by L. A. Banks
“The Chairman’s book?” Carlos said slowly, and remained very, very still. He knew the objective, but that the Light was commissioning him to go after it down there was unfathomable. Maybe they thought it was topside. He posed the critical question to them to be sure he was clear. “The one he keeps stashed in his Council Chambers … under the crest at the blood table?”
“Yes,” three voices said flatly.
Carlos watched a blue light appear in the distance and then become three entities. The light that emanated from them was so bright that he couldn’t make out their faces or what they wore; they just seemed like three talking spheres of light. The moment the moonlight glinted off their shields he knew what they were; warrior angels, ring six—and they’d come out at night?
“There’s only one way to get that,” Carlos said, his voice shaky as he replayed their request in his mind. “If it’s not topside, somebody would have to go down to Hell, get into Chambers, and go to the table …”
“Precisely,” they said as one.
“But, I’m not a … I can’t just … I’m—”
“We cannot tread past the borders of Purgatory without setting off the alarms of the Legions,” the entity with the strongest voice said. “It is not an option or a request. The time is now. This is a command from On High. They have gone too far. They have our Covenant cleric in their book of treachery with your name beside it as the one who felled him. We cannot allow them to have both a member of the Covenant and our male Neteru within that book. That sacrilege is too great. The cleric is the one also from your vampire line, a defect that gave him the weakness to succumb to your lure. Though he, like you, had chosen a different path—the Light—your irresponsible use of power sent him into the darkness and tethered you to him as a consequence.”
“Lopez?” Carlos whispered, already knowing the answer, and now knowing why the guilt had lacerated his soul so much. Were it not for him, Lopez might have been able to withstand his attraction to the one thing that would make him shed his clerical collar. Carlos hung his head. The debt was definitely heavy. Yeah. The angels had a right to make him go back down into the pit to go get the soul he’d compromised so that universal order would be maintained. He sighed. It was back to the Old Testament, an eye for an eye …
“He retrieved your ashes,” the lead voice thundered. “Return the favor for your brother without question, and also redeem yourself.”
“But you all allowed me to relapse?” Carlos was incredulous. This wasn’t the side of a cliff to find a lair; this was a trip down to Hell. “You tested me with a deer! I know I owe him my life. I want this team healed, too, and will go. But if you wanted to send me on a mission like that, then send me strong, not weak. Why would you—”
“Was the man you sent to his demise stronger than you are now when you attacked him with a demonic lure?”
Their voices created an angry cacophony of rapid questions and demanding statements that split the night air and kicked up the winds.
“Was he more than you are now when he risked life and limb to perilously, fearlessly retrieve your ashes?”
“Dig deep into your conscience and answer with truth!”
“He, of mere flesh and bones, did this with a pure heart, and the dark side snatched his soul in wrongful treachery. We want it back. Along with all the others.”
“He cannot be damned.”
“Your desire for worldly things allowed you to relapse.”
“You were not careful in what you had prayed for!”
“Your soul desire for your old existence attracted that energy to you while the portals were opened and darkness was afoot. Your soul mate warned you. The female Neteru knew.”
“Your Guardian brothers warned you.”
“A vampire even warned you—a friend.”
“You did not listen, and opened your delicate transition to a choice border that had been breached in Philadelphia.”
“Breached again by the infection.”
“Until we saw you fight the hunger, we could not be sure whether the darkness had taken root.”
“Lust for power, lust—period—has always been your issue.”
“The female Neteru’s body shuns yours, because your soul has been tainted.”
“Her spirit is drawn to the Light within.”
“It is dimmer now than when you were dead!”
“But I was saved,” Carlos argued, feeling rage at the injustice of being relentlessly tested beginning to form within him.
A silvery blade of lightning lit in the sky.
“Yes!”
“From that point of your salvation and rebirth, your debts had been wiped clean!”
“Your seven-year sentence erased!”
“Your burden lifted!”
