Infernal Father of Mine

by John Corwin

  Her lower lip trembled. "So long I can't remember. I was abducted while leaving the Grotto to visit my family."

  "Sounds like you don't want to be here," David said, a note of caution in his voice.

  She glanced back at the sentinel, knelt, and whispered, "I want to go home."

  I knew entrusting this woman with any escape plans might be foolish. I extended my senses and found her brimming with sadness and hope. She seemed genuine. Maybe we could use that to our advantage. "Can the ripper be used to allow us back through the arch?"

  She nodded. "Yes. It's a simple calibration. I tried to do that once, but Pat stopped me." A tear formed in one eye. "Jarvis put me in solitary for so long I thought I'd go insane."

  "Why do they allow you to operate it if they know you don't want to be here?" David asked.

  She made a whimpering sound. "I think Serena enjoys seeing my pain." She took my hand and squeezed it. "If I free you, can you help me get home? I'll do anything, just please help."

  Empathy swelled inside me. I covered her hand with my other one and nodded. "We'll do what we can."

  She took back her hand, wiped away a tear. "I don't know how yet, but I'll figure out a way. Jarvis won't let me go anywhere without a sentinel following."

  "Why does Serena want Arcanes and vampires?" David asked.

  Theresa grimaced. "They're hardier than most supers. Arcanes are good at dreamcasting, and vampires last longer when Serena feeds them to the brain." She shuddered. "Just do what they tell you, and I'll figure something out." She looked behind her toward the door. "I have to go, or Jarvis will be suspicious."

  "Theresa?" called a male voice. "What the hell are you doing?"

  She wiped her face frantically and stood, backed out of the room. "I'm feeding the prisoners." The door slid shut behind her, and her voice and that of the male faded in the distance.

  David gave me a look. "Our ticket out of here. I hope she has the wits to free us."

  "Without getting herself killed," I said with a grim note in my voice. "Serena sounds like a monster."

  "I agree." He settled back against a wall. "Time to wait and hope."

  "Yeah." I wasn't feeling too optimistic. If Theresa hadn't been able to escape after all this time, what made her think she could free us? "Well, it's not the first time I've been held against my will."

  David sat down, back against the wall, and gave me a serious look. "You've been through a lot in your short life."

  I snorted. "I've been through more in the past year than in the previous seventeen."

  "You've grown in ways I never thought possible." He sighed.

  "Why did you sigh?"

  A shrug. "I feel like I've missed out on the majority of you growing into a man. You were so different than the, um—"

  "Chubby nerd kid who played live action role-playing games?" I chuckled. "C'mon. You can say it."

  He chuckled. "I honestly thought you were never going to change."

  "It sure came as a shock to me." I thought back to the exchange between David and Montjoy. How my father had said he didn't care about Ivy. A question rose in my throat, but I hardly dared ask it. Wimp. I took a deep breath, and asked the dreaded question. "Do you really not care about me and Ivy?" My voice sounded small and timid.

  David looked at the floor for such a long time, I thought he wasn't going to answer. When he looked up, his eyes looked troubled. He looked tired, like a man who hadn't slept in days. "I didn't want to care. I didn't want to feel something for someone who might die." His voice trailed off.

  I remained silent, hoping he would continue.

  After a moment he did. "When we had to give up Ivy to the Conroys, it was the hardest thing I ever did in my life. When I knew you had to go into danger to save me, it tore me apart. I tried to suppress my emotions. I lied to myself, convinced myself I didn't care. But the truth…"

  "The truth, Dad."

  His eyes flicked to mine, and he swallowed hard. "I'm proud. So very proud to be your father, Justin. I love you and Ivy. You're my children, and in my quest to end the Seraphim threat, I lost sight of what's important." A tear glistened in my father's eye. "Family."

  My throat went dry, and for a moment, I couldn't speak past the swelling in my chest. "I love you too, Dad. Even if I die in whatever horrors are to come, I want you to know that. I'm still angry for everything you've put us through. For what Mom has put us through. But in the end, I'm doing it all so my friends and family can have a good life."

