Empyreal (The Earthborn Series Book 1)

by Spencer Helsel

  Jeduthun opened his mouth and the sound that came out shook her bones. It was like the Tigris’s roar times ten. Her knees buckled. It was if she stood in front of a two-story tall subwoofer. It reverberated on her body like waves. Her friends cried out, but protected themselves in time. Unfortunately, the Gatekeepers were not so lucky. Most collapsed, passing out in the seconds it took to fall to the ground. Dani got only a fraction of what they did and even she felt ready to black out.

  Jeduthun stopped. Dani staggered back up to stand, staring at him. Cautiously, she unplugged her ears.

  Her hearing returned slowly. “What the hell was that?”

  Kleos moved his jaw like popping his ears. “Elder Jeduthun has a very rare, unique gift over sound; like your power to speak to birds or Ethan’s to call lightning to his sword. It is why they call him the Lord of Shouting.”

  Jeduthun held out his hands. Ethan’s sword, Stormthrower, shimmered into existence. He held it out to Dani. “When you find him, Guardian Ethan will need this.”

  She didn’t take it. “You believe me?”

  “Of course.”

  “But,” she tried to think, “why are you helping me?”

  “The Council’s investigation will take time. Alecto will kill Guardian Ethan if she does not get what she wants: you.”

  “Me?”

  Jeduthun nodded. “Alecto came to Empyrean under the guise of watching the Trials. We know her true motive now was to gain access to Gabriel’s Horn, but she also took an interest in you. And she took someone special to you.”

  Dani’s ears burned. “Ethan isn’t special to me.”

  “We all know otherwise.” He held out the sword again. “That is why he was taken. She knows you will come for him. The Council would never allow you to go, so I was forced to improvise. Have Kleos take you to the river gate. Find him.”

  She took the sword. “Thank you.”

  “Do not thank me. If Alecto truly took Ethan, then she will expect you. And she is still the fiercest warrior in existence.” He stepped back. “Now go. Good luck.”

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Dani landed on the pavement and a hand caught her arm. Kleos opened the ladder for her, but didn’t follow. He stayed as Numen Gatekeepers pursued them, hoping to give her time.

  Now she looked up to the kind smile of Judah. “Thanks.”

  “Of course, my dear.” The barkeep said. “Come. We should go. You will have pursuers.”

  He led her inside. The club looked like it was under remodel. It was a wreck of overturned and broken furniture, smashed glass, and torn curtains. But it wasn’t a remodel. It was a demolition.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “Demons.” He grunted. “They destroyed most of my golems and my establishment.”

  “Judah, I’m so sorry.”

  “It is nothing that cannot be fixed. It is also not your fault. As I have been informed, the traitor Alecto brought them through my protective spells, not you.” He came around the bar caked with golem clay. “Jeduthun sent me word you were coming. He assumed you would need these.” He handed her two vials. Panacea. “For you and Ethan.”

  “Thank you, but I don’t know where he is. I don’t even know if he’s in Los Angeles.”

  “I do not know, either. I cannot think of a place she would take him.”

  Dani remembered Mastema’s words. The idols. “Judah, what direction is the Wholesale District?”

  “The one near the Los Angeles River? It is not far by flight, I suppose.” He pointed west. “You would need to fly. Could you manage it and to keep behind the veil?”

  She nodded. “I can try.”

  “Then go. Good luck.”

  “Thanks Judah.” Dani ascended the steps and headed to the front. She walked out into the bright daylight and shimmered behind the veil as soon as she stepped onto the pavement.

  ______________________

  Dani fantasized about being Supergirl as she flew over the city. A nice little daydream distraction from her messed-up reality.

  The Wholesale District looked different from the air in the daylight. At first she couldn’t discern which building was the storage warehouse where they found the demon idol. She eventually recognized the street. This time of day, the warehouses bustled with workers or shoppers or the casual truck. She landed in the alleyway, her sword in one hand and Ethan’s sheathed in the other. She quickly strode down the empty street, looking for the entrance.

  She found it and two waiting wraiths seconds later.

  Two demons dressed as delivery truck drivers guarded the door. Dani appeared from the veil, not caring whether they saw her or not. Her blade ignited as she strode across the parking lot. The two monsters leapt forward like feral dogs.

