by N. P. Martin
"You better not fuck us, Iolas," I said, staring straight at him. "I’ll make you pay dearly if you do."
"Believe me," he said. "I have no wish to end the world and live as a machine. I was never behind that plan in the first place."
"Then why did you continue to be a Disciple?"
He looked away as he shook his head slightly. "So I could hold onto my power and influence, and because I was…" He trailed off, so Amelia finished his sentence for him.
"Afraid?" she said.
"Yes, I’m ashamed to say."
Amelia sighed at his weakness. "Typical."
"Rest assured," he said. "I know whose side I am on now."
"Well, good for you, Uncle," Amelia said. "I feel so much better now, knowing that."
An awkward silence descended, which I soon broke. "I have to go now," I said, then turned to Monty. "Do me favor and call Dalia. Tell her and Davey to come here. I’d feel better knowing they weren’t on their own."
"Sure thing, bro."
"Amelia, can I talk to you a moment?"
I walked to the front door as Amelia joined me. "What is it?" she asked.
"Are you going to be all right here with Iolas?" I asked her in a low voice as I glanced over to see him staring at me for some reason.
She nodded. "I’ll be fine, don’t worry. He knows things have changed, and that he isn’t in charge anymore."
"I’m sorry about all this. It just seems to be one thing after another."
"It’s not your fault. You don’t need to apologize."
"Maybe if we’re all still alive when this is over, we could go away for a while, just you and me. What do you think?"
She smiled and then hugged me, before whispering into my ear, "I’d go anywhere with you."
A chill went up my spine as a wide smile spread across my face, and I hugged her tighter.
It was almost midnight by the time I portaled into the driveway of the Ó Duinn estate. As I walked across the gravel, the front door was opened before I even got there, and Adrina came walking out in a black leather ensemble that showed off her every perfect curve, her body moving as lithe as a cat as her knee-high boots crunched into the gravel. Her long dark hair was tied up. Her even darker eyes said she wasn’t amused. "Adrina," I said by way of greeting. "You look ready for action."
She stood blocking the doorway with her hands on her hips. "And where the hell have you been?"
"Sorry, I had some stuff to take care of. Do you know Benedict Bonneville is a Disciple?"
She shook her head. "No, I didn’t."
"Well, he is, the bastard. He’s been making things difficult for me lately." I rubbed my cold hands together. "Speaking of which, I need a drink."
A slightl smile appeared on her face for the first time, her bloodied lips looking lush in the moonlight. "Come in. It’s good to see you again, Corvin."
"You too, Adrina," I said smiling as I moved past her into the huge entrance hallway, remembering the place well after the last time I was here, though under very different circumstances.
"I take it Sylven has filled you in on everything?" she said as she closed the door.
"I wouldn’t say everything, but enough."
She came to stand in front of me. "So you know who you are then?"
I nodded. "The son of Cernunnos, apparently."
"You still don’t believe it, do you?"
"I do…mostly. It’s just a lot to process."
Reaching out, she stroked my cheek with the back of her hand, her touch surprisingly warm, her long fingernails scraping lightly across my skin, sending a shiver down me. "I know it is."
"You could’ve told me before now," I said, feeling like I was falling into the dark pools of her eyes, drawn in by the centuries of experience there, and her effortless magnetism.
"Would you have believed me?"
I shook my head. "Probably not."
She smiled, showing her fangs a little. "Well, then. Come, I’ll fix you a drink. You look like you need one."
I followed her across the stone floor and into one of the large reception rooms, which had a blazing fire in the huge hearth, and heavy, crimson drapes over the windows. In an armchair by the fire sat Constantine, a glass of something red in his hand, a thick book in his lap. He was dressed immaculately in a dark suit, making me question if vampires of his stature ever actually dressed down. Did he own a pair of comfy jogging bottoms, for instance, or an old Led Zeppelin T-shirt to lounge around in? Probably not. "Hello, Corvin," he said smiling rather reservedly as he sat with his legs crossed. "It’s good to see you again."
"Is it?" I asked him as I hovered in the doorway. "Given that we tried to kill each other last time we met."
"I think that was you trying to kill me."
"I’m pretty sure you tried to kill me as well. I have the scars to prove it."
