by Hati Bell
“You’re Spike’s new master,” Riz surmised while ignoring the Furies around him.
“Why serve a dhampir when you can worship a god?” the creature said.
Kellsey swallowed when she realized what she was dealing with. Hera’s farewell words suddenly got a whole new meaning.
“You’re not much of a god anymore, Moloch,” Riz mocked.
The creature roared and the walls started to shake. Parts of the repaired ceiling came down and Kellsey jumped aside to dodge a support beam.
“I will be a full god again when I get what you promised me. Give me her light. I want her light!”
“You’re a day early,” Riz said.
A new hiss followed. “Chronos owed me a favor.”
Great; the god of time was buds with this monster.
Kellsey stepped over the rubble so she approached Riz from behind. The Furies still circled him but they didn’t touch him. They were, in a weird way, contemplating, as if waiting for a sign.
“You’ll never find her,” Riz swore.
“She’s here,” Moloch hissed. His body, which was as translucent as that of the Furies, turned around, scanning the room. “I know you’re there, little girl,” he said in a mocking tone of voice. “Your brothers are bound by the oath that Riz has taken. They are broken, a mere shadow of what they were. I will tear their minds apart. Crush them with their worst nightmares. Unless you come with me of your own free will.”
Kellsey took off her helmet. “I’m no little girl.”
Riz’s eyes immediately shot to her. “Don’t you dare,” he said gruffly.
“A Callahan always pays her debts. You taught me that,” she said and she dropped the helmet. The sound of it hitting the floor echoed through the wrecked room. The front of the house was a large gaping hole that now showed a green meadow. In the distance, she heard the sound of waves lapping on the shore and seagulls that were never far away.
She inhaled the scent of the Highlands for perhaps the last time before she turned to the monster that had come for her. He radiated an evil that she could almost taste.
Moloch stepped forward, his gruesome body walking through the debris without touching it. Kellsey realized that he was only present in his astral form, just like Hera earlier.
It was as if Riz read her mind. “You can’t take her light without appearing in your full form,” he said.
“I will have her light!”
“I have a new deal for you,” Riz said, his jaw tight. “Her light will barely feed you enough to grant you freedom for a century or two. My offer will set you free permanently. None of the gods who locked your ugly mug in Chaos could put you back there.”
A cackling laugh followed that gave Kellsey goosebumps. “Promisesss, promisesss. You’re not trustworthy when it comes to promisesss,” Moloch hissed. “But not even you can outrun your blood oath. The Furies won’t allow it.” Moloch, however, didn’t dare to take a step into her direction, not while Riz was blocking his path.
The furies stopped spinning. One of them said something, but Kellsey didn’t hear a sound. She suddenly realized that Riz, their target, was probably the only one who could hear them.
All she saw in Riz’s eyes was determination. “No,” he simply stated.
The Furies shot through his body like shardlike shadows and Riz cried out in agony.
Kellsey’s heart was in her throat and her eyes went wide with horror. Her eldest brother, always strong, a world unto himself, stared blindly in front of him while fighting the Furies in vain. He held his head while blood ran out of the corners of his eyes. He sank to his knees and began to foam at the mouth.
It was as if Moloch had been waiting for just that because suddenly his body was no longer translucent. He let out a satisfied roar and took a step forward.
Kellsey swallowed and tried to keep the shiver out of her voice. “So, you’re a god who has traveled all the way from another dimension just to pick me up? I’m flattered, really,” she said and she placed herself between him and her brothers.
Moloch’s claw-like fingers beckoned her closer. “Come here.”
She walked towards him, with a bored expression on her face. Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest and she felt sick to the stomach, but dignity was all she’d got left. She was a Callahan. She wouldn’t shame their name by shaking in her boots before him, though her every instinct screamed to do exactly that.
Just a few more steps. Why was she dragging her feet? Her brothers lay scattered around her, in pieces. She should be running towards the creature to put an end to their suffering instead of dawdling.
Leroy….
She wanted to say farewell to her lion. If she could only see him one more time.
“What did I tell you about that helmet?” a grouchy voice sounded suddenly in her head.
A shadow cast over her when Leroy’s massive lion jumped over her and placed himself right in front of her. He roared at the creature before him.
“He called me a little girl,” she huffed. “It looks like they have to change my name into Pride instead of Lust.”
“It’s still better than, say, Gluttony,” Leroy said before he pounced on Moloch.
It was like a clash of titans. The sheer force with which they hit each other almost knocked her feet out from under her.
She began to understand why Hera had chosen the Nemean lion to kill a demigod. He was magnificent. Raw, chilling, and with deadly claws ripping open Moloch’s stomach.
The god bellowed and shook the Asylum’s foundations. His claws shot out and tried to clasp Leroy’s neck, but her lion shook himself loose.
Kellsey pulled her knives from her boots and thought about the best way to approach the god. Though she didn’t really have the illusion that her paltry knives would do much damage to a god.
“Stay away from him. Don’t let him touch you,” a warning sounded in her head.
“I can’t just stand here!”
“Open the cage.”
Of course! She ran to Kartal’s cage and threw the doors open wide.
