The War in Heaven (Eternal Warriors Book 1)

by Vox Day

  To be a slave of the King might be no bad thing. But he would still be a slave. No, he would be his own master, he decided, no matter what the cost.

  “No,” he said finally. “I will not serve anyone but myself. I don’t want to set myself against you, but I won’t be your slave either.”

  “If you are not for me, Christopher, you are against me.”

  Christopher nodded. “I know. I’m sorry, but I guess that’s the way it’s going to be.”

  Jesus nodded, as if He understood.

  “Can I ask you one thing, though?” Christopher asked quickly. “Before You came, I fought some angels. Two of them looked like kind of like my sisters. Would You know if it was them or not?”

  Jesus only shook his head.

  “What is that to you, Christopher? Look to your own soul.”

  Then the Son of the Most High God reached out and placed a small object in Christopher’s hand. He closed Christopher’s hand around it, and raised a finger in warning.

  “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you.”

  Chapter 28

  A Lion Roars

  A lion roars in the darkness

  Only he holds the key

  A light to free me from my burden

  And grant me life eternally

  —Creed, (“My Own Prison”)

  Jami lost her balance as the blinding light that surrounded her faded into a dark haze, and as she stumbled, she reached out and felt something soft. She squeezed experimentally, and was rewarded by a squeal of pain.

  “Ow! What did you do that for?”

  “Holli?”

  “Yeah? Jami, is that you?”

  “Uh-huh. Are you all right?”

  As her vision adjusted, Jami saw Holli standing in front of her, unharmed, but with a puzzled look on her face. She was no longer wearing the white robes that she’d worn in Heaven, but was dressed instead in the green sweatshirt and jeans she’d been wearing six weeks ago, when the power had first gone out in their home.

  “I’m fine, I think. Where are we?”

  Jami ran her hands over her chest. She couldn’t feel any signs of a wound under her t-shirt, and breathed a thankful prayer of gratitude to God. Again, He had saved them. “I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t Heaven. Or Hell, for that matter.”

  There was something familiar about the low ceilings and thin, raspberry-colored carpeting. The coat racks were absurdly low, as if constructed for dwarves, or, as Jami realized was actually the case, young children. There was a large glass window to one side, and behind them was an entrance to what appeared to be a library. It was hard to make out any details, though, for it was dark outside, and the only light in the room was cast by the red glow of the exit signs.

  “Holli, this is the same school we were in before. You know, Chris’s elementary school, the one that those church people were meeting in.”

  “Wow, you’re right!” Holli agreed. “We must be in a different part of the building, then.”

  As Jami looked around, she saw Holli’s face grow serious.

  “That was Christopher that we saw, wasn’t it?”

  “I… I don’t know. I thought so. But, I also thought we were, like, dead, you know? And we’re not.”

  “He hit me with his sword.” Holli spoke slowly, as if she couldn’t believe what she was saying.

  “I know. I saw it. He stabbed me too.”

  Holli glanced down at her shoulder, then back at her sister.

  “So how come we aren’t dead?”

  “Maybe we couldn’t be killed there.” Jami laughed. “You’re not supposed to die in Heaven. Or maybe if you die there, you come here!”

  Holli nodded, and a faint smile crossed her lips.

  “Well, at least we know there’s life after death, right?”

  “Sure, but who would ever believe us? Do you think it’s like the Chronicles of Narnia, and only a few minutes have passed?”

  “I don’t think so. Those church people were pretty loud, before, and it’s really quiet in here now.”

  “Yeah.” Holli tilted her head and frowned. “Actually, I hear something.”

  “Where?”

  “That way.” She pointed towards a ramp that was barely visible in the dark library, leading past another large window to an unknown destination.

  “Wait a minute,” Jami grabbed her sister’s arm as Holli led her towards the ramp. “What if those demons are still around?”

  “They can’t be. Remember, we were outside and they’d run away from the angels.”

  “Maybe they came back.”

