The Lillim Callina Chronicles: Volumes 1-3

by J. A. Cipriano

  Logan sat in the corner of the room with the baby curled up in his lap. Prince Dar’s head rested lightly on Logan’s thigh. I watched his little chest move up and down and relief flooded through me. The baby was still okay. Thank god!

  The hilt of the Demonslayer poked up from Logan’s long coat. All around him candles blazed, and I could see rot was beginning to spread along the flesh of Logan’s right hand. That wasn’t good. It meant the demon was starting to corrupt him.

  “Who the hell are you?” I murmured, and the man holding me chuckled.

  “Pretty clever trick don’t you think?” His voice rolled over me like warm honey on a winter’s day. It was a little too enchanting for my taste.

  It was, in fact, pretty clever. I don’t know how I’d have managed to get through the door if this mystery man hadn’t pulled me through the stone. Now if he would just release me, I could get into the room, save the baby, and do a victory lap. I thought about asking him nicely to let me go. I really did, right until I elbowed him sharply in the stomach. He released his hold on me with a gasp.

  The stone spit me out like a sour candy. I lay on the stone floor and sucked in a breath. Now I knew what a spit-wad felt like.

  “Well, look what the cat dragged in.” Bob glanced down at me but made no movement toward me.

  The door behind me burst inward, flying off the hinges and skidding across the floor. Gib, the werewolf king, stepped into the room. His metallic armor gleamed like the sun. He snarled as he took a thundering step closer. An army followed in behind him. There were nothing but werewolves as far as the eye could see. I shuddered, glad I hadn’t been in the hallway thirty seconds longer.

  “Give me my child.” Gib’s voice was like an arctic gale. It swept over me leaving nothing but chills and gooseflesh in its wake.

  “No,” Bob replied, and for a second, I felt like I was trapped between a rock and a very hard place.

  “Lillim, just get a hold of the baby, and I’ll do the rest.” It was the man from the stone. How had he managed to speak directly into my head?

  I swallowed. Things like him were very scary. Worse, it didn’t seem like either Bob or Gib even knew he was there. I cringed as I got to my feet. Neither of them paid any attention to me.

  Bob unsheathed Melt. Blue and white flames licked along the edges of the enormous sword. He swung it through the air in front of me. A wave of heat swept over me, and I took a step backward. My shoulder blades touched the cold stone of the wall. I was trapped.

  “Give me my sword, Dioscuri.” The sword flashed by me again, closer this time.

  I reached back and grabbed Frost with both hands. The touch of its cold embrace sent armies of shivers scampering down my arms. I blew out a breath and cold mist exited my lips. I squatted down, low on my haunches, as I tightened my grip on the weapon. With a burst of energy, I flung Frost at the vampire.

  Gib snarled and dove toward him at the same time. Bob reached out with his mottled hand and snatched the gigantic blade from the air. The force of it spun him around just as Gib pounced. The werewolf landed on the vampire’s back, forcing him onto all fours. Frost dropped from his grip and hit the floor like an anvil.

  As Gib grappled with Bob on the ground, I ran toward Logan and the child.

  Logan stood and unsheathed the Demonslayer. Tendrils of black mist encircled his arm, tightening down on the flesh. He didn’t seem to notice as he hefted the screaming baby in front of his body like a shield.

  I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Sure, he was a scum-sucking vampire who had kidnapped an infant, but that was a whole different level of douche-baggery from actually trying to use said infant as a shield. He needed to die for that alone. There was no other recourse. As soon as I got the chance, I was going to end him.

  My heart pounded in my chest, and I forced myself to calm down. I took a deep breath as I dove toward Logan focused solely on recovering the child. The Demonslayer sang through the air where my head had just been as I rolled across the marble floor. I came to my feet and slammed my shoulder into Logan’s outstretched arm.

  Crack!

  Logan screamed as his arm bent awkwardly toward the ceiling, and the Demonslayer clattered uselessly to the ground. Before he could do anything, I tore the screaming infant from his grasp and kicked him hard in the chest.

