by N. P. Martin
Lucas certainly looked better than the last time I saw him. He was still unconscious, but most of the black poison under his skin had faded, and he didn’t look so gray anymore, which I’m sure had everything to do with the fact that he no longer had that black shard going through his chest.
"He seems to be recovering," Frank said.
"His body needs time to heal itself," Eva said from behind me, having just walked into the room. "He was lucky he was so strong. A lesser demon would not have survived."
A huge sense of relief washed over me, and I went to Eva and hugged her. "Thanks Eva."
Eva smiled, her eyes inevitably going to the sword in my hand. "You can thank me by explaining where you have been the last few hours, and what that sword is in your hand."
"You could’ve let us know what you were up to," Frank said. "We thought something had happened. I thought I explained the importance of team work to you."
I nodded. "You did, and I’m sorry. It was just something I had to do alone, that’s all."
"What do you mean?" Frank asked. "And why do you look like you’ve had a fight with a clowder of alley cats?"
I held the sword up for them to see. "This is called the Demon Blade. Guess what it does?"
Frank shook his head and looked at me deadpan. "Kills demons?"
I nodded. "More importantly, it can kill Abigor."
Eva looked at Frank as if she was skeptical, then Frank took the sword from me to examine it. "Well," he said after a moment. "It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen before. Even the glyphs are strange, and what is this reddish substance in the center?"
Eva came to examine the sword as well, staring intently at the symbols engraved on the blade. "These glyphs are Hellion," she said, then looked at me. "Where did you get this, Leia?"
Crunch time. Do I tell them the truth, or do I lie?
After a moment of painful deliberation, I finally settled for somewhere in between. "I’d prefer not to say for now."
They both looked at me, clearly taken aback by my response. "You’d prefer not to say?" Frank said, then shook his head. "What the hell, Leia?"
"I know it sounds bad, Frank," I said. "But trust me, it’s best you don’t know where I got the sword from. All that matters is that I got it, and that it’s real. It can kill Abigor."
"How did you even—" Frank stopped and puffed his cheeks out. "You know what, forget it." He held up the sword in front of him. "This thing can really kill that bastard?"
I nodded. "Yes, it can. If you knew where it came from, you wouldn’t doubt me."
"I’m not doubting you," he said. "But you have some big time fucking explaining to do if we ever survive this mess we’re in."
"Absolutely," I said nodding, just glad I didn’t have to tell them I had traded my soul away. Frank would be super pissed at that, apocalypse or not.
"Okay then," Eva said, still giving me weird looks as if she was trying to work out where I’d been. My paranoia kicked in, and I started wondering if she could somehow sense that I’d been to Hell. Frank did mention she was an empath of sorts, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she somehow intuited where I’d been. If she did, she was electing to say nothing of it. "I suppose we just have to find Abigor now, and confront him."
"Actually," Frank said as he handed the Demon Blade back to me. "I’m way ahead of you on that one."
I raised my eyebrows. "Oh?"
"While Eva was taking care of Lucas, and while you were…gone, I did a Location Spell to find Josh."
"Of course," I said nodding. "Wherever Josh is, Abigor is probably there as well."
"That’s the thinking, yeah," Frank said.
"So where is Josh?" I asked.
"The Warehouse District," Frank said. "I even managed to pinpoint which warehouse he was in."
The thought of having to confront Josh made me sick to my stomach. He was my twin brother, and I was about to potentially engage him in battle. It wasn’t right, and my rage at Abigor grew as my grip on the Demon Blade tightened.
"Are you okay, Leia?" Eva asked.
I allowed myself to breathe, then nodded. "I just want my brother back."
Frank and Eva said nothing for a moment, as if they refused to utter any platitudes designed to instill false hope. Not that I expected them to, as I already knew the odds were stacked heavily against us.
"We had better go and get ready," Frank said eventually. "Given that we don’t know how many seals Abigor has left to break, we can’t afford to wait around."