  Evan as she spoke, a ghastly face loomed in towards the glass. Its beastly head was twice the size of a human, and its dripping teeth were long and sharp. The grotesque thing leered at them for a second, then turned away and howled, as if calling to others.

  “Run, Holli!” Jami shouted as jumped back from the window.

  “Where?” Holli screamed, frozen in fear.

  “This way, children,” they heard a deep male voice urging them from somewhere past the bottom of the ramp. “Hurry!”

  They hastened to obey, but Jami’s heart nearly stopped beating when she heard the loud thud of something crashing into the thick glass of the library window. The two girls sprinted down the ramp, past a bathroom and a corridor of offices, then turned the corner and were nearly spitted on the drawn swords of Mariel, Aliel, and Paulus.

  “Jami! You’re safe!” her Guardian exclaimed, throwing his muscular arms around her. “Oh, praise the Lord, how we’ve prayed for you!”

  “I don’t really think we’re, like, safe, Paulus,” Jami corrected him. “There’s something big and nasty outside trying to break in.” There was a loud crashing noise from above as the big window finally gave way and shattered. “Did you hear that! It’s after us!”

  And there was a loud noise like an onrushing train passing by, except that it did not stop. Instead, it continued to come closer, growing ever louder and more menacing as it approached, a hurricane of evil intent on their destruction.

  Mariel uttered a little cry, then turned and ran. The girls started to follow her, but they were prevented by Paulus and Aliel, each of whom grasped their charge and prevented them from fleeing.

  “Shouldn’t we run!” Holli cried out.

  “From this shadow you cannot flee,” Paulus said, his eyes blazing with determination.

  Jami grabbed her sister’s arm and pulled her from Aliel’s protective embrace.

  “This is like the city, and the dragon, remember. We’ve got to pray! That’s how we fight them.”

  Paulus nodded in surprised approval. Then he wrinkled his forehead suspiciously.

  “When this is over, you must tell me where you girls have been. I rejoice to hear it, Jami, but since when did you believe in prayer?”

  “Since Kherev told me how important it is!”

  “Kherev?” Paulus and Aliel looked at each other, and Jami’s big guardian shrugged. “Later.”

  “Just pray, my dears,” Aliel urged. “We’ll circle you and protect you, and the Lord will surely defend us.”

  Jami fell to her knees and tried to pray, but the words would not come. She stared, paralyzed by fear, as an ominous dark presence slowly made its way around the corner, unseen, but palpable. It gave off an oppressive sense of power that Jami had felt before. It was, she realized, the same spirit of evil that had come to the house on that first awful night.

  “Oh, it’s ugly, it’s so ugly,” Holli cried.

  The fear and repulsion in her sister’s voice reminded her, unexpectedly, of Kherev Elohai. She could almost hear his voice, speaking those gentle words of encouragement to her.

  “It’s not hopeless, Jami, not ever.”

  She grabbed Holli’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Then she closed her eyes, turned her mind away from the approaching darkness, and fervently began to pray.

  As th
e light faded away, Christopher found himself lost in the dark. He could see, but only with difficulty, and he could not determine where he was. He still wore his golden Aspect of Phaoton, but it was uncomfortable, like wearing a jacket that didn’t fit quite right. He shrugged and shifted easily into the form of a normal angel with metallic wings of gold. It felt better, somehow.

  He looked down, and in his hand was the little key that the Shining Prince had given him to break the Gates of Heaven. Now how did Kherev, or Jesus, whoever He really was, ever get His hands on that? When Ahura Azdha was blown to bits? Talk about a needle in a haystack! But as he thought about the impossibility of the coincidence, a noise came to his ears and he realized that there were spirits nearby.

  He tucked the key away and walked down a flight of stairs, then turned a corner and walked down another flight. As he strode past an empty gymnasium, he suddenly stopped, for in the corridor before him stood a lowly Divine angel, a Guardian by the look of it, holding her sword drawn before him. She was the loveliest creature he’d ever seen, and he caught his breath in surprised appreciation, though he kept a wary eye on her weapon.

