-Lucia
Lilith cried when she finished reading the letter. It finally dawned on her how alone she was and how everyone she loved could be gone in a very short amount of time. Leech was in a coma. She already lost Shadow. Shade and Lucia were about to pick a fight with a major demon. Steam and Selene had some nasty injuries. She hadn’t heard from Hypnos or Thanatos in a long time. All she could do to keep her sanity was focus on running the city. Necropolis needed her. The demon monkey poked her with its tail and then handed her a blank sheet of paper. Lilith grabbed a pen.
Lucia,
Stay safe. You’re pregnant. Let Shade and his friends deal with Muan. Don’t do anything stupid. You’re Dad’s in a coma, but I’ll tell him that you love him anyways. I’m serious. Don’t do anything stupid.
-Mom
Lilith rolled up the letter and handed it to the demon monkey. The demon monkey scrambled over to the window and hopped out. Lilith turned back to Leech.
“Lucia sent a letter. She said to tell you that she loves you. She also said that you need to wake the fuck up and help me run this city.”
Leech let out a groan and then opened his eyes.
“Well, I guess I should wake up then.”
Lilith frowned at him.
“How long were you pretending to be asleep?”
Leech grinned.
“I only came back a few minutes ago. Cut me some slack. I killed an Archangel.”
Lilith punched him and he laughed.
“Anything else we should talk about?”
“Shade and his friends are going after Muan. One of the angel whores is probably pregnant with Bumalin’s child.”
“Wow. You slip into one coma and the whole world goes to shit.”
CHAPTER 65
“Babe, you’re not coming with. You’re pregnant.”
“You don’t tell me what to do, Reaper.”
“Then listen to what your mother said. She doesn’t want you out there… and she did some crazy risky shit when she was younger. So you know this is serious.”
“She doesn’t tell me what to do either! If you’re going, I’m going. Shade needs all the help he can get. This is Muan with an army of berserkers! Besides, I’m not that far along yet. I can still be helpful.”
“I will never forgive myself if we lose the baby. Please. Please stay here.”
“This is my brother, your brother, and Weapon’s daughter. They’re going to die if we don’t help them. Both of us need to help them. I’ll hang back, but I can still do some damage from far away.”
“When they see you hanging back, they’ll target you. We’ve fought berserkers before. They’ll snort their chemicals and run right at you.”
“Then that’s a great distraction that I expect you to capitalize on.”
Reaper shook his head.
“I will give you anything you want if you stay here.”
“Nope. End of discussion. Let’s go.”
Lucia holstered her father’s pistols and walked out the door. Reaper sighed, grabbed his staff, and followed. They were both surprised to see a grinning Backlash leaning against a tree.
“I bet Nissa twenty coins that you would both come. I listened in on your argument. Thanks for making me a little richer.”
Reaper shifted uncomfortably and tightened his grip on his staff.
“What are you doing here, Backlash?”
“We’ve been noticing that the berserkers are fighting with reduced numbers lately. Not a huge reduction, but more than we could credit to deaths at the hands of small bands of angels in the area. Shade figured out that we had some help, so he decided to use it to our advantage.”
Lucia nodded.
“What’s his plan?”
“Well we have three of Muan’s armies and two of his middle demons chasing Cerberus back to Necropolis. They won’t figure out we aren’t with the dog for another couple of days. They won’t even figure out he’s headed to Necropolis for a while. It gives us some time to go after Muan with reduced forces.”
Lucia smiled.
“Shade always had a knack for battle strategy. Must be genetic.”
Backlash shrugged.
“I just know he’s a genius at mapping this kind of stuff out. Muan’s in the area with Siren, Fallout, and two armies. We need to get Muan’s middle demons away from him so Nissa and Shade can take him on.”
Reaper rolled his eyes.
“Right. So Shade the miracle worker has a plan for that, too?”
“He does. The two of you work for me now.”
Reaper opened his mouth to protest, but Lucia put her hand over his mouth.