"I’ll be along in a minute," I told them as they both walked out of the room, Frank giving me an intense look before he left, though I’m not sure what it was supposed to mean.
My attention was now on Lucas anyway. I laid the Demon Blade on the floor and sat gently on the edge of the bed as I took hold of his hand. A few seconds later, I was surprised and delighted when he half opened his eyes and looked at me.
Smiling down at him, I said, "Hey," in a quiet voice.
He did his best to smile back, but he was still far too weak. Instead, he squeezed my hand, though I barely felt it.
Leaning over, I gently kissed him on the lips. "I’m glad you’re alive."
"Me…too…" Lucas said in a whisper, then tried to smile again.
"Shhh…you don’t have to talk."
I sat for what seemed like quite a long time, just staring at him as he did his best to keep his eyes open, unsuccessfully. Eventually, I took a deep breath, then said, "I’m sorry, but I have to go now. You already know what for." One of my tears ran off my cheek and splashed his face. I reached down and softly wiped it away. Then I realized that he was trying to say something, and I leaned my ear close to his lips so I could hear.
"…No matter…what happens," he whispered. "I will…see you…again…"
His eyes closed, and they didn’t open again as he fell back into what I hoped was a deep, restorative sleep.
Sniffing back tears, I touched my finger to my lips before touching his. "I hope so," I whispered back.
36
Roughly two hours later, Frank parked his Chevy at the end of a road somewhere in the middle of the Warehouse District. About five hundred yards up the road was a large square building, which according to Frank, is where Josh and hopefully Abigor would be. As Frank cut the engine and killed the lights, I leaned forward from the back seat to look between him and Eva. It was dark and wet outside. Although lights glowed from some of the surrounding warehouse buildings, I saw no light coming from the target building.
"Are you sure they’re in there?" I asked Frank. "The building looks empty."
"Location Spells don’t lie," Frank said. "I know Josh is in there. Not sure about Abigor, but we’ll soon see, won’t we?"
The Demon Blade lay next to me on the back seat, and I wrapped my hand around the grip of the sword. Back at the cabin as we were gearing up in Frank’s cellar, I broached the subject of who was going to use the Demon Blade against Abigor. Although I felt that it should be me, given everything I had to do to get the weapon in the first place, I wasn’t arrogant enough to think that was reason enough to keep hold of it. Both Frank and Eva were far more experienced than I, and much more skilled when it came to welding a sword, so I offered the Demon Blade to them. When I did, they both looked at each other for a moment, then back at me.
"You got the sword," Frank said. "You should use it."
I shook my head as doubt attacked me. "I’ve never even fought with a sword before," I said. "Least of all against a demon as powerful as Abigor. I stand less chance than either of you."
Eva came forward and smiled as she put a hand on my shoulder. "It’s not always about skill or experience, Leia," she said. "Sometimes, it’s the one with the most to lose who is more powerful. You have more motivation to kill Abigor than we do."
Frank came forward as well, and stood beside Eva. "Don’t worry," he said. "If you die, one of us will take over."
Eva elbowed Frank hard in the ribs. "Frank!"
"What?" he said, then sighed. "Look, no one is going to die tonight if I can help it, except that bastard Abigor. No matter who has that sword, we work together, okay?"
"All three of us?" I said. "Shouldn’t we be rounding up the cavalry for this?"
"The cavalry?" Frank exchanged glances with Eva. "We are the cavalry."
"What? Surely there must be other Watchers…"
"There is," Eva said. "Just not that many. I called a few who are on their way, but it will take them several hours to get here from other cities, which by the way, are presently just as chaotic as ours, so yeah... we're all the cavalry there is."
"In other words, we don’t have time to wait," Frank said.
"Jesus." I shook my head. "This is beginning to feel more and more like a suicide mission."
"Look," he said. "I know the odds seem massively stacked against us, but I don’t think I’ve ever been on an operation where the odds haven’t been stacked against me. This is how it always is."
