Whispers in the Ether

by Jena Gregoire

  Thump.

  Waves of unwanted sexual images flashed through her mind.

  Thump.

  Good God, that thing touched me.

  Thump.

  Thump.

  Natalia suddenly jumped as she realized that the dull sound was in the room with her. I'm not alone. Fear stole away her breath and panic threatened to smother her. She looked up and could see him now.

  The thumping she'd been hearing was the sound of a book hitting the floor. He was taking each book off of the shelf, flipping through it and when he didn’t find what he wanted, he tossed the book onto the floor.

  Thump.

  The bitchy part of her that just spent the last month organizing that mess really wanted to yell at him but the self-preservation part of her told her to keep her mouth shut and stay alive.

  While he was busy, she assessed her situation. She had no idea how long she had been out. She knew that if enough time had passed, she might be close to Lucas’s expected arrival time. She quickly glanced around the room looking for a clock and wanted to kick herself when she remembered that she hadn’t hung one in the library because she didn’t like the way it looked.

  Something in her gave up right then. She knew that she wasn't going to walk away from this. The light trickle of salty tears was a welcome surprise. Natalia had always thought that in a moment like this, terror and dread would reduce her to a hysterical mess. Instead, she was weeping quietly to herself. I am going to die. The admission was numbing. The sound of the books crashing to the floor was suddenly very far away and muffled. Time slowed to a crawl. Natalia felt shock wash over her body. She swept her gaze slowly from one side of the room to the other, taking in the scene of destruction that used to be her beautiful library.

  She hadn't realized that she had actually begun sobbing until his open hand collided with her face. Hot, searing pain flashed through her already wounded eye.

  “Where is it?” His voice was quiet but demanding.

  “Where is what?” she managed to croak. Natalia knew full well what he was talking about but she couldn't let him know that. No matter what.

  If he discovered the location of the Guardians, the five angels charged with the task of guarding the Sentinel Stone, the world would be screwed. The stone, created out of brimstone and blood magick, was the key. As long as the Guardians kept it safe, the demons couldn't use it to open the gateway. If the gateway were to be opened, demon possessions would no longer be the things of urban legends and whispers among God fearing men. Instead, the creatures of our worst nightmares would be walking around at will in their own skin. Hers was the job first in line to make sure that never happened. Natalia knew that the secret was concealed in that very room. It took everything she had in her to keep from glancing in the direction of the hidden piece of paper.

  “I don’t think you understand,” he explained, each word dripping with malice. “I will find it with or without you. I have it on incontestable authority that the information is here. You are the records keeper. It is here.” He walked over and knelt in front of her, his voice dropping to a threatening tone. “Now, I feel that I must remind you, once again, that I don't take kindly to being lied to. You will pay for that once I find the list.”

  He went back to his task of searching each book, one by one. Natalia watched him continue to paw through the shelves with determination and never-ending diligence. He would scour the library for days if that's what it took, of that she was certain. How did he know about the list? The fact that she had the list was not widely known. Very few knew that the records keeper held the list and no one would have given up that information willingly. Then she came to a conclusion. My house wasn’t his first stop. After a long while, he proved her never-ending diligence theory wrong. Apparently frustrated with his search, he stopped what he was doing and sat down in front of her. He silently studied her. Oh God.

  “Are you in quite a lot of pain, child?” he asked with an air of amusement in his voice. Natalia knew he didn't have one ounce of concern for her. She figured this was just a game and she refused to play. There was no point. She was going to die.

  Whether she helped him or not, he planned to kill her. He was actually having fun making her suffer. The more she thought over the question, the more it pissed her off.

  “Fuck you," she spit venomously. He reacted so fast that she only felt his fist connect. The pain erupted in a blinding burst. The room spun violently and she had a difficult time focusing. She closed her eyes as if shutting the world out would force it to steady. The eye that had been unharmed started to puff up immediately and she was fairly certain that her cheekbone was broken. Maybe her nose too. Between the tears and the swelling, Natalia couldn't see anymore. She heard him move away and, once again, resume his search.

  After a seemingly endless forever, Natalia finally heard what she had been praying she wouldn't.

  “Ah!” he exclaimed with satisfaction. “There you are!” No! Self-assured footsteps thudded their way towards her again and Natalia's entire body tensed for the inevitable attack. She waited and was greeted with only silence. Her hearing was strained to its maximum as she desperately searched for some traitor sound that would give away his location. Suddenly, a long hot breath brushed her face. The smell. Rotten. Putrid. Death. He was right in front of her and there was nothing she could do.

  “I'm sorry, child,” he said with obviously false emotion, “but our time together has come to an end. I have the list and I am sure the company you promised will be here any moment.”

  The inflection he put on the word 'any' told Natalia that he didn't believe anyone was really coming. She was sure that Lucas would be there soon. While this man had been on the last leg of his journey through her library, she knew she'd lost time, no doubt falling into a state of unconsciousness, several times. A good amount of time must have passed, she thought in desperation. She only had to last a little longer.