  “Who art thou, pretty one?” he asked, mimicking the speech he’d heard in the Courts of Light, hoping to impress her.

  “One who would like to see you walk out from that shadow wrapped around you,” she replied sadly. “I am Mariel, your Guardian, Christopher, and I see that I have failed you.”

  Christopher laughed.

  “My Guardian? That’s funny. Just how many of you do I have?”

  “One, and that is me. Melusine is not your Guardian, Christopher. She is a Temptress in service to the Adversary, and she has led you into great evil, I fear.”

  “Melusine is pretty tempting,” Christopher admitted with a smile. “But that’s all right, you know?”

  The pretty angel shook her head, and tears appeared in her eyes.

  “No, it isn’t. I fear your conscience is already dead.”

  “Well, it wasn’t much to start with,” he shrugged.

  The shouting of voices broke into their conversation, and Christopher felt a disturbance in his soul as a strong spirit wielded its power not very far away from them.

  “What’s that?” he said, looking around.

  “A Great Lord of the Fallen comes, to kill your sisters, Jami and Holli. They have been away for hours, and where, we could not tell.”

  “They’re alive? You mean—where are they?”

  “Yes, and their guardians are with them, but—”

  “Guardians? Ha! A lot of good that’ll do them!”

  Christopher’s dark blades were drawn in an instant, and he ran past Mariel before she tried to stop him. He ran down the hall, turned a corner, then came to a halt as he saw two angels in white standing protectively over his kneeling sisters. They were alive! Mariel was right, he hadn’t killed them after all! But he quickly swallowed his joyful impulse to call out to them when he saw the four beings standing beyond them.

  Two of them he did not recognize, but the others Christopher knew well. The black-jacketed, Rayban-wearing figure in the lead was Kaym, and behind him was Melusine, her devilish tail swishing as seductively as ever. Without thinking, he drew upon his powers and made himself invisible, hoping Kaym and Melusine hadn’t noticed his presence. As he watched, Mariel approached him from behind, and, laying a small hand upon his shoulder, began to whisper in his ear.

  “Stand aside for Lord Kaym,” Jami looked on as the devil-girl standing beside the angel wearing shades tried to order her Guardian around. “If you oppose him, he will destroy you.”

  “They are under our protection and we will not abandon them.” Paulus was nearly as pale as the one called Lord Kaym, but his voice did not waver.

  “Your protection is meaningless,” Lord Kaym told him. The evil one was handsome, Jami thought, but there was something cruel and ruthless about him too, as he pointed at her and Holli.

  “Now stand aside, for I will have these here. They are young, but they are no innocents, for they have seen things they should not have seen, and My Lord, the God of this Age, has ordained they shall not live. This is His right, and I am here to carry out His will.”

  “We may oppose you. It is permitted by the Law.”

  Lord Kaym shrugged indifferently. “As you wish. It does not matter.”

  The evil one gestured, and the flames that leaped and hissed from the Guardians’ swords were extinguished without a sound. Another gesture, and the blades went flying in separate directions, and were buried to the hilt into the plastered concrete walls. He raised his hand a third time, and Paulus and Aliel were hurled back by an invisible force that held them, helpless, pinned up against the wall like smashed bugs.

  Aliel shrieked once, and Jami could only hope she hadn’t been hurt too badly. As Lord Kaym took a step towards them, Holli rose to her feet, pulling Jami up with her. Her sister was surprisingly calm, and she didn’t seem to be scared at all as she stared into her reflection in the dark glasses.

  “God just told me that you can’t touch me or my sister. I just thought I should, like, tell you that.”

  Lord Kaym’s laughter was echoed by his three demonic followers.

  “He did, did he? Very well, then, we must see to it that your god keeps his word. I won’t touch you, that I promise.”

