by Tim Marquitz
“I’m not even sure what he wants. He didn’t say anything or act aggressive. He just stood there and smiled, then poofed.” I glanced toward the storm clouds that obscured the night sky. “You’re probably right, though. I think he was the one behind the specter. I didn’t realize it right away, caught up in how alien he felt, but I’m pretty sure he was the presence I scanned outside the bar.”
“Then come and stay with me.” Karra pulled me into the house. “I can talk to my father about this alien, and maybe he can track him down somehow.”
I shook my head despite wanting nothing more. “It’s obvious I’ve got a big ass target on my back, and I don’t want you in the middle of it any more than you already are. If the weres and E.T. can find me here, they can find me at your place, too. I don’t want to put that on you.”
“Frankie-“
I cut her off. “Don’t Frankie me. You’re the only good thing in my life, and I’m not gonna put you at risk. Lucifer has proven he’s got no problem letting innocent people suffer for his actions, and I’m not gonna let him hurt you any more than he already has.” Karra huffed and put her hands on her hips, but I waggled my finger at her. “I’m used to being on the hit list. It’s just another day at the office, but if I were to lose you to all this bullshit my uncle’s stirred up, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Besides, what would your dad do if you were to get hurt?”
She stared at me a moment with hard eyes, and then sighed, conceding my point.
“You’re the only thing keeping him out of the chaos left behind by God’s disappearance. Add in a quest for revenge by the most powerful Anti-Christ to ever walk the Earth and I might as well have let Gabriel have Heaven. Dying to a storm of deadly ash would be preferable to the Hell Longinus would unleash were he to lose you.”
“You’re not supposed to be the reasonable one.”
“I have my moments, but you know I’m right.”
Karra nodded. “I do, but I don’t like it.” She tried her best to smile, and I kissed her crooked lips.
“Go and be with your dad where I know you’re safe. Find out what you can about the alien. I’ve got my own research to do, and I don’t think it’ll help to have you there.”
She sighed and nodded again, returning my kiss.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. Given who I’ll be with, I’m not too concerned about anyone taking another shot at me.” I leaned in and luxuriated in her. “I’ll call you after a while.”
It took her a few moments to pull away, but she did, at last. With a forced smile, she went into the portal room without saying anything. The gate ramped up and I felt her presence fade away.
Once she was gone, I ordered the fiends to fix the door, without being seen, and to stay on guard duty. If anyone popped in for a visit while I was gone, there wouldn’t be a body left to identify. I then made a quick call and snatched up a couple of guns and some extra ammo, collected the vial Karra had left on the table, and said goodbye to Chatterbox before I headed out.
I wanted to know more about the relationship between Lucifer and my mother, and if Baalth wasn’t in the mood to talk, I knew someone who would.
Chapter Nine
A mile or two outside of town, the sun was creeping over the horizon. The abnormally green desert surrounded me as I parked my confiscated Impala and waited for my cousin to show up. She clearly wasn’t in anything resembling a rush. I’d already paced a furrow in the wet dirt and contemplated asking the Chinese for help since I was damn near halfway to their country by the time she finally arrived.
Leaving behind a trail of shimmering light, she dropped from the sky and landed gracefully before me. She still looked battered, but I guess that made sense seeing how I’d just seen her at Abe’s funeral that morning. The inter-dimensional time change was still screwing me up. She’d exchanged her dress and sunglasses for her usual leather outfit. Everto Trucido hung in its place at her hip with a brand new scabbard.
Her bruised face was grim. “Frank,” She said, her voice was barely a whisper.
I bit back a snarky comment about her tardiness as another streak followed just a second later, the angel Raguel joining us. It wouldn’t do me any good to ruffle Scarlett’s feathers seeing how I called her. I needed a favor.
“Hi, Raguel.” I greeted the other angel with nod. Unlike when I’d first encountered him, there was a sense of his power drifting off him this time. He was no longer incorporeal, a being of nothing more than willpower and memories. Still dressed in his bronzed battle armor, his own runic sword was at his side. His wild gray hair was tied into a long tail behind his head. It made his sharp features even more so, seeming to pull the wrinkles of his face into deeper lines.
