by Rebecca Hall
The demon watched them with malevolent eyes and spoke in a language that Mitch couldn’t understand. It was probably cursing them.
“No interruptions remember,” Nikola said. He locked eyes with the demon and magic slowly saturated the air. Mitch shivered, he wouldn’t want anyone interrupting him while he was using that much magic. He didn’t think he could use that much magic. The demon thrashed and strained against its bonds, its cursing rising to an ear-splitting shriek. Nikola was breathing heavily, his face covered in sweat. Blood dripped from his nose.
Verdandi frowned at the spots of blood on the floor and then at the demon.
“Stop him,” she said.
“But–”
Nikola had taken a step towards the demon and he was shaking so badly that Mitch wasn’t sure how he was standing. Tentatively he put a hand on his shoulder; Nikola could deck him if he wanted to, but he barely seemed aware of the contact. Mitch stepped a little closer and wrapped his arms around him, holding him in place.
The room shattered, Mitch could think of no other way to describe it. Thousands of cracks spread across the walls and floors, the mirrored window broke, the ceiling fell and bounced off a telekinetic shield. The cracks in the walls deepened until they fell and Mitch could feel those in the floor doing the same.
“Nikola,” Mitch said. He’d said not to interrupt him but if he didn’t the floor giving way surely would. “Nikola.” Mitch shook him though he wasn’t sure Nikola felt it through his own shaking. Nikola blinked, looked at him with blank grey eyes and collapsed into a seizure.
Mitch swore and lowered him to the ground before he could hit his head only to have the ground rise up and met them as an earthquake struck. Mitch swore again, cursing the angels in every language he knew and a few that he didn’t. The floor creaked and cracked and Mitch was no longer sure if it was Nikola’s magic or the quake that was breaking it.
The shaking stopped and the seething magic settled into place. Nikola coughed and pushed himself up on shaking arms.
“Nikola,” Mitch said, helping him to sit up. “How are you?” Blood was still trickling from his nose and he didn’t seem to be able to stop shaking. He didn’t reply. “Come on Nikola, we need to go.”
“You can’t,” Verdandi said.
Mitch looked pointedly at the broken walls, noting that there was no sign of Rana or the research magician.
“His mind is still linked with the demon’s,” Verdandi said as Nikola staggered to his feet and approached the gurney. The demon was eerily quiet, its cursing having stopped when the quake started.
“Come on Nikola,” Mitch said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Get out of that thing’s head and let’s go.”
Nikola shrugged him off and put one hand on the strap pinning down the demon’s arm.
“Nikola?”
He pulled the strap away and tossed it aside. The demon didn’t move.
“What are you doing?”
He reached for another strap.
“It’s in control,” Verdandi said. “You should go, I’ll take care of this.”
Nikola’s head snapped up and he raised a hand. Verdandi screamed, blood seeping from dozens of cuts. Nikola’s hand slowly closed and Mitch swore that he could hear bones creak and crack.
“Nikola snap out of it,” he said, spinning his friend around and shaking him. “Come on Nikola, you’re stronger than this, you can beat this bloody monster.”
Nikola stared at him with blank grey eyes and then the ground heaved. They fell, Nikola sprawling across the floor with none of the grace and co-ordination that he usually showed. He pushed himself onto hands and knees and threw up. There was a crash as part of the floor finally caved in and one of the gurney’s legs fell through the hole. The demon’s hand flopped off the bed as it came to rest at a crazed angle.
“They’re coming,” Nikola rasped.
“Nikola?” His friend turned to look at him with wide, terrified eyes and Mitch sighed in relief. Nikola was in control again.
“You need to get that thing out of your head,” Mitch gasped, crawling across the shaking ground to him. On the other side of the gurney Verdandi was struggling to her feet, murder in her eyes.
Nikola lurched forward and clung to Mitch, burying his face in his shoulder.
“I’m trying,” he said, his voice raw. “But they’re coming, I can hear them. They’re coming, they’re coming…”
Mitch cursed and scrabbled at Nikola’s wrist, pulling off the bracelet that amplified his telepathy and tossing it aside. Nikola shuddered and slumped, still struggling to separate his mind from the demon’s.
