Appoloin grudgingly removed his furious eyes from staring at Ariel and was led from the room by Harviel. When Ariel motioned to walk with them, Appoloin glared at him.
“Sire, please accept my apologies for stating the obvious, but let me assist you in this. I am here to help you.”
Appoloin took a deep breath in. He was worrying about nothing; it was probably one of the serving girls going out. Yet, there was a niggling fearful doubt gnawing at his mind.
“Let us make haste, then, and we will see who it is,” he said as Ariel opened the door taking them onto Eaton Square.
As they exited the house, they saw the children, no longer playing their game. A voice was calling to one of them in various languages to return home, and Mairi stood beside them.
Appoloin started to call her name but stopped. It would almost be like he who was shouting for the child. Instead, the three Angels stepped outside, not understanding what was happening, when a dark haze approached her. She stopped dead, as though in a trance. Her arms stayed rigidly by the sides of her body.
Appoloin could feel her fear, and he could hear her calling his name. He yelled at her, but she didn’t hear him. The dark haze had encircled her now, and Appoloin saw her face become paler. She was unwell. He had to reach her.
He outstretched his wings, but Harviel whispered to retract them.
“Sire, shift yourself to where she stands. Do not open your wings. There are prying eyes all around.”
Appoloin retracted his wings, returning them to their position within his back, and in the blink of an eye, moved to where Mairi stood. The black haze reared up like a giant dragon and whipped Mairi with it. Appoloin grasped desperately at Mairi, trying to pull her from the evil clutches of the black haze, but she was out of his reach. The haze kept disappearing and reappearing, and he could not determine where it would be. He focussed on her mind, calling to her to let go of the haze and come back to him. Instead, she closed her eyes and fell.
The haze reshaped into the form of Lucias. He laughed at Appoloin when he caught Mairi in his arms, then, raising his wings, he wrapped them around her, waiting seconds, teasing Appoloin to come forward and attempt another rescue. When Appoloin obliged, he disappeared.
Reappearing behind Appoloin, Lucias hissed into his ear, “She is mine, Angel.”
Aware that the guardian Angels were closing in on him, Lucias waved his hands around and around, and the wind began to spin in a small tornado, creating a barrier between himself and the three Guardians. When the wind hit Mairi, the magic within it made Mairi’s body begin to move into mistdream. Millions of tiny stars shot out from her body as it began to melt into mistdream. The lights bounced within the dark haze and disappeared, dying as they touched the evil. Lucias’s eyes turned on Appoloin. “Watch my magic, Angel, for you will never find her now.”
Appoloin threw himself at Lucias, but the demon’s body had started to change again. Dark beams emanated from his form, then slithered out like snakes, but when they reached Mairi’s ‘stars’, they turned into tentacles. Each tentacle wrapped itself around different parts of the remnants of Mairi’s transastralising shape. Alongside them, her mist had appeared but was unable to reach her. It could not secure itself around her because of the black haze of Lucias.
Mairi continued to transastralise, but with each star that shot from her form, another black tentacle enclosed around it. Until there was no Mairi… only Lucias.
Appoloin let out a battle cry and thundered towards Lucias. Ariel and Harviel, now beside him, charged forward, their swords wielding at the black haze, slashing and battling a force that was impenetrable.
As they neared him, Lucias laughed, his maniacal voice spiralling around them. He was draining Mairi of her mistdreaming power, and was clearly using his own. He was becoming more powerful.
“Let us see how you cope with losing the one you love. Let us see if you are able to exist in a world of madness. You cannot replace the one you love.” He sneered. “Not when that love has been ripped from you and murdered. How will you cope when your love has been murdered, Angel? Will you seek her out?” he screamed madly at Appoloin. “I hope so, because if you come looking for her—and we know you will—then she will be murdered, just as my love died at your hands.
“She may only be a half-blood, but that will be good enough for me. Not quite the real thing, but beggars can’t be choosers, can they, Angel?” he screamed.
