by M. R. Forbes
"They're tough, but not indestructible. We decapitated one. I've got someone studying the scripture as we speak."
"Templars?"
"No. Since the Beast was destroyed, the few that were left have faded into the background. A scientist. Speaking of which, Randolph mentioned that Zheng is immune to Divine power."
"It is an oddity, isn't it? I sent my most powerful sex demons to meet him. Their power did nothing. I sent them back with a glamour I placed myself, changing their appearance completely. He saw right through it. He has no Divine aura, so I know he's mortal. Even stranger - he acted like he didn't know they were demons."
I was silent while I considered it. Gervais could disguise his aura. Was it possible Zheng was a demon, or had been replaced by a demon?
A well-placed rift would make for fast travel. Was it possible Gervais was Zheng? I couldn't rule it out.
I got to my feet. "If you could excuse me for a minute. I need to check on Peter."
Valerix stood, confused. "We weren't done with our conversation."
"We can pick it up in a minute. Can you have your dog lead me to where you stashed him?"
She didn't look happy. "Zel, will you please escort the diuscrucis upstairs."
"What's going on?" Rose asked, also rising from her chair.
"I just want to check on Peter. I trust Valerix will be a gracious host while I'm gone." I eyed the archfiend. Her eyes flared red.
"Of course. Please, Rose. Sit. Do you like designer handbags?"
Rose didn't look happy either. "No. I like knives."
Valerix smiled and ran her tongue against her lips. "Well then, I have something to show you, I think you're going to love."
"This way," the were, Zel, said, motioning me towards the door.
I started following. We made it halfway to the door when something outside caused the whole building to shake. A moment later, Zel reached up to his earpiece.
"Mistress, there are angels outside."
Valerix hissed. "Why now?"
"Maybe they know I'm here?" I said.
"How would they? You only arrived a few minutes ago."
It couldn't have been Rose, she was with me the entire time. Gervais on the other hand...
The mansion shook again. I heard a faint scream from outside.
"Zel, send out the alarm. We need to be ready in case the wards don't hold. Do they have any Fists with them?"
The were growled and shook his head. "I don't know, Mistress. I'm not getting any reports from the outer security."
Valerix hissed again and hurried out of the room.
"Are you ready for this?" I asked Rose on our way out behind her.
"No." She drew a cursed knife. "I don't want to kill the good guys."
"You should never want to kill anything. Just remember, if they win, all of this is gone, and only the few will be going someplace better."
"I know."
We trailed the archfiend out into the hallway, the building shaking every few seconds. If Gervais was behind this, if he was double-crossing me for the angels, he wouldn't be doing it for much longer.
We reached the foyer, coming into sight of the warded door.
The other were, the one who had brought Gervais up to his room, was standing next to it.
He had just pulled it open.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
"Elyx!" Valerix shouted. The were looked towards her, hopping aside as a gout of hellfire launched from her fingers towards him. He turned and galloped towards the stairs, bounding up them at full speed, vanishing from sight in a matter of seconds. "You'll spend eternity in Hell for this, you flea ridden mongrel!"
"Get down!" I grabbed the archfiend with my hands, at the same time I threw my power into Rose and pulled both of them to the ground.
The seal of the wards broken, the door flew open and six of the bolts whizzed through the air above us. I heard them buzz past and slam into the wall.
The Fist came in behind the volley, extending the wrist-mounted blades and charging like a bull. I pushed the energy into my muscles and rolled to where Rose was laying face-down. I got her aside even as the machine and another blast of hellfire converged on the spot. The blue runes on the Fist's surface grew brighter while the fire poured into it, absorbing the heat and energy. The blade retracted from its right hand, which adjusted to face Valerix and angled back so the palm was out.
A blue beam of light launched from it, striking Valerix full in the chest. She had two seconds to scream, and then she vanished in a pile of ash.
"Oh my god," Rose said, her voice cracking with fear.
I pulled the stone from my pocket and summoned the obsidian blade, throwing myself forward at the Fist's back, bringing the blade up to make a hard stroke on its vulnerable neck.
Its hand swung around, cuffing me in the shoulder, catching my momentum and redirecting me. I braced myself and slammed hard into one of the warded windows and then through, hitting the pavement and rolling to a stop against the base of the fountain. I healed myself as quickly as I could and got back on my feet. I could hear the Fist moving, and it stormed out the front door in pursuit.
At least it had ignored Rose.
"Landon."
A voice from behind me. A voice I knew. I turned around.
"Adam?"
He was standing on the other side of the fountain, flanked by three angels on each side. His handsome face was sharp and serious, his long, golden hair falling in waves across broad, muscular shoulders. My eyes trailed down them to the white toga the angels preferred, to the reddish gold clasp that identified him as the Inquisitor Prime, to his right arm.
Gervais' undead demons had broken the arm during the fight to destroy the Beast. It was a unique wound, not wholly demonic, a wound that I knew would never heal. A wound he had overcome.
"Why?" I asked him, staring at the arm. It was metal, like the Fist now standing still behind me, and also covered in glowing scripture. It had been fused to his skin just above the elbow, the mechanic actuators visible beneath his forearm. He extended the fingers and closed them back into a fist, showing off the prosthetic.