“You had but to hold the line.”
“Seven years had been collapsed to seven months!”
“The Neteru preparers showed you the Arc of the Covenant—but that was not enough!”
“You were given the weapon of Heru!”
“You were marked by Ausar!”
“You were being refined.”
“Honed!”
“Patience was lacking!”
“Your faith in our methods was weak!”
“Spiritual armor was nonexistent! Ego ruled—fallen from potential grace like the first angel for the same offense! This is how you were infected, and your debt began to spiral once more!”
Carlos stared at the lights in the sky unblinking … he’d played himself … oh, no …
“Only you who have been polluted can cross the dark realm’s barriers to bring us the names. Each soul that was snatched into darkness by treachery, each soul that was put under torture and duress until it capitulated to the dark side can be freed to stand with the Light at the final hour, if we can call them to us by name, by location. We need the location, send—”
“Polluted?” Carlos shouted. “I was tricked; I was corrupted by larceny, and did my time. I didn’t know what you were doing!”
“You did not have to know,” the strongest voice in the triumvirate said. “Blind faith is what was required.”
“We had shown you enough by bringing you back!” another said.
“That was a miracle.”
“That was enough.”
Carlos swallowed hard as sweat poured down his temples and causing his tattered T-shirt to cling to his torso. He had really messed up this time. The Light didn’t negotiate.
“But you want me to go back down there with a blood-hunger jones and get a book in that condition?” Carlos stammered. “What if—”
“Silence!” the entities shouted together. “Our priest was corrupted at your hand!”
“You will know no peace until you reverse this transgression,” the lead entity said flatly. “He must be one with us. You wanted to lead—lead! Your team depends on you. Stand by the female Neteru in copartnership or be banished from her. She cannot be unevenly yoked with the darkness, and will ultimately seek the Light within the soul of her Guardian brother, whose soul is not tainted by power lust. He respects her position. Her body is already beginning to yield toward him. You are unraveling your destiny and hers to be as one. This is your handiwork!”
“We must have the soul of the virgin Covenant priest and that of our male Neteru,” two angelic voices said in harmony.
“Neither can be captive within the Dark Realms! Not the priest!” the lead entity shouted. “Your burden in that would have been also mitigated—had you not compounded the problem with a total disregard for the blessings after you were reborn. That is what created your new debt, not the cleric’s weakness. That had been forgiven. Your continuing power lust and desire for your old darkness after the miracle of salvation was not. Correct that injustice to reestablish your light! Our priest is being tortured.”
Carlos remained still. The truth made him shiver. He’d sent a priest … a male virgin, down there from an errant display of power. He’d given him the fever to wa
nt to be a vamp, worked him down to a loss of faith by way of a seduction trance. Carlos shuddered when the bright lights before him blazed brighter, clearly enraged as the images swept through his mind. Instantly he saw Lopez’s death.
Lilith had locked in on the man’s last thought. Carlos closed his eyes. Instead of a prayer of protection, Lopez had wanted absolute vampiric strength, like his before he’d gone to ash … wanted to go after Juanita and save her from it all to be with her, and then leave the church. The pulse ran through Lopez, burned his aura red for a moment; Lilith saw it through the clerical prayer barriers and speared Lopez, hoping it was him … then flung Lopez’s broken body aside like a rag doll, enraged. Lopez had had so many emotions running through him at the time, there was no telling what level his soul had bottomed out on.
“Yes,” the voices said in unison. “The debt is profound. The search delicate. His energy is scattered on almost every level.”
“He was a priest,” the voices whispered. “Do you know what they do to the men of lost faith down there?”
Carlos wrapped his arms around himself, hung his head, and tried to fight back the tears. Lopez was beyond damned—the poor man was fucked. Just like the Guardian team was. He knew he had to work quickly. The thought of Padre being down there all by himself on whatever levels he landed upon made him want to tear his hair out. But to go down there in a weakened condition was suicidal, and they knew it. He looked up slowly, wondering if that was the trade they’d decided upon to right this wrong?
