Betrayal (The Divine, Book Two)

by Forbes, M. R.

  “I don’t know how, but you must be lying to me,” I said. “Rebecca knows where to find the Beast. From what I understand, she and Sarah are on their way there right now. How would they know where to find it, if you didn’t tell them?”

  He hung his head. “Yes, Mr. Ross has told me this. He is out seeking a way to stop them. But, signore, I do not lie to you. I have never lied to you. I have omitted things, and I have altered the sequence of things, but I have not lied. I never told Rebecca what was in the Bible, and she could not have discovered it for herself.”

  “You have lied,” I insisted, growing frustrated. “You told me Mephistopheles’ Collectors had come for me, the day we met. They tried to decapitate me right in front of you. I just met Mephistopheles. Actually, I’ve known him for a while under a different name. He’s been in the mortal realm for at least three hundred years.”

  “Yet I knew them best as his Collectors,” he replied, getting angry. “No matter what they were when they appeared, that is how I identified them. You think things that are truths are lies because you do not understand them, but there are many ways to lie, and many ways to not lie. Such a power is useful, but it is not all encompassing. I did not tell Rebecca where to find the Bible, and I did not tell her what it contained.”

  “Then how?” I asked, backing down. “How could she know where to go?”

  He shook his head. “I’m sorry, signore. I do not know.”

  “I need the Bible,” I said. “I need it fast, or the Beast is going to escape.”

  “It will do you no good without the rest of the texts,” he replied, defeated.

  “I have the texts. I’ve been collecting them for the last three years. Tell me where to find the Bible.”

  He seemed surprised, but pleased. His whole woe-is-me demeanor changed, and he sprang to his feet. “Then there is still time?” he asked.

  “If we hurry. Where is it?” I asked again.

  He laughed. “Where do you find any book, signore? You go to the library.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The library, signore. It’s a place where they have many books. The Devil’s Bible is sitting on a shelf at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.”

  Hiding in plain site. I should have known. “Wouldn’t a scroll stand out a bit?”

  “It was a scroll then,” he said. “It isn’t a scroll now. It is glamoured to look like a United States income tax law book. I placed the glamour myself with the full power of Purgatory. It is invisible to others, mortal or Divine.”

  Again, I wondered how Rebecca knew where to go. Had she somehow found the Bible without Dante’s knowledge?

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m in New York right now, but I should be able to get to D.C pretty quickly, as long as Charis has a rift handy. Once I’m there I’ll come get you, and you can show us which book it is.”

  His face turned more pale than it already was. “Wait, signore. Did you just say Charis?”

  I had, without thinking anything of it, but Dante thought she was dead. Or did he? Truth and the truth were two different things. “Yes. She isn’t dead, you know.”

  “I know,” he said. “But she has abandoned the balance, and fights for Hell. You know what she did to get the Grail. How can we be sure she isn’t a servant?”

  It took me a few heartbeats to decide how much to tell him. Charis had warned me not to trust him too far, and with all of his sly manipulations of truth, and the fact that he had never bothered to mention his involvement with the Beast, I was inclined to agree.

  “I’m sure she isn’t,” I said. “We connected.”

  His eyes widened. I could sense the storm of his anger growing behind them, but for once he managed to hold it at bay. “You connected?”

  “I thought you would be happy about that. Isn’t that what you wanted the diuscrucis to become?”

  “There was a time when I did. A time when I had put my faith in her.” He put his hand on his chin and looked thoughtful. “Perhaps this is good news after all. She abandoned the balance, but maybe you can bring her back to it. She is helping you to stop the Beast?”

  “Yes.”

  “It will be interesting to see her again,” he said. “We did not part on good terms.”

  I was sure they didn’t. I put my hand on the poet’s shoulder. “We’ve all made mistakes,” I said. “But we need to drop all the crap for now and just deal with the Beast. You two can have a heart-to-heart, or rip each other apart, or whatever later.”