  As he landed hard on his back, I took a menacing step forward, about to pick up the Demonslayer and use it to end him. Only if I did that, there was no telling what might happen to the child or to me. No, I had to get the baby to safety before something else happened. That was the most important thing right now.

  Tucking the child to my chest with one arm, I did the only thing I could with a war raging around me. I tore the ring from my finger.

  22

  I should be happy. I was home, and I had the baby. That was a win right there. My place had even been partially repaired. That was pretty neat though, I had no idea how it’d happened. Goblin maintenance must have been by?

  I poked the baby’s tummy, and he giggled, staring at me with deep blue eyes. For a moment, I was amazed at how human he looked. Then he tried to eat my shirt, nuzzling his little mouth against the fabric and biting down with the force of a tiny alligator. I yelped and realized exactly why babies came with a “no shaking” warning label. I held him out at arm’s length and sighed.

  It wouldn’t be long before someone burned down my home or did something else horrible to the place in order to get me out. Being my apartment had turned into a high-risk occupation. I needed to take him somewhere safe, somewhere like the Dioscuri headquarters in Lot.

  I slumped into my chair with the baby in my lap and scratched my head. I used to be reasonably sure no one could get into my place via mystical, magical, or otherwise spooky means, but after the parade of supernatural invaders that had barged into my apartment… well, I didn’t exactly feel safe. Even if my wards did keep the baddies outside, what would keep them from simply lighting my house on fire… again?

  “And what do you plan on doing with that?” Mattoc pointed at the baby with a mixture of disgust and confusion.

  “I was thinking about baking him into a pie since I was out of blackbirds,” I said, a little more sadly then I probably should have.

  “Well, while that would be a dainty dish to set before a king, I don’t see how it would help,” Mattoc mused.

  “I’m going to take him to the Dioscuri. They can work out the details with Gib. Hopefully, he’ll just take the boy without tearing me to shreds. Hopefully. Then I’ll be done with this whole mess, and I can get back to hunting a dragon. Remind me never to do business with vampires.”

  I turned, walked over to my desk, and pulled a scoop of cat food out of a small bin and refilled Georgie’s automatic feeder. He looked up at me with a sort of sidelong glance before turning away from me and going back to sleep. I poked him once, and he rolled into a ball. I poked him again and his spines jutted out. Stupid thankless hedgehog.

  “Well, isn’t someone a grumpy goose,” I muttered.

  “Um, Lillim…” Mattoc whispered as though something very shiny was distracting him.

  “What?” I was trying to unscrew Georgie’s water bottle with one hand while juggling an infant, which was no easy task. Now Mattoc was pestering me instead of helping.

  “You need to see this,” Mattoc said, fear tingeing his words as he spoke.

  “In a second.” I got the bottle under the water and managed to balance it with my chin long enough to get the cap back on. I threw a glance at Mattoc. He was standing at the window, looking out with an odd mix of surprise and horror plastered on his face.

  “What is it?” I asked, concerned.

  “No, seriously, words can’t explain this. You need to look.” He tapped the glass, but it made no sound.

  Now, I’m not one to get really nervous or anything. Problems? Well, I tend to just smash my way through them. But when I looked out my window and saw, much to my horror, what appeared to be
a portal the size of a cement truck suspended in the sky miles above my tiny apartment, I froze. I wasn’t sure what had come out of it exactly, but with my luck, it sure seemed like it’d be bad.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me…” I watched the tear in reality seethe with unholy light. Thankfully nothing seemed to be coming out of it at present.

  “I don’t suppose you can close that?” Mattoc asked hopefully. “Because if you can, I’ll give you not one, but two high fives.”

  “Nope,” I said doubtfully as I turned and began hastily trying to gather up my hedgehog, new baby, and various other objects. It was time to get to the Dioscuri, acquire backup, and close this portal before Lucifer himself sprang out. “But I bet I can find out how.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll close it when I leave.” The voice struck me sort of odd. I knew it wasn’t Mattoc’s voice, but it was strangely familiar at the same time. A man with skin like alabaster stepped through my doorway as though all of the wards meant nothing to him. Then again, most of the creatures I’d dealt with recently seemed to be capable of bypassing my wards. I was definitely going to have to get a more advanced book on the subject or a better lock.