She spun around when she heard a new roar, this time coming from Moloch. His arm had disappeared into Leroy’s jaw up to his elbow. Blood was trickling from her lover’s muzzle to his golden mane that soon colored red.
Kellsey wanted to cry out. Gods couldn’t bleed, but the Nemean lion could. Moloch’s claws had obviously done some damage.
That didn’t stop Leroy from dragging the god with him into the cage.
“Let him go, Lee!” she yelled, one hand on the door of the cage. “Let him go and get out.”
Moloch sat on one knee, his arm still in Leroy’s jaw. He clamped his other arm around the lion’s neck and started to strangle him.
No!
Kellsey let go of the door and was just about to jump into the cage when she was pushed aside. She found Riz’s wide back blocking her view. She looked around and saw that her other brothers were no longer under Moloch’s influence either. They were bloodied, mutilated in places that made her stomach churn, but they were standing. With the exception of Levi. He was still crouched with his back against the wall, talking gibberish. Ronin and the twins tried to get him up.
“We have to get him out,” she told Riz.
To her horror he slammed the cage’s door shut.
“What are you doing?!”
Riz looked behind her and suddenly she was embraced by the brawniest arms she knew. It felt as if she was the one put into a cage.
“We have to get him out!” she yelled, while trying to escape from Kuno’s massive biceps holding her in a tight grip.
“That cage can only be opened from the outside,” Kuno said in her ear. “It will keep Moloch inside forever. That lion sacrificed his life to save the woman he loves. It’s the highest honor for a man. Don’t let his sacrifice be in vain, Kells.”
“No!” She refused to listen to that macho bullshit. Did they really think she could just stand here while Leroy was being tortured and
murdered in that cage?
Moloch tried to knock Leroy down again but failed. His body started to flicker. Her lion didn’t show any signs of fatigue, but she knew he couldn’t keep the fight up forever. No being, no matter how strong, could hold his own against a god for long.
Riz came to stand next to her as he wiped the blood from his eyes. “We’ve talked about this. Leroy knew the risk,” he said.
“Let go of him, Lee. We’ll find a way to get you outta there. You only have one life left,” she said, feeling gutted.
“And that life is yours, Kellsey.” But when Riz nodded, Leroy released Moloch’s arm. He circled back to the far corner of the cage.
Moloch jumped up, snarling and snapping. He yanked on the bars of the cage.
Riz sounded arctic when he said: “Let’s talk about my offer again.”
It was as if his words added fuel to Moloch’s rage. He roared and spun back to Leroy. Kellsey screamed, but it didn’t stop the god from throwing himself back on Leroy.
Kellsey was near to tears when her brothers formed a wall between her and the cage. She screamed, kicked, and cursed them, but to no avail. They simply overpowered her.
Tears rolled down her cheeks when Leroy released a tormented sound. She reached out to him in her head, but he refused to answer. She realized he was shielding her from hearing his pain. For some reason, this scared her like she’d never been scared before.
“I won’t just kill your lover. I’ll make him suffer forever!” Moloch roared.
Listening to Leroy’s pain while she couldn’t see him was a torture in itself.
“Get her out of here,” Riz said grimly while he stepped to the cage.
“No!” Kellsey gave a backward head-butt and heard Kuno groan. “Don’t even think about it. I’ll never forgive you, Riz. Never. You hear me?!” She turned pleadingly to her eldest brother, her pride be damned. “Please, brother.”
Riz looked back at her. “Do you trust me?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “But I’m not leaving. You can’t keep me away from here forever. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”
Kuno finally released her. “Stubborn little thing,” he growled.
Riz walked up to Moloch. “I offer you my….”
She didn’t hear his last words, for they were a whisper. Whatever it was that he had offered, it clearly appeased Moloch because his rage turned into laughter. A cackling laugh that had goosebumps rising on Kellsey’s skin, but she couldn’t have cared less. All she wanted was Leroy safe at her side.
She had no idea what Riz and Moloch discussed, but a few minutes later her brother stepped into the cage. He went to stand before the monster and removed his tee.
Moloch finally released Leroy. His claws shot to Riz’s chest. The room immediately smelled of scorched flesh. The smell made Kellsey gag.
“The next time you won’t get out from under your oath,” Moloch hissed. “The Furies are child’s play compared to what will await you in Duat.”
Kellsey’s heart started to beat frantically when she saw the symbol of the Egyptian underworld on Riz’s chest.
The monster exchanged a few more words with Riz in a language she didn’t understand. Two beats later Leroy finally walked out of the cage and Moloch had disappeared.
***
Kellsey sat in Leroy’s arms against the wall. She leaned against his chest and he hugged her tightly, as if to make sure she was still alive. That they were still together.
Almost all the furniture was smashed and it would take time to make the living room habitable again.
Riz dropped next to her. “It wasn’t a coincidence that you showed up in Chaos almost twenty-five years ago,” he said. His dark eyes had a seriousness to them, as if he were about to tell her something that would shake her world to its foundations. He took a deep breath before he continued. “You were created and sent there to free me.”
