Hope (The Descendant Trilogy Book 2)

by Theresa M. Jones

  There was nothing familiar about this place, though. I was on a street, it looked fairly deserted. It smelled like a sewer plant, like manure and rotten eggs. I coughed to try to get rid of the smell as it clogged my nose and clung to my hair and skin.

  The buildings a few miles in front of me were tarnished, all the windows broken and walls stained. The grass was dead. The houses on both sides of me were in rows, like this had at one time been a suburban neighborhood. But now the houses were dead, like everything else. There was no wind, not even a breeze. Everything was still. Quiet.

  Dead.

  In front of me a man was running, I could see the terror in his eyes, but I didn’t know why it was there. He was running straight for me, my first instinct was to turn and run away from him. But then I realized he wasn’t running to me, but away from something else. I tried to grab hold of him, as he neared me, but he must not have seen me. He just kept running, glancing back over his shoulder every once in a while. I turned and looked away from him. Looking to see what he was running from.

  I couldn’t see anything or anyone. But when the wind blew, I smelt it. That smell was familiar. It was sulfur and burning flesh, it was decay and rotting bodies. It was death. It was Evil.

  Again I felt the urge to run. But I couldn’t run anymore. My job was to fight. I stood my ground, waiting for the evil to reveal itself.

  A man, large and hairy came around the curve in the road. Behind me I heard the running man fall, and begin to cry. I didn’t turn to him though. I was captivated by this man, this beast. He was about seven feet tall, with long black hair that flew in all directions around his face. His eyes were black. It was the man standing next to Damien the last time we met. When I killed him.

  I smothered my fear. I was no longer weak. I killed a Leader before.

  But the man didn’t notice me. He walked to the running man and gripped both of his arms right on his biceps. Tightening his grip, he yanked them right out of their sockets. As sinew snapped, tendons broke, and muscle ripped, severed veins threw blood high in the air to splatter in every direction. The man screamed. It was a primal scream, right from his insides, before the evil man bent down and bit into his jugular, cutting off the guttural sound. He sucked the blood from him before ripping his throat away, leaving a gaping hole in the poor man’s neck. I screamed at the gruesome sight.

  But then it was black again.

  This time when I got my sight back, I was in a living room. It was messy, like someone had been rummaging around looking for something, and I instantly thought of a burglar. My guard went up as my instincts flared that something was wrong. A lamp on the corner was turned on its side. Pictures had fallen to the floor and were broken. The window was shattered and glass lined the carpet.

  “Please, just let my baby go!” The woman wailed at the unknown predator.

  I ran to the sound, it was in the kitchen, a blonde woman was huddled over a young child, just younger than Sam would be. It was a different man this time, not the hairy giant. But still just as evil. I could smell his stench and feel the evil Power crawling out from every pore in his body.

  He grabbed the innocent little girl and flung her against the wall, leaving her broken and deformed in a pile on the floor. Deep red trailed out of the child’s mouth and broken limbs, creating a circle pool of blood. The mother screamed, a guttural scream of defeat and true heartbreak. Then the man broke her neck and dropped her body to the floor, only a few feet from the dead child.

  Then it was black again.

  I saw scene after scene of death and gore. Blood and hate. Rape and Murder.

  I screamed at each death. But was powerless to stop it.

  Finally I was at the field again, the field where the Primitus had been gifted with Power. And he was there.

  “It is time.” He said again. “She will be born. You must guide her to save the world, or the future you just saw will come to pass. Evil will be freed to roam the world. The Seven Seals will be opened. You cannot let it happen.”

  I nodded. I didn’t know what else to do. I was still raw from the horrible things I had just seen.

  “It is time. The Seven Seals are still being opened. The End of the World is not to be now. You must stop them. You must stop The Rising of Evil.”

  I nodded again.

  “It is time…”

  ***

  The next morning I woke with my hand draped across his chest. I could feel his fingers sliding up and down my arm, gently caressing it. I tried not to move, just to savor the moment, but he must have known I had woken, because he lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed each finger before laying it back down on his stomach.

