by Diem, J. C.
Rinsing the soap off my stomach, I glanced down at the thick black scar that marred my flesh. The Wraith Warrior shifted slightly, as if sensing that I was thinking about her. Instead of being creeped out by the sensation, I felt almost comforted. She might have been created by the evil essence of one of the princes of the realms, but she had become a part of me.
I had only two princes left to kill now. The leader of the ninth realm hadn’t been in his palace when I’d made my first trip to the underworld and he’d escaped from my wrath. I still hadn’t visited the second realm yet. The prince was most likely biting his talons in dread of my eventual arrival.
One of them had to have sent the warrior after me. I’d have to thank him before I took his life. My warrior had saved me from being defiled by Bob. I wished I could let her out, but she couldn’t survive for very long on Earth. She would need to either stay in hell, or go to the nowhere lands that lay between dimensions.
Only the strongest of demons could call on a Wraith Warrior. It was another indication that I would attain a rank far above a lord. I was glad none of my friends knew about this. I could only imagine their horror if they ever learned about what I was becoming.
₪₪₪
Chapter Five
Just as I’d feared, I ended up in the shadowlands of my mind shortly after I fell asleep. I appeared in the knee-high mist with Heather and Sy’s house to my left. Raziel’s house was directly ahead and the legion’s house was to the right.
Raziel’s dwelling was still pristine white, but Heather’s was showing signs of damage. The walls were dingy gray and almost looked burned in some places. The large black building the demons called home was in the worst shape. The boards looked scorched and charred from repeated purges of holy fire.
I tried to repair the buildings, but nothing happened. A chill went through me as I realized the implications. Sy would be safe for a while longer, since he was the only demon in Heather’s house. The legion were far more numerous and their lodgings had borne the brunt of the attack. I wasn’t sure how much longer they’d be able to seek shelter there.
I attempted to create another building where they could take refuge, but again nothing happened. I thought my mind was capable of anything, but it appeared I was more limited than I’d realized. These three dwellings were all that my mind could contain. If I continued to allow myself to be burned with holy fire, the black house would eventually be destroyed. It was possible that the demons would be purged along with the toxin.
Seeing a curtain in Heather and Sy’s house twitch, I zapped myself into the legion’s home. I locked the doors in all three buildings. Sam knew I was here and I just couldn’t face him yet. I wouldn’t put it past him to burst into the black house and confront me in front of the hell spawn.
Heads turned towards me when the demons realized I’d arrived. They moved aside to allow me to walk over to Morax and the other lords. By the time I reached them, I was the same height as them and almost as muscular. I hadn’t consciously changed my appearance. It had happened automatically.
Regarding me silently, Morax took in my appearance. Apart from my long blond hair, blue jeans and faux leather jacket, I looked the same as him and the thirteen other lords. My wings weren’t in evidence yet and my horns hadn’t grown any larger. “It would appear that your transformation is now complete,” the leader of the legion said at last.
Morax spoke quietly, but the shouts died down and heads turned away from the match that was raging inside the arena. A lesser demon was fighting a hellcat and was losing badly. Her left arm dangled by a thread and she was limping. The feline sprang and sank its fangs into the soldier’s throat. She went down with a garbled scream. Shimmering, she disappeared from the arena then reappeared whole and sound beside it. Glancing around in shame, she was relieved that the focus was on me rather than on her and her defeat. She scurried away to hide in the crowd.
“Does this mean we are now trapped inside Hellscourge forever?” an anonymous voice asked in fear.
“No,” I replied before panic could spread. “From what I saw on the doors of my carriage, I haven’t finished transforming yet.”
Morax blinked in surprise. “What are you saying?”
“I’m not going to be a lord,” I told him flatly. “It looks like I’m going to become something else.”
“The only rank beyond a lord is a Prince,” he replied then his eyes widened in realization that that was exactly what I’d meant.
“You will become a Demon Princess?” the only female lord queried with a hint of envy. “It is unprecedented for a female to rise so high among our ranks.”
“That does not mean that it is not possible,” one of the other lords countered. “Hellscourge is unlike any being ever created. The normal rules do not apply to her.”
“There may still be time for us to escape from her,” another voice said.
Peering down at the crowd from my greater height, I saw a robed figure. He was the Collector who had harvested Sophia’s soul. He’d also raped her to try to impregnate her. He knew the truth about the Nephilim and I wondered if he knew that I was one of them. If he did, he hadn’t said anything to the others yet. The men who had killed my mother had been Collectors as well. She’d been blindfolded, so I didn’t know which one of them had fathered me.
“Why is Hellscourge so different?” a captain asked. “Why was she chosen to be our doom?”
Sick and tired of having the secret hanging over me, I decided to tell them the truth. “I’m a Nephilim. The Collectors have been impregnating harvested female angels. I was the first successful experiment, but I’ve heard there are more of them out there.”
Shock held everyone still, but the Collector drew in a sharp breath at my admission. Heads instantly swung towards him.
Morax singled the Collector out and pointed at him with a talon. “Come here.” His tone made it impossible for the lesser demon to disobey. He shuffled through the crowd to stand in front of us. “Is this true?” Morax asked with a dire frown.
