“Yeah. Who wouldn’t? He’s hot stuff. You’re smokin’ yourself nowadays. Did you con some high class enchanter into casting some perms on you?”
His smile faded, and it frightened her.
“No. It’s me. Just me. And that is the way it will stay.”
“You still have that one on your wings though?”
“Well, an angel’s gotta protect himself.”
Gerald turned to Keep.
“Keep? What’s up, man?”
Keep had been in awe of Gerald’s transformation since he had walked past the door.
“I’m here.” Keep let the door go and winced when it hit Gerald on the shoulder.
“Ow! That smarts.” He rubbed his shoulder. “Thanks for hitting me with the door.”
“...Sorry, just a little edgy,” Keep said.
“Just kidding, man!” Gerald laughed. “I didn’t feel a thing.”
Gerald glanced at Riell and back at Keep, shrugged and took a seat at the bar.
“What have you guys been up to?” Gerald said.
Silence answered him.
“Just having a drinking party.” Riell offered a smile and sat back down.
Gerald looked to the single glass in front of Riell. “Drinking alone is a sign of alcoholism. You should get some help.”
Is he being serious?
“Or you can allow me to join you!” He laughed.
Riell laughed along with him.
“Sure. Keep, get him a drink.”
“We were just discussing your angel friend, Drean.” Keep closed and locked the bar door.
“How did you know his name?” Gerald asked.
“Riell knows him.” Keep went behind the counter and stood in front of him. “Right, I apologize. I didn’t properly introduce you two. Gerald this is Riell Frallt, she was one of my pupils. Riell this is Gerald.”
Gerald nodded at her and looked into Riell’s eyes. It made her uncomfortable.
“So, how’d it turn out with you two?”
Keep looked to Riell and awaited her answer.
“What do you want to drink?” Keep asked Gerald. “And do you want another Bacardi and Coke, Riell?”
“Sure,” she said.
“I’ll have a shot of Patron. I need to get out of here soon,” Gerald said and kept his eyes on Riell for an answer.
“Do you want it dressed?” Keep asked.
“No, just chilled,” Gerald replied.
“Oh. It went fine,” Riell said when she noticed his gaze. “I told him off, and he went home with some other chick.”
Gerald looked like he had more questions. Riell held her breath.
“Heh! That’s awesome! I knew the kid had it in him,” Gerald said and watched Keep pour his tequila.
“You seem a little unsteady, Keep. What’s goin’ on?”
Keep spilled a little on the bar counter.
“Sorry about that. It’s just late. I’m usually fast asleep by now.”
“That’s ok. It’s your alcohol.”
“Hey, Gerald?” Keep ducked behind the bar to get a new glass for Riell’s drink. “What happened to you?”
“Long story. I’d love to entertain you all with it.”
He picked his shot up. “But, if neither of you have seen or heard from Drean I need to get going.”
“I haven’t,” Keep said. “Not since... When were you two in here last?”
“Last Wednesday,” Gerald said. “Riell?”
“Last Wednesday? We were in here last night?” she asked.
“No, it’s been almost a week since then,” Gerald said.
“That can’t be possible...” Riell said.
“Yeah, somehow I was caught in a time lapse too,” Gerald said.
“Alright, I’ll catch you guys later. I have to go find him. Cheers.” Gerald tossed back the tequila and set the shot glass on the counter.
Gerald’s eyes flicked at the door. After a moment Riell felt it, and so did Keep. Several half-breeds were outside the bar. The number they could not discern.
“Looks like we’re goin’ to be partying after all. I don’t think they’re here for the alcohol though,” Gerald said.
“Riell Frallt, Dejanto Tregan and Gerald,” Feit said from outside, “exit the bar slowly. If we feel any Inner build up or receive any hostility you will be killed. You have thirty seconds before we burn The Horse to the ground.”
Gerald looked at Keep and Riell, shrugged and led the way. Outside they found themselves surrounded. Riell counted fifteen exous, thirty visible skia and ten poorly camouflaged skia.
