by Mel Odom
When she got her feet under her again, she stood chest-deep in the dank water of a cave. The cold water felt greasy against her skin even through her armor. The stench of death, decay, and raw sewage made the air so thick and almost impossible to breathe.
Her suit’s infrared system didn’t penetrate the gloom far enough to see any walls. She listened intently, not wanting to move until she knew if something else was in the water with her.
Movement slithered below.
Leah stepped to the side and drew the sword sheathed between her shoulder blades. Since she’d never carried a sword, she knew that she wasn’t herself in this incarnation. With a skill she’d never before possessed, she stood ready and waiting. For the first time, she realized that the HUD before her eyes had a 360-degree view of her surroundings.
In the next moment, three Templar surfaced in the murky water. All of them stood and drew swords. They ignored her and gazed around the cave. Simon wasn’t among them.
“Have you seen anything?”
It took Leah a moment to realize the woman addressed her. “No. Not yet.”
“Good. Maybe we escaped them.” The Templar surged forward through the water. “Joseph, do you have any idea where we are? This cave system isn’t on my HUD. We’re still beneath the city, I can see that, but I don’t know how we’re supposed to get out.”
“One thing’s for certain,” the third person, a man, stated, “we can’t go back the way we got here. We’ll be buried in demons.”
Leah slogged along after them. There wasn’t anything else she could do.
“There are a lot of cave systems and abandoned tunnels beneath London,” Joseph said. “Mining and transportation created most of the tunnels.”
“It was your idea to come here, mate,” the other man accused.
“Knock it off, Nigel,” the woman said. “We’ve got enough troubles without trying to assign blame for this mess we’re in.”
“Listen to you, Mai. What gives you the right to—”
She whirled on the other Templar and lifted her sword point to the bottom of his helm. “Lord Cross gave me the right to tell you what to think, you git. And unless you get with the program, I’m going to jettison you and let you find your own way out of here. Do you scan me?”
Nigel’s blank faceplate remained blank and featureless. However, through whatever power that bound her to the experience—dream or real-time, Leah felt his fear and anger. They were divided equally for a moment, but he gave in to his fear.
“All right, Mai,” Nigel said. “It’ll be as you say.”
“Good.” Mai lowered her sword. She turned away from him and started slogging through the muck again.
Leah hurried and caught up to her. “You know Simon?”
Mai didn’t break stride. “Of course I know him. This isn’t time for silly questions.”
“I need to get a message to him.”
“Tell him when we get back.”
“I don’t know if I’ll make it back.”
“You aren’t going to throw in the towel so quick, are you? Because if that’s the way you—”
The lizard-demon struck without warning, rising from the dark depths and lunging at Mai. The Templar’s augmented reflexes almost saved her as she threw herself to one side. The lizard-thing opened its mouth and popped out a barbed tongue that crossed ten feet of space in a nanosecond. Incredibly, the tongue penetrated the armor on the first attempt.
Mai jerked and writhed. Her panicked and pain-filled cries filled Leah’s audio inside the armor. Leah ran forward and lifted the sword. She swung again and again, chopping through the lizard’s tough hide. Ichors poured from the wounds, but the lizard pulled its struggling prey into the elongated mouth.
“Help me!” Leah cried. “She still has a chance!”
The Templar broke free from the paralysis that held them and rushed forward.
Leah tried to figure out where the lizard’s brain was. She hoped that if she could pierce the brain or sever the spinal cord she might save the Templar.
“Warning!”
The voice came from inside the suit. Leah hadn’t expected that. She still struggled to understand the 360-degree view the HUD afforded. Everything looked wrong.
“Warning! Second demon within range!”
Leah noticed the demon then. A second lizard had risen from the water and rushed at her. The scrawny legs were incredibly powerful. She turned to meet the new threat, but she knew she moved too late.
The demon opened wide its jaws. The black tongue uncoiled from inside the mouth and lashed forward.