“Let him have this.”
Backlash spread out his map on a tree stump and explained Shade’s plan to Reaper and Lucia. Lucia thought it could work and Reaper reluctantly agreed.
Nissa threw two knives that landed in the throats of the demons guarding the entrance to Muan’s camp. Shade ran in and froze two demons before they could call out or attack.
“Based on what Backlash’s demon falcon has seen, Muan is still in the tent in the direct center of the camp.”
“You’re sure this is a good idea, Shade? That area is going to be crawling with berserkers and…”
“I got this. I just have to freeze them all and you have to take out any stragglers before they alert the camp. I can produce enough ice. Then we turn and run. In and out. Backlash will have the more difficult task tomorrow morning.”
Nissa nodded and they both kept running. When they could see Muan’s tent, Shade touched the ground with both hands and started freezing everything in the vicinity. The process was slow and it took a while for his ice to make it all the way to Muan’s tent. A band of berserkers saw it happening, snorted their chemicals, and came rushing up the hill.
“This part is all you, Nissa. I need more time.”
Nissa hit all five berserkers that were coming at them with what should have been lethal knife throws. They kept coming.
“Shade? They aren’t falling down.”
“Slice them up. Blow them up. Find a way. I need more time.”
The berserkers started circling and two lunged at Shade. They struck with their blades to try to sever his hands. Nissa pulled a longsword from one of her pockets and parried both attacks. Their leader laughed.
“My name is Siren. I’m one of Muan’s middle demons. What you’re doing is…”
Nissa dropped her longsword and pulled out her rocket launcher, took careful aim and fired. Siren jumped out of the way, but the other four berserkers disintegrated in flames. She put her rocket launcher back in her pocket and retrieved her longsword.
“Coming out here to fight us was vain and stupid, Siren. I’m Nissa. Muan killed my father. We know he’s asleep and soon he’s going to be a popsicle. Instead of coming out here to deal with us, you should have woken him up.”
Siren laughed.
“I don’t need Muan’s help to deal with two baby nephilim.”
Nissa grinned and pulled Deathclaw’s head from her pocket. She threw it at Siren’s feet.
“That’s what he thought.”
“Impressive, but I’ll still win. I only have to stall long enough for some more berserkers to show up. That really shouldn’t take very…”
A dozen berserkers ran in behind Siren and waited for her command.
“…long. Speak of the devil. I hope the two of you have said your goodbyes because you’re about to die very painful deaths.”
CHAPTER 66
It took the nephilim council a long time to make it to the council chamber. Lilith had to help Leech walk. Steam and Selene were recovering, but both were still in a lot of pain. When Leech made it to his seat and sat down, he grimaced and looked at the agenda.
“Looks like two things for today. Lilith is going to update us on what happened while all of us were sleeping off all the shit that happened.”
“Thanks, babe. I have a couple of things to report. Shade came to me and asked to
take Backlash, Nissa, and Cerberus on a mission to take down Muan. I wanted to tell them no, but I knew they would end up going no matter what I did. I received a letter from Shade letting me know that they’re all still alive and they’ve killed the middle demon Deathclaw. I’m sorry for making the decision without the rest of the council, but I figured it would be better to sanction it than try to stop them from sneaking out of the city.”
Selene waved it away.
“Backlash told us he was going whether we were ok with it or not. I don’t think those three were giving us much of a choice and none of us were really in any condition to stop them. Don’t worry about it, Lilith. You made the right call.”
“I told them they would be middle nephilims if they returned with Muan’s head, but that would need the council’s approval.”
Steam looked at Selene who nodded.
“We’re fine with that. We need some replacements for Reaper and Lucia to train new nephilim that come of age. Have you… have you heard anything from Lucia?”
“Actually, yes. They’ve killed a few berserkers helping Shade.”
Leech frowned.
“Our daughter is pregnant and she’s hunting berserkers?”
Leech struggled to get up from his chair, but Lilith pushed him back down.