Constantine’s smile faltered a little as we stared at each other. "Perhaps I should be up bowing down to you at this point, given your recently disclosed stature."
"Please," I said. "Remain seated. I insist."
"Boys," Adrina said as she went about pouring two drinks by the cabinet at the back of the room. "Play nice. I don’t want to have to separate you like a couple of children."
"I don’t think that will be necessary," Constantine said, closing his book and placing it on the floor beside him. "A certain awkwardness—an antagonism even—was inevitable, given our history."
"Can I smoke in here?" I asked as I walked into the room and sat on the couch.
"I’d prefer it if you didn’t—"
"Go ahead," Adrina said. "It’s fine."
I couldn’t resist giving Constantine a look as I pulled out the pack of cigarettes in my jacket. "I didn’t think vampires felt the cold," I said, nodding to the fire.
"We don’t," Constantine said. "However, I do enjoy the comfort a fire brings."
"Get yourself a pipe and slippers. Do it right. Maybe a onesie as well."
Constantine frowned. "A what?"
"A onesie. All in one pajamas."
"He’s messing with you, brother," Adrina said as she came and handed me a glass of whiskey, which I gratefully received after lighting up a cigarette.
Constantine narrowed his eyes at me. "I had no idea you were such a joker."
"I’m not usually."
Adrina sat next to me on the couch and looked at her brother. "I believe he’s trying to say that the situation is awkward for him."
Constantine nodded. "Well, the past is the past. It’s not like we can change it, is it?"
"Easy for you to say," I said, blowing out a long stream of smoke that seemed to irritate him. "You’re immortal."
"And you’re not? You are a demigod after all."
I shrugged, a little intimated by the idea of living forever. "I don’t know what I am yet."
"I’m sure you’ll find out soon," Adrina said.
"We’d better hope so, hadn’t we?" I said. "Considering I’m supposedly the world’s best hope."
"God help us all," Constantine said under his breath.
I stared hard at him for a second before starting to laugh. Adrina soon joined me, followed by Constantine himself. My laughter was bitter sweet, however, for underneath it all, I couldn’t help but worry that he had point.
Chapter 8
"So where are we going?" I asked Adrina as I hovered near a black Jag in the driveway, thinking we were going to get into it.
"Nowhere in that," she said, gravitating instead to the motorbike at the edge of the drive. She unhooked a crash helmet off the handlebars and tossed it over to me, which I caught, holding it my hands like it was a bomb about to explode. "We’re taking the bike."
"I hate motorbikes, just so you know." When I was young, Monty and I stole a 750cc Honda one night while we were drunk. Stupidly, I let him drive, even though he could hardly walk. As we were speeding down some back road, Monty went to overtake a car in front, but didn’t see the van coming around the corne
r, which he swerved to avoid. The bike went straight through a hedge and crashed into a tree. Monty fractured his skull and dislocated his shoulder. I broke my arm. How we weren’t both killed, I’ll never know. Needless to say, I’ve never gotten back on another bike since.
"We’ll get there quicker on the bike."
"I can just portal us wherever we have to go. We’ll get there instantly."
She smiled as she put her helmet on. "I feel like a ride. Let’s go."
Shit, I thought as I put my helmet on and zipped up my jacket, before climbing onto the powerful racing bike with some reticence. "Just don’t drive too fast," I said to her as I wrapped my arms around her waist.
She turned to look at me with a glint of mischief in her eyes. "Of course not."
When she started the bike up, it felt like I was straddling some angry beast that was going to make me pay for just sitting on it. Every time I hear a motorbike engine, my thoughts always go to that crash, and the sound of the engine as the bike swerved to avoid the van…
Knowing she would, Adrina took off like a bat out of hell, the sheer acceleration of the immensely powerful machine taking my breath away as we sped toward the security gates at the bottom of the driveway, which were opening slowly, making it seem as if we weren’t going to get through unless we slowed down. But Adrina did the exact opposite, and accelerated even more toward the narrow gap left by the retracting gates. It was so narrow, in fact, that I thought we would never make it through. My whole body tensed as we roared toward the gates with frightening speed, and then I closed my eyes for a second as I anticipated us crashing into the gates. When I opened my eyes again, I found we were now racing down a narrow country lane, and I did my best to lean into the corners with Adrina as she expertly drove the bike toward the main road not far ahead. When we reached the junction, she barely slowed to see if the road was clear, and the bike drove out and turned sharply left, picking up speed again as we barreled up the straight road.