Feit had an arrow notched and a smile on her face. She stood in the middle of the street with an entourage: a succubus, an incubus, a skia and two darbas. Those darbas would be their killers if they resisted Riell knew. Their raw power and ferocity were unparalleled save for Exous Elite.
Riell realized they were going to meet with some kind of interrogation. If torturing our minds with seduction and illusion does not glean the information those darbas will take the truths they seek from our flesh.
The half-demon’s hungry eyes darted from Riell, to Gerald to Dejanto.
Wind billowed around them. Riell could hear thunder roll across the water behind Feit and her guard, and the boardwalk creaked beneath them as the turbulent water crashed against it. She could hear the short breaths of the skia around them and the darbas gnash their teeth and pant in anticipation. Their breath came out of their jaws in thick, foul streams, visible in the cold air.
“We warned you, Gerald,” Feit said.
“Yeah, that you did. And I warned you.”
“You’re in no position to make threats. Where is the angel?”
“Try as you might you will not find the information you seek,” Keep said. “We do not know where the angel is.”
“One of you has to. My scouts have reported that a strange man with an unintelligible aura has made contact with Riell and Gerald. Who is he?”
“Just a buddy of mine looking for a good time, Gerald said. “I tried to hook him up with Riell here, but she decided to be a bitch and blow him off. Who knows where he is now.” He chuckled.
Riell stood right behind Gerald. She fought a buzzing inclination to send a slinking shadow up the leg of his leather pants to castrate him. She sighed in frustration.
“Do you know where he is?” Feit looked at Riell.
“What Gerald said is true. I, was... a bitch.”
Gerald smirked.
“Lei, take Teddy and your squad and infiltrate Riell’s apartment. Question the man she took with her and see what he has to say for himself. If he is the angel you know what to do. If he isn’t, kill him.”
Lei, the skia at her side, nodded. She motioned to the darbas, Teddy. Teddy slumped when he realized he would have no part in the interrogation of Riell, Gerald and Keep.
Long horns that covered his greenish-black skin sank into his body, and his elongated nose and mouth retracted and made him look more humanoid. He shrank a bit from his height of nine feet, which brought him to Keep’s size. He walked to the bar, and kept his eyes on Riell the whole time.
Fear leaked off of her. No matter how hard she tried she could not control it. Darbas emitted a spiritual stimulant, which affected some greater than others, like an allergic reaction. Riell felt herself shake and sweat when he neared her, and he smiled at that. Waves of nausea overtook her, and she tasted bile in her mouth.
“Miraki, she knows something. I want to know what she knows.”
Gaunt, pink skinned Miraki gave Riell a warm grin and sauntered over to her. He wore the same robe all of Verill’s order wore.
Slight euphoria alleviated Riell’s fears when she saw the incubus smile, but she knew it was a byproduct of his attack on her subconscious. She felt him caress her mind and tried to ignore it. Fighting an incubus’ will would only empower him. Surmounting him decisively or remaining calm would be the only way to win against his prodding. She did not want to risk bolstering his at
tack. She would have to endure.
I can be anything you wish me to, Miraki said. Anything to please you, everything to please you. Let me please you.
Her vision clouded and blackened till blindness.
She felt sand beneath her feet and heard the ocean.
Miraki’s luminous pink skin illuminated the dark and brightened gradually: like a sunrise. They stood on a beach’s shoreline.
Riell recognized it as Cardiff and smiled as she stared over the ocean ahead of her. She felt it roll over her feet, temperate, and soothing and laid down to enjoy it. She heard Drean’s laugh next to her. He made sand angels in the wet sand.
“Drean.” She laughed at him.
“His name is Drean,” the incubus said. “Who am I?”
Doubt filled her. The sky darkened. Miraki sat next to her now on the beach, and the water turned frigid.
“Not him,” Riell said.
He stood and frowned. The tide rose above her shoulders. She could not move.
“Who am I?”
“You are not him!”
The incubus growled. His skin’s radiance grew hot and blinding.