“What are you going to do? Find them and bleed on them? You’re still really injured. She’s an adult. They’re both adults. This is out of our hands for now.”
“Then we’ll unexile them and lock them in prison until she has the baby.”
Steam grinned.
“You can’t always get your way, old friend. Reaper sent us a letter not too long ago. He took responsibility for his exile and said he needs to be better if he’s going to be a dad. He said he knows he has to earn our respect again after the way he beat his brothers and attacked Shade on a regular basis. I think one day we may consider bringing them back… but not to throw them in prison.”
“We’ll see. What else did you want to tell us, babe?”
“One of the angel whores was successful at seducing Bumalin. She wasn’t on birth control. We may have a mind-controlling nephilim in nine months.”
Steam looked like he wanted to say something, but Leech saw his expression and spoke first.
“I killed an Archangel, Steam. Shadow killed a major demon. They are going to retaliate. We need all the help we can get. Sometimes, that means making difficult decisions. Lilith was right to encourage this.”
“The angels and demons are going to be after us a lot sooner than nine months from now. Even then, the child’s powers won’t manifest until he or she is a few years old. That’s if the angel whore is pregnant.”
Lilith shrugged.
“All valid points. However, the best way to assume you’re going to be around long-term is to make long-term plans. Who knows what mess we’ll be in when the child comes of age? Again… that’s obviously if she’s even pregnant. No one forced Bumalin to bang her.”
“Did she lie to Bumalin about the birth control?”
Leech shook his head.
“Irrelevant, Steam. We can’t keep the angels and demons away without more power. A nephilim descendant of Bumalin is raw power. We don’t have Shadow right now and we need a future wild card.”
“Then we need to pay Bumalin back in some way. Nephilim shouldn’t take without returning the favor.”
Leech snickered.
“I let his entire army inside Necropolis. We defended his spies against Gangrene, Raven, and Raphael. All of us nearly lost our lives. Don’t talk to me about what we owe Bumalin. The way I see it, he still owes us.”
Lilith put her hand on Leech’s shoulder, hoping he would calm down.
“I agree with Steam. We still owe Bumalin. One could make the argument that Bumalin would have never needed our protection if he hadn’t helped us in the beginning. He helped Shadow. He helped us. He went to Heaven to find a way to bring Shadow back. He lost friends and longtime allies. We still owe him. I have an idea about how we can repay that debt.”
Selene nodded.
“Let’s hear it then. I, too, think we still owe Bumalin a great debt.”
“We should appoint Bumalin to the nephilim council to permanently fill Weapon’s seat.”
Steam and Selene each thought about the idea briefly before they looked at each other. They turned to Lilith and nodded. Lilith turned back to Leech.
“This isn’t a majority rules thing. A new council member must have unanimous support. What do you think?”
Leech stroked his chin and considered the idea for a while longer.
“I think it’s a good way to unify us with the demons inside our walls and we could really use all the help we can get. I still don’t think we owe Bumalin anything, but he is powerful and his wisdom would be a welcome addition to this council. I vote yes with the rest of you.”
Lilith got up from her seat.
“I’ll go tell him. I’ll come clean about why he might be a father as well. Maybe I can get him to see the good in all of this. Would the two of you please help the angel slayer get home?”
Steam and Selene both laughed and Selene nodded. Leech waited for the two of them to help him get up.
“Keep laughing. I’d like to see one of you kill an Archangel.”
CHAPTER 67
“Shade…”
Nissa slowly started backing away as Siren and her berserkers advanced. Shade kept focusing on freezing the tent at the center of the camp.
“Can’t help you. I need to make sure Muan becomes a popsicle for the next phase of the plan. It’s all you this time.”
Nissa started throwing knives, but the berserkers just kept coming. In the few seconds before their blades were within stabbing range, Nissa jumped to the side.
“Now!”
Shade turned and directed his arctic blast at the berserkers. All twelve of them were frozen in seconds. Siren started applauding slowly and grinned.
