Alec shook his head. “I can’t go back either. The others, too. They’re driving us into a corner.”
“Absolutely not.” Javos scowled at me as though the vampires weren’t there. “We’re not a shelter for vampires. Your friend’s only allowed to stay here because she isn’t one.”
“But we’ll have our lab rat right here.” Trying to appeal to compassion didn’t generally work with Javos. He was the definition of a demon—self-centred and pragmatic to the point of downright brutality. “Put him in the shed again.”
“No deal. He’s on the celestials’ wanted list.”
“Then we’ll make a deal,” I said, ignoring a warning look from Nikolas. “Let the vamps stay here, and I’ll develop the cure. Isn’t that enough of an exchange?”
“Not good enough,” he said. “You said yourself that there’s no guarantee you’ll actually be able to develop a real cure, and until then, we’re a potential target for those celestial bastards. Not to mention, I don’t like vampires. At all.”
Power radiated from his huge, formidable form. Oh boy. I dug my hand in my pocket for my phone, readied to blast him with classical music if needed.
“Then what?” I asked. “What would you accept in trade?”
There was a heartbeat’s pause. “Since you can’t seem to refrain from using your magical powers anyway,” Javos said, “I want access to those abilities on my command, for my own personal use.”
I blinked. “What—you want me to use them? After all this time telling me I can’t?”
Alec was watching with interest, but I kept my eyes on Javos.
“You’re not allowed to use it alone,” he said. “But there are a number of reasons your ability might come in very handy for my purposes, amongst the demonic dimensions. You’ll be my assistant, and I’ll allow your pet vampires to stay here. Deal?”
“Javos,” Nikolas said warningly.
“Yes,” I said. “I accept.” I didn’t doubt there was a sting in the tail, but using my ability to help him out would give me access to the demon dimensions in a way I never had before. It might even allow me to find the arch-demon who’d marked me. I knew better than to think his primary purpose was to help me out, but I’d take any deal.
Anything to save Fiona before she turned, too.
Javos turned to Alec. “Bring your friends here. You have until noon, otherwise my doors will be closed to you.”
The vampire all but fled from the doorstep. I closed the door behind him. “Now he’s gone, let’s have a look at those demon eggs.”
* * *
After showering and cleaning the residue of Pandemonium’ tunnels off my clothes, I joined the others in the lab. Nikolas was uncharacteristically quiet, probably because I’d annoyed him with my decision. But I flat-out refused to test anything on Fiona, and Alec was a willing guinea pig. An annoying one, but a potential asset all the same.
We already had several samples of the venom, so now we needed to figure out what would neutralise it. Aside from celestial fire. One touch of my celestial hand made the eggs instantly disintegrate. Unfortunately, it’d also cause the person infected to disintegrate, too, which wasn’t exactly the desired outcome.
“Demon venom outdoes anything, vampire venom included,” I muttered, picking up one ingredient jar after another. “So humans who turn effectively skip the vampire stage and go straight to demonic vamp. What we need is a way to remove the virus altogether, to stop the transformation before it starts.”
“Because you think it’s already too late for those who’ve turned,” said Nikolas.
My throat closed up. “The most we can do is maybe figure out how to stop the side effects, and to be honest, I don’t even know where to start with that. What flips the switch to turn them into killers?”
“I suppose that was a rhetorical question.” His gaze travelled along the ingredient jars I’d collected. Rachel had provided most of them, but Nikolas had a collection of his own at his house. I knew how to whip up antidotes to some mild demon venoms, but nothing quite this toxic. Sighing, I tipped some brimstone into the mixing bowl, giving it a stir. A noxious-smelling green liquid was my latest concoction. Gritting my teeth, I dropped the demon egg into it.
The egg exploded, green gunk splattering me all over my face. Rachel dived behind the sofa, too late. Spitting out a mouthful of slime, I thanked the Divinities that celestials were immune to dubious lab concoctions, too.
Nikolas, traitor that he was, had disappeared. A moment later, a human-shaped shadow appeared, and he stepped casually out of it without so much as a smudge on him.
Rachel picked bits of egg out of her hair. “Nice one,” she said.
“That wasn’t supposed to happen.” I looked down at the egg’s remains, which contained a skeletal worm-shaped lump. It seemed to have drowned.
“Ugh. Maggots.” I shuddered, remembering the worm in the tunnel all too clearly. The essence of this creature had infected my friend. I’d read all the files on saphor demons, but nothing explained how exactly they took over their victims’ minds. Whether Fiona was turning into a demon, or—what.
And it wasn’t like there was anyone who might know. Not in this realm, anyway.
“See anything interesting in the shadow dimension?” I asked Nikolas, remembering I was supposed to be going with him to meet the other warlocks at some point. Assuming I didn’t drown us all in liquefied demon egg.
“No,” he said. “How did you manage that? Xeren demon ichor isn’t an explosive.”
“I have an aptitude for blowing shit up. The inspector said so, anyway, though not in those words.”
I’d driven my tutors loopy with my experiments. But they usually worked. I hadn’t run into a problem that had me this perplexed. Nor with so much pressure attached to it.
