Angel of Darkness Books 6-10

by Mackenzie Morris

  "Why on Aldexa would I do that? You are very valuable."

  "Then I'll stay right here."

  "The baby will die."

  Jeremiah pretended not to care. He shrugged his shoulders. "If Cael is dead, then you can't do whatever it is you need him for."

  "You wouldn't."

  "I would. Everyone must make sacrifices. If you think that I would give up because of some confused feeling of mercy or compassion, you're wrong. I'm not human, so I don't inherently have those emotions. Deep down, I am just as hardened as you are."

  Sulstair paced around him, eyeing him from every angle. He stopped in front of him as Cael started crying. "You say that, but I see the concern in those eyes of yours, seraph. Listen to the little guy crying. He's hurting, Jeremiah. He's suffering and you're letting it happen. You are the one doing it to him. How dare you torture a baby?"

  "Shut up! I'm not doing anything to him." Jeremiah grimaced and placed his hand to his temple as the ringing from his summoning bell grew louder and more urgent. "Ah! Please let me out of here."

  "Oh? What's wrong with you?" Sulstair asked, obviously growing curious at the pain the seraph was in.

  "N-nothing. It's nothing."

  "It's something and it's hurting you, whatever it is. This may be over quicker than I thought."

  "Please let me out. It will kill me if I don't answer it."

  "Answer what?" Sulstair asked.

  "It . . . ugh. Ah!" Jeremiah dropped to his knees as the ringing continued to grow to excruciating levels. Bright red blood tricked from his nose. He wiped it away with a trembling hand, but he quickly had to do so again as there was so much that it ran down his arm. It was quickly becoming aware that he couldn't outlast Sulstair's stubbornness. "It's . . . it's my seraph bell. The holder of the bell is summoning me."

  "And it hurts you?"

  "Argh, yes!" Jeremiah did his best to hold onto Cael as the stabbing pain throbbed between his eyes and scraped across his eardrums. Why was Tristan continuously ringing that bell? If he made it out of here alive, he swore that he would have to tell that boy to never do this to him again. Jeremiah had only given that bell to one other person before that and he was able to go to them right away, so he had no idea the pain that could result from his inability to get there. The crying baby wasn't helping things.

  "Who holds your summoning bell?"

  "Some kid from Wolfekin. Sola's rays, I'm dying. I'm going to die."

  "Interesting." Sulstair tapped his fingers against his chin as he watched Jeremiah writhing in agony on the floor. "Tell you what. Believe it or not, I am actually growing tired of hearing your whining, so I'll make you a little deal. You give me Cael and tell me the name of the boy who holds your bell then you get to leave. How's that?"

  "I won't . . . ugh . . . I won't let you hurt him. You can't . . . hurt Cael."

  "I won't hurt Cael. Cael is going to be protected and provided for more than any other child on the planet. Why would we harm the thing we need so desperately for our plans? Now, just hand him over and tell me the name of the boy in Wolfekin who has your bell."

  Under normal circumstances, Jeremiah never would have given out that kind of information. But this was torture unlike anything he had been subjected to before. And to top it all off, Sulstair wasn't even the one doing it to him. As more blood fell from his nose, Jeremiah held out Cael. "Take him."

  "Surrendering that quickly, Jeremiah? So I guess the tales I heard about you weren't true after all. You were supposed to be strong, all-powerful, and ruthless. I don't see any of those qualities now."

  "Just . . . hurry and take him. Let me go."

  Sulstair took the crying baby angel from Jeremiah's trembling hands. Instead of breaking the golden circle, he turned around and started back down the tunnel.

  "Sulstair, wait! You said . . . ah, you said you would release me!"

  "Do you really take me for that much of an idiot? Oh, poor Jeremiah. Stay there and suffer. You can go ahead and die for all I care. I got what I came for. Unlike you, I follow the orders given to me. Oh? What's that face for? Did I strike a nerve there? You've been following orders for so long and just a few days in the human world made you disobey? Tisk tisk. I would have expected so much more from you."

  "Sulstair?"

  "Yes?"

  "How many stories have you read about me?" Jeremiah asked.

  "Hundreds. I do my research."

  "Not well enough."