  He pointed both his tattoo-covered hands at the carpeted floor, and the red dragons that covered them came to life, hissing and writhing their way down past his fingers until they fell freely to the floor and began to glide towards the two girls. The serpentine creatures were small, less than two feet long, but their curved teeth were long, glinting with bright green poison, and their yellow eyes were filled with hate.

  Jami didn’t dare to move a muscle as the snakes approached them, sinuous and sinister. She saw Lord Kaym raised his now-unmarked hand, and the dragon-snakes stopped, one in front of her and one in front of Holli, each within easy striking distance.

  “I will give you one chance to save yourselves,” Kaym said. “Kneel before me, and I will spare you, in my master’s Name. You are young, and have long lives before you if you will but serve Him. I can tell you that the rewards are great when one swears service to my master. Your brother would tell you the same.”

  A golden blade suddenly slashed downward, beheading both serpents in a single stroke. They vanished in a cloud of stinking green smoke so acrid that it brought tears to Jami’s eyes.

  “Their brother would like you to leave them alone, Kaym,” she heard Chris say.

  “Christopher!” Holli shouted gladly.

  But Chris ignored both her and Jami. He stood with his back to them, facing the Lord Kaym. How did he know the evil one’s name, Jami found herself wondering. She knew that Chris had been on Ahura Azhda, had this Lord Kaym been there as well?

  “Will you oppose me now, Phaoton?” Lord Kaym said with an odd smile twisting his narrow lips. “For the sake of those you have yourself slain? All that you have, all that you are, I have made you. You are mine, now and forever.”

  “You made nothing, Kaym,” Chris denied. “I wouldn’t be Kherev’s slave, but I’m not yours either.”

  “You pathetic fool!” Kaym barked angrily. “What do you know? Do you think you have a choice? You made that choice a long time ago, when you sold your soul for my power.”

  “Then come and get it.” Christ brandished his golden blade, and it began to burn with a white silvery fire. “If you think you can.”

  “Indeed.” Kaym appeared nonchalant, but Jami thought she sensed concern lurking behind the angel’s dark glasses. “And what is this weapon, with which you dare to stand against me?”

  Chris said nothing, but a quiet voice whispered to Jami from a place deep inside her, and she knew the answer, although her brother didn’t.

  “It is the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God!” she shouted at Kaym.

  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God!”
Holli giggled as she spoke, and Jami saw her sister’s head was now wreathed in the silvery-red flames of Kherev’s holy river. As His promised Spirit filled them both, they began to laugh uncontrollably, fearlessly, in the face of the demon-lord.

  The devil-girl began to back away from them and the two lesser demons cringed fearfully before the flickering light of the holy flames, but Lord Kaym stood fast.

  “What is this talk of Words and Gods to me!” he spat angrily. “I too, am a god, and you will burn in my fire, not His!”

  In a fit of rage, Kaym transformed instantly into his fearsome Aspect of the Dark Warrior. A crack of thunder exploded just above the building, and knocked the two girls down. But Kaym’s indignant fury only sent Jami into another fit, and as she rolled on the floor, still laughing helplessly, she saw his terrible image gradually become transparent. The vision of the Spirit stripped away the Dark Warrior and revealed a small, hunched being glaring balefully, but impotently, at her.

  Christopher was shocked when he saw his mentor’s true nature. Kaym was not truly a great spirit of arrogance and proud rebellion, but a cruel, ugly thing, twisted by aeons of hatred and self-loathing. The fallen angel was not more than a man, but less, far less, and Christopher couldn’t keep the contempt from his voice as he pointed his sword at the remnants of the being he had once sought to imitate.

  “They don’t fear your fire, Kaym. Neither do I. There’s something here, and it’s a lot bigger than you or me.”

  The shrunken creature pursed its thin, bluish lips, and then it was again Kaym that stood before him, transformed back into the shaded biker, though his hands were still bare of dragons. The fallen angel cracked his knuckles thoughtfully as he stared balefully at the silver flames dancing victoriously above the heads of Christopher’s laughing sisters.