The Helm of Darkness

by Kim Richardson

  “With what?”

  The goddess stuck out her tongue at him, it was meaty and black and plagued with boils. “I don’t kiss and tell, pretty angel. But if you must know something—know that I will kill you.”

  Her arms twirled in an exotic dance as she spoke, and her silver blades glimmered and caught the moonlight that spilled down from the tall windows. Her feet glided over the smooth floors as she moved forward again.

  “I’m going to kill all of you and taste the blood of the angels on my tongue.”

  “It’s the promise of the skin thing, isn’t it?” said Milo, nodding.

  The goddess stiffened, and her eyes narrowed. “What do you know of it?”

  “Plenty,” said Milo. “When the demon goddess Parvati shed her dark skin, you were created from it. And you hated her for it. It’s why you killed her all those years ago. It was kind of sick to kill your own mother, don’t you think?”

  Kali’s face contorted with rage. “You know nothing of the struggles I have faced.”

  “I know that you’ve been trying to reverse the process. You’ve been trying to shed your own skin to become The Fair One.”

  The goddess was the opposite of fair, and Alexa wondered if even Hades’ magic could change her.

  “You’re helping Hades because you want to be hot?” asked Alexa. She wondered if the goddess would keep all four of her arms.

  The goddess frowned and looked over to Alexa for the first time. Her eyes were cold and full of ancient malice.

  “You believe that Hades could help you?” continued Milo. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the guy’s only a pagan god, just like you. He can’t perform miracles. He’s tricked you, just as he’s tricked my fellow angels. Hades is a liar.”

  “Enough!” Kali glared at Milo, but he merely shrugged and smiled with his typical arrogance.

  But then Milo pressed Kali some more.

  “What does Hades want? Why did you come here, Kali? Why this place when you could have gone anywhere around the world? Does this have something to do with The Crowns of the World? Do you know why Hades killed them all?”

  Kali’s glare turned into a haughty grin. “I’ve told you. I’m here to kill you.”

  She paused and then pointed her three daggers at Alexa. “Especially this one. Yes. Hades hates this one. Probably too much of a prude. What’s the matter, darling? Did you say no to the god?”

  She laughed, a sick wet laugh and made a rude gesture with her body.

  “That’s disgusting,” said Alexa. “I’m going to have nightmares for the rest of my life.”

  She started to look away, but then Kali rubbed the bloody severed head of her husband against her face and body until she was covered in new blood. She held out the head and chanted in a language Alexa couldn’t understand. The air around her moved, and the blue mist swirled and rose until it brushed her knees.

  And from the mist rose a headless demon. It was humanoid and had the same black-blue skin as the goddess. It was thick and muscled but carried no weapons. Alexa could see that long, sharp talons sprouted from its fingers. But while Kali had four arms, this creature only had two. It was very male and completely naked, like Kali, but for a short skirt of severed legs.

  “Why are they naked?” protested Alexa, trying not to look below the creature’s waist. “Are there no clothes in the Netherworld? Come on!”

  Kali gave a short laugh and then hurled the bloody head at Alexa.

  The head hit Alexa on the side of her neck with a wet thump. She jumped back. The head hit the floor and rolled over to her feet. And then through the mass of wet black hair, it opened its eyes and looked at her.

  “Oh god, no—”

  Kali screamed like a banshee and threw herself at Milo in a blur of blue, black, and silver. Now that she was freed of her husband’s head, she slashed at him wildly with all three of her blades and Milo did his best to parry her blows. She was ruthless and deadly. She seemed to have been made for fluid and deadly speed.

  Something else moved in the corner of Alexa’s eye—

  The demon she had just beheaded leaned forward suddenly. It turned and moved towards Alexa, as though it had caught her scent. Slowly, it lifted one clumsy leg and swung it forward, rested for a moment, then swung the other a little past the first. Its lumbering, rolling motion made the hairs on the back of Alexa’s neck rise. She had no idea how it knew where to find her without its head. The demon made its way towards her relentlessly, slow at first and then faster. It seemed to have an urgency about it as it lunged suddenly.