Leah tried to move. The tongue hit her just left of center in her chest. If it missed her heart, and she wasn’t certain, it was a near thing. She was surprised that there was no pain. Shock already flooded her system and started shutting her down.
She stumbled backward but managed to grab the tongue with one hand. The barbs bit into her flesh as the lizard snapped its head back and reeled her in. Then the jaws closed on her with crushing force and she—
—was suddenly somewhere else. She choked back a cry.
“Quiet,” someone hissed. Then Leah felt her hand squeezed tightly. “Don’t interrupt the Voice.”
Leah sat cross-legged in a circle of people in a dark room. All of them ringed a strangely cut box that levitated in the center of the circle. Black curtains covered the windows, but the way the heavy material moved told her the windows were broken.
When Leah gazed at her companions, she realized they were Cabalists. Their robes and strange armor fashioned from demon hide announced their identities as much as the tattoos and demon body parts they had stitched into their bodies. Most of the wounds looked infected.
From the information that Control passed along, the Cabalists believed they enhanced their natural powers and added others by grafting the demons’ bodies to their own. According to reports, they were at least partially successful. But the grafts often didn’t take. Most of the time, infection set in and threatened the host body until the grafts were undone.
Others, too stubborn or believing that the infection would turn, died horrible deaths trying to adapt. Several of the Cabalists around Leah looked sick and weak. Hollow eyes burned as they stared at the floating box.
“This is Ordonar’s Box,” a man near the floating object said. “Homer and Aristotle wrote of the Box, but those writings have been concealed. They believed the soul of a demon was trapped inside. The Greeks didn’t create the box. Ordonar was believed to have been a priest in ancient Tibet, a holy man who acknowledged that demons walked in this world.”
The Box twisted and spun at a faster rate. At first, Leah though it was brass, then she saw the reddish gleam and thought it was more likely that it was copper. Strange sigils stood out in bold relief on the sides.
“Although the ancients tried to understand the Box,” the speaker went on, “none of its secrets were ever discovered. In time, when the Romans took over much of the Greek culture, they also recovered the Box. It was brought to England. A scholar here thought a crypt with similar markings had been found. Before the Box arrived, the scholar was found murdered. Some said it was the curse of the crypt, which was never found.”
Power grew in the room. Part of Leah knew what it was. The force felt like an electrical surge buildup. Her skin became tight and dry. Her hair stood on end. Electrical sparks jumped on some of the Cabalists in the circle. Leah wanted to get up and run.
“Easy,” the man next to Leah whispered. “The Voice knows what he’s doing. Everything will be fine.”
“While in England,” the Voice went on, “the Box was also lost. Stories of assassins, pagans, and jealous officers followed the Box. No one knows what the truth is. In the early nineteenth century, explorers found the Box. Until now, it’s resided in a museum. No one knew what it was. I do.”
The Voice stood. He was a tall, lean man with the face of a wolf. He looked like a ska fan, dressed in jackboots, his head shaven, piercings over h
is face.
“Tonight, brothers and sisters, we open the Box and free the demon soul inside. It will try to escape our circle, but we won’t allow that. We will hold on to it and make it do our bidding. Once we do that, our understanding of the demons and the power that we can wield will increase. We will all benefit.”
No! Leah tried to speak and couldn’t. Demons don’t have souls! She knew that from the research she’d stolen from the Templar when she’d first gone to the Templar Underground with Simon. She didn’t know what the Box contained, but she didn’t see that it could be anything but evil.
And powerful. That scared her most of all.
“Now,” the Voice said, “it’s time to open the Box. Ready your shields. Don’t allow it to escape.”
Magenta shimmering filled the darkened room, glowing like a lava bubble.
Leah tried to free her hands. Both Cabalists on either side of her held on.
“No,” the man hissed. “Stay strong. Believe. We can bend the demons to our will. That’s our destiny. It’s what we’ve been working toward.”
Leah couldn’t move. Her body wasn’t under her control.