“Come on Nikola,” he whispered. “Come on you can do it.”
Nikola froze. “Raphael.”
Mitch flinched and tried to drag them both across the floor. There was something else in the room with them. A vest sense of power that he hadn’t felt since the night that he’d become a vampire. He couldn’t become a vampire this time. This time that power would just crush him. For a second he thought he saw it, the outline of vast wings, every feather tipped with an eye, a body of inhuman perfection, a face that was flawless and utterly without emotion, a strange distortion where the light wasn’t.
The demon resumed its cursing, bucking and straining against its bonds, its free hand clawing at the sigils tattooed into its skin. Nikola coughed wetly and Mitch squeezed his eyes shut as the power around the angel coalesced.
“No,” yelled a familiar voice.
Mitch’s eyes snapped open. Hayley stood in the middle of the room, standing over the limp form of the demon. There were no new injuries save for the sluggishly bleeding cuts where it had clawed at the tattoos but Mitch was sure that it was dead.
“I’m not impressed,” Verdandi spat, somehow on her feet despite the continued shaking, her face twisted in agony. Mitch clutched at Nikola, now mercifully unconscious and braced for whatever the Fae was going to throw at them.
Hayley turned, blue eyes widening when she saw them.
“Mitch? What are you doing here?”
“Dying probably,” Mitch said, his attention still on Verdandi. Hayley followed his gaze and the Fae collapsed.
“They… they blackmailed him into trying to read the demon’s mind. What are you doing here?”
“Trying to stop Raphael. I failed.” She sighed, “I hope he didn’t. Nikola may be our best chance of finding the heart of the Twisted Curse.”
“Forget it,” Mitch snapped. “They probably won’t even let us out of here alive.” He wasn’t sure of the way out and even if he had been Tartarus wouldn’t be much of a prison if they could just walk out of it. Nikola coughed and Mitch gently lowered him to the fractured floor. Blood trickled from his open mouth and every piece of exposed skin was covered in an angry red rash.
“That at least I can accomplish,” Hayley said. They weren’t sitting in the depths of the Netherworld anymore. They were sprawled across the tent that Mitch used for his ice sculpting, their bags sitting by the entrance.
“I need to know where the heart of the Twisted Curse is,” Hayley said. “Ask him when he wakes up, I need to make sure the Host doesn’t find him.” She vanished.
Awakening
“What?” Mitch flailed at the hand that was shaking him awake and struck empty air. He groaned and opened his eyes. Nikola was asleep next to him, his breathing free and easy and his skin unmarked by the angry red rash that had covered it. Mitch blinked. Amelie had helped him bring Nikola inside and get him cleaned up. They’d even slathered some sort of allergy cream over the worst of the rash but it wouldn’t have worked that well would it? He rubbed his eyes and looked up.
“Gawain?”
“Hello Mitchell,” Gawain smiled at him. He was sitting on Nikola’s other side, one hand holding Nikola’s.
“What are you doing here?” Mitch asked as if it wasn’t obvious.
“Amelie called and yelled at father until he agreed to let me come. What happened?”
“
Rana happened.” Mitch sat up and yawned.
“Yes, Amelie was able to tell me that much but I need specifics.”
Mitch nodded and glanced down at Nikola.
“I’m keeping him asleep for now, his brain is going haywire.”
“I guess it would be,” Mitch said before explaining about Rana’s blackmail.
“Oh, Nikola,” Gawain sighed. “He could have rearranged Rana’s mind for her, he could have called us… instead. Verdandi didn’t hurt you did she?”
Mitch shook his head, “I’m not sure I really registered with her at all. All she cared about was Nikola.”
“Verdandi was always very single-minded” Gawain said bitterly. “There were rumours once that she saw something and that was why the Unseelie Court began to hunt Changelings.”
“I’m sorry, Nikola said that she…”
“It was a long time ago,” Gawain said, brushing Nikola’s hair out of his face. “And Calanthia was older than Nikola is now. Not that I won’t turn the bitch inside out if I ever get the chance but… you’ll understand one day. We can live forever but everyday the world that we were born to dies a little more.”
