Balance (The Divine, Book One)

by M. R. Forbes

  “Dammit,” Rebecca cried, her arms fighting with the wheel of the truck to keep it on the road. I could feel the mass of steel slipping and sliding along the snow-covered surface.

  “What’s happening?” I shouted, reaching out to wedge myself between the roof and the seat. I heard a sharp cry from outside the car, and then saw a gout of flame pour over the windshield.

  “Fire demon,” Rebecca said, throwing me forward as she slammed on the brakes. I saw a tremendous torso flash by in front of us, then heard crashing in the trees. “I don’t think Reyzl was too happy with us ruining his conquest.” Rebecca slammed back down on the accelerator as heavily as she dared, sending the Suburban lurching forward again.

  I couldn’t help but smile. “Good,” I said. “Josette, are you okay?”

  She leaned over the seat to look at me. “For now,” she said. I saw she had a cut on her forehead that was threatening to run into her eye. She was too vulnerable like this.

  “Did you have a nice dream?” Rebecca asked. I could see her look back at me in the rearview mirror. Was that jealousy? What had Josette been saying in her sleep?

  “It was interesting,” I replied.

  I grabbed onto the car again when a massive shoulder pummeled the side. Rebecca’s hands worked the wheel, and she somehow managed to keep us on the road. She wouldn’t be able to do this forever.

  “I wouldn’t think a fire demon would do too well with snow,” I said.

  “It wouldn’t, if the snow could touch it,” Rebecca said. “It evaporates before it has a chance.”

  I looked out the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of the thing, but it was just too dark. There was another shrill cry, and I could feel the heat pummeling the roof of the Suburban. Josette cried out in response, ducking down into the passenger compartment as far as she could go.

  Rebecca slammed on the brakes once more, throwing me against her seat as the car skidded forward. The demon was standing in front of us, illuminated in the headlights, a twenty-plus foot tall winged monster coated in red and blue flame. Its muscular frame looked like dull red steel, its head a red, chiseled humanoid face with a pair of curled horns. It was holding a huge jagged edged cleaver that was dripping heat onto the roadway, where it sizzled and dug into the cement. I may have been able to heal from burns, but I wasn’t invulnerable, and that thing didn’t need to be precise to cut us all into pieces.

  The demon raised the blade as we approached, the car doing nothing but sliding along the icy roadway. Just when its arm reached its apex, the car hit the wet pavement melted by the demon’s fire and jerked to a stop. We were sitting ducks. I closed my eyes and focused my will, reaching for the power that I now knew was just a micron thin film of existence away.

  It was as though I were diving into an ocean, feeling the ripples of energy spread around me, envelope me, and cleanse me as I submerged myself. I raised my hands and pulled the snow from the sides and rear of the car, gathering it up and hardening it to ice over the top us. The crack of the demon’s cleaver sinking into the ice shield echoed through the night like a massive thunderclap. I felt the pressure in my mind, but I pushed back, drawing the strength I needed from my Source. It was enough.

  The fire demon roared out in anger, bringing its weapon down on the shield again and again. The defense was holding for now, but I couldn’t maintain it forever. When the monster raised its arm to strike, I threw the block of ice up at it on a tremendous gust of air. It managed to get through the flame and slam into the demon, causing it to cry out in unimaginable agony. It tumbled backwards to land with a terrible crash.

  Massive amounts of steam poured off it, the flames of its body dimming and pulsing, fighting to stay lit. I took the opportunity to throw open the rear door of the truck, grab one of Rebecca’s swords, and jump out. Rebecca and Josette both reached back to try to stop me, but I evaded their efforts. The second I was clear, I pulled more of the snow and moisture to me, encasing the Suburban in ice. This was one fight they couldn’t help me win. I walked to the front of the car, lit from behind by the car’s headlights reflecting through the ice. I looked back and could see Rebecca and Josette both watching me with frightened concern.

