by John Corwin
"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm acting like a child."
"No, you're not," she said. "I remember when I thought my dad had died after Maximus blew up his car. Even though my dad was more like my commander than a father, the pain was still awful. Almost unbearable." Elyssa squeezed me and kissed my neck. "I only had a taste of what you're going through, babe. I understand if you don't want to talk."
I squeezed one of her hands. "I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have you."
We finally reached the outskirts of the quarry and stopped behind a worn building across the road so we could reconnoiter the area before moving in. Dust clouded a new hole in the ground where the arch chamber had once stood. A massive pile of rubble filled most of the quarry. Figures made tiny by the distance crawled over the remains like ants. I zoomed my vision, but could only barely make out Nazdal combing area. They're looking for the rune. I saw no sign of Daelissa or the Shadow Nexus.
"They're looking for the rune," I said. I looked over the front of the fortress and saw no sign of enemies. The tree line on the opposite side of the road looked as though it would provide ample cover for making our way to the roof where I'd placed my father's body. At the moment, I felt no fear of returning to the fortress. I felt no malice toward the Nazdal or Daelissa. It was just hard to feel anything. I'd probably passed the point of feeling and was comfortably numb.
Even so, I played it safe and guided the carpet low and behind buildings and trees until we were directly across from the part of the fortress where Dad should be. We flew low to the side of the fortress and angled up as we closed the gap. Gliding near the edge, we looked for the body. It didn't take long for me to realize it wasn't there. Someone had taken him.
I remembered Daelissa's desire for my father and wondered if someone had found the body and taken him to her. Anger pushed through the layer of numbness over my heart.
"Justin, there's a minder coming." Elyssa pointed to the direction of the road.
All minders looked pretty much the same to me, but even at this distance, I could detect a familiar vibe from this one. It reached me and put a ghostly appendage to my head.
Back already? Minder Justin sounded surprised. You must really want a beer—or are you two here to help me seduce Elyssa's minder?
I didn't feel like engaging my shadow self in witty banter. "They took Dad's body. Do you know where?"
I felt a hint of confusion from my shade. I know exactly where his body is. Follow me.
"Thanks." We flew away from the fortress, across the woods, and descended toward a side street pitted with potholes. I wondered if for some bizarre reason Daelissa had made her people dump bodies from the battle away from the fortress. I stifled a sob at the thought of Dad's body being dumped like garbage.
Chin up, dude. You did well.
"My father is dead," I growled. "I don't exactly feel like celebrating."
Dead? That's really strange, because isn't that him walking down the road?
I looked at the road and saw a familiar figure trudging down it. My heart climbed from the depths and dared to hope. I zipped the carpet down to street level and flew in front of the man. He looked up at me with a lopsided but devilish grin.
"Hi, son."
Dad was alive.
Chapter 42
"Dad!" I gripped him in a fierce hug and felt one of his arms tighten around me.
He grunted. "Easy, now. I feel like crap." His voice was a little slurred.
"Not that I'm complaining, but how are you still alive?"
He shrugged. "The disruptor whacked the ever-loving crap out of me, but since the Shadow Nexus was still open to Eden, I guess my healing abilities kicked in." He took a step forward, but his right leg dragged. "The portal obviously closed before I was done healing. I think I still have partial brain damage."
"Brain damage?"
He returned a lopsided smile, one eye twitching. "Either that, or I got drunk."
"But I saw your body. You were dead. It didn't look like you were breathing."
He shrugged. "It takes longer to heal in the Gloom."
"Justin, why don't we get him home, let his brain heal, and then you can question him?" Elyssa said, a huge smile on her face. "That twitch in his eye is super creepy."
We stepped onto the carpet and glided down the road. My spirits soared. Mom's gonna freak! How stupid had I been to think a man who'd survived so long could be killed by a little brain damage?
I'm glad you're feeling better, Minder Justin said. You're such an angsty dude sometimes.
As if you're not just like me, I sent back.
"Are Alysea and Ivy okay?" Dad asked.
I nodded. "Aside from thinking you're dead, they're fine."
He grimaced. "Well, at least they'll save money on the funeral costs."
I snorted.
Elyssa regarded us with pinched eyebrows. "You two certainly share the same demented sense of humor."
Dad elbowed me. "You hear that? We're demented."
"Cool," I said.
Cool, Minder Justin added.
Dad's smiled faded. "What happened after we killed the brain?"
I filled him in on the subsequent events. His eyes flashed surprise when I told him about the fight with Daelissa.
He looked in the direction of the fortress. "You're telling me the rune is buried in a mountain of rubble where the arch chamber was?"
"I think so." I bit my inner lip in thought. "I don't know if the Shadow Nexus was destroyed along with the room, or if it's buried under there too."
"Either way, this isn't a positive development."
Elyssa steered the carpet along the street. "Will the Gloom rune even work with the Grand Nexus?"
"It looked different," I said. "Its colors were reversed just like the arch. Maybe it's incompatible."
