by Peach, Hanna
Alyx rolled her eyes. “Tell us something we don’t know, demon.”
“Is she always this pleasant?” Balthazar asked Jordan.
“Take it easy on her. She’s only a new FreeWalker.”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here. I’m right here,” snapped Alyx.
Balthazar finished off his drink. “Some of the greater demons have become sympathetic to Samyara’s cause. Some very powerful demons.”
Alyx remembered the collection of greater demons on Earth that she and Israel had found in the demon den in the Valley of Saint Joseph, and she couldn’t help shuddering.
Balthazar continued, “We have heard of the existence of a keye to unlock the celestial gates including those to Hell. We understand that Samyara is after this keye. One doesn’t have to be a genius to put these things together and create a very disturbing picture that will affect both Hell and Earth. Samyara is planning something. Something big.”
“Okay,” Alyx said. “Big yucky things happening. We got it. What do you want from us?”
“We will defeat Samyara faster if we work alongside each other. Let us share information and resources.”
Alyx’s jaw dropped. “Have you lost your damn mind? You want us to work with you?”
“What is your problem with me, exactly?” Balthazar said, his voice calm and steady, unlike how she was feeling at the moment.
“Apart from the fact that you’re a demon?” Alyx looked over to Jordan for support, but his face was lined with what looked like disapproval. It caused Alyx to begin to question herself. Was her reaction wrong? Was she mistaken somehow?
“Alyx,” Jordan admonished. “Wasn’t it you who said ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’?”
Alyx stared at Jordan. She couldn’t believe he was siding with Balthazar. How much did she really know about Jordan? “But he’s a demon. You want to work with demons?”
“Alyx, things aren’t as simple as that...”
Balthazar interjected, “Let me handle this, Jordan.” Balthazar turned to Alyx. “We are so greatly misunderstood. We may represent the night, death, diseases, destruction... but these are necessary things.”
“You dare to call these things necessary?”
“Without death there is no room for new life. Without destruction there is no space to rebuild afresh. Without your personal demons to overcome – fear, hate, greed – where is your growth? We are your teachers.”
Alyx crossed her arms. “Pretty speech. You practice that into a hairbrush in front of the mirror at home?”
“We are but two sides of the same coin, you and I. The darkness is needed just as much as the light. But there is meant to be a balance. Samyara is trying to upset the balance, to break it apart for his own gain. We must stop him, restore the balance.”
“What about the fact that you demons have to take life from mortals to stay alive on this Earth?” Alyx’s voice was beginning to rise in volume. “Where’s the necessity in that? Where’s the balance in that?”
Balthazar’s face began to show its first signs of strain. “The Hell realm is not perfect by any means, and we know that some demons use humans as a means to escape from it. We don’t condone the possession of humans by demons, but we can’t stop it from happening if the mortal allows it.”
Alyx scoffed. “You try to justify your existence and yet you stand in a mortal’s body, taking life yourself to survive.”
“I had to come through to Earth so that I could discover what Samyara was up to. It is a means to an end. Yes, I must take some life from other mortals so I can remain here, but I am not taking so much that it causes death. I will return my host’s body back to him once I am done.”
“Liar. You can’t do that.” Alyx looked at Jordan. “Can he?”
Jordan nodded.
Balthazar continued, “We must work together to ensure that Samyara does not succeed. Otherwise we – you, I and the entire mortal race – are lost.”
“Ohhhh, I see. You’re the good demons. My mistake.”
“Sarcasm is not a very attractive feature in a woman. Remember,” Balthazar said curtly, “that it was one of your own, one of the ‘good guys’, who gave this piece of the Trinity Amulet to Samyara.”
This made Alyx flinch. Her mind turned over Passar’s actions. And Michael’s. Both Seraphim. And here a demon was offering her help.
When had everything become so complicated? When had everything stopped being so clear?
“Don’t judge me for what I am,” Balthazar said quietly, “or the color of my skin.”
