God of Malice

by J. C. Diem

Peering down at her fellow warriors, she knew she would have to rely on one of them for her assistance. Time was of the essence, so she hoisted herself up onto the wall. “Violet!” she shouted. Nat heard her and elbowed the angel in the side. They both looked up to see her waving at them. “Catch me!” Lexi shouted, then jumped.

  Violet’s heart leaped into her throat, but she was already on the move. Just as Nathan had done for her once, she sprouted wings and surged into the air. She caught Lexi just before she could splatter on the ground. “What the hell did you do that for?” she asked as she put her friend down.

  “Do you trust me?” Lexi asked, ignoring the question. She was relieved when Violet didn’t hesitate to nod. “I can call on some new allies, but I need your blood.” Violet pulled her sleeve back and held out her wrist, but Lexi shook her head. “I think your demonic blood would be better.” She needed a source of evil to power up her necromancer.

  Violet had no idea what Lexi’s plan was, but she changed herself into her demonic form. Growing to twelve feet in height, her clothes changed to black metal armor as twin black horns rose from her forehead. Gasps of terror came from the shamans who spotted her. Nathan, Sophia, Leo and Brie used their celestial magic to deflect the spells that were sent their way.

  “Drink,” Violet urged Lexi in a deep, guttural voice. She willed the sleeve of her armor away to bare her wrist again.

  “I’m going to look dead once I do this, but I’ll be fine,” Lexi said, then bit into her friend’s wrist. Swallowing a few mouthfuls, she winced at the acrid taste of the black, sludgy blood. “Gah!” she said and pulled away. “That’s the worst thing I’ve ever tasted!”

  “Did it work?” Violet asked as she changed back to her human form.

  Power flooded through Lexi until she felt like she was going to burst. “Oh, yeah. It worked alright.”

  “Who are the allies you’re going to call on?” Nat asked.

  “Ghosts,” Lexi replied. Lying down, she flipped a switch in her head again and her soul detached itself from her body. Now seeing through vision that was in shades of gray, she sent out a blast of death magic. As she’d hoped, the dead were drawn to her.

  “What do you wish of us, necromancer?” a young man who looked like he’d died in the nineteen-seventies asked. His jeans were flared at the bottom and his shirt was a truly awful lime green. It was unbuttoned almost to his waist, which showed off the chunky silver chain with a peace symbol pendant. All of the ghosts were wispy and were almost see-through. They floated a few inches above the ground. They were weak and would need to use her power before they could be of any use to her.

  “This world has been invaded by evil aliens,” she told them. They lived on a slightly different plane and weren’t aware of what was happening. “I require your help to drive them back to their planets.”

  “You wish for us to turn vengeful?” a motherly looking woman asked with a hopeful glint in her eyes.

  “Yes. Join me in battle and help me to oust these aliens.” Lexi called on the rage that she’d never quite managed to conquer. Her hair lengthened until it almost reached her feet. It floated around her in a tangled mess. Her clothing melted away and a billowing shroud took their place. Her face transformed into something out of a nightmare as she became aged and cronelike. Now wrinkled and hideous, her bones showed through the tears in her shroud. Her eyes had become deep, dark pools of insanity.

  Drawing on her death magic, the ghosts were pulled fully into this realm. They shed their human forms and took on the same dire appearance that Lexi sported. With shrieks of fury, they turned towards the green aliens and went on the attack.

  Focusing on a shaman, Lexi penetrated his body, then turned solid. It had the effect of tearing his head from his shoulders. Shocked to see their colleague die so quickly and horribly, the Grimgorg sent wild blasts of magic at the invisible beings who were plaguing them.

  She wanted to attack Nifirial, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to kill him even when she was in this form. As a phantom, she wasn’t undead, she was completely dead. Her death magic wouldn’t be enough to take him down.

  With a hollow laugh that sounded maniacal even to her, Lexi targeted another alien. All around her, the vengeful ghosts were howling with mad glee as they unleashed decades of rage on their enemies.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  ~~~ Violet’s World ~~~

  VIOLET AND NAT COULDN’T see the ghosts that Lexi had recruited, but they could tell when they joined the fight. Grimgorg shamans screamed in pain as their limbs were inexplicably torn from their bodies. Purple blood splattered the ground as they were ripped apart.