  I sighed. I couldn’t help it. Everything was perfect.

  “How do you feel?” he asked. His voice was rough and brought back all the memories of last night. Alex had been good in bed. Though that may sound crude, it was true. But nothing like David. David was a natural. He made me feel like a queen. Like everything I ever wanted he would give me. My tummy warmed at the thoughts, but I couldn’t voice them. I couldn’t really explain how wonderful I felt.

  So I just turned my head, looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back, and leaned to kiss me. Which only ignited the fire that had finally subsided. I pulled him closer, and he rolled on top of me. He lowered his lips to mine, then to my neck, then to my chest. My breath caught in my throat, and I let out a small moan of pleasure.

  He tilted his head to look up at me waiting expectantly for my answer.

  “I feel great!” I announced, finally finding my words. And he smiled back at me, obviously feeling the same.

  He turned his head and rested it on my stomach, his hands rested at my hips. I didn’t feel exposed, though I was. It wasn’t cold, nor was it hot. It was perfect. He moved his head slightly, which caused the scruff on his chin to tickle my tummy.

  As we lay there in peace, I started to remember my dream, all the gruesome images began to surface in my mind.

  “David, did you dream last night?”

  He sighed, not in irritation, but in contentment. He started to shake his head no, until he stopped and looked up at me.

  “You know what? I did.” Then he crawled back up and laid on his side, facing me. His left hand propped his head up. “But I’m not even sure it was a dream.” I turned my body to face him, and propped my head up on my right hand. His eyes closed, as if he was remembering. He opened his eyes, which bore holes into mine.

  “I think my dream wasn’t a dream too.” I told him. I realized it didn’t make sense, but he seemed to understand.

  “What happened in your dream?”

  So I told him. I told him about the bright man, and the nine women. I told him about what he said to each of them and then what he said to me. I told him about the deaths, about the chaos. I told him everything. David listened without questioning me, or asking me to pause. He nodded a few times, but other than that, sat still.

  “What do you think? You think all the Order Members have dreams like that when they get hitched?”

  “No, Ally, I don’t think so.” He paused, to gather his thoughts. I nodded. I didn’t think so either. “My dream was similar. I saw him with the women, and the deaths. I think the deaths I saw were different. I never saw any of the people that had come with Damien. But it was all the same. Just death and blood and…evil. He never touched me. But kept saying, ‘It is time’.”

  I nodded again. What did it mean? It is time. Time for what?

  Softly I murmured, “It is time.”

  Chapter 7

  Lilith’s Army

  Four months ago, my life was perfect. I was the second in command to the most Powerful man in the world, and together we would have ruled everything. But then he was killed. I have dealt with his death and am finally okay with it.

  I would not rule next to someone, but I would rule alone. I would be on top.

  I should be on top.

  We had tortured, raped and finally killed all five of t
hose scummy Order Members, and come out with nothing to show for it. It was fun, sure. But still pointless. I still didn’t know where The Compound was.

  I would find it. Soon.

  But first, even before I could attack it, I needed an army. In the last few months I had been gathering all Rising Members back to Headquarters. This was good at first, until we got too crowded and we had to kill off many members of the police force and implant Rising members in their places to lower suspicions.

  It wasn’t enough, though. We ended up leaving my beloved New York. We went to our old Headquarters, a place I hadn’t visited for a few decades. A place buried beneath miles of sandy wind in the sticky Sahara desert, just South of Egypt.

  The stone building there was bigger, and had room for me to do what was needed. My men could stay there, we could train. We could kill. We needed to be prepared.

  But everything was so freakin’ tan…

  Nigel came in to my tan office in the ugly, tan building and bowed before me, waiting for me to acknowledge him. I looked at the top of him, the light shone off his black, baldhead, and his silver necklace hung low. He only wore a leather vest, which barely covered his chest and back.

