Iniquity (The Ascent Book 1)

by Melody Winter

  Paymon’s chant became louder, and as he held his hands out to his sides, both Hannah and Julie walked from the communal hall and into the clearing. They were dressed, as Paymon had said, in white flowing dresses. The thin material wrapped around their bodies before floating to the ground. They each carried a single candle, shielding it with their hands from the blustery breeze that drifted through the village. The gusts of wind caught their hair, loose and teased into curls that skimmed their backs. Each of them had markings on their faces, a band of black running across their eyes from one side of their faces to the other. Above their noses was a thumb print in the same smudging of black—this continued along their noses to the very tip. I stared, seeing the design as a symbol of the cross or a beast with wings—I couldn’t decide. But the strangest thing about them was the way they walked; unhurried, lethargic, looking straight ahead but not focusing on anything. They were under Paymon’s compelment. Was that the reason Bia was so calm this afternoon? She’d moved in exactly the same way. Had Paymon strengthened his compelment over her? I screwed my nose up, more certain than ever that I would never willingly let him compel me.

  Once the girls had stopped where Paymon wanted them, near to the fire—near enough to feel its heat, but not to burn—his chanting stopped.

  He turned to face me, his eyes alive with what I assumed was excitement. I looked away, hating that the people’s fears were a feast to him, one that made him strong and increased his power.

  “Don’t turn away from me, Athena. You need to accept what I am, what I do, not hide from the truth.”

  I lifted my gaze and narrowed my eyes. Accept what he was? Never. He didn’t belong here, none of them did. This was our world, not theirs. I lifted my head to the blackened sky above us, wishing more than anything that I could see the stars. If I could see the stars, I’d make a wish on every single one of them, beg them to end this miserable life we all had to endure. And I’d wish for all the demons to disappear back to below, or even better, that the light would kill them, shrivel them up, burn them, whatever it was they couldn’t stand.

  “They’re so close,” Paymon said. Lifting his nose into the air, he inhaled deeply. “I can smell them.”

  The atmosphere became thick, touched with a sickly sweet aroma—a smell I couldn’t identify. The trees ceased their gentle sway in the breeze, and the silence yawned before us with a deafening urgency. The air hung with unpalatable foreboding, a sense of what was to come—the anticipation of evil arriving in the village.

  A distant rumble gradually increased in volume. Beating hooves, shouts and howls of laughter disrupted the stillness. I looked to Hannah, dressed in her virginal white gown, and was met by bright, shiny, fear-filled eyes. She may have been under Paymon’s compelment, but her fear shone from within. My own fear held me in a cocoon, a trance of unplaced calmness.

  As the approaching noise became deafening, Paymon grabbed my hand. Warmth charged across the flesh of my palm when he tightened his fingers. He stepped in front of me as an unkindness of ravens burst into the clearing. Their wings beat furiously as they circled above the fire, squawking and screeching.

  Their unholy noise was quickly drowned out by four large horses, blacker than the sky that surrounded us, as they charged out of the forest. Behind them was a small carriage, pulled along so fast it threatened to overturn on every bump in the uneven ground. Paymon stood still as they crashed past us, but the rest of the villagers ran and hid—all except Hannah and Julie who remained frozen in place.

  “Move!” I shouted as the horses thundered toward them.

  “They can’t,” Paymon said. “The Master’s power has already caught them.”

  A shrill noise drew my attention to the back of the carriage. A tall female was laughing, a red cloak billowing behind her as her white hair whipped about her head. The lanterns that lit the carriage accentuated the woman’s wild features as she clung to a high rail that ran around the top of it. She never blinked, and I was sure, even from this distance, that her eyes were red. She wasn’t a demon—she was something else.

  The carriage came to a sudden stop, and the horses reared onto their hind legs. The mysterious looking female continued to cackle manically. As she jumped from her high vantage position, her cloak unfurled behind her, and she landed gracefully on the ground. With her sinister red eyes fixed on Paymon, she walked toward him. She moved with a grace that didn’t befit her crazy, manic expression, and I shrunk behind Paymon, wanting to tuck myself into the darkness of his cloak.