Bowing his head, the robed figure nodded. “It is, my lord.”
Whispers and mutters spread and they sounded shocked and afraid. “Satan forbade us from creating Nephilim,” Morax said in disbelief. “He said that it would bring doom on our kind if we ever defied God’s decree.”
Hunching his shoulders defensively, the Collector glanced at him with a miserable expression. “We were under the orders of the new Hellmaster. We did not have a choice.”
I was stunned to hear that Satan had chosen to follow one of God’s directives. Somehow, he’d known what the result would be if they ever broke that rule. He’d known that I would be created and that I would destroy the leaders of the realms. He must have told the princes this, hence their warnings to me that disaster would ensue if I killed them. The disaster that would unfold would be to their kind, which quite frankly wasn’t much of a deterrent for me.
“Who is the new Hellmaster?” I asked.
Flinching as if the question caused him pain, he shook his head. “I do not know, master.” He gasped and clapped a hand over his mouth when he realized what he’d called me. Sadly, I was getting used to hearing it from Sy and it didn’t shock me anymore.
“What does he look like?” I asked.
He shook his head again. “I have not seen his face. All I know is that he is far larger than even the Princes. The few times I was in his presence, he wore a hooded robe that cast his face in shadow. I have only seen his eyes.” He shuddered and I knew exactly how he felt. I’d seen the Hellmaster’s eyes as well and they’d filled me with the same dread that he was feeling.
“Why did you create the Nephilim?” Morax queried. “What is their task?”
“I do not know,” the Collector said helplessly. “We were told to harvest female angels and to attempt to impregnate them in order to create a new race of beings. Dantanian is also involved in the scheme. He accompanied us several times when we harvested the angels. When he was absent,
we gave the essence to Lord Vepar. She delivered them to Dantanian at the Scriptorium in the first realm.”
“Whoever the Hellmaster is, he is very foolish,” Morax said. More gasps rang out at his audacity for criticizing their new ruler. “God will not stand for this. He will punish us all.”
“God’s gone,” I said and more shocked noises sounded. “He’s giving mankind one last chance to save themselves and I’m apparently it.”
Sly grins appeared and a few of the lesser demons rubbed their hands together. “Hellscourge is turning into one of us,” someone said in glee. “This means that we will rule the Earth and humankind will finally bow to us!”
“You won’t be ruling anyone,” I told them. “You’ll go on a killing spree and destroy everyone and everything.” I’d seen a vision of what would happen. They would be so overjoyed about escaping from hell that they’d go on a rampage. Eons of being unable to act on their basest instincts would overrule their common sense. Instead of enslaving mankind as they planned, they’d end up slaughtering them.
“This is the beginning of the end for both demonkind and mankind,” Morax said. Silence fell as everyone turned to listen to him. “The Hellmaster is too powerful to be stopped and his minions will escape from their captivity. They might destroy humanity, but God will not stand for our kind taking over the Earth. He will return and he will annihilate us all.”
Sullen stares were sent in my direction. They were blaming me for things that hadn’t even happened yet. I bit back angry words that none of this was my fault. I hadn’t asked to become the first Nephilim. I hadn’t asked to be given the task of saving humanity. If I could have handed the burden over to someone else, I would have done so in a heartbeat.
Everything became misty as the dream began to fade. Morax’s accusing scarlet eyes followed me into a dream of fireballs shooting through the sky as Manhattan was decimated. Even while I was watching the destruction of the city that had become my home, I was relieved that I’d managed to avoid Sam. I could handle anything except his sorrowful stare as he asked me why I’d allowed him to die.
₪₪₪
Chapter Six
As if I wasn’t already burdened with enough guilt, Zach texted me the next morning asking when I’d be home. I lied and said I would be staying in Boston for a few more days. I wanted to make sure Nathan was safe and well before I turned my attention to my boyfriend. Zach replied that his father would be away for a week. He hinted that I could visit him in his home again when I returned. A tingle went through me at the prospect of being inside his bedroom again. I knew what would happen once we were alone. We were bound to end up naked and I’d break my promise to my guardian. I sent him a message saying I’d contact him when I returned.
“You look distracted,” Leo said as I put my phone back in my pocket.
“Zach wants to see me,” I replied and picked up my spoon to finish eating my cereal.
“You were gone for almost three months. I am not surprised that your beau is keen to see you again.” As always, he’d pretended to be me while I’d been gone. He was surprisingly good at texting like a teenage girl.
“He’ll have to wait until after we’ve rescued Nathan.”
Leo studied my face as I ate. “You really do love Nathan,” he said softly.
Bustling about in the kitchen, Sophia went still to listen to my answer. “More than anything,” I agreed.
“I wish things could be different between you two.”
“So do I,” I sighed. It was forbidden for angels to use their vessels to mate with humans. The offspring that was produced between the pair were an abomination that even God had turned his back on. I could never be with the man I loved, but I cared about Zach almost as much as I did about Nathan. It would break his heart to find out he was my second choice, but that would never happen. He didn’t know about the secret underworld of angels and demons. To him, it was all just a fantasy. The gates to hell would have to break open and spew out hell spawn before he’d believe it. If that happened, all of humankind would be doomed.
