by Tim Marquitz
Caught between a dragon and a firing squad, I chose the lizard. She whirled about as I got close, the red glare of her eyes sizing me up like I was a pudding pop. Her wings rose into the air and she let out another, bestial shriek aimed over my head at the Eidolon, and then collapsed without warning. There was the sudden whiff of brimstone as Rala toppled. She was back to being a girl before she even hit the ground.
She lay slumped in the debris. Her chest rose with desperate effort as she tried to draw breath. Spittle glistened at her lips, tiny bubbles forming at the corners of her mouth. Another shot whipped past my head, followed by another. The Eidolon were closing in, and they’d made my decision for me.
I scooped up Rala and ran. She was a limp rag, her face rolling into my chest as I held her close to me. While I still didn’t know which one of the two women were telling the truth, or whose side they were on, it didn’t feel right to leave the girl to the mercies of the Eidolon. They’d proven they were a shoot first and ask questions later kind of organization. Besides, with Rala as naked as the day she was hatched, it was pretty easy to tell she wasn’t sporting one of the phoenix tattoos, let alone any others. That wasn’t exactly definitive proof of anything, but it did make me think she might not be treated too kindly by the bird boys if they found her unconscious in the alley.
Confusion and ignorance my natural element, I ran and left the thinking for later.
Fourteen
A handful of blocks from the alley, I found a ramshackle building that didn’t look like anyone had set foot in it in centuries. Though, to be honest, I didn’t have to look very hard. Damn near most of them in the area fit the bill for what I needed. After glancing around to make sure no one was watching from the surrounding area, the Eidolon somewhere in the dust behind me, I forced the door without making it obvious and went inside. Stale air hit me as I entered and sealed us in.
Whatever had happened to Feluris was more than just the recent warfare between God and his kids gone wrong. Much of the city was deserted, and it was obvious it had been that way a long time. While Rala and Vol sounded like true citizens, lamenting the violation of their world, it was painfully apparent there wasn’t that much to lose. Maybe it was one of those things where a person who has so little values it more, but I didn’t understand it. Desboren was a dump by even my standards, and that’s saying something.
I moved deeper into the building, letting my senses loose. Able to catch a flicker of Rala’s life force but no others, it didn’t seem as if anyone else was there, lurking in the dark. She might be different than the other Felurians—turning into a dragon is the very definition of different—but she was still an alien life form. If I could pick her up against my senses, I was fairly certain I could the others. It was just like pinging humans. There wasn’t much of an interaction, and they didn’t feel any of it, but it was clear they were about.
Rala watched me through slit eyelids. Her breathing had shifted to normal a while back. She was biding her time, most likely unsure of what I intended. I may have saved her from the Eidolon, just like she might have saved me from Cyrill, but Rala didn’t know me from spit. I let her have her paranoia by keeping my mouth shut, and set her down in a dark corner. Hoodie off, I laid it on top of her and wandered into the next room.
Even with as much as I missed Karra, I couldn’t see myself torturing Rala to get information, so I was gonna have to wait her out. If she wanted to talk, she’d do so when she was ready. If she didn’t, I was no worse off than I was now, which was hardy comforting but yet sadly consistent with the rest of my life. The status quo had been preserved.
I dropped down near a boarded up window, which allowed me to see the street outside through tiny spaces in the slats, and drew a slow, deep breath. Quiet voices drifted to my ears from somewhere nearby, and though I saw a couple of aliens walk by the house who I thought might be Eidolon, they just kept going without seeming to notice anything amiss. I exhaled once they were a good distance past and out of my line of sight.
“Why did you save me?”
I turned my head to see Rala standing in doorway, leaning against the frame. She was wearing the hoodie and it hung all the way down to her toes as though it were a robe. The skin of her face was sallow, even paler than it had been before, the strips standing out in sharp relief. I shrugged. “I flipped a coin in my head: heads I save you, tails I chop you up and turn you into shoes. It just happened to come up heads.”