  “Oh, my,” Elijah murmured in fright and pulled a cross from beneath his shirt.

  He started praying quietly and burning pain hit Nat as holy power swelled around him. Stepping away from him, she froze when Nifirial’s sneering comment came back to her. “That’s it!” she said. “I know how to kill the faery!”

  “How?” Violet asked.

  “Elijah has to bless me.”

  Blinking at the answer, Violet thought the vampire had snapped. “Um, don’t you remember what happened when Sam took you to consecrated ground? What do you think is going to happen if Elijah blesses you?”

  “I know,” Nat replied with a grimace. “It’s going to hurt like hell, but there’s no other way. Nifirial said only a ‘blessed’ undead can kill him.”

  Overhearing their conversation, Nathan joined them. “Even if you take this risk, you will not be able to penetrate the faery’s shields.” He’d tried and he’d been unable to break through the magical trees, or the invisible barrier they’d erected above it.

  Looking up at the spot where Lexi had leaped from the building, Nat’s brow wrinkled in thought. “I haven’t had much to do with curses, but I’m pretty sure it means he’ll be vulnerable to any form of attack from me once I’ve been blessed. Maybe I don’t have to be close to him to be able to kill him.”

  Realizing what she was hinting at, Violet smiled. “You truly do have moments of sheer brilliance, Mortis.” For once, she didn’t insult her friend.

  “I know,” Nat said immodestly. Turning to the priest, she saw him watching her calmly. “Will you bless me, Elijah?”

  “I will, my child,” he replied and stepped towards her. With his cross in his left hand, he placed his right hand on her forehead. “In the name of the father, the son and the holy ghost, I bless thee.”

  That was all it took for his power to take hold. Nat clenched her teeth against shrieks of torment as holy fire burned her from within. Agony erupted throughout her entire body and she could feel her insides boiling. “Hurry,” she gasped to Violet and pure white light spilled from her mouth. “I don’t think I can hold on for long.”

  Violet’s wings manifested again and she surged into action. She snatched Natalie into her arms and flew upwards. Nathan called on his wings as well and followed them up to the rooftop. Violet set her friend down and Nat staggered over to the sniper rifle that Lexi had left in her backpack.

  Silently thanking Fate that she’d learned how to assemble it, Nat put it back together in moments and loaded it with a single bullet. She picked the weapon up and rested it against the wall, aiming towards the magical trees that surrounded the faeries. Whimpering from pain, she couldn’t hold the rifle steady as she sighted down the scope. At this angle, she had a clear view of the magical beings. Nathan stepped up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders to hold her still, while Violet steadied the rifle. Nat’s body was beginning to break down on the outside as well. White light spilled out from the cracks that appeared in her flesh.

  Seeing the silver hair and eyes of her foe in the scope, Nat ignored her agony and aimed for Nifirial’s chest. With the last ounce of strength that she possessed, she pulled the trigger. She watched through eyes that were beginning to go dark as the bullet speared through his shields. He staggered back when the projectile pierced his heart. His eyes found hers and darkened to jet
black with rage. Even as he attempted to kill her with a spell, his shredded heart ceased to beat. He collapsed and his kin wailed when they felt him die.

  “Got him,” Nat gasped, then passed out in agony from her catastrophic wounds.

  “I have to try to heal her,” Nathan said. He held his hands out, but Violet stopped him.

  “Don’t,” she said in near panic. “Angels can’t heal evil beings.” It came out sounding bitter because she knew Natalie was far from evil. Overhead, the dome flickered and went out as the shamans withdrew their magic. She hoped it meant they were about to flee. Able to teleport again, she scooped her dying friend into her arms and zapped her to Elijah. “You need to remove your blessing,” she said and gently set Nat down on the ground.

  Alarmed to see the withered and now almost skeletal vampire, Elijah knelt beside her. Bone showed through the cracks in her flesh. The holy light spilling from her wounds had become almost blinding. He pressed his hand to her forehead again and withdrew his blessing. “I hope I am not too late,” he murmured as the white light that had been spilling out of her rent body faded.

