Balance (The Divine, Book One)

by M. R. Forbes

  “You are incredible,” she said to me.

  “So are you,” I replied.

  I had so many thoughts circulating through my head, but I didn't know how to express any of them. They all coalesced in the same spot. I wanted her to stay with me, to stay by my side, to be my girlfriend? It seemed a naïve and simplistic way to describe the relationship I hoped we could have. Girlfriends were for humans. I didn't know what it was for us. She was here, now, so that would have to be good enough.

  “Whatever happens,” she said, “I want you to know that I'm so happy that I met you, and that we got to spend the last few days together. You've changed my life in more ways than you can imagine.”

  Saying the premature goodbyes like this, it was like Casablanca or something. “Here's looking at you, kid,” I replied. She laughed at my bad humor. “Seriously, I'm not giving up until I'm dead. If I have to take on all of the demons in Hell, so be it. They'll be after me anyway, and it's not like there'll be much else to do once Hollywood has been eaten.”

  She smiled. “We'll fight together,” she said. “You're mine. I'm not about to let some other demon take you.”

  “That's super sweet of you,” I said. “There was something else you wanted to tell me. Something you learned from Merov.”

  Rebecca's smile faded. “It doesn't matter now,” she said. “If we make it through the next twenty four hours, we can talk about it then.”

  I was reluctant to just drop it, but it wouldn't matter anyway if we failed to stop the Demon Queen. I pulled Rebecca close again and kissed her, initiating the intimacy for the first time. Her response was passionate, ferocious, her mouth hungry for mine. The hunger. It was as Josette had named it. I would have let it continue for who-knows-how-long, but Obi was way too good at cracking computers.

  “I've got something,” he shouted from the sitting room. I gave Rebecca one last kiss, and we dashed out to see what Obi had discovered.

  “What do you have?” I said, sliding onto the sofa between Obi and Josette.

  Rebecca took up the space on the arm of the chair on the other side. Obi had his face planted against the screen, his finger tracing a line of numbers across it.

  “This is an encrypted e-mail Merov received about where to pick up the amulets for the assault,” he explained. “It was deleted, but I managed to pull it from the drive and decrypt it.”

  I laughed. “Obi, we were only gone for five minutes.”

  “That's what you think,” he replied.

  I hadn't realized I had been so busy with Rebecca. I had totally lost track of time.

  “Anyway,” he said, “Reyzl and Merov were exchanging emails about the attacks on the sanctuaries. As far as I can tell, the dude was planning to carry out the attack, then join forces with the other lead demons to go after the Queen, your standard double-cross. He knew he would need control of the Chalice first or they would lose the power of the amulets and she would kill them all.”

  He scrolled down a bit and pointed at a line of garbled text. “Here, he's telling Merov that he found out how to reach her, and that once the sanctuary has fallen he'll send him the location and time that they are going to converge on it. As near as I can tell, he was going to go talk to her in person and distract her while his minions stole the Chalice, then once it was out of her reach they would bring in an army of thousands through a series of Rifts that the other big bads would create.”

  “I wonder if it would be enough,” I said. I looked at Rebecca. “You don't have this in your inherited memories anywhere?”

  She shook her head. “What time was it sent? Maybe Merov never saw it.”

  “Hang on one sec,” Obi said, using his finger to trace the line of code across the screen again. “Yeah, this was sent about an hour before we went in. He never read it. So.. we know that Reyzl knows where the Chalice is, and that Merov didn’t know. Now what?”

  I didn’t want to say it, but there was only one answer. “We have to get Reyzl and make him talk.”

  “How are we going to do that?” Josette asked.

  “We bring him to us,” Rebecca said, her blue eyes twinkling. “We make a deal with him.”

  “What kind of deal?” I asked.

  “We want the Chalice, he wants the Demon Queen. If we take the Chalice, then he has his chance to attack her.”

  That must have made sense to her in some kind of demon-logic, because it evaded me. “Why would he do that?” I said. “He already has his plan to go after the Queen, he doesn’t need us.”

  She looked at me as though I was to be pitied for my lack of understanding of the complexities of deals with devils. “Landon, you have to think more like a demon. Think with your evil side.”

  She was right. I was thinking too much like a human. Reyzl had the potential to live forever. He was hundreds of years old. He didn’t need to do anything based on the immediate reward. He could plot and scheme for years to see a single thread reach its completion.

  “There are a few possibilities,” I said. “The most important part is that if we do the dirty work for him, his risk is reduced, because if we fail she’ll never know he had anything to do with it and he’ll get rid of some of the thorns in his side.” I looked at Josette as I said it. She had been his greatest adversary for who knows how long. “If we succeed, he’ll either renege on the deal and try to take the Chalice by force, or he’ll let us go with it, but he’ll make sure he does everything he can to know its whereabouts and go after it when our guard is down. A thousand years or two is nothing to him.”

  “He’s already waited more than two thousand,” Josette agreed. “He was not an archfiend then, but he predates Christ.”

  I hadn’t known that. I looked at Josette in shock. “Seriously?”

