Infernal Father of Mine

by John Corwin

  David looked away. "I didn't want to feel what I was feeling, Justin." His eyes met mine, and he placed a hand on my shoulder. "I didn't want to care. I didn't want to feel pain if something happened to you."

  "All that smart-assery was you deflecting emotion?"

  "Yeah."

  I rolled my eyes. "Man, we're both gonna need therapy after this."

  He chuckled. "I hope our healthcare plans pay for it."

  We walked back to the minder. "Can you link us?" I asked it.

  Tentacles reached for us and paused, inches away.

  "Ah." I nodded. The thing remembered. "Let's lie down first."

  My father and I laid down next to each other. One of the minder's tentacles reached for me, and I was suddenly standing in a dimly lit room.

  Dad looked at me. "Man, this is weird."

  "Tell me about it," I said. "Let's start."

  "Here goes nothing," he said, and the room vanished.

  I walk through a forest. A beautiful voice echoes through the trees. I'm entranced. I have to find whoever is singing. I see sunlight painting a green meadow through the trees. A shimmer of golden blonde hair catches my eye. A woman is sitting on a boulder, looking at a deer as it looks back at her. It seems as taken as I am. I approach as silently as possible. A branch crackles beneath my feet.

  The woman turns. Her eyes widen when she sees me, but she doesn't seem frightened.

  "Who are you?" I ask.

  "I might ask the same of you," she says.

  "You might." I grin, and approach. This woman's eyes shine like sapphires. Her skin is fair. Dimples form in her cheeks when she smiles. She will be a fun conquest. "What is that song?"

  "Oh, it's not a song," she says. "More of a tune."

  "I've never heard it before." I switch to demon sight and am taken aback by how brightly her halo of soul essence shines. It's unlike any I've seen before. "You're not like any human I've met."

  "Nor are you." She smiles, displaying her cute dimples. A stray lock of hair falls across her face, and I want to tuck it behind her ear.

  She is so confident. Power radiates from her. Something tells me she will be much harder to bed than any woman I've met before.

  The scene flickered back to the room. I realized with a start I had seen the past through my father's eyes, when he and Mom had first met. I looked at Dad. His mouth hung open slightly, and his eyes seemed full of longing. "Are you okay?" I asked.

  He nodded. "That was…intense."

  "Yeah." I'd felt his emotions. Felt the lust burning in him when he'd seen Mom. I hoped the minder avoided any sex scenes, because I did not want to see them.

  "I remember more now," David said. "I met Alysea in the meadow every day. She sang to me."

  "Let's revisit those memories," I said.

  I sit on the boulder next to Alysea. She refuses even to kiss me. It's maddening, but so alluring all the same. "Where is your homeland?"

  "Far away," she says, looking into the distance.

  "As is mine."

  Her blue eyes fix on me. "Why do you continue to come to me when you know I won't bed you?"

  "I find your company enjoyable."

  "Enjoyable?" She laughs. "I hardly think you a man who idles time away with frivolous pursuits."

  "I am David," I say, finally telling her my name. "I am not exactly a man."

  She raises an eyebrow. "Truly?"

  I sigh, and tell her of my demonic origins. How I am here to stop the invasion of the mortal realm by those we call the Seraphim. Her eyes grow troubled as I speak. "What's wrong?"

  "David, I am Seraphim."

  I jump from the boulder and look at her. "You are one of the invaders?"

  She gives me a sad look. "I am the one who allowed them here. All this destruction is my doing."

  The scene flickered.

  Alysea and I sit in our usual place. She sings the melody which attuned the Cyrinthian Rune to this realm.

  "Is there a way to close the Grand Nexus?" I ask.

  She nods. "I am attuned to the rune. I can remove it from the arch and close the gateway."

  "Will you help us?" I ask.

  "Do the demons plan to invade if we drive away my people?"

  I shake my head. "No. We only wish to protect our own realm."

  A lovely smile graces her lips. "I don't know why, but I trust you, David. I will help."