  She cut them down in seconds.

  Blade wiped clean, there were no more in sight, so Dani tried the side door. Unlocked. It was stupid to try to sneak in. Alecto took Ethan on purpose. If she wanted Dani to come, she’d be expecting her. There was no element of surprise.

  She crept softly into loading bay, sword up. No demons lay in wait. Her footsteps barely registered in the deafening silence. Dust-caked windows cast gray blue hues across the floor. She moved softly across the open space, keeping a nervous eye out.

  It was empty except for Ethan, who lay in the middle of the floor with his hands and feet bound by bolted-chains to the floor.

  A new demonic graven image stared at Dani from a table behind him. Now, it wasn’t some harmless sculpture. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. The air smelled acrid, like a car battery exploded. Underneath that was the stench of demons. Sulfuric brimstone. She kept her sword ready as she made her way towards Ethan.

  He heard footsteps and turned in her direction. “Dani!” he hissed. “Dani, what are you doing here?”

  “I’m here to rescue you. Duh.” She knelt next to him. “Are you okay?”

  “Dani, it’s not a demon! It’s—!”

  “Alecto. I know.” She put down his sword and sheathed hers. The chains on his wrists and ankles were not metal, but black steel. Stygian. “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know.” He shook his head. “You shouldn’t be here. Alecto wants you to come.”

  “Yep. I know that, too.” She touched the black metal and yanked her fingers back. She expected hellish metal to burn, but instead it was so cold it stung like needles. Ethan’s bound wrists bruised with frostbite.

  “Leave Dani.” Ethan warned quietly. “Please. I don’t know why you’re here or why she took me, but go!”

  “I’m not leaving.” She had to cut these chains off. “And you know why I’m here.”

  His eyes met hers. He did. Even if neither of them was going to say it, they both knew.

  He shook his head. “I’m not letting something happen to you because of me. Go. Get the others and tell them what’s happening. Tell them to kill Alecto. You don’t know what she’s planning.”

  “Let me guess: free demons with Gabriel’s Horn?”

  “Well, I never did take you for a fool.”

  Dani spun, sword drawing in one fluid motion. Alecto stood a few feet from the tip of her pointed blade. She looked as heavenly as ever, but wore her armor; black stygian laced into a silvery adamantine battle-dress, breastplate and bracers. Her flail and stygian sword hung from her belt, but she kept her hands innocently folded. She looked harmless. Beautiful.

  Almost. Even tigers looked beautiful if you ignored the claws and teeth.

  Dani swallowed her fear, keeping her sword up. “You look a lot prettier than the last time I saw you. I got to say: when you have a bad hair day, you really have a bad hair day.”

  “Bravado. I always admired that about you, Dani. Yes, my more,” she licked her lips, “monstrous side is hard to stomach, but it is very well at home in Hell. Demons fear my other visage. I’ve never shown it to the men of Empyrean. Tugging on their heart-strings is easier when I appear as this.”

  “You’re ugly to m
e either way.”

  Alecto chuckled. “You’ve always had such courage in the face of your enemies.”

  She raised her blade a little higher. “I’m facing one right now.”

  “Are you?” The Fury asked. “Are you really? Am I your enemy, or is it those in Empyrean that sought to undermine, threaten, and kill you? Tell me: is your life worth theirs?”

  Dani gripped her sword tighter. She said nothing.

  Alecto’s wings hissed along the floor as she paced around her, speaking in an even, innocent tone. “I knew you’d come for him. It is no secret what is between you. Love, much like anger, has a particularly telling energy. It leaves its mark. You would come for no one else.”

  “I would.” She insisted. “The people in Empyrean are my friends.”

  “Friends? Really? Do friends cower behind you and avoid conflict as Bouden? Do friends fly into a jealous rage like Nathaniel? Do friends wish to imprison, or worse kill you, as the Elder Council attempted? Or not stand with you like the gifted?” she smiled knowingly. “And what of your attackers in the Vale? What would they have,” her lip curled in disgust, “had of you if not for the intervention of your caladrius and centaur companions?”

