Dark Ascension

by J. D. Brown

My gaze shifted from the bloody welt, to Jesu’s motionless face. I waited for something to happen. For his lungs to inhale. For his eyes to open. For his hand to find mine.

  I waited.

  And waited.

  Jalmari kept chanting, but how long could we keep this up before security came crashing through the door?

  “We have to move him,” I said. “We have to get out of here. We can take him to Dr. Shénshèng. She’ll know what to do.”

  Jalmari ignored me. His lips moved rapidly, a torrent of ancient syllables. His brow furrowed in concentration, his knuckles whitened over the stone. The jade glowed softly. Nothing like the weapon it was a moment ago, but more like the gentle warmth of a candle flame.

  Still... It wasn’t working.

  Unshed tears burned my vision. I blinked through them, struggling to breath, and looked at Jesu’s face. He was so serene; his lashes fanned against high cheek bones, his strong jawline framed by endless raven locks. I told myself he was sleeping. I could survive this moment if I pretended.

  I took his hand and pressed his palm against my cheek. Holding it there, absorbing his warmth as I did every time he held me. I lay on the floor and curled against his side. I studied his profile, remembering all the times I tried to commit every detail of his face to memory. I did so again now, willing the lines of his nose and brow to burn permanently in my mind. My throat thickened. My nose stuffed up. My skin burned with a flame hotter than hell. The heat rose to my face, burning the backs of my eyes, bidding me to blink, which only made me angry. I didn’t want to close my eyes, not even for a second. I didn’t want to miss a single detail. I didn’t want to lose sight of all the things that made him perfect. I didn’t want to forget. But the harder I tried to keep my eyes open, the blurrier my vision became, until I couldn’t help but squeezed them tight and cry out loud. Pain tore from my lungs; the pain of my heart shattering into a million pieces. I cried into his hair, sobbing against his shoulder as I reached across a dead chest and hugged his corpse.

  “I love you,” I whispered, my voice hoarse with a choking pain. “I can’t do this without you. If you die, I die. We are one essence, Jesu. If you die, I die. So wake up. Please, wake up.”

  Something sharp sliced across my arm. I gasped as a warm wetness seeped over my skin, but I was too broken to care what it meant.

  “Say the words,” Jalmari commanded. “Spiritus vitae. Say it.”

  “Leave me alone,” I murmured.

  “Ema, say it. Spiritus vitae.”

  I pushed to my elbows, ready to sock Jalmari in the throat if he didn’t leave me the hell alone, but the light from the jade glowed bright enough to sting my raw eyes, and I squinted to the side.

  “It’s your blood,” he said. “The healing spell is stronger with your blood. Say the Goddamn words.”

  “Spiritus vitae.” I looked at Jesu, not sure what to expect.

  “Again,” Jalmari demanded.

  “Spiritus vitae.”

  “Again.”

  “Spiritus vitae. Spiritus vitae, Spiritus vitae, Spiritus vitae!”

  Jesu gasped in a deep breath, and I shrieked.

  “Now we need to move.” Jalmari grabbed his brother’s arm and swung it over his shoulders. Jesu was breathing, but he was still unconscious, and Jalmari braced himself against the weight. “I’ll phase us out.”

  “No, wait. I can’t phase with the babies. Doctor’s orders.”

  Jalmari narrowed his gaze. “Then you need to run before security finds you,” he nodded over his shoulder to indicate the audience behind us, “in a room full of dead people.”

  “What?” I turned to face the men, women, and children who sat peacefully in the folding chairs, eyes closed, heads lulled to one side. I thought they were sleeping—and maybe they were five minutes ago—but as I reached out with my vampyre senses, I realized Jalmari was right. They were all dead. A different kind of trepidation seized my chest.

  “Wait, we can’t just—” I turned to face Jalmari, but he was gone, along with Jesu. Shit. I glanced back at all the innocent lives lost and realized there was nothing I could do for them.

  I picked myself up, flung open the door, and nearly tripped over an old man in the hallway. He was sitting on the floor, his back against the wall. He flicked his balding head to the side as though trying to lift non-existent bangs from his eyes, and I noticed the color of his violet irises.

  Valafar.

  His glamour was gone.