"Why? Landon... I'm sorry, my friend. I have nothing but respect for you, but what did you expect? Your existence is a problem for us. It's even more of a problem now, because we've developed a tool to finally rid the world of demons."
"That thing is going to lead to the downfall of man."
"Not all men. The believers will be brought home. You know that."
"How many is that? How many are left behind? Three billion? Four?"
"It is His infallible wish."
"Did He tell you that?"
"We are His children. We know His will."
"So He's okay with you circumventing the rules of engagement?"
"He allowed us to have the idea, and He provided the means."
"You're reaching."
"I haven't fallen yet. What does that tell you? This isn't something I want to do. It's something I have to do."
"Again, why? Why you? Shouldn't you be out capturing lost artifacts?"
He laughed. "I wish I were. After the Blades were destroyed, the archangels gave me a new task. 'Discover a way to defeat the diuscrucis.' Those were the exact words. I did, though you've been a hard man to find."
"It helps to have a demon on your side."
"It is uncommon, but there are a few who are willing to trade their services for the promise of forgiveness."
Gervais? After everything, would Heaven bargain his soul?
"Anyway, my friend, I came to give you a chance to save yourself. To save your soul. God forgives all who repent."
It was my turn to laugh. "You want me to repent? To screw over the rest of mankind? Are you serious?" He was. I knew he was. "Forget it. You already got one of your toys back with its head ripped off. It's fine by me if you want to keep adding to my collection."
He looked at me. I didn't see any conflict, though I did see regret. He was being honest when he
said he didn't want to.
We both knew that wasn't enough.
I spun around, throwing my hands out, directing the energy. The Fist's bolts came in fast, in a wide enough spread to hit me no matter which way I turned.
Thankfully, I didn't need to turn.
I focused on the power, splitting it into six distinct streams, using them as funnels to capture the bolts, dropping to the ground and spinning on my knees, redirecting them around me and through the cascading mist of the fountain.
Into the angels.
One bolt for each of Adam's companions. They slammed into them, disappearing in an explosion of blood and the heavy crack of bone. All six of the angels fell back, reaching for the metal that was buried in them. It was blessed, it couldn't kill them. It did keep them otherwise occupied. More importantly, it showed Adam I wasn't about to give any quarter.
He didn't move. He didn't react. His artificial limb flexed, fingers tapping a strange cadence. The Fist was coming hard.
I gathered myself and leaped away from it, backwards over the fountain, twisting in mid-air, summoning the obsidian blade. I cleared the grotesque centerpiece and angled downwards towards Adam, leading with the sword.
He had a sword of his own, and it appeared in his hand just in time for him to backstep and parry my attack. I landed and pressed in, flooding my muscles with the power, slamming my sword against his. He was good, very good. He wasn't as good as Josette had made me.
"What do you hope to gain by this?" he asked, backpedaling with each new stroke, his face twisted in concentration.
"I was hoping I could convince you to surrender."
His wings unfurled behind him and he bounced backwards, using them to carry him further and faster. I sprung after, covering the distance in one strong leap.
"I can't, Landon. This is His will. Break the diuscrucis, break the balance, win the war."
"You saw what happened in Mumbai. When you win... the entire world will be like that."
He turned and lashed out with a wing, getting more desperate as I continued pressing, the black spatha whistling through the air in combinations of cuts and jabs. I took the hit off my shoulder, planting myself to keep from being thrown aside. He managed to slow my attack long enough to get a couple of breaths.
"All of His children have the opportunity to ask Him for forgiveness and pledge themselves, up until the very moment of the Rapture. The ones who don't..." His face tightened. "They will get what they have asked for. A world without Him."
I let him block me again. This time, I reached out with my power, pulling the ground behind him, raising enough earth that he stumbled on his next backstep and lost his balance.
His wings spread and twisted. He shot into the sky, just barely escaping my reach. The blessed end of the blade caught his abdomen, cutting through the toga and leaving a thin line of blood that trailed him upwards.
I noticed that the fingers on the metal hand were still moving.
I ducked just in time to avoid the Fist's heavy blade, turned and smacked against it with the spatha. As before, the scripture flared, making the blow of the razor sharp artifact more like a stick against a stone. I knew from the first fight that the joints were vulnerable, so I changed my tactics even as I rolled away from it.
It followed after, twin blades making alternating stabs, torso turning independent of its legs to follow me more quickly. Its form was shit, its approach pure brute force. I could duck and weave for a while to keep it away. Eventually, I would get weary.
I doubted that it would.
I pushed out with my power, shoving the arm out and bringing the cursed side of the blade down towards the joint. It was smarter this time, and it shifted just enough to move the joint out of line, leaving the stroke to bounce off the scripture. It followed up the bold attack with a solid kick to the ribs that sent me tumbling, and left them shattered under my skin.
"You can still repent," Adam said, from his position fifty feet over my head. "He'll forgive you."
Angels. They were all about forgiveness, love, charity. When it suited them. Otherwise, they were more than willing to throw you aside.
I could hardly breathe, but I didn't bother healing myself. The Fist was coming for me.