  “Well, well, well, Paymon,” she said, her voice smooth, sweet and sultry.

  “Livia.” Paymon nodded his head in response.

  “So, you’ve selected a wife after all these years?” Her gaze flickered to me.

  Paymon nodded once again. “I have.”

  “Who’d have thought? Paymon and a human.”

  She moved, without noise and without warning, beside me in an instant. Fear crashed through me, a fear even stronger than the one I’d had when I had first met Paymon. Her deathly-cold fingers touched my skin. Ghostly hands drew my hair away from my neck. Desire glowed in her fiery eyes as she closed in until her nose pressed against my skin. I wanted to run, but my legs wouldn’t move. I whimpered as she inhaled deeply. She pulled my hair tight, forcing me to twist, exposing my neck to her, and then licked my skin from collarbone to jaw. A soft purr swept from her throat.

  “Livia!” Paymon spun around, his eyes wide, black. “Step away!”

  She huffed but didn’t move.

  “Now!”

  I was released, and immediately reached for Paymon. He held my arm, keeping me upright, but didn’t take his eyes off Livia.

  She kicked at the dry earth and sauntered back to the carriage. Leaning on the side of it, she inspected her nails.

  “Only two for me to take back to our Master?” She nodded in the direction of Hannah and Julie. “He will be disappointed, Paymon.”

  “His greed for all the women turning twenty-one has depleted the village,” Paymon said bitterly. “What does he expect?”

  “He can have any woman he desires.” Livia stopped picking her nails and viewed Hannah and Julie.

  “He desires too many.”

  “What he wants, he gets.”

  “A child by a union with a human? It has never worked and never will.”

  I listened, once again privy to an exchange between creatures that knew more than me. So the Master wanted children with a human. Was that why the women were selected for him? I swallowed hard, realising what my life would have become with him. A breeding machine disguised as a wife.

  “His seed lies within his selected wives.” She straightened and glared at Paymon. “He has two spawn expected over the coming months.”

  I held my breath at the confirmation of my thoughts.

  Paymon shrugged. “That is if they survive the birth. No child has ever lived more than a few minutes, and all the women have died.”

  I tightened my hold on Paymon. I’d wanted to learn more about the demons, understand how they lived, and know what my life would have been if I’d not chosen to marry Paymon. The facts were horrendous. Not only would I have been married, raped and impregnated with the Master’s child, I would also die whilst giving birth.

  “How many attempts have failed?” Paymon asked.

  Livia hissed and stepped up to Paymon. “Are you challenging our Master?”

  Paymon didn’t flinch. “Your unrequited love blinds you to all sense. I am not challenging our Master, only questioning his robust selection of young women from the villages.”

  “It’s a challenge!” She moved her face against Paymon’s. They stood nose to nose. I slipped behind Paymon, not wanting to be anywhere near the angry female.

  He snarled. “Step back, Livia. I may be old, but I still have my powers.”

  Livia sneered but stepped away before turning her eyes, as red as the roses in Paymon’s courtyard, to me. “So, this pretty one is yours? The ceremon
y complete?”

  I nodded as Paymon answered. I didn’t want any confusion about my category. I was married to Paymon. I was not going away with her. I was staying here.

  “Yes,” Paymon said, “and if you were a demon, you would have no need to ask.” His gaze followed Livia’s stroll to my side. “My scent is all over her, my blood runs with hers.”

  Livia grabbed my hand, wrapping my wrist in a vice-like grip. I squirmed, trying to alleviate the pressure of her hold, but she only gripped me tighter. She held the healing scar across my palm to her nose and inhaled deeply.

  “Fresh.” She dropped my hand and glared at Paymon. “A last minute decision?”

  “I selected Athena many years ago, not that it’s any business of yours.” Paymon near enough growled. “But the timing to seal our union was only justifiable recently.”

  Her brow lifted before she stalked toward the carriage. “Saving the best for yourself?”