"This isn’t the fucking TT Races, you know!" I shouted, gripping her waist tight as everything seemed to fly by in a complete blur. I panicked slightly as she turned her head to look round at me and smile with her eyes. "Keep your eyes on the road for fucks sake!"
Pretty soon we ended up on the M1, heading in the direction of County Armagh it seemed, passing by Lisburn and Lurgan before hitting Portadown and taking the Armagh Road, which would lead us into Armagh City. Halfway up the main road, however, Adrina turned the bike down a side road, which we drove down for about half a mile before turning left up a narrow dirt road, eventually coming to a stop at a gate. On the other side of the gate, the dirt road continued on through dense woodland.
When Adrina shut the engine off, I gratefully dismounted the bike and pulled off my helmet, scratching the itch on my scalp which I’d been dying to do since putting the helmet on in the first place. "Fuck that," I said. "I’m portaling home when we’re done."
Adrina removed her helmet and smiled, hardly a hair out of place, whereas I probably looked like a disgruntled badger. "You didn’t enjoy the ride?"
"Not particularly, although I’ll admit there was a certain exhilaration to it."
She shook her head. "I wasn’t even going that fast."
"It didn’t feel that way, I have to say." Adrina laughed. "Where are we anyway?"
Adrina turned and pointed at the woods beyond the gate. "Those woods will take us to the disciple’s house. I thought it might be more preferable than going in the front way."
"Who is this person anyway?"
"His name is Jeremy Kyle. He’s a television executive."
I raised my eyebrows. "The Jeremy Kyle? As in Britain’s answer to Jerry Springer, only a lot more odious?"
She shook her head. "Sorry to disappoint you, but this a different guy."
"Pity, I would’ve enjoyed torturing him. Who’s this guy then?"
"He helps to look after the Disciples’ media interests," she said. "You know how the media is obsessed with the occult these days, with all those celebrities and pop stars doing their one-eyed poses, and Illuminati symbolism everywhere? Well, this guy helps co-ordinate all that, amongst other things. He also organizes black masses here at his house. As Disciple’s go, he’s pretty high up on the ladder. He should know where Erebus is."
"What if he doesn’t know anything?"
"He does. We have surveillance tapes in which he mentions Erebus’ name a few times."
I nodded. "Hopefully he’ll talk then, though I doubt it."
Adrina smiled and showed her fangs. "I have many ways to make someone talk, believe me."
"I don’t doubt it."
Glad to be on foot again, I climbed over the gate and stood waiting on Adrina as she texted on her phone. The night was crisp and clear, the surrounding fields still and silent, though the stars above seemed somehow sinister, perhaps because of what we were about to do, which was most likely torture a man for information. I was also under no illusions that Adrina would leave the dude alive. As she probably saw it, taking him out meant one less Disciple of Apep in the world, which I had to agree with. The Disciples were a cancer, and like any cancer, they had to be eradicated, or the world would surely die.
"So what’s the plan here?" I asked Adrina as she hopped easily over the steel gate. "I assume you have one?"
"The plan is simple," she said as we began to make our way through the eery woods. "We go into Mr. Kyle’s house and make him talk."
"Does she live alone?"
"Yes. We’ve been watching him for weeks now."
"We?"
"The Order, of course."
"Mirahorn says the Order has dwindled in numbers."
"It has, but we aim to change that, once we eradicate the Disciples for good. With their influence gone, we’ll be free to spread our own influence and ideas."
"And what makes your ideas any better?"
She gave me a look as we continued to weave our way through the trees. "They’re based on truth, for one thing, and not lies."
"The truth is subjective."
"If you think that, then perhaps you should think about creating your own world order."
"I just think people should be allowed to make their own mind’s up about things, without being unduly influenced, or even duped into believing things."
"Well, when you defeat Erebus—"
"If I defeat Erebus…"
"When you defeat Erebus, your role will be to lead the world into a new era of light. That’s what was always meant for you, Corvin."