  I raised the blessed sword in front of me and focused my will on the air around me, pulling the heat out of it and making it colder and colder. My skin crawled with the tingling numbness of threatened hypothermia, my Divine nature keeping me in an uncomfortable but survivable homeostasis. The fire demon’s flames had sputtered back to life, and it pulled itself to its feet. I stood before it, a mouse against a lion, certain only that I wasn’t about to let it toast my friends.

  It regarded me warily, yellow eyes peering down on me from above, not sure what to make of the puny thing that had knocked it on its ass. We stared each other down for a minute or more, and then it reared back and belched flame, leaning down and in at me as it did so.

  I sucked the heat from the air around me, pushing it away and off to the landscape on either side of the road. The trees around us ignited, lighting up the scene as if we were battling in Hell itself. The blade followed the gout of flame; its size creating more of a scream than a whistle.

  I brought up my own sword to block, holding tight on my Source and pulling in more and more power to steel my body against the blow. I caught the edge of the blade with my own, feeling the vibration through my limbs as I pushed back against the force.

  My feet dug into the pavement, pulling up cement while I slid backwards. I pushed harder, feeling the heat of my muscles, the heat of the cleaver’s flames, then turned the weapon aside.

  I leaped forward on impossibly strong legs, my body carried up, up, up, right into the face of the surprised demon. I focused once more, taking the cold of the frigid air around me and pumping it all into the sword. A nasty set of teeth bent and snapped at me as I rose towards them, but I planted my free hand on the demon’s small, wide nose, switched my grip on the blessed blade, and sank it deep into the monster’s forehead.

  The length of the weapon steamed and hissed, the cold breaking through the barrier of heat, the icy metal a powerful poison. Veins of ice spread out from the insertion point, and the demon screamed in pain. I held on while it shook and thrashed, reaching up to try to pry the metal splinter loose.

  It took almost three minutes for the demon to stop fighting to dislodge me, and I held tight to the sword the entire time. The ice ran down from its head to its neck, from its neck to its shoulders, out and down towards its feet. The flames that coated its body snuffed out, it dropped to a knee, and then fell forward to the ground. When it hit the earth it shattered, breaking into millions of pieces of frozen ash. Its head was the last to smash against the road, and it landed just feet from the front of the Suburban.

  While the skull was being reduced to icy dust, I waved at Rebecca and Josette, a surfer making a clean break to the shore. Back on terra firma, I pulled the protective shell away from the car, and then let go of my hold on my Source. At once I was overcome with a wave of heat, nausea, pain, and light, and I don’t know what happened next, because I wasn’t awake to witness it.

  Chapter 24

  I woke up in bed at the Waldorf, my naked body frigid to the touch, shivering with chills, and sweating profusely despite being buried under a mound of blankets. Josette was sitting cross-legged on the end of the bed, keeping an unblinking watch on me. She had traded in her angel robe for a pair of blue jeans and a leather jacket, looking ever more the human than I could have anticipated. Still, the look suited her.

  “Hey,” I said, my voice little more than a meek whisper. I tried to lift my head and was rewarded with a massive throbbing.

  Her face lit up when she saw I was awake. “Fellow, you are revived,” she said. “Thank the Lord.”

  She was forgetting herself, and she looked embarrassed for it. I was going to ask her what time it was, what day it was, but somehow, I knew. I could feel a trickle of energy flowing into me from Purgatory like a leaky faucet. The innate
connection between the two realms was undeniable. I guess it had to be that way in order for Mr. Ross’ so-called ‘processing’ to run without a hitch.

  I had been unconscious for about six hours. It had been long enough for Rebecca to get us back into the city in the takes-a-lickin-keeps-on-tickin Suburban, get me back to the Waldorf, take off my clothes, and bury me under these blankets. I had opened myself too much to my Source. There was a part of me that was still, and would always be human, and it couldn’t absorb that kind of Divine energy without consequence.

