“Time passed. Lucifer sought to record the history of the seraph, and so he created the angelic scripture and wrote the first book, that of the origins of the angels. In his book he included the symbol that the Beast had given as its name; to serve as a warning so that we would never forget all that we had nearly lost.”
“Satan’s Bible,” I said.
“That is what they are calling it?” he asked. “The scroll was lost when Lucifer was cast out. They have said it fell to the mortal realm, and there it must remain.”
“The servants of the Beast have used Lucifer’s words to encrypt their own,” Charis said. “They may have located its cage, but without the Bible, we cannot follow.”
“The Pure One,” I said. “You’re referring to Sarah. Where does she fit in?”
“There is only one way to open the cage,” Malize replied. “One who is mortal, who possesses the power of both the Lord and the First Fallen must spill their life’s blood into His cup, which must then be emptied into the seal. Know this now, if the seal is broken, it can not be replaced. It will take some time for the Beast to regain its former strength, but when it does, there is no soul on this world or any other that will be able to stop it.”
“Their life’s blood?” I asked. My own began to run cold. “You mean…”
“She must be destroyed for the Beast to escape,” Malize said. “It feeds on destruction.”
I looked at Charis, whose face had gone white. She hadn’t known, or I would have already. “How much do you want to bet Sarah doesn’t know?” I said. “They are betraying her too.” I had no proof, but I was sure of it.
“Malize,” Charis said. “How can the Grail be used to break the seal? It didn’t exist when the cage was created.”
The archangel shook his head. “It has always existed. It is made from the soul of the Lord made tangible, and was delivered to His son to aid him on his path to join his Father. The Lord’s power holds the Beast, and only the Lord’s power can release it.”
Charis took my hand in hers. “Landon, it’s time to go.”
“Wait,” I said. “I don’t understand. If the Beast is such a threat to God, why would He make it at all possible for it to be freed?”
Malize said a single world in reply. The word I should have expected.
“Balance.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Landon, help me seal the tunnel,” Charis said. We had left Malize and the cave behind, the door returning to our vision through her focus. “We can’t afford for the Beast’s servants to find this place.”
“Right.” I focused on the rock above the tunnel, pulling at it, ordering it to expand and collapse. Charis brought it up from below, and together we buried the entrance in no time.
“Not enough,” Charis said. “That door leads to one of the most important artifacts in existence. We have to bring down the entire tunnel.”
“I see why you needed my help,” I replied.
We moved back along the corridor, pulling and lifting the rock down behind us, until there was just enough space left for the two of us to stand in front of the elevator doors.
“It’s going to be weird for anyone who comes down here,” I said. We had boarded the lift and finished filling in the tunnel, leaving the doors to open on a wall of rock.
“There shouldn’t be anyone else coming down here,” she replied.
We returned to the room at the top of the tower, and Charis called for Zeek while I tried to get a hold of Lylyx. The phone shunted directly to voicemail. It could have meant anything, so I tried not to worry about it.
I had lived through Charis’ life in the cave, and although in my mind it had seemed as if over two hundred years had passed, in this universe it had been little more than thirty seconds. It was strange to be back where I had started so soon after I had left, yet having experienced and learned so much.
“We’re going to save her,” I said.
“I know,” Josette replied.
I smiled. I had always been able to feel her soul, to touch it and use its power. It was nothing compared to her actual presence. If anything could bring me comfort, it was her.
“Are you okay with this?” I asked. “I know what Charis did to you, to your fellows.”
“It is difficult, but I will accept it as His will, if you believe her actions were righteous.”
She had done it in order to begin her pursuit of the Demon Queen title. Being sent to Hell hadn’t been part of the plan, but it had worked out to her advantage.
“I wouldn’t say righteous,” I replied, uncertain that there wasn’t another way she could have accomplished the same thing. “For whatever it’s worth, her intent wasn’t grounded in evil.”