  ”I have one last parting gift for you, child,” he said in a mockingly sweet tone. Natalia felt a warm, wet drop land on the puffy mound that was her right eyelid and flinched back. “Shhh,” he whispered. She felt a second drop land on her other eye and then felt the air shift as, she assumed, he stepped back.

  A few more minutes of silence went by and as quickly as the striking blow had stolen her vision from her, it flooded back. The pain receded and the swelling abated. The world became clear once again and she glared at the possessed man, wondering who he had been before this demon invaded his body. She wondered if he was someone’s love. Someone’s father. Someone’s brother. She wondered if he would survive but deep down, she knew that he wouldn't. They almost never did.

  “That’s better,” he said with a smile. “I wanted to be sure that your eyes were clear for this.” Those were the last words out of his mouth. He tilted his head and stared deep into her eyes. The pain began as nothing more than the heat of a mild case of heartburn. A warm feeling radiating from deep in her stomach. Steadily, the pain intensified. The warm feeling escalated to a searing heat. That searing heat soon erupted in to an inferno. Tears were streaming from Natalia's eyes and her terrified screams filled the room as her core burst into flames. The final sound she heard before death took her was the demon's laughter.

  BURNING

  PART III: FIRE STORM

  Lucas

  After two hours of wandering a zigzag pattern through Venice to Natalia's home, Lucas made his way down her street. The closer he got, the more he couldn't wait to see her. Natalia had changed him and his life so profoundly and the more time he spent with her, the more he realized he never wanted to spend time without her.

  Lucas glanced down at his watch. Right on time, he thought. He lifted his eyes just in time to see the front door to Natalia's building open. A greeting smile immediately spread across his face and vanished just as quickly as a man walked out of the door. No. Not quite a man. Natalia's flowers dropped to the ground and Lucas shook his head in futile denial. The man's pace
slowed and he paused as he tipped his head up as if he heard something he wasn't totally sure of. Lucas quickly ducked into a small alleyway between Natalia's building and the next. A black aura, he thought in astonishment. After a moment, he crept to the edge of the alley way and peered around the corner. The man was walking in the opposite direction, his previous hesitation having passed. He strolled as though he hadn't a care in the world.

  Lucas stepped back into the protection of the alley and pulled out his cell phone. He was pitting hope against hope that the presence of this creature had nothing to do with his Natalia but he also knew that her position as records keeper meant that most likely, his hopes were a wasted effort. As dread took hold of every fiber of his being, Lucas dialed her number from memory, praying to the gods of old that he was wrong and she would answer, safe and sound. As the ringing began, he said aloud, "Please answer. Please."

  He lost track of the number of times her phone rang before he finally gave up and ended the call. His mind was racing, running through all of the possible scenarios. The scenarios that weren't horrifying he found to be far from believable. Reality settled on his heart and he stared blankly at the wall opposite him. She was dead. His Natalia was dead. Shock set in and as his legs gave out, he slid down the wall, sinking to the ground.

  He stayed like that for a long time, slumped against the bricks with his head in his hands. He had no idea how much time had passed as he allowed his grief to strangle him. When Lucas finally cleared his head enough to think of anything besides the loss of his Natalia and the crippling ache in his heart, comprehension gripped him.

  “He knew," he whispered to himself. The possessed man's moment of hesitation wasn't coincidence. The creature had felt the presence of a vampire. His presence. Filled with an overwhelming sense of urgency, Lucas jumped to his feet and peered out the end of the alleyway. The sun had gone down completely now and although not completely deserted, there wasn't very much foot traffic on the street. He exited the alley and sauntered down the street, trying to appear natural and not as though he had just lost the only thing in the universe that mattered to him.

  Lucas glanced around as discreetly as he could and didn't see anything or anyone suspicious. He finally made the decision. It was now or never. He didn't have time to be cautious. He ran up to the front door of Natalia's building, taking the stairs two at a time. Closing the door quietly behind himself, he crept down the hallway to her door. As he reached for the handle, he noticed that the door was not completely closed. Natalia's apartment was eerily silent. The door creaked when he gingerly slid it open and Lucas's nose was instantly assaulted by a vile odor. Burning flesh. As he stifled the urge to vomit, he pushed himself to proceed. He needed answers and he needed them now.

  “Natalia?" he called out. It was in vain. He knew that she wasn't going to answer. He had known the truth since the moment he saw the possessed man exiting her building. He ran over to the bedroom door and looked in. Nothing. Then he crossed to the library door and the smell grew stronger.

  As he stepped inside, his heart skipped a beat and he fell to his knees. There, on the floor, bound to a chair in front of her desk, was the scorched body that was once his Natalia. The flames had blackened her beyond recognition.

  Natalia, no.

  He crawled over to her and made the mistake of lightly touching her. She immediately started to crumble into a pile of grayish-black dust. Lucas felt his heart, the one that Natalia had reawakened, shatter into a thousand pieces. He broke down in a torrent of pained tears that, this time, shock would not protect him from. Tendrils of agony crept into every fiber of his being and dragged him into a dark place deep inside his mind. He had known this was what he would find but he was not prepared to see it.

