CHAPTER 46
Bumalin found Leech early the next morning.
“I have some good news and I have some very bad news.”
Leech kicked back in the chair he was sitting and put his feet up on the table. He looked like he was trying to relax and didn’t open his eyes.
“Let’s hear the good news first. I’ve had a little too much bad news lately.”
Bumalin tossed Gabriel’s book on the table.
“I think I can remove Abaddon from Shadow’s head. I was successfully able to blackmail Gabriel and he gave me a book. I through it last night and I know now that it’s possible.”
“And the bad news.”
“First off, I lost Monkey in Heaven. The angels killed him. Razorburn found out I modified his memory a long time ago to ease his pain. He ran off. I got a report this morning that ten of my agents are dead. Coconut suggested that Gabriel is going to start cutting through my friends and employees until he kills whoever has the secret I blackmailed him with. After that, he’ll come to kill me.”
“Well fuck. That sounds terrible.”
“It’s not so bad. He’ll never kill the nephilim who actually has the secret. He’ll never even think to go after him.”
“Why are you worried then?”
“Did you hear the part about him cutting through my friends and employees? I can’t run my business, Leech. Also… he may just decide at some point that he must have killed whoever had it and come here to kill me.”
“You’re safe here. I’m sorry for your losses, but you can’t be harmed within these walls.”
“You’re right, so that’s why I’m bringing all of my agents here. Gabriel is effectively going to shut my business down and I can’t just let my people die.”
“You’re going to bring all of your demon employees here?”
“Yes. I think it’s only fair. You owe me, Leech. I lost one of my oldest friends getting that fucking book from an Archangel. You need to protect us from the angels.”
“How many demons are we talking about?”
“Around 2,500.”
Leech opened his eyes and looked at Bumalin.
“2,500? Are you fucking kidding me? I had no idea…”
“No one had any idea. I’ve been underestimated since I was a demon-in-training.”
“So you’re telling me that you basically want to march a small army of demons inside Necropolis?”
“We can all live in a sectioned off area, but yes. You owe me.”
“I don’t think I owe you that much.”
“I can sweeten the deal. Even though I’m confident Gabriel will never find the nephilim who has my most valuable secret, it’s out of my control. I don’t even know where he is right now. I’d prefer the secret be even more secure, so I’m willing to clone it from my own memory and give it to you. It will lie dormant in your head, but will become a part of your memory when I die. It’s the secret I stole from the Archangel Raphael. It’s the one Gabriel wants to extinguish. It might just be the most valuable secret in existence.”
“My mind is pretty crowded. You know I have an army of nephilim up there, right?”
“You’ll have room. Trust me.”
“Fine. I’ll be your backup for this secret. We’re going to have to expand the city walls in order to house 2,500 demons. I’ll have Steam and Selene get on it, but it will take some time.”
“They won’t all be here quickly. I have agents all over the world. Some of them may even take weeks to get here. You’ll have some time. As long as I have your word that you can protect us, I’ll send out the word tomorrow for all of them to come here.”
“Go ahead and do it.”
Bumalin touched his head and removed a dark substance. He then pressed his fingers to Leech’s head and the substance entered Leech’s mind.
“I’ll send out the message tomorrow. Thank you, Leech.”
“Thank you, Bumalin, for getting that book. We need Shadow now more than ever if Gabriel is coming for us.”
A large golden treasure chest appeared in the air and then dropped to the ground in Leech’s head. The nephilim surrounded it, some of them touching and poking at it until Sol tried to open it. He failed. Leech appeared in his mind.
“That’s the secret of an Archangel. Bumalin gave it to me and said it would open when he dies. I’d rather know it now. Do what you can to break in and let me know what you find.”
Several of the spellcaster nephilim in Leech’s head started trying to curse the golden chest open. Sol pulled Leech aside.
“We’re interested to know what’s in there as well, but you should also be aware that there’s a small faction that still supports Azazel. They’re becoming more vocal about bringing him back.”
“He better still be in that fucking pit with the boulder over it.”
“I have things under control. Just wanted to make you aware. If it becomes a problem, you and I may need to put the small faction down. I would hate to do that because it would weaken our power overall, but it may become necessary.”
“I trust you, Sol. I think we’ve worked together well over the years. If it does become a problem, let me know. I’ll find a safe place for my body and be in here quickly to help you out. No matter what happens, we can’t let Azazel roam around in my head or try to take control.”
“I’ll keep them busy with the golden chest. It’ll be a good distraction and I’m sure we’re all interested to see what it contains.”
Leech nodded and exited his mind.
CHAPTER 47
Lucia quickly packed some essentials like food and water in her backpack along with some weapons and spell casting books. She wanted to visit her mother quickly as she heard Leech was tied up speaking to Bumalin. Leech wouldn’t approve of what she was about to do. Lilith might. She dropped by her parents’ house and walked inside.
“Mom!”
“In here.”
Lucia walked into the one of the main rooms and saw her mother training the little nephilim called Terra. Terra ran to Lucia, the floor shaking with each step, and hugged her knees.