  Alexa fell back and stared at it, dumbfounded. The demon reached down, grabbed the severed head, and screwed it on to its neck like a cap on a bottle. It looked at Alexa and grinned. Its black eyes were wide and intelligent. And with his head back on, he was much bigger and taller than Milo.

  The demon flexed his muscles like a bodybuilder, and then it leapt at her.

  She barely had time to jump out of the way of its beefy hands and sharp talons. The demon was incredibly fast.

  It laughed and came at her again.

  Alexa gripped her dagger as the demon charged toward her. She swung her blade in a powerful arc, and the need to kill surged through her irresistibly. Nothing else mattered. These demons needed to die.

  She didn’t try to direct the track of her blade, but simply allowed her desire to kill to focus the power of her swing instinctively. The blade whistled through the air and exploded through the demon’s head and shoulder. The air erupted in a putrid spray of hot blood that nearly blinded her. The demon’s head and part of its shoulder tumbled to the ground again, and it collapsed onto the blood-soaked stone.

  But as soon as the demon’s body had hit the floor, it picked up the severed part of its shoulder and head and reattached them to the rest of its body. Alexa watched horrified as the demon’s skin stitched itself back together.

  It stood up and smiled at the fear and confusion on her face. Alexa had never heard of a demon that could mend itself. She looked down at her dagger and cursed. Maybe if she’d had a soul blade from Horizon, it would have stayed down.

  The demon laughed, and Alexa screamed. “Milo! How do I kill this thing?”

  Milo looked in her direction just as Kali attacked him again. One of her swords sliced into his side, and light poured from his wound as he stumbled back.

  Kali sprang at him again.

  While Milo managed to swing his swords to deflect her attack, Kali was faster. She spun and slipped away from him. He countered her strikes, and she his. He evaded attacks that should have killed him, and she thwarted his attacks and deflected his blades with equal skill.

  Milo faltered, and Alexa could see the panic in his eyes.

  Kali laughed and came at him harder and faster.

  Alexa felt a rush of panic. The goddess was going to kill him.

  Suddenly the male demon howled, made an impossible leap, and landed on her before she had a chance to turn it aside. She was thrown to the ground and had to cover her face with her hands to prevent it from tearing her eyes out. The demon crushed her, but she wrapped her legs around its chest and managed to flip it over. She slipped out of his grasp and slashed her sword across the demon’s back. Blood exploded onto her chest and into her mouth, but the creature spun around and knocked the blade from her hand with a powerful blow to her arm.

  Alexa winced in pain as a bone in her arm broke.

  The demon charged, and she saw the snarl of its fangs and its malicious glare as she shuffled backwards, slipped on the wet floor, and fell.

  The demon was on top of her in a flash. She raised her good arm and tried to push it off, but it was like trying to push off a car. The demon was too strong, too heavy, and too fast. It wrapped its hands around her neck and squeezed until Alexa’s vision blurred in a frenzy of black and red spots. She thought she heard someone call out her name, but maybe she was imagining it because she was about to die. Her head swung forward and then exploded with pain as i
t hit the hard floor.

  The demon howled and grunted as it smashed her head repeatedly against the floor. She felt her life force fading away. It was going to kill her…

  But Alexa refused to die.

  Her nerves tingled, and a pounding came from somewhere deep inside her chest. It was as if her soul itself was in agony.

  But then she managed to make out a white mist that surged up behind the demon. It shifted over to her left and assumed the shape of a man. It hovered next to her, and she could see right through him. He frowned sadly as he looked down at her, and she thought his face looked familiar.

  The demon squeezed her neck harder, and the cold empty feeling of death crept into her like icy rain.

  But then the ghost seemed to throw itself into her. She arched her back as a stream of warmth rose from her chest and spread throughout her body. The coldness of death vanished completely and the darkness inside her was replaced with brilliant white light.

