The Omega Effect

by Noree Cosper

  I took a taxi to the hotel. Adrian stood outside with Lucy. She was dressed in leather from head to toe and was playing with the punching daggers Adrian had made for her. Adrian stood in his long coat with his arms crossed.

  “I thought we may need an extra hand since we couldn’t get a hold of Marge,” he said.

  I nodded. “Good idea. Are we ready for this? Did you come up with anything to fight nephilim?”

  He shook his head. “No, I’ve been working on something else.”

  “What could be more important than taking out the nephilim?”

  “Something that may work on their boss,” he said.

  I sigh. “Alright, so we just have to work with what we have. They can still bleed if we can get past their powers.”

  We walked through the lobby to the elevators. The front desk was busy with a line of customers, so no one spared us much of a glance. A sense of Déjà Vu warred with the tightness in my chest as we rode up to the penthouse. A month ago, I’d come to fight a demon. Now, I didn’t know what I was going to face.

  Adrian touched the doorknob and the light on the electronic lock blinked green. I stepped inside first, with my hand hovering at the hilt of one of the Kali Sticks. The main room of the penthouse had been refurnished. A blue couch sat between two matching arm chairs with a glass coffee table in front of it. Along the back wall stood a dining table. Viktor sat in one of the chairs, resting his elbows on the table as he stared at the woman across from him. Marge.

  Heat flooded through my veins. “What the hell?”

  Both jumped. Marge leapt to her feet with a scowl.

  “Why are you here?” I asked her.

  Adrian stepped inside the room. “It appears she’s turned on us.”

  “Not really.” Marge stuffed her hands in her pockets. “I got a lead on one of the nephilim and followed them here.”

  “So, what, you decided to have a sit down and join Sariel?” My fists clenched with the urge to punch her.

  “I wanted to see what Viktor had to say.” Marge crossed her arms. “Esais is his boyfriend.”

  “That’s not Esais,” Lucy said. “He’s the thing that killed you in the first place.”

  “And got rid of the contract that would have made me a demon’s bitch,” Marge said. “Angel freak or not, he did a hell of a lot more than you did in the last three months.”

  My glare traveled from her to Viktor. “And you? You’re working for Sariel now, too?”

  He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “I don’t see what choice I have.”

  “You always have a choice,” I said in a cold tone. “You chose to run from me in the hospital. We could have protected you.”

  “Esais would be disappointed in you,” Lucy said.

  Viktor hung his head. “You don’t understand. He’s my guardian angel. We’ve all trusted him since we were children.”

  “You were duped,” Adrian said. “That’s a lame excuse.”

  “Sariel called you here?” I asked Viktor. “How long has he been planning this?”

  “Aaron and I were already here,” Viktor said. “By providence. He called Irae.”

  I crossed my arms as the feeling from last night resurfaced. “I know how you feel, but you can’t just give into him.”

  “He is an Archangel. He can’t be stopped,” Viktor said.

  “He can be banished like any other spirit of the Eclipse,” I said. “His plans can be stopped, but I need to know what those are.”

  Marge snorted. “He plans on taking out all the demons in a pretty hardcore way.”

  “A way that will also kill a lot of people in New York. Children, remember?”

  Marge’s jaw tightened, and she sat back in the chair with her gaze falling on the table.

  “I know you want to see dead demons, but are you really okay with dead children?” I asked.

  “And what about the people who used Blasphemy?” she asked. “Are they supposed to get away with it?”

  “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone,” I quoted. “As long a someone is alive they have a chance to be redeemed. They can’t if they are dead.”

  She waved her hand at me. “Fine, you made your point. I probably was just gonna wait here and kick his ass, anyway, when he showed up.”

  “If he showed up,” Adrian muttered. “This may just be for the nephilim.”

  “You really think you can find a way to stop him?” Viktor looked at me with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

  “Yes. I think we can,” I said.

  He took a deep breath. “At first, he was so reasonable. I didn’t know he planned to take it this far.”

  I leaned forward. “How far?”