“Very good, baby nephilim. Too bad you had to stop freezing the center of the camp. There’s probably spellcaster demons already throwing fire at the big block of ice you summoned. Whichever of you planned this, you’re a terrible general.”
Shade drew Damnation from his back and pointed it at Siren.
“Muan only has two middle demons in this camp with him. I don’t plan on being a general right now. I plan on being an assassin. Your daddy demon isn’t going to come here to save you and we can take on an endless stream of berserkers. We proved that in the hunt when we became minor nephilim.”
Siren drew two swords and rushed at Shade. Nissa pulled a rope from one of her pockets and tried to catch one of Siren’s feet with it to trip her. Siren saw it coming and sliced the lasso. This left her momentarily distracted and Shade took expert aim with Damnation. He brought the dual-bladed scythe up with speed on a direct course for Siren’s chin. Siren tilted her head and Damnation didn’t split her head.
“Nice try. Maybe next time the two of you can actually land a hit.”
Shade smiled.
“Your cheek.”
Siren felt her cheek with two fingers. Her fingers drew back blood. She stuck her fingers in her mouth and closed her eyes as she sucked the blood.
“That just pissed me off, baby nephilim. The two of you aren’t going to like me pissed off.”
Siren suddenly rushed Nissa and expertly landed two blows with her swords, one to each of Nissa’s sides. Both attacks were met with a clinking sound of metal on metal. Nissa pulled a knife from her pocket and threw it. Siren jumped backwards, but Nissa smiled when she landed. Nissa tapped her shoulder.
“Tag. You’re it.”
Siren put her hand on her shoulder and then ran it across her face, leaving bloody lines.
“You reinforced a trench coat with armor? I guess it’s time to hit you with blunt weapons then.”
Siren sheathed her swords and drew two clubs. Shade ran at Siren, but she threw one of her clubs at his legs. It struck him in the ri
ght shin and he tripped, dropping Damnation. Siren was quick to strike with her other club, aiming at the top of Shade’s skull. Nissa got between them and blocked the blow with the armor built into the trench coat on her crossed arms. Siren spun and hit Nissa in the midsection hard. Nissa fell to the ground clutching her stomach.
Siren knew she had to capitalize on the moment, so she took another shot at Shade as he was scrambling to his feet. He saw the club moving towards his head, but didn’t know what to do about it. He closed his eyes and put his arms in front of his face, hoping they would absorb most of the blow. Instead of feeling pain, he felt something in his hands vibrate from being struck. He opened his eyes to see Damnation back in his hands. Siren looked dumbstruck.
“How did you call that weapon to you? Wait a second… what is that weapon? Is that a… is that a dual-bladed scythe?”
Shade grinned and decided to capitalize on her fear.
“This is Damnation, the dual-bladed scythe of Shadow. I’m guessing Muan has told you about it before and the number of angels and demons it has killed. It’s mine now.”
“It can’t be Damnation. Only Shadow can hold that weapon.”
Nissa tossed a lasso around Siren and pulled her arms to her side. Shade swung hard with Damnation and put one of the scythe blades through Siren’s stomach. Her eyes went wide and Shade leaned in.
“I’m Shadow’s son. It was really stupid for the berserkers to pick a fight with me or with any of my friends.”
Shade pulled his weapon back and Siren fell to her knees. She bled out of the hole in her stomach until she fell forward on her face. Nissa gathered her rope and put it back in one of her pockets. Shade saw that she was still slumped over a little and clutching her stomach.
“We should head back and get that looked at by Steam. Thanks, by the way. I couldn’t have pulled this off without you.”
Nissa nodded, but didn’t attempt to speak for another minute.
“She got me pretty good with that club. How did you get Damnation to fly into your hands like that?”
Shade wasn’t going to admit that his eyes were closed, so he just shrugged.
Minor Nephilim (Angels and Demons Book 4) Page 22