She shook her head and came over to sit before me, crossing her legs to keep from revealing anything special as the hoodie rode up. I didn’t know whether to be grateful or disappointed.
“Seriously. Do you believe me about that woman?”
“I don’t know what to believe,” I told her, meeting her eyes. They’d faded back to their natural shade. “Frankly, Scarlett, I don’t give a damn.”
“Scarlett?”
I chuckled and waved it off. “Earth saying. Don’t worry about it.” Besides, how do you explain to an alien the double innuendo of a movie line and an angelic cousin named Scarlett? Wasn’t gonna try. “I’m really not here to get stuck in the middle of a turf war or to be the savior of your people. I just want to find my woman, take her home, and forget all about this desolate, depressing place. No offense.”
“Your woman?” she asked, eyes narrowing. “The pregnant one?”
“No.” I shook my head. “She’s about yay tall,” I said, raising my hand into the air. “Short, wild blond hair, gorgeous with hazel eyes.”
“Yes, the pregnant woman, the one brought here by the alien.” She nodded enthusiastically.
“No, that’s not her. She’s—” And that’s when it hit me…hard.
A gear clicked into place inside my skull, and I was suddenly very lightheaded. I slumped against the wall behind me, my whole body tingling as if someone was playing a symphony with my nerves.
Pregnant.
The word was like a shotgun blast to my guts. It explained everything. When Mihheer had said there was another who shared Lucifer’s bloodline, I thought he meant Scarlett. It never occurred to me that it would be Karra. We weren’t related—at least I hoped not—so I hadn’t even given it a thought. Her being pregnant made sense. It wasn’t Karra that Gorath wanted, but the baby inside her.
My stomach churned when I thought that. Karra was pregnant and we were going to have a child together. A wave of nauseous warmth washed over me as cold hard reality kicked the shit out of my momentary slip of fantasy. Gorath had Karra and our baby. Then the hammer hit home.
“Oh…fuck!” I hopped to my feet in a huff, startling Rala. She skittered back with wide eyes and clenched fists.
Gorath hadn’t taken Karra because he thought he could use her to get me to play along like I’d been thinking all along. He’d taken her because there was a tiny piece of Lucifer growing inside her. Gorath didn’t need me at all, he already had what he believed was the key to drawing the old man out. He was only waiting for the opportunity and energy to make his move, and I’d been running around with my head up my ass thinking it was all about me.
“What’s the matter?”
Rala’s voice surprised me. I’d forgotten she was there. Sweat dripped into my eyes, and I could feel the heat of it as I wiped it away with the back of my hand, my forehead warm with fevered realization.
“I had it all wrong.” Each of the words tasted of bile as I spoke them.
Lucifer didn’t care about Karra. In fact, his hatred for Longinus probably extended all the way to his daughter by default and on general principle. Even being pregnant with his grandchild, Lucifer wouldn’t be swayed to put himself at risk especially not after I’d called him out in front of God. I sighed and wanted to cry. It was all up to me, and that wasn’t gonna be anywhere near enough firepower. I needed Longinus.
I dug in my pocket for the gem. It was cold to the touch when I pulled it out, its blue surface dim and murky. With a tiny spark of magic, I went to activate it. It just sat there, a tiny lum
p in my palm.
“What is that?”
I waved her question off as diplomatically as I could and sent another wave of energy into the gem, and then another, increasing the power incrementally each time. Nothing happened. Either I’d broken it somewhere along the way or Longinus had his end off the hook. Both meant I couldn’t do this the easy way.
With a sigh, I looked up at Rala. “The Eidolon group you and Vol talked about; can you lead me to them?”
She got to her feet and nodded, but her eyebrows rode high on her face. “Why them and not the ones we just escaped from?”
