by M. R. Forbes
“The hunger?”
“Yes.”
She had looked at me in a strange way when I woke in the Suburban, but it had been more of a visceral, chilling look. It was not an intimate look at all, and I had taken it for jealousy. Then again, why be jealous unless you already thought there was something there and you didn’t want anyone else butting in?
“What do you think?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Rebecca and I?” The thought was both exciting and frightening. I took a deep breath to calm myself.
“As you said, she is a vampire. A demon. I don’t think my opinion is the best one to go on.”
“I thought you respected her choice to join me?”
“I can respect her, that doesn’t mean I have to trust her,” she said. “Whatever good intentions she has, her kind, her family, perhaps even her have intentionally caused pain and suffering to others. That is a difficult thing for me to resolve. Remember, I have been battling vampires for hundreds of years. She is unique in her views, which to me makes her more dangerous.”
“I’m not exactly a saint,” I pointed out. “You like me anyway.”
“You don’t exist to fuel evil,” she said.
“Neither does Rebecca, if she chooses not to.”
Josette pursed her lips and thought for a moment. “I will trust you,” she decided. “She is very attractive.”
I could feel my body heating up again. “She has a powerful soul Josette. She told me you were in trouble and suggested we go to your aid. Plus, she won control of her family from her father. I’m sure you knew him, Merov Solen.”
Her face darkened. “I knew him. He was a cruel nosferatu. Thank God he has been destroyed.” She tilted her head, her expression softening. “The rescue was her idea?”
“Yes.”
She was silent for a minute. “She is a rare creature indeed. Yes, I think you would do well to court her.”
Chapter 25
By the time Rebecca had returned with Obi, I had showered and morphed the seraph robe into something a lot more comfortable - a pair of jeans, a pair of black Keds, and a faded polo shirt. Her face lit up when she saw I was up and about, and she rushed over to wrap me up in her arms. Considering what Josette and I had spoken about, I couldn’t help but get a little thrilled by the gesture.
“Hey Becca,” I said into her hair, returning the hug. Her familiar smell was comforting, in a different way than Josette’s company had been.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” she said into my chest.
It was a little weird that this beautiful creature that could rip through a stack of gargoyles without pause was so small and delicate in my arms. She pulled away so Obi could get in, holding out his arm in greeting. We did a proper man hug, the ex-Marine all smiles.
“Man, I was worried I wasn’t going to see you again,” he said.
“You know I’m not so easy to get rid of,” I replied. “Did you take care of Cathy?”
He laughed and nodded. “That girl was crazy. She didn’t remember anything that had happened to her though. She just kept going on and on about how her mother messed up her whole life, how she would never meet someone special or get married. Man, I know why. Oh yeah, we’ve got something for you.”
Obi reached around and brought his bag to the front of his body, unsnapping it and pulling out a laptop. It was a super thin, slick black slab of coolness that must have cost a fortune.
“Merov’s,” Rebecca said.
“It has VPN access to the main servers,” Obi said. He was like a kid on Christmas. “Merov had a killer setup, and one of the biggest pipes in the city.”
“He used it to do automated stock transactions,” Rebecca explained. I was familiar with the latency wars being fought on and around Wall Street. He who had the best ping wins.
“I take it we can use it to get the information we need?” I asked.
“You bet,” Obi replied. He walked over to the sofa and plopped down on the end next to Josette, seeming to notice her for the first time. He gave her a big smile and held out his hand. “I’m Obi,” he said. “You must be Josette. I recognize you from the pictures. It’s awesome to meet a real angel.”
Josette hid her pained embarrassment well, taking Obi’s huge hand into her own tiny one. “Thank you,” she said. “It is fine to meet you fellow. What pictures are you speaking of?”
She didn’t know. Obi stammered out a reply. “Uhh... I’m sorry. I thought you knew. Merov had a lot of eyes on you. He wanted you to uhh... your blood and umm... being a virgin...”