  Valafar grimaced as though the motion hurt, and I noticed a shallow cut over the bridge of his swollen nose. The inner corners of his eyes were bruised and puffy. His hands were still tied behind his back, so I knelt to help him. I meant to ask what had happened, when a woman in a staff vest started speaking to us in Mandarin as she approached.

  Ignoring her, I hooked my hands under Valafar’s right arm. “Please tell me you can stand.”

  He leaned his weight into me and grunted. Together, we managed to get him to his feet. “Dora,” he slurred, still coming out of it. “My...”

  “That wasn’t your daughter.” I urged him toward the stairs while the Asian lady shouted at us, but she wasn’t getting any closer to English, so I kept ignoring her. “It was Lilith in a glamour. She’s dead, but we got to get the hell out of here before the cops come.”

  Valafar stiffened and looked at me, his brow pinched. “What?”

  “I’ll explain later.”

  He glanced in the direction of the cinema room, as though he wasn’t sure, then he wet his lips and faced forward with a nod. “Let’s go.”

  The woman in the staff vest started yelling over the upper level balcony as Valafar and I quickly descended the stairs. She waved her arms and shouted, getting the attention of the security guards by the main entrance, and then pointed at us.

  “Time for a shortcut.” Valafar made a sharp right turn as we reached the ground level, pushing me through a glass door with a big red sign over it. Sure enough, an alarm blared. But we were outside, and that was enough. From there we picked up speed, both of us moving at a supernatural pace through a blur of greenery.

  After several minutes, I realized I had no idea where we were going, and stopped suddenly.

  Valafar halted beside me and leaned forward, panting. I scanned our surroundings. We stood on a field of grass somewhere near the edge of the park, if the nearby roads and coffee shops were any indication. A few teenagers were playing Frisbee, but they gasped at our sudden presence and ran off, forgetting their disk.

  “We can’t stay here,” I said, still looking around, trying to figure out where we were. The park was big, and I didn’t know the layout. I couldn’t see the museum from here. “We need to find the others.”

  “Hold on.” Valafar straightened. “Are you certain she was Lilith?”

  I nodded. “Her eyes turned blue. She wanted me to know it was her. She dropped the glamour once she got the stone. It was on me and I dropped it. I guess she thought she didn’t need the glamour after that.”

  Valafar scowled. “How positive are you that she’s dead?”

  “Dude, her head rolled right off her shoulders.” I made a slicing motion across my neck. “I don’t think she’s coming back from that.”

  “Impossible,” he whispered.

  “Do you want to go back and I.D. the body?”

  He glanced in the direction we came, as though considering it.

  I rolled my eyes. “Be my guest, but you’re on your own. I’m not going back there.”

  “Ema!”

  I rounded in the direction of Jesu’s voice and found him jogging toward us. Relief flowed through me. Jalmari followed his brother at a slower pace.

  Jalmari.

  What the heck did he want?

  I didn’t wait for them to reach us. I marched toward them, bypassed Jesu, lifted both hands, and then shoved Jalmari hard. He took a step back, but was otherwise unfazed. I shoved him again, harder.

  “How dare you! I had everything under cont
rol. What the hell do you think you’re doing anyway? Come to finish me? To kill my children and your father? Then do it. Man up and do it.”

  “Ema.” Jesu grabbed my upper arms, as though to pull me away, but I shrugged out from under him.

  “I’m serious. Because of him, my son will never be normal. He’ll be living with a parasite. Because of him I’ll never find a cure. He killed the only person who might know how.”

  Jalmari scanned me and his gaze darkened. “I came for my stone. If Lilith had gotten away with it, she would have been unstoppable.” He looked past me, at Valafar, completely unaffected by the incubus’ change in appearance. “Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to spot a fake?”

  I shoved the Neo-Draugrian Prince again. “You didn’t have to kill her.”

  He pushed back, and I stumbled against Jesu. “I did you a favor. Lilith was never going to help.”

  “He’s right,” Valafar murmured. “She had every intention of killing you and your son once Apollyon’s essence matured.” Valafar scrunched his face and frowned. “Huh. So that’s what that feels like.”

  “Wait.” Jesu studied the incubus. He frowned, as though coming to terms with the liver spots and wrinkles. “Lilith is dead. You are not under her command anymore. You can tell us what Ema needs to know.”