The Voice spoke strange words that Leah couldn’t understand. The Box spun faster. Blue lights flickered over the Box’s copper surfaces. The Voice continued speaking. The words came louder and faster. Wind whipped free in the room. Blue lightning leaped from the Box.
One of the bolts struck the man next to Leah. Horrified, she watched as the man jerked and spasmed. Electricity flowed through her and locked her jaws and joints. Leah barely managed to hang on to her senses.
Abruptly, the Box stopped spinning. Lightning continued to sizzle from it, forming a direct connection to the Cabalists.
“Control it!” the Voice shouted. “Use your powers!”
Leah held on to the two men next to her. She had no choice. The electricity surging through her wouldn’t allow her to release either of them. The man on her right frothed at the mouth.
Then the Box exploded. A bright blue flash filled the room and blinded Leah. When her vision returned, only partially, a demon stood in the center of the circle.
The demon had two faces set side by side. Both of them were hideous. Scales flared along the thick neck that hooked into a massive chest. Four arms, two to a side, stuck out from the demon’s body. All of them held weapons. The legs were long in comparison to the rest of its body, and they were thick as tree trunks. A forest of horns crowned its head.
“Control me?” the demon snarled. “Fools!” He lifted one arm and laughed.
More lightning jumped from the mace in the demon’s hand. Leah felt the increased current wracking her body. The head of the man to her left suddenly exploded, scattering blood, brains, and bone—all of it cooked. Around the circle, more Cabalists suffered electrical beheading.
Then a deep, agonizing pain struck deeply within Leah’s head. There was a great release, and she knew nothing more.
Exhausted and hurting, Leah regained consciousness back in the cube room. Vomit stained the floor. She put a hand to her head, checking to see that it was all still in one piece. The last sequence—whether dream or memory—had been too intense.
Then she grew aware someone watched her.
When she turned to look, the cube demon had returned. She put her back against the wall and drew her knees up to her chin.
“You’re doing very well.” The demon almost preened. “Better than expected. During the time you’ve been here, you’ve reached out to many of your fellow humans.”
Leah didn’t speak. She refused to let the thing know how much what she was going through was affecting her.
“Other humans have died,” the demon said. “Some of those were ones that were taken after you. You have a remarkable resiliency. But, in the end, it will only make you live longer. You can’t escape. You will die here. Until you do, you will continue to aid us.”
Giving in to her anger, Leah hurled herself across the room. Even if she died in the attack, she couldn’t be used against Simon or anyone else. Dying was worth that.
The demon caught her effortlessly. One hand seized her wrist and the other clamped down on her head. It picked her up and threw her into the steel wall hard enough to knock the breath from her.
Wheezing, trying desperately to get air back in her lungs, Leah held her hands over her head to open her rib cage.
“Foolish,” the demon said. “You can’t sacrifice yourself so easily. When the time comes, you’ll die. But not until this. You no longer have a choice in the matter.”
Leah willed herself to be calm as she tried to regulate her breathing. She watched the demon intently, but she didn’t know when it left the cell. One moment it was there; in the next, it was gone.
Knowing that a door had to be in that end of the cell, Leah crawled over and examined the walls, floor, and ceiling. She found nothing. It was as if the demon had aligned its atoms with those of the wall and slid through.
When she turned back round, a box of food sat at the other end of the cell. Nothing had gotten by her, which meant that the demons entered and left her cell at will. She remained a prisoner.
FORTY-SEVEN
W arren lifted his hand and formed a shield before him. The demon’s fiery breath crackled and hissed as it struck the barrier. Flames lapped at the edges as they curled around. Waves of heat slammed into him, almost hot enough to parboil his skin.
Naomi stood at his back, using him and his shield as protection.
Daiyu and the Cabalists attacked the demon. Heavy nets, reinforced with the energy they manipulated, dropped from men inside rooms overhead. The nets popped and sizzled as they touched the demon’s skin, like electrical cables attached to opposite current. Quivering and shaking, the nets looked like live things seeking to slide away from the demon.