“Triggaltheron.” He gave a curt bow, his icy blues eyes appraising me. “Scarlett has told me what you seek. Why should I do this for you?”
He was all business, but it’s not like I expected rainbows and fluffy kittens. That was okay, though. I had a pretty good idea he would help, seeing how he wouldn’t have come all the way from Heaven just to tell me no. There’s a card for that. “No reason at all, but I’m still asking for your help. Before he was shut down, Azrael spoke to me of my mother and a relationship with Lucifer. I need to learn more about that.” I had no interest in divulging all of the details, but I had to offer Raguel something or he’d have no reason to help.
Scarlett’s lips pulled back into an unconscious sneer at the mention of my uncle’s name. I could relate.
“I need to know whether he was just yanking my chain out of some sick desire to torment me, or if he really knows something about my family history; my past.”
“Do you think he was telling you the truth?” Scarlett asked. Her eyes were narrow and sparkled with doubt.
I looked at her and shrugged. “I hope not, but if he was, then the whole of who I am is nothing more than a lie. I have to know.”
Raguel stared at me, the cold chill of his eyes making me feel as though he were peering inside me. After a long moment, he nodded. “I will grant your wish, Triggaltheron, only because of what you’ve done for the Kingdom, but beware Azrael. He has long lived apart from Heaven and is no longer an angel in any sense of the word. Trust only that he serves himself, and no other.”
He turned away and I felt the sudden buildup of power. Immediately, the dimensional wall was torn open, a glistening shimmer of golden energy bridging the gap between two realities: Earth and Limbo.
“I have warded the passage so no one but you may enter or leave Limbo. It will remain open for two hours only. Be sure you are through it before then or you will be trapped inside.”
“Thank you,” I told him after he’d recited the steps that would lead me to Azrael.
Raguel said his farewells and streaked into the sky, leaving me alone with my cousin.
“Are you sure about this, Frank? Our bloodlines are tangled enough as it is. I can’t imagine anything you’d learn from Azrael would be good news, even if he could be bothered to tell you the truth.”
“Probably not, but there are too many lies to ignore. I doubt the truth can be much worse than what I’ve been led to believe.”
She shook her head. “You’re lying to yourself now, but do what you must.” Scarlett came over and hugged me tight. It caught me off guard, and I scrambled to return the embrace. When she pulled away, she smiled. It was a genuine, honest smile. “Thank you for saving my home, Frank. No matter what you find in there, she gestured to the portal, “you shall always be in my heart, as family.”
A second later, she was in the air, nothing but the trail of her power still visible. The awkward moment over, I turned to the look at the dimensional rift. I didn’t have much faith Azrael would open up and tell me the truth if I just asked him, so I’d come prepared to do more. That wasn’t something I wanted to let Scarlett or Raguel know. For all their reasons to kill Azrael, they’d simply turn the other cheek seeing how he was already beaten. Down and out, he was just another soul who
had to worry about a redemption that was never gonna come. For me, down and out was exactly how I wanted him.
No time to waste, I stepped into the portal and felt myself transported to Limbo. Its gray emptiness was a shock to the system after being on Earth. Made entirely of swirling clouds that obscured everything, Limbo was a colorless void designed to stash the spirits of the dead on the way to their final destination. With no landmarks or buildings, absolutely nothing to judge direction or distance by, you had to know exactly where you were going or you wouldn’t get there. Worse still, lose your way and you wouldn’t be able to leave. It was like having a TV with only PBS-mind-numbing.
Fortunately, I knew where I was going and had a trick for finding my way back. I slipped one of the DA slayer bullets out of one of the extra cartridges and dropped it at the portal. Since the bullet was made out of the essence of an angel and a demon, it gave off a tiny flicker of their combined power. It wouldn’t be a lighthouse, but it would provide me with a distinct enough distinct signal for me to catch my bearings should I get turned around. Better still, someone would have to be almost looking for a ping that small to notice it, so I didn’t have to worry about coming back to a horde of trapped creatures trying to use me to get out of Limbo.