Kellsey was all ears. It was the first time Riz told something about her roots. The only thing she knew was that they’d found her in a dump. Then there were the symbols on her butt, of course. One was the sign of Ares all amazons were born with. The other was a hieroglyph they hadn’t been able to decipher yet. “By whom?”
“I can’t speak out her name without awaking her,” Riz said. “And trust me when I say you don’t want to wake her from her slumber. She is the oldest amongst the goddesses and has many titles. She is the Dark Diamond, the Obscure Warrior, and the Oldest Rage. She is the goddess for whom I’ve conquered worlds with blood and ash. And also the goddess that I have failed to protect.”
It wasn’t often that she was left speechless, but to discover that you were created by a goddess to free her favorite warrior from a hellish dimension was an exceptional situation. “She doesn’t really sound like the maternal type,” Kellsey said gingerly.
“Depends on your definition of maternal,” Riz said wryly.
“The kind that bakes cookies?”
A smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “No. Definitely not that kind. More like the kind that gives her child a Kraken,” he said.
Aha. That suddenly explained how the only Kraken on Earth had ended up in their bay. “Does this mean I’m a goddess, too?” Now that would look posh on her resume.
The tension left Riz’s face. Apparently, he had thought she would be furious because he’d used her to escape from a hellish dimension. The last time she came to blows with her brother was still fresh in her memory.
“You have a part of her essence,” Riz said, with a reverence in his voice that she’d never heard from him before. “It’s the reason why you can talk with mythical animals and are immune to their poison.”
“Ya think I’ll ever meet her?” Part of her felt nervous, but another part was curious about the woman–goddess or not–who was essentially her mother.
“I hope not,” Riz said to her surprise. “If she’d share her powers with you, even more, you’d no longer be yourself. Can you imagine what you’d be able to do if you became infinitely stronger? If, with a single thought, you could amass an army of Kraken or hydras?”
Kellsey, goddess of Kraken. She liked the sound of it. It would look bad-ass on a business card, but she got his point. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
“Exactly.” He looked pained for a moment. “You have to know that I was never gonna hand you over to Moloch. Not after I looked into your eyes for the first time.”
“You had a backup plan,” she surmised.
“You sound so sure.”
Kellsey nodded. Never again would she doubt his love for her. She’d done that once and she regretted it to this day. “Of course. I am your favorite sister, after all. If you had sacrificed anyone to that creep, it would have been Qasim. He could discuss quantum physics and the dangers of dimension hopping with Moloch. He would’ve been kicked out of Chaos in no time.” Her words finally brought a smile to his lips.
There was one more thing she wanted to know. “What did you promise Moloch in exchange for me?”
Her brother tensed. “Something I will never give him.”
She wanted to question him further, but Leroy drew her attention with a kiss. with which he was saying to leave it at that.
She looked around in the destroyed room. Ronin sped through the room as a shadow while he picked up debris and took it outside. Kuno lifted up the heavier things like support beams and pieces of wall. Qasim and Kartal walked around with hammers. Even Levi had picked himself up and was busy making phone calls left and right.
The Asylum lay in ruin, but they would rebuild it. Whatever came on their path, they would face it together, standing tall.
Together they were strong. They were a clan. They were family.
EPILOGUE
It was a week after her confrontation with Moloch and Kellsey had a regular Friday night out with her rock chicks. Life had returned to its usual pace. A crew of werewolf construction workers had begun working on their home. All that hamme
ring and sawing had her longing for a quiet night out.
“My new undead status is a disaster for my sex life,” Jo complained. “I can’t date humans anymore, unless I want to explain why I can’t see them in daylight. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
Zlatan brought them drinks. “Two djinn and a duchess,” he said.
“That’s your first mistake,” Shay said while taking her drink. “Why the fuck would you want to date a human? That’s like drinking a duchess when you could have a djinn in a bottle.” She looked disapprovingly at Jo’s hot pink Shirley Temple and chugged her gin and tonic. “Do you know why they call that a mocktail? Because people mock you when you drink that in a pub.”
“What she said,” Kellsey agreed.
“It’s easy for you to talk,” Jo argued. “You guys aren’t attached for the next century to a dhampir who doesn’t like his vampire smelling of alcohol.”
“Want me to have a talk with him? There is nothing that Levi would refuse me,” Kellsey boasted.
“Except for a hydra,” Shay said dryly. “I think his left eyelid started to twitch when you asked for one.”
“Sometimes Levi has no sense of humor whatsoever,” Kellsey admitted. She turned back to Jo. “So, need some help?”
“Don’t you dare, Kells,” Jo exclaimed. “Jolene Wylde doesn’t need anyone to fight her giants for her.”
Oh, no, she’d fallen back into her Don Quixote modus. “You do know Don Quixote’s giants weren’t real, right?” she said. “As opposed to my brother.”
“Those who will play with cats must expect to be scratched,” Jo quoted.
Shay rolled her eyes. “Ugh. You need a man. Someone who shoves his tongue in your mouth when your start spraying quotes.”
Oddly, Jo wasn’t insulted. Instead she nodded. “You are right. Only, finding a mythos to date is even harder than finding a human. They seem to think vampires are simple blood slaves. Racist pricks.”