  “What is it Nigel?”

  “My Leader, I have gathered the new recruits, whenever you are ready.”

  “Is Frank with them now?”

  He stood tall then, allowing for the bow to be over, and nodded.

  “Ok, it is time.” I shocked myself at using that sentence. It continued to reverberate in my head, night after night. It was the last thing I could remember Damien telling me before we met the Order in that awful field in Kansas.

  We stood in his office, what has been his office but was mine now. He sat behind his desk, and explained to me what was happening. “She has come forward. We need to get a few people to come with us.”

  I nodded. I had already killed Mark; my loose ends were tied up. I had been preparing for this battle. My blood lust was almost smothering.

  “Make sure to get Frank too, he is strong.”

  I nodded again, “Yes, My Leader.”

  “I haven’t had the chance to open all the Seals yet.” This I knew. And for the briefest moment, I thought I saw fear in his eyes. Damien never fears. I have known this female had been causing him some grief, but I couldn’t figure out why. He was Damien. Who was this girl who thought she could face him?

  The fear vanished. “We have only opened the first four. The Horsemen are out, but if we do not open the rest soon, they will be sealed again. The Horsemen cannot live without the other Seals being opened.”

  I nodded to him, to show that I understood what he was saying. Though I wasn’t sure why he was even telling me. What the hell was I supposed to do about the damn Seals?

  “We must go now.” He said. “It is time.”

  I followed Nigel through the maze of tan walls and tan floors, with tan ceilings. So tan…I hate the desert. The sand crunched beneath my designer pumps as I hurried down the halls, crunch, crunch.

  There was no wind down this low beneath the surface. Just stale air. It could almost make you choke, it was as if we were swimming through the sand…

  I could still smell the death from yesterday. Frank and Nigel had found a group of women and children who were not even Order Members, so I had no use for them. They said that the group had gotten too close to our place and needed to be killed. It was laughable really, as though they would need an excuse to kill these people. I didn’t care why they wanted to, but they felt the need to justify their actions. But that measly group was more than 25 miles away, they could never have found us.

  But Nigel and Frank had decided they needed to die. They made the women watch them kill their children, before raping them and leaving them for dead. The smell of sex still lingered in the air. Sex and blood and death.

  And stale air. Ugh.

  So when I walked out into the open, in the courtyard, I was more than glad. I had been so ready to get out of that tan stale air. The courtyard was about a mile wide and a mile long, almost a perfect square. Frank stood in front of the new recruits.

  I spread out my Power, letting it touch on each of the twenty newbies. A few felt strong. I could sense a few having descended from Amon, maybe three from Mammon. Most of them were from the lower level demons, members we wouldn’t normally allow within our ranks. But times were changing. We needed them all now, even if only for decoys.

  Only one was from Lucifer. He stood back, strong and imposing. Carefree. I lingered over him, tasting his mind. He was young, though he had already killed more than the others combined. He was tall, but not as tall as Frank or Nigel, and strong, but not as strong as them either. He had no hair, it appeared he had recently shaved it off, and a tattoo of some weird design on the back of his head. His arms were also covered in tattoos.

  As I allowed my Power to hover over and around him, he started to tense. He could feel me, and tried to block me, but I didn’t let him.

  He looked at me, shocked. It was obvious he was not used to being less Powerful than another. I would teach him his place. Everyone’s place was beneath me.

  I reeled in my Power and spoke to the group.

  “You will be trained. You will speak only when spoken to. You will address your General, as General” I nodded in Frank’s direction. “You will be obedient and loyal to The Rising. You will respect and fear me, your Leader, and you will address me as such.”

  “Nod, if you understand.” Frank demanded.

  They acquiesced. All except the descendent of Lucifer.

  I spoke to him, “If you do not obey, you will be forced to.”

  They nodded. He didn’t.

  I spoke to him. “Child,” I knew the term would be demeaning, “what is your name?”

  “I am no child. My name is Hadrian.”