  “Don’t pretend like you care about Caesar or Nessus. Or me.” Dani put herself between Alecto and Ethan.

  “I do care for Nessus. He is like I: a creature cast aside by humanity and the Numen. Left for dead by God’s supposed special species. We are monsters to be feared and reviled, except when we fight the demonic for them. Then, we are cannon fodder. I’ve seen my kind slaughtered because Numen wish not to stand against Hell’s fires with us. I would seek to save Nessus, the bird and you. I would save all who are forgotten by the misogynistic tyranny of God.”

  “God’s a misogynist? Really? Have you ever met the Man?”

  “I do not need to. His evil is evident.”

  “I find that funny since last time I checked, He wasn’t the one attacking and killing my friends.” She shook her head. “You remember all my friends, right? You forgot one. His name was Ailbe. We called him Dink. You killed him and left him choking on the floor in a pool of his own blood. You want to talk evil?”

  “He was a cog in the machine that continues the slaughter of my kind for their benefit. He stood in the way of my vengeance.”

  “Is that why you’re doing this?” she asked. “To get back at God and the Numen? You infiltrate and then take them down from the inside? That’s very Mean Girls of you.”

  “There’s that infamous wit of yours, Dani. Have you not seen what they are like?” Alecto shot back. “I have. I was an honest servant once. I tried to ignore what I knew in my soul, until I could ignore it no longer. How are such vile creatures part of a divine plan? Numen are as fallen as the angels of old.” Dani flinched. Alecto smiled. “Yes. I watched the angels destroy most of Creation. I saw those impudent children rip apart the galaxy, decimate species you’ve never heard of, destroy worlds full of God’s other creations; my kind along with it. Other Hellions, before there was such a word, had their lives wiped from existence. And for what? Because God created you.”

  The emotion in her voice made Dani’s skin crawl. She heard anger plenty of times. This wasn’t anger. This wasn’t even rage. It was fury.

  “Humanity. You were His perfect creations; a symbol of greatness for billions upon billions to admire. You, a bunch of mud-slinging apes, given an honor you’ve squandered. When the seeds of your existence evolved, when the first Homo sapiens came from the creatures that preceded you, you were promised to be greatest amongst the flock. The whole of Creation felt God’s love for you. And all you’ve done since then is fight and fornicate yourselves to death. And the Numen? They are the worst of your species. Haughty. Arrogant. Self-centered and self-serving. You believe yourselves to be the inheritors of His angels?” She shook her head. “You are more right than you can imagine. You are just like them.”

  Dani found her voice. “And you think siding with demons is a better choice? Their god was—as my kind would put it—an immature, selfdestructive, putrid scum. And, I remind you, he was an angel. He started everything that led to your species’ destruction.”

  “Is that so?” Alecto’s voice was full of contempt and mirth. “You believe the angel Lucifer is to blame?”

  “Well, obviously, you don’t, but you drank the demonic KoolAid.”

  “You know nothing, Daniella del Lucio!” Alecto seethed. “You know nothing of Lucifer, his children or the angels. You have been fed a lie. You are on the wrong side if you stand with the Numen.”

  “I’m not going to argue that. Hell, I’d like it stick it to half the Elder Council, pointy-end of the blade first. And the one angel I met has some growing up to do. But just because I may not be on the right side doesn’t mean you are, either. A choice between scum and sewage doesn’t make one better than the other.” She raised her sword again. “Where’s the horn?”

  Alecto raised her hands. The air shimmered and it appeared between them. Dani never paid attention to the statue of Gabriel. She didn’t remember what the horn looked like. She imagined a modern jazz trumpet or a long-stemmed flute, but what appeared in Alecto’s hands was something more like a ram’s horn than a horn horn. It was made of spiraled white bone and shone in the gloom of the warehouse. Tapered at one end and a large mouth at the other, if someone held it to their lips it would angle above their head. Gabriel’s Horn radiated energy unlike anything Dani ever felt. She was drawn to it. It called to her.

  “You can feel it, can’t you?” Alecto marveled, running her hands across the marble surface. “The Horn of the Archangel Gabriel. With the power to call forth the truth of Creation, unbind that which was bound and herald the beginning of Judgment Day.”