“There are a couple of reasons.” I needed backup, for one, but I didn’t want to tell her that. “This last group will be expecting something now. We, and by we, I really mean you, made a good size ruckus just outside their supposedly secret whatever it is. If they’re even still there, they’ll be on the lookout for us, and we’ll never get anywhere near the place and probably won’t learn anything, anyway. That opportunity is shot.”
Her eyebrows drooped and there was the slightest slump of her shoulders.
I went on before she could feel too badly about it. “And secondly, whatever those guys were doing there, it wasn’t guard duty. They were too busy lugging those tanks out to be worrying about a hostage. Besides, if they’re storing magical energy in those things, which is what it looks like, the last place on Feluris they want to have them is someplace Karra can get her hands on them. I’m not sure she could tap into them, but regardless, she would figure a way to make their lives short and extremely miserable.”
Rala grunted. “Okay, that makes sense, I suppose.” She went to the window and peeked out the slats. “Looks clear out there.”
I went and cast a quick glance over her shoulder to double check, and then eased the door open. The street was quiet and empty. Encouraged, I stepped outside and motioned for her to follow. She came out without hesitation, slipping around me and drifting down the beaten sidewalk as if she belonged there. No longer wearing the hoodie, I was a little more self-conscious about going after her but it wasn’t like I could just shit another option. I caught up a few seconds later.
Another quick look around told me we were headed in a different direction than the last sect and that we were alone. So thinking, I’d done my part. The rest was up to her.
“So, a dragon, huh?”
She cast a sideways glance at me. “What?”
“Dragon,” I repeated, saying it slower. “You know, the winged critter thing you turned into back there.”
Rala snorted. “Wyvern.” She imitated me and dragged the syllables out.
“Dragon, wyvern, insurance spokeslizard: same thing.”
She shrugged. “If you say so, alien.”
There she went again with the name-calling. I was only trying to clarify something, not be mean. “You spit fire?”
“Keep giving me a hard time and you’ll find out.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
She stuck her tongue out and wiggled it at me.
I liked this girl. Hopefully I wouldn’t have to shoot her.
Much like Baalth had, Rala led me through the back alleys and down desolate streets, going out of her way to avoid running in to other Felurians. My paranoia kicked in early, but there was no way to tell if she was just being smart or was tricking me into something ugly. Then again, my lack of options made it a moot point. If Rala was looking to get me killed, she’d plenty of opportunities to do so. One more wasn’t gonna make my day much worse.
“So, what happened to this place?” My curiosity got the better of me. Besides, asking questions kept my mind off the possible surprises ahead. “All this damage didn’t just happen recently.”
Rala gave me a grim look. “No,” she admitted. “Feluris has long suffered being so close to Shal Ko’ra, the nexus of worlds.”
I started to bless her but realized it hadn’t been a sneeze, but the name of the nexus thingy. “What’s that?”
“It is a dimensional portal; a sort of black hole that allows for travel between the various universes. It has brought us nothing but grief.”
Things were suddenly a little clearer. “So, I’m guessing the current alien invasion isn’t your first.”
She gave me a sour grin. “Hardly. The Alitereans used the nexus often, going as far back as a hundred years. The frequency of their visits has increased over the last fifty years, or so, and that was when the trouble began.”
I did the math. Right around fifty years ago was when God and Lucifer took off on their inter-dimensional jaunt. Coincidence? I think not.
“It was then that the Consortium began to harvest the resources of Feluris, tapping into the planet’s natural energies and…”
It didn’t take much to see where it went from there. “Your people?”
Rala nodded. “At first, they were only consigned to doing the labor for the Alitereans, but we learned quickly that wasn’t all they wanted. People started to go missing. It was only a few, at first, but it quickly became an epidemic.” She let out a weary sigh. “Vol had foreseen the ruin our planet would become, but no one believed him. Almost no one.”
“You?”
“My parents,” she answered, sadness coating her voice. “Just a child still, they left me with Vol one day when they went off to serve the Alitereans in the fields outside of Desboren.” Rala paused, licking her lips. “They never came home.”