She didn’t mask her pain as well the second time, casting her eyes down and clenching her jaw. I had to stop Obi before he stuck his foot any further down his throat.
“Obi, can you get us booted into the mainframe,” I said. He hadn’t been oblivious to her reaction, and he jumped at the chance to get out of the awkward situation.
“Sure,” he said, flipping open the cover and losing himself in the screen.
I turned back to Rebecca. Her blue eyes were dazzling looking up at me, and I could feel myself getting lost in them.
“You said before we left Merov’s that you had a lot more to tell me,” I said, my voice cracking a little.
Her eyes sparkled at my discomfort. Why was it that just admitting there was a real attraction and interest had made her existence so much more deliciously unbearable?
“Can we talk about it in private?” she asked.
She grabbed my hand and started pulling me toward the bedroom, causing my whole face to start heating up and turning red. I had never been good with this sort of thing, as Carly Lane could attest. I was interrupted from the alone time by the bell. The doorbell. Who could that be?
Everyone was on high alert when I let go of Rebecca’s hand and approached the door. “Who is it?” I asked, trying to catch a glimpse of the visitor through the peephole. I don’t know why I was so on edge. I doubted that Reyzl or the Demon Queen would bother knocking.
Nobody answered. The door clicked and then swung open, almost smashing me in the head in the process. I didn’t get to see who was there before I was thrown backwards and onto the floor, sliding back until I reached Josette’s feet. I gazed over to the side to see Rebecca had been thrown as well.
“Buongiorno Signore,” Dante said, bursting into the room.
He was wearing a gaudy red suit, holding a black cane with a large red diamond on the end, his white hair making him look like a pimped up Santa Claus. He looked pissed as he took in the four of us, piled together en masse against the sofa.
“I leave you alone for a few days, and when I come back you have a veritable Army of.” He paused as he tried to find a word to describe what he saw. Failing, he gave up. “Didn’t I warn you about working with our enemies,” he said.
I tried to get up, but my body was frozen solid. “They aren’t our enemies,” I murmured through petrified lips.
Dante raised his eyebrows. “Not our enemies?” he asked. He walked over and slammed the cane down between my legs. “Not our enemies.” He looked down on me like I was a misbehaving kindergartener. “Not our enemies. It is the nature of good and evil to be the enemy of balance,” he shouted. He pointed the cane at Rebecca, lying motionless next to me on the floor. “Her kind especially. They cannot survive without murder and destruction, and the wanton manner in which they fulfill their base needs is sickening.”
I looked to Rebecca, her face sweating and muscles tense as she tried to move. The bonds that held us were too strong, Dante’s power too great. He aimed his cane at Josette next, the angry look in his eyes exploding in ferocity at the sight of her.
“The seraph, the servants of God who wouldn’t even let me in to see Him when I discovered the truth. All of my years of loyalty and servitude, I asked for no more than a conversation, for understanding. Instead I was turned away. They play at righteousness, but their end game is not so much.”
I tried to move again, feeling t
he force pushing back against me when I attempted to bend my fingers. Dante was from Purgatory, his power had to be the same. He had said that Purgatory was mine to make as I saw fit, that my bloodlines and life had made me special. If that was true, he shouldn’t be able to hold me here. I closed my eyes and focused on the flow of power I could feel bleeding into me. I focused my will on bending my fingers, pulling the power in to aid me. I strained to make a fist, to conquer Dante’s hold. I failed.
Dante had moved on to Obi, who sat there in silence, his eyes glued to him, not even trying to move. Ever the soldier, he was conserving his strength, waiting for his opportunity. Dante looked him over, then reached out and poked him in the chest with the cane.
“You are Awake, but mortal,” he said, all of the anger fading from his tone. “What are you doing here?”
He must have let go of Obi’s mouth, because the former Marine was able to speak. “I’m fighting for my people,” he said. “I’m not afraid of you.”
Dante’s face exposed his huge smile. “No, you aren’t. Nor should you be my friend. This is your fight, and you have every right to be part of it.”