  “Don’t count on Judgment Day starting any time soon. Gabriel won’t blow that kazoo.”

  “The legend says the Horn of Gabriel will signal the end of times. Who said Gabriel had to be the one to do it?”

  Dani felt a tremor run down her spine. “What have you done?”

  The Fury played the horn through her hands, caressing it lovingly. “Such a remarkable weapon. Imagine it: the gift of an angel to undo the power of angels. You know,” she said casually, “the first demons were terrifying creatures. They were created to oppose God and His angels. Lucifer made them the perfect opposites. They were fearsome. When the War was over, angels bound them to Hell with their creator to torment him. Their children lived on, or escaped Hell, but the originals could not until now.”

  Dani already knew. “The idols. They’re like some sort of worship beacons.”

  “All holy objects are. They take on the power of their worshippers. Demons worship their ancestors. With enough power, they can influence this world. With more, could be raised. But that kind of faith is difficult to come by. This,” she raised the horn reverently, “speeds up that process.”

  “Dani,” Ethan warned, “she’s used it already.”

  Dani glanced at the idol, which radiated dark energy. “What did you summon, Alecto?”

  “I’ve summoned many. Hell is coming to Earth and the Numen will know what it is like to stand on the frontlines. The demon lords have risen.” The cruelest smile crossed her lips. “But in particular? That idol? He was the one I truly wanted. He can unite Hell against the Numen. They call him Belial. And he is very glad to be free.”

  She placed the horn down. She faced Dani, only a few paces away. Then she drew her sword. The black, double-edge blade shone with purple and blue hues, so deep she could barely see them. The stygian glinted, but instead of light, it reflected the darkness of its surface.

  “You cannot stop them, Dani. This is your last chance. Do not side with the corrupt Numen or their God. Join us.”

  Dani glanced at Ethan. The Council, Michael, Andreas, Lester; all of them were horrible human beings. But Ethan? Her friends? Mastema? She was not a fan her new people as a whole, but there were a few worth fighting for. And the gifted needed
protection. If there were a few, she was ready to lay it down to protect them.

  “Only my friends call me Dani,” she told her, raising her sword again, “and hell no.”

  “Then your choice is death.”

  Alecto transformed. Her skin turned black. Her eyes became blood red. Her feathers melted into bat wings and her hands and feet morphed into claws. Her demonic form surged to life. Twisted, sharp teeth spewed saliva as she screeched and leapt the short distance, sword slashing.

  The first blow was so hard it shook Dani’s bones. She blocked and parried, slicing out and cutting across Alecto’s armor, but it protected the Fury from the edge. Alecto struck, smashing the pommel of her sword across Dani’s unprotected wounded shoulder. The wound was healed almost completely, but it was enough to stagger her.

  Alecto thrust her double-edged stygian blade at Dani’s gut. She turned her body sideways to avoid it, using her adamantine bracer to fend it off before slashing again with her blade, this time to stop Alecto’s attacking bat wing. Her glowing empyreal blade caught flesh and tore a gash. Alecto screamed.

  Dani went on the attack, cutting and hacking, forcing Alecto away from Ethan. She drove her back. When the Erinys countered, Dani brought up her forearm and used the bracer to block. Pain and numbness shot down her right arm. The adamantine armor caught it, but taking the full force of blow probably fractured something underneath.

  Alecto screeched with an unholy battle cry, attacking with one of her clawed feet. Dani caught it along the greaves, then jumped and landed on the same foot, delivering a practiced kick to her midsection. Again, Alecto was forced back. Dani was winning.

  But just like her attack on the city, everything the Fury did was misdirection. Dani was too slow to see it.

  The stygian sword sliced open Dani’s thigh as soon as her kick landed. With a sudden fury, the demonic Hellion charged forward, one strike after another so quick Dani could barely stop them before another came. Her sword absorbed the blows along the glowing steel, but as her confidence waned and cold pain coursed through her injured leg, she began failing.

  Their blades connected, hilts crossing. Alecto used her free hand to claw into Dani’s left shoulder. She nearly lost her sword, screaming in agony as her flesh rended from her arm. Alecto spun and struck with her other wing, throwing Dani across the room into a pile of refuse.