  “Reyzl was known by another name once, before the First Fallen returned him to this world. He was Pentawere, son of Egyptian King Ramses III, last of the great Egyptian Pharaohs. He plotted with his mother from her bed, and slit his father’s throat, murdering him in cold blood. He was hanged for his treachery, but he always hungered to return to this world and claim the power that he still believes is his. The First granted him his wish, and he has spent the last three thousand years building his strength through deceit, destruction, and orchestrated chaos.”

  “Three thousand years,” Obi said. “That’s a heck of a lot of deceit, destruction, and chaos.”

  Josette nodded. “Yes, it is. I have spent the last two hundred years working with my fellows to keep his power neutralized. He has almost reached the point that he will be unstoppable without intervention from an archangel. The Chalice will give him the power he needs.”

  “So the likelihood that he won’t double-cross us is pretty much zero,” I said.

  “I wouldn’t be too sure,” Rebecca said. “He’ll have to decide if he wants to take on the Demon Queen immediately, because she’s sure to come after the Chalice as soon as she knows it’s gone. It may be to his advantage to let us go with it and recapture it later.”

  There were so many possibilities. It was enough to make my head spin. “Either way, we need to be ready to fight back. I think I’d rather deal with Reyzl than the Demon Queen.”

  “I think we’re all agreed on that,” Josette said.

  The idea of making a deal with Reyzl was crazy, but it didn’t seem we had any other choice. We had to get the Chalice. We could worry about everything else once that was done. “Okay,” I decided. “Rebecca, do you know how to get a message to him?”

  “Of course,” she replied. “I just need to make a phone call.”

  Perfect. That would give me some time to take care of something else. “Make the call,” I said. “Obi, can I talk to you in private for a minute?” The former Marine lifted his head from the laptop.

  “Sure man,” he replied, closing the lid and putting it onto the end table next to him. He got up and followed me into the bedroom. “Look man, I like you, but I’m not going to make out with you,” he said with a laugh when I
closed the door.

  “I had something else in mind,” I said. “I was talking to Josette, and she suggested that I promote you.”

  Obi laughed. “Promote me? I didn’t know we had ranks.”

  “It’s not that kind of promotion. I want to... I don’t know what a good word is... enhance you.”

  “Like Robocop?”

  I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. “I was thinking Steve Rodgers,” I replied.

  Obi’s smile faded as he accepted that I was being serious. “What do I have to do? What are you going to do?”

  “You don’t have to do anything,” I said. “You’ve seen what I can do. How I can do it is a little complicated, but the important part is that I can pull some of that power out, and push it into you. I can make you stronger, faster, more resistant to damage, fatigue.”

  “Steve Rodgers,” Obi said, his expression thoughtful. “What’s the catch?”

  “You’ll be tied to Purgatory. If you die, you can never go to Heaven, but you can also never go to Hell. Other than that, no uniform, no shield.”

  It was obvious that Obi was torn. It was an easy decision to make if you were a devout believer or a serial killer. Join your team and be assured that the life after your life would be what you wanted or deserved. It wasn’t so simple for someone like Obi. He had a strong desire to help his fellow man; almost his entire life had been dedicated to it. At the same time, he believed he was a good person, and he wanted to see Heaven one day. From what Josette had told me about getting souls to come back to fight, I couldn’t blame him.

  “Do it,” he said, lifting his eyes and looking right into mine, burning into them with the strength of his conviction. He was a soldier first. “You aren’t going to make it through this without me.”

  “No, I don’t think I would,” I replied. “Kneel down.”

  Obi dropped to his knees in front of me, still looking up at me with proud confidence. I reached out and put my hands on his forehead, then closed my eyes. I could feel the soft heat of his flesh against my palms, and I held onto that sensation as I reached down into my soul and took hold of the flow of my Source. I pulled it up with care, not sure of how much I needed, and certain that I didn’t want to harm Obi.

  As I gathered the power, I focused my will on the former Marine, telling his body to be stronger, tougher, healthier, more powerful - superhuman. His forehead grew hotter under my hands, and I could feel the sweat beading and running along the outside of my fingers. I pushed more of the energy into him, each moment of thought and will increasing his endurance. When his mouth opened and he began to moan, I ebbed the flow and dropped my hands from his forehead. The second I did, his body fell backwards onto the floor.

  “Obi,” I said, kneeling down over him. “Obi!” I was going to put my hand to his throat to check his pulse, but I didn’t need to. I could sense him lying there below me. I could feel the Divine energy that I had implanted in him, the same as I could sense it in others. I knew he was alive, I just hoped he wouldn’t sleep too long.

  His eyes flicked open, and he threw out a surprised fist. It connected squarely with my gut, the blow cracking my ribs and lifting me four feet off the ground. I landed back on my knees with grunt of pain.

  “Ah crap,” Obi said, realizing it was me. “I’m sorry, man.”

  “I guess it worked,” I said. “How do you feel?”

  “Ready to go kill some demons,” he replied.

  I stood and held out my hand to him, but he used his new strength to push himself up off the floor to a stand.

  “Thanks man, but I got it,” he said with a grin.

  We went back out into the living room. Josette and Rebecca were sitting on the sofa, facing each other and talking as if they were old friends. When they noticed we had returned, they both looked at us and giggled.