  He nodded. “Of course, you are right, signore.” He changed then, his bare chest and linen pants replaced with a black t-shirt and combat fatigues. He looked like a skinny, old Rambo. “Only one change. You don’t need a rift to get to Washington. I will take you there.”

  He had transported me before, but only a few blocks. This was a bit further. “You can do that?”

  “It will not be easy for me, and it will put a strain on the equilibrium of our realms, but I can take you. Desperate times, signore.”

  “Can you take others too? I don’t have the texts myself. The angel Thomas has them in his head.”

  He didn’t look happy about that piece of information. He sighed. “I can only take those who are pledged to Purgatory. I’m sorry.”

  “What about if you bring me there, we grab the Bible, and you bring me back?”

  He shook his head. “No. It cannot be moved out of the mortal realm. You can’t imagine how much time and effort it took for me to get it to its hiding place this way.”

  “Then I guess we’re back to plan A,” I said. “It will take more time, but hopefully we’ll be fast enough. I’ll be in touch.”

  Before I could leave, he reached out and put his arms around me, squeezing me in a fatherly embrace.

  “Good luck, signore,” he said.

  I didn’t hug him back. Instead, I let go of my hold on Purgatory, and allowed my soul to travel the path back to my physical form.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  “The Library of Congress?” Charis asked. “Are you serious?”

  “That’s what he said,” I replied. “We need to get to D.C, and we need to get there fast.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked. I started to reply, but I realized she wasn’t talking to me. “Then there is no other way? Okay.” She looked at me. “The closest rift is the one we came through earlier, but neither Vilya or I know of any near Washington. The best we can do is Virginia.”

  “That’s a little closer at least,” Obi said. “Only a couple of hours.”

  “Right now a couple of hours is a long time,” I said. “Dante offered to give me a lift, but the Bible is useless without the rest of the texts.”

  “So let him take me,” Thomas said. “I can match the strings.”

  “Can you decrypt them?” Obi asked. The angel shrugged.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “He can’t take angels. Come on, we need to get to the rift.”

  I made my way past the gang, headed for the stairs. I could hear the fire engines in the distance, finally reacting to the mess we had made. With so many Divine clustered so close, there hadn’t been any people up on the flight deck, so at least the damage had been limited to machinery. I’d kind of had my fill of causing innocent people to die.

  “Landon, wait.” Thomas rushed up to me and grabbed my arm. I turned around to face him. I knew what he wanted by his tentative but excited expression.

  “No, Thomas,” I said. “No way.”

  “Come on,” he said. “We both know I’m not very good as an angel. I’ve been pushing the boundaries since I met you, and this is my chance to really do something good, not just for the faithful, but for all of mankind. Heck, for all of us Divine too.”

  “I can’t,” I said. “Not because you feel pressured. You’ll regret it in the end.”

  “I’ve never regretted it,” Josette said, making herself known in my mind.

  “You didn’t have a choice,” I reminded her.


  “I won’t regret it,” Thomas said. “I’m not cut out for this. I thought I was, but I just can’t follow the rules the way they are, just so black and white, and I don’t have my brother around to keep me in line. I mean, I was supposed to be mentoring Melody. Instead I’ve dragged her into your world, and now she’s making eyes at Obi. You saw her at the airport. She was so enthusiastic about the rules that Mephi… Izak nearly fried her.”

  I looked past him to where Melody was standing. Obi had finished healing, so she was no longer supporting his weight. That didn’t keep her from staying right by his side, her arm around his waist.

  “If this is what the Lord wants for him, you cannot deny it,” Josette said. “I believe this is as it is supposed to be.”

  I took a deep breath. There wasn’t time to argue. “Fine,” I said. “If this is what you want?”

  He smiled. “It is.”

  “You know you won’t be able to fly anymore.”

  His shirt moved as he flexed his wings beneath it. “I’ve never really gotten used to these anyway,” he said.

  “Kneel down.”