Alyx’s resistance began to fade. She pulled her arms from her defensive position across her chest and let them hang by her side. “Okay, so theoretically we help each other defeat Samyara. Afterwards, then what? We’re on opposite sides again?”
Balthazar smiled. “When this is over, if things have gone our way, hopefully we won’t need to take sides.”
What Balthazar meant by this, Alyx had no idea.
“At the moment we don’t know much more than you do about Samyara,” said Jordan. “We know a little bit about this weapon of his. It’s a type of material out of which he is making swords. There are limited amounts of it on Earth and we are looking at finding the remainder to limit his weaponry.”
“Is this anything we can help you with?”
“No. We can look after this weapon.”
Alyx understood why Jordan didn’t elaborate on Black Stone and why he refused Balthazar’s assistance. Black Stone was a weapon against the Seraphim that no one should have. Not even the supposed good demons.
Balthazar nodded respectfully. “I shall continue to hunt for information regarding this keye and try to contain the outflow of demons from Hell into Earth.”
“How does that work?” Alyx asked. “What happens to the demon in Hell when the demon takes possession of a mortal?”
“The demon’s body remains in Hell in a sort of sleep. We believe Samyara has a secret stronghold somewhere in Hell where the bodies of his followers are kept safe while they move around in their mortal host on Earth. We have agents of ours looking for this stronghold. If we can find them we can contain this threat, but…”
“But what?”
“I believe you have not had the pleasure of visiting Hell. It is… vast. We have been around since the dawn of time and even we have never seen the edges of it.”
We. This demon kept saying we. Before Alyx could ask him about it, Balthazar pulled something from his pocket and held out his hand. “Here, take this.”
In his palm was a tiny cage made of bronze metal on the end of a thin chain of the same metal. Captured inside the cage was a small ruby-brown bug with a polished shell like a gem, red and black patterned wings like a butterfly and an antenna that moved wildly.
Alyx had never seen anything like it. She frowned but made no movement to accept this strange gift. “What is it?”
“It’s a demon Communicator. It’s a small demon-bug with the power to alert its partner; the partners can locate each other. We have its partner.” Balthazar pulled out another cage identical to the one he held out to Alyx. “You can use the Communicator to alert me or vice versa, and we can meet to discuss our findings.”
“Locate? So you can know where I am?” Alyx felt the fire of anger lick at her belly. “How do I know you aren’t trying to trick us? Discover the location of our community and attack us?”
“The creature will only begin transmitting your location once it has been instructed to turn on using the secret word. So you should only turn it on at the location where you wish us to meet.”
Alyx frowned at the creature and crossed her arms. “Nope. Not taking it.”
“Fine. Then I’ll take the Communicator.” Jordan held out his hand.
“You do that and I’ll take Israel and leave. We’ll take our chances on our own.”
“Alyx,” Jordan began to speak.
But Alyx cut him off. “Here he is with his pretty speech and his fancy
bug thing and you’re ready to hand over the location of Aradale. He said that he’s on our side but how do we know we can trust him?”
Jordan took a deep breath, then dropped his hand. “Sorry, Balthazar. Perhaps instead we can leave a message with Loki if we have something and want to meet.”
“Not the most efficient method of communication, but we understand,” Balthazar said.
“Why the hell do you keep saying ‘we’ all the time,” Alyx said, “as if you’re more than one person?”
Balthazar tilted his head and smiled at her out of the corner of one side of his mouth. “I am an Ajna.”
Alyx threw her arms up in frustration. “Like I know what that means.”
“I am bonded to Lucifer. He can see what I see and communicate with me, like his third eye. We have been bonded so long I sometimes forget we are two separate beings; hence, it is truer for me to say ‘we’. It’s similar to the bond that you and the mortal have, being his Guardian.”
“Nothing you have is similar to what Israel and I have.” Alyx snapped and stormed towards the door. “This conversation is over.”
