by J. L. Murray
I remembered the demons feasting on the dead angel. “Or worse,” I said. “But what would happen if I didn't kill them all? What if I just killed one?” I glanced at him.
“You're referring to Michael,” he said.
“Yes,” I said. “Do you think I could?”
“If anyone could, it would be you,” said Sam. “But if you kill my brother, Briah will rise.”
“The angel city,” I said.
“It would be monumentally disastrous. It would seem to confirm the lies that Michael told about us. Michael would be called a martyr and a hero. The war would not be small, and centralized around the Deep Blue Sea. It would span the entire world. The entire human population would be wiped out. Your world would end—become unmade, if someone in Briah has that power. ”
“I thought his people didn't even like him,” I said. “They barely follow him, that's what you said.”
“Tell me, what would happen if someone from another country assassinated your president? Even if he's a terrible president. ”
“World War III,” I said reluctantly. “Would it kill him if I shot him?”
“Certainly not.”
“Can I do it anyway? Just for fun?”
“Niki, are you trying my patience on purpose?” he said. He sighed and headed to the bar. I heard the clink of glasses. I looked down and opened the bag Eli gave me. It contained a loaf of sliced bread, some apples, and several cans of iced coffee. I picked up one of the cans. It was still slightly cold. I opened it and drank half the can in one gulp. Eli came out of the bathroom, slightly cleaner and less silver.
“Thought you might be hungry,” he said, taking an apple and biting into it.
“Thanks,” I said. I opened the bag of bread and took a slice. It was slightly stale, but I was so hungry it didn't matter. I ate four slices before I knew it and started on a large red apple. Sam appeared with two glasses and a bottle of beer.
“You hungry?” I asked him.
“Thank you, no,” said Sam. “I don't need to eat as often as you.”
I finished the apple and took some more bread. I finished the coffee and opened another one. I looked up to find Eli staring at me and Sam trying unsuccessfully to hide a smile. “What?” I said, my mouth full.
“You're pretty hungry, huh?” said Eli. I looked at Sam. He seemed to have found something interesting on the wall behind him.
“I get hungry after I use my power,” I said. “So what?”
“Nothing,” said Eli. He took a slice of bread. I munched on another apple and finished my can of coffee.
“Thanks for the food,” I said. “I wasn't looking forward to stale pretzels again.”
“Sure,” said Eli, tipping back his beer.
“Mr. Cooper,” said Sam. “I need a favor.”
Eli looked from Sam to me. “I have a feeling I'm not going to like this,” he said.
“We need an audience with your father,” Sam said.
“Thought you might,” said Eli. “I suppose you're cashing in that favor.”
“What favor?” I said.
“Sam helped me get to Erebos,” said Eli. “When I was looking for my dad.”
“Oh, that,” I said. “Erebos?”
“Hell City,” said Eli grinning. “You're going to love it.”
“You'll want to drink that,” said Sam pointing at my drink.
“I wasn't going to,” I said.
“You?” said Eli. “I've never known you to turn down a drink.”
“Very funny,” I said. “I think it makes me less able to, you know, use my power stuff.”
“That's what I'm hoping,” said Sam. “Remember what happened last time?”
“Last time?” said Eli.
“Sam took me to Limbo,” I said, not looking away from Sam. He arched an eyebrow.
“Niki,” he said. “You do not want to get caught between worlds. You'll be stranded. I won't be able to find you there. It's part of the Unsung.”
“Unsung?” I said. I looked at Eli, who shook his head.
“You remember the movement you saw in the darkness?” said Sam. “ Those are beings—beasts and angels and men alike—who were caught in between worlds. They go mad there. It's an area that I can't navigate except to pass through. I would not be able to sense anyone there, not even my brothers.” He frowned. “Not even you.”
“You said part of the Unsung. So there are more of these places? What, like different worlds?”