Mitch nodded, unsure of how to respond. He hadn’t really thought about that part of immortality yet. He’d been stuck on the part about it taking him a year to age a day but unless someone staked him in his sleep he’d outlive almost everyone he’d ever known.
“I’m glad he’s not human,” Mitch said, taking Nikola’s free hand. He didn’t know what he’d do without his best friend. “He’s going to be okay isn’t he?”
“I won’t know until I talk to him,” Gawain said. “I hope so.”
Something scratched at the door. It opened a second later and Fluffball cannoned across the room and launched herself at the bed. She flailed at the blankets and slid to the floor with a disgruntled thump, still too small to jump onto the bed unaided.
“She won’t hurt him will she?” Mitch asked. Awarewolves needed that telepathic bond to survive but it could be too much for Nikola.
“I don’t think so,” Gawain bent down and scooped her up in one arm, depositing her on Nikola’s legs. “He’s joined with a pack mind before and…” he sighed, the tension easing from his shoulder and leaving his face. “His neural activity is falling, she’s helping him.”
“Guess we’ll keep you around a little longer then,” Mitch said, scratching her head. She flicked an ear at him and curled up on Nikola’s legs.
“I thought you said that you’d have Mitch up by the time I got back,” Amelie said, following Fluffball into the room at a much more sedate pace.
Gawain shrugged, “He’s awake.”
“Cuddling Nikola does not count as up.”
“I’m holding his hand,” Mitch said, snatching back his other hand when he realised that it was toying with Nikola’s curls. Amelie rolled her eyes.
“If you don’t hurry you’ll be late for class,” Amelie said.
“What?”
“We have a psych lecture remember, you’ve already missed two classes today.”
“Then one more won’t hurt,” Mitch muttered.
“He wouldn’t want you to miss class because of him,” Gawain said.
“I can miss as many as I want,” Mitch grumbled. He wasn’t sure when Nikola had last made it through a whole day of classes, he could hardly criticise Mitch for missing one or two.
“You’ll fall behind,” Amelie said. “And the only thing you can do here is hold his hand.”
“Go,” Gawain said. “I’ll stay with him and keep him asleep until you’re home.”
Amelie grinned in triumph and went to get ready. Gawain held up a hand to forestall his protests.
“I realise that you probably won’t be able to focus but it will only upset Nikola if he finds the two of you arguing over him again.”
“I know,” Mitch sighed and released Nikola’s hand. “I’ll be back soon,” he promised.
#
Mitch ran a hand through Fluffball’s fur. His eyes were fixed on Nikola as he stretched and yawned, slowly awakening from enchanted sleep.
“Gawain?” Nikola started to sit up and jerked back, throwing up his arms to shield himself and colliding with the headboard.
“Nikola,” Gawain said firmly. He grabbed Nikola’s arms and forced them down. “It’s ok Nikola, no one is going to hurt you.”
“But I… you…” Nikola gasped, still trying to blink sleep from wide eyes. Fluffball whined and Nikola’s head snapped around.
“Mitch?” He lunged across the bed, heedless of Amelie and Gawain, and Mitch wrapped one arm around him, the other reaching out to stop them both toppling off the bed. Fluffball squirmed out from between them and Mitch inched into a more secure perch, Nikola collapsing into his arms.
“It’s alright,” Mitch said hopelessly. He pulled a shuddering Nikola close and ran a hand through his tangled curls while Nikola cried. Gawain settled himself against the headboard, watching closely but content to wait until Nikola calmed down. At the foot of the bed Amelie played with Fluffball, her expression unreadable.
Nikola sneezed. “You’re covered in fur,” he mumbled, his face still buried in Mitch’s shoulder.
“Sorry,” Mitch said, his eyes flicking to Gawain.
“I’m barely keeping his neuro-chemistry balanced,” Gawain said. “You’ll just have to live with the allergies, they’re easier to manage than seizures and hysterics.”
“I can take her outside,” Amelie said, reaching for Fluffball. She wormed free and nosed up to Nikola, licking his elbow until he released Mitch and cradled her in his arms.