“Are you here to help me train, too?”
“No, Terra. Not today. I need to talk to my mom really quick and then you can get back to training.”
“But you brought me a treat, right? Since I’m a good girl?”
Lucia laughed.
“I actually have a spell on a scroll you can practice. It’s going to be pretty hard to get it right, but I think you have what it takes.”
Terra smiled as Lucia opened her backpack and handed her a scroll.
“Thank you! I’ll master it by the next time you see me.”
“I bet you will, Terra.”
Lucia turned to her mother and saw that the entire encounter had amused her.
“Mom? A word in private?”
Lilith nodded.
“Practice that spell Lucia gave you. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Terra plopped down on the floor and started reading the scroll. Lilith and Lucia went to the adjoining room.
“What is it?”
“I’ve come to say goodbye. I figured now was the best time to do it because Dad will try to stop me.”
“What makes you think I won’t try to stop you?”
“I love him, Mom. I figured you would understand that. Dad may understand it too, but I don’t think he’ll care. He wants me to stay here no matter the cost.”
“He’s been banished, Lucia. If you go with him, you can’t come back.”
“I’m pregnant. It’s Reaper’s child.”
Lilith smiled.
“Then I understand. I want you to keep in touch, though. Don’t just think the two of you can run off with my grandchild. I’ll leave Necropolis to visit. You don’t have any excuses. If I don’t hear from you for a while, I will send nephilim to track you down. Don’t make me…”
Lucia laughed and hugged her.
“I’ll keep in touch. I promise.”
&nbs
p; “You know I’m very proud of you. You get it. Being a good mother is so much more important than grasping for power. It may be hard to give up the council seat that would surely be yours, but I see you with Terra and the other nephilim children and I know you’ll be a great mother.”
“Do you think the council will let us come back here someday?”
“Who knows? Personally, I think Reaper got off easy, but it was very borderline. I went back and forth on how to deal with it several times. I even briefly considered letting him go. Maybe another day… with another council…”
“Well it’s irrelevant. He may have gone overboard training his brothers, but he’s never even attempted to hurt me. I think Backlash may have embellished what happened because he felt emotional after Fade’s death.”
“What do you want me to tell Leech?”
“Just that I love him, but I knew how he would react to this so I couldn’t say goodbye. You’ll just have to tell him for me.”
“I will.”
As she turned to leave, Lucia heard sobbing in the other room. She turned to see Terra running towards her.
“I don’t want you to go!”
Lucia guessed that Terra had been listening in on their conversation. She latched on to Lucia’s knees and wouldn’t let go.
“I have to go. I have to leave the city. Maybe I’ll see you again someday. Just make sure you have that spell ready for when you see me again.”
Lilith took Terra’s hand and they both waived at Lucia as she left.
Lucia made one more stop before she left Necropolis for good. She dropped by Shade’s house, but found it empty. She quickly wrote a note.
Shade,
I’m pregnant with Reaper’s child and I need to go with him. That means turning my back on this city, but I’ll never turn my back on you. I know you’ve had a difficult life, but you’ve always been part of our family. Leech and Lilith think of you as a son and I’ve always thought of you as my brother. I’d like to ask you one final favor. Persuade Backlash not to come after us. My child needs his father. Reaper may have done some bad things in his past, but he loved Fade too. I’d like you to think of my child as your nephew or niece and you’re welcome to visit us as long as it’s just you. There’s very few nephilim I feel that I can trust right now.
Lucia
Lucia left the note on the kitchen table and waited around for a few minutes, hoping Shade would come home. When he didn’t, she left his house and headed for the gates of Necropolis. She needed to get out of the city as quickly as possible to catch up with Reaper. The guards at the gate gave her a curious look as she tried to leave.
“We were just about to close the city for the night.”
“I’m on official business from the council. I need to leave tonight and travel in the darkness.”
One of the guards nodded and let her pass. They closed the gates behind her. She ran towards the forest, hoping beyond hope that her father wouldn’t send nephilim to look for her. She obviously didn’t want to hurt other nephilim, but knew she had limited options at this point.
CHAPTER 48
“What the fuck do you mean you voted to exile him?”
Nissa crossed her arms and frowned.
“I didn’t want to give him an out like that. You keep saying you wanted to kill him. I know how I felt about Muan after he killed my father and I don’t want anyone else to do it. We’ll give you the opportunity, Backlash. Just come with us. We’ll kill Reaper and then we’ll kill Muan. Or we’ll kill Muan and then we’ll kill Reaper. Either way, we’ll take both of them down.”
Shade finished reading the letter left for him on his kitchen table. He was trying to decide how much he should tell them. He didn’t feel right about promising to visit Lucia and then leading Backlash and Nissa right to her. Things might get a little too heated. Backlash wanted Reaper dead and Nissa had never really liked Lucia. He decided to tell them just the basics.
“Shit. Lucia’s going to find Reaper. This is going to be more of a pain to deal with than I thought.”