“Yes, many,” Sam said. “I cannot go to most of them. Not even Briah is open to me. Because I chose to live here, Michael will never open Heaven to me again.” He cleared his throat and his lips pursed slightly. But he saw me watching him and gave me a small smile. “There are many other places, too, that I can go to, but I have no power, no knowledge there. They have no need of Death.”
“So what happened last time?” said Eli.
“It wasn't on purpose,” I said.
“Niki has a great power,” said Sam. “She has not yet mastered it. I almost lost her.”
“I freaked out a little,” I said.
“Drink,” said Sam.
“You'd better drink,” said Eli.
I shrugged. “Bottoms up.” I drained my glass.
I didn't close my eyes this time. As the darkness closed in on me, it was the world that changed, and not me passing through it. Like the darkness was always there, waiting for someone to notice it. With my brighter vision, it wasn't so much an absence of light, but it became harder to breathe. Sam held his arms around me, and Eli held tight to Sam, an arrangement Eli protested heavily.
I could feel Sam's heart beating, his chest moving slowly as he held me. I thought he was holding me a lot tighter than before, but that may have been because of what had happened on our previous trip to Limbo. I squinted through what was previously the blackest of blacks, and was now dark charcoal. Shapes moved around us, just out of sight, slightly lighter than the air around us. I couldn't ever spot one directly. They were just out of my vision, or at the corner of my eye. But I could feel them. What was it like being trapped in such a place?
We began to spin, faster and faster. I could see Eli over Sam's shoulder. He looked like he was about to lose all the food we just ate. The darkness flooded my mind again, like ink in water. I felt the very air around us rip, then it grew thick and rich with the smell of spices, and so bright my eyes ached.
My feet were on solid ground now and Sam slowly released me. Eli stepped around Sam to stand beside me. My eyes adjusted and I looked at him. He grinned. “Welcome to Hell,” said Eli.
Nine
I looked around.
We appeared to be underground, but there wasn't a closed-in feeling. Sheer rock cliffs made of dark red stone rose up to our left and right, with a road the same color under our feet. A diffuse glow illuminated everything. I could hear the clatter and murmur of the city echoing toward us down the road.
I looked behind us. The road continued, but the light faded about fifty feet down to an inky blackness and an odd, muted quiet, even with the city sounds coming from the other way. I shivered despite the hot, tingly heat in my chest.
“Erebos is this way,” said Sam grimly. He started walking toward the noise. I felt the weight of the handgun on the small of my back, and it made me feel more confident. I wouldn't use it, but I felt better having it. I followed Sam and Eli hurried to walk in front of us. He spoke to me over his shoulder.
“It's not going to be pleasant,” he said. “We may need to fight. Hellions don't like outsiders at all.” He looked pointedly at me. “And they are definitely not going to like you.”
“Why not?” I said. “I'm damn likable.”
Sam laughed, then covered it with a cough. I glared at him.
“You're a threat,” said Eli. “You even look like you're full of magic...”
I cupped a hand over my eye, and a pale glow filled my palm. My vision was still white, which meant my eyes were still that unsettling white colo
r too. Maybe they were even even glowing like the time I caught my reflection outside my apartment building. That meant I would see the landscape as more pale and washed-out, rather than muted and warm.
“I don't suppose anyone has any sunglasses?” I said.
“Don't worry,” said Sam. “We'll be fine.”
“I wouldn't be so sure,” said Eli. “I died once or twice on my first trip here.”
Suddenly I was struck by Sam's appearance. “Why," I asked Sam, "are you still you?”
“I beg your pardon?” he said.
“You're not all Death-y,” I said.
“Ah, you mean my appearance. A condition of existing in the world, I'm afraid. It doesn't apply in Heaven and Hell.”
“So when Hellions die,” I said, “they see you?”
“They don't usually need much help crossing over,” said Sam, “but yes. I am known here.”