Bullet in place, I headed off, keeping count of the steps I took. Raguel had set the meet close to an area that lined up with Azrael’s dump point in Limbo, so it wasn’t long before I arrived. I expected to have to hunt him down a bit, figuring he would have wandered off, but I was surprised to see him hunched over and sitting at the location I’d been given, to the exact step.
He looked up as soon as the clouds parted between us. “Come to gloat, have you?” His voice was quiet, soft, carrying none of its usual forcefulness.
I pulled another bullet out and dropped it into the clouds, just in case. “I only came to talk.” I didn’t see the point in kicking him when he was down…not yet, at least. There was nothing to lose by playing nice. I had time for Plan B. C through Z were all the same.
Azrael stood. He wore the same black robes as he had the last time I’d seen him, but now they hung loosely across his emaciated frame. Pale, his skin stretched taut across his sharp features, he still looked like death warmed over, but there was none of the intimidation that had been such an integral part of his being. He looked like an old man, counting the minutes until the end came.
Bereft of his powers, which Raguel had inherited, Azrael looked so…normal. There were none of the obsidian clouds that whirled about his feet or any of the fire in his gaze. He stood on the cloudy surface of Limbo and his eyes were a murky brown. I let my senses loose and felt the barest hint of his essence, little more than a pittance to keep him among the living. The cold wash of the tomb had been replaced by a numb emptiness of a disconnected soul. He had truly been forsaken. He was nothing more than skin and bones with an immortal spirit.
“I’ve nothing to tell you, Triggaltheron.” Azrael shook his head. “You were given the opportunity for answers, but you chose to stand against me. Leave me to my banishment.” He dismissed me with a casual wave. “At least I know I won’t suffer alone.” The angel laughed, the sound lacking his trademark graveyard grumble. It had more than enough stubbornness to make up for it.
I walked over and stood right before him, meeting his cold gaze. Without any hesitation, I yanked my gun out and shot him in the foot. So much for plan A.
Azrael shrieked and fell backward, crashing to the ground to clutch at his wound. The clouds swirled and I brushed them aside as I closed the distance between us. He looked at me with fury in his eyes, and I shot him in the hand.
Once more, Azrael’s shout echoed through Limbo, my ears ringing in its wake. He scrambled toward the cover of the smoke, but I stalked him, staying right on his heels. Before he could get further than a few yards, I stepped down on his injured foot and pinned it to the ground. He growled and clutched at my ankle with his good hand, trying to pry himself loose. I set the barrel of my gun to his thigh.
“I’m all for suffering, but just so you know, I fully intend to make sure you do the lion’s share of it.” Again, I pulled the trigger.
Azrael crumpled into a heap. I took a step back but stayed close. It seemed pretty obvious I’d gotten my point across, but you never know with supernaturals. They don’t think like normal people. You can never be sure of what they’ll do. Logic and reason are a foreign concept to them.
Azrael lay there for a minute, whimpered little breaths spewing from his mouth, but he didn’t move. After another minute, his voice rose in his throat and his gasped complaints turned into a phlegmy chuckle.
“No matter how much you deny it, Triggaltheron, you are just like your father.” He rolled onto his back and glared up at me, the flicker of a grin at his lips.
“What a coincidence. That’s exactly who I came to talk to you about.” I moved a step closer. “I guess we’re having a conversation after all.”
His laughter ended, but I could still see the stolid defiance in his eyes. “Do you truly think you’ll find the answers you seek by torturing me? It would bring me great satisfaction to die knowing I’ve told you nothing of the puzzle that vexes you.”
“It sounds to me like you and I are contemplating the same end game.” I moved closer, lifted my gun and pointed it at his shin. “Sadly, I think I’ll be the only one who enjoys your long, drawn out crawl into oblivion.” The next bullet tore into his leg.