Appoloin, Harviel, and Ariel continued to fight against the haze, sweat dripping down their powerful muscles, but they were unable to reach Lucias. They stood transfixed in alarm when his form completed the transastralisation, and he disappeared, taking Mairi with him from the earth’s plane, to God knows where. His black haze was gone and the wind was still, and the exhausted Angels found themselves slashing at nothing.
“What did he mean, sire?” asked Harviel. “Who was his love? Who killed her?”
Dread poured over Appoloin like a cold shower. “I killed his sister, Rachauden.”
“And she was his love?” asked Ariel, horrified.
“I didn’t know it then, and I have only learned it now,” Appoloin said, his voice smouldering with disgust.
“Let us hurry.” Harviel grabbed Appoloin’s arm. “You must seek out the Infidelibus and inform them of this incident. They will have more ideas than we, of what must be done.”
Ariel opened the door to the house and ushered them in. “Harviel is right, sire. Go find your friends and save our good lady. All his bombastic threats will be thrown back at him, and maybe it is time for him to join the sister you killed.”
Chapter Thirteen
Lucias opened the creaky wire cage and gently placed Mairi on the waiting cushions, checking briefly that she slept soundly, before closing the gate and locking her inside. Moving away from the cage , shiftily peeping at his other captives in the various traps he had cleverly set for them all.
Kings Amdusias and Baal hung in cages. They had been turned to stone by his magic and replaced on the respective thrones of the Malum Reges, by a set of dopplegängers he had carefully secured, and as long as he ensured their deviant tastes, they willingly did what he wanted of them.
Cassiel, the Fae, lay in another cage. The smell of torture radiated from him, and Lucias thought it wise to have a word with the tormentors. He was close to death, and that was a moment he wanted to witness.
The last of the four witches he had ensnared for his mother’s habit lay in another cage. She was still defiant, despite the bloodletting and beatings he allowed. She glared at him, and for some reason, he was unsettled.
“I would be careful of those malocchii, Witch, if I were you. They’ve led you here. It will be just as easy for them to lead you to your ending.”
“I am no longer of this world, Lucias. Beware what and whom you threaten with useless words.”
The kings tittered in their cages. Despite their stoney countenance, they were able to communicate. Something else I’ll have to rectify, Lucias’s irritated thoughts interrupted.
“You seem to be having a problem with reality, Lucias. Can I help somehow?” asked Amdusias.
“My reality is intact.” He sneered. “Yours, on the other hand, is going to remain just so, for as long as I decide necessary.”
“And whom have you brought to our cozy little den this time, madman?” asked Baal, deliberately provoking him.
“She is not your concern.” Lucias whirled on him, his face ferocious.
“Me thinks you’ve hit a soft spot,” Amdusias continued the provocation.
“Ooh, no,” said Baal in mock horror, “surely our sublime commander has no soft spots.”
“SHUT UP! SHUT UP, both of you!” Lucias screamed at the top of his voice.
Cassiel whimpered from his cage and shifted his position.
“Uh-oh, now you’ve done it. You’ve woken the tamed beast.”
Lucias was surprised and took a step away from their cages to take a closer look at Cassiel
. He bent down to look at the whipped and bloodied body, but the smell was so offensive he reared back. Looking over his shoulder at the kings, he asked, “You think he’s tamed?”
“Oh, of course,” cried Amdusias. “Never a peep out of him after you ‘tame’ him with your… well, with whatever it is you’ve chosen to tame him with. Now, the last time you dragged him away, that was the most incredible reformation. Your knuckle-dragging demons returned a much improved and subdued creature.”
“Definitely,” agreed Baal. “Much subdued, and more pleasant to share a cell with. I have only one request of you, kind sire.”
Lucias’s eyes narrowed. “What would that be?”
“I realise we have to be punished,” Baal continued. “I mean, after all, we had the audacity to disagree with you, oh most powerful one, however, is there no way you can rid us of the smell? Even to a demon, you have to realise the smell is offensive.”