“You possess a dangerous new gift by accident of the dark side’s unrelenting larceny.”
Carlos remained silent, his gaze intense. Something else was going on that he didn’t understand. He would definitely go get his man Lopez and would go after the Chairman and Lilith, but their urgency seemed to contain more than that. So, he waited.
One of the angels stepped forward, and all around him in a three-dimensional panorama, the final battle with the Chairman and Lilith replayed itself. Carlos stood as a spectator, his eyes wide, and his jaw becoming slack as he watched Damali raise her short Isis and gore Lilith. Then, what had been eclipsed from his mind was revealed.
Dark, sputtering, living smoke exited Lilith’s body, rushed toward him, filled his mouth and nose, strangling him.
“The essence of Level Seven entered the strongest dark male as a carrier. This is what began the contagion and allowed it to remain topside! Lilith opened the portals, but through you, ensured her doors would not be closed when her husband began to search for her.”
“She flees him, and must keep him preoccupied in his realm’s chaos to buy her escape—hoping to rush the Armageddon through the contagion.”
“If the Armageddon is rushed, she might be able to form an alliance with the new leader of the darkness to stop her imminent extinction. This is her goal.”
“You were the carrier of her deceit, her dark energy that has kept open the doors. You became that because your spiritual armor and faith was weak when you attempted to battle a strong entity from Level Seven.”
“Why would you attempt a battle with her without being readied by a soul shield of faith? You needed more than exterior weapons.”
“We have held the line for your team, the Covenant, and all other Guardian teams since the Philadelphia incident, but they are weakening as more of the Damned find the openings and pollute the gray zone of earth. Each escapee weakens them. Each passed infection to the living weakens them. They are beginning to lose the inner battle. Our teams are in jeopardy, as is humanity.”
“This must be corrected.”
“We have waited patiently for your spirit to evict pride, ego, and power lust on its own—to no avail. Your prayers have been polluted with requests for the old life.”
“The Most High grew weary of your shortsightedness and answered your requests with hopes that you will find the lesson within the tribulation your arrogant petitions have caused, and grasp the truth henceforth.”
“Please,” Carlos said quickly, going to his knees again. “Tell Him, for real, I didn’t know and—”
“The female Neteru was once almost lost to this same arrogance,” the lead voice said gently.
“I know, when I was a vamp,” Carlos said, his voice becoming strident, “I—”
“No,” they said in unison. “It goes back further than that. You kneel before us in the Light, yet you are still blinded by your own ego. Her father was a man of the cloth and thought he could battle evil alone. Arrogance. Damali senses this repetition of history at the core of her soul, although her human mind cannot translate it. But she knows and warned you hence. Her father did not reveal his strategy to able spiritual warriors around him. He deceived his wife, his spiritual partner. They lost their baby to the whims of the world … and only through angelic intervention was our Neteru saved.”
“Recall that her father succumbed to Fallon Nuit,” the lead voice said. “His wife, Damali’s mother, eventually fell to her own inner weaknesses, and was also thus temporarily lost—two pivotal Guardians that were the spiritual leaders of their team. Only serious petitions and the guiding Light of their child, a Neteru, elevated them. We are on the verge of now losing two Neterus. Your first child has already been lost. History, repetition, but each time the lesson and challenge is more severe. You are supposed to be the spiritual head of your household, as a male Neteru, and work in tandem with your partner, as well as your team. But you cannot play God. This is why the Creator took such grave exception to your transgression.”
Damali’s warning slammed into Carlos’s brain. Instantly, he knew what the angels were referring to, the image was so clear. “No, no, no, no, no—I take it back. All of it!”
“It is done. We are but messengers and must work with what we have been given—you, in this state of confusion. The task is daunting, but we serve the Most High. We do all without question. A direct order has been given us. We never challenge that.”
“Time is short.”