  “Sit down and calm yourself, Lillim Cortez Callina,” he said whimsically, but even as he did so, a rush of power sent my body toppling into a nearby chair with a hedgehog in one hand and a baby in the other. The wards around the room flashed so brightly it nearly blinded me as they burned themselves up under the stress of his power. Holy crap!

  He had walked though my barriers and hadn’t even pronounced my name correctly. In fact, I was pretty sure he’d said it wrong on purpose because it’d sounded like one of those fake computer voices. Saying my name that way shouldn’t have given him any power over me. Since he was not invited inside, my wards should have kept him out. But instead of protecting me, they had been overwhelmed by his voice. This guy had some serious mojo.

  I sucked in a breath and was glad that his spell wouldn’t let me tremble. It’s hard to look tough when you’re shaking like a leaf. Still, there had to be a way to beat him. There was always a way.

  He sauntered around my apartment in his tattered blue jeans and mismatched socks, opening drawers and cupboards and generally making a mess of things. He ran a hand through his scruffy black emo-rock star hair and smiled, revealing a mouthful of perfect porcelain. A series of puncture marks ran the length of his neck as far as I could see beneath his Led Zeppelin t-shirt. It looked like he had been bitten by a dinosaur, making me think those puncture marks probably trailed across his back and chest as well.

  “I made the portal, so fear not, nothing else will come out.” He shrugged, and while I believed he’d made it, I wasn’t sure why he thought that would calm me. “Quite a nice disappearing act back in Germany. I wasn’t expecting that. You didn’t need to hit me though.” He smiled, the corners of his mouth turned into a wide grin as his eyes, so dark they were nearly black, flashed with amusement. “If I said you didn’t hit like a girl would you be offended or take it as a compliment?”

  I narrowed my eyes, somewhat surprised his spell didn’t affect my facial expressions. That’s where I’d heard his voice before. He’d been the guy to pull me through the stone. How had he gotten here so quickly? I swallowed. If he was already here, when would the others arrive?

  “So what do you want?” I tried vainly to push myself up from the chair. This was surprisingly difficult to do with a baby in one hand and a hedgehog in the other. A thin bead of sweat trailed its way down my forehead.

  “I’m going to watch the First Son for a while. I’ve already spoken with his father. He will leave you alone for now.” He took the baby I had worked so damned hard to get and smiled at him. The baby smiled back as the man cooed. “Don’t worry though. Once you stop Valen, I’ll bring him back safe and sound. That’s a promise.”

  He was so suddenly gone, it was as though I had imagined the entire situation. I hadn’t of course. The baby was really and truly gone. I relaxed as my body lurched up from the chair, no longer bent into its frame by the man’s will. I stared at my hedgehog before placing him back in his cage. Georgie yawned at me and crawled back into the small burrow he had made in the felt liner.

  “I guess I’ll have time to search for whoever called for that asteroid. Eh, Matto?” I said, trying to make the best of the fact I’d managed to hang onto the kid for all of three minutes.

  No response. There was no sound, no delightfully annoying spark of his ghostly voice. “Matto?”

  Nothing. I quickly looked around and didn’t find hide nor hair of the ghost.

  “Christ, where are you, Mattoc?” I began turning things over, flinging everything in my room into misshapen heaps because for some crazy reason, I thought I might find him hiding in my laundry.

  After several minutes, I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. I was being stupid. The ghost was bound to me after all. I just had to feel for his soul chain to find him. I took another deep breath, opened my eyes to the ethereal plane, and looked for the chain. I screamed.

  When I’d looked into the ethereal plane, I’d expected to see the chain trailing off somewhere. I did not expect to see iridescent broken shards nor did I expect to see what looked like a freaking demon standing a few feet away.

  One of his hands held a ridiculously long sword of black flame. The other was clamped around Mattoc’s mouth. He had forcefully pulled my soulbound ghost into the ethereal realm. It had to be some damn good trick to reach out this far into the ethereal plane to pluck my ghost out of my home. Then again, all my wards had been shattered.