  Thomas got on his knees, and I put my hand on his forehead. I’d never tried this on an angel before. Actually, I had only done this once before, to Obi. I let my power flow through my hand and into Thomas, focusing on infusing him with energy. Unlike with Obi, I could feel the power already in him. I concentrated on wrapping my own around it, trying to keep as much of it from leeching away as possible. His wings were folded tight on his back, but I could see the shirt loosening on him as they shrunk away to nothing. A moment later he began to moan, and I knew I had done enough.

  I took my hand away, and Thomas opened his eyes. He looked thoughtful, and then got to his feet. “I think it’s better this way,” he said, stretching his arms and back. “Although I will miss Heaven.”

  “You feel okay?” I asked.

  “Yes. No regrets,” he said.

  “You are quite skilled at bringing people to your cause,” Dante said from over the back of my shoulder, surprising me. I hated when he did that.

  “Dante,” I said. “Meet Thomas.”

  Thomas held out his hand. Dante took it and shook vigorously. “It is my pleasure, signore. Now, I will take you…” He stopped speaking, and his eyes jumped. I was spinning around enough to get dizzy, and now I saw that Charis was headed towards us.

  “Ms. Stone,” Dante said, circling around us to greet her. “It has been a long time.”

  “Dante,” she said, her voice as hard as her name. “Not long enough. All this time, you knew about the Beast, and you said nothing. Do you know what I went through, that you might have been able to prevent?”

  I stepped between them. “Charis, I know how you’re feeling, but we need to do this later, okay? Please.”

  Her eyes spat venom, but she nodded. “You’re right. He’s not worth it anyway.”

  Dante’s face was pale, and he looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but standing there with us. “Are we going then?” he asked, his voice weak.

  “Obi,” I called. “Come on.”

  He came over with Melody and Izak. Dante bowed slightly when the demon reached us.

  “It has been a while, has it not?” he said. Izak nodded. “It is good to see you are free from that one.” Izak nodded again, and smiled. It left me wondering what their history was, that they were so cordial with one another.

  “This is Melody,” Thomas said, motioning to the angel. “Melody, this is Dante.”

  “I know who Dante is,” she said, her voice cool.

  “Ah, still rooting for Heaven?” he asked. She turned red. “No matter. I cannot take you with us, unless you’d like to follow in your mentor’s footsteps.”

  Melody shook her head. “I can’t.”

  “Of course,” Dante said.

  “Melody,” Thomas said. “Please promise me you won’t tell the others about this. Remember what I told you, we don’t know who we can trust.”

  “I know,” she replied. “I promise on His name that I will not reveal anything to them about the Beast, until you tell me I can.”

  Thomas walked over to her, gave her a hug, and kissed her on the forehead. “Thank you,” he said.

  “Izak,” I said, facing the demon. “Thank you for everything. Especially for saving my ass, and Obi’s ass. We’ll meet again, and when we do, I’ll have Sarah with me.”

  He didn’t look too sure of that, but he nodded again.

  “Tell him I love him, and that he is a true spirit of goodness in my eyes,” Josette said. I relayed the message, and a tear rolled down the fiend’s cheek. He grabbed my arm, and looked deeply into my soul. I could feel his power reverberate through me as he expressed himself to her without a word.

  “Let’s go,” Charis said.

  “So, do we have to hold hands and sing cumbaya or something?” Obi asked. “I’ll see you around Melody.” He winked at her, and she blushed.

  “We do have to be touching,” Dante said. I put my hand on one of his shoulders, Charis the other. We all joined from there. Dante closed his eyes and muttered something. I felt a cool breeze, and when I opened my eyes we were standing on the steps of the Library of Congress. That was such an awesome trick.

  “Tax laws, right?” I asked Dante. I felt him wavering under my shoulder, so I shifted my grip to hold him up. His eyes looked a little glassy, and his skin was nearly translucent. “Are you okay?”

  He put his bony hand on mine and patted it. “I’ll be fine, signore,” he said. “I’ve never done so many at such a distance before. Follow me.”