“Or not,” Amelie sighed. Nikola inched back until he was sitting next to Gawain though he didn’t curl up against him as he usually did. Mitch offered him a tissue and when he didn’t take it he leaned forward to wipe Nikola’s face.
“I love you,” Nikola said softly.
“I know,” Mitch said, deliberately not turning to see Amelie’s expression.
“Nikola,” Gawain said. Nikola jumped and Fluffball yelped as his grip tightened.
“Hey,” Mitch said, taking advantage of the space offered by the king sized bed to sit on Nikola’s other side and put an arm around him. “It’s ok, we’re safe now. Verdandi can’t hurt you here.”
“Verdandi,” Nikola repeated, “Verdandi… I saw her mind… I saw you try to kill her.”
“And I’ll do it again if I get the chance,” Gawain said, “but I would never hurt you.”
“I know,” Nikola said, “I think.”
“Good enough,” Gawain smiled. “Can you tell me who you are?”
Mitch blinked and frowned at the odd question.
“I…” Nikola cringed and started crying. “Which one is me?”
Gawain flinched. “You’re Nikola,” he said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I need you to remember that.”
“I… I’m Nikola,” he said. He sneezed and this time when Mitch offered him a tissue he took it.
“Well done,” Gawain smiled at him. “I know that this is scary but I need you to tell me who the others are.”
“The o-others?”
“The other voices,” Gawain said. “You need to tell me who they are.”
“Tevial… Raphael… Nikola…”
Gawain paled. “And which one are you?” he asked, his voice strained.
“I… I don’t know…” he sobbed, hugging Fluffball close until he sneezed.
“This is important Nikola,” Gawain said. “I need you to tell me who you are.”
“That… that’s me isn’t it? Nikola?” Mitch had never heard him sound so unsure of himself.
“Yeah,” Mitch said, hugging him. “You’re Nikola.”
“Do you know who we are?” Gawain asked. Nikola nodded. “I need you to say it Nikola.”
“You’re Gawain,” he recoiled and Mitch squeezed his arm, Nikola’s heartbeat pounding in his ears. “You stabbed me.”
Gawain winced, “I rather hope
d that that was a different demon. I stabbed Tevial, not you Nikola.”
“It wasn’t me?” Nikola gasped. He was shaking.
“No Nikola. I would never hurt you.”
“Gawain?” The racing of his heart eased and his trembling lessened and then he threw himself at his cousin. “I’m sorry,” he sobbed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
“Hush, it’s alright,” Gawain said, running one hand through Nikola’s tangled curls. “I know that everything is a little confusing now.” Fluffball whined and crawled into Mitch’s lap.
“Nikola?” Amelie said hesitantly. She reached out and put one hand on his leg and he jerked as if electrocuted. “Do you know who I am Nikola?”
Sniffling, Nikola slowly sat up, drawing himself closer to Gawain, and finally raised his head to look at Amelie.
“You… you look like Calanthia and you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you Nikola,” Amelie said. “You frustrate me a little but I could never hate you.”
“I… you… none of this should be here,” Nikola said and where before his voice had been shaky and scared now it held an eerie calm, a dispassion devoid of all emotion. “This world should not exist. This is n–” he convulsed, limbs flailing in every direction.
Amelie scrambled back, eyes wide, and almost fell off the foot of the bed. Mitch scrambled away as well, snatching up Fluffball, while Gawain eased Nikola away from the headboard, his magic washing over Nikola in waves until the seizure passed.
“I should go get started on dinner,” Amelie said in a small voice before she fled the room. Gawain sighed.
“Is he ok?” Mitch asked, creeping back to the bed.
“Why don’t you ask him?” Gawain asked, brushing Nikola’s hair from his face. Nikola groaned, eyes fluttering open and limbs moving stiffly as he sought to sit up.
“Gawain?”
“Take it easy little cousin,” Gawain said. “You had a seizure.”
“That’s what Morrigan calls me,” he smiled and crawled into Gawain’s lap. “I was… Raphael.”