  I thrust my Power into his mind. He shuttered at the onslaught and fell to the ground. I pushed harder, poured more into him. I made him imagine that he was being stabbed by knives, thousands of them, all over his body. Knives into his thighs. Knives into his hands, his eyes, his groin. Slicing and cutting. Carving and scraping. I let him imagine the pain, the blood, the smell.

  He growled at me. Pushing me away. But he couldn’t.

  “You will address me as, my Leader.”

  He tried again to push me out, and now I let him imagine boiling oil being poured over his skin. He was flaming. He could smell the stench of burning flesh. He could see his skin turning black, crisp before it bubbled up and off his bones. He could feel every lick of fire consume him.

  He screamed.

  I said again, “You will address me as, my Leader.” I kept my voice monotone. Not worried by his disobedience. They others looked on in horror. The few others that are strong were in awe. Wanting to be like me. Wanting to serve me. They feared me. They all feared me.

  He looked up at me finally as his body quivered and swayed.

  “My name is Hadrian, my Leader.”

  And so I pulled in my Power and released him from my hold. Though now he had stirred my lust. Before long I would have this defiant, Powerful man in my bed. It was time for someone new anyways.

  Frank stepped forward and spoke, “Your history. In Greek mythology, Zeus was the principal God, the leader so to speak. He had a companion named Cratos, the son of Pallas & Styx and the brother of Nike, the Greek goddess of justice. Cratos, which is translated to strength or Power, was submissive to Zeus, but to Zeus alone. He did all of Zeus’ bidding. It has been said that Zeus sent Cratos to rid the universe of evil. However, it has been more recently changed, in accordance with modern religions, that Zeus was the God of the Christians, and Cratos, Michael the Archangel. It is said that Lucifer, the angel of light, became jealous of God, and began a revolt against God. At that time, God sent Michael to cast Lucifer out of heaven and into Hell.

  “Lucifer was smarter and more cunning than God, though. He began building an army here on Earth. Seven demons came, one for ever
y of the seven deadly sins, and impregnated seven human women. Each demon had a prominent evil. Lucifer, our leader, had the evil of pride. Everyone who has been lucky enough to have descended from him has been almost purely evil, and the most Powerful. Our Leader, Lilith, is descendent from Lucifer, as well as others.” He said, nodding in my direction.

  Then continued, “The next two Powerful demons were Amon, whose evil was anger, and Mammon, whose evil was greed. Almost all of the Rising has descended from one of these three demons, however we are now recruiting every human ever descended from any of the First Seven.

  “The four others were Leviathan, whose evil was envy, Beelzebub-gluttony, Belphegor- sloth, and Asmedeous- lust.”

  The recruits nodded. I yawned. This was boring me. I spoke to Frank, Send me Hadrian when you are done with your first lesson. He nodded and I turned to leave. Though I did enjoy the freshness of the air, it was still pretty sticky, nasty and tan. And I knew the history already.

  Back in my office, not my real office in New York, my plain tan office in the tan desert, I pulled up the files Frank sent me on the new recruits. I went through each one, reading about them, what they had done, who we assumed they descended from.

  I stopped at Hadrian. He was intriguing. Raw. Powerful. Young though, and reckless and naïve.

  He would be beneficial. More so than these other useless pawns. I stood, but my stomach tumbled inside, again I was feeling nauseous. It was getting ridiculous how often I was feeling sick these days. At first I assumed it was the Power overwhelming me. But I don’t think so anymore. We never got sick, the Power always kept us healthy.

  I ignored it. Again. And started to pace. My palms became sweaty. I rarely worried. My confidence usually outweighed any doubts I ever considered. But now, it is time. Now is the time for action. I was building an army. I would kill The Order. But what good would it do if I kept feeling sick?

  When I heard a knock, I knew who stood beyond the door already. I could still taste his Power on my tongue from before. Now was the time to show this minion of mine what it meant to be in the Rising. And what it meant to descend from Lucifer.