  The longer he sat there drowning in his anguish, the more he realized that the pile of ash he was staring at was no longer his love. She was stolen from me. The anguish that threatened to suffocate him had become the fuel for his rage. Lucas refused to be made a prisoner by his own misery. That thing will not get away with this. I can’t let that happen. There was far too much at stake for him to give in to despair. He wiped the tears from his eyes and made a promise to himself that Natalia's death would not go unpunished.

  He forced himself to look away from Natalia and studied the damage to the library. As he had suspected, the man that was in her home was looking for the most dangerous secret that the records keeper holds. This room had been concealing the location of the Guardians and Lucas needed to ascertain whether or not the man succeeded in finding it. A cursory inspection of the room told him that the creature had found what he was looking for.

  Lucas was never meant to know of the list’s existence. Natalia had shared a lot with him in the time that they had known each other. One night, she’d confided in him about the list and not knowing where to put it. She had shown him her flawless first edition of The Count of Monte Cristo earlier in the evening and he had jokingly suggested the book as the perfect spot for the list, pointing out the parallel of hiding it in a book about the secrets people keep. Between the wine and their conversation, he hadn’t paid much attention to what she did with the list after that moment. Now he knew.

  One by one, the book shelves were systematically emptied of their contents. Until approximately two thirds of the way down the wall. From that point on, all of the books were exactly where Natalia had put them. There, on top of the pile, was the priceless Alexandre Dumas classic, lying open, carelessly crumpled, played pages down on the heap of books. The creature would not have searched that much of the room, just to give up when he was so close to being finished. Judging by how many books he had gone through, he had been here for a while. Lucas closed his eyes and prayed that Natalia's death had been a quick one.

  With the confirmation that he had been seeking, Lucas left Natalia’s library, refusing to let his eyes wander to her remains. He knew that if he allowed himself that one little action, he may never leave. He went to bathroom and splashed water on his face. He knew what needed to be done. After calling for a car, Lucas sat on the couch and waited. Memories assailed him. In the short time they’d known each other, they had shared many good times in her home. Late nights working together, watching a movie or simply talking by the fireplace. She had changed him forever-a debt that he now only had one way of repaying. Revenge.

  Fifteen minutes later, the car sat idling across the street from Natalia's building. Lucas took one last look around her apartment and with a heavy sigh, he turned to walk out. Closing the door behind him felt like closing a door on a momentous time of his life but he knew that wasn’t accurate. Natalia, my Natalia, was killed by a demon. How is that possible? He knew the end result of the demon’s visit to Natalia’s apartment was to get his hands on the stone but he couldn’t understand how the demon got here in the first place. A full blood. Here. On our plane.

  Lucas stepped out the front door of the building and crossed to the black Mercedes waiting for him. As the car took off for his hotel, Lucas pulled out his cell phone. He needed to talk to Michael immediately. He tried calling his number a few times but it went straight to voicemail. He didn't leave a message. Instead, he just closed his phone and tucked it back into his pocket. He really wasn't ready to talk to anyone anyway.

  The moment he arrived at his hotel room, he called the airline to make his reservations. He had just shy of an hour and a half to pack up his belongings, get to the airport and board his flight. After packing his suitcase in record time, he changed his clothes, grabbed his identifying documents and rushed out the door. He had paid the driver a handsome tip to wait and was pleasantly surprised to see that the car was still waiting for him when he came back out. Lucas slid into the back seat and gave the driver instructions to go to the airport.

  Lucas stared out the window as the car sped towards his destination. His mind wouldn't stop replaying everything that happened. He closed his eyes and rubbed them to try to wipe away some of the memory. The reverse happened. The mom
ent he closed his eyes, all he could see was Natalia's charred remains. She had been alone and afraid. Tears came again. Lucas knew that it wouldn't be the last time that he wept for his lost love. He took a deep breath and was resolute that he would find the possessed man and send the demon back to Hell where he belonged.

  Hellfire 1.5

  SUFFERING

  Michael, a.k.a. Vegas

  “Pure and weak, I suffer when I dream.

  Cleansed of me, I suffer when I dream.

  ‘Cause I want you to stay, you take the pain away.

  I want you to stay.

  I need you here to keep me sane.”

  Seether, Take Me Away

  It is New Year’s Eve, and rather than being curled up on the couch with Dez watching the Times Square ball drop, I am walking into my penthouse covered in blood. Following a visit to Onyx to check on things at the club, I tracked a demon halfway across New York City. Thanks to a carjacking I stumbled across, I got sidetracked and had to find the thing all over again. When I followed the scent, the it was waiting for me, hidden high up in an alleyway with a broken beer bottle in hand. As skilled a fighter as I may be, the demon managed to take me by surprise, jumping down from the roof of one of the buildings. In a flurry of motion, it knocked me to the ground, kicked the gleaming chrome Desert Eagle out of my hand, and with one boot-clad foot on my throat, used the jagged edge of the brown glass bottle to slash across my stomach, ruining my three hundred dollar shirt in the process.