"That's a real big maybe." Dad pursed his lips, or tried to. One side of his mouth didn't quite work in conjunction with the other. "I don't think we can risk leaving such a powerful artifact for Daelissa to find."
Elyssa turned her head to look over her shoulder. "We can't exactly sneak in and steal it from under their noses. Even with their losses, Daelissa still has a sizeable force at her disposal."
"I think we can do it," Dad said. "Besides, they'd never expect it."
"True," I said. "Maybe we could get some camouflage armor—"
The carpet jerked to a halt. Elyssa turned, hands on hips and gave us a look that could melt steel. "In case you've forgotten, Daelissa is there. She's still extremely dangerous even with the Gloom dampening her abilities. Judging from the sheer power she demonstrated during our retreat, I have a feeling she'd have no problem squishing the two of you like bugs."
"Whether she does it now or later, what's the difference?" David said. "If that rune works—"
"If it works." Elyssa shook her head. "And look at you. You're half dead." She waggled her finger. "You two aren't doing anything until you rest in Eden."
Dad opened his mouth to speak. A severe look from Elyssa cut him off.
"You tell your bright plan to Alysea and see what she thinks of it." My girlfriend sniffed, turned her back to us, and set the carpet speeding toward the Exorcist church again.
Dad and I exchanged looks.
"She is definitely a keeper," he whispered.
"I heard that," Elyssa said without turning around.
I snorted.
"Alysea is a keeper," he said, almost to himself.
A pang of regret stabbed my stomach. "Isn't there some way we can satisfy Kassallandra without you marrying her?"
"Sure, I could cede power to her. I'd probably have to kill Vallaena first because she'd do everything she could to stop it." He tapped a finger on his chin. "That would, of course, ignite a civil war since there are many in House Slade who are more loyal to my sister than me, and the house would collapse. House Assad would, by default, become the most powerful Daemos house, and Kassallandra would likely ally herself with Daelissa, given the overwhe
lming odds."
I blinked a couple of times. "You've really thought this out, haven't you?"
"Over and over. Endlessly." He sighed. "I'm pretty damned good at finding loopholes and making the world bend to my rules. This is one of those conundrums I can't trick my way out of."
"We need to convince Kassallandra that joining Daelissa might pay off in the short term, but once the angel has power, it's doubtful she'll keep her promises." It seemed like common sense to me. Then again, maybe Daelissa had a heart of gold beneath that insane exterior.
"I've argued the same point with Kassallandra more times than I can count." He ran a hand down his face. "She wants what she wants and damned be the consequences."
"From a personal viewpoint, I think it's awful." Elyssa shuddered as if to underscore her point. "From a tactical perspective, we need every warm body we can get. If today was just a taste of what's to come, I'm scared to death about the real war. Imagine an army of Seraphim backed by vampires and Nazdal and whatever other horrors they haven't revealed to us yet."
"It'd be a slaughter," I said.
Wish I could help you there, Minder Justin chimed in. Unfortunately, I have to go. I've been neglecting my duties tonight.
Thanks for all your help, I sent back to him. Tell the others thanks as well.
I'm always willing and able to help you prevent world domination. Something like a laugh echoed in my head, and my minder glided away to tend to the dreams of the mortal realm.
We reached the church a few minutes later in a somber mood. I was so happy to have Dad back, but for how long, especially if Daelissa was able to use the rune from the Shadow Nexus? I hoped she couldn't, but in my experience, planning for the worst was usually the best course of action.
We stepped through the portal in the Gloom arch and back into the real world.
"Oh, man, this feels so much better," Dad said, rubbing the right side of his face. "It's not numb anymore." He gave me a serious look. "Remind me to avoid extreme brain damage in the future. It's not a pleasant experience."
Elyssa called Shelton on her phone. He opened a portal using the omniarch at the mansion and we stepped through. Shelton's eyes sprang wide at the sight of my father.
"Holy—you're alive?" he said.
"It's something of a surprise even to me," Dad said with a grin restored to full working order.
"Is Meghan around?" I asked. I wanted her to check out Dad just in case.
I heard Shelton behind me. "Yeah, she's in the parlor with the others."
"What others?" I asked.
"Other women. They're, uh, figuring out how to console your Mom, and help plan David's funeral."
Dad's laugh echoed from somewhere behind. "This should be really good."
"Not funny at all," Elyssa called up behind me.
I felt a smile on my face and heard Shelton bark a laugh.
When we reached the parlor, the women looked up from what was apparently an intense and very somber planning session. Meghan, Bella, and Stacey were present. I didn't see Mom or Nightliss.
"Bloody hell, my lamb," Stacey said. She got up from the table along with Bella. "We are so sorry about your father."
I looked around. Shelton and Elyssa were there, but not Dad. I was about to call his name when he stepped from the shadows of the stairwell, an infernal smirk showing his teeth. He obviously wanted a grand entrance. Showboat.
The women gasped. Meghan didn't waste a second striding over and scanning his vitals with her wand. Cutsauce seemed overjoyed to see Dad, given the amount of yipping the tiny hellhound made as he danced around my father's feet.