The door to the suite opened, and Charis walked in with the huge Templar trailing behind. She had a blessed sword across her back, and a cursed dagger at her side. She offered me the same.
“These belonged to Joseph,” she said.
I knew it as soon as I took hold of them. I remembered the first time I had seen the simple longsword, stabbing into the chest of the archdevil. I accepted the blades in silent reverence, and altered my clothes to better accommodate them - combat boots, a pair of paratrooper pants, a black t-shirt, and a rig to hold the weapons.
“Don’t lose them,” Zeek added. He had a shotgun slung over each shoulder, and an axe that looked eerily similar to the first showing behind his head. A utility belt with boxes of shells attached to it caused his coat to bulge out at the sides.
“Can’t we just rip his throat out?” Ulnyx said. “It would be my pleasure.”
I ignored the Were. “What about the rest of the Templars?” I asked.
“They’re willing to die for this, of course,“ Charis said. “But we’re few enough in number. I’m not going to just throw away their lives.”
I nodded. I knew from her memories how much they had lost. “We have no way to track Rebecca and Sarah unless they reveal themselves,” I said. “We know they want the Grail, and we know they need Satan’s Bible. I think our best chance right now is to stop them before they can get the Chalice.”
“If they go after it first,” Zeek said.
“They will,” Charis replied. “They know that Landon knows they’re after it. They’ll want to get their hands on it before we can react. They have a huge head start though. I don’t know if we can catch up.”
I flashed her a sly smile. “Do you think I would make it that easy?” I asked. “They’ll get the Grail with enough time for sure, but hopefully we haven’t reached enough time yet.”
She reached back for the memory and returned my smile with one of her own. “You are a clever boy,” she said.
My face flushed at the compliment. “If we don’t catch them, we need to get to the Bible before they do, plus we’ll need Obi and Thomas if we’re going to have any hope of decrypting the strings.” I could only hope that they had known what they were doing when they had torched my collection.
“It’ll make it a whole lot easier if we can cut them off instead of chasing them,” Zeek said.
“I don’t know if ‘easier’ is the word I would use,” I replied. “But the Beast needs Sarah to get out, which means we need to get to Sarah first. If we fail at that, we find Obi and get the Bible.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Zeek agreed.
“The rift is on the rooftop,” Charis said. “I disabled it to prevent us from being followed, but Vilya and I can put it back together. It won’t take long.”
“Let’s go,” I said.
Charis bypassed the elevator and led us up to the roof via the emergency stairs. We emerged into a gray gloom and a stiff buffeting wind. The roof was large and flat, with a helipad in the center and a radio spire rising to the south. The transport rift was tucked into the space below the spire, hidden from view of the Divine by the physical obstruction.
“It will only take a few minutes,” Charis said when we approached. I could see that some of the runes had been scrap
ed clean.
“Nothing to do but wait,” Zeek said.
I scanned the sky with my Sight, my hackles raised. If Sarah was keeping a lookout for me, she would know right where I was. Somehow she and Rebecca had managed to get the angels and fire demon on our tail mid-flight to our original Swiss destination - I didn’t doubt they could do the same, or worse, again.
The geography around us was clear, at least as far as I could tell. Someone in Hell had taught Rebecca how to make herself and others invisible to Sight. Someone who was clearly a servant, and clearly powerful; but who? Was there an even stronger enemy out there, just waiting in the wings in case she failed? If there was, with any luck they were trapped in Hell.
I felt the change in the transport rift before Charis had a chance to announce that it was ready. It was a strange sensation, like being tickled by the edge of a flame, and one that I hadn’t felt, or at least noticed before. A few seconds later the flames ignited around the circumference of the rift.
“Come on,” Charis said, motioning us through.
Zeek went first, a shotgun cradled in his arms, just in case. I didn’t hesitate to follow, finding my focus as I stepped in.