  “She needs blood,” Nathan said to his beloved in concern for her friend.

  Violet changed into her demonic form again and cut her hand open with her golden dagger. She held her hand over Nat’s mouth and kept slicing herself open each time she healed. The thick, noisome substance pooled in her friend’s mouth until she swallowed convulsively. Even unconscious, the vampire made a face at the awful taste. Then her hands were reaching upwards, pulling Violet’s arm down so she could feed in earnest.

  Nat’s fangs descended and she roused enough to bite into the wrist of whoever had volunteered to feed her. Drinking until she was sated, she opened her eyes to see Violet in her demon form and Nathan kneeling beside her. The pain was receding and her body was slowly beginning to repair itself, but she was still in pretty bad shape. “Thanks,” she croaked. “I think you might have just saved my life. By the way, Lexi is right. Your blood is the worst thing I’ve ever tasted, too.”

  “You’re welcome,” Violet said dryly as she changed back to her human guise. She was on the verge of tears. Nat had almost died and Lexi was, to all intents and purposes, already dead. Her chest wasn’t rising and falling and she hadn’t moved in several minutes.

  Sophia, Sam, Leo and Brie appeared as they teleported back to them. Now that the dome was gone, they could all use their full abilities again. “The Grimgorg are fleeing,” Sophia reported. “Their King has ordered a retreat.” The ghosts had turned the tide in their battle. The invisible imp had also helped. Seeing a knife floating around all by itself had unnerved Rho beyond measure. It had chased him around, scoring cuts all over his arms and legs and he hadn’t been able to get away from it. That had been the last straw and he’d called for an evacuation.

  Reynolds trotted over to them and halted when he saw Lexi’s body. “What happened to her?” he asked in concern. He couldn’t see any obvious wounds, but she was clearly dead.

  “She’s become a ghost, I think,” Violet said wearily. She’d barely done anything during this battle. Her two new friends had done the bulk of the work. They’d gone above and beyond to save her world.

  As if knowing they were concerned about her, Lexi sat up and gasped for air. Drained of her strength by the ghosts, she almost fell over, but Sam caught her and helped her to her feet. Swaying in exhaustion, she saw Nat lying on the ground and stared at her withered, badly injured body. “You look as bad as I feel,” she said in a raspy voice.

  “Were ghosts responsible for tearing the Grimgorg apart?” Reynolds asked. Something invisible had been at work. The soldiers had almost broken and run when the limbs had first started being pulled off their enemies. Colonel Hargreaves had rallied them when it became apparent the beings were only attacking the aliens.

  “Yeah,” Lexi replied and leaned heavily against Sam. “I had to use Violet’s blood to power up my necromancer, then I tore my soul free from my body. When I’m a ghost, I can turn vengeful and get other spirits to help me. Unfortunately, they need my death magic to power them.”

  “They drained you?” Sophia asked and put a hand on the young warrior’s shoulder in concern.

  Lexi nodded and almost went down again. Sam held her firmly and slung her arm over his shoulder. He wasn’t about to let one of Fate’s warriors fall.

  “While the Grimgorg are leaving, it seems the faeries are not going to be driven away as easily,” Leo said. The thorny barrier of greenish-black trees still remained. They could hear the faeries wailing and sobbing at their leader’s death.

  “Perhaps we can assist you with that,” a voice said from behind them. They turned to see that tens of thousands of angels had arrived. The barrier that had kept the gates to heaven shut had weakened with Nifirial’s death. They’d managed to tear it down and had come to help. The angel who had spoken was tall, blond and nearly as handsome as Nathan. At least that was how Violet saw him. She had no idea what his human host looked like.

  “Your help is always welcome, Gabriel,” Nathan said with a grin.

  “Will you lead us to battle, Nathanael?”

  “Always,” Nathan replied and called on his wings again. Leaping into the air, a blazing blue sword appeared in his hand. Every angel who had turned up had had to borrow a vessel, so they couldn’t make their wings appear. Only Violet’s inner circle had that ability and it had been granted by their maker. The angelic host called on their holy weapons and surged after Nathan.