“You backing out on me, Shade? You stood by me the last time I had a shot at Reaper.”
“I didn’t say I was backing out. We need to do this the right way this time, though. We lucked out when we went after Nissa. I’m betting Leech was within a day or two of sending nephilim to find us. We’re minor nephilim now. We need to find an official reason to be in the area so the council doesn’t come looking for us. It’s time to go get a mission.”
Backlash smiled and nodded.
“Nice thinking, Shade. We need to cover our tracks. Don’t they just assign missions randomly, though? How are we going to get one in the right area? How do we even know where to start looking?”
“Cerberus!”
Cerberus came running into the room and Shade tossed him the remains of an angel he had killed earlier. Cerberus’s three heads tore into it hungrily. Nissa laughed.
“With everything going on, I totally forgot about your demon dog.”
Nissa pet one of Cerberus’s heads and the other two stopped eating. They looked at Nissa, not wanting to miss out. She petted them as well and then all three heads went back to eating.
“Lucia’s most recent scent is on the note she left me. We just need to have Cerberus take a sniff and follow we can follow Lucia. I’m betting she has a good idea where to find Reaper. They may have planned for a situation like this. Maybe they have meeting places in case they get split up on a mission. If I were to guess right now, I would think we basically just need a reason to head up to the forests north of here.”
Nissa nodded.
“Good idea. Let’s go to the council and ask for a training mission. We’ll ask to kill angels and demons in the forest. That should be a solid choice for a first mission. I doubt they’ll turn us down.”
When they found the nephilim council chamber empty, Shade, Nissa, and Backlash went looking for a member of the council. They found Selene near one of the walls directing nephilim in what looked like a massive building project.
“What’s going on, Selene?”
“We’re expanding the walls. I’m going to be busy for a while. Do you three need something?”
Shade nodded.
“We just need council approval to go on a training mission. We want to raid angels and demons and see if we can come close to clearing the northern fortress.”
Selene stopped what she was doing and turned to Backlash.
“Don’t you dare go in there looking for Reaper. I can’t lose any more sons.”
“Mom, it’s fine. I talked to Shade and Nissa and they helped me calm down about the whole situation. We decided the best thing for us to do right now is to train so that the council can send us on more important missions. We want to become middle nephilim and one day the three of us are going to sit on the council. I know there’s a lot going on right now, but we’re tired of sitting around. We’re minor nephilim now. Please let us be useful. Please.”
Backlash clasped his hands together in a begging motion to emphasize his point. Selene smiled.
“Fine. I don’t want the three of you taking on any groups larger than three. We can’t afford to lose any of you.”
Backlash looked at Shade and then back at his mother.
“We’ll agree to groups of four or smaller. Cerberus is coming with us.”
Shade cut in.
“Actually, Cerberus has three heads so three plus three is six. We won’t attack any groups larger than six.”
“Four. Not up for discussion.”
Backlash looked at Shade and then at Nissa. They both nodded as if conceding the point. Backlash looked back at his mother and nodded.
“Four. We’ll bring back trophies so we can cash in. Get the nephilim bank ready. Our return is going to be pretty expensive.”
Selene ignored Backlash’s boast.
“I’m not sure I believe you three. I’m going to have your father cast a lie detection spell on you when you get back. If you
guys took on more than four out there, I’ll find out when I interrogate you.”
Backlash groaned.
“You’re embarrassing me in front of my friends. We keep our word, Mom. I promise it’ll be four or less every time. Can we go now?”
Selene thought for a few seconds before giving her approval.
“You can go. I’ll let the rest of the council know. Four or less.”
Shade, Nissa, and Backlash returned to Shade’s house. Once they were finished packing their provisions and gear, Shade let Cerberus sniff Lucia’s note.
“We’re looking for Lucia. Go find her.”
Cerberus stumbled out the door and the three nephilim ran after him.
CHAPTER 49
Lucia had been working on a power no nephilim had mastered yet. She naturally radiated light, but wanted to bring it to the level of being able to blind her attackers. Being known as Lucia Lightbringer wouldn’t mean much if she couldn’t do something useful with it. As she tracked Reaper’s path through the woods, she practiced her blinding light whenever she ran into an angel or a demon. It had no effect on angels so far but she did get a demon to shield his eyes right before she ran her dagger through his throat. Once she finished the demon off, she heard another demon yelling and charging towards her. She turned and held out her hand. A beam of light shot out at the demon and he clutched at his eyes, dropping his weapons. Lucia didn’t immediately kill him, she wanted to see if he was actually blind or if her light had simply stunned him and caused blurry vision. The demon pulled a knife from his belt and threw it. Lucia barely got out of the way in time and the knife cut through both straps on her backpack. Her backpack fell to the ground.
“I’m not sure if that was a lucky throw or if you’re starting to regain your sight.”
“What the fuck did you do to me you angel whore?”
Lucia started to walk around the demon quietly. He did not turn to try to follow her with his eyes.
Minor Nephilim Page 16