“You nearly had me agreeing with you,” Lucias snarled. “But you can’t help yourself, can you, old man? You have to look down on me with your words.”
“Oh, kind sir,” mocked Baal, “I don’t look down on you with my words. I look down on you because you are irrelevant.”
Lucias laughed. “I am not so irrelevant as you. It is not I who is held in captivity. Look at yourself. You are of stone and locked in a birdcage.”
Lucias swept his cloak around him and turned his attentions from the kings. Taking one last glance at Mairi, reassuring himself, he disappeared.
*
Mairi woke to find herself in Princes Street Gardens. She sighed happily now that the nightmare that was Lucias had ended. Furtively, she checked her body and was delighted to discover she was wearing clothes, remembering her sick half brother had removed them.
She wondered how it was possible she had not been aware of journeying to this heavenly setting. And therein lay the answer: “heavenly”. She was mistdreaming. She wanted to wake, to walk away from this, but was so physically tired because of the scene with Lucias, she found herself just lying on the green grass, staring up at Edinburgh Castle.
Where was her blue mist? she wondered. Adramelechk should have been here to lead her and use whatever information she could discover back to the Angels.
She shook away her lethargy and rose from the ground and walked toward the castle. Music was playing in the Ross Band Stand situated to her right, and it flowed over her like a warm breeze. Listening closely to the beautiful chords, she thought she recognised the music but wasn’t sure.
Looking down at the lush grass, all she wanted to do was lie down again, but she was drawn to the music. Then he began to sing. She would always know that voice; he had helped her in her youth. Oh, he hadn’t known her. But his music had taken her from that scrawny teenager with weird ways through to becoming an adult with weird ways. She identified with him and his music.
David Bowie, a legend, her legend, and here he was in mistdreaming with her, singing in the bandstand of Princes Street Gardens.
What was he singing? The words were muffled, as though coming from under water, trying to break through to the open air.
“Where do you think you are going, my love?” Lucias asked as he floated down to stand beside her.
“You can’t be here. You’re not a Mistdreamer.” Mairi closed her eyes, blinking to free herself of the image of her tormentor.
“We are of the same blood, Mairi,” he crooned and stroked her chin lovingly. “Wherever you are, I will always find you. We are one and the same, you and I.”
Mairi pulled away from him, repulsed by his touch—not just his touch, no, sickened by him.
Sickened.
An image of vomit came to her mind, vomit running down his face, and she began to laugh.
“You dare to laugh?” he said ominously. “Lie down, now!” He lifted a hand and twisted it in the air. Mairi flew from the ground and did a double flip in the air.
David Bowie’s words were breaking through the ‘water’, and she could almost make out the words. Lucias held her upside down in the air for several seconds. When it felt like she had been hanging in that suspended state for hours, he snapped his hand closed, letting her fall to the ground.
“In this age of grand illusion… ”
Stunned, she lay on the ground, waiting for his next attack. Her head was hurting, and she raised her hands to massage her forehead but couldn’t move. Lucias was pulling her legs apart…
“You walked into my life…”
Mairi screamed in terror, but Lucias was insane. He was enjoying her terror and grew hard in anticipation. She was feeding his energy. His lust was abhorrent, and so she remained still, stopped screaming. She concentrated on Bowie. The words he was singing, they were for her…
“Out of my dreams…”
Lucias bent forward and, with his razor-sharp teeth, bit into her breast. She screamed afresh and started to struggle, desperate not to stimulate him. He was beyond exhilaration; he was in ecstasy. Her pain was the pinnacle of his fervent desire.
He lowered his head and crushed his lips against hers, caressing her cheeks. He trailed a hand down the back of her neck, lightly exploring her spine, one he could snap as easily as he could caress. He deepened the kiss, and Mairi thought she would be sick.
She could hear herself scream. It was echoing all around the gardens, but there was nobody to help. She was revolted when this deranged demon’s expression turned to momentary bliss, then, just as quickly, altered to a vile abomination of man.