  His lips compressed together. He nodded. "That's what I want too."

  "What do you intend to do about Kassallandra?" I understood why he felt he had to make the sacrifice and marry her. If her house defected to the Seraphim, it would make the battle that much harder. But I wanted our family to be together, damn it.

  He shook his head. "I don't know."

  I decided now was the time to ask another burning question. "Why did you and Mom give Ivy to the Conroys?"

  He picked at a piece of the bread. "Your mother felt Jeremiah was the best person to train her." He shrugged. "When Alysea was reborn from the mouth of a leyworm, Jeremiah found her. He raised her. But her powers remained weak even by the time I reconnected with her. When her abilities began to manifest in earnest, she decided to live with Ivy and assist in her training."

  "But Jeremiah was working with Daelissa." I scrunched my forehead. "You gave her to the enemy."

  "And Daelissa taught Ivy well." David's mouth quirked into a smile. "As I've said, demons are masters of manipulation. What better way for Ivy to hone her Seraphim skills than with the enemy we thought she was destined to one day defeat?"

  "I suppose Mom benefited from Daelissa's training as well."

  His smile broadened. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

  I frowned. "Your plan almost didn't work, though. Ivy could very well have killed me and turned into Daelissa's puppet. Jeremiah practically brainwashed her."

  His grin faded. "Your mother saw the danger signs. When we realized Jeremiah was using Ivy for his own agenda, she knew it was vital she take a firm hand in Ivy's development."

  "Jeremiah is one twisted old man."

  "The truth about him might surprise you." He opened his mouth to speak but the cell door opened.

  Two pale mannequins entered, Jarvis behind them. "Well, looks like I don't have to throw you in the pit just yet. Serena wants to see you."

  David and I looked at each other. We stood and headed out the door for whatever fate awaited.

  Chapter 21

  The sentinels walked just behind us with Jarvis leading the way. As we proceeded, he pointed out signs of his genius intellect, such as chokeholds in the fortress, and traps set to contain any would-be invaders. We entered a circular room with eight passages extending in all directions.

  "This place right here is the hub," our kidnapper said. "If anyone gets this far, the doors seal them." He clapped his hands together as if squashing a fistful of roaches. "Then we annihilate the bastards from up there." He pointed to a second floor where inert sentinels stood like statues. "Not that they'd get this far, of course."

  "This place is a certified deathtrap," David said. "You must have studied military strategy."

  The man nodded, a smug look on his face. "Ain't nobody storming this castle."

  "I'd bet you even have the doors locked down with some kind of complex recognition spells, too," I said.

  "Nah, we have something even better."

  "Better?" I asked.

  He returned a smug smile. "You'll find out soon enough." Jarvis motioned us onward.

  I memorized the corridors we took just in case the information came in handy later.

  After a few more twists and turns, our guide led us through a wide doorway. I stopped listening to Jarvis as we entered a large rectangular room filled with all sorts of odd apparatuses. One device on the far right was composed of rings within progressively smaller rings. A silver orb the size of a cantaloupe
rested in the center. Each ring had an independent axis, presumably so they could spin in different directions. A Tesla coil hung from the ceiling above, a thick metal rod with a pyramid of discs spaced down its length with the smallest at the top. I noticed several more of the coils arranged in a hexagonal shape on the floor around the ring device. None looked active.

  We passed a large silver box a little larger than an old-school phone booth, something that looked like a seesaw with circular saw blades along its length, and even an iron coffin filled with metal coils. There were so many bizarre contraptions, I couldn't take them all in.

  This place is a certified mad scientist's lab.

  David nudged me. I followed his gaze and gasped. A ring of at least five minders circled around our former cellmate, Wax. The man stood frozen, eyes wide as the tentacles of the disgusting creatures writhed around his head.

  "What are they doing to him?" I asked.