  Neither could this world. Dante had warned me, and I hadn’t been careful. It was like a spinning top, too much flow from Purgatory, too many changes and alterations, and it would begin to wobble and potentially topple over. I had to be more careful, more precise - a surgeon instead of a linebacker, for everyone’s sake.

  “It’s good to see you again,” I said. “How are you holding up?” I shook a bit as a wave of coldness washed over me. I really needed to be more careful.

  She smiled. “I am well. As well as can be. I do not need to understand God’s plan to have faith in it. I’ve found I am still able to adjust my wardrobe, which is something I guess.” Her blue jeans turned black before my eyes, then shifted back to blue. “I didn’t feel right about wearing white. Not now.”

  “I’m sorry Josette,” I said for the second or third time. She waved her hand at me.

  “There is nothing to apologize for, as I have already said. The Lord has decided our paths lie together, and I do not begrudge Him for that. I enjoy your company.”

  That statement succeeded in stopping my shivering for a few seconds, and brought some heat to my face.

  “We make a good team,” I replied. “Where’s Rebecca?”

  “She went back to her apartment to retrieve something she called an Obi,” Josette said. “I am not familiar with the term.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. This conversation was making every part of me feel better. “An Obi is an Awakened human, he’s my...” I stumbled for a moment trying to think of the right word, something Josette would get. “... Squire? For lack of a better word.”

  She furrowed her eyebrows in a super cute way. “He carries your sword?”

  I laughed out loud that time. “Maybe squire wasn’t the best word. He’s a friend,” I said. “We didn’t bring him to the sanctuary because he’s mortal. He would have been killed.”

  “Why do you not Touch him?”

  It was my turn to be confused. “Touch him?” I asked.

  “Where do you think the mortal servants of God come from?” She floated to her feet as though she were lighter than air. She walked up the bed, leaving the smallest impression in the mattress, then turned and flopped down beside me. “For angels, you Touch a mortal by dousing their head in holy water, saying a prayer, and laying hands on them. It’s very much like the Catholic Baptism ritual, but with a little more power behind it. Of course, I wouldn’t know how a Purgatorian would do it.”

  We sat together in silence for a minute while I thought about it. I had this new tap of energy flowing into me. What would happen if I flowed some of it into a human?

  “That wouldn’t make him invulnerable,” I said.

  “It would make him resistant,” she replied. I was convinced, but I wouldn’t do it without asking Obi for permission first. He might not want to be that tied to my power.

  “Have you ever fought a fire demon before?” I asked. That thing had been ridiculous, and it amazed me to think of her standing toe to toe against one.

  She shook her head. “Never alone,” she replied. “That Great Were we fought was a toy in comparison. Thankfully, they are denizens of Hell, and are rarely summoned to this realm. They are difficult to control, and very unstable here. The amount of power needed to keep the Rift open would be immense.”

  Reyzl was powerful, but by the way Josette spoke of the fire demon, I didn’t think he was that powerful. “Reyzl didn’t summon the demon alone,” I said.

  Josette agreed. “He would have needed at least two other demons of his equal to maintain the Rift. It is bad sign if they are already working together to stop you.”

  “How many demons of Reyzl’s power are there?”

  “Reyzl is what is known as an archfiend. There are three in North America, four in Europe, one in Japan, one in Australia.” She started counting on her fingers as she listed their numbers. “Two in Russia, six in the Middle-East including three just around Jerusalem, and probably a few others who have gone undocumented. They are very territorial, though they will join forces if the need is great enough.”

  That was an awful lot of evil running around. I still felt like I knew so little about how this war operated, even though I was finding myself deeper and deeper into the thick of it. Still, I wasn’t convinced that Reyzl had done this with the help of another archfiend. I just didn’t think I’d been in play long enough or proven myself strong enough for the demon to ask for help from his peers. That left me with just one other possibility.

  “What about the Demon Queen?” I asked.

  Her reaction was one of shock. “How do you know of her?”

