by John Corwin
I heard grunting and the clang of metal on stone followed by more grunts and a grating sound.
"It's ready," Gavin said.
"Test it," came the gravelly voice of Jarvis through the fog.
Ratcheting clicks and a low-pitched hum emanated from the direction of the arch. "As usual, it's working fine." Gavin sounded disgruntled.
"All right. Turn it off and get ready," Jarvis said.
Light suffused the fog from ahead. David touched my arm. "I'm going in for a closer look. Wait here."
"Are you crazy?" I whispered.
"We need to know what this ripper thing is, and what these people are doing." He moved forward in a crouch.
While I waited, I decided to experiment. As of yet, I hadn't had the typical demonic hunger pains that usually occurred when I needed to replenish the essence my infernal side required for supernatural activities. Either the Gloom repressed the hunger, or since I hadn't been able to use my super strength or healing, I simply wasn't hungry. Extending my essence like a snaking probe, I found one of the women about thirty feet away. I almost flinched when I realized how close she was. After calming my emotions, I gently tapped into her.
Immediately, I noticed something different about the way her soul essence felt. It was noticeably muted, as if something was damming up a portion of it. From what I could tell, she was a normal human, or nom, as the supers called them. She seemed sad and upset. If I had to guess, this woman was Theresa, and not Pat.
I also noticed a lack of response from my demon side. It usually jumped at the chance to feed, but now I could hardly sense it. Vallaena had taught me the souls of demon spawn had two halves—a fact which made all the more sense given what David had told me about how our species had come about.
The demon side resided in the Haedaemos while the human side resided in Eden. My demon side lusted for power and would try to overpower my control if I didn't work hard to keep it contained. This was usually a factor in feeding because unchecked, the demon half would arouse extreme lust in my targets. That half usually surged against my control every time I fed. That wasn't happening now, as if an extra barrier were separating us. Even so, I felt a very faint pressure deep inside.
I drew on the woman's energy. It felt weak, like watered down fruit juice. I felt the energy enter me in a trickle. Not daring to open the throttle wider, I fed slowly for several minutes. By this point, I should have felt a surge of energy. Instead, I felt only a mild boost. The pressure from my demon side swelled slightly, as if it could smell the soul essence but couldn't quite get to it.
David returned just as I disconnected from the woman.
"They're looking for particular people every time the arch opens," he said. "They have some kind of device right in the center of where the arch would be. It looks like a U with a wide, flat base, and two diagonal prongs with orbs on either end." He drew a shape in the air with his hand.
"What does it do?" I asked.
He shrugged. "They haven't reactivated it yet."
I told him about my attempt to feed. "Something isn't right with her soul," I said.
"Maybe she should go to church more often." He quirked an eyebrow.
"This isn't the time for dad jokes," I said. "I don't think it's her, though."
"What do you think it is?"
My mind ran over the oddities I'd encountered and settled on a theory. "I think the Gloom is causing it. It's like part of me and part of her is stuck behind a thin barrier and can't quite break through."
The glow from a forming portal suffused the fog. David pointed a thumb at himself and pointed ahead. "Be right back."
He crept away. I decided I wanted to see this strange device for myself and eased to my feet, gritting my teeth against the pain in my back. I couldn't afford to take another pill. Loopy as those things made me, I'd be a sitting duck. I moved forward, careful to keep my tread silent as possible. Without warning, I stepped into a bubble of clear space and saw the group of Gloom people staring intently at the portal. Before they could notice me, I stepped back behind the curtain of aether fog, and cautiously poked my face through.
"That's an Arcane," said a short woman with close-cropped red hair. She sounded like Pat.
"Duh, you think?" said a stocky man whose voice identified him as Gavin. "Maybe the robes gave it away?"
"I hate this part," said a willowy woman with long brown hair.
Gavin glared at her. "It's our job, Theresa. I don't know why—"
"Shut your mouths," a pudgy man—Jarvis—said.