“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say.
She waved my apology off, forcing a halfhearted smile. “That was a long time ago, the Alitereans gone now.”
“Yet nothing’s changed.”
Rala nodded. “The newest visitors to come through the nexus are no different than the last. They, too, have conscripted our people and steal the resources of our world to fuel their war. A quick hand wiped something from her eye. “Life goes on.”
She weaved her way down the empty streets without another word, coming to a halt as the musky scent of char hit my nose. The funk wiped away all thoughts of the past; the here and now was calling…loudly.
There was the distinct odor of burnt gristle, a smell you usually only get with napalm BBQ; when it’s people that are being roasted. Most civilized folks who eat meat cut the fat and bone off before putting it to flame. And those who aren’t that civilized and like to eat folks, well, they don’t usually bother to cook their dinner.
A slight tremor twitched down Rala’s back and set her hands to shaking. I’d watched it start at her neck. She was probably thinking something similar to what I was. It was just one more example of the cruelty visited on the Felurians.
“You okay?”
She nodded, but didn’t turn to look at me. Wisps of dark smoke hovered just a few yards from where she lurked inside the alleyway. “The Eidolon group should be just on the other side of this block.” She pointed.
“From exactly where this lovely stench is creeping up from.” I didn’t need her acknowledgment to know I was right.
With stealthy motions out of her line of sight, I unzipped my jacket and gave my hands easy access to my guns. While Rala had seemingly led me here of her free will, there was no telling if that was the case, especially after all she’d told me. This could well be the same trap her and Vol had been setting us up for before. It could also explain why Rala was there at the other Eidolon location. And why Cyrill led me there…and…
Ah, damn it.
I just had to go and think about it, didn’t I? The floodgates opened, and skepticism poured right in. I had this sudden vision of Cyrill and Rala working together, Vol the mystical seer masterminding some grand scheme to have me grabbing my ankles. The visuals that accompanied that thought weren’t pretty. If they’d already managed to take down Longinus, even as weak as he was, there was no way I would walk away from this. A wispy sigh slipped out, and I made a decision.
“Take me there.”
Rala swallowed hard and nodded, turning away slowly before walkin
g out of the alley at a cautious pace. Her hesitation didn’t tell me anything. But it didn’t matter. Karra was counting on me to find her. The minute I’d realized she was pregnant, I knew how Gorath managed to take her without a fight. Karra was all about family. She’d risked her life, and mine for that matter, in her efforts to resurrect her father, DRAC, Baalth, and everyone else be damned. If she thought Gorath would hurt the baby, or she would by defying him, I could see her giving in until she could figure a safe way out. Here on Feluris, there was no safe way. She was trapped like everyone else.
Karra couldn’t have known Gorath would bring her across a bunch of universes to hide her under the nose of God and my father. She might not have realized what the alien wanted from her, what his plans were, but she had to know we would come after her. Or at the very least, Longinus would. She had to trust in him even if she didn’t me. And here I was, possibly walking into a trap that might have already taken the life of her father. I pulled my guns and set my senses loose before we’d even gotten across the first street. If something was coming for me, I wanted to be ready.
Rala continued walking, but kept her pace slow, her head darting from side to side. She was as nervous as I was. I stayed right on top of her as I weighed the risks. If she was leading me to slaughter, maybe her companions would have some sympathy and wouldn’t risk hurting her trying to get to me. However, the girl could turn into a dragon—wyvern; whatever—so being right on top of her posed its own problems. If the speed she changed forms in the alley was her normal rate, I’d have time to put a bullet in her before she turned on me…at least if I was paying attention. Any little distraction would give her the opportunity to shift and bite my fool head off. Maybe she was bulletproof.
Crap. I had a sudden memory flash of all the Prozac commercials I’d ever seen and wondered if it had any effect on demons. I could use a steady does of chemical fuck it all. The corner of the building came up fast and pushed my wistful thoughts of sanity from my head.