“So you’ll let me go?” Obi asked, motioning to the rest of his body with his head.
“Ahhh, most assuredly so, Signore. But not yet.” By Obi’s reaction, I could tell Dante had frozen him again.
I reached for the flow a second time. I couldn’t use it to make myself strong enough to move, but maybe that was a clue. If all I was doing was trying to counter force with force, it was a zero sum game. Whatever hold Dante had on me, I couldn’t remove it physically, and so I stopped trying. What I needed to do was understand the power, and counter that.
“I am happy, Landon, that you have found one reasonable ally, though I find it unlikely that he will survive much longer.” Dante turned his attention back on me, looking down with the smile still on his face.
I maintained my calm, my senses questing forward to try to discern his Divinity, to test his power. I focused, watching in fascination as his form lost its solidity, fading away and becoming almost ghostlike. He tilted his head, observing me. I focused harder and literally made his visage split in two, one atop the other but just the tiniest fraction off, as if I were watching a 3d movie without the glasses. I looked past him around the rest of the room, and I could see the same double vision effect. My excitement grew when I realized that I had uncovered his secret.
“Signore,” Dante said, still looking down on me. “We should speak in private.”
I looked down at myself, my single, solid self. Yes, we should. I felt the flow of power pounding in my soul, and I opened it up into a stream and followed it back to its origin. I watched my body shift, one world superimposed over another.
In Purgatory I was free, and I reached out with my will and lifted Dante away from me, holding him in midair with ease. I floated to my feet, noticing with awe that the entire other world was frozen in time.
“You wanted to talk,” I said to him. “Talk.” I lowered him to the ground, but I summoned Ulnyx. “Keep an eye on him,” I ordered the Great Were. Ulnyx bowed and went to stand at Dante’s side.
A solid mountain of laughter erupted from Dante then. It was so strong and loud that I almost lost my hold on the tether of energy that I was using to keep myself there. Before I even knew what had happened, he had grabbed Ulnyx by the throat and thrown him to the ground, stepping on his neck with a fine Italian leather shoe.
“Excellente Signore,” he said, his voice booming. “You have surpassed every one of my expectations for what you could become. I am a proud papa.” His face turned serious. “Still, do not think that any of your toys can control me. I will forgive your error this once.” He stepped off Ulnyx and allowed the Were to rise, sputtering, and slink back behind me.
He had been hoping for this, I realized. Every word and gesture in the Waldorf had been to push me, to test me, to find out what I could do.
“How did you know?” I asked him.
“I can see it in you,” he replied. “I can feel it like a geyser bubbling up from your soul. It is the power I always knew you had, but I did not expect you to master it so soon.”
It wasn’t as though I had a choice at the pace. Even with my success, I had almost died a half dozen times. “What you said about my companions?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Mostly true,” he replied. “But I didn’t send you back as my puppet, I sent you back as man’s Champion. The decisions you make are yours to make. I may give in to my discontent at times, but do not be dissuaded by my biases.”
“Did you see the seraph’s eyes?” I asked him. I wanted to find out what he knew about Josette’s situation.
He nodded. “Yes. She has fallen to you, which is a most fortunate event. She is a powerful ally, though I would expect her to refuse to fight against good. The other one, the human, he is a rare and unexpected find.”
“It’s like I’ve been blessed,” I said. Dante didn’t laugh. “Lost your sense of humor?” I asked him.
“Mr. Ross has provided me with some information,” he replied, ignoring my question. “It’s the reason I came to visit you. We’re running out of time, Landon. As you know, the North American archfiend has already launched the first of a series of attacks against seraph strongholds. Their goal is to cut off the angels’ sanctuaries so that they cannot reinforce their numbers. Once that is done, they will hunt down the remaining forces one by one until they have shifted the balance enough to gain complete control of the mortal world. The power of the Grail makes them close to unstoppable.”
“The holder of the Chalice has power over the amulets,” I said. “We can stop it if we can get the Grail.”