  Valafar lifted his chin. “I can only tell you what I know, mate. She wanted Apollyon’s essence no matter the cost. It was a key ingredient. But it was split in half; some in the Underworld, some in his son.” Valafar nodded at Jalmari. “The spell she used to raise Apollyon from the dead was supposed to make him whole again, but it didn’t work. Apollyon’s spell was stronger. Lilith didn’t know the conscious part of him had jumped bodies again, until it was too late.”

  Jalmari took a step toward Valafar, his gaze narrowed. “What are you talking about? Ema raised my father from the Underworld.”

  Valafar grimaced. His lips moved to explain, but I decided to speak for him.

  “Lilith said the same thing to me in the museum. She convinced Leena to go to the Underworld and raise Apollyon to save you. She told her to bring me as a blood sacrifice, only, according to Lilith, necromancy only works between relatives. My blood was the catalyst for the spell. Leena was the sacrifice.” I bit my lip and then met Jalmari’s gaze. “I’m so sorry.”

  Jalmari’s fists clenched as he pivoted in my direction.

  Jesu stepped between us, facing his brother. “We were all pawns in this, Jalmari, even our father. But it is over now. Lilith is dead. Let this feud die with her.”

  Jalmari gnashed his fangs together with a very threatening growl, and then popped out of existence.

  “Where’d he go?” asked Valafar.

  “Probably somewhere to vent.” Jesu sighed. He faced me and lifted a hand to my cheek, his palm warm and callused from years of wielding both sword and paintbrush alike. I covered the top of his hand with mine and met his gaze. “I am sorry you did not get what you needed.”

  “Forget it,” I said. How could I tell him what was really in my heart? That he’d died. That it would haunt me forever. That losing him wasn’t worth it. “We need to find Dad and Tancred.”

  Jesu nodded and lowered his hand. “Incubus, you are coming with us. I want to know what else is in your head.”

  “How ’bout I just tell you now?” Valafar sounded nervous, but he continued, speaking quickly, not giving Jesu or me time to protest. “She wanted the essence for a vitality spell. She’s barren, has been for a long time now, and our numbers are dwindling. Not to mention, Mum’s incredibly vain. We live a long time, if we live at all, but we don’t age well. Her skin’s melting. The flesh was literally rotting from her bones. But like her brother, she was too stubborn to meet her maker. She thought being a full-blooded Nephilim was the answer, so she was going to do a transplant of sorts—replace what little human essence she had with her brother’s Nephilim bits. Sounded crazy to me, but she reckoned it would work on account they shared the same Nephilim father.” Valafar pulled his lips between his teeth and stared at the ground, his brow pinched.

  I looked at Jesu. He met my gaze and drew a deep breath.

  “Sounds like a lot of trouble,” he said.

  Valafar scoffed. “You try being brave in the face of your own death. Then we’ll talk about trouble.”

  My fists curled at my sides. He was very brave.

  Jesu rested a hand on my shoulder, and I closed my eyes, sighing. When I opened them again, Valafar was staring at me.

  “Thank you,” said Jesu. “For telling us. But if you do not mind, I would feel better if Logan could confirm it.”

  Valafar’s gaze darkened as Jesu walked past him. I touched the incubus’ arm, still not used to his true appearance, and offered him a smile.

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “You’re free after this.”

  VALAFAR

  A sharp tug pulled at my wrists and the final threads snapped. My arms fell to my sides in instant relief. I couldn’t help wondering if Ema trusted me because my sire was dead—or because I looked my age, and no one ever suspected a little old man. Either way, I felt exposed. My glamour didn’t exist without Mother. She had kept me pleasant to look at.

  “There,” said Ema as she handed the knife to Jesu. The vampire had his phone pressed to his ear. He tucked the knife into a hidden pocket inside his jacket while speaking to Tancred.

  I shook the stiffness from my biceps, rubbed the raw skin on my wrists, and then noticed the black markings on the tops of my hands. “What is this?”

  Ema balanced on her toes as she peered at my hands. “Oh, right. That’s a Taoist spell to make sure you behave yourself.”