  “No, not at all.” Paymon refused to look away from her. I tried to work out the powers at work between them. They obviously knew each other, and Paymon didn’t seem intimidated by her. But he was a demon, and even though he was old, he was powerful, and she’d stepped away as soon as he threatened her.

  “Your classification, if she wasn’t yours?” Livia spun on the spot, her white hair falling perfectly as she stilled.

  “Marriage.”

  She hissed and sank into a crouch that could only be described as one an animal would make before killing its prey. Her blood-red eyes fixed on me once more, and I whimpered as two sharp fangs became visible at the side of her mouth.

  “Enough!” Paymon bellowed, stepping between us, shielding me from her.

  She either didn’t hear him or ignored him. Her advance was slow, predatory.

  “Do not make me kill you, Livia.” He pointed a finger at her. “You forget whose presence you are in.”

  She growled before straightening up. As I peered around Paymon’s tall figure, she flicked her lustrous hair behind her head, her gaze still on me.

  “Do not forget that the demons saved your kind, and we can just as easily destroy you. Do you understand?”

  She didn’t respond, but her intense gaze switched to Paymon. Was Paymon’s threat enough to make her back down? Why did he have the upper hand? Faced with Livia by myself, I had no doubt that this meeting would have ended very differently.

  “Let me put this another way,” Paymon sneered. “I will kill you if you threaten Athena again.”

  Her mouth pulled into a pout, and she moved to the back of the carriage. I didn’t shift my attention away from her, and my mouth dropped open as she leapt from the ground onto the top of the carriage in one smooth movement.

  She stamped her foot, and as if breaking a trance, moans and sobs sprung from inside the carriage. White clothed arms reached out into empty air from a foot-wide barred opening at the back.

  It was then that I understood. The carriage was a prison on wheels. Girls were locked away, trapped, on their way to the Master.

  A coldness swept over me, chilling the air around me even more. My mouth was dry, and my stomach twisted with a new fear.

  Livia laughed, a sinister edge to her high-pitched trill. “They would have been your companions on the journey to the Master,” she said, her attention back on me. “Care to join them?”

  I shook my head, grabbing hold of Paymon’s cloak. Ridiculous as it was, he was the only person I trusted at the moment. This is what he had saved me from.

  “We keep them chained. It helps remind them of where they are heading,” Livia said, her voice now monotonous, bored.

  “How . . . how many?”

  “Six feeders.” She stamped her foot again before glancing at Hannah and Julie who were still standing completely still. They should have been shuddering with fear and the cold—their thin dresses offered no protection against the bitter nip of the air. “Another feeder and a servant here?” she asked.

  Paymon nodded.

  “Lanim, Lucan!” Livia shouted, although her attention was on Hannah and Julie.

  The sweet scent that had accompanied the carriage’s arrival grew in strength and became pungent, sickly. I leaned against Paymon, steadying myself from a sudden weakness. Livia laughed again and looked toward the front of the carriage. Two large black shadows slid from the high driver’s seat and onto the ground. Crossing the dry earth like a liquid, fluid and quick, I wouldn’t have known they were there if it hadn’t been for the moans and high-pitched wails accompanying their otherwise silent journey. Paymon manoeuvred me in front of him, pulled me against his chest, and wrapped his arms around me.

  “Don’t watch,” he said, resting his hand on the back of my head and gently pushing my face onto his cloak.

  But I needed to see what was happening. I wanted to understand exactly what I’d been saved from. I turned my head sideward and watched, hypnotised, as one pool of liquid travelled to Hannah’s feet, the other to Julie’s. Blackness climbed into the air behind each girl and then morphed into the most grotesque creatures I had ever seen. My stomach flipped, tightened, and threatened to spill the contents of this afternoon’s meal. It should have been me in a white dress, under the Master’s spell. I should have been standing with Hannah and Julie. One of those creatures should have been behind me, swallowing me into its terrorising pit of darkness. I glanced back to the carriage as Livia jumped to the ground, and I once again caught sight of the arms of the girls trapped. All this had been waiting for me.

