80 Proof Hex_Deckland Cain 2

by D Michael Bartsch

  The lights all went out as he spoke the last word. The fires and torches puttered out into glowing coals. Even the lamps dimmed, flickering as if clinging to life. I felt a prick of magic dance across my frozen skin. I had to admit that it was effective as hell, because a chill I felt that had nothing to do with the temperature or blood loss knotted my stomach. It grew, shaking my shoulders.

  “What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fateful symmetry.” Alastair snapped his fingers, and the torches burst back to life, the fire pits roaring with tongues of flame that licked at the frigid air. I felt the briefest pop of magic as he did it, my body pulling it in and slowly washing it away.

  "Places," Alastair said. “The time is upon us.”

  The Vampires started to spread out, surrounding the circle at even intervals. I kept my hands up as best I could. My arms were growing heavier with every breath. I looked around, noticing something else in the firelight. Each of the Vampires had stepped into a smaller circle, half the size of the one I stood in. The five smaller circles intersected the larger one. If I could have looked down from an aerial view, I know I would have seen that each intersection could have been connected to form a perfect inverted pentagram.

  "The Lord of Hate told me you were cunning," Alastair said. "I can see now that he spoke truly. Tell me, Mr. Cain, have you figured it out yet?"

  I glanced at him briefly, trying to get my mind to work. The blood loss wasn't helping me focus.

  "I've spent decades looking for the answer, the key to the Rifts. I knew that even my power wasn't enough to open a portal large enough to allow one of the Dark Lords to enter. However, as our mutual friend Monsieur Sartre proved, if you could find an existing Rift, know where it was going to be ahead of time, and use it to amplify a ritual, that could open up a Rift so large that it would never again be closed.

  "However, you stopped the good Frenchmen. You alone foiled the plans that Moloch had laid so carefully, centuries of planning. Not only that, but the Eye was lost, the ability to foretell the presence of a Rift cut away. The Lord of Hate was not happy. In his rage, he called out to the Faithful, looking for any that could fulfill his plans."

  Alastair walked up behind one of the female Vampires. She was a redhead, mostly skin, bones, and an ugly face. The scrawny Vampire stood, a fanatic look for excitement in her eyes. Alastair held the stone knife to her throat and slashed. His hand blurred as he moved the knife. He cut to the bone, her head flopping back as a gout of blood burst out. She dropped, blood pumping out into the dirt. I felt a shiver as Alastair stepped back and murmured the spell to close off the circle.

  "I sought the Lord of Hate, told him of my research. I had been tracking every known occurrence of a Rift opening in our world. I had noticed a pattern, here in the United States. I begged him to let me investigate, to give me the power and the resources I needed for him to claim what is rightfully his."

  He moved to Mr. Owens, slashing his throat with the same violent force he'd killed the first Vampire. He dropped, pouring blood. I felt another shiver as Alastair sealed off the Circle.

  "So you're just another Demon's lackey," I said. "An errand boy."

  Alastair stopped and turned toward me. He grinned in the shadows, the firelight giving him a dancing mask. I didn't feel quite as confident looking into his face.

  "I have played the faithful servant, fervently for a time. It was needed to keep up appearances. However, what the Lords of Hell have misunderstood is that they've failed. They are the pitiful remnant of a declining armada. They are the old way, but I and my brothers have seen something else in the darkness, a new path. Like the Demons before us, we shall be a scourge upon this Earth, bathing within its life's blood. We are the Chosen, and nightmares do but play us."

  Veronica's throat opened wide in a gout of blood like someone had just unkinked a hose. She collapsed to her knees. She didn't claw at her throat like the dying should. Instead, she stared at me, gazing with pale eyes. She had the crazed look of the faithful. Whatever Alastair was, he wasn't just some Demon’s lackey. He was delusional and had enough power to back it up. That was one of the scariest things I could imagine.

  Alastair sealed the circle, watching Veronica slump over into the dirt as he did.

  "You've been breeding Vampires, feeding them Hellion blood," I said. "You needed the additional power their blood would gain from being Awakened. Easier to keep track of too I bet."