Downstairs, Alyx pushed her way through the Purgatory Bar, garnering growls of annoyance from the demons and Seraphim that she shoved out of her way. It had gotten more crowded since they had first walked in. Demons and Seraphim here together? There was even a mixed couple in one corner, kissing. Jesus, she had seen everything now.
“Alyx, wait. Wait!” She could hear Jordan’s voice calling after her through the density of the chatter around her.
Part of her knew that she was being childish by ignoring his calls for her to stop. But a larger part of her didn’t care. Her whole life she had been taught: Seraphim, good; Demons, bad. This had made things simple. And it had made sense. It had given her life purpose. Fight the demons, kill the demons. But even this turned out to be wrong. What the hell was she supposed to believe in now? What in heaven was she supposed to trust?
Alyx reached the glassy black door to Earth, which disintegrated into dark light as her hand pushed though the mirage. She walked through. Jordan’s voice echoed behind her as she sped through the dark tunnel and back to Earth.
Alyx stepped onto the pavement in this industrial area of Buda-Pesth, her boots clomping hard as she vented her frustration into the ground. The noise was a comfort to her. The ground under her feet here was solid, real, something she could count on.
A hand grabbed her shoulder, swinging her around. Alyx began to grab at her sword but stopped when she realized it was only Jordan.
“What the hell, Alyx?” he said, running his hand through his hair.
“I should be the one asking you that question. Associating with creatures like—”
Jordan pushed her hard, and Alyx slammed into the ground, too stunned to react. “What the—?”
“Look out!” Jordan yelled as he leapt out of the way of a falling sword which clinked to the ground.
There was a whistle behind her, a movement of air. Alyx reacted instinctively and rolled away from the falling sword. The Darkened slashed for her again. She couldn’t roll out of the way fast enough this time. Alyx snatched at her sword and held it across her, halting the Darkened’s sword before it gave her a new haircut… across her throat.
The Darkened-woman above Alyx growled and bared her teeth, if those rotting brown stumps could be called teeth. She lifted her sword and hacked at Alyx’s side. Alyx blocked the sword again and kicked out at the Darkened’s stomach just as a second and third Darkened appeared in her view. Dammit. Alyx pulled at her dagger and tried to fend off the other Darkened. But from her position on the ground it was only a matter of time before one of their blades slashed past her defenses.
“Jordan!” Alyx called, desperation hitching up her voice. But she could see that Jordan was dealing with his own problems. One of the Darkened had him gripped, arms pinned from behind in a way that he couldn’t hit the Darkened with his DreamWalker magic. A second and third Darkened were trying to get their daggers past Jordan’s wild kicking.
Desperate times, desperate measures. Alyx dropped the dagger from her left hand as she pulled at the Fire bloodink at her side and pulsed it towards the closest Darkened. He cried out in pain and stumbled back as his clothes caught on fire.
The sword in her right hand was still busy resisting the blade that was moving towards her sweating brow. Alyx saw a second sword cutting towards her left arm. There wasn’t enough time to pick up her dagger or move out of the way. Alyx braced for the inevitable pain.
She heard a guttural cry from above and the blade that should have carved into her left arm fell to the ground. A large red stain was growing around a hole in the offending Darkened’s stomach. He followed his sword to the ground.
“You,” one of the other Darkened cried at this new unseen player. Alyx could swear that she heard the distinct shudder of fear in his voice. The pressure of the blade against her weapon ceased as the two remaining Darkened lunged for this newcomer.
Alyx leapt to her feet as the sound of clanging swords began behind her.
First, she glanced over at Jordan. Jordan had been released from the arms that had held him. He was now armed again and fighting his attackers back to back with… another Darkened? Was she seeing this properly?
Alyx spun around. Her eyes widened. “You!” she cried but her voice, unlike the Darkened’s earlier, was full of shock.
“A little help?” Balthazar said as he faced off against the two Darkened who previously had Alyx pinned to the ground. This time he had no glamour and his blue skin shimmered with a fury like an angry storm. As Alyx lunged forward, one of the Darkened began to split until there were two identical Darkened side by side.