  A warm feeling blossoms in my heart. To have the trust of this woman means more to me than anything else before. I don't understand why. She could die in our quest to disable the nexus. The thought of her death, of her absence fills me with such pain I can hardly bear it.

  I reach my hand to her hair and tuck a golden lock behind her ear. My thumb traces her cheek, her dimples. Every part of my being aches when I'm apart from her. I don't understand what is happening to me.

  Each day we meet and speak. She sings the melody which aligned the Cyrinthian Rune to Eden, and those aligning it to other realms.

  "I can usually sense what lies on the other side of the nexus before opening it," Alysea says. "Sometimes there is nothing but void. In this case, I sensed life, but when I opened it, there were horrific creatures there."

  "Were you attacked?" I ask.

  She shakes her head. "They wore chains and crawled like animals. One made it through before I could close the gateway. It lunged at me, but I killed it."

  "Were you afraid when you opened a gateway to Eden?"

  "I was more careful," she says with a smile. "I was shocked to discover beings so much like us."

  "How many realms do you think there are?"

  "Does not your sire, Baal, know the answer? Is he not the most powerful demon?"

  "If he knows, he does not tell me. He thinks me a failure."

  Alysea's hand goes to my face. Her touch sends wonderful chills down my back. "You are no failure, David. Moses trusts you, and so do I."

  Flicker.

  Alysea sings the song of Eden to me. We speak of finding others who may have the perfect pitch needed to remove the Cyrinthian Rune in case something happens to me and Alysea when we attempt it. So far, we have found no one who is capable of the task. We are meeting with Moses tonight to hear his plan. Though we outnumber the Seraphim, most of our soldiers are only human. We have the Darklings as well, but most aren't nearly as strong as their Brightling brethren.

  Moses thinks engaging the Brightling forces with our army will give a small group a chance to slip through and disable the nexus. I will go with Alysea and Nightliss. My heart swells with fear for Alysea's safety.

  The vision ended. Dad and I stood feet apart in the dream room. He wiped at his eyes.

  "So vivid," he said in a whisper. "I'd forgotten so much. The way she made me feel. The way she touched me."

  I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Dad, I know it's hard."

  His eyes met mine. "You're calling me Dad again."

  I felt a smile tug my lips. "Don't get sentimental on me now, old man."

  "I'll do my best." He squeezed his eyes shut, pinched the bridge of his nose then opened his eyes. "Did you memorize the song to Eden?"

  "Yes, but we have another problem."

  "You can't sing it, can you?"

  I shook my head. "I'm a terrible singer. There's no way I could get the perfect pitch I need."

  "Damn." He rolled his shoulders, as if loosening tension. "It was a great idea, Justin, but I don't know how to fix your voice."

  "I don't either." The grim realization hit me in the gut like a fist.

  The room vanished, and I jerked awake. The first thing I saw was Serena's smiling face as the diminutive woman looked down at me.

  "How are things progressing?" she asked.

  I blinked a few times and sat up. "Figuring out how to fix the nexus."

  "Wonderful." She looked at David. "The minder said you needed him to help. How?"

  "My mother is the one who tuned the Cyrinthian rune," I said. "My father is the one who knows more abo
ut her than anyone else here."

  "Ah." She pursed her lips and regarded the arch for a moment. "Very clever. I knew you could do it." Her gaze returned to me. "What did you discover?"

  "I have to sing to the rune to align it with another realm." I hated telling her the information, but she already knew a lot about me and my mom, so I had to assume she also knew about the singing part. "I just don't have the voice for it."

  "Perhaps you can practice," Serena replied.

  "You don't understand," I said. "Some of the notes are so high, I'd need supernatural hearing to hear them. I probably need a supernatural voice to go along with it." I knew for a fact my voice was just awful, supernatural or not.

  "I'm confident you will succeed," the Arcane said. She gave me a sweet smile. "Feel free to use your father's help." She tilted her head slightly. "Do you require more food?"

  I wanted to tell her I didn't believe this nice act for a minute, but decided to play along. "No, thanks."