  Viktor swallowed hard. “I’m supposed to be his grand finale.”

  “And how are you supposed to do that?” Adrian asked.

  “I can telekinetically squeeze organs like hearts and arteries. The smaller it is, the easier it is for me to manipulate.”

  I shook my head. “But that’s going to be millions of people.”

  “Sariel plans to mentally connect me to them.”

  “All at once?” Lucy asked with a raised eyebrow.

  Viktor let out a huff of breath in a bitter laugh. “He’s boosted all of our powers. How do you think Aaron was capable of creating a wind to fly?”

  “Still,” I said. “That will kill you.”

  “I know,” Viktor said. “But he believes it’s necessary to eradicate the growing plague of demons, as he puts it.”

  “At the cost of your life?” I asked. “And the whole city with it?”

  Marge shrugged. “To him, some eggs have to be broken. At least he has a plan, unlike us.”

  “He can do so without Viktor.” I stepped forward and held my hand out to him. “Help us stop him.”

  Viktor stood, biting his lip. “I—”

  Aaron’s voice came behind us in the hall. “He’s not going anywhere.”

  Chapter 30

  I started and spun. Aaron stood next to Irae, who had that crazed smile on her face. How had we not heard them approach? The elevator hadn’t dinged or anything.

  A ball of flame formed in Irae’s hand. She smirked and hurled it at me. I dodged back into Adrian and we staggered into the hotel room. I caught Adrian’s arm and spun us closer to the wall to avoid crashing into the coffee table. The fire flew past me, singeing my hair, and hit the glass sliding door that led out to the patio. Sparks burst as the flames dissipated. Viktor to jumped out of his chair.

  Lucy cracked her fingers. “It’s on, zealot.”

  Irae sneered at her. “How well do you burn, demon child?”

  She tossed another ball of flame at Lucy. Lucy’s gaze darted around the room and she turned, so it hit her in the back. She let out a small grunt and slapped at her back, killing the flames before they ate too far into her clothing. She turned, rushed Irae, and drove her fist in the girl’s stomach.

  Aaron dashed into the room and vaulted over the armchairs and couch to come to stand beside the glass door. Marge pushed Viktor behind her and charged at Aaron with her hands raised. Aaron flicked his wrist and sent the girl flying into the wall. A large crack spread from where her body hit, and her head slammed back. She slid to the floor, slumping over.

  Damn. I directed my glare at Aaron. He smirked at me and turned his back on us to stare up at the sky.

  “He’s up to something,” I said to Adrian.

  He pushed me forward. “Stop him then. I’ll cover you.”

  I darted around the couch and headed for Aaron. One of Irae’s fireballs slammed into my back. White hot pain blossomed when the flames hit, and I spun to the side. I hit the ground and rolled, trying to put out the fire before it burnt through my clothes.

  Aaron smirked down at me and held his hands in front of him. The air grew frigid and a wall of ice formed around him and the door in a semicircle. Damnit. It would take me forever to chip through that thing.

  I glanced up at Viktor. “Help us.”r />
  He looked from Aaron to me and bit his lip. With a nod, he narrowed his gaze at Irae. She was lifted into the air and flung backwards. She went tumbling into the hall. The door slammed closed.

  I climbed to my feet and nodded to the ice wall. “Think your telekinesis can knock this down?”

  “I think so.”

  Viktor narrowed his eyes at the wall with his brow furrowing. A wave of force slammed into the wall and created a basketball-sized crack. I pulled out my sticks. I took two steps, spun, and slammed both sticks into the crater. The wall cracked a little more.

  The front door flung open with a wave of heat. Irae stepped inside with her face twisted in a scowl. She pointed her finger at Lucy. A gout of flame shot out and hit Lucy in the chest. Lucy flung herself against the wall and batted at the flames licking up her sleeve. Irae stood back, laughing as she fed the fire. Adrian raised his gun to Irae. She lifted her other hand in Adrian’s direction. The gun in his hand glowed. He yelled a curse and dropped the gun to clutch his hand.