Water boiled around her. Steam suffocated her, and the heat made her consciousness waver. From the boiling water buildings sprang up: the familiar buildings of London.
She became one of the buildings.
She could feel the heat of a fire. It burned within her. She could hear humans and half-breeds scream in her as they died.
She could hear her own screams. She was in the room with her parents, and the fire scorched her skin. Simultaneously she could feel the flames consume her wooden body. It rose upward inevitably burning her and inevitably killing her family.
“My parents were not killed by this fire!” she yelled.
The illusion shattered, but she could still feel the incubus push at her mind.
Gerald watched as she writhed on the concrete at the knees of the incubus, who sat cross-legged with a slight smile on his dark lips. Blood dripped from Riell’s nose and mouth. Gerald knew she didn’t have much time left.
“You won’t find what you need in her,” Gerald said. “For I am the angel you seek.”
Feit laughed.
“You expect me to believe such nonsense?”
Riell screamed. Rivulets of blood ran from her eyes. Miraki moaned in ecstasy.
“The information about this other angel was a red-herring. You know of my ascension. I am the angel you seek.”
“Miraki, stop. I can’t hear him speak with her screaming.”
“I said you saw me ascend. I’m your angel. Take me and leave them in peace.”
Miraki frowned and stood at Feit’s side. His smooth skin cracked, wrinkled and bled. Boils rose up.
“Cheri, come here. I have a special job for you,” Feit said.
A short skia with shoulder length brown hair walked forward and bowed.
“Have her, Miraki. I don’t want you to suffer because I spoiled your meal.”
He smiled. Yellow rot covered his teeth. He licked Cheri’s pale cheek with his abscessed tongue. Her eyes rolled back into her head. She brought his lips to hers, and her fair skin paled as bone before she fell dead in Miraki’s arms. Miraki cradled her corpse, and enjoyed the afterglow of his snack while his satisfied body healed itself.
Riell stopped shaking, but Keep could not tell whether the blood had stopped flowing from her face or not. It was too covered. Her labored breaths caused ripples in blood pool, and her eyes were glazed. She needed his attention. He cleared his mind and imagined light in him: sustaining, rejuvenating light. He was surprised to find he had the power within him as he did centuries ago, like it had never left him. He tried to pace the healing Inner instead of surging it into her to remain undetected.
“I don’t know that I believe you. The angel is said to have untold power. You could fend us off easily with that kind of power.”
Gerald made eye contact with Keep. He blinked at Gerald in understanding.
“Then why did you keep the other darbas with you?”
Gerald let his leather jacket fall, vaulted toward the darbas and immolated his wings.
Gerald’s ignited wings blinded everyone but Keep and the darbas. The half-demon squealed in delight, threw his long arms open as if he were going to hug Gerald and knocked Feit backwards.
Keep grabbed the incubus by his neck while he was distracted and smashed his head through the boardwalk before going to Riell. He sent a rush of Inner into her. She came to: healed and revitalized. She sprang to her feet, summoned her bow, used her renewed senses to feel out the Inner signatures around her and joined the fray.
A green scaly fist clapped against Keep’s cheek. He stumbled back. His eyes emitted a soft white light. He caught the next blow with ease and countered with a straight punch of his own. The rest of the exous did not expect one of their comrades to bowl their entire charge over: they were knocked to the ground in a blink.
Keep growled and broke into a run to close the distance between them. He stole a glance back at Gerald: a darbas would not be an easy opponent.
Gerald jabbed at the darbas, who dodged and slashed Gerald’s side. Gerald ignored the sharp heat of his wound and flew away from the boardwalk. The darbas buzzed after him like a demon wasp.
Riell loosed arrow after arrow, killed several blinded skia as her vision returned. Before taking to the sky she slit the throat of the unconscious incubus at her feet.
She cloaked herself and killed unaware skia one by one on her way up to the darbas, the succubae and Feit, who had followed Gerald.
Keep ran faster and focused his attention on the recovering exous.