  Alastair looked to Maccus. "I do believe our Mr. Cain is starting to put it all together but has he figured out the final piece? Has he uncovered the endgame?"

  Not even close. My money was still on summoning up a Demon, but Al apparently wasn't a good sharer, especially when it came to power. If he called up a Demon Lord, he'd end up out of control, and I had a feeling that that might be the only thing he was afraid of. He seemed like the type. I wondered if he could be crazy enough to try and bind a Demon Lord to his will.

  "I think you give him a bit too much credit," Maccus said. "He's a wee bit slow."

  "Now now, Mr. Dunn, that's no way to treat our guest of honor. In a way, we owe everything we have and will ever be to him. Long have we sought the path, and Mr. Cain is the gatekeeper, the silent sentinel that holds the secret to its location."

  That didn't sound good. You don’t want to here a fanatic start using things like gatekeeper or holder of secrets.

  Mrs. Owens was up next. Her blonde hair tumbled down her shoulders, and as Alastair stepped up to her, she brushed it behind her ear, raising her chin to give him easier access to her throat. Alastair smiled. "You see, Mr. Cain, the dedication of the Faithful."

  He reached out a gloved hand and caressed her face, grabbing her chin and lowering her face to meet his, looking her deep into her dead eyes. Raising the blade, he slid it across her neck in a smooth motion, a line of spilled blood following it. He stepped back quickly, moving outside of the circle and closing it off. Mrs. Owens sank to the ground, sitting cross-legged with a nasty smile on her face as she bled to death.

  It was time to try something new. I couldn't help but notice that Maccus hadn't volunteered to get his throat slit. There was a chance that could be used to turn them against each other.

  "What's it say about you Maccus, letting someone else murder your pack, slaughter them like sheep. Aren't you in control? Or are you too afraid of the idea of running out of Hellion blood that you let a human call the shots? Seems pretty pathetic to me.”

  Al stopped walking to let out a deep, full-bellied laugh. It boomed in the open air, the sound of it skipping across the stones and bouncing back at me from all directions.

  "Mr. Dunn came to me. There is a legend among his kind, well the ones with enough Hellion blood to write down coherent thoughts."

  I cut him off. "Can't even talk for yourself? You're going to let this sack of meat tell your story?"

  I glanced at Al. I wouldn't have said he looked pleased. I turned to find Maccus. The wiry Irish prick came out of the shadows and knelt by the edge of the larger circle. He studied me, cocking his head to the side like a dog.

  "You be trying to sew strife amongst us. That's not a bad idea. I’m afraid to have to be the one to tell you it won’t work though. This is the way of the True Path, to a power that will lead us beyond the grip of Heaven or Hell. We shall become the masters of death itself. Through it, we shall become like God.”

  He smiled, flicking out the tip of his tongue at me and licking his teeth. I shivered, knees starting to buckle. I was staring into the face of pure insanity. These three honestly thought that they were going to become the masters of the universe.

  "Have you lost your damn mind?" I asked. I turned back to Alastair. "You honestly think that you can gain power over Hell?

  “The Demon Lords aren’t big on betrayal. When they find out what you're up to, they'll send everything in their arsenal after you. There won't be a place left in the world safe. You'll be the most hated thing south of the eternal border, and as someone who's held that ti
tle for some time, it's not all it's cracked up to be."

  Everything went quiet. The only sound came from Al's boots crunching in the dirt. He moved behind the last Vampire I didn't recognize. She had dark hair and a cold smirk on her face as she basked in Alastair’s presence.

  "Mr. Cain, the True Path is about to be open to us. I only regret that you will never see. If you could gaze upon the truth that I have seen, I do believe that you would become a believer. The True Path is power, power to move beyond our mortal coil. You were brought into this world for this very reason. Fate has destined you to be the key."

  "How much crack have you been smoking? True path? Mortal coil? Destiny is bullshit." I said. “Put the knife down and come in here to face me like a man.”

  Al hacked the last Vampire's throat, not taking any of the care he'd shown with Mrs. Owens. Her hair clung to her bleeding throat as she dropped in a cloud of swirling dust. Al walked to the edge of the circle. He raised the knife, grasping the blade with his free hand.

