by Killian Labontè. Strangely, Killian behaved as if he were in charge. He stormed into the lab ahead of his Nefilim company, hand out, demanding, ‘I’ll take the auric simulator and that strand of hair you just plucked from my head, Timewalker 456143, aka Levi Granville-Devere, aka Signet Key Eight, Dreamkeeper.’

  Levi complied, knowing it was futile to resist. As he handed back the auric simulator he returned to his true form—which I much preferred, especially as humans were grossly outnumbered by aliens in this instance.

  ‘Show yourself, Mia,’ Killian ordered, ‘or I’ll have your daughter and her long-lost lover dipped in a vat of liquid Orme.’

  ‘So you sold your soul too,’ I accused as I appeared right in front of Killian’s face.

  ‘My soul was shattered long ago, before I had a choice in the matter.’ He motioned to the unconscious boy on the bed.

  ‘So stop it happening!’ I implored him.

  ‘I don’t want to stop it happening!’ he yelled back defiantly. ‘I am the most powerful human being on the planet! And pretty soon I’ll become one with the most powerful god in history!’

  ‘Ill isn’t a god,’ I said. ‘He’s a misguided, damned entity who wants to take every living thing on Earth along with him to his ultimate demise.’

  The room fell silent and every one of our enemies glared at me.

  ‘I’m afraid you’re the one who’s misguided, Dr Devere,’ Killian, livid, stared me down, ‘aka Signet Key Twelve, Triogenes, aka the Blue Flame Bearer, aka the Black Madonna.’

  ‘Bingo!’ Erragal finally spoke. ‘Even better than Castor to retrieve the Rod of Power for us.’

  I was amused by the suggestion. ‘I would never—’

  ‘Never say never,’ Killian warned, ‘not when we have your daughter.’

  ‘Prove it,’ I said, calling their bluff. I had only Killian’s word on the matter, and that was obviously worth very little.

  ‘Follow me,’ he said, striding off.

  I looked at Levi, who raised his brows and moved to accompany me.

  ‘Not you, techno boy,’ Erragal said, grabbing him. ‘I have other plans for you.’

  ‘He stays with me,’ I insisted. ‘Or I turn this entire operation into a demolition site right now. Your choice.’

  ‘What about Tamar?’ Killian turned back to threaten me.

  ‘What about your wormhole system?’

  A tense moment passed, then Killian smiled. ‘You’re not afraid of me at all, are you?’

  ‘Not in the least.’ I surprised myself, for it was the truth, and with Killian’s telepathic link to me he knew it.

  He glared at me. ‘Do you know what I could do to you?’

  ‘More importantly, you know what I could do to you,’ I replied flippantly, ‘and that’s why you’re trying to intimidate me, which clearly isn’t working.’

  I walked out of the room, past the Dracon, and Levi followed. When Killian, Erragal and their guards attempted to move, they discovered that the soles of their shoes had mysteriously melded with the floor.

  ‘Mia! I’m warning you, don’t fuck with me!’ Killian yelled after us.

  ‘Should I let them go?’ I asked Levi, who was smothering his amusement as we proceeded down the corridor unaccompanied.

  ‘We really should find out what they know about Tamar,’ he replied.

  Just as our captors had removed their footwear, they came unstuck from the floor.

  ‘I thought this was supposed to be a hostage situation,’ I taunted them.

  Two barefoot Dracon finally raced into the corridor and took aim at us.

  ‘Now that’s more like it,’ I said and Levi nodded in agreement.

  Killian may have been smiling as he emerged from the room, but his body language conveyed that he was ropeable.

  ‘Don’t push me, bitch!’ He grabbed hold of me and stared into my eyes. I felt a sharp pain in my sinuses and then my nose began to pour with blood. Levi couldn’t help me, restrained as he was by the Dracon guards.

  ‘How fast do you think you can regenerate an imploded heart?’ Killian asked nastily, and let me go.

  ‘It’s all just matter.’ I was more emotionally rattled than physically harmed, but wouldn’t show it. I undid the da
mage to my sinuses and the blood vanished from my face. ‘There is nothing you can do that I can’t undo, not now or ever,’ I told him.

  Killian looked taken aback, and I took advantage of his brief confusion to examine him with my auric vision. I had to find the piece of me that he was using to spy on us all; it had to be on his person somewhere. The Blue Flame energy being emitted from the strand of my hair caused it to light up like a neon sign against his aura. It was wound tightly beneath the wristband of his watch. Upon my bidding, the hair dissolved to nothing, with Killian none the wiser.

  ‘Tell that to your daughter,’ Erragal said, using his great height as an intimidation tactic. ‘She’ll have the sixty plagues of Nergal brought down upon her if you don’t start cooperating.’

  He pointed to a doorway further down the hall, and I headed over to see what proof they could show me of Tamar’s imprisonment.

  Inside the room I found a long table of black onyx. Lying on its top was an etheric fibre suit like those worn by the Amenti staff members. Beside it was a long thick coil of silky black hair which, viewed psychically, glowed richly violet. There was no doubt it was my daughter’s beautiful hair, every strand of which could expose her every move to our enemy! There was also a liquid-light gun, a small treasure chest, a metallic ball and an electronic hand-held games unit. I reached for the latter item knowing it did not belong to Tamar, and found the name Emmett Rich programmed into the display; still, I thought, anyone could have entered that name into the unit. Next I opened the treasure chest, to find it empty.

  ‘There’s nothing in here,’ I said.

  ‘Oh yes, there is,’ taunted Killian. ‘Let your fingers do the seeing.’

  My heart skipped when I felt the invisible ring; as far as I knew, there was none other like it.

  ‘I’ll take that now, thank you.’ Killian snatched it from my fingers. ‘Aren’t you going to ask about the metallic ball?’

  My gut told me that I didn’t want to know.

  ‘Touch it,’ he prompted. ‘Go on.’ As my fingers made contact with the cold metal, the sound of Tamar’s inspirational singing voice filled my heart with joy and then sadness.