Dante nodded. “That is so. We know the Demon Queen is in possession of the Chalice, but even Mr. Ross has been unable to discover her location. Demons would rather be tortured to death than give her up.”
If the Demon Queen had the power to summon the fire demon on her own, I could only imagine what she could do to squealers. I would have chosen torture too.
“Rebecca, the nosferatu, has the information we need to track her down. How much time do we have?”
“According to Mr. Ross, all sanctuaries are to be attacked at midnight in their respective time zones. New York was not supposed to be attacked until then either, but the archfiend Reyzl chose not to wait, likely so he could claim glory for being the first to victory. It’s too late to save Australia, but the sooner you find the Demon Queen, the better.“
I had been shortsighted to think that the goal of destroying the sanctuary had been to create a single foothold of power in New York. I had underestimated the Demon Queen, not realizing that her play was for a quick and decisive victory versus a strategically staged attack. To be honest, I hadn't thought about any of that. I had been more concerned with saving Josette, not even considering the ultimate motives. Now more seraphs were dead, and the balance was sliding further and further towards Hell.
“Okay,” I said. “I'll find out where the Demon Queen is, hunt her down, get the Chalice, and save the world.” It sounded so simple, and somehow I managed to say it as if I thought I could pull it off. To think that six months ago I was just an ex-con security guard. “What are you going to do?”
Dante shook his head. “There is nothing I can do. This fight is for the world of mankind. The way you draw your energy to return here, I must do something similar to walk in your world, and neither one of us can do so forever.”
I looked back at my body in man-space, still frozen in time. “One last question,” I said.
Dante raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Yes?”
“What would you have done if I hadn't been able to transport myself here? If I hadn't discovered the secret of my Source?”
Dante didn't hesitate to answer. “Of course, Signore, I would pray.”
Chapter 26
When I regained my body, Dante was gone. Rebecca was snarling with her fangs bared, and Josette and Obi sat on th
e couch and shook out their arms in disbelief that they could move them again. I jumped to my feet and turned to Obi.
“Obi, fire that thing up and see what you can get. We need to move fast.”
“What's going on?” Josette asked. “The Outcast?”
“I'd like to rip the Outcast into tiny little pieces,” Rebecca said. She relaxed her posture and looked at me. “Where did he go?”
“Back to Purgatory,” I told them. Then I gave them the rundown of what he had said to me.
“Even if the New York sanctuary is the only one standing, it will not be enough,” Josette said. “With all of the angels forced to travel to one location, it will be very easy for Reyzl to keep them boxed in. Archangel Michael will know this, and will be forced to enter the battle himself.”
“Global thermonuclear war,” I said.
“Which means we have to find the Queenie before they have time to take out the rest of the sanctuaries,” Obi said. “If the archfiends are orchestrating this whole thing, then they have to know where she is, don't they?”
“Not necessarily,” Rebecca said. “She could be sending everything along over an encrypted online channel, or using familiars. There's no guarantee what Merov knew will be of any use to us, but it's the best we've got right now.”
“What's the password?” Obi asked. Rebecca reached out for the laptop. He handed it to her and she keyed it in.
“It's too complex to say it,” she explained, handing the computer back to Obi.
His fingers flew over the keys as he worked his hacker magic. “This is going to take some time,” he said after a few minutes. “There's just so much data here.”
Rebecca reached out and took my hand. “We still need to talk,” she said. “Holler when you find something.” She pulled me towards the bedroom again, and this time there were no interruptions.
She kissed me the moment the door had closed, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and pulling my face down to hers. I could feel my pulse quickening at the sensation of her lips against mine, the sweet smell of her, the soft firmness of her body pressed against me. It was a moment I didn't want to end, a moment that I wanted to get lost in, to hold onto forever, to forget about the consequences if we failed to find the Demon Queen. It would be so much easier to stay here, to hide in the Waldorf Astoria with Rebecca and enjoy one another until the demons came for us. Until we were forced to fight, were overwhelmed and destroyed. It was the last part that caused me to break the embrace, to end the kiss.