Nightliss appeared at the second floor balustrade and peered over it. Her face was red and tearstained. When she saw Dad, her almond-shaped eyes went wide. She vanished from sight and reappeared, dragging Mom by the arm. Mom stared at Dad without reacting, as if she couldn't believe her eyes. When the tears of what I hoped were from joy began to flow, she vanished in a puff of shadows and appeared in front of Dad.
He yelped and jumped back a foot. "Alysea, you know it startles the crap out of me when you blink like that."
She wrapped her arms around him and planted a kiss on his lips before he could say another word. I felt my face grow hot as the two of them made out like high school kids in the hallway. Elyssa took my hand and smiled at me through her own tears.
When my parents came up for air, their faces looked radiant.
"Where is our daughter?" Dad asked.
"She fell asleep the instant I put her to bed," Alysea said. "We should let her rest."
"I think it's time I spend some quality time with her," he said. "She's quite the little ass-kicker."
"Don't you dare tell her that," Mom said. "She already enjoys blowing things up far too much as it is."
He laughed.
Mom stopped his laugh with another kiss. "Besides, I'm the one who needs quality time right now."
"In that case, I have a story to tell you, my little angel." Dad took her by the hand and led her toward the stairs.
"You do, my handsome devil?" Mom replied with a note of seduction in her voice that ratcheted up the discomfort I felt by a gazillion degrees.
Dad looked over his shoulder. "We'll be back." He winked.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," I said.
Shelton slapped me on the back. "Don't think about it, man. Call of nature affects everyone."
"You're not helping," I growled.
"How bloody romantic," Stacey said. "Ever since you rescued your mother from Jeremiah Conroy, she's been pining away over that father of yours."
"All I can say is thank god," Meghan said, crossing her arms. "Regular sex with someone you love is very beneficial to good health. In my medical opinion, Alysea definitely needs some TLC."
Shelton laughed. "Way to make it clinical, doc."
"I've been keeping Harry very healthy," Bella said with a wink.
"That's for sure," he said. "I'm gonna have to magically enhance—"
"Not another word!" I said. I felt my palms break out in a sweat. "I'm beyond my TMI dose for the day." Holding onto Elyssa's hand, I pulled her behind me and into the kitchen.
Shelton called out behind us, "Hey, no more shenanigans on the kitchen table!"
Elyssa giggled.
I rolled my eyes and opened the fridge. "I'm starving."
"Make me a sammich, boy." She punched me on the shoulder.
"As you wish." I pulled out a haunch of ham and began slicing it while Elyssa grabbed a head of goat cheese and fresh bread from the Queen's Gate market. We made a couple of heaping sandwiches and sat down. It felt like the first normal thing I'd done in days. I took a bite of the sandwich and moaned. "This is so good."
"The ham is excellent," Elyssa said, wiping a dab of mustard from her lip.
I smiled and waved a hand at the sandwiches and us. "No, I mean this time right here and now. It's perfect. No fighting monsters, no running for our lives, just you and me and a couple of sandwiches."
Elyssa leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "You're right. It is perfect."
"It's why we do what we do." I tried not to think about how many people had died today, or how many lives I had taken. "We fight so people can enjoy perfect moments like this."
"We still have Daelissa and the rune to worry about."
I nodded. "We can worry about that later. Right now, I just want to spend a little quality time with the woman I love."
I'd reunited my parents and Ivy had come home. It was hard to believe my entire family was beneath the same roof again.
We'd defeated Daelissa's Gloom army and hopefully shut down Serena and her experiments for the foreseeable future. But the rune from the Shadow Nexus was still out there, and Daelissa still wanted to rule the world. Even so, I couldn't help but feel optimistic and hopeful.
After I enjoyed this quality time with Elyssa—not to mention this tasty sandwich—we'd mount up once again. We'd fight the good fight. And we'd kick Daelissa's a
ss once and for all.
####
Section A
MEET THE AUTHOR
John Corwin has been making stuff up all his life. As a child he would tell his sisters he was an alien clone of himself and would eat tree bark to prove it.
In middle school, John started writing for realz. He wrote short stories about Fargo McGronsky, a young boy with anger management issues whose dog, Noodles, had been hit by a car. The violent stories were met with loud acclaim from classmates and a great gnashing of teeth by his English teacher.
Years later, after college and successful stints as a plastic food wrap repairman and a toe model for GQ, John once again decided to put his overactive imagination to paper for the world to share and became an author.
Connect with John Corwin online:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/johnhcorwinauthor
Blog http://johncorwin.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/John_Corwin
Books by John Corwin:
Overworld Chronicles:
Sweet Blood of Mine
Dark Light of Mine
Fallen Angel of Mine
Dread Nemesis of Mine
Twisted Sister of Mine
Dearest Mother of Mine
Infernal Father of Mine
Coming 2014: Book 8
Stand Alone Novels:
No Darker Fate
The Next Thing I Knew
Outsourced
Seventh