  “Warthor,” I said, glaring at him. He might look like a demon to my sight, because the ethereal plane tended to reflect ones true soul, but I’d seen this particular reflection enough to know exactly who was holding Mattoc. “You need to let him go, or he’ll fade away without the soul chain.” I reached for a weapon and realizing I had none. Damn. “Trust me, you have much bigger problems.”

  “Now, now, Bunny,” Warthor Ein muttered in a raspy, hoarse sort of way. “Is that any way to talk to your master?” He flicked me between the eyes.

  I staggered backward and fell to the ground. My ears were buzzing and my eyes couldn’t focus. With a whoosh, both he and Mattoc were gone and my sight returned to the physical world. I shook my head and tried to reopen my ethereal sight, but I couldn’t. Something was wrong, but I didn’t know what.

  Mattoc was gone. My ghost was gone. The baby was gone, too, which pissed me the hell off. I’d worked so hard to get him back, and now? Now he was just gone. Ugh. Seriously? Could this day get any worse?

  I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. I should probably go after the baby just to be sure, but if I didn’t rescue Mattoc fast, he could cease to exist. Still, if Warthor had him, I’m sure he wasn’t in immediate danger. I had time to sort out this mess.

  “Well at least I won’t have to deal with his icky ghostly presence anymore,” I said without cheer. My hedgehog stared blankly at me.

  Georgie was not impressed. I sighed. “Fine, I’ll just go out into the nether and brave all those monsters that are way stronger in the nether by the way, just so you can have your friend back.” The hedgehog gave me one last glance and stuck his head back under his blanket.

  You had to give it to Warthor Ein. I sighed as I moved over to a gun rack and took down a box of shells and a new shotgun. He really knew how to make a bad situation worse.

  23

  It was likely Warthor wouldn’t hurt Mattoc. In fact, I’d bet a fistful of hundreds, he merely wanted to see me about something and the ghost-napping was just guaranteeing I would show up. Then, when I arrived, I’d have to perform some cockamamie task only to be rewarded with what he’d stolen to begin with, you know, sort of like what’d happened with Voln and the baby. It was patently ridiculous because he could have easily told me what he wanted when he was right in front of me.

  If he’d just given me two damn seconds when he popped in to ghost-nap Mat
toc, I could have told him about Valen and saved all of us a lot of trouble. Still, since I’d been meaning to talk to him anyway, going after him to retrieve Mattoc was sort of a win, win situation for me. See, that’s the power of positive thinking.

  I moved over to the window as I slung the shotgun into its holster inside my overcoat, glad that it could hold a ridiculous amount of gear, and stared up at where the portal had been. True to his word, it was gone. Instead, the moon seemed to be smiling back at me, muttering the unspoken question, “Wanna play?” And of course I did. I wanted very much to play because of all the things facing me, going after Warthor was the best thing to do, and that was very, very sad.

  I mean all I had to do was track down Warthor, get him to help me kill Valen, thereby making the baby-napper give me the baby back. It was simple. Normally in this situation, I would ask someone’s opinion on my master plan, but as I trailed my mental finger down the list of possible helpers I found that they were all either captured or I was ignoring them.

  I walked outside, and it was then, and only then, that I realized there was no one to be found. Doors hung open on hastily abandoned homes, and I reasoned that many people had evacuated like rats fleeing a sinking ship although I wasn’t sure why.

  My hedgehog squeaked so loud I heard it outside. It was a sound I was altogether unused to hearing. I walked back inside and peered at it curiously. It stared at me like it wanted something so I picked him up and stuffed him in my pocket. He promptly curled into a ball and fell asleep.

  “Okay…” I said aloud, more to have something to say than anything else because I wasn’t sure how to find Warthor.

  I was going to need something a lot more powerful than my shotgun to go after someone who could freely walk the nether. Fortunately, I had just the thing. I walked over to my desk, pushed it out of the way, and pulled up the floorboard beneath it. There, in a small crevice, was a thin black sword with crimson butterflies etched along its length. I pulled it out and stared at it. The butterflies pulsed with life, and I swear, seemed to flitter around the weapon when I wasn’t looking.