  But what shocked me the most was that Myrtle and my gran knew this happened. Why did they allow it? Why didn’t they save the girls? We were young, many of us innocent. The life that awaited all of us when we turned twenty-one was horrendous. Why did no one stop it?

  A moment of clarity swept over me as I realised what Gran had done. In making the deal with Paymon, she had saved me from this. She had stopped it for one girl at least. She stopped it from happening to me. My eyes glossed over with tears. Did she sacrifice herself as part of that deal as well? Is that why Paymon killed her? Did she promise me to Paymon in exchange for her life?

  I swallowed a shaky breath and turned back to the creatures behind Hannah and Julie. My muscles trembled and gave way to defined shaking. Paymon’s hold on me tightened, offering reassurance. I should have turned away from the evil creatures, but they transfixed me. They towered above the girls. Resembling humans in their overall shape, their faces had no discernible features—no eyes, just deep, black holes where their cheeks should have been. Their foreheads were wide and long, continuing down the front of their faces. I saw no mouth, though the creatures had ears, and both of them wore several hooped piercings through the lobes.

  Loud, high-pitched screeches rang around the clearing as they lifted their arms away from their bodies. Dull, dirty, leather looking membranes unfurled between their arms and waists. And as they wrapped their arms around the girls, they became encased in the rotting black skin. The noise the creatures emitted reached an even higher ear-hurting level.

  Then silence.

  As quickly as the imposing figures had formed into physical creatures, they shrank to the ground into pools of black liquid. Hannah and Julie dissolved with them. Horrified, my shaking increased. The black shadowy pools crept across the ground before slithering around the wheels of the carriage and onto the top of it. Two loud thuds and then screams came from the enclosed prison before the black masses shrank away and moved to their original positions at the front of the carriage.

  The ravens that swept through the village heralding the arrival of the unwelcome visitors made their appearance yet again, swooping low and creating an ear-blasting collection of squawks.

  “Time to go!” Livia snarled as the ravens vacated the area. She leapt onto the back of the carriage, reclaiming her centurion position. A sickly sweet smile spread across her face, and she bared her fangs at me. The horses reared their front legs into the air, whinnying noisily. Their hooves stamped the ground
before the carriage clattered forward, continuing its journey, taking the selected girls to the Master.

  Cold fear tapped its skeleton fingers across my chest as the burning fire at the centre of the village died. Paymon tutted before clicking his fingers and blowing the ensuing flame onto the half–burnt logs. As the fire burst to life, the villagers emerged from their homes. Paymon looked around at the frightened faces, seeming to take each and every one into his memory.

  “There will be another ceremony next year. I suggest that you all behave, keep your precious children under control, or I will send for the carriage again. If any of you value your daughter’s future, I suggest you keep her pure. I will decide her fate, and the Master has no time for whores. Warn your daughters, save them from a fate that should be viewed as worse than death.”

  He held his arm toward me. “Athena, time for us to go home.”

  His voice was gentler than I’d ever heard before, and his eyes held mine with a softness I’d never witnessed from him. How could he just switch from being the threatening demon to the caring one beside me now?

  I took a lingering look at the familiar faces of my former family before grasping Paymon’s arm and turning away.

  “Damn vampire,” he muttered as we began to walk, him limping at my side.

  “Livia was a vampire?”

  Paymon nodded. “Did you not guess what she was? Red eyes, her speed, her agility? Livia’s always on the lookout for blood, the sweeter the better. She has a distinct lack of respect for following rules. I have no idea why the Master tolerates her.”

  “Maybe she’s really emotional.”

  Paymon laughed. “Livia, emotional? Never. And, just so you know, demons can’t feed from a vampire. They are a closed book to us in that way.”

  “Not at all?” I pulled the cloak tighter around my neck. A bitter cold wind blew along the track toward us, unsettling leaves and overhanging tree branches. Paymon didn’t seem to notice the increased breeze.

  “They block us,” he said. “I’m pretty sure it’s unintentional, otherwise one of them would have slipped and let their guard down. And Livia’s desperate to please the Master, so I’m sure she’d be willing to feed him with her emotions.”