Rachel snorted. “We’ve discovered another way to destroy those eggs. I think you should shine your light into the vampire’s ear.”
“I’m not killing our lab rat.”
“Yet,” Nikolas said.
“Don’t be mean,” I told him. “Come on, there’s got to be a way to at least make someone immune to the virus. It doesn’t seem right that it can infect anyone, celestials and vampires included.”
“Not demons or warlocks,” Rachel said. “I always wondered why the celestials can be made, but not demons.” She looked at me with interest. “Except you, Devi.”
“Not just me,” I reminded her. “Damian Greenwood was, too. He got bitten but survived the virus. But it was only him, as far as I know. Not like I can get a blood sample to see how the virus didn’t destroy the celestial part of him.”
Thanks to me, he’d burned to ashes all the same. But other celestials might survive the virus and wake up changed, no longer human. Damian had willingly given himself to the demons, unlike the other celestials, but if they survived the virus, would it switch off the killer instinct that had turned Alyson into a murderer—or would it make them worse?
Rachel bounded to the door. “I’m going to clean this crap off me. You should probably scrub down this room before Javos gets back.”
As she left, I looked at Nikolas. “I’m glad she’s recovered. She was really freaked out down in those tunnels.”
“Rachel had a less than pleasant experience with the Mother.” He paused. “That demon claimed the title because she saw herself as the foster mother of all orphaned warlocks underneath the palace in Pandemonium, who were usually the slaves of the arch-demon.”
“Shit, really?” I’d had the impression Rachel’s life in her home realm hadn’t been a pleasant one, though demon realms in general weren’t a nice place for warlocks to live. The thought of going anywhere near that giant armoured worm demon again made me shudder.
“And you killed her?” I asked. “Did Themedes mind?”
“He never knew.” He shrugged. “I saw that foul monster devour anyone who disrespected Themedes or his son. Azurial was particularly fond of feeding servants to her.”
I
grimaced. “I’m not surprised. So you saved Rachel from her? And she came here?”
“This realm suits her better. Whatever’s happening in Pandemonium… it’s a direct consequence of our actions there.”
“Figures. What a mess.” I looked at the goo-splattered wall. “This realm’s in enough trouble as it is.”
Nikolas’s arm circled my waist, avoiding the demon slime. “I know you’re frustrated,” he said gently.
“Damn right I am,” I said. “We’re trying to outrace the celestials and the vampires. It just seems so… hopeless. I mean, nobody’s ever come up with a cure for vampirism. Not in centuries.”
“They say vampirism itself was originally a demonic virus,” he said. “As for the new one… the only adverse side effect is the unpredictable violence, correct?”
“That we know of,” I said. “Otherwise, the infected vamps can walk in the day, and are determined to spread the virus amongst as many people as possible.”
“Not all of them are,” he said. “Don’t forget regular vampires do exactly the same thing. They’ve learnt control. And those who don’t are put to the death. I think we’re making a mistake in seeing the virus as any different to regular vampirism, in practical terms at least. Suppose we catch all the perpetrators and find a way to combat the side effects. Isn’t that enough?”
“Not for Fiona.” My eyes stung. “I get what you’re saying. And it isn’t all that different on the surface. Except for what it does to celestials. And you know, after everything they’ve done—I don’t want the vampires, or whichever demon is driving them, to win this. If the celestials fall, we die.”
“You don’t know that,” he said softly. “But the effect on celestials… don’t you find it suspicious that it’s never happened before the last few years?”
“You mean, Rory’s death. Yeah, maybe. Everything the demons do is designed to wipe us out. Look how many times they succeeded. For all I know, the same virus is what destroyed us in other realms.”
A chill raced down my back. The virus might seem a natural extension of demonic magic, but its cause might well be beyond one world, beyond all of us. Just like the cause of the mark on my wrist. Maybe Clover was right to fear that we were being controlled by invisible forces outside of our awareness.
“Perhaps,” he said. “But the war is fair to neither side. Think what your celestial light does to demons. One touch and they die. Maybe this is the gods’ attempt to even the playing field.”
“You didn’t just say that.” I looked at him in shock. “You—look, it’s not an even playing field when the demons won every realm except this one. That we know of, anyway.”
“I don’t deny that, but think about it. The Divinities are capable of doing things that arch-demons aren’t. They choose their warriors, mark them and give them a piece of their own power to use. Those who wield that power can kill demons with a touch.”
My heart sank. “Now you put it like that… an arch-demon did mark someone. Aside from me, that is. I never got Inspector Angler’s full story. So you’re saying the arch-demons can do the same as the Divinities now? And the virus is like their celestial power?”
Come to think of it, vampires often described the transformation as being reborn…
Nikolas said, “I wouldn’t go that far, but there are definite similarities.”
“Oh… shit,” I said. “Vamps are immortal. Are the demon-infected ones? Because if they are, they’re a step up from celestials. Sure, they can die in battle, but they live forever otherwise. We don’t.”
“Perhaps that’s the trade-off,” he said. “It’s not like there’s any way to check.”
I smiled grimly and shook my head. “Because we might not live long enough to see if they survive to old age.”