I paced the perimeter of the bubble of clear air until I could see inside the portal. A lanky man in dark blue robes, a compact staff hanging from a holster on his side, and a thick sheaf of scrolls bound by red ribbons beneath one arm, walked toward the group.
Jarvis drew a thick cigar from his shirt pocket, and put it in his mouth. "Grab him."
Pat and Theresa went to either side of the U-shaped device David had described. Two thick prongs with spheres at the end jutted upward at slight angles. Each woman stood to the side of the prongs, waiting as the Arcane approached. A few steps before he reached the portal in the real world, the women pulled the prongs like levers. The rods clicked apart at a wider angle. With a throbbing hum, silver light flashed between the orbs, coalescing into a ball of energy. The portal shimmered, rippled, and split.
Energy roared into me. I felt my demonic half jerk awake, as if the barrier between my souls had dissolved. A grim lethargy I hadn't even realized was there lifted from my shoulders. I sensed women on the other side of the portal. I felt their vital burning energies beckoning me. The burning pain in my back receded and strength swelled within my muscles. It felt like I'd just escaped a burning building and tasted sweet fresh air.
The Arcane stepped through the portal. He looked up from an arcphone and glanced at the group of grim people standing around him. The women pushed the prongs toward each other. The silver energy winked out and the rip in the portal closed and winked out.
My body felt like it turned to lead. The vibrancy in the air vanished, and my strength along with it.
"Where am I?" the Arcane said. "This isn't Queens Gate."
"Welcome to your new home," Jarvis said. "What's your name?"
"New home?" The man jerked away as two of the other men approached him threateningly. "Leave me alone. I'll have you know I'm not defenseless." He withdrew the compact rod at his side, and shook it out to a full-length staff. His eyes narrowed in concentration, then widened with confusion. "What are you doing to me? Why can't I cast a spell?"
One of the unidentified men chuckled. "I always love this moment."
The two men closed in and grabbed the man by his arms. One of them administered what looked like a hypodermic needle to the Arcane's neck. The prisoner slumped, and they loaded him into a cart. The portal in the real world vanished, and fog rolled back into the area, obscuring it from sight.
I made my way back around the perimeter and nearly ran into David. He gave me a confused look.
"Why didn't you stay put?"
"I had to see what they were doing."
He pulled guided me away from the portal staging area. "When they ripped open the portal, I felt normal again."
"Me too," I said, stretching my sore back. I paused, arms extended overhead. "My back isn't killing me anymore."
He pulled up my shirt and looked. "It's almost healed. I'd still take it easy for now."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "I felt normal too. That ripper thing seems to open the barrier between the Gloom and the real world. Do you know what that means?"
"It's our ticket out of this place."
Hope burgeoned inside me. The ripper was the answer to our dreams. The way home.
"They're getting more people," I said. "That means they'll be using it again."
David nodded. "We'll have our powers back when they open the window. We can overpower them and run back through."
I nodded enthusiastically until I reme
mbered the captured Arcane and the menacing kidnappers lurking in the Gloom. Who were these Gloom people, and how many people had they abducted? I felt my smile fade.
David's eyes narrowed. "What's wrong?"
"We can't just leave that man there. We can't let these people continue to take people like this." I reached my arm around at an awkward angle to scratch my healing back. "We should follow them and find out what this is all about."
David put a hand on my shoulder and looked me directly in the eyes. "While that's very noble of you, I think it's also very shortsighted."
I poked him in the chest with a finger. "Maybe you don't care about saving people, but I do. I'm going to do this with or without you."
He rolled his eyes. "That's not what I'm saying, Justin."
It was my turn to narrow my eyes. "Explain."
"These are the people who came for us back in the church, and they're the same ones that kidnapped Timothy."
"Obviously."
"They're working for Daelissa." David pointed in their general direction. "We don't know what kind of operation these people have. We don't know their numbers or their capabilities. For all we know they're masters at dreamcasting creatures like Gloria Richardson and could quickly capture or kill us." He pointed his thumb over a shoulder. "Those people might be just the tip of the iceberg."