“At least you're easy on the eyes,” I said. Sam smiled. Eli walked faster. It had been a joke, but I kept forgetting how hard Eli had taken our separation. He had always been the sensitive one in the relationship. At the time, it hadn't really bothered me much. But now I needed to be more careful around him. I didn't understand what was happening between Sam and me, but Eli and Gage were right. We were moving beyond friendship. I didn't know what to do with that information, though.
The sounds of the city grew louder, and the light grew brighter. The cliff walls opened up, sloping up into dark mountains rather than sheer cliffs. And as we rounded a corner, I caught my first glimpse of Erebos.
It looked like any other vibrant, crowded, jostling city. Vendors cooked fragrant meats, people with dusky skin of different colors—blue, red, black, green—moved through the clogged street, buildings seemingly erected anywhere there was room. There was even one small shack built right in the middle of the street. Demonic-looking figures stood around it, forcing the crowd to move in a single thin line to squeeze past them.
The city spread out for miles, as far as I could see. Rising up through the center of the city was a black, spiky tower that rose beyond the reach of light.
“Lucifer's Tower,” said Eli, following my gaze. “He's not there, though. Hasn't been there for years. My father's house is over there.” I followed the direction he pointed and saw a sprawling compound of homes made of the red stone that surrounded us. It was blocky and unusual in its primitive structure. It looked as if someone had just cut large slabs of stone and fitted them together. And then kept adding additional rooms and platforms.
“Nice,” I said. Remembering that Eli had asked me to come to Erebos and live with him, I realized that this was the home he had meant. Eli was looking over the landscape like a proud dictator, with a satisfied smile, but I had never felt more out of my element. Had he really expected me to be content here? I wasn't even content when everything was peaches and cream.
“Let's go as quickly as we can,” said Sam. I looked to him. He also was looking over at the city below us, but with a pained expression on his face. He was troubled by something. Eli set off towards the compound and Sam and I followed.
“What's with you?” I asked in a low voice.
Sam frowned. “It concerns me that the only being who may know the whereabouts of my brother is a demon lord. It seems we are wasting valuable time here.”
I glanced ahead to make sure Eli was out of earshot. “You don't think Eli's lying, do you?” Eli was the most truthful person I'd ever known. But he had changed so much since his transformation. Maybe he had taken up lying, too.
“No,” said Sam. “But I think he idolizes his father. He has gone his entire life without knowing where he really came from. It makes sense that he would drink in every word the demon says to him.”
“You make him sound like a child,” I said.
“In a way, he knows less than a child,” said Sam. “He is like a boy finding his way. He is changing more every day. His very nature is changing into something he would once have found repellent. It must be very difficult to recognize the one nature encompassing the other.”
“Then why are we just going along with him?” I said. “ I'm no goddamn princess, Sam. Don't tiptoe around the truth just because of me.”
Sam actually laughed. He looked at me. “Please believe me, Niki, when I say that I would never, ever, call you a princess.”
“Good,” I said.
“And it is nothing to do with you. What do you detectives say? Follow every lead? That is what we are doing,” said Sam. “If we know something that has any chance of leading us to Lucifer, we must follow it. It's the most sure way to end the needless killing.”
“What if we find him,” I said, “and he can't help? Or won't. I've met your family, Sam. They don't give me the warm fuzzies, if you know what I mean.”
“Lucifer is not like Michael,” said Sam. “And yes, I have considered that. But I cannot contemplate it, not right now. I can only look ahead. To try to set things right. There's something wrong with the balance. I've been feeling it for a very long time. I think that without the Creator, reality will tip until we all plummet.”
“Into what?” I said.
“The end of the universe.”
“What are you two whispering about?” said Eli. He was smiling, but there was a hard look to his eyes.
“Current events,” I said. “How about this global warming?”
We approached the gate to the city. The smells were overwhelming. Demons from every color of the rainbow were doing everyday mundane things like shopping and chatting. Demon women were followed by demon children, their horns not yet sprouted from their heads. A few large, more muscular demons walked among the crowd in uniform, looking every bit the soldiers.