I was greeted by the strong smell of burned wood and the sight of a flamed out husk of a structure interspersed among the small army of Divine that greeted us on the other side. My Sight flared in response to the heat. A trap? Or just an obvious immersion point? Either way, we had just walked right into an ambush.
The first wave of demons had pounced the moment Zeek had appeared, but his initial salvo of holy water laden shells had managed to slow the advance. Even so, I found myself ducking and jiving out of the way of vampire claws even before I could pull my right foot all the way through. I dropped to a knee and whipped the sword from my back, planting it into the demon’s chest and using it to shove it away. The blade slid free through a cloud of smoke, but I watched it sizzle and heal over in a matter of seconds. Not good.
“Zeek,” I shouted, reaching out and grabbing the Templar before he could move too far from the rift. We had two choices, stay and fight or go back through. I was going to pull him back, but then Charis appeared and all hell really broke loose.
Her sword came to her hand like magic, flashing in the light of the rift and severing the claws that grabbed for her, circling back around and decapitating the first vampire that tried to touch her. She crouched low and kicked out, hitting a second vamp in the groin and launching him backwards a good twenty feet.
“Come on, Landon,” she spat, her eyes on fire. “It doesn’t matter if they’ve been suckling from your girlfriend if you take their heads.”
Her words hit me. I was stronger, faster, better than before, and I shouldn’t be letting their healing factor psych me out. Renewed, I slipped around a shorter female and grabbed the dagger, using it to pin her while I took her head with the sword. Another vampire was coming at Zeek from behind, and I tossed the dagger into its forehead. The move only slowed it long enough for it to reach up and remove the blade, but that was all the time the Templar needed. His axe swung cleanly through the demon’s neck.
“You fight like a girl,” Ulnyx growled from below the surface, his voice clear in my mind.
I felt him reach out, asking for control. I could see the threads of power now, and understand them. I knew I could keep him contained, and so I let him take it. His power poured into my body, his soul capturing a portion of my mind and beginning to issue commands. My body moved like a marionette, sheathing the blades, hands shifting to a nasty set of claws, reaching out and ripping the head from one of the demons. I observed through shared eyes, my heart beginning to beat wildly at the scene of the destruction the Were created.
No longer participating in my physical motion, I focused, reaching out to the splinters of wood around us, sending them airborne and planting them into the enemy masses. It didn’t do much damage, but it was a distraction, and it gave Charis and Zeek time to dig in with their blades.
“A little better,” Ulnyx said, his gravel voice filled with bloodlust. “I’m starting to like you, meat.”
“Then you’ll love this,” I said, shifting my focus downward. The ground began to tremble, and pointed berms of earth shot up below the feet of the demons, spearing them through the legs and groin. Ulnyx pounced on one, grabbing its head and twisting, taking pleasure in the crack of the separating spine.
I couldn’t use my eyes, so I focused on my Sight, using it to find Charis and Zeek both taking advantage of the chaos I had caused. I felt Charis’ attention shift towards me, and a moment later a lance of heat reached through my body.
The pain was intense, and I recoiled, the lapse in concentration forcing Ulnyx from my nerve center, causing my body to revert to human form.
“What the hell?” he cried, at the same time I glared wildly at my counterpart. I saw her own expression turn to one of shock as she realized what I was thinking.
Before I could say anything, I caught the sickening stench of burned flesh, and I spun around. Lurching towards me was another vampire, charred from head to toe but healing fast. Without a second thought I pulled the dagger and brought it around, severing its skull in one smooth stroke. By the time I turned around again, Charis had moved on.
The enemy ranks were thinning, and it only took a few more defeats for them to break off the attack, the furthest edges of the army fading away into the darkness at a full run. The demons may have fed on Rebecca’s blood and become harder to kill, but these weren’t trained fighters, these were chafe, and they weren’t all ready to lose their lives to the cause. The victory was a meek one. We’d routed the weakest soldiers, but we’d also given them a lot of information to take back to their master.