  I had never been to the Library of Congress before. I had seen some pictures of the inside - the huge round reading room with the desks arranged in concentric circles around the center, the grand exterior with the columns and steps. That wasn’t where we were. This building was more flat, edged, and modern. It looked more like a military bunker than a library, at least to me.

  “I thought you said Library of Congress?” I asked.

  “This is the Law Library,” Charis replied. “All of the law books are here.”

  “Over two million,” Dante said. “Come.”

  Dante pulled us through the building at a furious pace, dashing through hallways and corridors too quickly for me to get my bearings. The next thing I knew, we were stopped in front of a huge shelf of books that all looked nearly identical, save for the volume numbers printed on the spine.

  “See, signore. The Bible is still here,” he said. “If Rebecca had found it, I doubt she would have left it for us.” He reached in and pulled a book from the shelf. It was identical to those around it.

  “Heh, I guess nobody ever actually bothers to read the tax laws,” Obi said. “Best hiding place, ever.”

  “The Sleeping don’t even see this book,” Dante replied. He held it in his palm, cover up, and placed his other hand over it.

  “I thought it was a scroll?” I said.

  “This book was made by the first angel, Lucifer himself. It is not bound to any single form.” He closed his eyes and whispered foreign words. The Bible caught fire in his hand, though the flames did him no harm. The original binding burned away, revealing a simple black lacquered wood cover beneath. It bore no writing, no markings or indication of what it was, but now that the glamour had been removed I could feel the energy leeching off of it.

  Dante opened the book, and then set it in front of him, hanging stationary in the air before us. “Here it is,” he said, pointing at the mark, set in gold on the page. “This is the Book of the Beast.” He began thumbing through the pages. “It is a history of the war.”

  We all looked on in amazement. Despite all that I had seen and done as a Divine, the fact that we were looking at text penned by Lucifer himself, before he was cast down to Hell was mind blowing.

  He came to the final page, and rested his finger next to the final passage. “Here is the final passage. The servants used these words to encrypt their code.”

 
; Thomas approached, getting close to it and looking down. “I need a piece of paper, and a pen,” he said. “I’ll write a few of the strings, and hopefully you can help me decrypt them.”

  “I’ll get it,” Obi said, racing out of the room.

  “What does the final paragraph say?” I asked.

  Dante cleared his throat. “For in those final days it came to pass that the Beast was thus defied, the might of his essence imprisoned for all time by the will of God and the sanctity of His creation. We hail the honor and glory of our Lord, and we mark this day as a day of Blessing. Let all of Heaven remember. Let all of Heaven remain. Thanks be to God.”

  He glanced up, the power of the words etched across his face. My limbs tingled in response, and I could tell by Thomas’ and Charis’ expressions that they were sharing the experience.

  Obi came back in with a sheet of copier paper and a pen. He handed it to Thomas. “Amen,” he said. “Now let’s find this thing so we can shut him up once and for all.”

  Thomas took the paper and pen, and wrote out three strings. One was in angelic scripture, two were demonic.

  “How are we supposed to decrypt something that’s written in different languages?” I asked.

  Obi was staring at them intently, his eyes flicking from the Bible to the paper. “Shh,” he said. “Thomas, write out a few more. Make sure you go in order.”

  The former angel complied, writing out a dozen more strings.

  “They alternate,” Obi said. “One demonic, one angelic. It’s not much, but it’s a start.”

  We scanned the strings, we looked at the passage, we scanned the strings again. Thirty minutes passed. An hour.

  “This is going to take forever,” I said. “I don’t think the idea was to create a code that could be cracked in minutes, and every minute we spend could be the last minute we have without the Beast in this world.”

  “Obi,” Thomas said. “Can you get me more paper? Grab as much as you can find.”

  “Sure, man,” Obi replied, heading out again.

  “Thomas, what is it?” I asked.

  “A passing thought. There is a room in the Lord’s palace in Heaven. It is a map of the universe, the breadth of His domain. It is a sight to behold, both in its size and scope.”