I hadn’t thought it was possible to feel more hopeless about the situation, but you’d think we were set up to fail. Damian Greenwood had certainly believed that. And the former inspector. Looking at the evidence, it was easy to believe. To give up on the faith the celestials instilled in us and turn ourselves over to the side most likely to win.
No. No victory where the arch-demons took this realm was any victory at all.
I took in a calming breath. Nikolas didn’t understand—or at least, he didn’t care about the celestials. He did care about me.
“If this realm falls,” I said, “then I either die or become a pawn for whoever marked me. To be honest, I’m not particularly keen on either of those options, so you’d better believe I’m going to do everything I can to counter this demon virus. And if not, then I’ll kill the vamps who want to spread the virus and defend the rest from the celestials with my life.”
And if necessary, take down the one responsible. But there were others who’d step up to take his place. The guild needed a hell of a wakeup call. And I was starting to think I was the only person who could give it to them.
Demon and celestial. Two marks, two worlds, and nobody willing to listen to reason on either side.
“Don’t forget about the bargains you’ve made yourself,” he said. “Javos won’t let you off easily with the demonglass. And as for me…”
“You want me to come to Babylon.”
Despite my lingering reservations… damn it all. Zadok knew demon magic. He’d told me how to use mine. And while he didn’t have outright experience with the virus, he did know the name of the demon which was responsible.
But… I also owed him for saving my life. Going back there was giving him free rein to rope me in again.
“I’m not clear on why this is in any way relevant to what’s happening now,” I said. “I get that you have ties there, but I have to help Fiona. Not to mention the vampires, and stopping the celestials from starting a war.”
Even though our progress had led us in circles, and my curiosity about the demon realms burned brighter by the day. Because to beat them, I needed to understand them.
“You’ve done more than enough here,” he said. “Rachel can take over from you in the lab. I only agreed to introduce you to them, no more commitment than that.”
“Hmm. You said they’d haul me in anyway, right?”
“I gave them a false name to prevent that from happening before you were ready to choose.”
I blinked. “You—what? Does that have to do with that true name business you mentioned before? Do I have one of those?”
“If you have one or not, I can’t say,” he said. “We’re usually born with them.”
When the demons want you, they’ll call your name, and you’ll be unable to resist. That is what it means to be marked by us.
“What about Zadok?” I asked. “He thinks I owe him for saving my neck in the fight. He helped me, twice, and let me borrow his power. I doubt he’ll let me set foot in the castle without trying to claim my soul.”
“I’m keeping an eye on him, and he doesn’t seem to have left his tower,” Nikolas said. “We can’t avoid that realm forever. Thanks to the imprint left on it by the link with Pandemonium, other demons will target it eventually. We need to be ready.”
“This is… a really reckless idea. I mean, if I die on that realm, I can’t help this one.”
“You won’t die,” he said. “I won’t let you. And the power in your hand is worth ten times theirs.”
“You said something similar when you dumped me in Themedes’s palace.”
“That was different,” he said. “You were different. Now you’re a warrior to be reckoned with, and more than a match for anyone in that castle. Besides,” he added, “I thought you wanted to see my room.”
Damn him. He just had to play that card.
Fastening a glare on my face, I folded my demon-goo-soaked arms. “You’d better keep your word.”
Chapter 6
Before leaving for Babylon, I thoroughly cleaned the demon gunk off me, then restocked my weapons supply. I had no illusions about getting through without a fight, if not a fatal one.
All I knew about Babylon was th
at the celestials had lost the war with hell and most demons had perished, too, leaving nothing but wasteland. The arch-demon ruler, who’d fathered Nikolas and Zadok, had left them to rule in his place. Hopefully my connection to Nikolas meant nobody would attack me on sight, but I still brought as many daggers and stakes as I could physically strap to my body, plus my trusty anti-warlock trap. If anyone grabbed me without warning, they’d get a full-body blister attack like the one I’d unleashed on Zadok the first time we’d met.
Lastly, I took another dose of the aura vision potion—luckily, it’d survived the lab explosion intact—and went to find Nikolas. He stood in the hallway, clad in dark-coloured clothes almost like army fatigues, though with no visible weapons. He didn’t need them, with the ability to shoot lightning from his fingertips and affect his enemy’s minds using either mind control or his lure ability. Most warlocks and humans had reason to fear him. Cloaked in darkness, Nikolas’s aura was as dense as the shadows he used to move between dimensions. If I didn’t know him, I’d think the shadowy outlines of wings extending from his shoulder blades marked him as a fallen angel, one of hell’s minions.
“So,” he said, “which way do you want to go? The quickest route into the shadow realm is through the demonglass, but Javos is hanging about in the storeroom waiting to send you on errands. Alternatively, we could drive up to the celestial guild and cross over there.”
The guild overlapped with Nikolas’s castle almost exactly, and I couldn’t deny I was curious to see how the celestials had recovered from the devastating attack on their headquarters. Besides, I’d rather go into a dangerous realm with Nikolas than with Javos.
“The guild,” I said. “I can always shortcut out through the demonglass if necessary.”
His piercing gaze hinted that he’d guessed my real motives, but he nodded.
Celestial Ashes: The Celestial Marked Series: Book Three Page 5