"I'm not suggesting we plow in without recon." Elyssa had, on occasion, accused me of leaping without looking, but I'd learned my lesson. "We'll follow them and watch."
"Again, you're being shortsighted. We aren't experts at extracting people from the Gloom. We're not equipped to take on these people. You, however, know Templars who are, and you have access to large numbers of them."
"Oh," I said, letting the O drag out a bit to indicate a light bulb had turned on inside my thick skull. "We should escape now and bring back the cavalry."
"Exactly."
I waggled my head side-to-side. "That could work. I guess all those centuries of wisdom are finally paying off."
He snorted. "Here's what we do. We wait at the edge of the fog bubble when the portal opens. Right when those women activate the ripper, we charge in, take out the group, and go through the portal. If possible, we'll bring the ripper with us so we can use it from the other side."
"Works for me," I said. "Maybe we can grab the prisoner on the way out."
He shook his head. "No. We can't risk getting stuck here." David sighed and pursed his lips. "Look, I know you want to save him now, but if we don't get through, we won't be saving anyone. For all we know, they have dozens of prisoners."
"Fine. Maybe he'll be okay until we get back."
The light of a portal activation caught our attention. David motioned me to follow. We walked up to the edge of the bubble, knelt, and waited. A group of men were herding a flock of sheep toward the portal. My father and I looked at each other with puzzled looks.
"Overworld people are strange," I whispered.
He nodded.
The Gloom people waited and watched through several more portal activations before deciding to kidnap a lone vampire. Even though I couldn't see fangs, the pallor of the man's face and his impeccable sense of style identified him right away. Apparently, torn and faded jeans were out of fashion if the skinny jeans he wore were any indication.
The women took positions on either side of the ripper and waited until the vampire was paces away from entering the portal. They pulled back on the rods and activated the device. The gateway shimmered and split. Strength poured into me. David counted down from three with his fingers. We raced into the circle.
The first two men didn't stand a chance. David flung one through the fog as if he weighed nothing. I ducked under a swing from the second and punched his lights out. Jarvis took out a gun, aimed, and fired at David. My father blurred to the side, leapt, and landed atop the man, delivering a vicious blow.
The women shrieked and jumped away from the disruptor. The vampire, still in the real world, stopped, looking around with a puzzled look.
"Did someone just scream?" he said.
"Go, Justin!" David yelled.
"Who the hell is Justin?" The vampire looked even more confused.
I ran for the portal at full speed, reached the split in the barrier. A blinding flash of silver energy crashed into me like a sledgehammer. My body rebounded from the portal and slammed into my father who was right on my heels. We skidded backwards across the smooth obsidian floor and landed in a heap.
"Doesn't work like that," Pat said. "It's set up for one-way, you morons."
"Get them," Jarvis croaked, pushing himself off the floor.
I looked up and saw the vampire backing away from the portal, alarm in his eyes.
Bullets pinged off the floor around us. David and I flashed to our feet, and raced from the circle of clear air, back into the fog. The further we ran, the weaker I felt. I estimated we hadn't gone more than a few hundred yards.
"Oh, no," I gasped. "We can't use it to escape."
We were still trapped in the Gloom.
Chapter 18
David bared his teeth and growled. Slamming a fist into the palm of his other hand, he paced in a compact circle. "Mother f—"
I grabbed his shoulder. "Look, I'm just as pissed as you are, but this isn't going to solve anything." Elyssa had taught me that raging rarely solved anything. "Maybe we can backtrack to the Gloom portal instead of wasting our time at the Grotto arch, and I'll try opening it again. The Exorcists might have removed whatever is blocking it." I highly doubted it, but it wasn't safe to remain here.
