Cataclysm

by Karice Bolton

  A huge winter storm made its way to Whistler, and it would disguise anything that might be of questionable sound or sight. Even if there were a few mortals placed here or there on the glacier, there was no way they would see anything. I would make sure of it.

  Matilda was following me down the hall everywhere I went. She didn’t want me out of her sight, and I wondered how much she sensed right now. Being so close to the main battle, combined with the immediacy of this one being thrown into the mix, had to be causing stress beyond us four. I was sure Matilda sensed it.

  Grabbing the snow gear out of the guest closet, I heard Athen walking down the hallway. There was no stopping me from doing this, and he recognized that, but he still wasn’t happy about it. Spinning around to see him, I was completely mesmerized by his energy.

  “How’s it going?” he asked gently. “Need any help?”

  “Pretty much set, I think.” We both knew now was not the time to bring up the do’s and don’ts of such a battle. It had to be done, and we might as well enjoy one another’s company. Same kind of philosophy as never going to bed mad, I guess.

  “I love you,” Athen’s voice hit me hard. I had to destroy Lilith. I couldn’t lose.

  “I love you too,” I whispered. “I’m gonna be fine. I promise.”

  “We’ll be close by. If you need anything, we’ll be there in under a minute.”

  “I know, sweetie. I appreciate that. I only hope I can finish her off myself so it can be over with once and for all.” Saying it out loud felt good. It felt tangible.

  “You’ll be able to.” He nodded, pulling me over to sit next to him on the bed.

  “I sure hope so.” Was all that escaped.

  I had spent so long with her in the back of most of my thoughts. It was hard to believe that soon I might actually be able to experience peace. I could end her from this realm and the next. There are very few ways a demon can be ended and not reincarnate, and it just so happens, one of those ways is for a blood relative to do the deed. It seems like the perfect use for the weak lineage between us two. Couldn’t think of a better way to end our relationship.

  “Purgatory doesn’t seem bad enough for her does it?” he ventured, his arm wrapped around my shoulders.

  “Not, nearly… But it will have to do,” I said, my head against his chest. Feeling both the comfort of his embrace, and Matilda’s weight on my foot, gave me the last boost of energy I needed to begin my journey to the top of Whistler.

  “I think I should head up there. My pack is downstairs. The sooner the better, right?” The anxiety began building within the walls of my abdomen. I couldn’t wait to match my dreams and make it a reality. As I lifted my toes, Matilda let out a few snorts and snores when she shifted to her next resting spot.

  ***

  The pure white snow was in stark contrast to the pale turquoise glacier, and I had to let myself not get distracted by the beauty of it all. I knew Lilith would be here any minute, if she wasn’t already spying on me. I couldn’t afford to not be on point. Regardless of how confident I felt about our plan, I had to be on guard for whatever she might bring to the encounter as well.

  Turning to scan the glacial bowl that I was in, I saw the other mountain peaks were spotted in wildflowers and alpine trees, doing nothing to help me spot her. She could be perched in any of the trees just as my family was. The coldness of the steel blades, I had securely fastened along my body, alerted me to the gravity of the situation.

  “She’s coming up behind you,” Athen’s voice channeled to me.

  Spinning around, I saw Lilith walking up the trail to where I stood. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was one of the day hikers this area was known for. I kept silent. I wanted her to be the first to voice her intentions. I knew what mine were.

  “Amazing view, isn’t it?” Lilith’s voice made a tingle move up my spine.

  I only nodded at her.

  “Azazel wanted me to destroy you. I, of course, told him I couldn’t do that. You’re my sister, after all.” Her lips curled into the evil grin I remembered all too well.

  “What’s your point?” I shot back at her, crossing my arms.

  “I don’t think you understand the amazing life you could have, if you came over to our side willingly. I don’t have to answer to anyone. I’m in charge of my own faction. The immortals and mortals are at my disposal for any task I want to watch happen. It’s extraordinary,” her excitement oozed through every syllable.

  “How’s that supposed to be enticing?” I anchored my feet firmly into the dirt, ready for an attack at any moment. If the only way to get Lilith alone was for a possible recruitment session, I didn’t care. I’d listen to her disgusting spiel.

  “The power, my dear sister. Don’t you get it?” she laughed.

  “I guess I really don’t. You said that you don’t have to answer to anyone? I’d say that’s nowhere near close to the truth. Lilith, you kiss the ground Azazel walks on. You do whatever he wants you to do. You probably are the same with Asmodeus too.” It was hard not to run at her, but I had to wait for the right moment. “I wouldn’t call that power.”

  “I choose to listen to Azazel’s guidance. That’s completely different than what you are implying. As for Asmodeus, he’s no longer in the picture. He didn’t have the same goals as Azazel. Come on. I know you’ve been a little envious of the power we’ve had over these mortals.” Her drawl was infuriating, but I did my best to behave.

  “I feel so sorry for you. Your idea of power is a lot different than mine. I want the power to help mortals choose right from wrong. I want the power to be able to turn someone’s bad day into a good day. I want to help mortals continue to live on this earth for as long as possible. It’s a lot easier to destroy a society than to build one. I don’t see that as power. I see it as desperation, because the good keeps winning over the bad. It always has and it always will.” My heart was beating so fast as I thought about the little girl and her parents. No child should lose their parents to these evil creatures, but it happened.