“We should stay together, so nothing happens to Niki,” Eli said. “If you haven't been here for a while, Sam, you might find that it's a more violent place than it used to be.”
“Erebos has always been violent,” Sam said mildly. “And I am well aware of the risk for a normal human. If Niki were normal she would be torn apart. The children would eat her entrails.”
“Nice image,” I said.
“Regardless,” said Sam. “There is no need to worry.”
Eli eyed him with thinly-veiled contempt, but turned away. I distinctly heard a low growl rise in his throat. If Sam heard, he ignored it.
I braced myself as we passed through the large, black, rough-wood arch that rose over the stone road. I fought the urge to pull the Glock out of the small of my back. This seemed like a just-in-case moment if ever there was one. I knew I could do nothing if they mobbed me. One handgun would not help against thousands of demons, I realized, remembering the clambering ghosts. I raised my hands and looked at them. As I willed it, white mist rose tentatively from my palms. Sam put a hand on my arm and shook his head. I lowered my hands, but was prepared to use anything I could. If I died here, Sofi would have no one to wake up to.
Sam moved slowly and easily. He was not tense or worried. I braced myself as we neared the edge of the crowd. Twenty feet. Ten . Five. A tall, thin female demon, hairless and skin dusky pink sniffed the air and looked around. Her slitted eyes appraised us. I barely breathed. I felt the mist surround my fists, ready when I was. A long moment passed. Then, without a word being spoken, she bowed her head and backed away, just as the fighters on the streets had done. Two young males standing nearby and having a heated argument that consisted mostly of snarls and gestures looked up at us. They did the same as the woman. Then a woman with a basket and red skin. As we passed, the crowd parted for us, much like Moses parting the Red Sea.
Eli looked from Sam to me, puzzled.
“As I said, Mr. Cooper, we need not worry,” said Sam. “Even Hellions fear Death. Or at least have a healthy respect for it.”
The road was almost completely clear now, as the demons backed away from us to wedge themselves on either side of it. I remembered my hands and willed the mist back into myself. I flexed my fingers. “Same thing happened on th
e street,” I said to Sam. “They just bowed out of my way like that. It was damn creepy.”
“They sense it, the Hellions,” said Sam. “They know what it is. Humans spend their entire lives trying to forget that Death exists, and then they are always surprised when it comes. But demons and angels always expect it. They can feel it in the air. They may not welcome it, but they know. There's no escaping it.”
“So you knew this would happen to me if you brought me back?” I said.
“I tried to tell you,” Sam said. “You were intent on living, no matter the cost. Don't you remember?”
“I've been trying to forget,” I said.
The demons were eying us from the sides, casting curious glances. Eli hung back, still looking stricken. I wondered if it was because he'd been wrong or because he was finally seeing the power that Sam had. That I had, too. I looked back and he frowned at me, shaking his head, confusion in his eyes.
“What's happened to you?” he said, his voice a low whisper.
“I could ask you the same question,” I said, my voice cold and calm.
Eli grunted and walked past me without looking at me. He trudged behind Sam as we moved through the crowded city, unchallenged. He didn't speak for a very long time. When he did, it was just to point out different landmarks: bars with rough-looking, scarred demons leaning against the outside of the buildings; places that sold strange, heavily spiced foods; even a grocery store where demon women with baskets looked out at us, anxious.
We wound our way through the twisting streets. Sometimes the street ended completely and we had to walk through a building to get to another street on the other side. Several times the street doubled back on itself and coiled like a yellow brick road from the films, only to find its way, once again, in our direction of travel.
Eli wouldn't look at me. Even when he pointed something out, he spoke to Sam. It did hurt a little that I seemed to disgust him so much, but then I realized that I felt the same way towards him.
Sam walked solemnly, rarely speaking. His face was set in a look of determination and something else I couldn't quite make out. Grief, or anger. Maybe both. It was a long walk, fraught with tension. I retreated to my own thoughts. I thought about Sasha. About Natalie saying that he wasn't my real father.