He sucked in a breath between clenched teeth. Nodded. "This situation is extremely annoying." Arms folded across his chest, he tapped a finger on his triceps and looked back toward the kidnappers. "We should follow these people and find out where they're based. The woman said the ripper was set to one-way. There must be a way to allow us to go through."
"You want to steal it?" I asked.
He nodded. "It's our best bet."
"Might as well come back," Jarvis called through the fog. "There's no way out of the Gloom. I promise we won't hurt you."
I almost yelled back a response, but David put a hand over my mouth and shook his head. "Don't give away our position."
I nodded, and he removed his hand.
"We offer safe refuge from the dreams," Jarvis said. "Safe lodging and human companionship."
David sat down, closed his eyes in concentration. I'd seen him do the same thing just before his crawler had torn poor Timothy's head clean off. I listened to Jarvis as he droned on about giving up, and kept a sharp eye out in case the Gloomies had spread out to look for us. A figure appeared out of the fog and nearly gave me a heart attack. It was a replica of David.
My father stood and inspected his handiwork for a moment. "It was harder than I thought imagining how I look. I guess I don't use a mirror enough." His doppelganger sprinted away into the fog. Several seconds later, I heard my father's voice ring out, though it was the clone speaking and not him.
"You're kidnapping people. Why should we trust you?"
Jarvis replied, voice smug. "You really have no choice."
"Tell me what you're doing with the Arcane."
"You can ask our leader. She's the one with the answers."
David's clone laughed. "You're kidnapping people and you don't even know why? There's no way I can trust you."
I heard sounds of scuffling.
"We found him!" someone shouted. "Where's the other guy?"
"Let me go," David's clone said.
"Tell us where your friend is, or I'll kill you," said the other man.
"He panicked and ran away into the fog. I don't know where he is," the clone said.
"What do you want us to do with him, Jarvis?"
"Is he a vampire?" their glorious leader replied.
"No."
"An Arcane?"
"Don't think so. I'm thinking werewolf or demon spawn."
Jarvis remained sil
ent a moment before responding. "Knock him out and put him with the Arcane. I'll let Serena decide."
I heard a grunt, presumably as fake David was knocked unconscious. My father laughed quietly. "I love deceiving people."
"You're a demon. It's your job," I said.
He winked. "Can't deny it's a fun perk."
"The arch operators are shutting down the arch for inspections," Pat said. "That stupid vampire must have heard the commotion. I think we're done here for the day."
Jarvis shouted a volley of curse words. "Load up the equipment and we'll head back."
"I've got the mule ready," Pat said.
"Maybe you could figure out how to make us all horses so we could ride in style," Gavin said. "I'm sick of making the hike."
"I can only dreamcast one thing at a time, so you'll have to just walk."
"Shut your complaining trap," Jarvis said.
"Hope I can keep my clone from melting," David said.
I turned to my father. "You seemed to whip it up pretty fast. How'd you do it?"
"Meditation. It's a skill that's kept me sane over the years." He blew out a breath. "We'll have to use our senses to track these people through the fog, and keep a safe distance. We don't know how skilled they are at dreamcasting. They might have their own creatures guarding them."
I shuddered at the thought of bumping into a nightmare like the crawler. "True."
Within a few minutes, Jarvis and crew headed up the winding driveway leading from the Grotto and headed down a road I knew led to the southwest side of town. Even without my incubus senses, following the group wasn't too hard with Jarvis occasionally shouting orders, and the wheel squeaking on the cart they used to pull the ripper.
We walked for miles. My legs and feet ached. I found myself agreeing with Gavin's sentiment about conjuring a horse to ride on and put it at the top of my list of priorities when and if I had time. If Timothy could create a dinosaur, surely I could dreamcast a beast of burden. Dreamcasting Elyssa to give me a piggy-back ride seemed undignified, even if it wasn't really her. We crossed a wide swath of railroad tracks I recognized as the ones used by MARTA, the rail transport system in Atlanta. While I hadn't come this way before, I remembered driving by while on the nearby interstate in the real world.