  The cave began to shake again, this time with a deeper tremor that caused the entrance to collapse. Boulders toppled down from the top of the cavern and piled in front of the only exit. The energy that had been released blew out the torches, leaving the smoky air only illuminated by Jeremiah's glowing purple halo.

  Sulstair hissed in his frustration. "What? What is going on?"

  Jeremiah flew up into the air as his magic grew. "You missed the part about the golden shackles not working on seraphs."

  "I . . . you tricky bastard! What about Divinus? He had the shackles on."

  "Divinus is not fully a seraph any longer. He is part demon. Place Cael on the ground then back away slowly with your hands in the air. I'm done playing games."

  Sulstair knelt down and set Cael on a rock nearby. He held up his hands, but grinned facetiously. "You're still in pain. You're still bleeding. Even I know that you can't fake that."

  "Yes, but lucky for me, that boy finally stopped ringing the bell, so the pain has dulled. Unlucky for you, it still hurts enough to make me incredibly angry. Prepare to die, necromancer."

  The elf didn't seemed phased. He crossed his arms and leaned lackadaisically against the cavern wall. "What do you plan to do to me? Why don't you come back down here to the ground so we can fight this out like men?"

  "I have questions first. Where is Divinus?"

  "Who?" Sulstair asked.

  "Don't play stupid with me, Sulstair. There was evidence of an angel's presence here. Who was it?"

  "I'm done talking." Sulstair clapped his hands together.

  The impact sent Jeremiah flying uncontrollably across the cave where he crashed into the wall. He slid down to the floor where he landed hard and grabbed at his side. Through the haze of pain, he looked up at the necromancer who was slowly spinning around in a circle and chanting something in an unknown tongue. Cael continued crying, but a thick barrier fell over the room, buffering the noise and making everything sound far away.

  Then he saw it. The glittering on the floor at different places. Tiny rifts opened up between the rocks and the mud where the dirt itself began to take shape. Jeremiah stood up and examined them closer to see the bones and decaying flesh being brought back to life. The corpses were moving and responding to Sulstair's chanting as if they were mindlessly following orders. Undead. This was the first time he had actually known that the poor creatures existed, much less seen them with his own eyes as they were risen from the ground.

  One of the dingy skeletons held up a rusted shortsword and let out a hoarse cry as it sped past Sulstair and thrust the blade at Jeremiah, missing the flying seraph. Ten others let out their raspy battle cry and began skittering around aimlessly below him, slashing and waving their weapons in the air.

  Jeremiah heard something from above him and actually gave a cry when he saw it. A spiny-legged pale husk of what had once been a giant spider swiped one of its hairy legs at him, causing him to drop down to the floor to avoid the ichor-covered fangs. Before he could react, Sulstair was on top on him, landing punch after punch with his brass knuckles to Jeremiah's face. The impacts increased the throbbing pain he was already in from the seraph bell's ringing. He kicked the elf in the stomach and rolled quickly to the side to avoid another skeleton's sword that caught on the wall and dragged a jagged edge through the rocks.

  Sulstair lunged at him again, but Jeremiah's seraph-shine swelled up around him and blocked the onslaught of blades and solid brass from finding him. The purple barrier granted him a few seconds of respite from the combat
. Then he formulated a quick plan. Bursting through his barrier, he slid forward on his knees, knocking over a few of the skeletons until he stopped underneath the spider. It dropped down from the ceiling and landed on top of him, pinning him to the floor with its large hairy underbelly. Jeremiah summoned more of his seraph-shine and slammed the palm of his hand against the spider.

  The spider screeched with an unnatural squeal of pain as its body was overtaken by the glowing purple of the seraph-shine. The arachnid turned around and began devouring the skeletons one by one. Jeremiah watched the scene as a thin grin spread across his lips. So mind control would work on things other than lost souls. Cool. But his elation faded when he locked eyes with the necromancer on the opposite side of the cave. Playing around with his power was fun and all, but he did have a mission to accomplish.

  Sulstair removed his brass knuckles then moved into the corner. "Axaniel, now!"