  Aaron called from behind his ice wall. “It’s time.”

  “Finally,” Irae said.

  A burst of white hot energy exploded from Irae and slammed into all of us. I was knocked off my feet. Viktor crashed into the table, and it flipped over on top of him. Adrian slammed back into the wall. Lucy, already against the wall, was bounced off it, her head jerking forward.

  The ice wall around Aaron crumbled under the pressure of the heat. He stood with the patio door open and a chill crept into the room, killing Irae’s heatwave.

  There was a skip in Irae’s step as she sprinted towards Aaron. Her gaze darted from me to Viktor. With a scowl, she darted forward and grabbed Viktor.

  “Come on,” she said. “You’re not betraying us with these blasphemers.”

  I rolled to my feet and came up with a quick jab to Irae’s ribs. She gave a grunt and her grip loosened on Viktor. He shook her off and raised his hand with his palm facing her. An invisible force lifted her up and propelled her backwards. Aaron raised his hand and a frigid wind filled the room. It centered on Irae and floated her to him. The wind died around her allowing her to land on her feet and she scowled at Viktor and me.

  “Leave the traitor,” he said. “Sariel will deal with him.”

  With a smirk, Irae stepped back next to Aaron. He raised his hands and the sound of whistling wind filled the air. It lifted them into the air and they flew up over the edge of the balcony and down towards the ground.

  Lucy was leaning over Adrian as he groaned and shook his head, one hand to his temple. I climbed to my feet and hobbled to the door. The burns on my back ached with a rising and falling throb.

  I glanced back at Viktor. “Can you handle Marge?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “She shouldn’t be too heavy.”

  “I’ll meet you downstairs,” I said. “I might still catch them.”

  “No, I’m fine,” Adrian said. “Besides, what could you do alone?”

  I gritted my teeth and sprinted down the stairs. I didn’t have time to argue. I pushed open the double doors of the lobby. Aaron and Irae stood at the end of the street. They smirked at me and turned the corner in a casual walk. Wind whipped my hair across my face and a biting cold spread through my jacket. Large flurries of snow rained down on me. In the distance, the sky filled with white as the clouds grew thicker. Aaron had called a blizzard down upon us.

  “Oh, shit,” Lucy said from behind me.

  Adrian leaned against her. I moved to his other side and flung his arm over my shoulder.

  “Can you drive?” I asked Lucy.

  “Yeah.” She gave the clouds a wary glance.

  “Good. Speed us back to Jonah’s,” I said. “We need to find shelter. We can’t fight nature.”

  Chapter 31

  We’d managed to make it back Jonah’s apartment before the storm had truly hit. However, the power had been knocked out early that morning. We’d been trapped here for another day. At least, we had Adrian to help create a small generator for emergency power. It’s didn’t help expel the cold that seeped in, though.

  I carefully turned the page of a volume of Rituals and Practices of the Renaissance as I curled up on the sofa with a blanket wrapped around me. A small fire blazed in the fireplace. The tome was one of Jonah’s favorite books on the varieties of magic that existed in Europe during that time period. Of course, it was a first edition. John Dee, the man responsible for writing most definitive works on Enochian magic, lived then. There had to be at least a small amount of information I could use. Unfortunately, my collection sat back at my apartment, miles away in a white out.

  Adrian sat in the dining room, hard at work at some sort of device he said would rid Esais of Sariel while a battery-operated radio crackled to life. Viktor slept in Jonah’s room, covered from head to toe in every misdirection and anti-scry symbol Lucy and I could come up with. I only hoped they were enough to keep Sariel at bay long enough to find a way to banish him. As an extra protection, Marge sat in the room, nursing her aching head with some painkillers and an ice pack. The door remained open so I could peek in at them from my position on the couch. I wasn’t sure if we could trust either of them since they’d almost joined Sariel. Still, Marge seemed to be lost in thought. Maybe my words and the bond we had made by fighting together would get through to her. Viktor, I wasn’t sure about, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt for now. Esais had chosen him, and it all wasn’t because of Sariel, right?