"I’m not Jesus," I said as I stepped over a dead fox that looked like it had been mauled by something a lot bigger.
"No one is saying you are, but there’s no denying you are a god, albeit a small god, but a god nonetheless." She stopped to stare at me. "Your eventual personal transformation will transform the world as well."
Looking into her eyes, I could she clearly believed in everything she was saying. No doubt, whilst looking into my eyes, she saw the exact opposite, though my lack of faith didn’t seem to faze her much, almost as if she expected it at this stage.
Before we could say anything else, however, we both became alerted by a noise somewhere to our left, and not too far away. Something was moving out in the woods, snapping twigs as it went. Adrina and I looked at each other, both of us knowing whatever was out there wasn’t human.
"What is it?" I whispered.
"Kyle’s guard dog."
"A dog? You might’ve mentioned it before."
"I’m mentioning it now."
A low growling noise came from somewhere nearby, a noise that didn’t sound to me like any dog. "Are you sure it’s a dog?"
"Actually," Adrina said as she stared into the trees. "It’s more of an abomination."
I shook my head. "An abomination?"
"You’ll understand when you see it." When she went to walk off, I asked her where she was going. "I’ll go around and try to flush the thing around to you. Then you can kill it."
"Kill it? How? I don’t even know what it is!"
She smiled at me like she wasn’t concerned. "I’m sure you’ll find a way."
And with that, she disappeared into the trees, leaving me to stand there cursing as I waited on whatever monster was out there to make its appearance. Whatever kind of beast it was, it had made its way around so that it was just north of my position now, its heavy footfalls still snapping twigs as it went. Then, about ten yards in front of me, I caught sight of a pair of eyes that seemed to stare at me through a dense thicket. The eyes appeared yellow in color, and intensely fierce, as if the beast couldn’t wait to attack. Adrina was nowhere to be seen, so I readied my magic in preparation for the beast’s attack. It didn’t come charging at me like I expected, however. Instead, it came slowly out of the thicket and took a few paces toward me, stopping in a small clearing where the moonlight shone down upon it, illuminating the beast in all of its monstrous glory. Whatever the thing was, I had never seen anything like it. I hardly even have the words to do its eldritch form any justice. It was about twice the size of a Rottweiler, with four legs and a massive head. But that’s where the canine similarities ended. On its thickly furred body, long, thin tentacles of some sort waved around at various places, as though there were some other creature inside it trying to get out. These almost luminous tentacles waved around behind a huge, misshapen head that didn’t just have two eyes, but dozens of them in various sizes, some of which were yellow in color, others red or black. Its mouth was also massive, and a long, forked tongue slithered out over large, sharp teeth as the creature began to growl at me, its voice sounding like it was coming from underwater. Adrina was right, the thing was an abomination, the likes of which I had never seen before.
As the beast drew closer, seemingly in no hurry to get at me, I outstretched my hand and let off a blast of magic, but the beast was unnaturally quick in avoiding it, after which it just continued to come toward me, seeming to savor the anticipation of sinking its sharp teeth into me. With no sign of Adrina, I knew I was going to have to do something to stop the creature, but I wasn’t sure what until my eyes went to a thick tree root next to one of the beast’s front paws. Without thinking, I outstretched my hand again and directed my consciousness into the tree root, feeling myself connecting with the energy of the tree itself, which was powerful and majestic, taking its energy from an even greater source, that of Nature herself. As my consciousness melded with the tree’s, I respectfully asked for its help, and a second later the thick tree root stretched out and wrapped itself around one of the beast’s hind legs, preventing it from moving any further. The beast growled in annoyance, and turned its head around to bite at the tree root. But as it did, other roots began to slither across the ground from all directions, some even bursting up out of the earth itself to wrap around the beast’s body. It all happened so fast that the beast found itself completely stuck before it could do anything about it. Its head and body bucked and strained against the roots holding it, but the roots held firm. Once I saw the beast wasn’t going anywhere, I waved my hand slightly as I focused on the earth underneath the creature. Soon, the earth itself began to break apart and then open up, forming a crater that the now howling creature began to fall into, the tree roots pulling it down deeper into the earth until its head disappeared completely.