  Power surged through her, and white light exploded from her hands and body in a blinding flash that filled the hall. The white light hit the demon’s face, and it stumbled back in terror. The demon thrashed desperately as the light burned its skin like acid and entered it like water into a sponge. Then the demon burst apart in a bloodless shower of blue crystals and ash.

  Kali’s eyes were wild when she saw the pile of ash that was left of her demon husband. She screamed, and the windows in the hall exploded and showered her with shards of glass. She turned towards Alexa with death in her eyes.

  But then her face changed as if she had been shocked. She looked down and saw two silver swords poking through her chest.

  Milo yanked his swords free and stepped back.

  Kali’s daggers fell with loud clanks. She cursed Alexa, and then her body turned to stone and exploded in a cloud of blue ash.

  The Hindu goddess of death was no more.

  CHAPTER 10

  ALEXA STOOD UP. The bone in her arm had repaired itself without her even knowing. Ashes of her demon attacker still fell around her like dark snow. She stared at her shaking hands, but the strange specter whose light had flowed into her and had killed the demon had disappeared the moment the demon had exploded.

  What had the specter done to her? Why had it looked familiar?

  Alexa looked down at the crumbled body of the mortal man she’d tripped over when she had been fighting. His chest rose and fell slowly. He was still alive. When she looked at his face carefully she realized she had seen his face. The specter had worn the face of this man. She was certain of it. It had taken the shape of this man, and then it had helped her defeat Kali’s demon husband.

  What had happened to her?

  “Alexa!”

  Milo ran over to her. His clothes were drenched in sweat, and ash covered his hair and face. “What happened to the demon? How did you do that?”

  Alexa frowned. “I’m fine thanks.”

  Milo’s expression softened. “No. I mean. Yes, I’m glad you’re okay…but—”

  “But what?”

  The anger that had flared inside her had vanished, but she was still frightened.

  What the hell had happened?

  While she stood in silence for a moment and reflected upon what had happened, she realized she didn’t hear the cries of the ghoul demons or any other sounds of battle.

  Then she heard a loud buzzing noise, and all the ceiling and wall lights flickered on in the hall. She could see piles of demon ash and human bones on the floors, but the demons were gone.

  “Alexa? Are you listening to me?” Milo was trying to get her attention, but her thoughts were elsewhere.

  “This man needs help.” She gestured to the man who had shared the specter’s face.

  Before she realized what she was doing, she ran over to Rachel’s body and knelt in the pool of blood beside her. She clenched her jaw as she looked at Rachel’s blood-soaked shirt. With trembling fingers, she reached out and pressed them against Rachel’s neck. She felt a pulse.

  “Thank god,” said Alexa. “Milo, help me with her. She’s still alive.”

  She started to slide her arms under Rachel when a hard hand jerked her back.

  “Don’t touch her!” It was Erik, and he spoke in a voice that was barely recognizable. He let go of Alexa’s arm and said with barely contained rage, “I’ll take her.”

  Alexa didn’t understand the hatred in his voice, and in her confusion she was unable to feel the joy she should have felt at discovering Erik was alive at all. For a moment she just stared at him. Her chest ached as though she’d just had the breath knocked from her.

  Did he think she was going to hurt Rachel?

  “I just wanted to help her—”

  “I said I got it.” Erik slipped his arms beneath Rachel and lifted her as though she weighed no more than a child. He walked away without another word, and he did not even glance in Alexa’s direction.

  “Damn this body,” she whispered, as the artificial tears clouded her view of Erik’s back as he walked away. She felt numb and cold and dead. Her world was crumbling around her. Erik…

  It was an effort to keep her knees from buckling, but she managed to stand. She watched him move farther and farther away. At the end of the foyer, Matt bounded into view, but his dark skin paled when he spotted Rachel limp in Erik’s arms. He and Erik disappeared down the staircase that led to the medical wing.

  Alexa heard the surviving Sensitives weeping and murmuring as they rushed the injured to the medical wing and said prayers for the dead.

  But she didn’t really see them. She didn’t see anything.