“Nice work,” Zeek said, sidling up to me with his axe still in hand.
“That sucked so hard,” Ulnyx cursed, pushing against me, desperate to get back into the saddle. I felt the threads of my power and brought them around to wrap his up again. His voice faded from my consciousness, still kicking and screaming.
“Thank you,” Josette said. “I was growing irritated with his whining.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it.
“Landon, I’m sorry,” Charis said, walking up and putting her hand on my shoulder. “I was only trying to protect you.”
I put my hand on top of hers, holding it out between us. “It’s okay,” I said. “I know.”
We lingered like that for a few heartbeats, and then she pulled away. “This group wasn’t intended to win,” she said.
“I know that too. Sarah could tell her when I arrived, but I bet she wanted to know who I arrived with. Do you think she knows whose side you’re on?”
Charis shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. She does now.”
“So, where to?” Zeek asked.
“St. Patrick’s,” Charis and I both said as one.
The rift had been located at an old warehouse on the Chelsea waterfront, a two and a half mile walk from the cathedral. It was a cool, calm morning; still early enough that the streets weren’t too crowded with people, but late enough that the sun was beginning to peek above the horizon. We were running, the Templar keeping up remarkably well considering his bulk.
My thoughts had taken me back to the morning after the events at the Statue, and I related the history to Zeek while we ran. I had returned from the Island and had been wandering the streets of New York, my mind whizzing at a million miles per hour, my heart scalded by the outcome, the Holy Grail clutched in shaking fingers. I had been looking for a place to rest, some relief from the twist and pull of Ulnyx and Josette on my soul, a respite from the guilt and sadness. I had wandered back towards the Waldorf, and had landed on the steps of St. Patrick’s.
It was there that I had collected myself for the first time, gaining a semblance of lucidity that had led to inspiration. It may have seemed counter-productive to have stashed the Holy Grail in a place like St. Patrick’s Cathedral. After all, there was no other place in the Northern
Hemisphere that shouted ‘Heaven’ as loudly as the structure. In that moment of verisimilitude, I realized that was what I could count on to keep it safe.
I had approached the door, but before I could enter I noticed the series of seraphim runes running along each edge of the archway, and I felt the power radiating off of them. I made an effort to step inside, but the pressure was overwhelming, and my body halted mid-step. I focused, pushing back against the runes, and tried again to no avail. This was no way in.
After circling the structure, trying every door, and enhancing my eyes in order to examine the frame of every window, I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to enter. What was more, I knew from the experience with the demonic runes under the Statue that if the goal had only been to keep demons out, I would have felt the pressure but have been able to enter. The fact that I couldn’t meant the scripture was blocking all Divine.
“But if you couldn’t go in, how did you get the Grail inside?” Zeek asked between huffs of air.
“I had to find someone else who could. A mortal.” I had known exactly who to go to. A priest in a small church near the Belmont. The one who had given me the holy water to heal Josette. He knew enough about the Divine to accept my story, and while he had been less than thrilled to see me again, it hadn’t taken too much effort to bring him around to my way of seeing things. I had helped him sneak into the buiding, and he had hid a glamoured Grail. I didn’t know where, but he had promised that it would be safe, sure as he had seen a leprechaun.
“It was a good idea,” Charis said. “The cathedrals were built for the mortal worship of God, free and safe from Divine intervention. It was also close enough for you to keep an eye on it, and sneaky enough that it would have taken quite a while for any Divine to figure it out. It isn’t your fault Sarah ripped it out of you.”
Literally. The choice of words brought the pain back. I winced and shook it off.
“I get that,” Zeek said. “But how come they haven’t gotten to it yet? Isn’t Sarah a mortal?”
“Yes, but I couldn’t tell her exactly where the Grail was, because I don’t know. She’s probably still in there, rooting through the Cardinal’s drawers.”
Betrayal (The Divine, Book Two) Page 20