  Jarvis chuckled. "You remember when I said we had something better than spells controlling the doors and sentinels?" He nodded toward the creatures. "Meet the brain."

  "The brain?" David asked.

  I remembered Theresa's comment about feeding the brain and would have recoiled in horror if not for the sentinel holding me.

  "That will be all, Jarvis," said a hard feminine voice. A short blonde woman appeared from behind a contraption that looked like a huge metronome constructed of brass pipes.

  Jarvis's eyes went a bit wide. "I was simply showing—"

  She cut the man off with a wave of her hand. "See to your other duties."

  Jarvis backed away, bowing as he did. "Yes, Serena." He turned and left, glancing over his shoulder as if the woman might set his pants on fire any minute.

  "What's happening to Wax?" I asked Serena.

  She smiled sweetly. "Perhaps you'll find out, young man. Follow me."

  Despite feeling like a lamb being led to slaughter, I did as she asked. Near the back of the room I saw a low, stainless steel table. A white articulating arm hung over it. An array of smaller hinged arms protruded from a metal ball at the end, each one bearing horrors straight out of a dentist's office.

  "Lie down, please," she told me.

  I looked at the table. My knees went weak as I remembered my time as Maximus's prisoner. He'd kept me bound to a metal table while his pet Arcane, Dash Armstrong, experimented on me.

  "No," I said, backing away. "I can't." Two sentinels gripped me by either arm. Dragged me toward the table. I struggled and fought like a cat on a leash. I couldn't lie on that table. I felt sick to my stomach, like I was going to throw up. "I can't!"

  "Stop," David said. "I'll lie on the table."

  "I only want to examine him," Serena said, still smiling.

  "We're both demon spawn," he said. "I assure you the results will be the same."

  She turned an understanding gaze my way. "Of course. Perhaps once he sees it's quite painless, he'll have the courage to follow." She clenched a fist. "Buck up there, young man."

  I slumped to the floor as the sentinels released me, my limbs weak with relief. But as I looked at my father taking my place, guilt quickly swelled to replace any joy at being spared.

  Serena opened David's mouth, inspected his teeth and throat like one might look at a horse for sale. She held a scope to his eyes, looking intently into them. She checked his pulse, and took his blood pressure as well. My father looked as confused by the process as I was, and I began to think maybe she didn't plan to drill into our skulls with one of the wicked instruments on the articulating arm.

  She wrote something on a notepad, clicked the pen, and looked up. I turned my head and watched as one of the minders circling Wax detached itself and glided silently over, its translucent tentacles gliding over various apparatuses as it passed them.

  "Are you still running the Gloom Initiative?" David asked, his eyes uneasily regarding the minder.

  Serena turned her smile on him. "How do you know about the initiative?"

  "I work with Jarrod Sager's son," I said.

  Her gaze turned to me. "Jarrod abandoned the initiative a long time ago. The poor man let politics overrule the need for arcane research and discovery."

  "What exactly have you discovered?" I asked. "You have quite an operation here."

  "Well, aren't you sweet?" She clasped her hands. "I've dedicated my life to discovering the origin of the relics like the Obsidian Arch network, the Grand Nexus, and so forth."

  "Are you about to feed me to the minder like Wax?" Dad asked.

  She tutted. "Of course not. I'm simply extracting information. It's much easier this way than having to perform something as crude and unpleasant as torture." She nodded at the minder. "Now, if you'll just relax, let's get started." The minder's tentacles lifted languorously, brushing against my father's head. His eyes went blank.

  One of the tentacles wrapped around Serena's head. Instead of freezing, she seemed to be fully conscious. Her eyes widened and flicked to David. "How interesting."

  "What?" I asked.

  She didn't answer but stood there for so long, I wondered if she would ever move. I thought about diving for the minder and ripping it away from my father, though the attempt might simply put me in the same state he was in.

  "Very informative," she said after a time, and nodded. The minder's tentacles retracted from David's head.

  He sucked in a deep breath like a man who'd just leapt into an ice pond. He propped himself on his elbows and looked at the woman. "Did I make the team?"