  "Whatever you think is going to happen, it won't work," I said. "My blood can't be used for sacrifice. My magic won’t allow it.“

  He kept his eyes on me as he slid the blade down his palm. “Oh but Mr. Cain, I’m counting on it.” Clutching his bleeding hand into a fist, a trickle of blood, black in the dim light, poured onto the ground. He uttered a single word. It grated on my ears as he spoke a guttural Hellion word that was never meant to be made by a human tongue.

  There was a sudden pressure on my senses as the circle closed. The tingling of pins and needles crept up my legs as my body soaked in the magic. I'd never been sealed in a summoning circle before. I wasn't exactly sure what happened, but theoretically, my power could drain the circle’s energy until it collapsed on itself. That’s if I was lucky, which historically I have not been. I just had to stay alive long enough to find out if it was my night or not.

  Cat walked up to Alastair. She looked at him like a kid with her first real crush. She took his bleeding hand and delicately wrapped it with a hand towel. He handed her the knife, caressing her face with a bloody hand. She smiled, practically blushing at the attention.

  "You see Mr. Cain, the devotion of one who has embraced the dark. The Truth Path has brought us together." He turned back to me. "I crossed an ocean to track down the source of the Rifts. You see, I knew that the pattern that I had seen develop had to be an anomaly. Something had to be causing the barrier between our reality and the Beyond to degrade. Imagine my surprise when I realized that it wasn't a thing that was causing the breakdown. It was someone."

  I felt my stomach flip, and the strength left my limbs. My arms dropped uselessly at my side, and my locked knees were the only thing that kept me from falling back to the ground.

  Alastair turned to Cat again. "You see the realization start to form. The barrier first begun to degrade in and around San Francisco. It was to the point where a Rift was opening every few days. Then a year ago, the rate of Rifts dropped off sharply. However, the amount of Rifts opening in a small town three hundred miles away went up over a thousand percent within in six months.

  "I came here to find out what was going on, and I discovered the truth. You, Mr. Cain, are the source of the phenomena. Your ability to absorb magic is destabilizing the barrier between realities. So you see, Mr. Cain, you are the key to the Truth Path. You are the light that has led us to the edge of darkness. It is through your death that we shall claim our throne as the Lords of this world."

  My head was spinning. It could have been from blood lose, but I wasn't sure. I swayed, taking a step back and stumbling over the chain. I ended up in the dirt, pitching over and falling into a puddle of thick mud made from my blood.

  "Tyger Tyger burning bright, in the forests of the night," Alastair said. "You see, Mr. Cain, The Truth Path brought us together. Destiny has shaped our course, steered us and brought us to this moment. Heaven has thrown down their spears. We mean to pick them up and water all the Earth with their tears.

  "I've sealed you inside of a circle. You are slowly absorbing all of the magic inside, including the power that maintains the barrier between realities. It won't belong before the barrier all but crumbles away and opens into a Rift, one so large as to allow the passage of one of God's grander creations.”

  I looked up at him, feeling like the world around me was starting to get darker by the second.

  "The Demon Lords will never serve you. They'll destroy you. They’re using you to get here and destroy everything and everyone in the world!“

  Alastair clucked. "Mr. Cain, you still don't see it. You still don't understand the why, even if I've revealed the how." He knelt down, his boots scraping the dirt as he did. "I'm not summoning one of the Fallen. I've spent too much of my life having them demanding that I lick their boots and be thankful for the scraps of power they parse out. I mean to summon one of those who stood at the right hand of God on the day of Creation. I have seen a vision of the future, and it is glorious. That future begins tonight, with the death of one of the Angelic Council."

  Things started to go hazy then, the darkness creeping in from the edges of my vision. Alastair was going to summon a member of the Angelic Council to Earth and use them in some sort of ritual.

  "You're insane," I muttered. It was all I could do before my head dropped into the dirt.

  28

  Magic brought me back from the dark. A crushing weight of it washed over me, and I bolted awake feeling like my insides were starting to melt from the overwhelming amount of power pushing its way into my body.