He hated her, and he felt nothing but elation when her tears fell as he raped her.
When he was finished, he rolled off her body. The pain she felt was nothing to do with the violation. It was shame. Yet, why should she feel shame? What had happened was out of her control.
Yes, her bones ached. Lucias had made a point of hurting her each time he took her. Once was not enough. He told her she was to appreciate “how good it could be”, and if she couldn’t appreciate it after the fourth time, then a change in position might help. When that also proved futile, he said a change in the act might improve her willingness. Or maybe the introduction of someone else would make her more useful than a wet rag.
Someone else, however, did not appear. He changed his mind in that regard, telling her she would just have to enjoy him until she screamed out in ecstasy. Until that happened, she would just have to enjoy his ministrations and attention.
His ministrations had left bleeding cuts on her breasts, legs, and back, bite marks across her belly, and bruises over her thighs, arms, and neck.
It would take until never for her to scream in ecstasy.
*
“Who is making that wretched noise?” asked Amdusias.
“You! You fool,” Baal growled miserably. He’d had enough of this prison lark. He wanted his freedom, away from the smells and sounds of hate.
“I beg to differ. I have never sobbed in my life.”
“Then it must be the Fae. He took a particularly rough beating that time. I doubt he’ll make it back to his land, and then all our plans will be wrecked.”
“It’s good to hear you’re so worried about my welfare and not your own necks,” Cassiel whispered gruffly, carefully avoiding making any quick movement, as any movement, even speech, caused him pain.
“Well, if it is not you either, Mistdreamer, then who is it?”
Cassiel moved his head to face the rest of the captives in the dark cave. He heard the whimpering before he saw the girl curled in a foetal ball.
“I’d say the girl over there is a big clue as to who may be making the noise,” he said acerbically.
“Ah,” Amdusias agreed. “His Majesty’s new pet? He’s been having some fun with that one.”
Baal laughed quietly. “He’s turning into quite the apt pupil, is he not, Amdusias? Methinks you taught him too well.”
“I never taught him mind games,” he said, horrified at the very thought. “What’s the point in that? A good bloodletting,
with a whip.”
Cassiel groaned, and Amdusias cut short his words. A demon king he may be, but he still understood the pain of reminder.
“Apologies, Mistdreamer. My words ran out before I remembered your abuse yesterday.”
“You need not concern yourself. I am not incarcerated by the same as she. I look forward to my freedom and giving back to Biorna that which he has given me. I will enjoy every minute.”
“Slow down there, Mistdreamer,” Baal interrupted. “What dost thou mean Biorna? Why would you repay this creature and not the one torturing you?”
“Why say you this?” asked Cassiel. “Can you not see him when he takes me?”
Amdusias was trying to follow the conversation, but the man made no sense.
“You’re dragged away by the demons, second-class, not even first-class, and that in itself should give you an idea of how he tries to demoralise you. He thinks you are not good enough to be taken by those better than you.”
Cassiel was outraged, but that anger just caused pain, and so his body slumped to the ground. “Leave me be, beasts. Let my wounds heal. I will return this ‘kindness’ to Biorna when I have the strength.”
Amdusias let out a loud belly laugh. “You think you will leave this infernal prison alive? I think you need to check your sanity, Mistdreamer, or have you taken so many beatings at Lucias’s hand you have forgotten what reason and sense mean?”
Cassiel jerked his head and groaned, again. “What do you mean… Lucias?”
Baal let out a resigned breath. “That’s what we’re trying to tell you, Mistdreamer. It is not this ‘Biorna’ of whom you whisper in your mad dreams of vengeance who punishes you. It is Lucias.”
“Why do you insist on calling me ‘Mistdreamer’?” Cassiel asked.
“Because that’s the species you are.” Baal yawned, and had he not been made of stone, would have covered his mouth, but that little shit Lucias had changed him into this frozen entity, who couldn’t move until he returned and gave permission.
The Park Family: Mairi: Retribution Page 19