  “Da.... The Outcast told me,” I replied, remembering not to upset her by using his name. “Did Rebecca tell you anything about our goal?”

  “No, she said she would leave it to you to explain.”

  I spent the next hour or so telling Josette everything I knew about the Chalice, the Demon Queen, and the Knights Templar. Everything Dante had told me to steer me in this direction. She knew most of it, but from a different perspective. The angels wanted to find the Chalice, to bring it back to the sanctuary, and to use it. She wouldn’t tell me what effect it would have on a seraph. I didn’t think it was that important, so I didn’t push.

  While I was talking, I could feel my body normalizing, recovering from the damage I had done to it. I stopped shaking soon after, and my physical form didn’t feel so lifeless to touch. I would survive this, and learn from it.

  “The Demon Queen could have summoned the fire demon herself,” Josette said, answering my earlier question. “She would have no need of Reyzl to do such a thing.”

  That’s what I was afraid of. “How powerful is she?” I asked.

  “She is the most powerful demon currently in this realm,” she replied, as if that would answer the whole question.

  “Okay,” I said. “You said currently. How do demons get here? Rebecca said that the ones summoned from Hell couldn’t survive here long.”

  “All demons derive their power from the First Fallen, either through his minions here in this realm or from the power contained within Hell. He divvies this power most sparingly, as he is loathe to part with it, but does reward exceptional service as he sees fit. Demons rise in power by making deals with one another, and they rise to the top through backstabbing and betrayal, ever hoping to destroy the one above them and claim their souls. It is the nature of evil to covet power in this way.”

  I couldn’t help but wonder if mankind was that much different. The whole organization of it made perfect sense. “So the Demon Queen was once one of the Devil’s human creations, and she ascended to her position?”

  “No,” Josette said, surprising me. “What I have told you is a vast simplification to the processes by which this war maintains its armies. Demons can also come from Hell on their own if they possess enough power and motivation. These are the descendants of the Second Fallen, the army of seraph who followed the First when the truce was declared and my Lord granted him Hell.”

  “Why don’t they come?” I asked. “Wouldn’t the war end that much faster?”

  “No. Think of it in comparison to man’s invention of nuclear warheads. Were the strongest of the demons to enter this realm, my Lord would have no choice other than to grant His disciples leave to join the fray. The result of such a clash would incinerate this world and everything in it, leaving nothing for either side to claim.”

  Complete Armageddon, instead of
a Rapture. “So the Demon Queen came from Hell?”

  “That is the only possibility,” she replied. “We would have known of her many years ago if she were accumulating power as Reyzl has. She arrived unannounced only weeks before the Chalice was lost.”

  It was a lot to think about. I closed my eyes and tried to picture what Hell must be like, filled with creatures of untold power that could obliterate the world in a furious firestorm. I was glad most of them chose to stay there.

  “You are courting Rebecca?” The question broke the silence, shattering it into a million little pieces.

  “Courting?” I asked, trying to fight against my embarrassment. “I thought you were a modern girl?”

  She grimaced. “I don’t know what the correct term for this is nowadays. I haven’t had much inclination to explore such things.”

  Did angels even have an interest in relationships? It didn’t seem like it, though even if they did I could understand why Josette would be disenfranchised.

  “Courting is good enough I guess,” I said. “No, we aren’t courting. Why do you ask?”

  She shrugged. “It’s the way she looks at you. There is a... hunger.”

  I laughed. “She’s a vampire. There’s probably a part of her that thinks everything with two legs is food.” I decided not to tell her I had already provided Rebecca with a potent meal. Let that be our little secret.

  “Landon, be serious. She likes you.”

  I wasn’t sure about where this was going, but I found comfort in being able to talk to Josette about it. “I like her too. I think we connected, as friends I mean.” She had kissed me a few times, and I had liked that, but it didn’t make us an item.

  “Friends?” She raised her eyebrow. “She doesn’t look at you as a friend looks upon a friend.”