  Bloody hell. I thought they dipped the rope in Adder’s Tongue or something, but this... I licked the pad of my thumb, and then rubbed it over the ink. It didn’t even smear.

  Ema winced. “Sorry, it’s permanent ink. It’ll wash off eventually.”

  “Eventually? What— But— What do I— How do I— You’ve castrated me.”

  Ema rolled her eyes. “Dramatic much?”

  “I want my mobile.”

  She reached into her back pocket and handed over my phone. I dialed Dora’s number. The call went to voicemail, so I hung up and then sent my sister a text message.

  Call me a.s.a.p.

  Jesu ended his conversation with Tancred. “We are meeting in the limo. It will pick us up on Xizang and Nanjing; the Northeast corner of the park.”

  “Great.” Ema nodded. “Let’s go.”

  We cut across the park at an inconspicuous speed, but it wasn’t the hundreds of potential human witnesses that unsettled my stomach. I couldn’t believe Mother was dead. It felt... Strange. Unbelievable. Phony.

  Thousands of years dodging the Elite and outsmarting Hunters, just to fall at the hands of one little inexperienced vampling? My gaze went to their backs. Ema and Jesu walked side by side in their own contemplative silence. How did they do it?

  I lifted a hand to my chest and dragged my fingernails across the plaid fibers. I felt lighter somehow, but I didn’t trust it. Lilith would come back. Maybe not immediately, but someday Mummy Dearest would come back, and she would be pissed.

  We found the limousine idling along the side of a busy road. People’s Park was the center of the city, and all around it stood large multi-level shops, up-scale restaurants, and skyscrapers. The foot traffic was numerous. I was happy to escape into the vehicle’s dark cabin.

  The passenger door opened and Logan emerged. He ran to his daughter and wrapped her in his arms. “I was so worried. We saw the police pull up to the building.”

  “It’s fine,” Ema assured him. “Everything’s fine. Where’s Mr. Wu?”

  As if summoned, the little Asian man slid from the leather seat and joined us on the sidewalk. Tancred emerged after him.

  “We should go.” Tancred scanned the park, even though we were miles away from the scene of the crime.

  “Wait.” Ema pulled away from Logan an
d placed a hand on Mr. Wu’s arm. “Lilith is dead. Her corpse is in the media room on the upper level of the art museum, along with about thirty or so other people. She killed them before we could stop her. I’m so sorry.”

  Mr. Wu furrowed his brow. “Thank you. I will alert the authorities.”

  Ema drew a shaky breath, and then faced Tancred. “I know you were supposed to bear witness, but—”

  “I’ve seen plenty,” said Tancred. “I can get the details from Mr. Wu later.”

  Ema pulled her lips between her teeth and nodded. Finally, the five of us ducked into the limousine. Mr. Wu took the front passenger seat. He pressed a button on the dash, and a privacy window lifted between them and us.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Logan placed a paternal hand on Ema’s arm. She sat between him and Jesu; a queen guarded by her sentinels.

  “I’m fine.” She failed to hide the slight quiver in her voice. “You?”

  Logan studied her. “Did you get your answers?”

  Ema lowered her gaze. “Not exactly.”

  “I think I might have.”

  Ema looked at her father, and her expression twisted into a question mark. I looked at him too. His proclamation didn’t surprise me. I knew he would be looking for Lilith’s mind, trying to control her with a dose of her own medicine, but there was something else. Something deep inside of me. It struggled to the surface of my mind in a lazy way—like a hazy beam of light glinting leagues below the sea, fractured by the tide. I had the strangest urge to dive into the depths and retrieve it—whatever it was.

  Logan wet his lips and drew a breath. “I was able to examine her thoughts while holding her hostage, to force the truth out of her without the serum. She was strong though, able to avoid the topic by diverting to other truths.”

  Ema’s gaze waned from one of confusion, to one of uncertainty, and her brow pinched at the center. She looked away. “Maybe we should talk about this later.”

  “It wasn’t until Jesu came, and Shénshèng’s concoction entered her bloodstream, that I was able to see everything else. The reason she wanted Apollyon’s essence...”

  A tiny voice whispered in my subconscious, so soft at first, I didn’t pay it any mind. But as I sat across from the Hunter and listened to him describe his desecration of my mother, the voice became louder. Stronger.