  Lilith’s strength seemed to be evaporating with every word I spoke. I wasn’t sure what was causing this obvious disintegration, but I couldn’t count on it to last.

  “You always think that love will withstand all. That it will save everything. Well, you’re wrong. It destroys everything it touches,” she spouted off at me. Her voice reeked of desperation.

  It finally hit me. She blamed love for all of her pain. Her mother was taken from earth because she loved my father. Her father was taken because he was in love with my mother. In her eyes, love is what causes pain.

  Immediately, the hatred I had been feeding off of for so long began to slowly dissipate. It wasn’t her fault.

  “Don’t let your guard down, Ana,” Athen directed into me. “It may not be her fault, but she still wants to destroy you.”

  “Is that why the Lamie exist?” My mind was traveling seventy miles an hour. “To interfere with love?”

  “Partly,” she replied coldly. “It’s not quite that simple, doll.”

  I was going to try something that was probably going to fail, but at least, I will have tried.

  “I’m sorry our father wasn’t there for you. He wasn’t there for any of us. It wasn’t his fault.” I did my best to look directly into her eyes. A chill went straight through to my bones the longer I held my stare. There really was no life left in those eyes.

  “You think that’s what all of this is about?” her laughter rang into the air.

  “Partly,” I replied flatly, not impressed with her inability to hold a deep conversation.

  “It’s about power. That’s all it’s about. I was offering you in on our future. There’s nothing more to it than that. Either you want to help shape the world to our vision or you don’t,” she said.

  “Really. So if I just say no, you’re going to march off the mountain and be done with me?” I rolled my eyes. My fingers began zinging with the longing to take her down. Her absol
ute distaste for the living was more than I could reason away. She was a lost cause.

  “Well, for now,” she grinned. “Azazel certainly won’t forget about you for long. You’re just not my problem to deal with. He’s got others in mind for you. I think he’s even got a brand-new pair of shackles for you.” Her eyes turned to tiny slits, waiting for my reaction. I gave her none.

  “Don’t you ever want to experience what it’s like to watch someone’s soul come to the dark side? Watching the light slowly extinguish itself is the most invigorating thing to experience.” The life began to appear in her voice again. Death of mortals was stirring the excitement up in her. Athen and everyone had been right. There were some beings that were too evil to change.

  “I was hoping you were here to fight me, because I have no intention of us both making it off this mountain.” My stance was readying for the fight of a lifetime. The anger, from all of those moments she and Athen shared, was brewing quickly inside me. The images of her trying to seduce him fed the fire that had been lit since my first encounter with the serpent in my dreams.

  A cry rang through the air as she began her transformation into her serpent form. The moment I had been craving for months was finally at my fingertips. The fury was running through my veins. I shut my mind off from Athen, Cyril, and Arie. They were on their way over, and I didn’t want them to hear the thoughts that might run through me. They were flying through the air at a speed I never thought possible and landed directly behind me.

  “Let me finish her off,” I hollered, more for myself than anyone else.

  I threw off my jacket, exposing the many shiny blades I had ready for her. Her legs began twisting into the one snake-like appendage that I had seen many times before. Being in this glacier bowl, there was no place for her to slither up to. In this form, she’d have to stay on the ground.

  The ugliness of her being announced its arrival, and I grabbed the first knife I touched, readying myself for her initial attack. Her serpent tail began twitching as she slid her way over to me. There was no fear inside of me. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

  “I promised Azazel that I’d leave you for him, but I guess I lied,” she cackled, directly in front of me.

  Shooting into the air, I dropped quickly behind her watching how sluggishly this form she chose moved. Stabbing the tip of the blade into her tail, I lodged it into the ground. Her body began flailing, and I immediately grabbed another knife repeating the same pattern.

  “We can end it now!” Athen yelled.

  “I don’t want this to end. I want her to tell me how much she enjoyed killing mortals and using their souls.” A seed of wickedness began emerging deep within my own body.

  Her body was flopping around, trying to remove the blades that were anchoring her to the glacier, and I didn’t care.

  “Ana, be careful,” Arie whispered.

  I shot directly over to Lilith, dodging her arms that were no longer trying to dislodge the blades. Instead, her claws were reaching for me, swiping at me with every motion. I hovered high enough to be out of her reach, but to taunt her just enough.

  “Tell us! Tell us how powerful you are! Tell me why I need to come to your side!” I screamed. The energy running through my body was like a drug. Punishing her for all the wrongs she’s done to so many innocents. “You think you have something to offer the world! You have nothing but hatred. Come on, tell me why I should come to the dark side.”

  “That energy you’re feeling right now? You’ll get that all the time! That’s the power I’m talking about.” Her eyes were glowing.

  Before I knew it she roared into the wind, lifting her tail from the snow. All of the ice that she was attached to, shattered into thousands of pieces. It was a trap. I let my ego get the better of me. I let hate win.