  "Very well, I will leave you." She turned and left, writing in her notebook as she walked.

  I stood, and walked in a circle. How in the world could I crack this nut? I couldn't hit the notes. Hell, I couldn't even hear them if I did. Hearing them in a dream was obviously different since Dad's hearing was supernatural at the time of the memory. There had to be an answer.

  "I know why Daelissa wants Ivy," I said. "She might be the only other person besides Mom capable of attuning the Cyrinthian Rune. She must have developed her abilities much faster than I did. If I'd had supernatural hearing when I was little, I might be able to sing it now."

  "Possibly," Dad said. "But Ivy's voice is too immature to handle it."

  "Who actually removed the rune from the Grand Nexus during the battle? Who caused the Desecration?"

  He shrugged. "We never even made it close enough to find out."

  "Where is the Grand Nexus?" I'd been there during the portal glitch that had sent me, Shelton and some others to the realm with the siren women. The control room was so full of cherubs, we hadn't dared go back.

  "Chernobyl."

  I felt my eyes widen. "The radioactive place in Russia?"

  He returned a wry smile. "Actually, it's in Ukraine."

  "Oh." Geography had never been my strongest class. "Why am I not surprised?"

  "The Soviets nearly stumbled upon it several times, so those few of us who knew what it was decided on drastic measures and caused the nuclear plant meltdown."

  "All this time, you've known where the Grand Nexus is, and you never told me?"

  "Believe me, it was best we kept the secret." Dad folded his arms. "Daelissa doesn't even seem to remember, thanks to the Desecration."

  "Somehow, your memory has remained intact all this time?"

  "Not exactly," he said. "We may be immortal, but our brains don't have enough room for every memory. Only the important ones remain."

  "Like how you met Mom?"

  "Yeah." He sighed. "I remembered, but the dream memory brought it all back with such clarity. It was like being there all over again."

  "Nothing quite like falling in love is there?"

  A smile touched his lips. "No, there isn't."

  An odd sensation tugged on my senses. I turned as another minder drifted into the room. Dad and I looked at it with apprehension. The first minder reached a tentacle for me. I flinched, but allowed it to touch me.

  Yours, came its whispery presence.

  "Mine?"

  Your minder.

  Chapter 25

  I looked at the creature floating before me. Like the other minders, it resembled a brain with jellyfish appendages. In other words, I couldn't tell the difference between it and the other one floating next to me. I wondered if it was an actual representation of my psychic emanations in the Gloom, or simply a minder who was in charge of enacting my dreams.

  The image of a minder taking another of its kind under one tentacle and explaining the job popped into my head. "Look here, Bob. It's your job to stalk this guy's dreams, and recreate them here in the Gloom so we can fill the world with magic. The pay might suck, but the benefits are amazing."

  Something about this situation felt right, as if I'd been waiting my whole life for this moment. "Hello, Minder Justin," I said, not sure how to greet it.

  It reached a tentacle for me and touched my forehead. You look shorter in real life.

  "Shorter?"

  And you really need to lay off the erotic dreams about Elyssa.

  This minder was a complete smartass.

  "Something wrong?" Dad asked.

  I chuckled. "Not at all. This is definitely my minder."

  Yes, unfortunately.

  "Fine, you don't have to lay on the sarcasm so thick, buddy." I took a deep breath in an attempt to put my thoughts back in order. "Why do you have such an attitude, but this other minder is so short on words?"

  His human is dead. We lose our minds when that happens, or at least the personality.

  "Is that why he doesn't understand free will?"

  We don't have free will like you do. We are extensions of those in the mortal realm.

  "You seem to know a lot."

  Only because you do, and because I'm connected to you. When I disconnect from you, I won't have nearly the spark I do now.

  "That stinks."

  It's better this way.

  "I have a silly question—"

  You think I can help you sing?

  "That wasn't exactly what I was going to ask." I noticed Dad giving me a strange look. He couldn't hear Minder Justin's side of the conversation, so it looked like I was talking to myself. "I need your help with something else."

  The decision.