  Everyone was watching her. It was exactly as it had been when she’d first stepped into Hallow Hall. They were all spectators to her torment. She was shocked at the mistrust and hatred she saw in their faces. It was as though they blamed her for all this death.

  Was she to blame? Had she brought this upon them?

  Maybe they were right.

  Alexa felt sick with self-loathing. Blinking quickly, she focused her anger on the one responsible, the one who’d started it all.

  “I’m going to kill you, Ryan,” she whispered to herself.

  Alexa dashed past the angry mortals and sprinted across the hallway in the direction where she’d last seen Ryan disappear. Her cheeks felt wet, but she didn’t care who saw her cry now. They all hated her anyway. But somehow, she would make this right. And Erik would see. He would understand that she’d never meant for any of this to happen.

  She rounded the corner and halted. A single white door without a handle stood ajar in the hallway. The chair-rail moldings on the door matched the ones on the adjacent walls. If the door had been closed, Alexa knew she would never have seen it. A secret compartment, she realized.

  She made for the opening and peeked inside. The space was large enough to fit maybe ten people without being too crowded. Alexa stepped into the room. She didn’t expect Ryan to be here, but her intuition told her that he had been here.

  What had he been looking for?

  It was a small room that was filled with shelves of dusty books, carved objects, and artifacts from around the world. Boxes were piled in the far corners. Alexa guessed it was some sort of secure storage room for special artifacts. An antique looking desk with lion-shaped legs sat at an awkward angle, as though someone had pulled it aside in haste. Another smaller door behind the desk revealed a secret safe, large enough to fit a small box. Even from where she stood, she could see it was empty.

  “There’s nothing in there that requires your attention,” said a stern voice behind her.

  Alexa whirled around and met the scowl of a small, white-haired woman whose fierce blue eyes would make any normal person flinch. But Alexa wasn’t normal.

  Valerie, the Head of House Uriel stood in the doorway. Her usual neat hair was disheveled. Her clothes were torn, and blood stained her white top.

  “What was in there?” Alexa pointed to the small opening. She hoped the Head of House Uriel
wouldn’t throw her out. “He took it, whatever it was. So what was it?”

  Some of the pieces had started to fit together: the ghoul demons and Kali must all have been diversions so Ryan could take whatever was in that safe.

  “What does it matter now? He took them,” said Valerie.

  Alexa noticed dark circles under her eyes and more lines around her mouth. Her eyes were red, and she looked on the verge of tears. She pushed Alexa out of the way and entered the small space.

  “Them? What them?” asked Alexa. When Valerie didn’t answer she pressed, “If I know what he took, maybe I can stop him. Please. Tell me what was in that safe.”

  Valerie’s face flushed, and in two strides she was but a hair away from Alexa’s face.

  “In the name of the souls, tell me why you angels murdered the very people you were supposed to protect.”

  Alexa’s chest tightened. “I can’t. I wish I could. But I don’t have the answers. I don’t know why they would do such unspeakable acts. I’m truly sorry.”

  “You’re sorry?” Valerie was incredulous, and for a very petite woman, she was suddenly frightening, large, and imposing. “Tell that to the children whose parents have just been murdered.”

  She turned on her heel and stormed out the room.

  “Valerie, wait!” Alexa ran after her but froze when she got into the hallway.

  Crowds of Sensitives lined the hallways and the lobby, more than she ever imagined had lived in Hallow Hall. She had never seen many of them before. All eyes were on her again, and she didn’t have to meet their gazes to feel the gut-wrenching sorrow they felt.

  They blamed her. And maybe they were right to do so.

  Even Ash and Karen, the two young operatives she did recognize, looked tense, fierce, and coldly indifferent. The animosity was so thick she could almost see it.

  Alexa looked to Milo for moral support, but he leaned against the opposite wall with his arms crossed over his chest and said nothing. There was something haunted about his look, as though he were struggling with something internally. He wasn’t looking at her directly. She followed his gaze and saw a familiar figure cut a path across the room.