  "While I find your heritage very interesting, you are only of secondary concern to me," Serena replied. She turned to me. "Now, are you ready to be a big boy for me?"

  This woman's motherly tone was creeping me out. Knowing I wouldn't be strapped down to the table made it easier for me to lie down. I wasn't looking forward to the minder digging into my skull but had no choice. Once again, she went through the physical tests. I was just glad I didn't have to give her a stool sample. When she looked at the minder, I tensed, waiting for the cold grip of the tentacles. I closed my eyes, and willed myself to float free in a sea of pitch black.

  There's nothing to fear.

  A cold numbness settled over me, and I realized the minder must have me in its grip. I'd managed to slip into the lucid dream state just before it touched me. It was a very strange feeling. I sensed the minder as something not quite sentient in the same way humans were. It was like part of a mind, but missing certain elements that would give it full autonomy.

  Autonomy?

  The question echoed in the void, and I realized it must have come from the minder itself.

  Free will, I sent back.

  It seemed to have no response to that, and went silent. I felt its psychic probes tightening around my head, as if that would help it break past the barrier of lucidity I held against it. The tentacles looked like tunnels of light to my mind's eye. I wondered what would happen if I traveled through one.

  I floated in the still waters of the void, wondering if I should chance it when a gentle wave caused me to bob. Another wave broke over my face, making me sputter. I heard a roaring, like a massive volume of water falling over a cliff, and fear overwhelmed the calm.

  What's happening to me?

  Unknown, said the calm whisper of the minder.

  I felt a wave cresting beneath me, picking me up, and hurtling me through the invisible ocean. Barely keeping my head above water, I saw a beam of light shining on something at the base of the huge wave as it crested through darkness. "Crap!" I shouted. The wave broke. I slid across rough wood and came to a stop against a pile of rope. Pushing up on my knees, I coughed water from my lungs. Double shadows appeared beneath me as two sources of light hit from either side. I looked up and watched twin suns rise in the sky. One glowed a deep violet. The other pulsated like a white dwarf star. Between them hovered a huge gray moon.

  "What is this?" asked Serena.

  I spun and saw her standing next to me on the deck of a large gal
ley ship. "A choice," I replied.

  Her eyes widened for an instant. "She was right. You are the Cataclyst."

  "Who was right? Who said that about me?"

  She made as if to write something in an notebook, but seemed to remember this was all in my head and stopped herself. "Let us simply say it is vital you decide. You are the progeny of Alysea and have a very important task ahead of you."

  I blinked in confusion. "Does that mean you want me to succeed?"

  "Of course I do." She took my hands and smiled. "As the son of Alysea, you can help me in a way no other can."

  I couldn't tell if her smile was sincere or not. "How can I help you?"

  "Once you awaken from this, I will show you."

  I felt an odd sensation, like something cold sliding away from my head, and Serena vanished. Water lapped at the sides of the ship. The suns pulsed overhead, their erratic orbits carrying them closer and closer to the gray moon. The three orbs met. In the center of their juxtaposition, I saw nothing but clear sky. It was like they were eating each other, or turning invisible where they hit.

  As I stared into the empty space where the suns and moon met, I felt a sudden tugging on my chest. A great urgency to make the decision.

  As I'd told David, I already knew the right choice wasn't any one of the three, but all of them. How exactly I could announce my decision to choose all sides at once wasn't apparent.

  Once again, the three heavenly bodies merged into one another leaving nothing more than a shimmer in the air, though the light never dimmed. The pull on my consciousness grew stronger. I felt heat rushing into my blood, and with it, strength.

  What's happening to me?

  I saw the crescent shapes of the suns and moon appearing as the orbs drifted out of perfect alignment. Within what seemed like seconds, they once again stood apart fully intact, just in opposite positions. The moon was now at the top of the triangle with the bright and dark stars reversed. The pull on my mind vanished. The sky and everything else melted away, and I jerked awake on the table.