  Chopping and hacking with their swords, they used their celestial magic to break down the thorny wall of trees. When they broke through, the faeries cowered away from the force that so vastly outnumbered theirs. Nathan hovered over them in all of his holy fury. “We will give you one chance to leave this world,” he said coldly. “If you do not leave immediately, we will annihilate you all.” In response, one of the female faeries sent a blast of magic at him. He dodged it easily, then spoke grimly. “So be it.” At his gesture, his brethren surged forward.

  Not about to miss out on this, Violet transformed into her twelve-foot-tall golden form and waded into the fray. The faeries shied away from her terrible beauty and from her double-bladed axe as she mercilessly chopped them to pieces. With Nathan, and a host of angels at her side, she ensured the safety of her world once again. No one was going to enslave her planet while she existed.

  It was a bloody, brutal battle and not a single faery was left standing when it was over. The angels who had been wounded healed their hosts, then assisted the soldiers to herd the Grimgorg army through the portals. They weren’t happy that Asgard had been taken over and its citizens had been enslaved. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any jurisdiction over other worlds. The fate of the Asgardian people couldn’t be changed by them.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  ~~~ Violet’s World ~~~

  “HAS ANYONE SEEN LOKI?” Violet asked when she and Nathan returned to her friends. She’d kept her eye out for him, but he hadn’t made an appearance yet.

  “I’ve been a bit busy nearly dying,” Nat said and sniggered weakly.

  “I was kind of dead for a while there,” Lexi added dryly.

  They searched the area for their foe, but they couldn’t see him anywhere. Wearing his green, black and gold armor, he should have been easy to find.

  “Loki is about to flee from this world,” Fate told them as she materialized. Her black cloak and hood hid her face and shadows seemed to writhe around her. “If you are quick, you may be able to catch him.” She pointed and Violet saw a man-sized shape slinking around a distant corner. He was using an illusion spell to hide, but she could see through it.

  Now that the dome was gone and she could teleport again, she didn’t waste any time. Stopping beside the body of a fallen shaman, she picked up an object that he’d dropped, then chased after the God of Mischief. She saw him enter a building and teleported after him. Hearing footsteps rushing up the stairs to the second floor, she chea
ted and zapped herself upwards.

  Loki dropped his illusion of shadow and entered the apartment where he’d left the portal. He was shaken by the utter defeat of his allies. The hideous black creatures that had come from out of nowhere had been bad enough. When soldiers and invisible beings had been added to the mix, he’d known his plan was doomed to fail. Hearing the wails of the faeries as their leader had presumably fallen to the vampire had been the only highlight of this fiasco. At least he was safe from Nifirial now. The three beautiful angels must have found the vampire and had recruited her to their cause.

  Reaching the couch, he pushed it out of the way, then halted in shock when an exquisite golden angel appeared between him and the portal. “Going somewhere, Loki?” she asked. Her voice was beautiful as well, but it was stern and cold.

  Drawing his sword, he readied a spell. “Ah, you must be the fabled Hellscourge,” he said with his trademark grin. “I must say, you are magnificent, even if you are a tad too tall for my tastes.” She towered over him, making him feel small and insignificant. He was well used to those emotions, thanks to Odin and his cronies.

  “I’m already taken,” Violet replied. “Besides, I’m not really into the bad-boy type.”

  Amused despite the danger he was in, Loki sent a blast of raw magic at her, hoping to catch her off guard. To his chagrin, she disappeared and he felt the prick of metal on the back of his neck as she materialized behind him.

  “Nice try,” Violet said to her foe as her hand clamped down on his shoulder. “I’ve dealt with you before and I know your tricks.”

  “I think I would recall it if we had met,” Loki said. He slid his eyes sideways and up in an effort to see her face without moving his head. Not only hulking in size, she was inhumanly strong and held him still without apparent effort.

  Violet could have explained that they had met when she’d been in a different form. She could also have told him about her dealings with his doppelgangers from the other dimensions. Since she was in a hurry, she did neither. “I have a gift for you,” she said and closed the silver collar that she’d picked up from the fallen shaman around his neck.