  Athen’s body glided into the air instantly, and I followed his lead. Cyril and Arie prepared to enter the battle I never should have started.

  Reaching Athen, I did everything I could to keep my tears inside.

  I looked back down on the ground and saw Lilith’s latest transformation back to her humanoid shell almost complete.

  “Let’s just end this,” I sighed.

  “Yeah, you’ve got it,” Athen quietly replied.

  Athen grabbed my hand, and we darted down to the earth’s surface. We were up against an evil we may never totally understand, but we would do everything we could to stop it.

  Landing next to Cyril and Arie, we all went to our battle position to meet Lilith.

  As I was reaching for another one of my knives, Athen chuckled.

  “Do you still think you need those?” he was completely amused.

  “We don’t have time for your humor,” I uttered, watching Lilith complete her transformation.

  “It’s like her baby blanket,” Cyril hollered back to us.

  “Knock it off, people,” I mumbled.

  “It’s okay, Ana,” Arie exclaimed. “You’re doing fabulous, regardless of the instruments you rely on.”

  Lilith charged at us, but not before, we shot into the air. She followed right after us, letting her anger take charge. Stopping instantly as everyone else flew by, I waited for her.

  She shot over to me and grabbed my hair flinging me across the sky. Feeling dizzy with cartwheels, I somehow completed an upright turn. Lilith charged towards me, but this time, I dodged out of her grasp. Instead, my fingers dug deeply into her arm. Squeezing with intensity, I didn’t know was mine, I crashed her body onto the ice. Pieces of powder flew into the air, with the weight of her body settling. Her eyes looked up at mine, still cold and smug. She would never learn. I shoved her across the ice, meeting her where she stopped at the other end. Her hand reached for my throat, but not before, I grabbed hers. Throwing her back against the glacier, the images of her and Athen flooded through me once more.

  Lilith jumped up and grabbed my waist, pushing me down to the snow. Her face was only inches from mine. I placed my hand over her face, shoving her away from me. Her laughter began to fill the air, which only added to my fury. There was nothing funny about this situation. It was just another way she got under my skin.

  I quickly shot into the air, creating a mini shockwave, hoping she would follow. The ice-cold air was skimming my skin, as I sailed through the trees, circling the area. Flying back to where I had barely left, I saw her impatience escalating. It was only a matter of time.

  Hovering above the glacier, I saw her body shoot towards me. Dodging to the left, I flew towards the trees. Landing on the tallest fir, I waited for her to catch up. Her arms were stretched as she came barreling towards me. I welcomed her grasp while I sat on the limb, my legs dangling. The moment she clamped onto me, I let my body fall backwards, with my knees securely fastened on the limb. Her body went flying, crushing itself into the other tree limbs surrounding me, before I let go.

  Her body tumbled from limb to limb, until she regained her strength. This time it was my turn to laugh. I sprung up and stood on the limb.

  “Didn’t like your tumble, doll?” I scoffed, before shooting back down to the glacier.

  She was flying right behind me. I could taste her madness. Suddenly, her fingers wrapped around my ankle, making me come to a complete stop. She had me dangling in the air. Athen, Cyril, and Arie were down below, looking up at me in this very precarious situation. Lilith flung me towards the ground, where my body smacked into the surface. Thankfully, it was in more powder than ice. She landed next to me and kneeled down, about to say something snide, when I quickly kicked my foot into her abdomen. She fell backwards, gasping, and I jumped back onto her.

  “Enough of this,” I whispered to her. “Time to end your terrible acts against humanity.”

  She clutched her abdomen, and her eyes were closed. I grabbed her neck and dragged her to the edge of the glacier.

  Holding Lilith’s throat with my fingers tightly wrapped around her flesh, I dangled her over the cliff. The glorious feelings began overtaking my mind
. I had been on a pursuit of her for so long. I had dreamed of the day when I could deliver her bottled up self to the messengers to be stored forever in the land of the lost. That dream was finally at my fingertips.

  “You will no longer be the world’s problem.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lilith croaked out, attempting to bargain.

  “I don’t think sorry will bring back the souls you’ve stolen over your lifetime. Thanks though.” My snide remark caught the attention of Athen, who came over to see how I was doing.

  My arm that dangled Lilith over the edge of nothingness felt no heaviness. Adrenaline kept pumping into me with the strength that I needed.

  “Are you going to start the process soon, hun? We should probably get going.” His voice instantly calmed me and emptied me of all hatred.

  “Oh, my god,” Lilith uttered towards Athen. “The beauty and love in your eyes…”

  I squeezed tighter.

  “Let go a little,” Athen pointed at Lilith. “What?”

  “When you speak to Ana, her eyes become filled with a love I’ve never seen,” Lilith barely whispered the words that would change everything.

  I spun my head to Lilith, expecting the stare of death looking back at me, but I caught some sort of light.

  Gasping, I stepped back from the cliff a little, with her still dangling.

  “Arie, come quick!” Athen yelled.

  I immediately began channeling to Athen a flood of emotions.

  “I saw light in her eyes, Athen. I saw it. I didn’t think that was possible.” Panic immediately set in. Could she be changing? Was this a trick?