  “What?” I asked defensively. I had gotten the giggle treatment a lot in my youth, and I knew from that experience it was never due to something flattering.

  “It is of no concern fellow,” Josette said. Her eyes examined Obi. “It is done,” she stated.

  “I’m a new man,” Obi replied.

  “You Turned him?” Rebecca asked, surprised.

  “Enhanced,” Obi corrected. “I’m not a demon.”

  “Reyzl?” I asked, with a little more force than I had intended.

  “Let’s go up to the roof,” Rebecca said.

  Chapter 27

  “What were you talking to Josette about?”

  I had been needling Rebecca for the contents of her conversation with the seraph the entire way up to the roof. We had left Josette and Obi behind, and had taken the emergency stairwell up, bypassing the door lock that was supposed to keep guests away from the top of the building. She had been ignoring me until we stepped out onto the blacktop.

  It was a dark, dreary, drizzly day, the kind that I had always hated when I had been a kid. I was thankful for the weather now, because it meant Rebecca could be out here without risking her health.

  “Landon,” she said, giving me that same look of inferiority that I was getting used to. “You destroyed a fire demon single-handed, and you’re worried about girl-talk?”

  “Girls are a lot more intimidating than fire demons,” I replied, shrugging.

  She laughed, and then sighed. “If you must know, Josette thanked me for bringing you to her, for helping save the sanctuary and her life. She said thank you in the truck on the way back, but whatever you said to her while I was gone, she was a lot more exuberant. Anyway, as we were talking about it I made a comment about the way you lost all of your clothes in the flames, and she admitted with much embarrassment that God gifted you with a fine physique. You should be flattered to have an angel say that about you.”

  My face had turned beet red by then, and I couldn’t make eye contact with her. “I didn’t think Josette thought about me that way.”

  She tilted her head to the side to listen, then led me away from the stairwell and over towards the huge air-conditioning unit. “Don’t get too flattered,” she said. “She doesn’t think about anyone that way. But she does believe in you, which is much more important.”

  “What about you?”

  When we reached the back of the unit she stopped walking and kissed me on the cheek. “I believe in you too. He’ll be here in a few seconds.”

  I was going to ask her who, but I felt the presence approaching for myself. It wasn’t Reyzl, but it was familiar. A moment later, a small demon popped up over the side of the roof. He grinned when he saw us.

  “Ahh yesss, the vampiresss and her toy.”

  Rebecca bared her fangs at the demon. ”Yuli, I suggest you show some respect, or my toy will break you in half with a thought.”

  Reyzl’s messenger stopped laughing and looked at me with a frightened expression. “My apologiesss Mastersss... whatss your namesss?”

  “Landon,” Rebecca said. “Diuscrucis Master Landon. If Reyzl doesn’t remember him, remind him that it was Landon who killed his servants at the Catskill sanctuary.”

  I didn’t think the demon could look more afraid of me than he already had, but somehow his posture took on an even deeper level of fear. He was shaking as he spoke again. “You havess a message for Mastersss?”

  “I want to make a deal,” I said. “Tell him we know his plans, and we want a piece of the action. We’ll retrieve the Chalice from the Demon Queen, and keep his amulets in play so he can launch his attack against her. In exchange, he’ll tell us how to reach her. He’ll also agree to allow us to keep the Chalice and take it off the table.”

  “If he accepts he’s to meet us on Liberty Island in an hour,” Rebecca added.

  I wondered if we had overloaded Yuli’s tiny mind, as he hovered silent and motionless for over a minute. I looked at Rebecca, wondering what was going on, but she was reacting as if the activity were normal. Finally, he nodded. “Yesss, yesss. Masterssss acceptsss your dealsss. He will meetsss you.”

  “One hour,” Re
becca repeated. We were going to have to move fast to get there in such a short amount of time.

  “One hourssss,” Yuli said. He gave me one last frightened glance and darted away, disappearing around the corner of the air conditioner.

  “Can all demons communicate telepathically?” I asked her, once I could no longer sense Reyzl’s messenger.

  “No,” she replied. “Yuli is Reyzl’s familiar. They have a blood bond that allows them to communicate without regard for distance, among other things. His messages are the only ones Reyzl trusts completely, which is why I called for him.”

  “Well it looks like the deal is on,” I said. “An hour isn’t much time.”

  “Then we better get a move on, worm.”

  “What about the Touched coming up the stairs?” I asked.

  There were four of them total. I had noticed them approaching as the familiar had left, but Rebecca must have caught their scent sooner. That was why she had positioned us out of sight while we had taken care of our business with Reyzl.

  She looked at me with black eyes. “We could use a few more swords,” she suggested.

  I heard the door groan as it opened, and four pairs of boots stomped out onto the rooftop. I could sense them standing there, uncertain.

  “I know I saw it stop up here,” I heard one of them say. “It looks like it’s gone.”

  “Let’s look around, just to make sure,” another one said.

  They had come up here looking for Yuli. Now they were fanning out, going over to the sides of the building and looking out and down to see if they could catch a glimpse of where the demon was headed. One of the Touched was headed for our not-so-hidden hiding spot.