At least we were safe from the angels in our base. They didn’t have a spell to counter Sy’s runes, but demons were another story. Vepar had access to runes that few of her kind possessed. She’d affiliated herself with some of the most powerful demons. One of them was the leader of the hellscribes. Dantanian had shown her a spell that could unlock our doors. Even if they found us, we had a different type of protection in place now. Elijah had consecrated the store, which meant evil beings couldn’t enter.
My brow furrowed as I took a sip of tea. One of Sam’s special talents and been the ability to sense evil. Shortly before he’d died, he’d confessed that he’d sensed me turning to the dark side. It wasn’t really a surprise, since I had over two hundred demons inside me. I was half-demon and I wondered if I’d be able to stay in the store if I still had my soul. Maybe I’d be rejected like a vampire from a cheesy horror movie whose invitation had been rescinded. Then again, I wasn’t like the others of my kind. I’d inherited some of my mother’s angelic grace, which meant I was actually half demon and half angel. Or I would be if I ever recovered my essence.
Sophia entered the room and stepped behind the counter. “My client will be arriving soon,” she reminded us as she took the purple table cloth out. We always vacated the front room before her customers turned up. She wanted them to feel as though their readings were confidential. They had no idea I watched the proceedings through a keyhole like a voyeur.
Leo and I retired to the kitchen while she spread the tablecloth over the large round table. We closed the door to give her and her client privacy. A knock came at the door a couple of minutes later. Leo shook his head at me when I dropped to my knees to look through the old fashioned keyhole as she opened the door.
The client was male rather than female this time. He was a regular and apparently came in a few times a year. He looked like a businessman in his dark gray suit and crisp white button up shirt. His hair was thinning and worry lines were etched around his eyes and mouth. Deep furrows stretched across his forehead.
I listened with half an ear as Sophia instructed him to shuffle the deck of cards. I was banned from using them after the last time I’d touched them. Every single card had turned into an image of the grim reaper. It had been a stark sign that death was stalking me. Leo had created a new deck while Sam and I were in the third realm of hell.
Sophia didn’t usually read the cards more than once a year for her customers. She had other means to tell their futures. Ever since the reading she’d performed for Clarice Weller when her final card had been blank, she’d taken to reading the cards again for everyone. As her client chose his final card, I could tell by the way her back stiffened that it was the same as all the others.
“What does a plain white card mean?” the man asked in bewilderment.
She told him what she’d decided to tell all of her clients. “You are at a crossroads and your long term future is uncertain. Time will tell which direction your life will take.”
The truth was very different from that. Sophia could no longer foretell anyone’s long term outcome because of me. If I succeeded in killing all eight of the Demon Princes and took down the Hellmaster, life would continue as normal. If not, then the Earth would be invaded by monsters and everyone would die.
“Should I be worried?” the man asked. The furrows on his brow were already deepening. He was a perpetual worrywart. Unfortunately, he really did have something to be concerned about this time.
Sophia shook her head. “I am sure there is no need for alarm. Everything will work out in the end.”
Her words sounded hollow to me and they did nothing to reassure her client. Checking his watch, he paid her and left. The glance he sent over his shoulder as he stepped outside was fraught with tension. With all of the murders that had been going on in the city, everyone was afraid. After the deal I’d made with Vepar, the deaths had abruptly stopped. I’d agreed to let her go instead o
f beheading her. In return, she’d given her word that she’d stop searching for our base by following evicted souls to me. She and her death squad had come very close to locating the store using their own kin as a magical compass.
Sophia barely waited for him to clear the doorway before closing the door. Angels were watching us, but they didn’t try to barge inside. Brie had told them about the demonic spells that would render them helpless once they entered. Not even I was dumb enough to walk out the door while they were watching us, yet they still hadn’t given up their vigil.
Rising to my feet, I pushed the kitchen door open. “That’s another blank card,” I said to break the silence. “Your clients are going to become suspicious soon.” Sophia had tried reading tealeaves and touching their hands to determine their futures. Her visions had been clouded each time.
Folding the purple tablecloth up again, she looked weary. As a former angel whose essence had been harvested, she was permanently locked inside her vessel. She didn’t need to sleep, but the stress was getting to her. “I wish I could ease their fears,” she said as she tucked the cloth into a drawer behind the counter again. “But it is not in my nature to lie.”
Leo ambled out of the kitchen to join us. Knowing Sophia’s routine, he’d put the kettle on for her. “It is nearly the end of the year,” he pointed out. “If your vision was correct, then Violet will need to find the next portal quickly.”
“I’m not going anywhere until we’ve rescued Nathan,” I said stubbornly. “He’s my priority right now.”
“Now is not the time to be selfish,” Sophia said in admonishment. “You must think of humanity’s needs rather than your own.”
“I’ve done nothing but think of humanity,” I said tightly. “I’ve been to hell and back seven times and I lost my best friend the last time I was there. Just for once, I need to do something for myself rather than for the good of the world.”