  The world snapped into focus, my mind restarting. The flickering torches and sputtering fires now raged with intensity. Flames whirled into the air. I could feel the heat, drops of sweat slicking my body.

  “What is the meaning of this?”

  The voice spoke with an authority unique to one who had fought against the legions of Hell and won. I pushed myself up, my hands caked with dried mud. I was no longer alone in the circle, and as I fought my way up, I could see the Rift. The air shifted and shimmered, bending the night sky above me. Six feet from me, standing tall in resplendent golden armor, red hair flowing down past his shoulders and fluttering in the wind, stood Raphael, Archangel, and Steward of Earth.

  Cackling laughter split the silence. I looked away from Raphael to see Alastair laughing with the abandon of a madman, head back, eyes alive with insane joy. Cat dropped down to her knees beside him. She bent forward, putting her forehead on the ground. Maccus was there a second later. He didn’t kneel, but his eyes were wide. The expression on his face was a mixture of fear and awe. Unhinging his jaw, his fanged tongue flicked out and licked his lips.

  Raphael took a couple seconds to take in the scene before reacting, clearly confused on where he was. He looked from Alastair and Maccus to the prostrate Cat. He looked at the circles and Vampire bodies.

  “Heretic!”

  The Archangel blurred forward, moving so fast that he was a golden streak in the firelight. He summoned his fiery gladius. The blade formed in his hand, the sword extending from his gauntleted fist in a gout of flames. He roared, the sound powerful enough to shake and crack the ground beneath me, and swung the blade. It whirled through the air, looking like a kid spinning a sparkler on the fourth of July.

  Alastair didn’t even have time to notice before Raphael was at the edge of the circle. I’d never been happier to see an Archangel. I didn’t care that I would be next in line to die, Al was about to get the smiting that he deserved.

  Then, the blade stopped in midair. There was no resounding clang or ringing of metal. As Raphael brought his sword down toward Al, he reached the edge of the circle, and the gladius simply stopped. Raphael’s momentum kept him moving forward, and he collided with the edge of the circle, silently slamming into an invisible barrier. He bounced off the wall, stumbling backward. His golden boots scraped in the dirt as he caught his balance. I couldn’t see his face, but I’m sure there was a look of surprise.

  M
accus had seen Raphael coming and had taken a step back. Cat had been too damn busy licking Alastair’s boots to even know that she’d come within inches of having her soul rent to pieces. Alastair stopped laughing, staring at Raphael with hungry eyes.

  Raphael swung his sword again, stepping into it, and again, the blade met the edge of the circle and just stopped. There was a creak of armor as he tried to force the blade through the barrier. I watched all of this from the ground, trying my best to focus through the massive amount of energy pouring into my body from the open Rift above me and the presence of one of God’s most powerful creations.

  “Raphael!” I screamed pain lancing through my back. “Go back dammit! Go back through the Rift.”

  If he could go back through the open Rift, he’d be able to escape. I didn’t have enough life in me left for another circle, and as far as I could tell, Alastair was fresh out of Vampire sacrifices.

  Raphael turned back toward me. His eyes were gold within gold, not even a hint of white. They glowed with power, shinning a radiant hue across the pale skin of his eye sockets. They went wide in surprise at the sight of me, just for an instant before they narrowed.

  “Traitor.” The words crossed his lips in a whisper, but they carried the weight of Heaven’s Justice with them.

  Raising the gladius, he started to walk toward me, forgetting Alastair completely. “I should have known that one day you would come seeking vengeance,” he said. “I shall send your soul to meet the fate that it deserves.”

  Standing over me, he held his sword above his head in both hands, ready to bring it down and cut my body and whatever shitty piece of my soul was left inside it in half. He never got the chance.

  Alastair bellowed. “Graesharal!”

  Motion in my peripheral caused me to look to the left. Mr. Owens’ body jerked, lifting off the ground slightly as something ripped free. There was a sound like someone pounding meat and bones snapping as the a skeletal hand ripped from of his chest. It was quickly followed by an arm and a black skull with nubby horns. The thing screeched, the sound grating against my brain like grinding metal.