"Unfortunate, but true," Eva said. "We usually find a way to prevail. If your mother were here, she would probably say, 'Stay alive, keep fighting'. It was kinda her motto."
"Personally," Frank said. "I prefer look good, do good."
I shook my head at him and smiled. "Wise up, Frank."
He smiled back. "Hey, at least I get the first part right."
"You wish."
"Seriously, though," Eva said. "You do your mother proud."
Swallowing back my emotion, I said, "Thanks Eva."
Now, as we all sat in the car, the prospect of dying seemed a lot more real than it did back at the cabin, at least to me.
"All right," Frank said. "Let’s do this."
The three of us got out of the car and Frank popped the trunk. From it, he took two Berettas and shoved them into the twin holsters beneath his jacket. Then he took out a large military grade automatic rifle, checking the mag clip before slamming it back in again.
Eva was dressed in tight fitting black clothes, and her hair was gelled and tied back from her face. Equipped with two custom Glocks and a set of runic, metal-tipped batons crisscrossed on her back, she looked particularly badass.
I had my Glock 19 strapped to my leg, loaded with rune engraved bullets designed to stop demons. I also had my Watcher Knife, and of course, the Demon Blade.
"What do we do if we meet other Nephilim in there?" I asked after wiping rain from my face. "They’re going to be like Josh, all demonized. They’ll attack us."
Frank stood with his rifle pointing upward. "If they attack, there isn’t much we can do. We have to defend ourselves."
"We should try not to kill them," Eva said.
Frank shook his head. "That might be unavoidable."
"And Josh?" I asked. "What about him? How do we…contain him, without hurting him?"
Eva reached around and took a smallish gun from out of her waistband, holding it up for me to see. "With this."
I stared at the gun a moment, then realized it didn’t look like an ordinary gun. "It is that a tranquilizer gun?"
"Yes," she said. "The dart is loaded with a substance that I created, designed to render the target unconscious immediately. It won’t work on a demon like Abigor, but on someone like Josh, it should do the trick. When I get the chance, I’ll use it on him."
"Thanks, Eva." My worry was eased slightly. At least there would be a chance that Josh didn’t have to get hurt.
I couldn’t say the same about the rest of us, though.
Frank closed the trunk and we all looked ahead to the warehouse building as the rain began to get heavier. "Let’s go," he said.
Frank led the way as we stuck close to the other buildings, cautiously making our way to the warehouse. Frank held his rifle out in front of him as he moved, while Eva held her Glock. The Demon Blade was in my hand, and all I could think about was swinging it at Abigor.
That’s if Abigor was inside the warehouse. We were almost upon the building, and thus far, there were no signs of life. No guards posted around the building, no lights coming from inside.
"Seems quiet," Eva said in a low voice.
"Yeah," Frank said as we came upon a side entrance. "Too quiet if you ask me."
"You think they know we’re coming?" I asked. "Josh may be able to sense my presence."
Frank put his hand on the door handle and pushed down, opening the door just a bit. "Oh... I’m 100% confident that they knew we were coming, and that if he's here, then Abigor has already sensed our presence. That’s why there's no sentinels on guard around the warehouse, which in itself confirms his presence."
He went in first, his rifle shouldered as he aimed into the darkness, the slightest green haze being emitted from the night vision scope on his rifle; a scope he had no need for, but which was still handy in certain pitch black environments.
Eva went in next, and I followed behind her. Then we all paused for a moment to listen, and let our eyes adjust to the gloom. Eventually, I was able to make out the room we were in, which was a huge space that had stacks of wooden crates dotted about the place. Upstairs, there was a walkway and a number of offices, all shrouded in darkness. The silence in the place was heavy and conspicuous.
"There doesn’t seem to be anyone here," I whispered.
"We don’t know that yet," Eva said. "Let’s look around."
When we went to move further into the warehouse, I stopped suddenly as I became aware of two other presences in the place. The first presence caused a chill to go through me as I breathed in sharply. There was no mistaking the cold malevolence of it.