If Divine weapons were ineffective, maybe I needed a different approach.
I took a deep breath, steadying myself on my knees in front of the onrushing machine. I reached out with the energy, casting it like a massive net.
Then I pulled.
The twisted artwork of the marble fountain cracked as it was yanked from its base and sent hurtling in my direction. I followed the path and clenched my muscles, as though that could somehow give me more leverage with the energy to better direct the heavy stone missile. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn't. The end result was the same.
It slammed into the Fist, not four feet from where I was kneeling. Both objects met in an echoing collision. Both objects went airborne for a few seconds. Then the sculpture came down on the machine, twisting and crushing it beneath the weight.
It didn't get back up.
I flopped onto my back, bringing my sword up to defend myself from Adam. He wasn't coming after me. He floated above me, looking down and shaking his head. A moment later, the other six angels joined him.
They all left together. As they did, I could swear I saw him smile.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I found Rose waiting for me inside the mansion. She was sitting on the floor, her back pressed against the wall, her blessed knife laying on the ground between her legs.
It was bloody.
"What happened? Are you okay?"
She nodded. "I'm fine. Happy to see that all that training paid off, even against werewolves." She pointed towards a pile of dust a dozen feet away. "After that thing chased you outside, Valerix's servant thought it might be fun to try to rape me. It didn't turn out the way he planned." She smiled. "I saw the fight. The best part, anyway. I'm impressed. What was with the cyborg angel?"
I couldn't hold back my smile, and I felt a bit of heat rising to my cheeks. "Thanks." I held out my hand and helped her to her feet. "His name is Adam. He's the Inquisitor Prime, which in simple terms means he runs Heavenly Special Ops. We were allies against the Beast."
"He's pretty handsome."
"Yeah, he is."
"So are you, in your own way."
More heat. "What's that supposed to mean?"
She laughed. The adrenaline had left her a little giddy. "I don't know... he's a male Thor kind of handsome. You're more like a James Bond, or Captain America."
I shook my head. "You didn't just call me Captain America."
"Or James Bond. Somewhere in there. It works for you."
"Thanks, I guess. Have you seen Gervais?"
"Not since the were took him away. Do you think he's in trouble?"
We started for the stairs. "I know he's in trouble. I'm going to wring his damn neck."
Neither of us knew the layout of the place, so it took us some time to wander through all the hallways and check each room for the demon. It wasn't enough to just peek inside, we had to look in the closets, under the beds; anywhere he might have decided to hide after I crushed the Fist. I could picture him watching the confrontation with Adam from one of the windows, the quiet of the room interrupted from time to time by his annoying french giggle. He'd played me for a fool.
The last door we hit wasn't a single room. It was Valerix's suite. It fed into a massive bedroom with a four-posted double-king bed as its centerpiece, draped in red velvet and silk with various different leather straps and chains positioned along the sides of the posts. Thick fur rugs lined the floor around it, and four candled chandeliers hung above. To the left of it was an open bathroom, decorated in black marble and leather. To the right, an office.
Gervais was sitting behind the desk, his feet up on the mahogany, a big smile on his face.
"Ah, there you are, Landon."
Just the sight of him made my tem
per flare. I threw out the energy, slamming it into him and launching him backwards. He lost his balance on the chair, and wound up laying on the floor.
I rushed into the room, vaulting the desk and landing on top of him, my hands around his throat.
"Ouch," he said, looking up at me. He didn't seem very concerned about his predicament. "You're angry with me for not helping you against the machine?"
"You sold me out to the angels, you son of a bitch."
He started laughing.
"What the hell is so funny?"
He laughed harder.
I squeezed harder.
He tapped on my forearms, and pointed to the desk. There was a laptop there. The screen was on.
I let go of him.
He coughed twice and got up, rubbing at his neck. "For one, you should know me better than to think I would ever join forces with those buffoons. For another, you're welcome."
A photo of Matthias Zheng was on the screen, along with the beginnings of a full profile. "You didn't let them in?"
"Of course not. I feigned my drunkenness so I could get into Valerix's office. It was her were that ratted you out. The idiot came up here after he opened the door. He wanted the very thing that you're looking at right now."
"Why?"
"I imagine to keep anyone else from seeing it. It seems that our minx did quite a bit of digging and spying on Mr. Zheng. She was trying to both figure out the reason for his Divine immunity, and determine where the angels had taken him."
"And?"
"And the information is incomplete. She never did learn the secret to his immunity, and she lost his trail a week ago."
I skimmed through the data on the screen. Matthias Zheng, born Xin Zheng. The only son of Bo and Celia Zheng, an accountant and a housewife from San Diego. Finished high school at age twelve, graduated with a doctorate in engineering and robotics at sixteen. Not married, no kids, apparently no friends either.
A real nerd.
According to the file, Valerix had tracked him to a safe house in San Francisco. Then the fiend that was following him disappeared.
I turned my attention from the computer to Gervais, who had climbed back into the chair. It was possible that he was still playing me. That he had opened the door in the form of the were, and then come back up here to play innocent. It was also possible that he was telling the truth. The data on the screen couldn't have been manufactured in the last ten minutes.