Azrael shrunk back and curled into a ball on his side. His breaths spewed in pained gasps. He trembled as he attempted to salve his injuries. I’d come here ready to kill him, if I had to, but as satisfying as it would be to put a bullet in his eye, I knew it wasn’t a good idea. Azrael knew something about my family, and I’d be damned if I didn’t try my hardest to get it out of him before I sent him on his way.
“How about now? Do you have something to tell me yet, or do I put another hole in you?” I kicked him over onto his back so we were face to face. His lips quivered and his eyes were moist. “You and I both know these little flesh wounds aren’t gonna kill you, so we can keep going. I cleared my schedule so I’ve got as much time as it takes.” I thumped my foot against his hurt leg. He winced and pulled away. “Tell me about the relationship between Lucifer and my mother.”
Azrael growled at me through clenched teeth. “Do you want to hear more about her rape? How the smell of her sex filled the air, wet from the grunting violation she loved so much. Is that what you’re looking for?”
I squeezed a round off into his elbow.
Azrael hissed and pulled his arm against his ribs. Pained eyes glared up at me, but he sneered, his defiance intact. “Or would you rather hear about how she was cut into pieces while still alive, hacked apart limb by limb, the blade slicing into her pale fle-“
I shot his other foot, following it up with a bullet to his damaged shin.
Azrael flopped in agony, spewing curses and spittle into the clouds.
“I have to tell you, buddy, you’re starting to piss me off.”
His body was wracked with twitches, but he managed to pull himself into a seated position. Blood spilled from his wounds and lent color to the misty haze beneath him. He stared at me without speaking. Stubborn was winning out. It was time to shift gears.
“There’s only two more rounds in the gun.” I waved my. 45 before him. “However, I brought along a bunch of extra clips. When I run out of those, I’ve got a few creative ideas on how we can continue our little game, and I promise I won’t disappoint you.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the vial of Lucifer’s blood. Azrael’s gaze darted to it. “You know what this is, I’m sure. You can sense it, even muted as you are. Just a couple of drops and you’ll be healed up and ready to start all over. You don’t even have to cooperate. All I have to do is rub it in one of your wounds to get the full effect.”
He sat silent another moment, staring at me, until I lifted my gun again. He flinched and raised a dripping, crimson hand. “E
nough, demon.” Azrael sucked in a ragged breath. “You’ve made your point. I’ll tell you what you want to know, but only after you’ve done something for me.”
Now we were getting somewhere. Everything in the supernatural world came at a price: a bargain, a trade, the promise of favors. That we’d reached the negotiating stage was a good sign. There was a real chance I’d find out what I wanted to know. I really didn’t plan on giving Azrael anything in trade for the information I sought, but it didn’t hurt to let him think I was willing to deal.
I lowered my gun to my side and smiled. “You looking for an all-expense paid trip to Tahiti or a professional makeover to clear up that papery skin thing you’ve got going on?”
He spit of thick glob of blood into the clouds. “I want only one thing from you, Triggaltheron: kill me.”
I hadn’t expected that. I figured he’d want a way out of Limbo, or that he’d ask me to take out Raguel so his powers would revert back, but he definitely caught me off guard by asking me to off him. “As much as I would love to, that kind of screws up the whole you telling me stuff angle I was going for. Even with a necromancer for a girlfriend, I wouldn’t be able to get you talking after I turn out your lights.”
He grinned. “Not true, Triggaltheron.” He pulled himself to his feet, struggling to stand on his wounded limbs. I didn’t bother to help. “Though Raguel has dominion over my magic, the part of my essence that holds the truth of what I know is still here.” He tapped his temple and then his heart. “Were you to slay me, you would inherit my spirit and all the wisdom and memories it contains.”
“You’re talking about a soul transfer?” Though I’d only experienced a few of them in my time, it was common knowledge a demon inherited the power of another supernatural that he killed, but I’d never known it to pass along memories. I haven’t had it happen. It sounded like Azrael was playing me for a fool. “I’m calling bullshit. I’ve had my share of soul transfers, and never have I inherited more than the magic of those I’ve killed.”