It was Abigor.
I felt Josh’s presence also.
"Guy’s," I called out in a hushed voice to Frank and Eva, who were a few yards ahead as they turned around to look at me.
But as I was about to tell them that we weren’t alone, the lights in the room suddenly came on, or at least some of them. Most of the light was focused around the center of the room, bringing into view a person—a man—who was standing there. The man was tall, dressed in some sort of black suit. His hair was dark and short, and his face was looking straight ahead. I thought he was in some sort of trance until he turned his head slowly to look at us, his light blue eyes impassive. There was also something about the man. He had a very familiar presence to him, and at first, I thought he was Nephilim. But when I saw the look of shock on Frank and Eva’s faces, I realized the man wasn’t Nephilim.
He was an angel.
There was no mistaking the force of the grace flowing through him, which even from a distance, I could tell was much more powerful than my own, or indeed, any other Nephilim I’d met.
"What the hell is an angel doing here?" Frank asked, voicing the question we were all thinking.
"That’s a good question," another voice answered from across the room, a voice I recognized immediately as belonging to Abigor. This was confirmed when he suddenly appeared from behind a stack of crates. He stood there in his weird military uniform and smiled at us like a welcoming host. "And one which you will soon have an answer to."
My grip tightened around the Demon Blade as I stared hard at Abigor. At that moment, I felt like charging at him, swinging the sword at his neck and chopping his head clean off. I held back though, knowing such a move would be foolish, and would probably get me killed.
No, I thought. I have to wait, pick my moment.
"I don’t like this," Frank said quietly as he aimed his rifle at Abigor.
"Neither do I," Eva said. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"You can lower your weapons," Abigor said. "I have no desire to kill any more of you hybrids, unless you force me to that is."
"What’s with the angel, Abigor?" Frank asked. "Nephilim aren’t enough for you, so you’re kidnapping angels now?"
"Not exactly." Abigor made a motion with his hand that resulted in Frank’s gun being ripped from him, landing on the floor and skidding away. Eva’s
Glock went next, flying from her hands and sliding across the floor, ending up several feet away. Frank immediately went for one of his Berettas, but Abigor stopped him. "Don’t be stupid. Take that gun out and I’ll rip your arm off this time."
Frank sighed as he removed his hand from the butt of the gun inside his jacket. "Asshole."
Abigor ignored Frank’s insult and looked at me. "Leia," he said, a strange sort of glee in his eyes. "I see you have the Demon Blade with you." He laughed and shook his head. "I must say, I didn’t think you would do it. Trading your soul just for a chance to kill me, that’s…commendable, really, but ultimately pointless, I’m afraid."
Needless to say, both Frank and Eva were staring at me, shock on their faces. "Leia," Frank said. "What is he talking about?"
I shook my head and said nothing. What was there to say anyway? It was done now. I was more concerned with Abigor’s closing words anyway. "What do you mean, pointless?" I asked him as a heavy sense of dread fell over me.
Abigor shook his head at me, as if I was completely stupid, which was how I was starting to feel. "Leia, Leia," he said. "I’m sorry to inform you that the weapon you have in your hand is useless, at least in your hands."
"What…what do you mean?"
"Oh, Leia." He chuckled to himself. "I would’ve thought the name alone would’ve given it away, but since it hasn’t, I’ll explain. That so-called 'Demon Blade' you have in your hand has been designed to be wielded only by demons. In the hands of a Nephilim, or anyone else for that matter, it’s just another sword, and certainly not capable of killing me."
I shook my head as if he was lying. "You’re just saying that to trick me."
Abigor laughed, louder and longer this time. "But I’ve already tricked you! That sword you have there is one of thousands that were forged during the last Great War in Hell. It was handed out to King Mordred’s army, to use against Grand Duke Leonard’s army, and while it can potentially kill me, unless you are a demon, you cannot activate its power. So you see, my little hybrid, you might as well have brought a toy sword with you instead."