  What was he doing? Axaniel? That was an angel's name. Jeremiah leapt forward to grab Cael just as the ceiling of the cave was broken open and the mage-glow from outside poured inside. Slabs of stone were ripped apart and smashed by an invisible force. When the dust settled, Jeremiah saw the dead giant spider and the black-winged bald angel with the large sword strapped onto his back. A fallen angel in service to a necromancer? How was that even possible? Weren't angels only supposed to be able to bond with humans?

  Axaniel spun his gigantic sword before pointing it directly at Jeremiah. "Master Sulstair, your orders?"

  "Kill the seraph, save the baby."

  Jeremiah did his best to contain his groaning from the pain that was spiking through his head and down his neck to his shoulders. The ringing from his bell was back. It better be an emergency, or he would take that bell back from Tristan and never give it back. He glanced around the cave at the crumbling bones from the defeated skeletons and the dead spider. He was out of options. The longer that ringing continued, the less effective he knew his abilities would become. Jeremiah was already starting to feel drained, which was a new feeling and one that he wanted to avoid at all costs.

  Then he spotted his chance to get away. He already had Cael. There wasn't a single angel in existence who could keep up with him in flight. Jeremiah took a deep breath then spread his glowing white wings. With one jump, he took off through the crack in the ceiling of the cave, leaving Axaniel in mid-swing and Sulstair screaming a series of curses. The air was cold, but it did help to numb the searing ringing. Jeremiah comforted Cael in his arms as he flew towards Wolfekin to check on Tristan. Being a father was going to more challenging than he had first thought.

  Chapter 12

  "Jaylen, come on. We're here."

  Jaylen listened to Kato's unusually happy voice from the other side of the door. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "All ready? But it was a month's trip or more to Cilona through this icy water."

  "Just come out here!"

  "Fine, fine." Jaylen pulled on his leather pants and long yellow tunic before tying his boots and stepping out of the cabin. He immediately knew something was wrong. He knew this place. It was somewhere he hadn't been to in a long time, but it was where he ran away. "This isn't Cilona."

  "Nope. It's Avendale, where we first met. We don't have to be all business all the time, you know? We need a short break and this was on the way, so get down here and stop wasting the time you value so much. Stephan can wait. Some of my spies found out that Liaxa's trial doesn't even start until next week. We have time."

  "Why isn't everyone else coming?" Jaylen asked.

  "Just me and you today. Zeriel is handling everything here, so let's go. I know of a funny cafe that sells awful gourmet chocolates."

  Uh . . . that sounded concerning. "Awful gourmet?"

  "You'll see."

  * * *

  Jaylen sat next to Kato in the wooden chairs at a small table outside the cafe where vines covered in tiny sweet-smelling yellow flowers trailed up the white wooden columns. Other couples were at the tables in the small outdoor area, talking and kissing as if there wasn't a war going on. Everyone seemed to be so happy. Jaylen poured both of them a glass of fruity red wine. He looked back down at the box of strangely-shaped chocolates.

  Kato plucked one of them out of the box then turned it over in her hand to read the tiny paper underneath it that explained what it was. She laughed maniacally as she tore the paper off and hid it in the top of her corset. "Okay, okay. Close your eyes and guess what this one is."

  "That's never a good thing to hear."

  "Just do it."

  Jaylen closed his eyes and opened his mouth. "If you trick me, I swear to Sola-" He grunted as the chocolate was shoved in his mouth. He coughed a few times as he spit it out. "What the hell is that one?"

  Kato nearly fell out of her chair with laughter. "Orange bacon."

  "Orange bacon? Oh, okay. We're playing dirty. My turn."

  "Oh, no, no, no."

  "Oh, yes, yes, yes. It's only fair. Close your eyes, Kato." Jaylen waited until her eyes were closed tight before he spun the box around and perused the selection of oddly flavored chocolates. "Hmm . . . yes, this one. Now, Kato. I believe this one will have a pleasant overtone and sweet fragrance."

  "Are you trying to sound sophisticated?" Kato asked. "Because it isn't working."

  "Just enjoy this hand-picked deliciousness." Jaylen placed the chocolate on her tongue and eagerly watched as she started to chew it.

  Kato's face contorted and she spun around to vomit in the basket. "Dear Sola, what in Aldexa? Are you trying to kill me?"