  I bit the inside of my cheek. I didn’t see what else we could do with them at the moment. I wasn’t going to kill them for what they might do. They were both mostly human. If we left Viktor alone, Sariel would come for him. They couldn’t leave the city now, either. No one could in this damn blizzard.

  Tres was resting in Jonah’s spare bedroom bed and Lucy was with him, trying to augur more information on how to stop the Fates from taking him. She’d switched from her tarot cards to trying to speak with the spirit of an oracle. We only had a few hours until my time was up. I’d taken no life, and now it seemed impossible. Not even demons would manage this weather.

  “This has been reported to be one of the largest natural disasters to hit New York in the last century,” a woman’s voice came from the radio. “The blizzard has touched city wide. Travel is impossible as all roads have been closed.”

  I sighed. Thanks to Aaron, the citizens of New York were effectively trapped, ripe for the last stage of Sariel’s plan: Viktor.

  Jonah paced back and forth with his cell phone to his ear. Adrian had managed to adjust the phone, so it got a better signal, even in the blizzard. Since then, Jonah had been speaking to his people in London about researching Enochian rituals.

  “Get as many people as you can. Time is of the essence.” Jonah pulled the phone from his ear and stared at the screen. He walked to lean over Adrian. “How long until you get that contraption working?”

  “Sooner if people don’t ask me that question.” Adrian didn’t look up from his work.

  I snorted and turned another page. The scripted title of the page read Enochian. It gave a brief description of how John Dee and Edward Kelly received the knowledge through communications with angels. I skimmed over it and moved onto the alphabet on the next page. I blinked. Something about the letters was haunting me. Dimitri’s scent filled my head, strong enough that it lingered in the back of my mouth. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I had seen these before. I set the book down, stood up, and grabbed a pen and paper. It started with a circle. Inside I drew a Star of David. I moved to the left and paused. No, that wasn’t it. On the bottom right, I drew the symbol I’d seen on Dimitri’s mausoleum. My pen scratched against the papers as I drew the binding circle.

  “Unbelievable,” I said.

  “What’s that, my dear?” Jonah asked.

  I held up the paper. “I’ve been dreaming of the pieces over the last few weeks.”

  “I thought you didn’t know this magic,” Adrian said.
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  “I don’t, but it’s the same as I found in the book.”

  “So, this could be your mind compensating in times of desperation.”

  I glared at him. “I haven’t looked at this information in years and the dreams started before I met Sariel.”

  “That’s even more questionable,” he said.

  I stared at the door of Jonah’s bedroom with a sense of remembrance. “Esais showed up in my room one night.”

  “What happened behind closed doors is none of my business.” He turned back to his machine, but I caught a glimpse of furrowed brows and a frown.

  “Not like that,” I said. “He was worried about something. It’s still hazy, but I think he did something to me that started the dreams.”

  “But there’s no way to verify this,” Adrian said.

  “There can be.” Jonah stepped forward and took a picture with his phone. He tapped on the screen and put the phone to his ear. “Erica, I need you to send the picture I just sent you to our research team. Have them find out if it’s Enochian and its purpose. You have two hours.”

  I glanced at Adrian and wiggled my eyebrows at him. He shook his head and went back to working on the machine. I sat in my chair and read the rest of the pages on Enochian. The binding circle would be all but useless if we didn’t have an incantation to banish Sariel. Perhaps if I slept I could get another dream.

  Lucy stepped out of the bedroom and shut the door quietly behind her. Her eyes were bright as she rushed towards me. She grabbed the book and flipped through it.

  “Hey!” I said. “I needed that page.”

  “You can find it again when we need it.” She stopped on a page two-thirds in and flipped around pointing to a ritual. “Here.”

  I took in the circle and the paragraph describing how to summon spirits from Eclipse. “Spirit summoning?”

  “We’re going to need to summon the Fates and speak with them.”

  “Lucy, I don’t think they can be reasoned with on this,” I said.

  Lucy’s gaze slid to Adrian. “We don’t need to reason. We offer them an ultimatum.”