They scrambled up, each flaring into living flames simultaneously. They directed their burning rage at Keep who did not even blink as the whirling green fire engulfed him.
The exous laughed and extinguished themselves only to find a blackened, bald man standing before them, smoking and in tattered, melted clothing. He picked one up, broke his neck with a quick twist and swung him around like a sledgehammer: striking down exous until his new weapon’s green pointed scales embedded itself in an exous’ skull. The ones left standing thought about retaliating until they saw Keep’s charred skin flake away, giving way for new flesh. His whole body had healed itself within seconds. Keep chuckled and shook his head as they retreated. He peered into the sky to try to see Gerald.
Should be high enough now, Gerald thought.
Gerald turned and the darbas barreled into him. He could not evade the darbas’ attacks, but in the sky, away from anything he would have set aflame, it did not matter.
Gerald let his angelic energy spill from him, it singed him for a moment, and then it changed him.
Arrows that struck him became an itch. The honed charms of the succubus were only a tickle, and the darbas tearing at his flesh became a mere annoyance.
Riell saw him become a ball of blue flame and grow exponentially. As the flame simmered to a glow on all but his wings she could see his obsidian black skin, smoothed over like polished stone.
He plucked the darbas off of his chest and crushed it with clap of his hands. Riell continued to cut down skia undetected. Feit and the succubae made a hasty retreat, and the few remaining skia followed. Riell took aim at them.
“Let them go,” Gerald said, his deep voice resonated for miles. “Let them go and tell Verill what happened to them.” Gerald reverted back to normal and drifted back to his jacket. Riell and Keep approached him.
“If you knew you could do that why did you let them harm Riell,” Keep demanded.
“I could have killed the darbas easily if it had been distracted, but I did not have that opportunity. A did not want to risk damaging the boardwalk by becoming a domination.”
“Ah.” Keep checked his anger. “I apologize. You were right to wait till you were airborne.”
Gerald turned to Riell. She stared at him.
“What are you standing there for? Go make sure Drean is ok. H
e’s at your apartment right?”
“I blew him off. Remember?”
“I don’t know why you’re still lying about it. Whatever. Just make sure he’s ok wherever he is. I’m going to follow Feit and make sure she doesn’t try anything stupid. Later.” Gerald flew away.
“Farewell,” Keep said.
He looked at Riell.
“I’d hate to say it. But you and Shrazz have quite a task ahead of you... if you’re still planning on killing him.”
“What if Shrazz doesn’t win?” Riell mused out loud.
“It might be for the best if Shrazz has become so power hungry. At least Gerald is on the right side of this war and not fighting to fulfill selfish ambitions.”
“It’s Shrazz, Keep.”
Keep’s chin wrinkled from concern and worry.
“Just think about it,” Keep said. “You’ll make the right decision.” Riell did not look convinced. “I’m just trying to look at this from the right vantage point.”
“I don’t want to hear this from you. You don’t trust him. I’m going to check on Drean. Even though it would be nearly impossible for anyone to find my apartment without my Inner invoking the key, I’m still worried.”
“I need to meditate on this,” he said, and looked at the bloodstained boardwalk, the bodies floating in the water and the sky where Gerald had surmounted the darbas so easily. “I have much to contemplate before I join this war.”
“Maybe then you’ll see that Shrazz is only doing what he has to,” Riell said.
“You were the one that seemed wary, Riell,” Keep said.
“I said what I said under the influence. I’ll see you later.” She walked away.
She wanted to believe Shrazz, she wanted to have faith in him, and that want made her discount Keep, though she knew Shrazz had probably already fallen.
Chapter 25
It had been centuries since Dejanto had used the cathedral for genuflection. Doing so would draw the attention of God, reawaken his holy abilities and bind him to God once again.
Keep stood at his bar’s bathroom door. He had waited a few minutes to give Riell time to get through before he created his own portal.
A pitch-black hall lay before him. He entered without fear. His eyes could penetrate the deepest darkness.
From Heaven To Earth (The Faith of the Fallen) Page 17