  Jaylen bounced up and down in his chair with excitement. "Guesses?"

  "Some kind of . . . meat?"

  He could barely contain his giggling enough to read from the tiny piece of paper. "Tuna and molasses with a cheddar horseradish filling."

  "Oh, these are disgusting."

  "I know!" Jaylen took her hand and kissed her cheek. "I would kiss you more, but I'm afraid of your breath after that last one."

  "You're so mean." Kato sipped her wine then leaned back in her chair to look at the puffy clouds moving slowly in the pink mage-glow colored evening sky. "Oh, Jaylen . . . isn't it beautiful?"

  "It sure is. You know, sometimes I think it would be so nice to just stay in a place like this for the rest of my life, far away from everything. We could be happy together, Kato. We could find a house in town, you could have a flower garden, and we could raise our family."

  "Family?" Kato raised an eyebrow curiously. "Does the chaste Jaylen Corrifus want children?"

  "Maybe I do." He sipped his wine and grinned. "We can always adopt."

  Kato gave him a playful glare. "You're in an ornery mood tonight."

  "Just thinking about a lot of things."

  "Do you think I would be a good mother?"

  Jaylen set his wine glass on the table and leaned closer to her. "You would be a wonderful mother."

  "How was your mother, Jaylen? I bet she was kind and caring, just like you."

  Jaylen sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, she was. She was . . . wonderful. I thought we would do so many things . . . until . . . never mind. So, what did you want to talk to me about? I know you had an ulterior motive to bring me here alone."

  Kato tucked her curly hair into her red bandana. "The truth is, I wanted some time alone with you away from the crew and Zeriel. There are so many things I wish I could go back and change in my life, decisions that continue to haunt me even now, on every far-away shore I go to. All the faces remain the same, all judging me, calling me out, reminding me of my mistakes. I don't see the people anymore. I only see their thoughts of me. I know I've messed up in life, but I like to think that Sola gives second chances to those who truly need them. I've never been the most religious person, but . . . can I ask you something?"

  "Go ahead. Anything."

  Kato was silent for a while, watching as every other couple left the area and the cafe shut down for the night, leaving her and Jaylen in the growing darkness of twilight. Once they were compl
etely alone, she finished off her glass of wine then ran her finger around the rim. "What would it take to be pure again?"

  "Pure in soul?" Jaylen asked.

  "Pure in body."

  "Oh. There isn't anything you can do to go back and change that. That is one of the reasons it is the most guarded vow to any paladin. They may wander from their strictness and laws, but their purity is the one thing many will not cross."

  "You mean wouldn't have crossed." Kato said plainly. "They're all dead, Jaylen."

  "I know. But I like to pretend that my paladin brothers are still with me. They were good men, taken from this life far too early. I swear on my mother's memory that I will find a way to rebuild my kingdom and take the throne again. If not for me, then for all of those families the paladins left behind. Even the ones with illegitimate children, children like me. I'll change things, Kato. I'll make new laws and rules to help them. Even our protectors need to be protected. I firmly believe that my father would have been so different if he got the help he needed. Without the alcohol, my sister would still be alive."

  "Tell me about her."

  Jaylen was going to need much more wine if he was going to be talking about these things. This was difficult, but Kato deserved to know about his past. He trusted her enough at that point. "I never met her. I remember the night she was born. It was so cold and snowing. It was a blizzard and my father was gone at the tavern, drinking with his friends. I was so young, left alone to help my mother. I had no idea what I was doing, but I offered to go find help, to get the healer. My mother . . . she insisted I stay. She said it was far too dangerous for me to go out there in the storm, so I stayed by her side until Doran finally came home. I ran to him and grabbed his waist as I begged for him to help her. He slapped me. Then he picked me up and took me out back to the shed we had in the backyard. That's where he left me and locked the door. I was so terrified and alone, but my fear only grew when I heard the shouting and the baby's crying. But my sister's cries soon abruptly stopped. I think deep down, I knew what he had done. He didn't want another mistake like me. I was living, breathing proof that he had broken his vows. As the brother of the king, he knew that it would reflect horribly on the kingdom to have a bastard child, much less two."