“What the hell?” Alyx yelled.
“It’s a trickery demon. Only one of them is real.” Balthazar said as he thrust his blade into the stomach of one of the Darkened. It went straight through him.
Alyx sent the tip of her blade into the back of the other Darkened who was beginning to split again. He cried out, the second image disappearing as he collapsed to the ground.
The last Darkened’s eyes skittered from Balthazar to Alyx, then he turned and ran.
Alyx glanced at Jordan and the other Darkened that he had been fighting with. They were clasping hands and talking quietly. The ground around them had earned three more bodies.
Balthazar grunted and shoved his sword into the sheath at his hip, staring off to where the Darkened had run. “If he were working for me, he wouldn’t have run like that. Coward. Samyara obviously has a lot to learn about commanding soldiers.”
He brushed off his jacket with his hands and his skin shimmered and melted to green. He stood before her now dressed again as a lesser demon. Alyx made up her mind never again to underestimate what appeared to be a lesser demon.
“I guess thanks are in order. You came at the right time,” Alyx said.
Balthazar raised an arm out towards the other Darkened. “You have Javar to thank for that. Upon my orders he remained inconspicuous downstairs in the Purgatory Bar. He noticed a group of Darkened looking suspicious and saw them follow the two of you out. Javar alerted me and we followed them. And here we are.” Balthazar ended his sentence by flourishing his hands over the bodies strewn across the ground.
The Darkened named Javar was dipping himself into a low curtsey. Alyx got the chance to look closely at Javar for the first time. He had copper skin under a deep purple suit with a yellow silk shirt unbuttoned enough so that Alyx could see the beginnings of a firm chest underneath and a smattering of dark hair. His shoes were purple snakeskin.
“Javar, at your service,” he said, stepping forward with his hand out.
“Alyx,” she replied and cautiously took his hand. Javar pulled her hand up to kiss the back of it.
“That’s a lot of purple,” Alyx said as she reclaimed her hand from Javar’s lips.
“My dear, there’s no such thing as too much purple.”
“Looks
like you’ve already met Jordan,” Alyx said.
Javar glanced over at Jordan, not bothering to hide his appreciative gaze, and made a languid once-over of Jordan’s entire physique. “Indeed I have.” Turning back to Alyx, Javar leaned in. In a voice that was too loud to be called a whisper he said, “I don’t know how you get any work done with him around.” Then he purred like a cat. The demon actually purred.
Alyx stifled a giggle. Jordan looked unperturbed, as if male Darkened purring over him was an everyday occurrence. Perhaps this was an everyday occurrence. Alyx caught Jordan winking at Javar. Winking.
Balthazar spoke, “They were Samyara’s Darkened. We shouldn’t hang around too long, as the one that ran off may be back with reinforcements. I shall push a mirage around us so that we can’t be seen while you destroy the evidence.”
Alyx moved to the first body. She picked up the Black Stone blade, secured it to her hip, then pulsed the Darkened with Fire. She saw Jordan bending down at the body next to her. It caught on fire as he put his hand to it. Alyx frowned. Jordan didn’t have a Fire bloodink tattoo, did he? Jordan caught her questioning look and held up his hand. There was a small device like a glass tube. “Another one of Tobias’s inventions. It allows you to create small amounts of Fire when you activate it.”
Alyx nodded and they moved from body to body, each body erupting into white and blue flames.
When the last body was set alight, Balthazar said, “You go. I’ll hold this mirage in place until the last body has disintegrated, which shouldn’t be long.”
“Wait,” Alyx said, coming to a decision. “Where’s that Communicator?”
Balthazar slipped his hand in his pocket and brought out the two demon-butterflies in their cages.
“To activate the Communicator say Quaero Quero. We shall come at once.”
“That means to seek in our original language,” said Alyx, a little surprised. “You use the original language as well?”
“Perhaps,” Balthazar said, a strange look in his eyes, “our origins are not so dissimilar.”