Silence surrounded Carlos. He could only stare at the brilliant beam of light that washed over him. This was possibly the most foolish thing he’d ever done in his entire existence.
“Yes,” three voices said quietly.
“Therefore you must close the portals—since the energy attached to you. And you must also deliver the book and ensure that the two evil heads are severed—one male, one female—at the darkest levels, to restore the balance. The energy could not have entered you as a male Neteru, had your choice been crystal clear—but it wasn’t. Nothing will challenge you as you reenter the unnamed place. We will use the larceny of the dark side to lever the good.”
Carlos brought his hand to his throat. New tears rose to his eyes. He had brought contagion to his team—to the planet—to Damali. “They set me up …”
“We know. That was not our doing. Never our intent. But you must acknowledge and repent your collusion in allowing them access through your own lack of faith,” the entities said quietly, their voices gentle and floating on the Arizona wind. “But they also put you in a position of strength that they had not bargained for—strength stemming from loving the young cleric who they snatched, like a brother. That is your weapon: You dearly love your earth family. That you still love the female Neteru from the depths of your soul has always been your strongest weapon. It may be the only one left to you … after. Remember the basics. Faith, hope, and love—the trinity. You lacked faith. Hoped for the wrong things. Love is your only anchor. Cling to that as you build the missing elements within before your tie to the seventh level of darkness takes even that.”
“Level Seven? You’ve gotta help me. Fortify me! I cannot be connected to that place!” Tears streamed down Carlos’s face and his hands left his throat to reach out toward the Light beings before him. “Don’t leave me to fight that with a third of what I need!”
“We have never left you. But to break their hold, you must do something in equal measure to their dark strength. Bringing us the book will bre
ak it. Energy transference is the only way.”
Carlos stared at the twinkling stars. The Light had begun to recede from the sky. “Please tell me how, then,” he whispered. “I need direction; just tell me what to do.”
“We seek not only Padre Lopez’s soul, along with countless others, but the essence of yours to protect that as well. Bring the ultimate darkness into the Light. We cannot go that deeply into the nether realms to do this for you—you must fight for your own soul and the souls of others that have been trapped, like you once were,” the lead voice said. “Be vigilant. They seek the return of what they felt has been stolen from them. You. The one that has proven to be their best and yet worst soldier turned general of the Legions. Both sides have equal claim. You are one of our best, and possibly our worst, earthbound warrior of Light. Our faith, hope, and love in what lies deep within you is the only thin line of silver light that allows you to not be beheaded tonight.”
“When our female Neteru injured the dreaded one, Lilith was too weak to close the doors of darkness behind her,” another said, but his voice began to sound as though it was fading away.
“The Chairman fled,” the lead entity said, his voice rising with urgency, “but his book is below. We must burn his energy out of the book to break the hold the darkness has on the stolen souls of millions…. The Chairman is the direct spawn of he who remains nameless, and never had a soul to anchor them within the Dark Realms. He never would have succeeded were it not for the pressed pages made from stolen branches and twigs of our Tree of Life and our Tree of Knowledge in the Garden, when he breached Paradise. It is through his book of dark conversion that we reveal all that has been stolen from our side from the beginning of time. The one who remains nameless also seeks him, and has sent out his Legions to hunt him down. They care not that they befoul innocents on their quest. They must be stopped. Bring us the book.”
“You have only seen one beast, because he homed to your dark thread and followed that thread to the female Neteru’s childhood fear of him. That was the only demon who was able to penetrate the hallowed barriers here—because of you. She feared nothing else as strongly. Your interlocking dark energy with her darkest fear was the only thing strong enough to allow that. But you have not seen all the other perversions that have come to the surface, because you have been sequestered on hallowed ground,” the third entity said as he began to disappear. “Evil has insinuated itself among everyday humans. Soon, they will not be able to continue to remain blind. We are in the final days. The book is filling too quickly, tipping the balance in the wrong direction.”