Kareloth struggled against the nets. He knotted all four hands in the strands and pulled. Some of the nets broke, and the energy residing within the ropes burned like fireworks. The demon breathed out again. Flames licked at the nets, but they were flame-resistant. They wouldn’t be able to withstand the attack for long, though.
Warren drew the spear from the magical duster. When Kareloth saw the spear, his eyes widened.
“Where did you get that?” Kareloth demanded.
Afraid of getting hurt, knowing that the demon was dangerous as long as it was alive, Warren made no reply. He closed on Kareloth and drove the spear at the demon’s heart.
Instead, Kareloth caught the spear and stopped it short of piercing his flesh. The contact turned the spear cherry red. Kareloth’s hands, both of the left ones, charred and cracked. He roared with rage and shoved the spear backward.
Propelled by the demon’s immense strength, Warren flew off his feet and back into the alley. He knocked Naomi down, and they tumbled in a sprawl. Only then did the agony from Warren’s own burned hand reach through his fear and fill his mind.
His hand, his human hand, had cooked. Blisters formed immediately. Black crust covered his palm. He couldn’t feel all the pain because the burns had killed the nerves. That was a small blessing. He also couldn’t move his hand. Panic throttled his thinking for a moment.
“Let me help.” Naomi rose to her knees, helped him to his, then took his hand in hers. Almost instantly some of the pain went away. The black crust grew less dense, and the blisters lessened.
Warren calmed.
“I need you.” Naomi looked at him. “Help me. It’s still more than I can do.”
More in control of the animalistic fear that rattled through him, Warren concentrated on his hand. The healing sped up. In only a few seconds, his hand was once more whole. He flexed it, feeling everything again and finding the hand totally mobile.
Once more on his feet, Warren picked up the spear and turned back to the demon. Daiyu and the Cabalists attacked with fire and lightning, with swords and pistols that fired insects that dug into Kareloth’s flesh. The demon roared with rage and fought the nets that held
him. Other Cabalists held on to ropes and anchored the demon in one spot so he couldn’t run.
Pustules and sores covered the demon’s body from the Cabalist guns. The insects burrowed into the flesh and sapped strength as well as spurting toxins that sped through the central nervous systems. Before any of the demon’s body was used to enhance Cabalist recipients, those harvested pieces would have to be thoroughly disinfected.
The nets continued to rip. A hole grew larger, and Kareloth thrust his two-faced head through. His right hands clawed at the nets and forced a shoulder through as well.
Warren wanted to stab the demon again, but he was hesitant. The pain from the earlier attempt remained fresh in his mind.
“When I get out of here,” Kareloth bellowed, “I’m going to kill you. I tried to kill you quickly. Before, you were just a small favor for Merihim. Now, I owe you for the pain you’ve caused me.”
Warren’s first instinct was to run. He couldn’t imagine going one-on-one with Kareloth. The Cabalists were hard-pressed to restrain the demon now, and that small edge they maintained was slipping away.
You can’t run. He’ll only follow. This is your only chance.
Focusing on the fear, Warren embraced it and let it feed the power that surged through him. He was no hero. He’d never be a hero. But he was a survivor. He’d faced his stepfather down when he was just a child. And he’d used the one power that had always been his.
“Kareloth,” Warren said in a voice that only cracked a little.
The demon swiped his right hands at Warren. They were only three feet short. The nets hung halfway down the demon’s chest. Once they plunged below that, they’d fall quickly.
“I know your name,” Warren said. “You have to listen to me.”
“I don’t,” Kareloth said. “I’m going to grind your bones to dust.”
“Stop struggling. Now.”
The nets finally gave way and dropped to the pavement. Kareloth managed one step forward…then stopped.
“Daiyu,” Warren said, feeling as though his heart were about to explode. “Pull your people back.”