  The second I heard the word, everything suddenly felt right. "Exactly."

  It's odd, but I feel like this is destiny taking shape.

  Calm settled over me. "I think you're right."

  Lie down, and we'll get started. I'm curious to see what happens next.

  "You and me both." I lay down on the floor. "Here goes nothing," I said to Dad.

  "With what?" he asked.

  "The decision."

  A look of concern flashed across his face. He knelt and touched my arm. "Good luck, son."

  The world vanished.

  I stood on a small island. The black and white suns hung halfway down the sky with the gray moon above them, forming a triangle. Something caught the corner of my eye. I looked right and saw a copy of me standing there. His eyes glowed white instead of my normal blue.

  "Weird," said another voice.

  I looked left and saw another clone of me on the other side. His eyes burned ultraviolet.

  You have the freakiest visions, said the voice of my minder.

  "Tell me about it," my two clones and I said at the same time.

  We looked at each other, our brows scrunched with confusion.

  I backed up and bumped into someone behind me. I spun and saw yet another copy of myself, this one with gray eyes. "Oh, I get it," I said, refusing to be surprised again.

  "You do?" the other copies asked, eyes hopeful.

  "Yeah, your eyes are the same colors as the two suns and the moon."

  They looked at each other, and then up at the sky. "Oh," they said, dragging out the O the way I did when finally grasping the obvious.

  I felt somewhat pleased I'd been the first me to figure it out.

  Any idea which one to choose? my minder asked. I kind of like you with the gray eyes.

  You don't know how to make the choice? I thought back to the minder, to avoid confusing my clones.

  Look to the eclipse.

  I looked up and noticed the two suns moving behind the moon as they had in the other vision. As before, the heavenly bodies vanished where they aligned with each other until only an invisible shimmer remained in the air.

  Why are you waiting? You already know the answer.

  "But, what if I'm wrong?"

  I don' think you are.

  "I
hope you're right." One last look at the sky, and certainty filled me.

  I'd say the choice is clear. The minder laughed in my head.

  "Very clever." The heavenly bodies separated once again, this time with the moon beneath them, and the white and dark on reverse sides. "Now I understand the vision from the park." It all made such sense. "Mr. Gray told me neither the Murk nor the Brilliance is evil or good. They merely represent different kinds of change."

  "Sounds right," my clones chimed in unison.

  I continued. "His idea of balance is gray. I mistakenly thought balance meant stasis. But there's no such thing as true stasis. If something tries to remain exactly the same, it almost always ends up deteriorating and falling apart."

  Different states of being, Minder Justin sent.

  "Exactly. Paper comes from a tree. Is it still a tree, or something new? Was the tree destroyed to make the paper, or was it simply recreated?"

  Creation and destruction are the same.

  "They are simply two different ways of looking at changing state," I said. "To build a house, you must first destroy the original state of the trees."

  In other words, the choice wasn't between the light, the dark, or the gray. The choice was how I decided to use the power associated with them. Combine the light, the dark, and the gray, and the result was colorless, neutral. In other words, the choice was clear.

  I joined my left hand with my dark-eyed clone and my right hand with my light-eyed clone. The three of us stepped forward into the gray-eyed clone. My body expected a collision. My mind felt certain something else would happen.

  The clones vanished. I stood alone on the island. Pressure built in my chest and an invisible shockwave radiated out from me, consuming the suns and the moon. A calming light suffused the air around me.

  Warmth flared in my hands. I held the suns in either palm. Almost by instinct, I cast a white sphere of energy into the air. It orbited around my chest. I sent the ultraviolet orb chasing its brother around me. With both hands, I conjured a gray orb and sent it circling as well.

  This is so awesome! My minder shouted in my head.

  "Totally."

  I channeled magic through the orbs. A shimmering beam of invisible light speared into the sky. Fireworks of every color bloomed overhead, their explosions shattering the silent landscape. I channeled through the white orb, aiming a destructive beam at the water. Steam rose from the ocean where it touched. I channeled through the dark sphere, and turned the steam into a cloud shaped like an elephant.